In my tradition*, the three days of the Dark Moon are contemplation days, where we spend time in darkness and reflection to better understand ourselves and our places in the world. These days are for rest and healing for ourselves, and also the hope to come out into the new moon a better, more self-aware... Continue Reading →
This is a ritual honouring the Earth Mother, designed to be performed by one person, at any time of day, preferably facing East. Do not let these suggestions limit you from performing this rite; we do our best. If performed within a week on either side of the Autumnal Equinox, this ritual includes all of... Continue Reading →
I took a much needed vacation to the woods after an incredibly taxing summer. There, I slept under the Cow Mother's Milky Way, swam in her river, tended to a sacred site, and sat around the fire with friends. It was refreshing in a holy, deep way. It is always a challenge to return to... Continue Reading →
Tiny fire at the moment of the Solstice (5:13 AM ET). The clouds are little puffs of cotton, gently teased by the breeze into long strands, stretching and fading in the brightening sky. I am alive this morning, simply, with my plant and animal siblings on this small piece of land that is mine and... Continue Reading →
This is a ritual honouring the Earth Mother and the Dawn, designed to be performed by one person, preferably in the morning, preferably facing East. Do not let these suggestions limit you from performing this rite; we do our best. If performed within a week on either side of the Vernal Equinox, this ritual includes... Continue Reading →
Clearly, the gods find grains to be an acceptable substitute, so that is what we will use. For the rest of this book, when I say that an animal is to be sacrificed it can be assumed that what is meant is bread that has been ritually identified with that animal. Those artistically and culinarily... Continue Reading →
These are the words the Dead whispered to me as I sat by their fire and offering pit on the last day of the Samhain season. "Ancestors!" my son sings, spinning in circles, "please come to us on an airplane; you are dead but we love you! Come back to us now, and I will... Continue Reading →
There are several lunar observances in Ár nDraíocht Féin which have grown organically through different subgroups in the last few years. As an orthopraxic organization embracing many hearth cultures, and straddling the oft-confusing line between administrative organization and church, to my knowledge there has been no attempt to view these practices holistically. Here is mine,... Continue Reading →
When the Hearth Keepers Way was being created, one of our questions was whether or not a Gatekeeper was necessary for the Hearth Order of Ritual. There are quite a number of people who, when working at their own hearths, do not feel that asking the assistance of this (type of) spirit is a necessity.... Continue Reading →
star & stone 