Tree, short length of PVC pipe, bowl with egg and snake skin
ʔṇ́gʷnis, pitcher of melted butter
Mundus, dish with piece of silver
Large purification bowl, Towels
Shovel Pitcher of water
Bowl of eggs
Bowl of spelt and barley
(Short Pole) (Gate Poles) (Gate Poles) (Short Pole)
(Tree/Sacrificial stake)
Poles, wreaths
hammer, bottle of beer, opener
(ʔṇ́gʷnis)
(Mundus)
(Short Pole) (Short Pole)
Bowl of water Bowl of
barley, corn meal, and spelt
The items in parentheses show where they will be during the main ritual.
This is the ritual we use for our outdoor rituals. We don't use it for when we worship indoors because homes are by definition sacred, and are under the protection of the home deities; to create sacred space in a home would be to insult them by implying that they weren’t doing their job. Instead they should be honored before the rest of the ritual is performed through offering to the hearth goddess of the person in whose home the ritual is being performed. At indoor rituals that aren’t in someone’s home, this ritual can be used, with appropriate changes, such as offering bowls instead of poles, sprinkling instead of pouring, etc.
As written, there are parts for only four people, but it may be performed by more, with parts split up. I have assigned the roles as seemed appropriate to those who will performing certain functions in the main ritual
The mundus, which is a dark pottery vase covered with a tile, serves as both a ritual shaft and an opening to the land of the Ancestors. The tree, which also will serve as the sacrificial stake, is the connector between out world and the celestial realm. The ʔṇ́gʷnis is the sacrificial fire. It is a low square barbecue filled with sand in which the fire will later be lit.
All of the items are purified by rinsing them in the large purification bowl or sprinkling, and then drying. After each is dried, it is put on a towel to keep it ritually pure and physically clean. When all are dry, they are put in their proper beginning places. Guide holes are made for the poles. This is important in most soils, as it is very difficult to pound a stake into the ground which will stand up straight. We use a spike which is intended as an outdoor flag holder. Once made, sticks are put into them so they can easily be found later.
The Ritual:
The Fire Tender and Chthonic Priestess go to the west, and pick up the bowls of water and mixed grains, respectively. The Priest, Champion, and any others stand in the east, a pace or so outside where the posts will be.
Those in the east sing:
Just beyond the light of our fires
They watch and they wait
They watch and they wait.
Just outside our well-built walls
They watch and they wait
They watch and they wait.
We live our lives among them.
We build our homes among them.
We offer to them with open hands
we offer thanks to those who watch,
to those who wait;
we make this offering to them.
(A recording of this may be found here).
When they reach the line beginning "We live our lives ...", the Chthonic Priestess walks from west to east across the space, scattering the grain while saying:
Lares, Xansūs, Spirits of this place,
whoever it be who inhabit this spot
which we shall claim for our ritual today,
accept this offering in recompense.
(i.e., she walks and prays at the same time that he is singing.)
The Fire Tender then picks up the bowl of water and walks across the space to the east, sprinkling it, while saying:
Be pure,
Be clean,
Be fit for the Kindreds,
and for our ritual today.
The Fire Tender picks up the pitcher of water and enters the area marked out by the holes. Starting at where the left gate will be, she pours water clockwise around what will be the border, saying:
We establish our space within the world-encircling ocean.
The Priest picks up the shovel. Facing west, he holds it in vertically in front of him, and says:
The city is founded in the cutting of the ground.
He traces the line of the border with the shovel, starting with the right gate and going counter-clockwise from hole to hole.
When he is done, he stands at the gateway, holding the shovel vertically in front of himself, looking in, and says:
Within these borders, as we have marked them,
is space which is sacred,
not to be entered with impunity.
Everyone enters, and four people, including the Priest, each take a short pole and go to a corner, the priest to the south-east one. The priest takes the hammer as well. He pounds the pole in, saying:
Well founded
Well supported
Well established.
He brings the hammer to the southwest, where the person there sets up the pole. They then take the hammer to the next corner, and then it gets taken to the final corner.
The Priest picks up the long poles and carries them to where the gate poles will be. He sets them up like the short poles, and two people hang the wreaths on them. Everyone leaves the space.
The Priest picks up the bowl of eggs and the Fire Tender picks up the bowl of spelt and barley. They go to the gateway, where the Priest cracks an egg at the base of the left gate, while the Fire Tender "anoints" the poles with the grain, saying:
God of the threshold, looking both ways,
watch closely over the gate.
May we safely enter the sacred place,
May all that would harm be repelled.
They go to the right gate, and repeat the action.
They go counter-clockwise around the space. At each pole they stop, and repeat the actions, with the Fire Tender saying:
Wertōd, Térmenos;
Vigila, Terminus:
guard our land from all harm.
When they have offered to the last pole, they put down the two bowls, and rinse and dry their hands.
The Champion then gets the bottle of beer and opens it. The others face away, and he walks with it to a spot outside and to the west of the space, saying as he does:
Those who would disturb our space
Those who would disrupt our rites
Take this, and go.
He puts the bottle down and, with face averted, he pushes it over with his left foot. He leaves the bottle there.
The Chthonic Priestess takes a bowl with silver, the Champion the mundus, the Fire Tender the ʔṇ́gʷnis and a small pitcher of melted butter, and the Priest the Tree, an egg, a piece of snake skin, and the tree to the places where they will be. When all have reached their spots, they sing the “Portal Song:”
By Fire and by Water, between the Earth and Sky
We stand like the World-Tree rooted deep, crowned high.
Come we now to the Well, the eye and the mouth of Earth,
Come we now to the Well, and silver we bring,
Come we now to the Well, the waters of rebirth,
Come we now to the Well, together we sing:
By Fire and by Water, between the Earth and Sky
We stand like the World-Tree rooted deep, crowned high.
We will kindle a Fire, Bless all, and with harm to none,
We will kindle a Fire, and offering pour,
We will kindle a Fire, A light 'neath the Moon & Sun,
We will kindle a fire, our spirits will soar.
By Fire and by Water, between the Earth and Sky
We stand like the World-Tree rooted deep, crowned high.
Gather we at the Tree, the root & the crown of all,
Gather we at the Tree, Below & above,
Gather we at the Tree, Together we make our call,
Gather we at the Tree, In wisdom & love.
By Fire and by Water, between the Earth and Sky
We stand like the World-Tree rooted deep, crowned high.
When the verse about the Well is sung, the Champion puts the mundus down, and the Chthonic Priestess opens in and offers the silver at the proper line. When the verse about the Fire is sung, the Fire Tender pours the butter in a spiral pattern on top of the sand in the ʔṇ́gʷnis. When the verse about the Tree is sung, the Priest puts the egg in the hole with the snake skin on top, and then PVC pipe on top of that. He puts the Tree in the pipe and pushes it down to smash the egg.
They leave the space. The Chthonic Priestess picks up a pitcher of birch beer, goes to the center of the space, and pours it out. As she does so, she turns clockwise and says:
We pray to Nemetona,
who presides over sacred space,
and ask that she confirm our rite.
She puts the pitcher down and says:
From here to there,
and there to here,
we claim this land as ours
we claim it as sacred.
we claim it as holy.
All say:
Tód ʔestu!
[So be it!]
The space is now sacred.
The Ritual with Commentary:
The Fire Tender and Chthonic Priestess go to the west, and pick up the bowls of water and mixed grains, respectively. The Priest, Champion, and any others stand in the east, a pace or so outside where the posts will be.
Those in the east sing:
Just beyond the light of our fires
They watch and they wait
They watch and they wait.
Just outside our well-built walls
They watch and they wait
They watch and they wait.
We live our lives among them.
We build our homes among them.
We offer to them with open hands
we offer thanks to those who watch,
to those who wait;
we make this offering to them.
(A recording of this may be found here).
When they reach the line beginning "We live our lives ...", the Chthonic Priestess walks from west to east across the space, scattering the grain while saying:
Lares, Xansūs, Spirits of this place,
whoever it be who inhabit this spot
which we shall claim for our ritual today,
accept this offering in recompense.
(i.e., she walks and prays at the same time that he is singing.)
She times it like this so that hopefully she can be saying "accept our offering" when the others are singing "we make this offering."
The Fire Tender then picks up the bowl of water and walks across the space to the east, sprinkling it, while saying:
Be pure,
Be clean,
Be fit for the Kindreds,
and for our ritual today.
Before the space can be our own, it must be "bought" from those it belongs to. From west to east is from darkness to light, from death to life: creating sacred space is forming a Cosmos from Chaos.
Because of the Roman and Proto-Indo-European interests of the founders of Nemos Ognios, there are elements of those two traditions in the ritual. The Lares are Roman deities of places, best known for protecting homes, but guardians of other places as well. *Xansūs is PIE for “spirits”; the word didn’t specifically refer to land spirits, but is a useful term for this ritual. There is a certain amount of overlap between land spirits and the dead because the dead are those who lived in the land in the past, and are buried in it.
The grains we use are a nod to our founding traditions and to the American continent where we hold our rituals. They are spelt (the Roman sacred grain), barley (the Proto-Indo-European sacred grain), and corn (the American sacred grain)
Those who were there before us have left the space, but we have to make sure that they haven't left anything behind that would interfere with our own intents for it. Furthermore, creation starts with a clean slate, or rather, it starts with our own clean slate: we are going to make a sacred space by our own rules, so we have to exclude anything that might have come before. We therefore purify the space.
The purification is performed by the Fire Tender because fire is both pure and purifying.
The Fire Tender picks up the pitcher of water and enters the area marked out by the holes. Starting at where the left gate will be, she pours water clockwise around what will be the border, saying:
We establish our space within the world-encircling ocean.
This reflects the Indo-European cosmology, in which the earth is bordered by ocean. By pouring clockwise she is creating.
The Priest picks up the shovel. Facing west, he holds it in vertically in front of him, and says:
The city is founded in the cutting of the ground.
He traces the line of the border with the shovel, starting with the right gate and going counter-clockwise from hole to hole.
When he is done, he stands at the gateway, holding the shovel vertically in front of himself, looking in, and says:
Within these borders, as we have marked them,
is space which is sacred,
not to be entered with impunity.
The most common method of cutting space off in IE ritual is with a plough. This literally cuts off the space. Our version was inspired by the story of how Romulus marked out the borders of Rome. The shovel we use is the one that I use to prepare my garden in the spring, my plough.
Note that the shovel isn’t traced between the gate posts The cutting creates a sacred border, which it’s wrong to cross, so a gate can’t be cut across.
The cutting is done counter-clockwise, the direction of separation.
Everyone enters, and four people, including the Priest, each take a short pole and go to a corner, the priest to the south-east one. The priest takes the hammer as well. He pounds the pole in, saying:
Well founded
Well supported
Well established.
He brings the hammer to the southwest, where the person there sets up the pole. They then take the hammer to the next corner, and then it gets taken to the final corner.
The Priest picks up the long poles and carries them to where the gate poles will be. He sets them up like the short poles, and someone hangs the wreaths on them. Everyone leaves the space.
The Priest picks up the bowl of eggs and the Fire Tender picks up the bowl of spelt and barley. They go to the gateway, where the Priest cracks an egg at the base of the left gate, while the Fire Tender "anoints" the poles with the grain, saying:
They go to the right gate, and repeat the action.
They go counter-clockwise around the space. At each pole they stop, and repeat the actions, with the Fire Tender saying:
Wertōd, Térmenos;
Vigila, Terminus:
guard our land from all harm.
When they have offered to the last pole, they put down the two bowls, and rinse and dry their hands.
Here we are honoring the guardians of the border, using the Roman deity Terminus, and a hypothetical PIE deity Térmenos. The eggs are used as foundation sacrifices.
Vigila is Latin for “Be vigilant,” and Wertōd is PIE for “Guard.”
The Champion then gets the bottle of beer and opens it. The other face away, and he walks with it to a spot outside and to the west of the space, saying as he does:
Those who would disturb our space
Those who would disrupt our rites
Take this, and go.
He puts the bottle down and, with face averted, he pushes it over with his left foot. He leaves the bottle there.
This is an offering to the Outsiders, those sacred beings who don’t have our interests in mind. We want to buy them off, but without establishing the bonds of hospitality that usually come from offerings. That’s why we make this offering in such an odd way. The beer isn’t actually poured out, but instead pours itself out when the bottle is pushed over. A foot is used; the bottle isn’t “handed” to the Outsiders. The foot used is the left one, left being the anomalous one. The offerer doesn’t face the Outsiders, avoiding their gaze. To further the separation, the bottle is brought either counter-clockwise (the opposite of usual IE practice) or downwind (to prevent any of the offering from blowing towards the space), and the bottle is left behind (nothing is taken away from the offering). The bottle is of course picked up after the ritual, preferably the next day.
The Chthonic Priestess takes a bowl with silver, the Champion the mundus, the Fire Tender the ʔṇ ́gwnis and a small pitcher of melted butter, and the Priest the Tree, an egg, a piece of snake skin, and the tree to the places where they will be. When all have reached their spots, they sing the “Portal Song:”
By Fire and by Water, between the Earth and Sky
We stand like the World-Tree rooted deep, crowned high.
Come we now to the Well, the eye and the mouth of Earth,
Come we now to the Well, and silver we bring,
Come we now to the Well, the waters of rebirth,
Come we now to the Well, together we sing:
By Fire and by Water, between the Earth and Sky
We stand like the World-Tree rooted deep, crowned high.
We will kindle a Fire, Bless all, and with harm to none,
We will kindle a Fire, and offering pour,
We will kindle a Fire, A light 'neath the Moon & Sun,
We will kindle a fire, our spirits will soar.
By Fire and by Water, between the Earth and Sky
We stand like the World-Tree rooted deep, crowned high.
Gather we at the Tree, the root & the crown of all,
Gather we at the Tree, Below & above,
Gather we at the Tree, Together we make our call,
Gather we at the Tree, In wisdom & love.
By Fire and by Water, between the Earth and Sky
We stand like the World-Tree rooted deep, crowned high.
When the verse about the Well is sung, the Champion puts the mundus down, and the Chthonic Priestess opens in and offers the silver at the proper line. When the verse about the Fire is sung, the Fire Tender pours the butter in a spiral pattern on top of the sand in the ʔṇ ́gʷnis. When the verse about the Tree is sung, the Priest puts the egg in the hole with the snake skin on top, and then PVC pipe on top of that. He puts the Tree in the pipe and pushes it down to smash the egg.
The PVC pipe is to support the tree. The egg is a foundation sacrifice, but by being put under the snake skin it’s being identified with the cows, gold, water, and life that the cosmic serpent held back until it was killed by the great Indo-European thunder god in a creative act.
They leave the space. The Chthonic Priestess picks up a pitcher of birch beer, goes to the center of the space, and pours it out. As she does so, she turns clockwise and says:
We pray to Nemetona,
who presides over sacred space,
and ask that she confirm our rite.
Nemetona was a Gaulish goddess, apparently of sacred space. The root of her name is the *nemos of “Nemos Ognios.” Birch beer seems appropriate because it’s made from a tree, and Nemetona is a goddess of groves.
She puts the pitcher down and says:
From here to there,
and there to here,
we claim this land as ours
we claim it as sacred.
we claim it as holy.
All say:
Tód ʔestu!
[So be it!]
The space is now sacred.
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