Props:
Bowl of water
Candle or oil lamp
Matches
Divination tools
Cup of drink (alcohol, spring water, honey water)
Put all the props on the floor and kneel, resting your backside on your feet.
Purification:
Dip the first two fingers of your right hand into the water, touch your forehead and say:
May I be pure that I might cross through the sacred.
Dip your fingers again, touch your lips, and say:
May I cross through the sacred that I might attain the holy.
Dip your fingers, touch the bare flesh closest to your heart (i.e, if you are wearing a shirt, touch your throat), and say:
May I attain the holy that I might be blessed in all things.
Light the lamp or candle, and say:
May the goddess of the hearth,
the heart of this home,
sustain and support me in this rite.
Lift your hands into the orans position and say:
The waters support and surround me.
The land extends about me.
The sky stretches out above me.
During the next line, stretch your right hand out and hold it over the fire a moment; then bring it towards you and over your heart.
At the center burns a living flame.
May all the Kindreds bless me!
May my worship be true,
may my actions be just,
may my love be pure.
Blessings, and honor, and worship to the Holy Ones!
Hold your both hands over the flame and say:
Flame in the center of all,
be my gate to the lands of the Holy Ones,
opening to their realms.
May my words enter you,
and be there transformed:
breath into spirit,
offerings to spirit.
May the gates be open!
Put your hands flat on the ground and say:
My words go to the Mighty Dead,
my words are my offering to them,
passed through the fire in their praise.
Touch your hands to your mouth and hold them over the flame for a few seconds and say:
May you come to hear them.
Sit back with your buttocks on your feet again, bringing your hands back so they are angled downwards and open, their backs touching the ground. Say:
My words go to the Nature Spirits,
my words are my offering to them,
passed through the fire in their praise.
Touch your hands to your mouth and hold them over the flame for a few seconds and say:
May you come to hear them.
Sit upright, bringing your hands into the orans position. Say:
My words go to the Shining Ones,
my words are my offering to them,
passed through the fire in their praise.
Touch your hands to your mouth and hold them over the flame for a few seconds and say:
May you come to hear them.
Return to your resting position, hold your hands in the orans position again, and say:
In the presence of all the Kindreds may I worship well.
Sit quietly for a time. Then hold your divination tools in your less dominant hand, hold your dominant hand over them, and say:
What have the Kindreds to teach me today?
Divine, and then say:
I hear what the Kindreds have said, and am made wise by it.
Now hold your left hand over the cup and while envisioning a light spiraling up into it from beneath the ground, say:
May the powers of the Mighty Dead infuse these Waters.
Raise the cup and say:
Behold the Waters of Life!
Lower the cup and hold both hands over it. While envisioning a light spiraling in from all around, say:
May the powers of the Nature Spirits infuse these Waters.
Raise the cup and say:
Behold the Waters of Life!
Now hold your right hand over the cup and while envisioning a light spiraling down into it, say:
May the powers of the Shining Ones infuse these Waters.
Raise the cup and say:
Behold the Waters of Life!
Lower the cup.
Then lift it to your mouth and say:
I drink in the power of the Kindreds.
I accept with gratitude the gifts they give.
Drink the Waters. Put the cup down, and say:
Filled with the mystery of the Waters of Life,
I rest in the presence of the Kindreds.
Close your eyes and sit in silence a while, concentrating on the Waters flowing through your body, filling every part of you with the divine presence and power. You may meditate as well on the divination, asking how to apply it to your life.
When the time is right, open your eyes, look at the fire, and say:
The Kindreds have blessed me with their presence.
May I live a life filled with their blessings.
May I be and remain a ghóstis to them.
Raise your arms into the orans position and say:
Kindreds:
Mighty Dead
Nature Spirits
Shining Ones:
I thank you for your many gifts
here and now,
and those to come.
Lower your hands, put them over the candle or lamp, and say:
Queen of the Hearth,
flame in the center of all,
gate to the lands of the Holy Ones,
opening to their realms,
I thank you for your help today,
and promise you future worship.
May the gates be closed!
Blow out the flame, and say:
Extinguished without
but burning within
the living fire flames within me.
Sit for a moment, and then leave.
"Ghóstis" (properly *ghósti-s) is Proto-Indo-European for "someone with whom one has reciprocal obligations, especially of hospitality."
It is my custom not to offer to the Earth Mother at indoor rituals. Her place there seems to me to be taken by the hearth goddess. Since this ritual is intended as an indoor one, therefore, I have not included a section for the Earth Mother. If you wish to include, the opening prayer is best added between the lighting of the fire and the cosmology song:
Touch the ground with your hands, and say:
We build our fires on the breast of the Earth;
on Her our hearths are formed.
To Her these words of honor, of prayer, of worship.
The closing prayer would go between the thanking of the Kindreds and the closing of the gates:
Having given you due honor,
I bid you farewell, Mother Earth.
But how can I do that, with you all around me?
How can I do that with you always in my heart?
Not a farewell, then, but a giving of thanks
and a promise to remember you throughout my days.
Mother of All, I thank you!
Another possible addition would be between the consecration of the Waters of Life and their consumption. This would be a sharing of the Waters with the Kindreds. Theologically, the Waters would be considered a sacrifice, first offered to and consecrated by the Kindreds, and then consumed in a shared meal. To do this, you will need a small bowl. Before drinking any of the Waters yourself, pour a bit into the bowl, saying:
May the Kindreds always receive their due.
Some time after the ritual, up to a day, take the bowl outside and pour it out, saying:
To the spirits the leavings.
If the ritual is performed outdoors, you may want to deal with the Outsiders. (I would recommend against doing that in a ritual in your home, since that is one of the jobs of the hearth goddess, and to acknowledge the Outsiders would imply that she’s not doing her job.) This prayer would go before the purification, since it is best to separate from the Outsiders before performing the ritual, and purification is an act of separation.
Bring your hands in so the touch each other on your chest. Then move them away from your chest, as if pushing something away. As you do so, say:
Those who would disturb my rite,
those whose ways are not mine.
Accept this prayer as payment
in return for your departure from this place.
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