Last night we worked our annual Samhain sacrifice. This
Samhain marks, incidentally, the thirtieth birthday of Ar nDraiocht Fein (ADF)
the Pagan church in which I situate most of my work. Thirty years is a good
record for a Pagan group, and we’ve done it without any shut-down-and-restart
incidents. Thirty solid years of continuing effort at the restoration of polytheist
religion to modern times; I won’t ask forgiveness for a moment of bragging, but
I’ll be done.
One of our former Archdruids (who I’ll call by the name
everyone calls him, “Fox”) has recently undertaken an in-depth personal study
of the Indo-European customs surrounding sacred fire. There will be
publications coming, starting with a trickle of articles in ADF’s magazine, ‘Oak
Leaves’, so I won’t even try to summarize all of the wonderful treasures of
lore that he has found. However we have generated one new bit of custom and
ritual that found expression for me in last night’s rite.
The ancient custom was to place the hearth-fire in the center of the house. |
In traditional European Paganism, the fire in the home’s
hearth is highly sacred. It is separated from common life by taboos, customs,
and observances and treated, in essence, as the presence of a deity in the
home. It is fed and cleaned, put to bed each night and wakened each morning
with ritual and incantation. The hearth fire is center of what can be called
the ‘domestic cult’ in traditional Paganism, the realm of family and daily
life.
An Aukuras - a Baltic Fire altar. |
Religious ritual in traditional European Paganism often
centered around another sacred fire, lit in ritual space on a raised
fire-altar. This fire is, again, the very presence of the divine in the Grove,
and receives the offerings and carries the voices of the people as we speak
with the spirits. From Vedic lore to (posited) Druidic ritual, it is fitting to
refer to traditional ritual as ‘fire worship’.
Ritual Fire is lit from domestic fire. The spark is brought
from the hearth of the person sponsoring the sacrifice, or from the hearth of
the city or village in some cases, and lights the sacrificial fire. Thus every
fire partakes of the primal spark. That primal spark is extinguished and
regenerated at regular intervals, as part of the calendar customs. In Rome and
Persia, Spring Equinox was the traditional season for this custom. In Gaelic
countries it seems to have happened twice yearly, at Samhain and Bealtaine.
So, at this past spring equinox, Fox and our current Archdruid,
Kirk Thomas, ritually lit new
fire using a fire-bow. The fire was lit as part
of a ritual intention to grow the spiritual and organizational unity of Our
Druidry, to be a Hearth fire for our folk. That fire has been preserved and is
slowly passing among ADF households and groves. We received it at our Clergy
Retreat, and are undertaking to keep it lit perennially, until it is renewed
next spring. So far so good.
That's a big one a' those! I want a fire-churn! |
Yesterday we brought it for the first time from our hearth
to the hall where we work our rites. We set up the hearth-fire on it’s own
shrine, making it part of our usual custom of providing a ‘purification station’
for folks to do pre-ritual water-and-smoke cleansing. There’s a whole complex
of ‘cleansing water next to hearth-fire’ that makes this especially satisfying.
The spark was then carried from that purification altar and used to light the
ritual fire.
This was a very satisfying beginning to our new ritual year.
Things are coming, things are changing.
In the rite, the omen of blessing was:
• Nion
- translation: support - tree: ash. Implies strength, communication (alternate
translation is 'letters') and connection "Weaving of Women" is a
gloss.
• Coll
- trans: Hazel (one of the fews that is actually named for a tree); Wisdom,
poetic inspiration. "Fairest of Trees"
So, I'd say that the Grove was offered strength and connection, wisdom and magic inthat omen, a very good sign for the season, and in light of coming work.
As Our
Druidry (and all of the neopagan, polytheist restoration) continues to grow
deeper, both nationally and locally, I think we’ll see more examples of the
materializing of ancient Pagan customs of respect and power. Let us carry the
fire – hearth to hearth, temple to temple, until it warms us all.
2 comments:
Ancient practices and beliefs around the hearth fire are explained in The Ancient City by de Coulange
Ancient City
Hi, I recently came across your page. A very interesting article. What does intrigue me is the fire churn pictured, I've been trying to find out more info but not getting very far - do you have any further information on that photo - where was it taken, or the group doing the re-construction? I'm researching friction fire throughout world cultures, the legends , stories and rituals.
Thanks
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