Keepers held our Lammas ritual at the Brandywine Creek State Park today. The day was beautiful — hot but breezy — a break from the killer heat of the previous week. The ritual was dedicated to Lugh and Tailitu — Tailitu being the Celtic land spirit who sacrificed herself to provide for the people of old by clearing a forest for planting, dying of exhaustion after her labors. Before the ritual, I spoke about how land spirits used to be seen as real personalities (like Tailitu) who were engaged with and honored in the same way as the gods, ancestors and other discarnate beings. The land spirits are still with us but we generally forget about them. Tailitu’s plea to the humans before she departed was that they not forget her. With this ritual — as well as the one of the previous Lammas, Keepers of the Holly Chalice vow to remember not only her but her kindred. Kindred like Will.
During the ritual, I invited Will to be present. He acquiesced but didn’t seem to want to get directly involved, hanging off to the side at the north of the circle (Nanette said afterward that she felt the presence of someone outside the circle, beyond the north gate). The energetic focus of the ritual was a pitcher of water set on our central (“picnic blanket”) altar. Janice and I, aspecting Tailitu and Lugh, poured the charged water into four chalices at each of the quarters. At the close of the circle, Jim poured the water as a libation to the land.
When the ritual was over, Will told me that while he didn’t understand exactly what we were doing, he could feel our intent in the water poured onto his ground. He said that intent is the bridge that spans between our world and his. Very interesting.