Fresh Eggs Yule 2019 Edition
Edited by Lisa Crow
It’s almost festival time!!!!!!
Okay, it’s almost a year away, but it’s coming!! Time to get excited! Time to plan !
A hundred years and a thousand moons... Women, Witches, Sisters, Girlfriends, Maidens, Mothers, Crones: come and join us for a blissful retreat filled with magic, sisterhood, and deep connection to the rhythms of the Earth. This year we celebrate the centennial of women's voting rights and the 80th birthday of our beloved High Priestess and founder, Zsuzsanna Budapest!
Once again, women will gather together in the coastal redwoods of Northern California among the enchanted energies of Mother Nature to honor the Goddess, ourselves, and one another. For four days we live together in this sacred setting, partaking of powerful workshops, rituals, singing, drumming, dancing, and the dynamic vitality of female-focused intentional community. Guided by world renowned Priestesses and leaders, you can learn to identify and use herbs, hone your skills in the ancient Amazon art of archery, contribute your voice as we pass the rattle, develop ritual skills, empower yourself through the sacred archetypes of women, and so much more. Each day we offer a variety of workshops and opportunities for learning. Choose to attend as few or as many as you like, or simply relax, hike through the woods, listen to the music, enter into deep discussion, shop with our hand-selected vendors, recharge in the Red Tent, or just sit quietly and meditate in this sacred space.
Evenings are reserved for us to come together in the Gaia Bowl, our Greek style amphitheater for high ritual. It is here that we call to the Goddess and weave our magic; honor and invoke our foremothers; hold initiation and ordination rituals; and drum, dance, and sing our prayers around the bonfire and under the stars! All of nature is just a step outside your cabin door. All meals are prepared for us. There is no work duty, no cooking, no dishes to do. Your only responsibility is to come with an open heart and mind, find connection through Sisterhood, and share your energies in this movement for social change. Let our women's prayers be uttered in unison from the sweet melodic voices of hundreds of women. Let the Earth be healed. Let women be healed. Let us all know pure joy in celebrating all that is FEMALE!
Z Budapest
#WomenVote
#TheFutureIsFemale
#ERANow
Join us on our Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/events/281963332635332/
Tickets are available here:
https://goddessfestival2020.brownpapertickets.com/?fbclid=IwAR1Gkrro-Sj6CQuyZRAp572XqDW0KfOCGseum448Sf45dVwmbO6v6gNw3LY
Here is my prayer for the new year.
Whenever you are in need to align yourself with your Universe, step outside, look up find a focus, Full Moon or a star. Take in three breaths, think about how you are related to Everything and kiss your own hand.
Then say: "Everything that is mine, is Thine." Think on this a moment.
"Everything that is Thine is mine."
Take a beat to contemplate a playful gesture, then say "Tout tout , throughout and about!"
When you say the last line make circles with your hand, symbolizing the Universe.
Repeat it three times. Don't worry about the old English "Thine" word. This is an old spell, a prayer really. If you watch a lot of History Channel, or SyFy Channel, you have learned how we are all connected in the magical web of life, which has started with Oxygen, Hydrogen, and Carbon.
Even during the day, or driving, waiting at the Post Office. We are made up with the same stuff as the Stars. I always feel renewed when I do this. Kissing our own hands may feel strange, but not when you identify your innermost self with the Universe.
Be well and foster Sisterhood. The future is Female.
Blessed be!
Long before Santa charioted his flying steeds across our mythical skies, it was the female reindeer who drew the sleigh of the sun goddess at winter solstice. It was when we “Christianized” the pagan traditions of winter, that the white bearded man i.e.
“Father Christmas” was born.
Today it is her beloved image that adorns Christmas cards and Yule decorations –not Rudolph. Because unlike the male reindeer who sheds his antlers in winter, it is the larger and stronger doe, who retains her antlers. And it is she who leads the herds in winter.
So this season, when we gather by the fire to tell children bedtime stories of Santa and his flying reindeer – why not tell the story of the ancient Deer Mother of old?It was she who once flew through winter’s longest darkest night with the life-giving light of the sun in her horns ... for more, click here: https://gathervictoria.com/2017/12/15/doe-a-deer-a-female-deer-the-spirit-of-mother-christmas/
From the Holy Book of Women’s Mysteries
by Zsuzsanna E. Budapest
Yule: Winter Solstice (December 21)
Theme: Rebirth of the sun. We celebrate the birth of the Sun Goddess, Lucina. The altar is set in the eastern part of the circle. Decorations include pine boughs, mistletoe, holly, ivy. The Mother Goddess image has two red candles on each side. The witches are wearing evergreen crowns with lit white candles. This symbolizes the Sun Goddess dispersing the darkness, all purified and consecrated. Then there is a period of humming that builds up to a birth scream. It is good to let those sounds come out of us because we are reborn along with Lucina.
When the energy is high enough, the High Priestess says: “All ye assembled at my shrine, Mother darksome and di-vine, Mine is the scourge and mine the kiss. Here I charge you in this sign.”
The HP kisses the woman to her left on the forehead, the eyes, and the lips. The kiss is passed on from woman to woman, from east to west. When this is completed, the HP in the Goddess position says:
All ye assembled in sight, bow before my spirit bright. All bow to the east. The High Priestess says:
Aphrodite, Arianhod
Lover of the Horned God,
Mighty Queen of Witchery and Night,
Morgan, Etoine, Nisene,
Diana, Bridgid, Melusine,
Am I named of old by men.
Artemis and Cerridwen,
Hell's dark mistress, Heaven's queen.
Ye who would ask of me a rune,
Or who would ask of me a boon,
Meet me in some secret glade,
Dance my round in greenwood shade,
By the light of the full moon.
In a place, wild and lone,
Dance about mine altar stone;
Work my holy mystery.
Ye who are feign to sorcery,
I bring ye secrets yet unknown.
No more shall ye know slavery,
Who give true worship unto me.
Ye who tread my round on Sabbat night,
Come ye all naked to the rite,
In token that ye be really free.
I teach ye the mystery of rebirth,
Work ye my mysteries in mirth.
Heart joined to heart and lip to lip,
Five are the points of fellowship,
That bring ye ecstasy on earth,
For I am the circle of rebirth.
I ask no sacrifice, but do bow,
No other law but love I know.
By naught but love may I be known.
All things living are mine own
From me they come, to me they go.
(Sybil Leek)
The cauldron is lit and all are silent so that the Goddess may reveal Herself to Her women. Omens include the screeching of an owl, appearances of deer, shooting stars, sudden wakening of the wind, curious cloud formations, neighing of horses, howls of wolves or coyotes, hisses of serpents, and appearances of ravens.
The High Priestess, when she intuitively feels it is time, says:
Queen of the Moon,
Queen of the Stars,
Queen of the Horns,
Queen of the Fires,
Queen of the Earth,
Bring to us the Child of Promise!
For it is the Great Mother
Who gives birth to the new year.
Darkness and tears are set aside,
When the Sun comes up again.
Golden Sun of hill and mountain,
Illumine the world, Illumine the seas, Illumine the rivers, Illumine us all. Grief be laid and joy be raised, Blessed by the Great Mother! Without beginning, without end, Everlasting to Eternity. Evoe! lo! Evoe! lo! (Sybil Leek)
The women then jump over the fire in the cauldron, making a wish for the new year, saying it as they leap. After each jump, the women seal it by saying, "blessed be!"
A toast to the Goddess follows with the usual feasting, dancing, meeting dance, and merriment. The circle is closed with thanks given to the watchers who attended and a final blessing.
On December 13, the Coven met for a Saint Lucia festival Ritual. It was a magical experience, as evidenced in the pictures on the on Coven's Facebook page:
This is a teaching coven. We are educating our sisters about our sisters from the past. We started our education with Elizabeth Cady Stanton's The Woman's Bible. We are now moving on to the works of Merlin Stone, When God was a Woman and Ancient Mirrors of Womanhood. Every newsletter will include a lesson, a reading from the book and discussion questions for you to answer. When we meet, we will go over the answers. These questions are posed to inspire you to really think about what you have been taught about religion and how that way of thinking has influenced you and those around you.
Our hope is that you start a group wherever you are and discuss the meaning of the works we will study with each other and wake up a few more ladies from their patriarchal propaganda trance. We are focusing on political spell-casting and educating our sisters about our sisters from the past. Patriarchal culture has deprived women from knowing about the Elders who went before us; we reclaim them in order to invite to us a better future. These are important tasks for the times in which we live. Please join us in this work.
To join, please send a request with the following information: 1) Why you are interested in joining the coven and 2) What skills/abilities you have to contribute to our sisterhood.
The Elizabeth Cady Stanton Coven #1
“For people raised and programmed on the patriarchal religions of today, religions that affect even the most secular aspects of our society, perhaps there remains a lingering, almost innate memory of sacred shrines and temples tended by priestesses who served in the religion of the original supreme deity. In the beginning, people prayed to the Creatress of Life, the Mistress of Heaven. At the very dawn of religion, God was a woman. Do you remember?”
– Merlin Stone
“When God Was A Woman”
I truly hope you enjoyed the lessons on The Woman’s Bible. If you completed all or any of the lessons, please contact me
(queenlaese1@aol.com) so that I can recognize your work in a fu-ture “Fresh Eggs.”
We will be re-starting with Merlin Stone’s books, When God Was a Wom-an and Ancient Mirrors of Womanhood next month. If you are a member of the ECS Coven #1, you will begin receiving a separate mailing with the lesson every month. In the meantime, you can purchase the books here:
Or here:
Comments
Post a Comment