Samhain 2007.............My 1st Sabbat as High Priest.

The other night on Samhain/Halloween, the Coven of the 13 Moons, celebrated our 1st Sabbat as aCoven! In attendance besides me was HPS Berkana, Chelsea, Chelsea's Husband & a family friend, plus 3 of my friends. The 8 of us had a really great Ritual. The Ritual was outside & we did have some Divine Intervention occur. All the quarter's candles went out except the West. The West is also the Portal to the Underworld. Along with the BlueCandle that represents the West, we also had 8 taper candles lit that were placed in a stump (that had holes big enough to hold candles drilled out) to honor our ancestors, which also remained lit. Zephyrus who is the Guardian of the Western Portal, did his job very well tonight by keeping theCandles lit so that our ancestors & newly deceased friends & family could make the trip tonight between the worlds! (Thank you Zephyrus for keeping the Portal open!)

Here is how the Ritual went. We started to gather about 8:15 PM. Berkana was the 1st person to arrive. We went out to my yard where I had the Ritual Circle set. Berkana swept any negative energies out of the Ritual area as I was getting everything ready in my shed. After the area was clean, I smudged it with a sage bundle & we were ready to set the circle up. I used some stumps to hold the pillar candles for the 4 Quarters & in between them I placed some luminaires to form the circle. I then lit the Ritual fire which was contained in an old Weber grill that was propped up on a metal milk crate. We were now ready to start!

We went in my house to call everyone to enter the Ritual Circle. As my HPS & 3 guests lined up to receive the challange that is required to enter the circle, my friends Harry, Danny, & Maureen followed by Jimmy & his 2 friends showed up. As I was explaining the Challange, I held up my Athame to show everyone what I was going to do, Jimmy & his 2 friends ran like hell out of my yard because they were frightened by the flash of steel (LOL, such a bunch of Cowans*). So with that episode out of the way, we now began.

After everyone received the challange, we were all now in the Ritual Circle & ready to begin the Samhain Ritual! Berkana & myself had a completely balanced Ritual planned out with each of us having equal speaking & action parts. We had quite a few laughs too, Berkana was determined to throw herself into the fire. As she was going around the circle to seal it, she first tripped over the lid of the grill that was next to it & almost fell into the fire. On her next trip (almost literally LOL) around the circle, her cloak got caught on the grill & almost pulled it off the milk crate. Anyhow, with the circle sealed, quarters called, & the Goddess & God welcomed, we all took a white candle that Berkana passed out & followed me to the Western Portal to light the candles off the Blue candle & place them in the drilled out stump as a symbol to our ancestors or loved ones that we were remembering them & honoring their memory. The participants were told that they could either leave the candles here to burn out or take them home & place in the Western corner of their property to burn out there (everyone left them where they were & the last one finally burned out at 12:30 AM).

As the Ritual progressed, we got to the part of the Ritual where we were going to Banish any negative aspects of our lives, or anything we want to be rid of out of our lives to the fire which represented the Dark Lord who will be going into the Underworld tonight & taking our negatives with him. (One Coven member put her old chain that held her Pentacle that broke right before she joined the Coven & chose to send it away since she now started a new life & that chain was from her old life; I rid myself of old candles that I used in some Spellwork to finally complete the Spell from earlier in the year) The Dark Lord will rise again at Yule on the darkest night of the year. We all stood before the fire one at a time & spoke outloud to the fire (which represented the Dark Lord) for all to hear what we were Banishing & what the positive replacement would be.

After this was done, we had our Cakes & Ale. We had spiced wafers & Vampire Wine. We chose these because both were symbolic of Halloween & the Fall. When the Cakes & Ale were finished, Berkana announced that it was time for Divinations. A Divination is the art of foretelling future events or communicating with the Spirit World by various means. Reading Tarot, casting Runes, Scrying into a fire or crystal ball (magickal gazing), using a Ouija Board, & etc., are various forms of Divination. Since nobody had any Divinations to do, we all took a few moments & Scryed into the fire & reflected on the events of the evening thus far. We then started to wind down the Ritual.

We thanked the Deities for joining us here tonight & then followed up by releasing the Quarters. It was now that we discovered the Divine Intervention! As we were going around the circle starting in the East, that we discovered the candles were extinguished. We still extinguished them in a symbolic jesture one at a time until we reached the West which as I stated earlier was the Portal to the Underworld. We immediately knew that the guardian did his job well! After the Ritual, we discussed this & tried to see how that candle didn't go out & could not find a scientific explanation. This quarter wasn't shielded from the wind at all, in fact, it was just as open if not more than the Southern Portal. We didn't dwell on it any more & just thanked once again, Zephyrus for keeping the candle going!

We finished the Ritual opening up the Circle & giving back to the Earth the remainder of the Cakes & Ale & the salt that was left over from when we sealed the Circle. Afterwards, we all gathered in my kitchen eating snacks & Pizza, drinking the remainder of the Vampire Wine & sharing the Meade that Chelsea brought at the PA Renn Faire to share at Samhain. After everyone left, I took Berkana home & our entire conversation during the 15 minute ride focused on the Ritual & how good we both felt about how well it went for each of us being the 1st Samhain Ritual as a Coven! I went to bed that night feeling great & had the most soundest sleep that I had in months, but the next day when I woke up, I felt like I went 15 rounds with Smokin Joe Frazier!

I was really beat up physically for some reason & when i was talking to one of my friends about it, my friend who is also my masseuse at PT asked if I grounded afterwards, I said no & she said that I have to ground to release that energy & also, she wants me to wear a Jade crystal to help me next time. So I will, & see how it goes. If I could use 1 word to sum up Samhain it would be ....Success! I feel great after my 1st Sabbat as a High Priest & can't wait to plan Yule! Blessed Be!

Samhain Blessings,

Caedmon

High Priest

Coven of the 13 Moons

*Cowan: a term used in modern Wicca & Witchcraft to denote someone who is not a Wiccan or a Witch. aka Muggle: the only word used in the Harry Potter series of books by J. K. Rowling to refer to a normal person who lacks any sort of magical ability.