Wheat Stalk Centering Visualization for Lammas

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I originally wrote this as a centering visualization for the opening of a Lammas ritual.  Feel free to alter this exercise to fit your needs. Enjoy.

Needed: A wheat stalk (You can usually find bundles of wheat stalks in craft stores located in the floral section.)

Take a deep breath in. 1. 2. 3. 4. Exhale slowly. 1. 2. 3. 4. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out.

Now stand tall with you feet firmly placed on the ground. Breathe in. As you breath out imagine roots growing from the soles of your feet. With every exhale they grow deeper. Through the floor. Through the foundations of your dwelling. Your roots expand downwards until they reach the damp, dark soil. Breathe in, breathe out. Deeper and deeper your roots go, until you are firmly rooted in the Earth.

With every inhale feel yourself pulling cool, earthy, grounding energy from the soil and Mother Earth. Feel the energy move through your body, from the bottoms of your feet to the top of your head. As you exhale feel tension flow through your body and out through your feet, through your roots and deep into the earth.

Lift your stalk of wheat into the air. Imagine you are that stalk of grain. Feel the soft warmth and light of the sun. Gently rock yourself back and forth. As you do, imagine you are a stalk of wheat swaying in a cool summer breeze. Feel the energy of the sun and the wind flow through you and out through your roots. The wind and the sun are energizing you, your stalk, and the Earth. You are grounded, you are relaxed, yet full of energy. Blessed Be.

(Your wheat stalk is now charged with the energy of the wind and of the sun.  If you wish you can save your wheat stalk to utilize this energy at a later time, or place it on your altar as Harvest/Lammas decor.)

(A Child’s) Prayer of Thanks to the Earth

We thank the Earth in which we dwell
we thank the Earth that provides so well

For the veggies that to go with dessert
for pretty rocks, sand and dirt

For puppies, kittens, bunnies and chicks
and for beautiful flowers to pick

For all these things we thank the Earth
with gracious heart full of mirth

A Canaanite Altar Tour

A couple post ago, I included a picture of my altar.  Since I took that picture (about a year ago) there have been some changes to my altar.  Nothing drastic, but I wanted to do an altar tour anyway.  Some pagans like to show off their altars, and others like to look at pictures of altars (Altar Porn!).  Personally I like to do both.  IMO altar making is a type of art in it’s own right, and looking at the altars of others is a good way to come up with new ideas.

There are two altars in my house.  The one I will be sharing today is an altar I share with my husband.  My part of the altar is dedicated to my pantheon and it’s where I do my personal practices.  The other altar is a family altar, and after the Yule season it has gotten into a state of chaos.  After I get that together I’ll do an altar tour of that one as well.

Here’s the general overview of my part of the altar.  It’s still has the same set up as it did when I first took a picture of it, but I removed the 7 day candles and the cauldron and replaced them with this floral and faux food arrangement.  I’ll go more into detail about the arrangement later in this post.

The rectangle mirror thing is a candle plate that I use as an offering plate.  On the offering plate there is an feather shaped incense holder which replaced the generic Wiccan/Celtic one.  To the center left is a decorative bowl I use for water offerings.  Water here comes from an aquifer, so unfortunately the bowl has gotten coated with lime after some time, and I don’t know how to remove it without damaging the bowl in the process.  Next to that is my oil lamp.  At the bottom are two tea light candles that I received as a gift that were too pretty to burn, so I use them as decoration.  The offering plate sits on a mat that I crocheted to help catch wayward incense ash.  I chose a purple yarn because the Canaanites and later their descendants the Phoenicians were known for their purple dye.

Lets start with my Ba’al and then go left from there.  It’s difficult to find statues of the Canaanite gods, so most of the time one has to settle with pictures.  When I searched for images of Ba’al Hadad I couldn’t find any that I like enough to put on my altar so I made this image out of polymer clay and paint.  Next is an amulet to ward off the evil eye.  It just seemed like it need to be on the altar.  Then there is an image of Asherah that I found online, printed on photo paper and put in a picture frame. Next is a little figurine of Asherah that I created also from polymer clay.  It was inspired by the many goddess images archeologists have dug up in Israel.  To the left is a selenite spiral.  I’m not really into crystals, but this made me think both of Asherah poles and of the ziggurats of ancient Babylon, so I had to buy it and give it Asherah. Bellow that is a bottle of sand.  My family and I recently took a trip to San Diego.  When we visited the beach I made sure to take some sand with me. In mythology Asherah is often depicted as hanging out by the seashore doing domestic chores.  When I got home I put the beach sand in a bottle and put in on my altar in Her honor.  Lastly is a hand shaped trinket holder filled with variety of votive offerings.  There a silver colored stone (I have forgotten the name of this stone) to represent silver, a piece of pyrite to represent gold, a tiny piece of Lapis Lazuli, a little plastic cow to represent a cow offering.  I also placed a small dove pendant I’ve had since I was a child and a little pentacle and hamsa charm just because.  There is also a mini Hindu bull statue in front of the Ba’al plaque.  Ba’al is associated with bull, plus I just wanted a golden bull on my altar.

From right to left.  The white statue is an image of Mary Magdalene.  Recently the Magdalene has made a reappearance in my life, so it felt right to put her back on the altar.  The green bottle is shamnu moru (myrrh infused olive oil).  l use this for anointing.  And the square bottle is shamnu raqachi (spiced olive oil)  which I burn in my lamp. Behind both of those is a bottle of Florida Water, and a candle snuffer.  The red thing in the background is a sistrum I made from a embroidery hoop.  The blue altar cloth is a hijab I bought at the local Mosque’s open house, and the smaller black cloth is what I believe to be a belly dancing belt.

Please forgive the white cardboard, I used it to block the reflection of my bedroom and myself in the mirror. It makes for an ugly picture.

When I think of the Iluma, I think of them bringing fertility and life to an arid land, and this is what this arrangement represents. It also serves as a collection of votive offerings.  The “floral” arrangement is made of plastic flowers (I don’t know what type of flowers they are suppose to be, they were something I had around from another project), dried wheat stalks, and salt ceder twigs.  There is also an apple, pear and a white pumpkin I crocheted, and some plastic grapes and a faux pomegranate.  Those little white vase are currently holding Japanese incense, although sometimes I burn resin incense sticks (the awesomeness of loose incense without having to deal with charcoal discs).  In the past I visited a Buddhist temple, and I really like how the incense where located right on the altar just waiting for you to offer them, so I added this element to my altar.  It also prevents me from having to rummage through drawers looking for incense.

That is it, I hope you enjoyed the tour.

My Daily Personal Practice

This week’s prompt on the Pagan Experience peaked my interest. Although I’m not planning on committing to any writing projects this year, this week’s topic is something I wanted to write about anyways, so why not now? Anyways, there just aren’t many Canaanite inspired rituals floating around on the interwebs. So here’s one more. As with all of my rituals, feel free to personalize to your heart’s content.

This weeks prompt is: Share your favorite spiritual/magickal practices. What tools are incorporated into your daily practice? What feeds you and replenishes you?

My favorite spiritual practice is ritual. I love writing rituals, hosting rituals for friends, and I love doing ritual for only me and mine. I like simple contemplative rituals and I like fancy ritual with all the bells and whistle. I adore the scent of fragrant oils and incense drifting through the air. I enjoy the sight of a lit up altar. I especially love it when the gods show up and make their presence known. Ritual leaves me feeling connected and calm yet energized in ways that nothing else does.

I would love to tell you that I’m an ultra devote disciplined pagan, and that I faithfully do this ritual everyday, but I would be lying. Sometimes, I follow this ritual to the tee. Sometimes I just don’t have the time or energy to do a proper ritual and will do something simple like light incense or say a round of prayers on my prayer beads. And too often I forget my daily practice all together. Sticking to a daily routine is something I still struggle with. I have approved greatly in this area, but I still got a long way to go.

This ritual takes me anywhere from around 15 minutes to a half an hour to do, depending on what I want to do that day. Currently I’m a stay at home mother (and my daughter usually joins in), so I have the privilege to be able to dedicate this amount of time to my spiritual practice. I understand this is not something everyone can do. Don’t feel down if you can’t dedicate that kind of time. Spirituality should not be an all or nothing kind of a deal. If five minutes, 1 minute or a respectful nod to your altar is all you can give, than it’s all you can give, and that is much better than nothing.

My “Daily” Devotional Practice.

Many people who work with the Canaanite pantheon cover their head during ritual. This head covering can be anything from a scarf, to a hat, or even a thick head band. I often forget to do this, but if my hair is especially tore up that day (which happens often enough when you have super curly hair) I’ll make sure to cover my head. Ancient Near and Middle Eastern cultures were really into cleanliness, so I wash my hands before I start ritual. If I’m feeling kinda ugh for any reason I’ll do a quick cleanse with Florida Water. Usually before I start I’ll take a moment to be silent and take seven deep breaths to help ground and center me. My usual offerings to the gods are water, incense, perfumed oil and fire. Honestly, the most stressful aspect of food offerings for me is the disposal, so tend to save food offering for Holy Days. After I light the incense and my oil lamp I’ll bow to my gods seven time. Sometimes if I feel like going that extra mile I’ll prostrate myself seven times. This is something that is so foreign to the general American culture that I often feel awkward doing this, but I have found that prostrating can be very centering.

Next I pick up (or make a gesture of giving at) each offering one by one and say:

“I offer incense to the Gracious Deities
Perfumed smoke for the Gods of the Earth and of the Stars
I give back a little of what I have been given
In the spirit of gratitude I return a small portion of what I have received
I give honor, Shalam

I offer water to the Gracious Deities
Fresh and cooling water for the Gods of the Earth and of the Stars
I give back a little of what I have been given
In the spirit of gratitude I return a small portion of what I have received
I give honor, Shalam

I offer fire to the Gracious Deities
Fragrant oil for the Gods of the Earth and of the Stars
I give back a little of what I have been given
In the spirit of gratitude I return a small portion of what I have received
I give honor Shalam”

This next part I borrowed and adapted from Shifting Spectrums’ daily practice.  I grab my bottle of myrrh oil and anoint each body part as I ask for it to be blessed. The following prayer was adapted from Shifting Spectrums’ adaption of a prayer by Tess Dawson.

“Ancient Deities of the Canaanites,
Divine Assembly of Mount Lalu,
Sons and Daughters of El and Asherah,
Bless my mind that I may sense you,
Bless my eyes that I may see you,
Bless my ears that I may hear you,
Bless my nose that I may smell you,
Bless my throat that I may speak with you,
Bless my senses that I my feel you,
(I usually do a sign of the pentacle here. I once heard that the pentacle has it’s origins in Babylon, as a symbol of royalty. So I thought it was fitting.)
Bless my heart so that I may know you.

I give honor.
Shalam.

After this, my ritual gets a little more free form. Whenever I come across a prayer to a Canaanite god I copy, paste, print and add it to my binder o’ prayers, so I have a healthy selection of prayers to chose from. Most of the time I recite a prayer to Asherah, or Hadad, or both. Sometimes I’ll offer a prayer to another deity. On occasion I’ll sing, which is tricky since the Canaanite pantheon is a rather obscure and there aren’t many chants or songs dedicated to them. A year ago I came across this chant (it’s in Hebrew), and found that the translation fits well enough with the flow of the song that it can be sung in English. Sometimes I reach into the bag of Neopagan chants I’ve learned over the years from various drum circles and festivals, and find one that make at least some sort of sense in this context. One of my favorite chants to sing to the Canaanite gods is “The River She is Flowing.”  Although the Canaanite deity of both rivers and the sea is a god called Yam, this chant still makes me think of Asherah.  And if you want to see a room of young children grow silent and still, sing this chant to them.  I have personally witness this. Another chant I like to use is “Slowly Blooms the Rose Within.” That last chants is actually a Contemplative Christian chant but it works for me. Asherah is sometime associated with the rose (this is a modern association but that’s fine with me), so it makes sense.  Sometimes I’ll skip all of this and op for a quick silence mediation or a Phoenician “rune” reading instead.

I end my ritual with a moment of silent contemplation (doesn’t always work, as I have a 4 year old daughter), and then by bowing one more time and saying something like, “I give honor, Shalam.” I usually leave the lamp burning until the incense goes out. Then I put out the flame with a candle snuffer. I don’t have any taboos about blowing out candles like some Wiccanesque pagans do. I do this for purely practical reasons, to prevent incense ash from going everywhere all over my altar. That is all, it is done.

If you’re interested in the ritual without all my commentary click over there (psst… it’s a PDF) —–> A Devotional Ritual to the Iluma

The Queen’s Domestic Chores

The Queen attends to Her domestic chores
to keep Her heavenly home in order
As She spins yarn from her spindle
galaxies are set in motion
As She binds the threads
celestial bodies are given form
As She washes her robes
chaos is brought into balance
As She stirs the dye pot
She releases vibrancy into the world

And when She is done with the day’s work
She dances on the waves
and births life into being.

Modern Prayer to Ba’al Hadad

Peace to Ba’al Hadad

Our Beloved, Champion and Lord

Rider on the Clouds

Your clouds roll over the mountains like troops marching to battle

The thunder, Your fearsome voice

shakes us free of our complacent comfort

The softly falling rain

an invitation to take rest for our mundane concerns

The lighting, Driver and Chaser

Orchestrate a brilliant light show like fire works in the distant clouds

In Your foot prints

Flora and Fauna thrive and know life.

Peace to Ba’al Hadad and Your entourage

The Rains, Your daughters

The Vine and Field, Your servants

God who tasted death

was mourned

and reborn through the might of Your companion Anat

Bless us with Your virility and strength

We give honor

Shalam

Asherah, Tree of Life

I am Asherah, the Tree of Life
Let me embrace you in the shade of My outreached arms
I will protect you from the harsh damning heat of the midsummer sun
Come take refuge from the arid desert air in my cooling oasis
I make way for life in places deemed inviable
I am the strength that make your perilous journey a possibility
Let Me sooth your brow with My sweet waters
I am the peace found in the midst of the struggle for survival
I am Peace
I am Life.