Do you work with deity in ritual? How do you perceive those gods? What is invocation and when does it work? Do you make offerings or sacrifice to the gods, and why? Do you always work with the same gods, or does your focus change with the seasons of the year? Email us your
thoughts and your experience, tell us what works for you and
what doesn't (150 words or less, or send us a full article).
Mark Williams : This is the third stage of invocation for us, after the quarters and the Ancestors. We tend to go: Person 1- Description of the Season (prose-poem), Person 2 - Invocation to female deity (metrical poem), Person 3 - Invocation to male deity (metrical poem). I suppose this shows lingering traces of Wicca. More bluntly, only some festivals are overtly about Gods for us. Imbolc is Brighid-centred, Lammas is all about Lugh, and Samhain focuses on the Cailleach. We also think in terms of Mabon and Modron at Winter Solstice. The other rites make use of invocations which allow each person to name the deity in their heart. So if someone wants to think of ‘the Lord of the Young Sun, the bird-summoner, the nest-weaver, your hair wild with daffodils, you mouth stuffed with seeds!’ as Aengus Mac Og, fine. Someone else might be thinking of Mabon, or in symbolic, archetypal terms. When we are honouring a particular deity, however, the rites are elaborate. At Imbolc, a priestess wears a white mantle whilst reciting a poem in the persona of Brighid, and we heap dried rosemary and bay on the fire in front of her to make a crackling blaze. At Samhain, the priestess dons a long dark veil, and then speaks in the voice of the Cailleach over the mournful tolling of a bell. At Winter Solstice, a lullaby is sung for Mabon.
Kris Hughes : The primary Gods of my home are Mona as the mother Goddess and Ganhebon as the Father. These are honoured as a matter of course as the primary polaric deities of Anglesey. Some rituals may call for the honouring of others such as Ffraid during the Imbolc season, Branwen during Beltane, and Bran during the baking of the earth. Our rituals only connect to and forge relationships with the Gods who are locality specific. Those who our ancestors knew. The Gods are honoured in our open rituals, but during closed group gatherings where deep relationships are forged our entire focus will be the Gods alone. Here the Gods are invoked, assumed and connected to on a transformative level, through trance work and vision.
Phil Ryder : Within Druidry this can be problematic for group ritual. In the Druid tradition, each has their own experience of deity and, unless a group has worked together to build a relationship with a particular pantheon, inviting a deity may not be comfortable for all taking part. Our grove tends to call to ‘spirit’ during our group rituals, leaving each member free to honour their own perception of deity in personal practice.
Ximena Eduarda : Invoking the ‘Triple Goddess’ presides my actions: ‘Salute Thee as a Free Spirit, may your presence be in me and may you speak through me’. In each magic moment of the Solar Cycle I invoke corresponding potencies calling them by their qualities and their tutelary goddesses/gods: Vital Fire, Gestation, Fertility, Emanation, Fecundity, Purification, Maturity, Retreat, and Appeasement. For Lunar, besides the Life Cycle, I invoke Darkness Forces, Oscillation Potencies and Goddesses/Daughters/Melith’ores dwelling in Her.
How I name them varies: local names (Pachamama-Mother Earth), celtic (Morrigan, Lugh, Cridwen), I listen how they want to be mentioned when they appear to me. In these territories each moment (and even each day) has a virgin, sometimes I use their name, restituting that quality by the goddess’s (Candelaria, Carmen). To all of them I offer/sacrifice activating reciprocity in fluids, flows and ebb/tides.
