Tonight we come together to bring healing energy to our Earth. Please join me now as we prepare to cast our circle.
Picture yourself in a field after the harvest. It is a beautiful September day in an Indian Summer, - the sun incredibly warm and the sky a clear blue. Only the length of the shadows hints that winter is approaching. The wheat has been harvested but a few stray grains lie between providing welcome pickings for the birds and mice. There is a wonderful scent of fresh cut straw in the air. The hedges around the field are rich with berries of hawthorn, of blackberry and of rose-hips. Take a moment to savour the beauty of this scene.
Reach out now and take the hands of those on either side of you. Feel the energy increase as the circle is closed forming a ring of power.
Let our circle be cast by the power of all present, let us welcome the Guardians within. Let it stand as a place of safety and strength for the work we do this night.
Guardian of Fire, Lord of the South. We welcome you to our circle this night. Great phoenix of the flames, we ask you to lend us your powers of transformation. With love, we greet you tonight. Hail and welcome!
Guardian of Water, Lady of the West. We welcome you to our circle this night. Great whale of the seas we ask you to lend us your powers of emotion. With love, we greet you tonight. Hail and welcome!
Guardian of Earth, Lady of the North. We welcome you to our circle this night. Great bear of the caves, we ask you to lend us your stability and power. With love, we greet you tonight. Hail and welcome!
Our Lady Ceres, keeper of the harvest and the Earth, we invite you to join us in our circle this night and ask you to lend your aid to our work as we raise healing energy for the earth. With love we greet you tonight. Hail and Welcome.
We are all aware of the problems facing our planet, problems that may be laid at the door of man’s greed and carelessness. We are aware of the many barriers to creating change,- stubbornness, money, lack of consideration, ignorance, and refusal to accept that anything is wrong. We know that we have a lot of work to do, not just through healing energy but through education of others, through practical measures such as recycling, supporting earth charities, writing letters to organisations. Make a commitment to do something practical this coming month and make a promise to Ceres that you will do this.
Tonight though, we will work to raise a cone of healing energy for the earth through visualisation and through sound. I ask you all to start to hum as we begin the visualisation, softly at first and then increasingly louder until you reach peak volume just as the cone is ready to be released.
Return with me to the wheat field and take a moment to watch the many birds. One in particular catches your attention. It is the corn bunting, a small sparrow sized bird that frequents agricultural land. Watch it hopping among the cut stalks, searching for grains of wheat. Imagine yourself as that bird. What are you thinking about? What do you feel? Allow yourself to really become the bird. Feel your connection to the Earth and the seasons. Feel how these shape your life, telling you where to find food, when to seek shelter, when to find a mate, when to build a nest. Now, hold onto those feelings as you return to yourself. Try to retain this closeness to the earth as you go about your daily life.
As you watch, you see a whole flock of corn buntings appear. It whirls and dips in the sky above you, flying in an ever moving circle, round and round, faster and faster, until it becomes a vortex of energy. This is the gift of Ceres. Let us now add to it. Send your own healing energy augmented by the energy raised as you hummed into the vortex. See the vortex grow in strength and power. Keep humming, louder and louder. And now, let us release that energy. With a shout of joy let us send it up into the sky. See it rise up, higher and higher until it almost disappears. See it suddenly break open showering shining green healing energy over the Earth. Know that this energy will do its work.
So mote it be!
And now, return to normal consciousness as I prepare to thank the Goddess with a basket of fruits and grains
Lady Ceres, we offer you these gifts of the harvest as a small token of our enduring thanks. Blessed be!
And so we move to the close of our ritual.
Guardian of Earth, Great bear of the north. We thank you for your presence and aid this night. Till we meet again, farewell, blessed be!
Guardian of Water, Great whale of the west. We thank you for your presence and aid this night. Till we meet again, farewell, blessed be!
Guardian of fire, Great phoenix of the south. We thank you for your presence and aid this night. Till we meet again, farewell, blessed be!
Guardian of air, Great eagle of the east. We thank you for your presence and aid this night. Till we meet again, farewell, blessed be!
Till we meet again, Farewell, Blessed be!