21 Jun 2010
A Faining for Midsummer, 2010

The HarrowWe had our Midsummer celebration yesterday, on Midsummer's Eve. We had fourteen in attendance, and a feast of (pasture raised) pork chops, pasta salads, melons, cakes and pies. A great time was had by all. But this was a very different Asatru ritual from those I have conducted in the past, and I would very much like to get some feedback from my heathen (and non-heathen, for that matter) readers. By all accounts it turned out extremely well.

We called it a faining as opposed to a blot, as the latter literally means "blood", and in eldritch times implied an animal sacrifice, with the sacrificial animal being the main course at the feast. In modern times blot has come to mean a ritual similar to a sumbel, where participants share a horn of mead, ale or beer, offering it as the sacrifice in lieu of blood. This formula came to prominence in the 1980's, and was really popularized by Edred Thorsson in his A Book of Troth. Thorsson called his ritual structure a blot, and it's been the basis for nearly every Asatru ritual I've attended over the last 22 years.

There was no alcohol involved yesterday. None at all. I've attended rituals where a separate horn with cider was passed for children and recovering alcoholics, but this was the first I've been to (much less written and presided over) that involved no booze whatsoever. So "faining" seemed a more appropriate name for this ritual, as while gifts were clearly exchanged, there was no "sacrifice", animal or alcoholic.

There was no hammer warding, either. That was another feature of modern ritual that came originally from the old AFA and was popularized by Thorsson. Now, Ravenswood, the kindred I co-founded in 1992, opens every ritual to this day with a hammer warding. But the ve (holy space, containing the harrow, or alter) used by Ravenswood has never been enclosed, as was traditional in eldritch times. The ve here at our farm is enclosed, and it has been warded with the Hammer many times. So there was no need to use a hammer warding to establish ritual space. But there was still a need to set the tone for the folk, and "get things rolling" so to speak. I settled on using my Worship is Remembrance poem.

And since we had both children and recovering alcoholics present, water from our deep well was used - representing the Well of Wyrd in the horn, and the Dew that Nourishes Yggdrasil at the offering. Rather than a boast or toast, the participants shared a memory of [Mid]summer past. Lorraine had helped me in putting together a list of summer memories, and she read them before the horn was passed to set the mood. This sort of took the place of the reading from the lore that has become a fixture of Ravenswood rituals.

She ended up passing the horn to each of the folk as well. It is very traditional to have a woman handle the horn in sumbel (even though Ravenswood doesn't follow that tradition). We had thought about this, but discarded the idea as there was no alcohol involved. It just sort of happened, and we went with the flow.

We also put considerable energy into the bulletin - a habit of Ravenswood's that I started and continued here. This was the first one, however, that I ever printed in color, and on good paper. The illustration turned out beautifully, and really set the tone for honoring the wights of the land. Thor gets thanked profusely by Lorraine and I for his good work in warding our stead, but I sometimes think we overlook the lesser wights, whose contribution to the well being of the farm is immeasurable.

I kept with that spirit in closing, where I used a poem I'd written several years ago to the harrow. That worked really well, too, partly, I think, because of the rhyme and rhythm of the poetry itself.

A Faining for Midsummer is up as a pdf - download it, use it, adapt it, share it - but most importantly, let me know what you think!

21:01 /Asatru | 1 comment | permanent link