Sun's Day, August 10th: Summer Harvest Rite to Rosmerta and the Spirit of the Garden

A gardener's ritual to Rosmerta, Goddess of prosperity and abundance, from Gaul. 19 people braved the rain. The ritual was held indoors, rather than outside, which forced some last-minute changes. (Thanks to everyone who helped out!) We filled a cornucopia with garden vegetables and fruit, and also a basket, with each invocation. (The Outsiders were offered Little Debbie Zebra Cakes.) Nora led the ritual and invoked Rosmerta; Maria gave us an earthy invocation of the Spirit of the Garden. We planted a maple seedling that Matt took home to plant in his yard, and we scryed the omen in olive oil and vinegar and carrot shavings in a bowl that Pat knelt and held. The omens were interesting: "Salad dressing, goldfish, prosperity, and chaos." "Don't scry in salad dressing." Then to clarify, the omen readers pulled three tarot cards: the Star (pouring and mixing), Judgement (chaos, we need to think more about how we do omens), and the Page of Cups (Goldfish again, Pat holding the bowl, "sometimes it's just a fish in a cup talking to us," "Listen to the green shoots come up and help them grow and feed them to koi."
It was a visually engaging ritual, very colorful and bountiful. We also passed a mortar and pestle so everyone got a chance to grind herbs, and the aromas filled the room. You could hear the sound of the rain outside.
Maggie was our kitchen witch (thanks, Maggie) and we had a lot of people help out at the planning meeting, and on the day of the ritual.
(Photos by Norma and Bob.)

Nora, Druid-in-Charge
Maria, the Spirit of the Garden
Hermes
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