Mead Experamentation

At our first Samhain as a group, everyone chipped in to help make a large 5 gallon batch of simple honey mead.

As the secondary fermentation nears, we all made the decision to split the mead into 5: 1 gallon jugs. Each member who pays for a jug will get to experiment with a gallon of mead, playing with ingredients, taste, and such. This has a double intention actually, as a 5 gallon batch is expensive to make, but a 1 gallon batch much less so. This way, when our first mead is done, not only will everyone know how to make mead, but we can all continue through out the year on our own at very little personal cost. I’m think about next Yule (2013) hosting a mead contest to see who made the best batch by vote.

As it stands, I will be making a mix I am dubbing Snapdragon Mead, with a mixture of peaches, almond extract, and ginger. I know one of the members is going to be fiddling with pomegranates, another is doing blackberry/raspberry, someone is doing apple/cinnamon and another isn’t sure yet but she’s thinking on pears. Since everyone put money/time/ingredients into the original batch and we have 9 members, the hope is that everyone will get at least 3 bottles of mead to rack and drink later. Plus we will be keeping 8 bottles aside for the Sabbats to drink as part of the “cakes & ale” portion of the ritual. Plus, with Yule coming up, the secondary fermentation should be ready to bottle at Yule!! *sequels of delight*

Aside from that, I have to express about a 50/50 level of disappointment and enjoyment with how the groups lessons are progressing thus far. For our first meeting after Samhain, only 4 members showed up, with the rest either making no notification or (in two cases) having perfectly legit reasons not to be there. However, I am happy to say that everyone seems to be keeping up with their book lessons as well as reading the material I’m providing online so not bad really.

I set up this first year as a group with only minimal expectations. I am 27 where as most of the members are in their early 20’s, so I am taking a lot of the responsibility on myself in order to create lessons, provide resources, host events and as such. I am not the high priestess (mainly because I disagree with the entire hierarchy), but as the more practiced member I am more or less providing a map to where people need to go. We decided as a group not to call ourselves a coven/grove/etc. for at least the first year because a lot of us are either entirely inexperienced or haven’t practiced in a while. So it felt unfair to try and place labels on ourselves. That being said, the curriculum I set up amounts to a first degree study program for eclectic paganism and I am expecting it to be treated as such.

Next Samhain (2013), we had discussed holding a large, overnight festival as well as “initiation” of ourselves as a formal coven/circle/whatever. However, I had made the proviso (which in hindsight was a little short sighted or me) that anyone who could not attend at least 14/18 of the years meetings would not be up for initiation into the group.

My intention was to see who was really sincere about studying along these lines. Be honest, we’ve all gone through phases and interests which petered out later on and while I would generally welcome anyone who wanted to learn or felt they wanted the experience into a group, we all agreed we were looking for something a little more formal and frankly that takes work, time and effort. But what I didn’t put into consideration was that 6 of our members are still in college, three of them hold full time jobs, and one lives about a half an hour drive from our meeting places.

In other words, I have to make allowances.

After conversing with another group member (as well as my girlfriend) the decision was made that 14/18 would be ideal and something that should be striven for, but if someone can not make all of those meetings, that is okay. I will post all the info, discussions and resources on fb and ask people to keep up with this in their field grimoire. At the next meeting (whichever they can attend) when we all take the opportunity to comment on what we’ve learned, they can show that they have been keeping up with the group even if they can’t be physically present. Anyone who is sincere in their interest is more likely to “show their work”.

 

Altars to Hekate

For a while now I have been feeling a significant pull towards the Greek all-goddess. I’ve been doing my best to learn more about her from a historical and modern ritual perspective and between Hekate’s Liminal Rights by Sorita d’Este (very dry…informative and historical but very very dry), and Temple of Hekate by Tara Sanchez I feel ready to start physically and mentally working with her to a stronger degree. Part of this (at least for me) is creating a strong presence of her in my home. I had originally created an altar to Hekate a while ago, but it was…well… Have you ever wanted really bad to produce something spectacular and had to settle for second best because it’s all that was available at the time?

Yeah her altar is kinda that.

But I really decided to make this a project! I found something at my local Pat Catans that I think I can turn into a really bad-ass altar!

Yes I know technically it’s a boat, but erase that from your mind. I see it as a shrine. An alcove dedicated to Hekate. I’ll have to paint it and give it a coat of clear so it shines. I’m thinking black on the outside, using a lovely gold mesh scarf to give it a gentle draping curtain.

Top Layer: Black, Hekate statue, candles, incense.
Middle Layer: Red, scrying mirror, offerings
Bottom Layer: White, items being charged, ritual objects

It’s a long term project but none the less I think it’s a really good way to start integrating her into my life. This is a nice way to show my dedication. It will also be the first time I do a full ritual to Hekate. Whole nine yards people. Hymns and everything.

Is it wrong to be excited enough to squee?

I shall now lay in bed…

…content to smile and feel just a little bit better about tomorrow. Because, though this country may doubt and bitch and moan, we must still have a little bit of hope left.

Samhain 2012

We did pretty good despite rain, cold, wind, smoke and a little confusion! The ritual took place at midnight in our new altar space with a huge fire roaring and providing a nice warmth for everyone. We had a freeze warning out for this area so we were kinda moving through the ritual fast as we could.

We setup up 4 altars, one for the Chthonic Deities, one for the Glorious Dead, one for the Ancestors, and one for Pets & Familiars. After the wordy part of the ritual everyone was given the chance to pray and make offerings at each altar, as well as look into a scyring mirror and attempt to see anything. No pressure, just to try.

Right after we did our offerings, just as we set up for meditation, a series of high, excited yips went through the year. We realized that there were coyotes in the field closest to us, scavenging about for their Samhain meal. It was a moment of sincere excitement and you could feel the group energy rising rapidly. Coyotes seemed an apt sign, as their nature makes them conveyors of death in the form of scavengers.

Animal Symbolism Coyote

Once we came inside and got everything from the ritual all cleaned up, we set about the task of mead making. We came to a decision a while ago. We made a big, 5 gallon tub of plain honey mead last night, taking turns stirring it and adding honey and water. But for the secondary fermentation, we will split up the mead into 5, 1 gallon jugs, and everyone will get the chance to experiment with flavors and spice mixtures. We will also, most likely, start another batch of mead. *grins* I think I’ve started a trend.

So far the flavor concepts we have are:
-Peach, Almond and Candied Ginger
-Apple, Cinnamon
-Pear and Clove
-Pomegranante
-Raspberry, Strawberry, Blackberry

We talked about what exactly it is we want to do in our newly formed circle, why are we making this decision, and how. We each chose  book to read for the next two months, and went over what the curriculum will look like. All in all a very satisfying night. I think we finished around 3 am.