Lughnasadh 2010, Women’s Rite 
By Mark
Women’s rite
HPS Stands in the inside temple, and invites each woman to enter the space and form a circle. There is no circle cast and no quarters are called, as this is a gathering of Women in preparation for the sacrifice to come.
HPS: Welcome sisters to Lughnasadh, Today we bring in the first our harvests, that which was sown and has flourished under the sun of Midsummer. That which will see us through the Winter to come. 
HPS: I call forth the Maiden of the Spring to come, the Mother of the land, Queen of the spring and summer, and the Crone of spring past.
Maiden, Queen and Crone Step forward.
HPS [To Maiden]: We call to thee O Maiden of the starlit plain
Virgin of the crescent moon
Whose light kisses the field unfarrowed
Whose beauty shapes the world unformed

HPS [To Queen]: We call to thee O Mother of the ripened grain
Queen of the fertile earth
Within whom the seed is planted
And the bounty of the fields is born

HPS [To Crone]: We call to thee O Crone of blackest night
Dark Lady of the sickle and scythe
Before whom the field lies fallow
Awaiting the blood-red dawn

HPS: Maiden, Mother, Crone of Old
Thee we invoke by the harvest gold
Three in one and one in three
Light and bright and dark are thee!

May Queen: It is time that we should harvest our crops, for the earth that I was chosen to represent at Beltane, grows tired and while the summer heat is still with us, the light fades a little more every day.  Soon the grain will overgrow, the grapes wither on the vine, and the bees start to sleep. Each of us knows of these cycles of life for they are the cycles of life within us, ripening and withering. We need to take the last sheaf and then prepare our fields for next year.  We must give back to the land, that which we have taken from it during this summer, continuing the cycle of life. We must offer a sacrifice. 
HPS: This sickle is to be used to take down the sacrifice, as a sign of our reverence for our sacrifice, I would ask all our sisters to anoint our sickle with the symbols and designs of its role, and wear them yourself as a sign that you honor the sacrifice.
The women take the body paints and paint the same designs on the sickle and their cheeks or hands. 
May Queen: Our blade is ready to reap our sacrifice.
HPS: As a sign that there is no malice or personal favour in your reaping, I offer to you three, our triple goddesses these veils, to cover your face, or indeed hide your tears.
HPS Takes up a basket of grain and offers some to each woman, each woman takes up a piece of grain.
HPS: Take of the grain of our harvest, it represents the grain that has grown in our fields; the same grain has been cut down for its use over the long winter to come. I would ask each of you to spend some time concentrating on what you have grown in your own lives over this past year, that which you are now ready to harvest, and focus those thoughts into the grain you hold in your hand. 
Women spend a minute or two concentrating when they return eye contact with the HPS
HPS: Carry this grain with you and place it on the altar of the temple of grain and gold, as a gift of the harvest, 
May Queen: Now we are prepared for our sacrifice, we await the call of the Men
Then Men then call the women of the tribe to the sacred space. 
Maiden, Mother, Crone of Old
Come to the temple of grain and gold
Come to the temple, women all
To hold the Harvest in your thrall!
X 3

The Women of the tribe enter the circle lead by the HPS and followed by the Maiden (Dressed in White), Mother (Dressed in Red) and the Crone (Dressed in Black) singing the Lughnasadh Song. The Crone carries the sickle.
By Barley seed and Rowan tree
By magic strong and free
By Goddess fair with golden hair
We do call to thee.
By harvest home and Summers gold
The fields and the grain
By heated days and blessed nights
And gentle Autumn rain.
Come gather in the harvest now
Come gather in the corn
Come gather in and sit awhile
By Oak and Ash and Thorn.