Mabon 2010 
By Blayze *

Circle is set up with the bower (Seer’s cave) in the centre decorated in black. At the edge of the circle is the single gateway.

Each person is given a green man mask on a sharpened stick. On the inside of the mask are written words that will be used when journeying to the seer. HPS’s mask has different coloured ribbons so she can chart its course around the circle.

Processional

All to gather on the front lawn. Each person is given a mask. HPS makes the opening declaration and finishes with the Mabon chant. Everyone joins in with the chant as the procession begins.

HPS:	Rise up with the Sun before descent is come
Stand poised on the threshold of night
Rise up from the East and spin to the West
Sinking down, with the Season’ sight.

Behold the embrace of two become one
Luminous and limninal entwined
Entwined with the future, entwined with the past
The balance of mercy and might.

The harvest and reaper
The hunter and prey
The lover, the father, the son
The mourner and mourned
The root and the tree
The vine that is withered and done.

Masked you shall come to the gathering place
As between the worlds you stand
Golden the tides, golden the leaves
The magic of Gods and of Man.

Spring, summer, autumn, winter
All things pass, all things fade, all things die.

All:	Spring, summer, autumn, winter
All things pass, all things fade, all things die. (repeating until gateway is reached)

As everyone walks and chants, they swing the masks in front of their faces – in time to the rhythm. Process around the yard and towards the gateway – where two priestesses are waiting. 

The priestesses stand on either side of the gateway and chant continuously as each person passes through. They don’t need to say the whole poem for each person, just keep the chant going. Priestesses lead each person into the circle - still chanting.

Priestesses: 	I mourn for you, as I rejoice
I weep at your passing, as I lead you on
I am the face on both sides of the door
With twin eyes to see what was and will be
And twin hearts to break and be renewed.

I stand with one foot in the world of Men
And the other in the land beyond time
Light bends between my hands
A bridge of all colours and none
I am the Gateway, the place in between
Take my hand and I will lead you home.

The last two people in the procession are the HP and Tanist. They are stopped at the gateway and not allowed through. The Priestesses mask them whilst the rest of the participants are following the HPS around the circle.

Ritual

The HPS enters the circle space and everyone follows her. She walks once around the circle and then begins to spiral to the centre (around the bower). She begins to chant as she walks and everyone takes up the chant.

HPS:		Three times around, three times about, a world within, a world without.

All walk around the circle three times chanting. After the third time the chanting stops and the HPS leads everyone in a spiral (at the point of the gateway) around the bower and back out, so that everyone is now facing outwards. She leads them back to the centre and stops at the gateway to the bower. The two Priestesses bring the HP and Tanist down the spiral to the bower.  The Priestesses then join the HPS at the head of the spiral and lead the spiral back into a circle which now faces inwards.

Priestesses take up Water/Salt and Censer and walk the circle – returning the objects to the altar when they are done.

Call quarters.

Central invocation – no power raising. 

Priestesses collect the Crowns.

HPS:	Mabon is a time of equal day and night... all is in balance. But soon, the wheel will turn and it will be the night that claims dominion.  As the leaves turn from green to gold, so does the God begin his descent... falling through the rays of the setting sun to become the King of the Underworld realms.

Priestess 1:	His is a Seer’s journey, he looks beyond the veil of night to reveal that which is hidden

Priestess 2:	We honour his journey to come, by sending two of our own beyond the veil... witness and seer, clothed in the mantle of the Lord Of Death And Ressurection

Priestesses bring forward the crowns and crown the HP and Tanist who are in the bower.

The HPS and Priestesses perform the long version of  “By The Flame” dancing around the outside of the bower. 

As the invocation is happening, the Green Men masks are passed around the circle, each person holding the next mask in front of their face for a beat of time. This continues until the invocation is finished. The priestesses kneel at the end of the invocation.

The God speaks.

Tanist:	Beyond the night, between the worlds,
I am the two-fold King who reigns when the leaves turn.

Mine is the descent, 
the journey of death in liminal spaces,
yet the power of re-birth is my gift also.

I wear the crown of gold-kissed oak
with blood-tinged grain my sovereign cloak.
Yet the acorn stirs within me still...

For I am the memory of the seed yet to be planted, 
planted in the womb of earth, 
no longer fallow.

Seek for me where the land meets the sky,
red-hued as day turns to night... 
and night to day.

Seek for me also in the shadow of the sheaves
that tower golden upon the stubbled fields.

Hear my song in the wind, 
a song of sacrifice and glory...
never ending and ever returning.

For I am the Horned One ever dying,
I am the Horned One ever reborn
The shadow and the light
of what is to come.

For I am He and I am!

The HP touches the head of each priestess in turn, as he does so, they stand up and exit the bower.

HPS walks around the circle, the other two priestesses stand by the altar.

HPS:	One at a time you may journey to the entrance to the otherworld and receive the wisdom of the Lord Of Death And Resurrection.

	Take with you your mask and speak the words hidden behind the face, behind the eyes.

	When you return, plant your mask within the earth, in memory of the God Of The Green Wood. Sit down and dream of what you have learned.

Each person goes to the seer’s cave individually. They read the phrase on the back of the mask to him and HP makes a prophecy for them. They thank him and then move back into the circle.

As each person returns from their journey and plants their mask within the earth, the Priestesses will go to them and sing softly to them. (All 3 Priestesses take this in turns so that someone is always being looked after).

Priestesses:	I bathe thee in the shadows,
I bathe thee in light
I call thy name in Whispers 
I call thee in the night.

When night and day are equal
And summers at its end
The darkness does enfold me
To death; you now tend.

By apples ripe and tender
In fields left forlorn
We seek thy hidden wisdom
Til death; calls you no more.

Lay down to sleep and dream
Lay down and sleep in comfort
Hear the pipes calling 
Calling you home.

Lay down to sleep and dream
Lay down and sleep in comfort
Hear the pipes calling     
Calling you home.

When everyone is back the HPS goes to the HP and sings him back to this world.

HPS:		Home is behind the world ahead, and there are many paths to tread
Through shadow, to the edge of night, until the stars are all a-light
Mist and shadow, cloud and shade
All shall fade, all shall fade.

HP’s cloak, mask and crown are removed by the Priestesses and HPS and he is taken to the altar where he performs cakes and ale with the HPS. HPS and HP take the cakes and ale to each person in the circle, each person eats and drinks and then stands up.

Farewells.
Close circle
Feast.

*	Gates Of Home by Jo Dunster , Pipes Are Calling by Michael Gray, The Edge Of Night  by J.R.R. Tolkien and Billy Boyd