COTH Mabon 2012
By Blayze

Everyone starts in the far corner and processes (in a line) to the main ritual and circle area. Everyone carries one stalk of wheat. As they line up for the procession, they rest their stalk of wheat on the shoulder of the person in front of them. HPS heads the line, HP is at the tail.

HPS carries the Sword, HP carries the Scythe. Four people are carrying elemental representations and they scatter/asperge etc as the procession makes its way around the circle. They are directly behind the HPS.

Circle deosil 3 times. During this the HPS begins to chant 

"Three times around, three times about, a world within, a world without"

At the end of the third pass HPS ends the chant on a shout, instead of stopping she turns in for the spiral (turning widdershins). (MUSIC: AUTUMN'S CHILD - Lunasa)

In the centre is a figure draped in white. On the first (widdershins) spiral, all spiral around the figure. Spiral out, circle widdershins once and then HPS Spirals back in (deosil). 

The figure's arms are now out with hands ready to grasp the weapons. The HPS gives the figure the Sword, the HP the Scythe. The elemental guardians keep their representations.

(MUSIC: MABON AUTUMN EQUINOX - Will Millar)

Spiral back out and form circle.

HPS: Mabon is a time of balance, when day and night are equal. It is the time of the harvest, a time of reaping, as the delicate balance of life and death is played out all around us. You have walked the spiral path on a journey within and without. The balance is within you at this moment.

The four elemental bearers then take their elements and place them upon the altar. They each pick up a staff from in front of the altar.  

They move to the centre and encircle the white-draped figure.

Slowly they dance around the figure, chanting (once only):

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’s sight

Behold the embrace of two become one
Luminous and liminal entwined
Entwined with the future
Entwined with the past
The balance of mercy and might!

At the end of the chant they stop moving. They take their staffs and use them to lift up the white cloth and remove it from the figure. They take the cloth and the staffs back to the altar and join the circle.

The Goddess pauses and then speaks 

Goddess:  	 I am the memory of green and growing things,
the innocence of Spring's first dawning

I am the memory of Idea's seed,
planted when all was fresh and new

For I have tended your dreams in fertile fields
I have held your desires in secret groves

Tempered by fire in the Summer's sun
and the Autumn rains,
I stand at the liminal moment,
between the Light and the Dark

Bring to me your dreams, for they are my harvest.

Each person lays their wheat stalk at the Goddess’s feet.

HP goes to the altar and takes up the horn of red wine. He holds it up.

HP: This is our harvest, the blood of the vine. Pass it around the circle, but do not drink.

He sends it around the circle until it eventually arrives back with him.

He pours the wine in a small circle around the Goddess. 

HP:  To harvest one's dreams, one must make sacrifice. One must pour the blood onto the soil and make of it an offering

HP returns the horn to the altar.

HPS takes up the Bread Man.

HPS: This is our harvest, the grain of the fields. Pass it around the circle, but do not eat.

HPS:  To harvest one's dreams, one must make sacrifice. One must tear the bread in twain and make of it an offering. One half for the light, one half for the dark, laid between sword and scythe.

Goddess: 	I am the keeper of the sacrifice 
I am the memory of dark turning into light
I am the reality of light turning into dark
I am the journeyer, and the journey

I am forever, limninal, eternal
For I am

The four elemental bearers go to the altar and take up the sheer black cloth and their staffs. The HP and HPS approach the Goddess. She gives them the Sword and the Scythe. The elemental bearers then veil Her in black. She then walks to the western quarter of the circle and begins to sing “Pipes Are Calling” as she walks the circumference – singing to the participants as she walks.

The HPS cuts the circle open with the sword and together the HP and HPS form a gateway. The elemental bearers also form the arch with their staffs.

When the Goddess reaches the archway, she leaves the circle.

HPS then re-seals the circle.

Perform Cakes and Ale.

Close.