(This page is being modified. The ritual itself is mostly up to date, and now I'm working on modifying the commentary to fit it.)
Large purification bowl, Towels
Shovel Pitcher of water
Bowl of eggs Bottle of beer
Bowl of spelt and barley
(Short Pole) (Gate Poles) (Gate Poles) (Short Pole)
(Tree/Sacrificial stake)
Poles, wreaths
hammer
(Hngwnis)
(Mundus)
(Short Pole) (Short Pole)
Bowl of water Bowl of
barley, corn meal, and spelt
The items in parentheses show where they will be during the main ritual.
This was written by Jenna Flanagan and me over a period of a few years. It’s for outdoor rituals. For rituals held in homes, it’s not only unnecessary, but undesirable. Homes are by definition sacred, and are under the protection of the home deities; to create sacred space in a home would be to insult them by implying that they weren’t doing their job. Instead they should be honored before the rest of the ritual is performed through offering to the hearth goddess of the person in whose home the ritual is being performed. At indoor rituals that aren’t in someone’s home, this ritual can be used, with appropriate changes, such as offering bowls instead of poles, sprinkling instead of pouring, etc.
As written, there are parts for only three people, but it may be performed by more, with parts split up. I have assigned the roles as seemed appropriate to those who will performing certain functions in the main ritual
The mundus, which is a dark pottery vase covered with a tile, serves as both a ritual shaft and an opening to the land of the Ancestors. The tree, which also will serve as the sacrificial stake, is the connector between out world and the celestial realm. The hngwnis is the sacrificial fire. It is a low square barbecue fill with sand in which the fire will later be lit.
All of the items are purified by rinsing them in the large purification bowl or sprinkling, and then dried. After each is dried, it is put on a towel to keep it ritually pure and physically clean. When all are dry, they are put in their proper beginning places. Guide holes are made for the poles. This is important in most soils, as it is very difficult to pound a stake into the ground which will stand up straight. We use a spike which is intended as an outdoor flag holder. Once made, sticks are put into them so they can easily be found later.
After each item is used in the creation of sacred space it is placed by the large purification bowl to get it out of the way.
The Ritual:
The Fire Tender, Priest, and Chthonic Priestess purify themselves in their customary manner.
The Fire Tender and Chthonic Priestess go to the west, and pick up the bowls of water and mixed grains, respectively. The Priest stands in the east, a pace or so outside where the posts will be. The Chthonic Priestess walks from west to east across the space, scattering the grain while saying:
Lares, Xansu:s, or Ancestors,
whoever it be who inhabit this spot
which we shall claim for the time of this rite,
accept our offering in return.
Meanwhile, the Priest sings:
Just beyond the light of our fires
They watch and they wait
They watch and they wait.
Just outside our well-built walls
They watch and they wait
They watch and they wait.
We live our lives among them.
We build our homes among them.
We offer to them with open hands
we offer thanks to those who watch,
to those who wait;
we make this offering to them.
(i.e., she walks and prays at the same time that he is singing.)
The Fire Tender then picks up the bowl of water and walks across the space to the east, sprinkling it, while saying:
Be pure,
Be clean,
Be fit for the Kindreds,
and for our rites here today.
The Fire Tender picks up the pitcher of water and enters the area marked out by the holes. Starting at where the left gate will be, she pours water clockwise, saying:
We establish our space within the world-encircling ocean.
The Priest picks up the shovel. Facing west, he holds it in vertically in front of him, and says:
The city is founded in the cutting of the ground.
He traces the line of the border with the shovel, starting with the right gate and going counter-clockwise from hole to hole.
When he is done, he stands at the gateway, holding the shovel vertically in front of himself, looking in, and says:
Within these borders, as we have marked them,
is space which is sacred,
not to be entered with impunity.
He puts down the shovel, picks up the hammer, and goes to the center of the space. He picks up a short pole, goes to the upper right hole, and pounds it in, saying:
Well founded
Well supported
Well established.
He does this with each of the short poles, clockwise, and then with the gate poles, left to right, hanging the wreaths on them once they are in the ground.
The Priest leaves the space, and picks up the bowl of eggs. The Fire Tender picks up the bowl of spelt and barley. They go to the gateway, where the Priest cracks an egg at the base of the left gate, while the Fire Tender "anoints" the poles with the grain, saying:
God of the threshold, looking both ways,
watch closely over the gateway.
May we enter safely the sacred place,
May all that would harm be repelled.
They go to the right gate, and repeat the action, with the Fire Tender saying:
God of the threshold, looking both ways,
watch closely over the gateway.
May we enter safely the sacred place.
May all that would harm be repelled.
They go counter-clockwise around the space. At each pole they stop, and repeat the actions, with the Fire Tender saying:
Paxto:d, Térmeno:s;
Vigila, Terminus:
guard our land from all harm.
When they have offered to the last pole, they put down the two bowls, and rinse and dry their hands.
The Priest then gets the bottle of beer and opens it. Holding it in his left hand, he goes to just inside the gates and turns counter-clockwise to face the gates. He holds the bottle up and says:
All those who would disturb our space
All those who would disturb our rites
Take this offering and go.
He takes the bottle some distance from the gates, counter-clockwise, and/or downwind, and puts it down. With face averted, he pushes it over with his left foot. He leaves the bottle there.
The Chthonic Priestess goes to the center of the space, and pours out the birch beer. As she does so, she turns clockwise and says:
We pray to Nemetona,
who presides over sacred ground,
and ask that she confirm our rite.
She puts down the pitcher, lifts her arms, and says, turning to face the appropriate directions:
We have marked off this space,
we have made it sacred,
from east to west, from north to south,
we claim it as ours.
From here to there,
we proclaim it sacred.
The space is now sacred.
The Ritual with Commentary:
The Fire Tender, Priest, and Chthonic Priestess purify themselves in their customary manner.
The Fire Tender and Chthonic Priestess go to the west, and pick up the bowls of water and mixed grains, respectively. The Priest stands in the east, a pace or so outside where the posts will be. The Chthonic Priestess walks from west to east across the space, scattering the grain while saying:
Lares, Xansu:s, or Ancestors,
whoever it be who inhabit this spot
which we shall claim for the time of this rite,
accept our offering in return.
Meanwhile, the Priest sings:
Just beyond the light of our fires
They watch and they wait
They watch and they wait.
Just outside our well-built walls
They watch and they wait
They watch and they wait.
We live our lives among them.
We build our homes among them.
We offer to them with open hands
we offer thanks to those who watch,
to those who wait;
we make this offering to them.
(i.e., she walks and prays at the same time that he is singing.)
The Fire Tender then picks up the bowl of water and walks across the space to the east, sprinkling it, while saying:
Be pure,
Be clean,
Be fit for the Kindreds,
and for our rites here today.
Before the space can be our own, it must be "bought" from those it belongs to. From west to east is from darkness to light, from death to life: creating sacred space is forming a Cosmos from Chaos.
Because of the Roman and Proto-Indo-European interests of the founders of Nemos Ognios, there are elements of those two traditions in the ritual. The Lares are Roman deities of places, best known for protecting homes, but guardians of other places as well. *Xansu:s is PIE for “spirits” (the colon marks the "u" as long); the word didn’t specifically refer to land spirits, but is a useful term for this ritual. There is a certain amount of overlap between land spirits and the dead because the dead are those who lived in the land in the past, and are buried in it.
The grains we use are a nod to our founding traditions and to the American continent where we hold our rituals. They are spelt (the Roman sacred grain), barley (the Proto-Indo-European sacred grain), and corn (the American sacred grain).
Those who were there before us have left the space, but we have to make sure that they haven't left anything behind that would intefere with our own intents for it. Furthermore, creation starts with a clean slate, or rather, it starts with our own clean slate: we are going to make a sacred space by our own rules, so we have to exclude anything that might have come before.
The purification is performed by the Fire Tender because fire is both pure and purifying.
The Fire Tender picks up the pitcher of water and enters the area marked out by the holes. Starting at where the left gate will be, she pours water clockwise, saying:
We establish our space within the world-encircling ocean.
This reflects the Indo-European cosmology, in which the earth is bordered by ocean.
The Priest picks up the shovel. Facing west, he holds it in vertically in front of him, and says:
The city is founded in the cutting of the ground.
The most common method of cutting space off in IE ritual is with a plough. This literally cuts off the space. Our version was inspired by the story of how Romulus marked out the borders of Rome. The shovel we use is the one that I use to prepare my garden in the spring, my plough.
Note that the shovel isn’t traced between the gate posts The cutting creates a sacred border, which it’s wrong to cross, so a gate can’t be cut across.
He traces the line of the border with the shovel, starting with the right gate and going counter-clockwise from hole to hole.
When he is done, he stands at the gateway, holding the shovel vertically in front of himself, looking in, and says:
Within these borders, as we have marked them,
is space which is sacred,
not to be entered with impunity.
He puts down the shovel, picks up the hammer, and goes to the center of the space. He picks up a short pole, goes to the upper right hole, and pounds it in, saying:
Well founded
Well supported
Well established.
He does this with each of the short poles, clockwise, and then with the gate poles, left to right, hanging the wreaths on them once they are in the ground.
The Priest leaves the space, and picks up the bowl of eggs. The Fire Tender picks up the bowl of spelt and barley. They go to the gateway, where the Priest cracks an egg at the base of the left gate, while the Fire Tender "anoints" the poles with the grain, saying:
God of the threshold, looking both ways,
watch closely over the gateway.
May we enter safely the sacred place,
May all that would harm be repelled.
They go to the right gate, and repeat the action, with the Fire Tender saying:
God of the threshold, looking both ways,
watch closely over the gateway.
May we enter safely the sacred place.
May all that would harm be repelled.
They go counter-clockwise around the space. At each pole they stop, and repeat the actions, with the Fire Tender saying:
Pa:to:d, Térmeno:s;
Vigila, Terminus:
guard our land from all harm.
When they have offered to the last pole, they put down the two bowls, and rinse and dry their hands.
Here we are honoring the guardians of the border, using the Roman deity Terminus, and a hypothetical PIE deity Térmeno:s. The eggs are used as foundation sacrifices.
Vigila is Latin for “Be vigilant,” and Pa:to:d is PIE for “Guard.”
The Priest then gets the bottle of beer and opens it. Holding it in his left hand, he goes to just inside the gates and turns counter-clockwise to face the gates. He holds the bottle up and says:
All those who would disturb our space
All those who would disturb our rites
Take this offering and go.
He takes the bottle some distance from the gates, counter-clockwise, and/or downwind, and puts it down. With face averted, he pushes it over with his left foot. He leaves the bottle there.
This is an offering to the Outsiders, those sacred beings who don’t have our interests in mind. We want to buy them off, but without establishing the bonds of hospitality that usually come from offerings. That’s why we make this offering in such an odd way. The beer isn’t actually poured out, but instead pours itself out when the bottle is pushed over. A foot is used; the bottle isn’t “handed” to the Outsiders. The foot used is the left one, left being the anomalous one. The offerer doesn’t face the Outsiders, avoiding their gaze. To further the separation, the bottle is brought either counter-clockwise (the opposite of usual IE practice) or downwind (to prevent any of the offering from blowing towards the space), and the bottle is left behind (nothing is taken away from the offering). The bottle is of course picked up after the ritual, preferably the next day.
The Chthonic Priestess goes to the center of the space, and pours out the birch beer. As she does so, she turns clockwise and says:
We pray to Nemetona,
who presides over sacred ground,
and ask that she confirm our rite.
Nemetona is a continental Celtic goddess whose name means "goddess of the sacred grove." This makes here a good choice as a sacred space goddess. The birch beer is used because it is made from a tree.
She puts down the pitcher, lifts her arms, and says, turning to face the appropriate directions:
We have marked off this space,
we have made it sacred,
from east to west, from north to south,
we claim it as ours.
From here to there,
we proclaim it sacred.
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