Winifred Hodge Rose
Preparation
Here are the items you will need.
– Soul-token(s) or materials for making soul-token(s), if you are planning to use this.
– Your altar.
– Candle in a candlestick that you can hold. If it is a votive or tea-light, place it on a dish so you can carry it without burning yourself. Matches or lighter.
– Thor’s Hammer, or other item that you use for Hallowing.
– ‘Needfire’: incense or aromatic herbs or twigs that will provide a wisp of smoke when burned, along with a suitable container (fire-pot) and charcoal if needed. I like to use a small, burning twig or stalk; if you use loose leaves, then you will need charcoal for burning them. Only a small amount is needed, for a brief time. If you don’t want to use any of these, you can use your candle, or simply imagine a Needfire in front of you. If you are using a little fire-pot with twigs or dried herbs, have a cup of water handy to put it out when you are ready.
– Whatever kind of ceremonial drink you wish to use, and your drinking horn, goblet, or other vessel. This is referred to as the ‘horn’ in the ceremony guidelines.
– A bowl with a little water in it for the blessing-bowl, and a leafy twig for sprinkling. You can use your fingers to sprinkle with, if you don’t have a twig.
– Have your Daybook handy to write any notes, questions, experiences, ideas that occur to you during your meditation and at the end of the ceremony.
Hallowing
Circle the sacred space, or turn around in place, with a lighted candle in one hand and holding a Thor’s Hammer in your other hand. Speak these words, or your own preferred words, and raise the Hammer when you say “Thor hallow”.
Fire I bear around this frithyard,
And bid all here keep frith;
Flame I bear to enclose,
Bidding bale-wights flee away.
Thor hallow, Thor hallow, Thor hallow this holy stead.
Set candle and Thor’s Hammer on your altar.
Calling
Hear me, all you hallowed folk,
Both high and low of Heimdall’s kin!
I hail you, Holy Ones of all the Worlds that are!
Ever shall frith and faith hold firm
Between myself and you:
The wellsprings of my souls.
Raise horn and drink; pour a little into the blessing-bowl.
Eldfathers, eldmothers, kindred of old,
Rooted in might, holding troth with your own,
Behold the new roots, the green shoots from your boughs,
And bless me: the fruit of your branches.
Raise horn and drink; pour a little into the blessing-bowl.
Landwights blessed, land’s life-givers,
Holy hold this stead, all harm withstand.
Be welcome here, all good wights,
And share the blessings with me.
Raise horn and drink; pour a little into the blessing-bowl.
The Needfire
If you have an Aldr token to initiate and bless, have it ready in front of you. If you are not using tokens, that is fine: your souls are all here with you anyway! Light your incense, herbs or twigs if you are using them. If you are not, imagine, feel, smell, or sense a smoking Needfire before you, aromatic with sacred herbs. Use the smoke, physical or imaginary, to cleanse yourself, your tokens, and the space you are in, by passing your token through the smoke, and waving the smoke around as you recite, three times:
Hallowed herbs, all ill dispel,
As fuel on the fire, as smoke on the wind.
If you wish or need to, you can extinguish the Needfire when you are done.
If you have an Aldr token, keep it with you for the following meditation.
Layers of Time: Aldr Initiation
Now relax, let your Lich feel heavy and loose, and take some deep, gentle breaths. In your imagination, sense that you are present with the Well and the Tree. From this holy place, your Aldr-soul is setting forth on a journey through Time, a journey of memory and mystery, beginning from the most ancient of ages, and moving to the present moment of time. Read it out loud if possible.
Eons. Great ages of Time. Strata building up layer by layer on the Earth, under the sea. Soils forming, and sediments, layer upon layer, containing within them histories of Earth’s life.
Earth forms her Ealdor-yard, her mantle of power, that contains and protects her and the life upon her. Atmosphere, ionosphere, magnetosphere: layers of power held in place by gravity and the inner workings of our World.
Ages. Layer upon layer of lives: ocean lives, land lives, plant lives, animal lives, always evolving and taking shape. They build upon one another, are shaped by their surroundings, shape themselves.
Generations. The Gods and the Norns and the Great Spirits of many beings give a touch here, a tweak there, a gift, a push, at just the right time, in just the right place, to shape what is coming into being. And so the generations arise, lay down their influences, pass away.
We, the living, the Aldr-beornum, children of Aldr, Time-Children: we are shaped by all these layers.
My Aldr is sung and woven into being by the Norns as they, and I, take up the layers of What-Is and shape them into What-Is-Becoming. Day by day I shape the layers of my life.
The World-Tree grows, laying down its rings of life, ever-expanding. My own Werold grows, shaped by all that I am, all I experience, all my deeds. Layer by layer, day by day, my Werold grows as the Great Tree grows.
Aldr. Being-In-Time. Time-Body. Intricate weaving of the Norns, of my ancestors going all the way back to the beginning. Rooted in the past, growing in the present, uniquely shaped into my own Aldr-Being.
This day, this moment in time, to be shaped by me, blessed by the Holy Ones, laid as my Aldr’s daily offering, here at the foot of the World Tree, at the Well of Wyrd.
We are the Time-Children, together weaving Life into layers of Time, age upon age upon age.
And here is Aldr’s mystery: it does its Time-work while standing in the sacred Now, the very instant of Becoming, the No-Time outside of Time, as it fills the drop of dew that hangs in the air, ever falling from the boughs of the Tree into the deeps of the Well.
Finish by raising up your Aldr token, and naming it if you wish. If it is something you wear, then you may wear it now. If you have no token, you can raise your cupped palms or put your hands to your heart to honor your Aldr.
Hail your Quest
Raise your ‘drinking horn’ and offer good words to your Aldr as you begin this mighty quest. Offer prayers to whichever Holy Ones you wish, for their help and Gods-speed on your journey. Sip from your ‘horn’ after each speaking. When you are finished, pour the rest of the drink into the blessing-bowl.
Blessing
Use the twig or your fingers to sprinkle liquid from the blessing-bowl around your altar, yourself, and your soul-token(s) if you have any.
Thanks-Giving and Closing Prayer
All-holy Gods and Goddesses, ancestors, good wights of this place, I offer thanks for your blessing and help with this new adventure I am undertaking: the exploration of my souls, and exploration of my soul-connections with the souls and spirits of other beings, including yourselves.
I take joy in my kinship with you, and with the Feorhcynn: with all that lives. May the frith among us all strengthen and deepen day by day, as I pursue the wisdom of my own souls, and share in the wisdom of others.
This rite is ended. I go forth now in frith, and bear gifts of wisdom and blessing with me, always!
If possible, pour the remaining liquid in the blessing-bowl out in a suitable place outside. If that’s not possible, you could pour it into the pot of a house-plant, or drink it all. If you must pour it down the drain, first say a prayer to the Earth-mother, asking her to accept this offering however it reaches her, and saying that you mean no disrespect to her by pouring it down the drain.
If you have an Aldr token, have a suitable container to store it in when you are not wearing or using it: a cloth bag or wrapper, a small bowl, jar, or box. Keep the container on your altar or other meaningful place.