1)Prep Circle – white candles for each woman to take, seeds, bags
2)Smudge – earth, Vanilla incense (seed pods)
a.Sing “We All Come From The Goddess”
3)Cast Circle – (Raven) deer visualization
4)Call Quarters – (start E)
5)Call Center
6)Check in – each woman lights candle from woman before her, first candle lit from center candle
a.Check in question: New beginnings/Seeds of change and creativity – what new beginnings would you like to start, or have you started recently?
7)Reading  (The goddess within)
a.Scott Cunningham goddess reading
b.DJ Conway Maiden reading
c.Charge of the goddess
8)Seed symbolism craft
a.Seeds of new beginnings feel your seeds and infuse them with the power to manifest your new beginning, go home and plant them (or throw them outside here) and as they root and grow, imagine the creative seeds of your new beginning taking root in your life and growing to be a part of your being.
9)Singing with seed rattles
a.I am the Goddess
b.Maiden. Mother, Crone
c.Other Goddess songs?
10)Thank Center
11)Close Quarters
12)Open Circle
13)Feast! Seeds, nuts, fruit, berries, grapes, juice

* Celebrating one full year of blogging full moons! w00t!

* Prep: Bring your own pictures or sculptures of animals, pets, Guardian Spirits to decorate our altar.
* Circle casting: water imagery to surround and guide us (because of the heat)
* Smudge: As animals are the focus I want to have real and fake fur and feathers so that allergic or not everyone can join in.
* Meditation: Getting comfortable with our furry,winged,squirmy friends.
* Meditation/Fun: Weaver-version of Harry Potter’s Patronus charm. We will be the envy of all the kids who wish they could be witches (and wizards).
* Craft: Jelly jars for a possible Weaver-adapted version of the “witch ball” which will instead be more like a firefly jar

(image from by: iikrisii.devianart.com)

Chocolate Ritual

• Focus was on comfort & home.
• Comfort meditation
• Craft – friendship bracelets
• Fondue
• Feast
• Song: “I will be gentle with myself…”

The New Moon in Gemini: The Communicator: talkativeness, movement, mental energy, ingenuity, versatility, sociability, cheerfulness and quick-wittedness are on the increase, and there is an interest in all kinds of information,. The moon in Gemini favors study, intellectual pursuits, acquaintances, conferences and gatherings. However, heightened changeablilty and scattering your interests can prevent you from getting definite, tangible results.

• Smudge with a chime
• All use chimes while walking in a circle
• cast circle
• Quarter calls
• Check in: answer one of the following:

1. Have you had an “ah-ha” moment in learning?
2. When have you had a time you felt intelligent? What were you doing?
3. Talk about a time you really enjoyed learning, something – What was it, what made it enjoyable?

• Sociability Write a cheerful letter to a teacher, friend or acquaintance.
• Learn to make 2 different paper airplanes.
• Learn Belly Dancing
• Close Circle
• Feast

For the May Full Moon we hosted drumming & chanting.   The weather was nice.  We set-up our space in the Emerson room and after starting, trooped out to the gazebo for singing.

* Need: Flashlight(s), drum(s), and bug spray.  Music, batt. Op. music device.
* Taurus Moon: Earth sign; color- yellow; throat & neck; Ruling Planet – Venus
* Check-in: Patience, Diligence, Perseverance, Practicality,  Security, Endurance, Sensuality (Stones labeled in a Zen type sand garden)  Blindly choose a stone and see what that means to them, or choose a stone to speak about.  (might go twice).
* The rest of the ritual is free form.  Dancing, Singing, Drumming, Stomping.
* Process back up to Fahs house feast.

Song list:
Oh Mama Bakudala Babe Thandaza   (Ooo mama baku dala bobby tan da za )
* Powerful Song of Radiant Light
* Spider Woman Weaving Her Web
Breathe In, Breathe Out
* The Ocean is the beginning of the earth
* We All Come From the Goddess
* Isis, Astarte, Diana…
* Hoof and Horn
Rain Dance (Hand Percussion)
I’m so Glad
* The River is Flowing
Woman Am I
You Got To Get Up Every Morning
I Am Woman Hear Me Roar
Lean On Me
* The Earth, the Air, the Water, The Fire
May The Circle Be Open
* Songs can be found at:Pagan Chant of the Month

Tag Cloud about The Fool! From Wordle.net

Concepts: Energy, Rising, Passion, Rebirth, directing flow, brainstorming, promise, goal-driven, pioneering, intuition

* Purification/Smudge

* Invocations

* Cast Circle

* Peace Visualization to the Four Directions/Druid’s Prayer for Peace (M needs to bring copies of prayer)

* Discussion of the Aries Moon explain our concept of “foolish” based upon the Tarot Fool the innocent, the free spirit, the jester

* Check-in Questions: Have you had any hunches lately? What have you done that has made you feel foolish? (M to bring a mortar, pestle, and lemon peel to pass around as the check-in object)

* Main body of ritual — Have an Open Discussion about the moon concepts, about the importance of intuition (emotion vs. analysis), and about nurturing the value of women’s choices/roles (and tea)

* (M to bring in a white board to mindmap the key ideas that come up during discussion)

* Draw Meditation Cards (M to bring the cards)

* Explain Mindmap (M show example of mindmap) (M may bring in an example of a Tag Cloud about The Fool! From Wordle.net)

* Mindmap Meditation (need pens, paper, crayons, etc. bring audio track )

* Raising Energy with Mortar and Pestle Mudra (bring audio track)

* Thank the Directions/Goddess

* Open Circle

* There is a meditation.
* There is hand painting of obstacles in our life, then washing off the paint. “Say I wash my hands of ___ .” May have sung “the river is flowing” while we did this.
* There might be the rain “hand” dance. (Stand in a circle. Have leader do the motion then point around the circle. Starts with rubbing hands, then tapping two fingers together, then finger snapping, then thigh slapping, then foot stomping, reverse)

* New song made up by one of our Weavers and taught us a new song (drumming?):

I am, the rain up in the clouds
I am, the drops falling down
I am, the spring below the ground
I am, the mist rolling round

I am the water she is me, sacred power flow through me.

This was a craft intensive circle. From the photo below you can see our craft table. We spent time decorating our homes to call in things we would like into our lives, or to commemorate things going on in our lives.

On January 9th we celebrated the Full Moon in Capricorn. This was 4th in a 12 part series, loosely based on the zodiac. We focused on the aspect of Capricorn that involves goal setting. To celebrate the new year, we decided to do a circle on visions for 2009.

We had a meditation that had us think about the past year last January, during the summer, and the past week.  Then we asked ourselves these 4 questions:

-What did you enjoy most over the past year?
-What made you proudest of yourself?
-What is it that you wanted to do and never found time? (it can be as reading a book, taking a night class or dance class, or living on a deserted island).
-If you wanted anything at all, what would you want most for this year?

Then we made matchbox altars on the theme we wanted to bring into the year.  We’ve been wanting to do this craft for a long time.  It started by making pretty matchboxes for the quarters, and we always said, we should do that for a ritual.

This was the first full moon that we moved to the closest Friday (we plan on hosting them the rest of the year this way).  By doing this we think it will be more convient for participants to host it on a non-work/school night, and have it consistently on the same night.   Since we had time, we made more than one matchboxes each.  (see picture gallery below).  We then charged up flash paper with our goals for 2009 and burned them to release them into the universe.