Fire from the Gods on Evildoers
“Let us call to them to enter into, as is Their mandate, this iteration of the never-ending fight against the Powers of Wrongness; the stealing and imprisoning of children. Send down Your power to help us stand for Right Action."
At our MidSummer Ritual, the Deities addressed are Archetypical Seasonal Personifications rather than Deities of a specific Pantheon. They are the Oak King, Warrior for Right and for the Powerless (a modern analogy is King Arthur), and His Warrior-Band Leader, a sort of Joan-of-Ark figure without the visions and eventual burning-at-stake (Scáthach, if you’re familiar with Irish lore).
In the wake of recent news and responding to a Sending from the Gods, I made some changes.
This is how it came about:
I was in the depths of Morning Meditation (dozing) and the thought came into my head that our Druid Grove doesn’t have a specific processional for MidSummer (this is one of my ongoing projects). Suddenly my head was singing a protest song from my teen years (I was in the March on Washington in 1967).
“Hardly appropriate to Longest Day.” I thought. ...more singing, with Fierceness added. I listened harder. “O, You have volunteers for the fight against the caging of children..... I see.”
Our processional song is now ‘Like a Tree Standing by the Water, We Shall Not be Moved’ with some new topical couplets in the verses. I also changed the Statement of Purpose:
Guiding Druid: Why are we here?
All: We are here to honour the Gods!
Guiding Druid: As our ancestors once did, so do we do today, and so will our children do in the future. This is the Holiday of Midsummer.
Come in good faith and with strong and open hearts for the Ritual of the Longest Day!
This is the time of Greatest Light, let it shine into our lives!
This is the triumph of the Oak King, Warrior for the powerless, Protector of the oppressed. He rides into battle; the Warrior Maiden, his War-Leader, at His side.
Together they ride the turning wheel up into brightness.
Let us call to them to enter into, as is Their mandate, this iteration of the never-ending fight against the Powers of Wrongness; the stealing and imprisoning of children. Send down Your power to help us stand for Right Action.
Unlock the cage doors, this sorrow vanquished with this day's battle won.
Let their light shine into our lives today and always!
Bíodh sé amhlaidh! All: Bíodh sé amhlaidh!
I re-wrote the in-ritual invocation and thanks a little:
Guiding Druid: Will the Oak King and the Warrior Maid also come?
Druids of the Occasion: Triple, Triple, flow and ripple, Praise and Honour; not a mickle
The Gates are open, as You see- Cross here, with Fire, Well, and Tree
Without the Gods we fail and wither; With thanks and love we ask Them hither.
Oak King’s Druid: King of Summer, Mighty Oak, Your triumph is the Longest Day! Strong, You help the weaker folk. Bright, You shine to point the way.
Shine Your brightness, we invoke; Here, where we have come today. Praises to You rise up like smoke, And Offerings in glad array.
Warrior maid’s Druid: Lead us victorious through the heat, Warrior Maid, to Harvest Home. Even cold in Winter's deep, As Your kerns we're not alone.
You know the tiredness of Duty, The loneliness of standing guard; Let it all resolve in Beauty- Led home by You, the way unbarred.
This is Your time, green and warm, To bring all things to their fruition.
Your mighty tasks You will perform, And we will send You our petition.
*suitable offerings are made*
The Deities of the Holiday are thanked: All that comes will surely pass, Thank You for coming here today. We, to you, are blades of grass, We will go and You will stay.
Warriors, we thank you both; Bold and sharp! Nevertheless, You will help us, nothing loath, 'Gainst the Powers of Wrongness.
But the biggest change was to add a Working, which in this case is an invocation to the ghosts of historical killings and a call to the Gods for intervention:
Now do the strong oppress the weak. Rise again, Drogheda’s shadows, No kingdom’s given to the meek. And there are lies to be exposed.
The echo of history will ring, Ghosts created at Culloden, And ephemeral warriors bring, To right wrongs done by evil men.
St Louis, ship of souls, sail on; Now is the time for a crusade. Come, whole and sound, from where you’ve gone, Your memory has not decayed.
Powerful men have called up war, To be waged on little children. Memories! Clans!Allies and more, All Beings for Good from now and then!
Bring Mighty Voices, even the odds, I call Holy Fire down, Gods.
In my belief system the invocation for action on the part of humans changes the enforcement of the Second Precept (‘EveryBeing has Free Will’) to allow more direct action on people by the Gods. I am, to a certain extent, abrogating my free will to the use of the Gods but also I believe that more manipulation of events is available after invocation. So even though I no longer an American citizen, have no representatives, and cannot think of what I can do to help or change, the Gods will act on my request. And, I am sure, the petitions of many other saddened people like myself.
Bíodh sé amhlaidh! Which is, roughly translated, ‘Let it be so!’ and is our Grove’s ‘Amen’.
Judith O’Grady
is an elderly Druid (Elders are trees, neh?) living on a tiny urban farm in Ottawa, Canada. She speaks respectfully to the Spirits, shares her home and environs with insects and animals, and fervently preaches un-grassing yards and repurposing trash (aka ‘found-object art’).