August 2020 using Silver Spiral’s standard ritual format 2.2. Performed virtually on August 1, 2020, for a group of 5 people.
Materials and Tools:
Each participant will need a phone, tablet, or laptop signed in to our virtual ritual space. Each participant will also need a singing bowl, a candle, a piece of fruit (grape, apple or orange, berry, etc.), beer or kombucha or similar, a piece of bread, and a piece of chocolate, a small dish of yeast, a goblet with drink of choice (athame optional), a food offering of choice, and an offering plate or bowl.
The leader should have two devices: one to put them in the virtual space and one to share screen. For videos, I suggest downloading the videos, adding desired readings and/or editing them down for length, then have them ready to share. They will also need an item to represent each quarter.
Advance Information:
To take out the awkwardness of trying to speak simultaneously through a conference call, which doesn’t work well, we will all learn the ASL sign for “blessed be” as taken from this video: Blessed Be the Name of the Lord.
References:
Which Came First? Bread or Beer?
Discover the Oldest Beer Recipe in History From Ancient Sumeria, 1800 B.C.
Planets in a Bottle – more about yeast
Wild Culture: Reclaiming the Magic of Yeast
Bread has ancient ties to religious rituals
The origin and adaptive evolution of domesticated populations of yeast from Far East Asia
Like the flavor of coffee and chocolate? Thank the yeast that hitchhiked on human migration
Bread: the extraordinary fate of an ordinary food item
Preparation:
Gather everyone within the virtual ritual space.
Land acknowledgement:
Before we begin, I would like for us to take a moment to acknowledge that this ritual is taking place on the traditional unceded territories of the Musqueam, Tsleil-Waututh, Kwikwetlem and Squamish Nations, as well as of the First Peoples of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ (hun-ki-meen-um) language group. I ask that we take a moment to reflect on this fact and to acknowledge that we bring our beliefs and spirits to this place in concert with those that were here before.
A moment of quiet reflection will end with the leader ringing their singing bowl.
Consent acknowledgement:
We stand where we are as empowered and free individuals. We are each able to make our own choices about coming to this circle, about staying in this circle, and about how to participate in the ritual. You may leave at any time and for any reason, return whenever you want, and sit out any activity. We ask of each other only that we don’t interfere with the experience of other participants.
Each participant in turn (order: North, East, South, West, and Centre) visualizes both their physical space and the virtual space being cleansed and says:
With purpose and intent, I cleanse this space.
Everyone closes their eyes while the ritual leader leads the breathing meditation:
Breathe… [Pause for full breath in and full breath out.] Breathe… [Pause for full breath in and full breath out.] Breathe… [Pause for full breath in and full breath out.] Feel the ground beneath you. [Pause for full breath in and full breath out.] Feel the air around you. [Pause for full breath in and full breath out.] Come home to your body. [Pause for full breath in and full breath out.] Prepare to enter sacred space. Blessed be.
All sign: Blessed be.
Building Sacred Space:
The leader starts a candle video on the sharing screen.
All participants pick up their singing bowl.
Casting the Circle
Everyone will participate in casting the Circle. Everyone silently mouths the words along with the second sentence and the person casting that element will ringing their singing bowl when they are done.
North: We cast this circle in honour of Earth. We cast this circle in honour of Earth to create and open sacred space.
East: We cast this circle in honour of Air. We cast this circle in honour of Air to create and open sacred space.
South: We cast this circle in honour of Fire. We cast this circle in honour of Fire to create and open sacred space.
West: We cast this circle in honour of Water. We cast this circle in honour of Water to create and open sacred space.
Centre: We cast this circle in honour of Spirit. We cast this circle in honour of Spirit to create and open sacred space.
Ritual leader / North: The space is set. The circle is cast. Blessed Be.
All sign: Blessed be.
Quarter Calls
The ritual leader will hold up an item representing each quarter as they are called.
North: To the North, I send this call: Earth, bless us with your gift of grain and sugar as we celebrate Lammas and every day. Blessed be.
All sign: Blessed be.
East: To the East, I send this call: Air, bless us with your gift of exhaled carbon dioxide as we celebrate Lammas and every day. Blessed be.
All sign: Blessed be.
South: To the South, I send this call: Fire, bless us with your gift of heat as we celebrate Lammas and every day. Blessed be.
All sign: Blessed be.
West: To the West, I send this call: Water, bless us with your gift of ethanol as we celebrate Lammas and every day. Blessed be.
All sign: Blessed be.
Centre: To the Centre, I send this call: Spirit, bless us with your gift of the magic of yeast as we celebrate Lammas and every day. Blessed be.
All sign: Blessed be.
Invocations
East: Lady of Brewing and Baking, Goddesses of our tribes, we invite you to our rite. Blessed Be.
All sign: Blessed be.
Centre: Lord of Ranching and Farming, Gods of our tribes, we invite you to our rite. Blessed Be.
All sign: Blessed be.
Centre:
Yeast is essentially everywhere. Take a deep breath… [Pause for deep breath in and out.] It is in the air we breathe. Take a bite of fruit… [Pause for everyone to take a bite of fruit.] It is on the skin of most fresh fruit. Imagine you are standing in a garden or forest… [Pause.] It is in the soil that we walk on.
Imagine 11,700 years ago, when our Neolithic ancestors started to move from being hunting and gathering peoples to settled people with agriculture. Yeast was probably one of the earliest domesticated organisms: before we had cows and dogs, and even before we had gardens and fields of grains, we kept yeast… even before we knew how it worked.
Yeast may have led to us settling into farms and towns. About 13,000 years ago, we discovered that when we drank the water that grains had been soaking in, we had a great time… and then didn’t feel so good the next morning. And thus we invented beer and discovered the hangover. And then we wanted to brew more beer, so we needed to grow more grains, so we set to farming the land.
Beer must have seemed like magic. Our ancestors would throw an almost indigestible grass into some water, crush it a little bit, and eventually it would turn into something tasty that makes the water safe to drink and also magically helps clean wounds. No wonder it was sacred and entrusted to a Goddess.
[Everyone sips beer during (part of) “The Hymn of Ninkasi”.]
Beer may be the midwife of civilization and drove agriculture, trade, urbanization, and medicine. And from beer, we come to bread.
We discovered that beer could leaven bread. The first breads some 9,000 years ago were hand-ground cereal seeds, ground by stones, mixed with water and beer, and cooked next to the fire.
[Everyone eats bread while watching a time lapse video of bread rising and baking paired with a reading of a prayer to Ceres.]
As people expanded across the world, we brought our domesticated plants and animals and our yeast. Yeast carried into different areas of the world evolved and changed. In the genetics of yeast, we can see ancient trade routes and the movement of peoples. The eastern and western yeasts mingled as traders carried wine and coffee along the Silk Road, the ancient trade route connecting Europe and Asia.
Chocolate was discovered 4000 years old. During the cacao harvest, farmers break open the fruit and allow the pulp to ferment for several weeks before extracting the seeds that will be turned into chocolate. Yeast is part of the flavour of place: it is why wine, chocolate, and coffee tastes different depending on where in the world it is grown.
[Everyone eats chocolate while part of the chocolate ritual is read and parts of a chocolate making video is shown.]
Yeast has brought us towns and drunkenness. It has brought us the most nourishing and comforting of foods and the most pleasurable ones too. It is fruit, beer, bread, wine, chocolate, and coffee.
Yeast has been with us since the beginning of humanity and it has followed us around the world. We nurtured it and used it before we understood it. We just knew it was magic.
Now that we’ve honoured our journey with yeast, we will charge a small amount of yeast with energy. Let us focus on connection: how yeast connects us to our ancestors and to each other through food and drink traditions. We will tone until I ring the singing bowl, and then we will bring the energy to a peak and focus it into the yeast. After, we will add the charged yeast back to our supply. And then every time we bake with that supply, the magic will be there, growing with the yeast, nourishing and connecting everyone we feed with it.
[Raise energy by humming.]
Food and Drink:
Each participant holds their plate of food and West says:
By the Divine, these offerings are blessed, and we share this food in the spirit of community.
The food is first offered to the offering bowl/plate and West says:
To the gods and goddesses of our tribes. Blessed be.
The food is then taken by us and West says:
May we never hunger. Blessed be.
Each participant holds their goblet (with athame or not) and South says:
As the athame is to the lover, so the chalice is to the loved, and joined they are one in truth.
The drink is first offered to the offering bowl/plate and South says:
To the gods and goddesses of our tribes. Blessed be.
The drink is then taken by us and South says:
May we never thirst. Blessed be.
Devocations:
Centre: Lord of Ranching and Farming, Gods of our tribes, thank you for your blessings. Go in peace. Blessed be.
All sign: Blessed be.
East: Lady of Brewing and Baking, Goddesses of our tribes, thank you for your blessings. Go in peace. Blessed be.
All sign: Blessed be.
Closing Sacred Space:
Centre: To the Centre: Spirit, thank you for your gifts. Go in peace. Blessed be.
All sign: Blessed be.
West: To the West: Water, thank you for your gifts. Go in peace. Blessed be.
All sign: Blessed be.
South: To the South: Fire, thank you for your gifts. Go in peace. Blessed be.
All sign: Blessed be.
East: To the East: Air, thank you for your gifts. Go in peace. Blessed be.
All sign: Blessed be.
Earth: To the North: Earth, thank you for your gifts. Go in peace. Blessed be.
All sign: Blessed be.
Each participant picks up their singing bowl again. We will all take down the Circle together by each ringing our signing bowl in turn. The order will be: Centre, North, West, South, and East.
Ritual leader / North: The Circle is open, but unbroken. Merry meet, merry part, and merry meet again!
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The Magic of Yeast (virtual ritual) was originally published on We're Made of Mud and Magic
We're Made of Mud and Magic 