| Additional Topics Of Interest To Share With The Seeker |
| Merry Meet! (Or, How The Gwyddons Do It)
It's the eve of the Full Moon, or the eve of one of the Eight Great Days. You're getting ready to go to the meeting at your College. What would be the traditional way to go about it? Well, it has been a long-standing tradition to take a ritual bath(or shower). This is not only to make your body clean, but it's a method to clear and clean out your emotional attachments, your energy levels, your auric fields, etc. There seems to be a dozen ways to go about this. Some use salt in their water, some use herbs, and some use herbal oils, or a combination of all of the above. So, now you're bathed and feeling all new and fresh - full of positive thoughts and feelings. Well, next you'll need to get your ritual objects together. Generally, these are what you take: 1. Robe and Cord 2. Twen 3. The Book of the Art and Craft And you may be asked to bring candles for certain meetings. That takes care of the ritual objects. What else should a member take? One should take food or wine. A member should always contribute something to the Feast. And one should always take their offering, which can be as little as a dollar, depending on your group's customs. When a member reaches the door of the College, he/she will be met by one of the Officers (most likely the High Priestess), with a Greeting Cup. The officer wil say: "Merry Meet and Merry Part!" and will kiss the member and offer the goblet of wine to them. The member will take a drink and hand the wine back and say: "Perfect Love and Perfect Peace! Blessed Be!" Then they will enter. If, perchance, they've brought a serious visitor with them, they will be completely responsible for looking after that guest whil they're there. As for the guest: They are always welcome at the Feast. And, of course, they may participate in any social activities afterward. As far as attendance at ritual, that is subject to the needs of the group. A guest must never attend an initiation unless they are an initiate of another Order and have no intent of joining our Tuatha. Initiations are deeply personal family affairs for the Intiate and the College. Here are some important things to remember: 1. One should not be drunk or drugged before participatiing in any ritual. What one does afterwards during the social activities is entirely up to them. The Greeting Cup is just for greetings! The Order does not encourage any member to engage in illegal activities, and these include in the name of religion. In relationship to drugs, whereas historically Gwyddons have, under extraordinary circumstances made use of herbs that have mind altering effects, this does not apply to regular ritual use. These are reserved (if used at all) for highly specialized ritual magick use and are not intended as recreation. They are for sacred use only. 2. Social and personal conversations should not take place during any of the rituals. Our meeting time is special. It needs to be treated as such. 3. During the Feast, which is ritual feast, one toasts the Gods with Love and Rapport. Games of a ritual nature, god-stories, god-dreams, explanations of Magick and Metaphysics, play-ploys, the Truth game, examination of the Book of the Art and Craft, and things of like nature are part of the very structure of the Ritual Feast. It is wise for everyone to give full attention to whoever may be expressing themselves. It is the duty of the Wayland to make sure that the rules and traditions are observed. There are good and wise reasons for those very old rules and traditions! 4. Gwyddons do not perform ritual sex as a prerequisite for worship. There are many wiccan and pagan groups who do, but we are not one of them. This is not to say that we are prudes, far from it. We simply do not feel the need to use our religious observances as an excuse for an orgy. If any persons feel the need to express themselves physically, it is their prerogative, as long as they do not infringe on the rights of others or interfere with the needs of the College as a whole. Sex between consenting adults is a wonderful thing and a powerful magickal tool. It also works best in pairs. In a group setting it can become --- shall we say ---distracting? 5. It is wise and best, that if a member finds that they cannot observe the rules and traditions, that they leave and find a place that is interested only in shallow thinking and endless partying. Let them go where they would be most happy. If one is truly interested in learning magick and metaphysics, then the traditional structure of the Gwyddoniaid Order is set up for that. If one only wants to party, without any responsibility for learning, then go somewhere else. There are such a variety of pagan groups like that. Our social activities after the meeting are parties without equal! At that time, one can have the time of their lives, if they wish. It cannot be so hard to have the self-control to wait a couple or three hours. In reality, the more one puts oneself into the rituals, the more joy the party afterward can be. Do it all with WeSSeL!!!! |