by Hjalldis

Although it is currently summer, autumn and the harvest is right around the corner, with Winter-Nights and Yule following closely behind.  In order for you to have some time to prepare for the harvest, consider the following.

Items needed

seeds, preferably collected by you from your garden or from a place in nature you enjoy.
bowl for seeds.
recels, (‘incense’ for burning).
glóðker (‘fire pot’ to burn recels in).
candle.
drinking vessel.
sacred beverage.
Blessing Bowl for beverage.

Pre-Ritual Preparation:
Place seeds in bowl.  Observe.

The seeds sitting in the bowl don’t look as if they are doing anything.  They don’t have legs or arms, so they’re not busy moving about.  But looks are often deceiving.  The seeds are, on the contrary, very active.  In a quiet, contemplative manner.  Tucked away in their skins protected from the cold and rain, they are quietly planning how, in the spring and summer, they will emerge from their skins to become the hottest, sexiest flowers in your garden.

The seeds wait on full alert for the perfect time to emerge.  They must have precise amounts of water, oxygen, temperature and light.  They will keep their little seed fingers crossed for a generous supply of nitrogen in the soil and pray that their hamingja is strong and a bird will fly by at the right moment dropping its nutritious load nearby ensuring food for growth.

And when these conditions are met, the seeds will emerge from their skins without hesitation.  They will shoot upward with such strength and purpose that if you were a plant seeing all this in plant-time, well it would make your stamens spin.  The seeds have just one shot at being the most voluptuous bee magnet in your garden.  There is no second chance for the seeds.  Lying there in your bowl, the seeds have one intention.  Their focus is awe-inspiring.  Each wants nothing more than total world domination, at least the world of your garden.

So why all this fuss and concern from a little seed?  Why should it care?  Why does it want to be all that it can be?

Once the shoot emerges, the seedling continues its seed-given mandate to be the strongest, to be the healthiest.  The two-legged one in the garden (that’s you), will see the strong shoot and remove the weaker ones surrounding it, dropping their little corpses to the ground to provide additional nutrition for the strong shoot.  The dead nurture the living.

That seedling will be given extra water and compost to aid its growth.  And when it flowers, every bee and butterfly, every beneficial insect for a quarter of a mile will see it, and smell it, and want a piece of it.  Those bugs will push and shove to get their hands, feet and mouths on the reproductive parts of the flower.  And the plant will laugh (in its plant way) with total delight as the insects fertilize the ovum through the oscillation of the reproductive parts, resulting in the production of seeds:  next year’s promise of life and beauty.

That done the plant is complete.  If it is an annual, it dies.

“Good bye my seed-children,” it says, “but before I go, I have one gift left for you.  Take my body.  Eat of my flesh.”  And the plant drops to the ground where it becomes the nutrient stew its seeds will devoutly consume the following spring when they emerge as little plants.  The dead nurture the living.

So how does this connect to you and me?  After this coming Harvest season, like the seed, you and I will also enter into a quiet time of contemplation.  It is part of the natural cycle of our year in the northern hemisphere.  And with a little focus, planning and work, we have the potential, like the seed, to emerge in the spring and by summer be the most hottest flower in the garden of our world.  But unlike the seed, you and I cannot give up our day jobs to have the luxury of extended thoughtful planning.  We must continue to chop wood, carry water, and clean toilets.  So how can we find the time for introspection in order to determine what is needed in order to maximize our potential?

To continue with the plant analogy, we can do three things beginning at the harvest:  deadhead; disease eradication; and, defoliation.

Deadheading is the simple task of identifying and removing everything that is dead, or nearly so, enabling the plant to focus its energy on the healthy, strong bits.  It’s no different for us, but we often forget to do those things.  Time to get rid of half completed, and if we are honest with ourselves, never to be completed projects and ideas that have run their course.

Disease eradication entails the removal of unhealthy material.  For a plant these would include pruning of leaves infected with mold, branches covered with virus and the removal of insect pests.  For a human being this would be the conscious separation from unhealthy relationships, be they personal or work related.  Prune them out of your life.

Defoliation is a fancy word for thinning out growth.  A plant can have too many leaves and branches.  Interior leaves, inaccessible to sunlight will be unable to have photosynthesis, weakening the plant.  In addition, air will not circulate freely resulting in moisture retention, a home for molds and viruses.  Leaves will become weakened and subject to disease, ultimately affecting the hardiness of the plant.  The message for you and me is clear:  too much is not necessarily better.  Like the plant, focus on what you can realistically manage and complete.  Plan for the next summer.

Our ancestors did not need to be told these things.  They were intimately connected to the land.  It fed them and kept them warm and dry.  We too are nourished and protected by the resources of our world.  But unlike our ancestors, most of us are not intimately connected with the cycles of birth, growth, death and rebirth.

They knew the connection.  The dead nurture the living.

When the frigid winds of winter descended, our ancestors withdrew inwards and inside their dwellings.  Sitting by the warm fires as the winter storms of the Wild Hunt raged outside, they told stories, shared lore, taught and learned from each other.  They mended nets, sharpened tools, and repurposed items broken beyond repair.  They wove, knit and sewed.  They ate, drank, and made love.  They planned for the spring and summer by deciding what would be grown, where they would trade, what they would build.  What was needed in order to be all that they were.  How they would become the hottest, sexiest flowers in the gardens of their world.

As the harvest, followed by winter, approaches, what plans do you have for next spring and summer?  Do you need time to think about this?  I do.  What detritus in your life can be removed to create the necessary opening for potential new growth?  I hope the following ritual will help clarify this for you.  The structure is basic.  Feel free to add to it, personalize it and make it your own.  This is actually the first of two rituals.  The second ritual will appear in Rune-Gild Magazine issue #3 in preparation for Winter-Nights.

Ritual (to be performed at the Harvest-Tide)

1. Arrange your Harrow with the bowl of seeds, candle, glóðker, recels, sacred beverage and drinking vessel.  If you are a Gild-Initiate, include your Sax and Gand.
2. Light the candle, kindle the glóðker and place the recels on the flame in the glóðker.
3. Sanctify the space with the Hallowing of your choice.  The Elhaz-Working will be especially appropriate for Gild-Initiates.
4. State the intention of your working.  Consider again what detritus in your life needs to be removed for new growth to occur?
5. Pour the sacred beverage into the drinking vessel.  Holding it aloft, give thanks for your personal harvest.  Contemplate your accomplishments, somewhat less successful ventures, and failures over the past season.  Ask for help from the Vanir and the Land-Wights in your work.
6. Take a mouthful of the beverage and drink it in three swallows.  Pour the remainder in the Blessing Bowl.  Pour the contents of the Blessing Bowl on the ground giving thanks for all that you have.  If you are doing this ritual indoors, you can take the bowl outside later and pour it on the ground.
7. Sitting comfortably, hold the bowl of seeds in your hands.  Take a deep breath, close your eyes and begin to relax.  Through whatever method you are familiar with, enter a meditative state.  The use of hypnotic induction, guided visualization, rhythmic breathing, chanting galdor, and percussive sound can all be used to successfully to enter this state.  Focus on your intention and give yourself the necessary time to enter this light trance state.
8. Contemplate what you want in your personal metaphorical garden and the necessary steps to achieve those ends.  Begin the process of consciously deadheading and defoliating, preparing your personal seeds for a spring and summer floral showing that will highlight all that you are.  This is actually a lot of work and may take more than one attempt.  Have some plan in place by Winter Nights.
9. Give thanks for the past harvest.  Honor the Vanir and the Land-Wights for the fertility promised and with hard work on your part, more often than not, realized.

Become all that you are, because you are more than what you seem.