Lewis Stead

The Ravenbook

weekend -- Blot in honor of Baldr*

Harvest/August

1st weekend -- Freyfaxi, first harvest and celebration of Frey and his

horse (Trad. 8/1)

Shedding/September

1st weekend -- Discovery of the Runes, celebration of Odin as the God

of Wisdom (Odinic Rite holiday celebrated 8/25)

9/21 Winter Finding -- Disirblot (Disirblot traditionally 10/13-10/15)

Hunting/October

1st weekend -- Tyrblot, celebration of Justice and Honor. (Supreme

Court session begins 1st Monday in October)*

Fogmoon/November

1st weekend -- Einjerhar, celebration of war-dead and Ragnarok

Dedicated to Odin and Freya (Trad. 11/11 -- Armistice Day)

Wolfmoon/December

1st weekend -- Winterblot, dedicated to Skadi and/or Ullr*

12/21 -- Yule, multiday festival dedicated to Thor et al

(Traditionally a festival lasting from the Mother Night 12/21 to New

Years Day)

RAVEN KINDRED RITUAL OUTLINE

The Raven Kindred has developed a slightly different form of the Blot

ritual which we use. This has come to pass because of a desire for

more personal involvement as well as a smaller group of people than

would be appropriate for a major blot.

The major change, outside of a few cosmetic differences, is that we

have added a mini sumbel to the blot ritual in place of the

sprinkling in which we offer three rounds of toasts: the first

dedicated to the God or Goddess being honored and the remaining two to

anything the participants deem appropriate which is not inimical to

the purpose of the blot. (i.e. dont toast the Jotnar during a

ritual to Thor.)

Setting the mood: Chant to Odin, Vili, Ve

To begin each ritual we offer a three round chant of Odin, Vili, Ve.

This serves two purposes. First we are linking ourselves to the Gods

of creation and thus to the connections between Midgard and the Gods.

Second and perhaps more appropriately it allows people to get

themselves mentally prepared for the service.

Hammer Rite

We offer an invocation to Fire and Ice which are the central elements

of the creation of the world. We ask that the place we are meeting be

blessed and Holy for the coming of the Gods.

Statement of purpose

We far too often ignore this, but its a good idea to have the Gothi

or Gythia who is presiding greet the participants and state something

general about the purpose of the ritual. It need not be complicated

We gather together today to celebrate the Winter Nights as our

ancestors did. To honor our ancestors, the Disir, and Freya the Great

Dis and to renew our bonds as a family [kindred].

General Prayer

At this point one of our members usually offers up a prayer to the

Aesir and Vanir collectively to thank them for their bounty since the

last time we met and to ask their blessings upon the kindred and its

members.

Personal invocations

We reserve a time between the opening of the ritual and the blot

ceremony for people to offer any prayers or other invocations they

feel necessary. This is the time when we Profess new members of

Asatru. Other activities done at this time have included a kindred

member thanking Saga, the Goddess of wisdom, for her recent graduation

from college.

Invoke deity of occasion

At this point we make a point to specifically invoke and honor the

deity that we are bloting. We attempt to list as many names and or

functions of the God as possible and this serves a dual purpose in

reminding the attendees of who the God is and why we are honoring Him.

This is, however, separate from the offering.

Meditation

At this point we like to remind ourselves why we are here and what the

Gods mean to us. We sit and someone either offers a spoken meditation

or more often reads a story from the mythology. While most of us

enjoy the poetic edda, we usually use a modern prose version of the

myth as it is easier to follow.

Offer/sanctify mead

The Gothi takes up the horn and his assistant (often called The

Valkyrie by Asafolk) fills it with mead. The Gothi then steps to the

altar and holds the horn aloft and asks the God to partake of it and

charge it with his power.

Toast to the deity of occasion

This is when we begin to deviate substantially from the standard