{"id":19549,"date":"2020-07-30T03:00:48","date_gmt":"2020-07-30T09:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?p=19549"},"modified":"2020-07-28T09:15:42","modified_gmt":"2020-07-28T15:15:42","slug":"denton-cuups-online-lughnasadh-ritual-august-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2020\/07\/denton-cuups-online-lughnasadh-ritual-august-1.html","title":{"rendered":"Denton CUUPS Online Lughnasadh Ritual: August 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

From the beginning of the pandemic, my mantra has been \u201cday to day, week to week.\u201d But I can\u2019t help looking ahead, at least occasionally. I volunteered to lead the Denton CUUPS<\/a> Lughnasadh Ritual when we planned our calendar late last year, and when we first started canceling our in-person gatherings, I thought that surely by August 1 we could all be together again.<\/p>\n

But just as I was starting to move from thinking about Lughnasadh to actually writing the ritual, the \u201csecond wave\u201d (or perhaps, the end of the first wave) of Covid-19 started picking up. It became apparent there was no way we could safely host an in-person ritual, even outdoors.<\/p>\n

Our second idea was for the six of us who lead this ritual to gather in my back yard and do it all together. The risk to us would have been minimal: current advice is to limit private gatherings to ten or less, and we\u2019re all pretty much socializing only with each other. Still, having even six people on screen together seemed like bad optics.<\/p>\n

In retrospect, I\u2019m not sure that would have been any different from the return of professional team sports without fans. But once we decided to do the six parts in five locations, we moved forward quickly.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The result is a ritual unlike any I\u2019ve participated in before. It follows the same liturgy I\u2019ve been using for my online rituals. But while the Under the Ancient Oaks Summer Solstice Ritual<\/a> was one continuous ritual documented with two cameras, the Lughnasadh Ritual was created in multiple separate segments. It didn\u2019t become one ritual until we edited the video together.<\/p>\n

From my perspective, it works. The parts come together in the video similarly to how they come together with different people doing different parts in the same location. Or for that matter, with different people doing different parts in different locations at the same time.<\/p>\n

This is now one ritual, even though it was performed in different locations at different times.<\/p>\n

Saturday, August 1 at 8:00 PM CDT<\/h2>\n

The complete ritual will be presented as a YouTube Premiere this Saturday, August 1, at 8:00 PM Central Time. That\u2019s 7:00 PM on the West Coast, 9:00 PM on the East Coast, and 2:00 AM on Sunday in Britain, Ireland, and Portugal.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the link: https:\/\/youtu.be\/FaeYgEXU7hg<\/a><\/p>\n

The video will remain on YouTube after the Premiere. If you aren\u2019t available on Saturday evening, you can watch and participate at your convenience.<\/p>\n

Ritual details<\/h2>\n

Lughnasadh is an ancient festival named in honor of the Irish God Lugh and celebrated in memory of his foster mother Tailtiu. In this ritual we will honor Lugh and Tailtiu, we will present the skills and virtues of Lugh, and if we choose, we will receive their blessings to help us meet the challenges we face in our lives and in our world.<\/p>\n

We will be telling some of the stories of Lugh. In 2017 I condensed four of them into blog posts. We had to condense them further for the ritual. In person or in video, telling long stories as part of a ritual generally doesn\u2019t work well. You may want to read them in advance:<\/p>\n

The Birth of Lugh<\/a><\/p>\n

The Coming of Lugh<\/a><\/p>\n

The Leadership of Lugh<\/a><\/p>\n

The Victory of Lugh<\/a><\/p>\n

Good ritual embodies myths. In this ritual we\u2019re doing that with other activities, rather than with just the presentation of the stories.<\/p>\n

Participating Where You Are<\/h2>\n

You\u2019re welcome to simply follow along with us, but I encourage you to participate where you are. You\u2019ll need a candle and something to light it with, an offering bowl, and something for offerings. We\u2019ll be using beer (it\u2019s seasonal for the grain harvest) but I\u2019m sure whatever you have will be acceptable.<\/p>\n

There have been times when all I had available was clean water \u2013 it was always accepted. While different deities prefer different offerings, They mostly understand availability\u2026 and that some people can\u2019t be around alcohol. Just don\u2019t try to offer the cheap stuff and keep the good stuff for yourself.<\/p>\n

There won\u2019t be anything that would require you to move around, so you don\u2019t need a lot of space.<\/p>\n

When we\u2019re done with the main working, we\u2019ll share a drink among ourselves.<\/p>\n

As with Summer Solstice, this ritual runs about 25 minutes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Denton CUUPS Online Lughnasadh Ritual<\/h2>\n

Saturday, August 1
\n8:00 PM CDT
\nYouTube Premiere<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Want to get my personal weekly newsletter every Friday? It covers things that don\u2019t fit into the blog format, mostly in my usual range: Paganism, polytheism, and magic. Current events and politics. What I\u2019m working on that you\u2019ll see in the near to medium future \u2013 be the first to find out about things like this.<\/p>\n

Sign up on my teaching site\u00a0https:\/\/undertheancientoaks.com\/<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Enter your e-mail in the big green block and do the not-a-robot thing. You\u2019ll get a confirmation e-mail \u2013 respond to it and you\u2019re set.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Denton CUUPS Online Lughnasadh Ritual will be Saturday, August 1 at 8:00 PM CDT on YouTube.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":19552,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[535,721,531,718,4,5,8],"class_list":["post-19549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ritual","tag-denton-cuups","tag-lammas","tag-lugh","tag-lughnasadh","tag-pagan","tag-paganism","tag-polytheism"],"yoast_head":"\nDenton CUUPS Online Lughnasadh Ritual: August 1<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Denton CUUPS Online Lughnasadh Ritual will be Saturday, August 1 at 8:00 PM CDT on YouTube.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2020\/07\/denton-cuups-online-lughnasadh-ritual-august-1.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Denton CUUPS Online Lughnasadh Ritual: August 1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Denton CUUPS Online Lughnasadh Ritual will be Saturday, August 1 at 8:00 PM CDT on YouTube.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2020\/07\/denton-cuups-online-lughnasadh-ritual-august-1.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-07-30T09:00:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-07-28T15:15:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2020\/07\/Lugh-shrine-782x411.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"404\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2020\/07\/denton-cuups-online-lughnasadh-ritual-august-1.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2020\/07\/denton-cuups-online-lughnasadh-ritual-august-1.html\",\"name\":\"Denton CUUPS Online Lughnasadh Ritual: August 1\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-07-30T09:00:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-07-28T15:15:42+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\"},\"description\":\"Denton CUUPS Online Lughnasadh Ritual will be Saturday, August 1 at 8:00 PM CDT on YouTube.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2020\/07\/denton-cuups-online-lughnasadh-ritual-august-1.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2020\/07\/denton-cuups-online-lughnasadh-ritual-august-1.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2020\/07\/denton-cuups-online-lughnasadh-ritual-august-1.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Denton CUUPS Online Lughnasadh Ritual: August 1\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"description\":\"Musings of a Druid, Pagan, and Unitarian Universalist.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"John Beckett\"},\"description\":\"I grew up in Tennessee with the woods right outside my back door. Wandering through them gave me a sense of connection to Nature and to a certain Forest God. I\u2019m a Druid graduate of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, the Coordinating Officer of the Denton Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans and a former Vice President of CUUPS Continental. I\u2019ve been writing, speaking, teaching, and leading public rituals for the past eleven years. I live in the Dallas \u2013 Fort Worth area and I earn my keep as an engineer.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/author\/johnbeckett\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Denton CUUPS Online Lughnasadh Ritual: August 1","description":"Denton CUUPS Online Lughnasadh Ritual will be Saturday, August 1 at 8:00 PM CDT on YouTube.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2020\/07\/denton-cuups-online-lughnasadh-ritual-august-1.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Denton CUUPS Online Lughnasadh Ritual: August 1","og_description":"Denton CUUPS Online Lughnasadh Ritual will be Saturday, August 1 at 8:00 PM CDT on YouTube.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2020\/07\/denton-cuups-online-lughnasadh-ritual-august-1.html","og_site_name":"John Beckett","article_published_time":"2020-07-30T09:00:48+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-07-28T15:15:42+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":404,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2020\/07\/Lugh-shrine-782x411.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"John Beckett","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"John Beckett","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2020\/07\/denton-cuups-online-lughnasadh-ritual-august-1.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2020\/07\/denton-cuups-online-lughnasadh-ritual-august-1.html","name":"Denton CUUPS Online Lughnasadh Ritual: August 1","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-07-30T09:00:48+00:00","dateModified":"2020-07-28T15:15:42+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad"},"description":"Denton CUUPS Online Lughnasadh Ritual will be Saturday, August 1 at 8:00 PM CDT on YouTube.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2020\/07\/denton-cuups-online-lughnasadh-ritual-august-1.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2020\/07\/denton-cuups-online-lughnasadh-ritual-august-1.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2020\/07\/denton-cuups-online-lughnasadh-ritual-august-1.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Denton CUUPS Online Lughnasadh Ritual: August 1"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/","name":"John Beckett","description":"Musings of a Druid, Pagan, and Unitarian Universalist.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad","name":"John Beckett","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"John Beckett"},"description":"I grew up in Tennessee with the woods right outside my back door. Wandering through them gave me a sense of connection to Nature and to a certain Forest God. I\u2019m a Druid graduate of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, the Coordinating Officer of the Denton Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans and a former Vice President of CUUPS Continental. I\u2019ve been writing, speaking, teaching, and leading public rituals for the past eleven years. I live in the Dallas \u2013 Fort Worth area and I earn my keep as an engineer.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/author\/johnbeckett"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1129"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}