Paths Through The Forests
The second question and installment for Ritual & Ceremony of a Naturalistic Saegoah is when and where do you do customs? (Follow this link to read the first part of this series – Why I do Ritual and Ceremony)
Ritual and ceremony usually implies a closed space and time. Yet it doesn’t have to be that way. It can be very fluid and open. So it can be any time, and any place. In my world view time is relative and space goes from infinitely micro to infinitely macro and we’re always somehow connected to that atomically, chemically, or biologically. So what that really means is there is no time, only events and moments, and a continual connection to potentially infinite space. With that at any moment I may suddenly find myself in ritual or ceremony – usually in the form of being in awe. Where in that moment and place is when and where I decide to do something.
At any moment in immediate personal day to day life you can witness energy movement through the life cycle and energy pyramid. Eating. There is always something somewhere eating. Whether it be another human abroad or down the street; A plant or other animal that is beneath your feet eating decomposing matter or each other in the soil; Or from above snatched from a tree or the tree itself creating its own food from the air,soil,
and sun. So you can have a ritual or ceremony whenever you are aware of this, easiest being when you yourself are eating.
Eating is a major aspect in the circle of life, but there is another aspect that is usually forgotten in the act of eating. That energy has to be taken, and that means killing or scavenging for it. Everywhere on earth and every moment death is occurring, energy and nutrient is dispersed and consumed by the next living thing. So when and where you are aware of death, there is also a moment for ceremony and ritual. Especially so for departings, and burials.
Biology is ever present throughout the circle of life, and within the subject of biology is life stages. *Conception*, Gestation, *Birth*, Childhood, *Puberty*, Adolescence, *Procreation*, Adulthood, Old Age, *Death*. The asterisked stages being significant life changing events that are easy to determine life markers for ritual and ceremony and can all be celebrated within the home, in or out of doors.
Yet, the biggest influential thing that determines everything else is by far our host star – Sol, the Sun. It is through the sun that all life has the energy to be alive. Without the sun there wouldn’t be the earth we know today, let alone the circle of life. Most in paganism are already quite familiar with the major solar events on earth – the solstices and equinoxes. In the Ehoah tradition they can be referred to as Equilux (Equal light – going into longer days, symbolized as the year’s dawn), Lux (Day/Light – for longest day), Equinox (Equal dark – going into longer nights, symbolized as the year’s dusk), and Nox (Night/Dark – for longest night) with the addition of Transition days in the middle of each i.e. Transequilux for transition between Nox and Equilux. Many would consider these Cross-Quarters, but instead of being based on Gregorian Calendar dates (beginning of February, May, August, and November or end of the months previous to the ones mentioned), its based on the exact center between each major annual solar event, and so do not fall on the same days. The fact that the Gregorian calendar doesn’t revolve around the solar events was what brought on the Ehoah Kalendars that make it simple to find when these events are.
Life on earth naturally responds to the different amount of daylight available through the planetary solar year. Therefore the distinguishable moments of amount of light received from our host star are moments for ceremony and ritual.
The life stages that have no easily distinguishable marker are symbolically incorporated into the transitional solar events. Gestation – Transequilux, Childhood – Translux, Young Adult – Transequinox, and Old Age – Transnox. The more easily distinguishable life stage events are symbolically incorporated into the easily distinguishable solar events: Equilux – Birth, Lux – Puberty, Equinox – Procreation, Nox – Death & Conception. These events are well suited to public ceremony/ritual and celebration outside with a hall, large tent or yurt available for unfavorable weather.
And that is when and where I do ceremony and ritual.
(Click this link to read the last part of this series – Ritual & Ceremony of a Naturalistic Saegoah Part 3 of 3 – What & How I Do Ritual and Ceremony)
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