Ritual experiences submitted by:
Lady Mystl
Estara T'shirai
Hierophant Consecration
By: Lady Mystl
By: Lady Mystl
I was blessed the whole day despite the drizzle and cold. At midday I lit a small fire in my sacred area to celebrate Yule, and I had some offerings for the birds and some herbs to burn in the fire. Unfortunately the fire didn't stay lit for long due to the drizzle, but at one stage when I was gazing into the fire, I saw a woman's face, sometimes quite clearly, She alternated from being young to older, but I had the sense She was the same person. Even though it was cold, I felt warm of a sudden, as if someone had put a warm item of covering around me. I had to come inside in the end, I was getting wet, and it was no point trying to perform a meditation in the pyramid. I came back inside, had a warm drink and read through the rite again and meditated for a long while. The rest of the afternoon I spent preparing the family's evening meal and preparing for the actual Consecration.
I had to perform the rite in my bedroom, the rain had set in for real and I knew beforehand to prepare my room in case of rain. At the meditation stage, I was looking into the candle which was on my altar, fire seems to draw my attention all the time. After looking into the candle for a while, I saw firstly two yellowish eyes, very big eyes that blinked a lot; very subtley, a birds head started to shape around the eyes, and I have no doubt that it was an owl. Although the features of the bird started to fade away after a few minutes, the eyes remained and a woman's head shaped itself around the eyes.....something said to me that what I had seen in the fire outside, was the same thing I was seeing now. I felt a rush of tears coming.....I was sure that Athena had been with me the whole day, not just for the Consecration. I closed my eyes at this point and was giving heartfelt thanks to Her when I felt something on my forehead, heart region and my hands. I feel that She had Consecrated me as well. I ended the rite and grounded, and then shared a drink with my husband. The night was peaceful, and I don't recall any dreams that night. Have been feeling energised or something since.
Hierophant Consecration
By: Estara T'shirai
By: Estara T'shirai
I invite all and sundry to the Hierophant rite, in English and Shiri (a ritual/astral language I work with). Athene descends when called--She uses the fluorite in right hand and the back-to-altar trick (for Drawing Down). She says she is like Sophia, and that wisdom comes not from questing, since wisdom is not in one place more than another, but from being still and allowing Her to come. She blesses me as teacher, but warns me to have patience and not push, for I am not arbiter of others' paths. When I take the sistrum, I jump and spin around shaking it and saying "Yay!" for a while. This section has a jovial, occasionally silly mood.
When I go into meditation, they bid me take off my robe. Then my skin. I am the being of jeweled light (an aspect of my astral self that first appeared during my ordination). Then the light erupts. First I am an ankh, standing in a T with a halo of fire over my head. Then I spin, and spinning I scatter: a flurry of faces stream through my mind, familiar and unfamiliar, human and animal and fey, and it seems that I am part of each of them for just a moment, and also myself, spreading like a vast golden 3-D net over the world. It is moving beyond my ability to comprehend, but then it contracts, and I feel all the golden tendrils shoot back into my body--different, as if each has retained memory of something--snapping back, and my body shakes with the impact of it all coming in.
Suddenly it stops, and I am gazing blankly upward, open, and the face of Isis appears across the sky, vast and gentle, a colorful winged headdress on Her. "Man is the fourteenth piece of Osiris," She says. "He is lost, swallowed by his own fear of death. And yet, if he were to look once out of his self-imposed shell, he would see not death but love, and I would catch him up in my arms and make him whole." She fades, and I sit stunned for a few minutes before opening the circle.
