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Temple of the Goddess

Hallows Eve Ritual & Celebration
November 2, 2013
  "The seasons and all their changes are in me."

                        --Henry David Thoreau

 

The Wheel of the Year spins and we come together to honor the turning of the seasons and the Earth's never-ending cycles of life. We remember, and honor, our beloved ancestors and the lives they lived.  

 

As we, once again, begin our descent into the season of winter and prepare ourselves for the coming dark, we give thanks for the bounty of the Earth's harvest that will carry us through the dark times and into the rebirth of Spring. We remind ourselves it is time to Slow Down and synchronize our internal rhythms with the rhythm of the Earth.At this time when the veil between the worlds is thin and permeable, we welcome the nurturing dark of winter and honor those who have gone before us and connect to the healing power of the Earth.  

   

 

November 2, 2013

Temple of the Goddess

Hallows Eve  

Celebration & Ritual

 

 

 

 

This is the new year, the time when the veil between this world and the spirit world is at its thinnest. It marks the onset of a darker, more introspective time of year. The theme of Hallows Eve is honoring darkness, memory of the dead, communication with the spirit world, and purification for the future.  

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Newcomer's Meeting 
6:45 
Before the Ritual  

 

 

If this is your first Temple of the Goddess Ritual or you just have questions, meet with Rev. Xia in the lobby before the ritual. Bring your questions, fears, hopes, and desires. Newcomer's Meeting in Lobby at 6:45pm, before the ritual.



 

Hallows Eve  

Ritual & Celebration

Saturday
September 21, 2013
7:30 PM
Doors Open 7:00

Center for Awakening Consciousness 
690 E. Orange Grove Blvd.
Pasadena, CA 91104
 



 

 

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The theme for our 2013 ritual productions is New Directions. Following our 2012 Year of Change, NEW DIRECTIONS inevitably follow. With each Turn of the Wheel we embrace the possibility of New Directions.
As Pagans, our teachings are found in nature, the seasons, cycles, and the cosmos . . . all of which are in a constant state of flux. We have no Bible, Torah, or Bhagavad Gita . . . but in nature we find the reflection/lessons for how to grow, live consciously, and create the life we deserve. To that end we don't need to emphasize the need, or desire, for change and the inevitable new beginnings, new directions that follow. For Pagans that's a given. We understand the clarion call of life for continual renewal.

 

What we are bringing to our ritual theatre celebrations in 2013 are mythic lessons about standing at the crossroads of new directions, and discerning through wise, contemplative choices which direction . . . which new path to take. This year we will explore the tools we need to move forward, with courage, in new directions, down paths we have not yet trod . . . consciously choosing the new directions life is offering us.    

 

New Directions has been a wonderfully fertile subject this year as we opened ourselves, artistically and spiritually, to this mythic theme and the possibilities within it.



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This year our mythic guide is

Vasilisa The Brave who ushers us through our seasonal rituals and myths in 2013. Vasilisa The Brave, from the Slavic mythic tradition, is a young heroine who journeys in search of wisdom, knowledge, and a quest for truth and assistance. Before beginning her journey, Vasilisa is given a doll from her mother that represents her intuition. It is the intuition that we each carry that will guide us on our quest throughout the year.

 

Vasilisa's special doll offers wisdom and encourages her to trust her own intuition, her inner wisdom. She is told to seek the Wise Woman, the Shaman in the woods whose myths and stories will guide her in the search for New Directions.

Vasilisa  

 

Like Vasalisa we return every season to hear the stories. We call on the Wise Storyteller and Shaman for support in following our own unique path and process, for she is a guide, a teacher, a teller of tales.   

 

 

Our Hallow Eve story is a modern telling of the myth of Baba Yaga. An ancient Slavic Goddess, She is a shaman, guardian, and often seen as a wild old crone. Like the Indian goddess, Kali Ma, she is a Goddess of Birth, Death, and Rebirth. While fierce and fearsome to look upon, Baba Yaga has a kind side, singing while She sprinkles the dead, their corpses, with the Water of Life so that they may be reborn. But as a manifestation of nature, she can be frightening as a force of all that is wild and untamed.  

 

When Vasalisa is sent on a quest by her spiteful stepmother to gather fire from Baba Yaga, the witch in the woods, she must reach deep within for the courage to face her fears and the shadowed woods she must travel through to reach the frightening hut of the old crone. Baba Yaga gives Vasalisa a series of tasks she must complete so that she can be released and return with the gift of fire. With faith in her mother, trust in her destiny, and the aid of her special doll, she completes the tasks and returns with the fire, a skull filled with the gift of fire.

In this year of New Directions we traveled through the seasons and reclaimed our intuition-Vasalisa's Doll, our own unique voice; Pan's Flute, our inner guide; Sarasvati's Lotus Candle of Wisdom and Creativity.

We come together at Hallows Eve, gather these special gifts, and end this mythic year by entering the realm of Baba Yaga. Here, we seek the blessings, knowledge, and authority of our ancestors.

All these gifts are placed in the cauldron of self to merge, empower, and illuminate the darkness of both our shadow selves, and in the deep winter days to come. Baba Yaga is both wise and challenging. Her gift to us, a symbolic skull-blazing with the inner fire of our passion, desires, and commitment to personal evolution-is a vessel of ancestral knowing.

Join us for Hallows Eve as we courageously face the fears that challenge us, journey on a mythic quest through the shadow, aided by our ancestors, and gather the gifts, the harvest of our labors-mythic gifts that empower us spiritually, emotionally, and psychologically. Journey with us as we follow Vasalisa The Brave in her mythic quest for bold New Directions, steeped in the teaching of ancient and wise stories. As we witness these powerful myths and stories we remember our own power to create our lives in the directions we choose.

Our evening of ritual theatre opens with a song reminding us of the importance of Slowing Down in preparation for the dark days of winter. On this Hallows Eve, we honor our ancestors with offerings and ask for their blessings as we open the mythic gates for an evening of song, dance, art, and storytelling.

Temple of the Goddess and The Mythic Players invite you to share an evening of art and ritual theatre at our fall celebration and ignite your own creativity, connect with your inner wisdom.



   

Celebrating the Seasons: Hallows Eve   

Saturday, November 2, 2013

Arrival: 6:30-6:45 PM, Doors Open: 7:00 PM, Ritual: 7:30-9:00 PM 

PLEASE NOTE: NEW START TIME AND NEW LOCATION

IF PARKING LOT IS FULL, STREET PARKING ON ORANGE GROVE BLVD. at NORTH EL MOLINO  

 

A Center for Awakening Consciousness
690 E. Orange Grove Blvd.
Pasadena, CA 91104 
Temple of the Goddess: 626-765-7959
 
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Temple of the Goddess offers seasonal celebrations for families and community at the Church of Truth in Pasadena. Multi-media ritual theatre combining, music, myth, visual art, dance, liturgy, spoken word, and participatory theatre which fuses drum and dance with personal enactment to re-connect us to the seasons and the Earth. Click here to download flyer.     


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Slow Down

 by Wendy Rule 

 
Faith is beyond all reason

It's not like I can find it when I want to

Or will it away

 

Everything has its season

There was a time I knew where I was going

And what I should say

 

Slow down

And focus your eyes on the dark horizon

 

Faith is a world of dreaming

Seeking the path to where I should be going

There infinite now

 

Everything has its meaning

Omens are wisdom waiting to be captured

Unraveled somehow

 

Slow down

And focus your eyes on the dark horizon



  

Big Weaving

 by Robin Rice  

 

 You cannot keep to plans that are big.
You can only keep to plans that are small
staying very focused, very certain
very sure you are being honorable
to your word.

To live a big life you can only go
where the way opens like a weaver
not knowing what she weaves
tying knots when the thread runs out wherever that may be,
and starting again
with whatever new thread is at hand.

From this side of a future
with no plans
it seems impossible
you are weaving anything of value at all.

Yet all of the big weavers
the true artists, will tell you this:

On the other side of your days you will see
the other side of your tapestry.

Looking back,
all that was random will reveal itself
as supremely inspired, orchestrated
from a greater place, a stronger hand
than your smaller, planning self
could have imagined
let alone dared.

From this vantage point your heart
will swell and your eyes
will tear and your center
will grow strong so that you feel yourself
planted as solid as a many-seasoned tree.

In this other-side gaze you will finally know
with utter certainty that Divinity was as big
as you allowed It to be.