The place of meeting is decorated with oak boughs, leaves and acorns. Before the rite music, dancing and games take place to evoke the high spirited feeling of summer. Couples perform whirling dances, and a large sun wheel is rolled about in sport. This wheel is later placed to the side of the altar during the rite. A labrys [a Cretan two headed moon ax] or fabricated two headed ax is also placed by the altar or hung upright behind it. The altar is placed in the north of the circle and also acts as a throne for the priestess who embodies the Goddess during the ritual. Short robes rather than long cumbersome ones are worn, as this rite involves a lot of movement and dancing.
This rite includes an old folk song, itself perhaps a fragment of old shape-changing lore. According to the legends of the Craft shape-changing can occur during this rite.
A fifteen-foot circle is cast.
Priestess: standing in the north with the altar behind her:
“Witches all, in ages far past it was the custom on this day for the king and lord to be sacrificed in a magical ceremony, that famine, storm and war should not afflict the people, that crops should grow tall and golden. Darkness was removed from many souls by the courage of the man who walked, willingly and courageously to his doom. The funeral rites were deeply emotional and made a strong impression, but far greater was the magical portion of the rite, unseen and unseeable by human eyes, stronger and far more ancient. Such magic as this was cruel and powerful but it worked magnificently
She sits on the altar, as on a throne. The priest stands in her place with arms held out in invocation:
Priest:
On this night we gather here to perform again, in symbol and magical dance, the rite of the oak king’s sacrifice as it was done in ages past. In this day the lady no longer requires the sacrifice of any among us, and the night that falls is sweet.
He turns to the priestess and salutes her with his athame, saying:
O laughing, naked queen, beautiful and yet terrible. Thou, who like all women, canst make then destroy thy men, yet art beyond all blame; for thou art the Goddess. Be with us here. As thy holy labrys has two edges, so thou hast two faces. One serene, lovely and clear as the silver moon, the other dark, awesome and cruel, for thou art as all women.
He salutes her with his athame.
The priestess sits on south of altar, her arms held out like the crescent of the moon.
Priest:
Thou who above all art adored, know that thy worshippers do give thee obeisance. The wise, the strong and the powerful, and he very princes of the world do honor unto thee….
He hands her the coven sword, which she holds before her like a scepter. He kneels says:
The goddess is kind when it please her. Thou who art the day art also the night, and the time now doth require night, darkness and strife among men for thy purposes
The priest stands back with men near edge of circle. The Priestess stands puts down the sword and commands music. She leads women around circle five times deosil around the edge of circle in a stately dance. Then she leads them five times around the edge of the circle widdershins in a wild, whirling dance, accompanied by whoops and cries. Each woman then returns to her male partner at the edge of the circle.
The priestess returns to her place on the altar and says:
The life is of the wheel is thirteen moons with all the seasons around; the life of the king shall likewise pass from birth unto the ground.
She signals for music to begin again and the men dance sunwise around circle following priest who chants the following, one line at a time with the men repeating, imitating the creatures mentioned with one perambulation around the circle for each line:
I am a stag of seven tines for strength
I am a flood across a plane for extent
I am a wind on a deep lake for depth
I am a ray of the sun, opulent
I am a bloom amongst flowers for excellence
I am a wizard
Who but I brings forth the hilltop’s magic fire
I am a spear with lust for life in vengeance
I am a salmon in a pool of swiftness
I am a hill where poets walk for wisdom
I am a boar strong and red for power and valor
I am a breaker threatening doom for terror
I am a sea tide that drags to death for night
All sit as the priest invokes the final line:
Who but I knows the secret of the unhewn dolmen.
He throws into the incense brazier and sits. All may drink wine and rest at this time.
Priestess stands with arms outstretched:
When the call comes the man does not willingly come until the libation has been made with love and with pain. Under the chase there is a transformation that can stir our powers.
She signals for music to begin again. The women form a circle in the center, facing out, while the men form a ring facing inwards. As the men chant they dance, while the women stay silent and watch. While the women chant and dance the men stay silent and watch. As the lines are chanted the participants imitate the animals mentioned, trying to feel the animal deep within them.
Both:
Cunning and art we do not lack
But I with a whistle will fetch him back
Men:
Oh I shall go into a hare
And I shall go in the Horned God’s name,
Aye, until I be fetched hame!
Women:
Hare take heed
Of a bitch Greyhound
Who’ll harry thee
All these fields around
For here I come in The Lady’s name
All but for to fetch thee hame!
Both:
Cunning and art we do not lack
But I with a whistle will fetch him back
Priest:
Yet I shall go into a trout
With sorrow and sighing and mickle doubt
And show thee many a crooked game
Women:
Trout take heed of an otter lank
Who’ll harry thee close
From bank to bank
For here come I in the lady’s name
All but for to fetch thee hame
Both:
Cunning and art we do not lack
But I with a whistle will fetch him back
Priest:
But I shall go into a bee
With mickle horror
And dread of thee
And flit to hive in the Horned God’s name
Women:
She’ll harry thee close
Through door and pen
For here I come in the Lady’s name
All but for to fetch thee hame!
Both:
Cunning and art we do not lack
But I with a whistle will fetch him back
Men:
Yet I shall go into a mouse
And haste me into the Miller’s house;
There in his corn
To have good game
Ere that I be fetched hame!
Women:
That never was baulked by mouse or rat
For I’ll crack thy bones in our Lady’s name
Thus shalt thou be fetched hame!
Both:
Cunning and art we do not lack
But I with a whistle will fetch him back!
At the conclusion all drop.
Priest:
As one generation doth pass and the next comes thereafter, so have thy secret people always continued. Thou hast returned to us O Lady. Return we ask to the world outside and bring back again the ancient ecstasy of joy and terror and beauty most sublime.
Priestess:
Eko, eko Azarak
Eko, Eko Cernunnos
Eko. Eko, Aradia
She salutes the altar with her athame. The priest dissolves the circle and declares:
The rite is ended. Until we gather once again merry meet and merry part, and merry meet again.