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The Senua Ritual
Authors: Dysara and Jane Raeburn

Preparation

Because the artifacts indicated that Senua had been depicted in the style of the Roman Minerva, we used a Minerva statue to represent her.

Ritual space is prepared with an altar and a container of water (the "well") in the center, another altar in the north, and candles at each of the four directions.

On the central altar is the statue of Senua and four candles. On the north altar is a tabletop fountain, a chalice of water, a wand, a ritual knife, two additional candles (optional) and a dish of coins. A small bowl is placed near the well, and matches are in a convenient place near the central altar.

After the participants are assembled in the space, all lights are extinguished.

Our experience was that this worked well with four people conducting the ritual, but the parts may be divided in whatever way is convenient or meaningful.

Opening Meditation

We begin in darkness, in the cool, quiet earth of an ordinary town. Here she sleeps for hundreds of years. Kings and queens come and go. Wars start and end. Roads roll through the town. Generation upon generation of people are born, live their lives, and return to the earth. She sleeps, she and her treasures, carefully hidden, in an ordinary field.
One thousand years pass, and perhaps eight hundred more. A man passes over the field, searching for metal, probing the earth with electrical pulses. It is this electricity which finds her, yet still she does not wake. Carefully, people of science bring her forth from the earth, she and her treasures corroded and covered with dirt. Yet still she does not wake. After nearly a year of study and conservation, her name is known and can be revealed to the world: Senua.

light first of the four candles on the central altar

Everyone came to the spring, not only for fresh water, but for healing, for cleansing, for the chance to meet one’s neighbors. The town was growing, the world around it changing, but the people still called the spring and its goddess by an ancient name: Senua. They were grateful to the goddess for the steady flow of water that allowed their area to thrive. The Romans adopted her, gave her the look of one of their goddesses, built her a temple. Perhaps this displeased some, but the goddess herself continued to bless the area: The shrine grew into a rich and important place of worship as the area around it grew wealthier. Gold and silver were given to her as her due, and men and women from far and near offered prayers to her, gave rich gifts to her in thanks for favors received. Even when new conquerors and religions arrived and the temple was threatened, someone cared enough for Senua to pack her treasures carefully and bury them where they would be safe.

light second candle

Centuries later, after news of her rediscovery becomes known, a group of people who worship the ancient deities gather in a place far across the ocean. We study the reports of Senua’s treasure. We study the temples of ancient Celto-Roman towns, and the powers of water goddesses. And then we put the books aside, and build a temple of our own, a temple of imagination and worship. In the spiritual realm we return to Senua’s town, finding a lavish temple near a spring, disused, dirty and in need of repairs. With energy and love we cleanse and purify this sacred space, repairing the temple door, unclogging the sacred spring, bringing the house of the goddess back into order. When the work is done, we find that the town around us seems to be waking up as well, its residents stirring and going about their business, many of them giving new attention to the crossroads temple. The four of us go inside the temple, and make offerings of wine, food, and prayer to the goddess, seeking to renew her divine power. It works.

light third candle

Senua speaks to you: Like the water of the spring I am powerful, yet the taste of my waters is ever sweet. In this, my second life, I am a goddess of healing and renewal, and my message is this: Even if your spirit has slept for many years, you still have the power to reawaken it. When I came to the light, I began to draw people to me. They do not build temples with silver and gold offerings today I find, but thousands see me every day in the museum where my statue is housed, and my name is on their lips, and on the lips of people around the world who find meaning in the ancient ways. Know that as you come into the light, you too have the power to give generously of your heart and spirit, to inspire others and be inspired in return. To know me better, taste of my waters and tell my story, as these four have told it this night.

light fourth candle

Opening of the Inner Temple

Circle casting

It is our custom to create sacred space by honoring the Celtic poetic triad of "land, sea and sky."

Call to the four quarters

It is our custom to invoke the Roman names of the winds: Eurus (east), Auster (south), Favonius (west), Aquilo (north). In this ritual, the quarter candle is lit after the wind has been invoked..

Invocation of Senua

She who was given back to us by the earth
faceless, unknown, forgotten.
Senua, we call you forth from the ages of decay,
that you may find a new face,
that you may no longer be unknown and forgotten.
Senua, emerge from the ground, out from the shadows,
be in this circle and within it find your new community.
May your waters flow once more no longer frozen in the ages past.
Welcome, Senua!

All: Welcome, Senua!

During the invocation, additional candles at the north altar are lit. As "Welcome Senua" is spoken, the fountain is turned on.

Message of Senua

This is a new age, a new time. Yet those things that were once important still remain. Life is still sustained and nourished by the waters of the Earth and those of us that hold these waters as sacred still gather in community as did our ancestors. The waters of Senua flow backward into history connecting us with those who originally worshiped along side Senua's spring.

People once congregated around the watery places of the Earth. Here was where life could thrive, here was where crops could grow in abundance and villages and towns could grow and increase. It is by the blessings of the rivers, springs, and sacred wells of the Earth that the first civilizations grew, community was born by the waterside.
Here once more community gathers to find support and nourishment... from the waters and from each other for these things are interconnected and forever bound together.

Words of the Goddess

Hear the words of Senua:

You are a drop of water, yet a drop of water that falls into my well casts a mighty wave! For years upon years I knew nothing but cold solitude. Now I have returned and by your love have awoken. With me I bring the joy that can only be found after darkness is known. I bring the warmth that can only be felt by the ice that breaks under the sun’s rays. I bring love, passion and playfulness, for I rejoice with you my new community. I bring healing and renewal, for all these things I have found again with your aid.

Inner Temple Meditation

Here we asked participants to close their eyes and take a few deep breaths while one of us described an inner journey to the imagined Temple of Senua. This temple is based on our study of Senua's artifacts and of Celto-Roman temples in general, but also includes elements drawn from the visualizations we did in our preparatory rituals. Because this work is in itself highly rewarding, and because visualizations tend to be very specific to the individual, we will not give the details here, but will instead encourage anyone undertaking the worship of Senua to do their own study and meditation, and devise their own path to the temple of Senua. Participants are asked to hold the image of this temple in the back of their minds for the remainder of the ritual.

The "well" contained water and colored stones.

The Blessing of the Water

standing over the "well"

Senua, Fair Goddess of river and spring
You are finite yet boundless
You are spent yet renewed
Your time has passed, your time has come
The ice is broken, may your waters flow once more.

Senua, be within this circle, and bless this vessel of water. As you heal, so will you bring healing for your waters are a renewable resource and the resource that renews us. The more that we give the more we shall receive. Senua, we pray that you will share with us your gifts of cleansing and healing.

All Chant: Water of life flows, Senua's power grows

While the chant is repeating, one participant takes a small bowl, dips it into the well, then takes the water around to each of the people present, dipping her finger into the bowl and then touching the person's forehead, saying:

Receive the blessings of Senua's waters!

Chant continues until all are blessed.

Offering

As we receive blessings so should we return blessings ... this is what creates a strong community and a strong bond between us and our gods. All things are interconnected. As we approach Senua’s well again, let us make an offering to her. With these coins, we express our wishes for her renewed life and new community, and offer our promises of what we are willing to do to help these wishes come true.

The coins are passed and each person takes one, then comes up to the well in turn and drops it into the water, saying:

Senua, accept this offering of.....

... whatever personal or community needs they wish to express, or simply saying "Hail Senua."

Chalice and Blade

Hear now the mystery of the goddess
For those who listen, her voice is on the wave
For those who look, her eyes are in the flame
For those who thirst, her lips are gentle rain
For those who hunger, she is fruitful in the god's embrace.

The ritual knife is dipped into the chalice of water. The person holding the chalice makes a mental and spiritual connection to the goddess and speaks briefly with her voice, or just speaks a few words of inspiration. The chalice is passed around the circle with the words "Perfect love and perfect trust."

Return from Inner Meditation

This consists simply of retracing the path established in the first meditation, so that everyone ends securely in the here and now.

Farewell to Senua

Fair Senua, Goddess reborn.
No longer faceless, no longer unknown.
We offer you our love and we thank you for your blessings.
Each person present here is forever connected with you and your regeneration and renewal.
You will not be forgotten again!
Hail and farewell!

All: Hail and Farewell!

Farewell to the Quarters

Close Circle