The following is a bit of verse I wrote for my solstice ritual. It has been edited but the original was handwritten and then ritualistically burned to symbolize a sort of rebirth as the winter solstice is the last of the dark half of the Neo-Pagan wheel of the year. Although I admit this calendrical set up doesn't observe all of my non-wiccan beliefs, the concept of the solstice resonates very strongly for me with Persephone and the Orphic myths of her involving Dionysus. The book which inspired heavily my honoring of her in this fashion is called Dionysus: Exciter to Frenzy by Vikki Bradshaw.
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May we fly to worlds new and wondrous
May our love flourish like the lusty wild that makes the rain fall and the trees grow
May love forever honor the flesh even as we revel in the mysteries of the Spirit
May touch be as invigorating as the miracle of divine possession
May our hearts always look up to see a whole universe of stars waiting to be known
We have only but to reach out and know their names
Love, Protection - I summon
Fear, Paralysis to change, I banish
with the Night, her longest reign of the Year, I abandon and commit to Persephone’s descent
the crippling anxiety, the fear that keeps me from embracing the myriad powers of her children in the Green, and her son Zagreus-Dionysus of the vine
with the Sun, Hecate’s Torch, I welcome life renewed
I open my home and heart to the wonders of rebirth
My your power flow freely through the veins of the world of Spirit,
May my walk down the paths you have trod many a time be blessed
as it is an honor to walk in your shadow, and see the beauty of the Hidden World
that you have unlocked, with your Skeleton Key, that not even Gods can deny admittance to.
Life and Madness, Abundance and Pleasure, Lady Persephone sows
I commit to her these ghosts of this years past as fodder for soil,
to be buried to furnish the next year’s King, the return of the Virile Spring,
these I give over to be churned into sustenance
the death of the old gives way to the new
Hail Hecate Mistress of the Mystic Ways, Guardian of the Keys to all the Realms
Hail Persephone, who sits on her Underworld throne, promising death,
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May we fly to worlds new and wondrous
May our love flourish like the lusty wild that makes the rain fall and the trees grow
May love forever honor the flesh even as we revel in the mysteries of the Spirit
May touch be as invigorating as the miracle of divine possession
May our hearts always look up to see a whole universe of stars waiting to be known
We have only but to reach out and know their names
Love, Protection - I summon
Fear, Paralysis to change, I banish
with the Night, her longest reign of the Year, I abandon and commit to Persephone’s descent
the crippling anxiety, the fear that keeps me from embracing the myriad powers of her children in the Green, and her son Zagreus-Dionysus of the vine
with the Sun, Hecate’s Torch, I welcome life renewed
I open my home and heart to the wonders of rebirth
My your power flow freely through the veins of the world of Spirit,
May my walk down the paths you have trod many a time be blessed
as it is an honor to walk in your shadow, and see the beauty of the Hidden World
that you have unlocked, with your Skeleton Key, that not even Gods can deny admittance to.
Life and Madness, Abundance and Pleasure, Lady Persephone sows
I commit to her these ghosts of this years past as fodder for soil,
to be buried to furnish the next year’s King, the return of the Virile Spring,
these I give over to be churned into sustenance
the death of the old gives way to the new
Hail Hecate Mistress of the Mystic Ways, Guardian of the Keys to all the Realms
Hail Persephone, who sits on her Underworld throne, promising death,
release with the proliferation of Night,
but at the end, the Sun rises in Birth.
but at the end, the Sun rises in Birth.
