Tuning the Wheel

Reflections on the Seasonal Rites as a Living Tradition

by Lawren Freebody Runyon

There is a world of difference between reading a ritual and living it.

On the written page, a ceremony is only a script comprised of words, gestures, stage directions. A reader can trace the mythology and recognize the symbolism. But out in the Henge, beneath the vast, shifting canopy of the sky, the senses open like doors, and the world walks in: the unexpected wind, the precise quality of light, the green or the gold of the month. The season, too, has heard the summons. The season, too, has come to take its rightful place in the Circle.

The Seasonal Rites of Baal and Astarte were never meant to be simple dramatic recreations of ancient Canaanite myth. From the start they were designed as a cycle. Early accounts tie the stories of Baal, Astarte, Mot, and the others to the changing year, the elements, and the alchemical processes linked to the quarters of the Magick Circle. The primal forces of Baal’s thunder, Astarte’s fierce love, and Mot’s barren stillness were always associated with the changes of the seasons. The earliest Adonia text describes the Summer Solstice rite as part of a planned cycle of seasonal ceremonies, with later rites carrying the drama through descent, death, renewal, and Sacred Marriage.

As the Circle is established, the quarters invoked, the words spoken, the chants repeated, and the celebrants move together around the Henge, energy is raised. The repeated circling, voice, attention, emotion, and shared intent combine to build a powerful energetic field within the sacred space.

It is an honor to take one of the principal roles, but Poke has written the ceremonies so that everyone present is…