Copyright © 1997 John Machate
All Rights Reserved
May not be reposted without written consent from the author
As I prepared my items for the rite I was a little nervous. I have not invoked Mannanan outdoors in some time and the last time I did, he responded. So I was unsure as to how this was going to be receieved. I gathered my Circle of Stones, a small dagger, a jar of wine a bowl for the wine and my jewlry thatI always wear.
I walked to the site which is near a stream that feeds the Patuxent river here in Maryland. There is a small path that leads to the stream and from this path many deer parths intersect. As I got closer the the stream I saw her...a youngdoe thatI saw a few days before. She has a fawn but I did not see the baby. I watched her as I approached the stream and her eyes never left me. I avoided looking into hers eyes, I was afraid of what I might find. I got to the stream and moved to my site, she watched, just 10 feet away. Within several strides I could have touched her.
I dug my pit near enough to the water so that it was full of water when I finished. I placed my Circle of Stones on the dry area and put the wine in my offering bowl. I faced the doe to do my rite. I was nervous and visibly shaking, I have never had an animal this close without a fence, and she did not seem nervous at all. I prepared to Center and relax. I am the center of the universe...as I stood in the Center of the Three Realms I looked for the doe. She had gone without a sound before I had even finished.
I said my invocation and prepared to place my sacrifice into the pit. I shook as I removed the bracelet from my arm. A gift from a former love that I never removed. I dropped it in the pit and filled it back in with mud. No trace, the location of my pit is now covered by the stream, Mannanan had taken it for ever.
I thanked the Ancestors and spirits for witnessing my rite and asked Mannanan to guide my family back to the Otherworld before he closed the gate. I raised my bowl of wine to the location of where the doe had been and poured it into the earth. It was done.
My hands still shook for an hour after this experience. I know that this stream is my new ritual site, and my offerings have been accepted.