Do you work with deity in ritual? How do you perceive those gods? What is invocation and when does it work? Do you make offerings or sacrifice to the gods, and why? Do you always work with the same gods, or does your focus change with the seasons of the year?
Kris Hughes : The primary Gods of my home are Mona as the mother Goddess and Ganhebon as the Father. These are honoured as a matter of course as the primary polaric deities of Anglesey. Some rituals may call for the honouring of others such as Ffraid during the Imbolc season, Branwen during Beltane, and Bran during the baking of the earth. Our rituals only connect to and forge relationships with the Gods who are locality specific. Those who our ancestors knew. The Gods are honoured in our open rituals, but during closed group gatherings where deep relationships are forged our entire focus will be the Gods alone. Here the Gods are invoked, assumed and connected to on a transformative level, through trance work and vision.
Phil Ryder : Within Druidry this can be problematic for group ritual. In the Druid tradition, each has their own experience of deity and, unless a group has worked together to build a relationship with a particular pantheon, inviting a deity may not be comfortable for all taking part. Our grove tends to call to ‘spirit’ during our group rituals, leaving each member free to honour their own perception of deity in personal practice.
Ximena Eduarda : Invoking the ‘Triple Goddess’ presides my actions: ‘Salute Thee as a Free Spirit, may your presence be in me and may you speak through me’. In each magic moment of the Solar Cycle I invoke corresponding potencies calling them by their qualities and their tutelary goddesses/gods: Vital Fire, Gestation, Fertility, Emanation, Fecundity, Purification, Maturity, Retreat, and Appeasement. For Lunar, besides the Life Cycle, I invoke Darkness Forces, Oscillation Potencies and Goddesses/Daughters/Melith’ores dwelling in Her.
How I name them varies: local names (Pachamama-Mother Earth), celtic (Morrigan, Lugh, Cridwen), I listen how they want to be mentioned when they appear to me. In these territories each moment (and even each day) has a virgin, sometimes I use their name, restituting that quality by the goddess’s (Candelaria, Carmen). To all of them I offer/sacrifice activating reciprocity in fluids, flows and ebb/tides.