Is there a sacred feast within or after you ritual? What does this add to the rite? What is eaten or drunk? Why is it important?
Emma Restall Orr : The feast within a rite is a very important part in my view, for all those who witness the rite know that it is truly done when what has been done is celebrated as having been done. For me, then, the feast is a final confirmation, a final sealing of vows, an acknowledgement of intention and action. Alone, I most often feast with just a few slugs of a good malt whisky and a handful of hazel nuts, both of which powerfully connect me to my family, the ancestors and the land, the first always being a libation for the land and the dead. In my Grove, it is usually homemade bread roughly broken and English mead passed around in an old meadhorn, and the prayers made are a reminder of how lucky we are to have both, and a reminder of how many centuries or millennia our ancestors have had something similar, weaving the gift with blessings and thanksgivings for community, continuity and integration.
Star : In my own private ritual, I usually have a few sips of a special whisky and a rice cake, or a dark chocolate vegan slice. I do this at the end of the ritual, the feast signifying a gift of thanks and honour for my connection with the earth and ancestors. It is also a good way of grounding after a rite. I find the feasting an important part of ritual when alone or in a grove, because it can be a beautiful expression of creativity of the food that people make, givng of their time and energy. Indeed, my own homemade food represents giving something of my self as an offering of thanks in my own rite or at my grove. For me, the feast is a time for sharing and gratitude – it brings union and laughter, revitalising our strength to go back into the world and make a difference.
Phil Ryder : Even in our society were there is no scarcity of food there is still something deep within that is awakened by the action of sharing food. It is symbolic of friendship and it is symbolic of feasting at the end of a job well done, a celebration of tribal achievement. It is also an opportunity to focus on where our food comes from, a gift of the earth and the labour of many hands. It provides an opportunity to give thanks for the abundance that we have in our lives and to think of those less fortunate.
Ximena Eduarda : In local communitarian rituals, when they are linked to magic moments of the Wheel of Life, Sacred Feasts do occur. Usually dance/eating/sharing and the preparation of it all is done with the same dedication as the ritual preparation. For Winter Solstice everyone stays up until sunrise. They are significant moments where reciprocity/pertinence/union unleash their influences and allow everyoneto be together. For example, practice where each one brings something to share is called ‘ap’thapi’, based mostly on potato and some hot sauce and meat, other times lamb/ox/pork are prepared and drinking varies from bear to local liquors and even pure alcohol. And lots of coca to ‘acullicar’ (chew). For Beltane, I prepare my own Sacred Feast, with or without the knowledge o those involved, in public places or more private ones, trying as much as possible to restitute the old ways and channelling the emanation of powers in that moment.