Calendar of the Sun
16 Hrethemonath

Day of the Birds' Return

Colors: Sky blue, white, and grey
Element: Air
Altar: Upon a cloth of sky blue place incense, a fan made of a bird's wing, feathers, and many figures of birds. Place several square sheets of paper and pens nearby.
Offerings: Origami birds, written with blessings. Birdseed to sprinkle outside.
Daily Meal: Poultry

Invocation for the Day of the Birds' Return

The sky is wide open
To a mind who can fly
Merely by watching
And then flash behind the bird's eye.
Each fall we watch them go,
And what heart does not yearn to follow them,
If only for a moment?
And yet we stay rooted to the earth,
For our wings do not follow the sky's wind,
But instead the winds of the mind.
And beside that, we know
That we will see them return
Every year, every spring,
With the awakening of the Earth.
With an instinct as sure
As the sun's cycling year,
They come back home to where they began,
No compass but mind and heart.
May our journeys, inward and outward,
Be as sure and steady
As the return of the birds
We see now in the sky.

(All come forth and take paper and pen, and write a private message to the Powers of Air. The papers are then folded up into origami birds, by one who is skilled in this art, or by all if they know how. The birds are taken outside and let fly into the wind, along with a quantity of birdseed. If weather permits, singing should be done outside on this day, both in the morning and after this ritual; there are no specific songs for the day, but all singing should be addressed to the sky itself.)

[Pagan Book of Hours]