Calendar of the Sun
1 Lithemonath
Cardea's Day
Color: Blue
Element: Air
Altar: Upon a blue cloth set the model of a gate or doorway with a star upright within it, flanked
by two blue candles, two upright sticks of benzoin incense, and many pots of scented oil.
Offerings: Open a new doorway into your life.
Daily Meal: Something new.
Invocation to Cardea
We come into this world through a door of flesh.
Our bodies are made of that same flesh,
Given to us by a woman who sacrificed
The integrity of her solitary body for our lives.
We come into this world through a gate of love.
Whether there was love to greet us on the other side,
We were sent forth by the love of the Mother Goddess.
We come into this world through a gate of pain and pressure.
Being born is the second hardest thing
That we will ever do,
And the hardest will come at the end of our lives,
And that, too, will have us going through a door.
So it is that all doors are sacred,
And all hinges that swing back and forth,
And remind us that for every coming in,
There is also a going out.
And so we honor Cardea,
Lady of Doors and Hinges,
She who guards the thresholds of all places,
All states, and all things.
And every time we open a door,
Pass under a lintel, cross a threshold,
Or move through a gate,
We will feel her power
And we will be changed.
Chant: We are the doors of all creation
And through us comes all life
(Each takes a pot of scented oil and marks runes with it over every door in the building - Othila,
Eihwaz, Wyn - while saying, "Hail to the Lady of Doors and Hinges! Bring us safely over!")
[Pagan Book of Hours]