Calendar of the Sun
16 Eostremonath
Iduna's Blot
Colors: Green
Element: Earth
Altar: Upon cloth of green place a bowl of apples in different colors, a horn of mead, a polished
stone, a bowl of nuts, and many gardening tools such as hoes and spades.
Offerings: Today's work should concentrate entirely on gardening, even in inclement weather. If
there is an orchard, special care should be taken with it.
Daily Meal: Vegetarian. Serve fruit and nuts.
Invocation to Iduna
Hail to you, Lady of the Sacred Orchard!
Hail to you, gardener of Asgard!
Let the other gods quarrel
About who may sit higher than whom,
About whose sword is sharper
And whose spear is keener.
You, Lady, know your place,
And that place is indispensable.
You are the One Who Works,
The one without whom all the plans
And grandiosities of the others
Would simply come to nothing.
Giver of health and immortality,
Keep our bodies sound and strong!
Keep us healthy, that we may, like you,
Get up each and every morning
While the rest of the world quarrels
And go quietly to our tasks,
Working the Earth that you love so much,
Knowing that ours is the real work
And the real life, not some shell
Of unbodied, distanced work
Whose products we will never see.
Help us in our daily round of sacred labor,
Lady of the Sacred Orchard,
And may our gardens bloom as yours.
(The horn of mead is passed around, and the rest poured as a libation to Iduna. Each takes an
apple and some nuts as a snack for their work-hours, and then each takes a gardening tool from
the altar, thanks Iduna, and goes outside to work.)
[Pagan Book of Hours]