Calendar of the Sun
26 Weodmonath
Ilmatar's Day
Colors: White and blue
Element: Water
Altar: The altar cloth should be half sea-colored and half starry night sky. Upon it place the
figure of a reclining woman, with eggs resting between her thighs.
Offerings: Eggs.
Daily Meal: Fish and eggs.
Invocation to Ilmatar
In the beginning, the Daughter of the Air
Came down to rest upon the sea,
And the sea made her womb full and fair.
And Ilmatar, starry goddess,
Lady of the star's reflection on the waters,
She floated there on the ocean
For seven hundred years,
For nine ages of man,
But no birth was born and no creature created.
Ilmatar the water-mother swam all the skylines
And wept as she was driven on the waves,
Until came a sea-bird, seeking to build
Its cabin on the wind, its dwelling on the billows,
And came to rest instead upon her knee.
There it laid six golden eggs
And one final egg of iron.
The eggs hatched, one each day,
Warmed by the heat of the water-mother,
And fell into the water.
They became earth and sky below and above,
Land to walk on from the broken shells,
Golden sun from the yellow yolk,
Silver moon from the frothy whites.
Bless us, Ilmatar, water-mother,
Daughter of sky, marriage of sea and air,
Bless our blood and our breath
With your delicate touch.
(The eggs are carried, one at a time, into the woods or brush, where they are laid out for Ilmatar
as an offering, through the forest spirits.)
[Pagan Book of Hours]