Calendar of the Moon
5, 7, 9 Saille/Mounukhion
Lemuria
Colors: Black and grey
Element: Air
Altar: Upon cloth of black and grey set a bowl of beans, nine black candles, a brazier with
incense of agrimony and rue, a bottle of good wine, a bowl of clean spring water, a knotted rope,
a bowl of asafoetida, and a skull.
Offerings: None. This is a banishing. All carry cymbals, drums, or noisemakers.
Daily Meal: Goat meat. Beans.
Lemuria Invocation
(First the one who has been chosen to do the work of the ritual stands forth, takes the knotted
rope from the altar, and unknots it, and throws it into the brazier.)
Call: Shades of those who have gone before us!
Ghosts and demons, inside us and outside,
Hear us!
Response: We cast you out! We drive you before us!
Call: Begone from house and hearth,
Begone from mind and heart,
Begone from roost and stall,
Begone from field and garden,
Begone from path and road,
Begone from all places
Where you might harry us!
We scatter you before us on the wind!
Response: We cast you out! We drive you before us!
(The officiant makes the sign of the ficus towards the west, and all follow in turn. Then the
officiant washes their hands in the clear spring water, and brings the bowl to all, who wash in
turn. The water is poured out in the libation well. Then the beans are passed around, and all take
a handful or a mouthful. Each spits or throws the beans in a different direction.)
Call: Hace ego mitto, his redime meque meosque fabis!
Response: Manes exite paterni! Manes exite paterni! Manes exite paterni!
(All walk through the house and around the boundaries of the property, clashing cymbals and
beating drums and making noise to drive away all evil spirits. This ritual repeats for three days,
only on odd-numbered days, which are luckier than even-numbered days.)
[Pagan Book of Hours]