Calendar of the Moon
1 Ngetal/Maimakterion
Day of the Reed
Color: Blue-green
Element: Earth
Altar: Upon a blue-green cloth set a vase of reeds, a single blue-green candle, a pot of soil, seeds
of some rare but useful plant, a bowl of water, and a bell.
Offerings: Plant seeds.
Daily Meal: Vegan
Invocation to the Green Man of the Reed
Hail, Green Man of the Autumn!
In this time of whistling winds
And growing cold, when we see
The year wind down towards
Inevitable winter, the reeds
Sing their mournful song
Along river and marsh,
And the eternal ocean's shore.
Reed who thatched our ancestors
Homes, who gave them roofs
Over their head and shelter
From the wild elements
That your month promises,
Remind us that the best way
To assuage sorrow and mourning
Is by finding some way to work
With hands and body
Toward the coming of a new day,
Even if that day be only for the eyes
Of others not yet born.
Let us put roofs over the heads
Of all who need them, borne
Out of our own mourning
For what should already have been.
We hail you, sacred reed,
Green Man of the Autumn,
On this your day of falling.
(Use any keening, wordless, mournful polyphonic chant. Each comes forward and plants a seed
in the pot of soil, saying, "Hail Green Man of the Earth!" Water is poured onto the pot, and then
the rest is poured out as a libation. Ring bell and dismiss.)
[Pagan Book of Hours]