Nyfed

[crowman]

I understand this to mean sacred space or grove. Following my recent faltering steps at creating my own Winter Solstice ritual I thought about it briefly prior to the ritual and I decided to create space like this...

I began by invoking the protection and assistance of all of my ancestors…blood, spirit and land, Taranis the God of the Sky, Tigernonos the God of the Sea and Rigatona the Goddess of the Land to join with me, hold me and protect me during the ritual, as i invoke them I scatter salt to the four directions, to the sky and to the ground.

It felt right to me at the time but thinking more deeply about it , it smacks of a Druid ritual ie calling the guardians/ directions etc...

Reasons for creating a sacred space is strengthening intent by recognising and greeting of the Gods and by using salt to purify the area. Against creating a space is the fact that as the Gods are all powerful, surely theyre with us all the time and the fact that we have an intention should be enough?

I just wondered if anyone had any thoughts on creating their Nyfed? Do you ritually create space or not?

[megli]

Sounds great to me, as long as the salt wasn't outside!

[nellie]

I understand the use of salt... but is this use of salt a 'neo' thing? Salt would surely have been a truly important substance in its use for food perservation and consumption, and it's not like you can just pick it up. Did the Brythonic people ever use salt in this way or is it just something that makes sense to us now?

As to the ritual space, I constantly read references to the Iceni having artificially created what is sometimes called a 'grove' and at other times a 'spiritual complex'. I haven't yet found where I can read about the actualy archealogical finds but it would seem that it was an enclosure with only the one entrance that would hold a great number of people. They could have met anywhere with space without going to the trouble of creating a dedicated space. My feelings are that it depends on the ritual. The rituals involving the community (however large your community might be) or if they performed dangerous 'trance' type journeys (not saying they did because i haven't a clue - just if) the need for a dedicated space. But everyday observances I think probably wouldn't need that kind of creation of 'sacred space'.
I personally don't create sacred space just because it feels a bit like wicca to me and I'm not a wiccan. The only times I've ever really tried to create space is when I've been feeling threatened - though it was for purely psychological reasons, that of being out alone at night.

[potia]

For my own personal practices I don't usually bother with creating sacred space as such unless I'm trying to create a particular mood to help me with something.

In group rituals (non-brythonic) my prefered methed of creating sacred space is to shake my staff which has bells on it, then walk round the gathering with the staff and finally when I've returned to the starting point to pound the foot of the staff on the ground three times.

[crowman]

I think the invocation helped to focus my intention and defined the pre ritual/ ritual cross-over.... For me the salt scattering was a pointless and meaningless act probably based on what little knowledge i had gleaned about ritual and ceremony. I wont be using it again in any of my future rituals

[crowman]

ps... nellie, francis prior the archaeologist gives quite an interesting insight into the iceni in his work on flag fen... maybe look him up for more info pertinent to you?

[nellie]

CrowMan, would you believe me if I said I have 'Flag Fen - Life and Death of a Prehistoric Landscape' by Francis Prior sitting next to me right now? I got it from the library about 2 days ago but haven't started to read it yet ;D (I'm still reading 'the land of boudica - prehistoric and roman norfolk' which seems quite good except that it places the ickneild way in a difference place to what I had seen before on maps and now has got me completely confused!) I'll put the Flag Fen book next on my agenda ^_^

[crowman]

how's that for synchronisity?

[deiniol]

If I'm at home, then no, I don't "create sacred space". I don't see the point: the home is already a locus of the sacred. "Re-consecrating" it every time I perform any kind of ritual action seems not only somewhat pointless, but also offensive to the spirits of the household.

[Tegernacus]

I don't create a sacred space either, indoors or out. That's a very... erm... Hermetic way of thinking, that the space must be purified before you can connect with the god.

Everywhere is sacred, and everywhere is mundane. The gods aren't up in some higher plane seventh chakra cloud, they are here, now, next to you. You just need to acknowledge them

[Lee]

at home alone there is no need for a formal circle casting etc. in a group 'something' can be useful to get everyone to the place they needs to be; centred, focussed and all in the right mind for what is about to happen.

[dreamguardian]

Jan 7, 2011 19:07:58 GMT -1 Tegernacus said:

I don't create a sacred space either, indoors or out. That's a very... erm... Hermetic way of thinking, that the space must be purified before you can connect with the god.

Everywhere is sacred, and everywhere is mundane. The gods aren't up in some higher plane seventh chakra cloud, they are here, now, next to you. You just need to acknowledge them

Ditto.