an essay by Lisa Morgenstern

    Recently with the CNN and the Los Angeles Times articles about the March 16th [2002] event in Lancaster, California, there has been some confusion about our ritual. I’d initially not mentioned the details of our ritual to the press, for precisely the reason you might expect—that a “ritual” sacrifice, even done in fun, might not come across in our favor in the press. Keep in mind, that this is the second year we’ve done this ritual, and that it was a big hit last year, and we’ve never been bothered before with protestors, so hey, who knew? By the time we knew there were onlookers it was too late. I did omit the “Kill the Wabbit” chant I was going to do, just to keep the fundies from freaking.

    Like it’s been said elsewhere, we did melt the chocolate bunny for fun. This part of the ritual was supposed to create laughter, which is grounding. The circle had just done an indepth visualization of a Grove of Trees to protect the store, followed by a Mah tone chant to raise energy. We needed to ground after that. It was pretty phenonmenal, despite the interference with the music and the two men circling us the whole time, trying to drown us out.

    My Georgian Friends will appreciate the MIRTH involved in the ritual, but as you can see, I was quite serious about what we were doing with the stirring of the chocolate… read on…

    Here is a piece of the ritual we performed, the invocation I wrote and then the part with the bunny.

    Ariadne:   I am the goddess of springtime.
    Mikhael:   I am the Lord of night.
    Both:   Together we balance dark and light.
    Mikhael:   I am the Sun God, the Lord of many names.
    Ariadne:   I am the Goddess of the Moon, countless names have I.
    Mikhael:   I am the Sun which warms the Earth, and creates the spark of life within.
    Ariadne:   I am the Earth which nurtures all living beings.
    Mikhael:   I am everything, yet I am nothing without you.
    Ariadne:   I am everything, yet I am nothing without you.
    Mikhael:   I am God.
    Ariadne:   I am Goddess.
    Both:   We stand equal before you, on this day of Spring Equinox.

    (Tree Visualization, followed by a Mah chant to raise the Grove around the store)

    Ariadne:   (Chocolate Bunny and Fondue Pot) The Goddess tells us in her charge, “I ask of you no sacrifice”…But this Rabbit’s gotta GO! So we are going to “kill the wabbit” . Then melt the bunny, telling it, “thank you for dying so we can eat you.”

    Ariadne says: As male and female are joined in this time of Spring, we bring our wands (which were straight pretzels) to stir in the cauldron of renewal, to stir up those sources of creativity within our souls, and bring forth new and wonderous things. We stir the cauldron of change and merge and blend, female to male, and from that joining comes all life and new beginnings. Blessed be the Goddess, without beginning without end! We welcome the Spring! Blessed BE!

    Come now and stir your wand in the cauldron of renewal. (First Mikhael and Ariadne use pretzel and cauldron, then bring in to do so as well. Attendants bring up circle members one at a time while we sing a song)—Instead we passed out straight wand-like pretzels we’d already dipped with (yes it was white!) white chocolate, Chant: She Changes every thing she touches and Every thing she touches Changes!

Author, Ariadne “Lisa” Morgenstern, used with permission

    The store mentioned in this essay is The Witches Grove. For more information on the Christian protest, visit www.angelfire.com/ca2/antelopevalleypagans/hatecrime.html.