A Rooster and an Impromptu Ritual

[Roni Jean]

I have a tendency to do a lot of impromptu magick. Watching consistently for opportunities, I follow my intuition regularly. I also tend to pursue the next project as soon as one ends, and often kick myself in the ass in the name of progress. Here is one such account:
Wednesday June 22, 2016
Scar was a rooster I did not want, and he was everything a rooster ever is, in the most irritating ways. That afternoon was the day he took his last charge at a human. He had brought to the home through particular circumstances by people no longer in my life, and his life was ended by someone who is now exiting my life as well, ending a complex chapter of my existence. I had her leave him hanging from the archway, having decided that I would use parts of him for magickal purposes and dispose of the rest. We did not trust the meat since he had been sparring with a raccoon recently. I planned to remove parts for later use, and then dispose of the rest of him.
Until I suddenly got the strong urge to do an impromptu ritual.
I washed my hands, brushed my teeth, and cleaned the dishes from dinner as a cleansing and meditative process. Then I started gathering things.
I gathered many things to get rid of, to release as offering.
I gathered items of circumstance to show offering of what I willingly do and participate in to further my path, and thus what I bring to the table as my offering of capabilities.
I gathered many things to use as components of weaving the reality to come.
I chose tools from times throughout my life. Things to carry through into the next.
I invited ethereal allies, cohorts, & friends to gather round the fire pit. I set my things on two folding chairs behind the big log we keep next to the main fire pit. I put the entire jar of incense gifted to me from a hermetic magi friend in the center of the pit. Then built a fire over it. I lit it with a lottery bet slip.
I used oil made by my mother's cousin and her priestess for blessing magickal items. It was a gift at my handfasting. With it I drew on several items that went into the fire in offering. I used the blood of the house (purple nail polish that I bought specifically to paint a bit of exposed drywall in my home - my house bleeds purple, of course) to draw the runes for myself, Ellis, and Legbah on the sugar skull napkins.
I wove, letting free the past to be able to have hands, mind, and time free to create the future. I opened a portal in fire. I fed these things and more into it.
I gave an offering of bourbon (that of a love who is parting ways since the ritual, to incorporate her; my own bourbon was used later in thanks and comradery), and tobacco to Legbah.
I gave offering of a flower from my grandmother's funeral, and grass from the beach during last summers trip to Florida to my higher/highest self.
I gave offering of a snakeskin found last year by my back door - with symbols of me, Ellis, Legbah, ADF, & a cross - to Ellis.
I also burned a friend's Ellis candle (that he made, and gifted me while visiting this year), and one of the carved briquettes he gave to me as well. This was for incorporating both friends and magickal family from afar.
I felt the impact in the gathered as I walked out to get Scar's head, and again (though more curious) later when I went to get the rest of him. I burned scar's head at the top of that peak of burning wood. After, as I circled the fire inside the pit, I felt a binding around my neck and throat removed.
I gave herbs from Convocation a couple of years ago (intended to heal digestive issues) to help make our processing of the times to come as healthy as possible. To help us grow.
I then gave the rest of the flowers from my grandmother's funeral to the fire, burning the things of times past that needed to be let go. Habits, ideas, plans that fell into disuse, plans that could have been beautiful but were never meant to be, wounds old and new, pain of every sort, understandings that were incomplete or limited. Into the inferno they went.
Next, I stood and I wove.
I severed useless threads.
I connected myself to existence, and existence to itself, in new ways.
I sat on the big log for a few moments of rest, facing the chairs full of ritual bits while things settled. I blew bubbles filled with intent to various places both during the ritual segments, and during the couple of breaks I took. For most of the ritual I stood in the fire pit, walking the circle of it between segments of activity.
I used the knife my ex made, but abandoned on my chicken coop last year when he moved, to cut scar apart. I effectively cleansed it of him by doing so.
I cut his wings from his body with that knife and one boot on his body, tossing them in the ash by the fire. I started to take the feet and realized I had to finish with the wings first. I burned each rope to break any bindings upon me. Then I held up his beautiful, broken wings, demanded that I get mine in return, and then stuffed them into the bed of coals below the teepee of burning wood.
I took his feet, and one of the spurs drew blood from my knuckle. I had thought when I started that I do not take half measures. The ritual now had blood magick readily available, so I used it.
There was an angry looking jack skellington doll that had long ago been a gift. I put the blood on his cheeks like war paint, and put him atop the the wings - telling my gallery in no uncertain terms that I was done playing.
After I finished removing his feet, I double wrapped his body in plastic bags, and put all of the lingering past with him into the garbage. It was no longer welcome to take more time or space in, me nor at my hearth, so I sent it away.
I incorporated many items to represent important things in my life that have been equally a part of my magickal journeys and my day to day life. Things which are conducive to living magick both in my journeys and in my every day - an ever more important component to being able to accomplish my Work...
-a dried branch from my Apple Tree that went to Caldera Festival, and back, with me.
-a leaf from an adventure, with important little ones that I love, out on the trails of our property
-sand, shells, and bits of pine cone from Florida last year
-sand and shells from south Florida during the trip to the Bahamas this year
-the dirt that I gathered from next to the outdoor sacrificial fire during the main ritual (for finding our magick and bringing it back to serve our communities), while at retreat this year with the druids
- a stolen collection of two business cards and a single dollar (with my sigils in oil on it in it) from Penguicon
-some of the gems that a friend made, one of mine and one of LS which I kept, and one of mine that went into the wax of the Ellis candle for good
All of these things I used with careful purpose, intent upon telling the story of where I have tread and where I am now taking my life. I set my stage, and have brought it to life. Now I just have to keep up.
At the end I drew my runes, had my bourbon & some pecans socially (and in thanks to) the gathered, and asked a friend to interpret the stones.
As I cleaned up, and was packing everything away to head into the house...
I looked at the cloth that the runes were on ...
It was assembled by my grandmother, who I helped to cross earlier this spring, with a bit of silk on the back. The silk had a faded figure of a woman in a blue dress and hat. I don't even have a picture of it, but it buzzed with energy and purpose that night when I took it out to the ritual.
I had considered many appropriate uses for it.
It was given to me to handle properly.
I almost kept it.
It was the last thing I put in the fire.
I made certain it was understood by all gathered that all of my past was leading to my future, and if any of them questioned my dedication to (or had concerns about me staying focused on) the things coming, they should look down at the fire and watch the sacrifice burning.
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Within a week an unhealthy relationship ended and the girl was moving out. I also went through a rather intense session of shadow work related to narcissistic people and my interactions with them, and began a purging and refocusing session regarding my magickal work.