by Georgia van Raalte

This Rite inverts the logic of the Rite of Drawing Down the Moon.

Begin this rite by opening the Temple/Circle, and banishing according to your preferences. 

Call the quarters: instead of weapons and watchtowers, the corners should be marked with plants and animal matter appropriate to each element (for example, water, shell, lilies/seaweed; earth, bones, roots; air, feather, flowers; fire, coal, chilli)

The Caller:

Hail to thee, Guardians of the Watchtower of the North. All thou flying and floating things, Feathered, furred, winged and winging.  Aerial creatures, vines in the sky, flowers hanging like riddles on the great tree of life: Hail. 

Hail to thee, Guardians of the Watchtower of the East. All thou flaming and smouldering things. Melting, molten, burnt and burning. Salamanders, steaming vents, chillis growing red on tangled vines: Hail.

Hail to thee, Guardians of the Watchtower of the South. All thou floating and frothing things. Swimming, sinking, wet and waiting. A thousand frogs, the waves, the tide, a forest of seaweed striking out from ocean floor: Hail.

Hail to thee, Guardians of the Watchtower of the West. All thou earthy and crawling things. Digging, dirty, buried and burying. Brother worm, the fertile ground, the white of bones and strength of roots bursting forth: Hail.

The Receiver:

Sink down, sink down, sink deeper and more deep

Into eternal and primordial sleep.

Sink down, be still, forget and draw apart

Into the inner earth’s most secret heart.

Drink of the waters of Persephone, the secret well beside the sacred tree.

Waters of life and strength and inner light-

Eternal joy born from the deeps of night. 

Then rise, made strong, with life and hope renewed, reborn fro, darkness and from solitude. 

Blessed with the blessing of Persephone,

And secret strength of Rhea, Binah, Ge.

The Caller:

We are deep in the earth, gazing fondly upon this vulvic cave, this sacred space. Listen to the voice springing out from this great crevasse. It is the mushroom king, Our Lord of Horn and Hoof. Listen to the god in the ground:

And that which thou hearest is but the dropping of the dews from my limbs, for I dance in the night, naked upon the grass, in shadowy places, by running streams.

Many are they who have loved the nymphs of the woods, and of the wells, and of the fountains, and of the hills. And of these some were nympholept. For it was not a nymph, but I myself that walked upon the earth taking my pleasure. So also there were many images of Pan, and men adored them, and as a beautiful god he made their olives bear double and their vines increase; but some were slain by the god, for it was I that had woven the garlands about him.

The Receiver:

Dancing, say: I call thee and draw thee, Oh Holy Mother of Abominations. By germ and rot, by worm and roach, by snake and toad and fungi, by earth and clay and by the compost heap do I invoke thee! I feel thee glowing on the souls of my feet. Rise up and pour forth into the body of thy servant. 

Feel the force rise from the ground, through the skin of your feet. Pressure like a sparkling wave fills all of your spaces. Raise your arms to the skies and allow the force to pour forth, shooting out like water and falling in a great circle back to earth. The whole earth is covered with this sparkling tide; you are the pillar of a great fountain. The force falls to earth and the earth glows and sings, and the force within it grows ever stronger. You are the centre of a perpetuating circuit.