Media Aestas
Colours: Gold and blue Element: Earth Altar: Upon a golden cloth set a single blue candle, a bunch of herbs from the garden, lengths of twine, a bowl of rainwater, a bucket of manure tea, and several empty baskets. Offering: Water and fertilizer, to be added to the garden. Daily Meal: Vegetarian Media Aestas Invocation Earth, your bounty is showered upon us! We walk amid your green leaves And cut down what you give us, And the harvest begins in earnest. Bless us with a full pantry As the Sun begins to wane, Let us eat his light in the food You gift to our table. We now enter the time of year When we do take more than is given, Yet even now we will water and feed you, For this is the dance of giving. And we shall do the sacred act of cultivation, Weeding that which hinders our harvest, Bringing the first death that Life may go on. Chant: Gift given Hands receive you Earth's bounty Brings the sheaf to you (Two who have been chosen to do the work of the ritual take up the rainwater and the manure tea, and carry them out tot he garden, where they are ceremonially poured around the roots of the herbs and vegetables, and especially into any plots of land where everything has been harvested. All others follow with empty baskets to harvest some thing from the garden, or twine to cut herbs and hang them to dry. After this, each should do some weeding, as weeding is the sacred cultivation work of this season. The weeds should be placed in a compost heap with all due reverence; we take their perfectly legitimate lives that our own plants may grow.) [source:Paganbookofhours.org]