Calendar of the Moon 11 Gort/Puanepsion Thesmophoria Day 1: Anodos Colour: Brown Element: Earth Altar: Upon cloth of brown set the day's meal in separate bags for each, with a book tucked into each one. They will be handed out after the invocation. A torch is lit in the center of the altar. Offerings: Do some difficult thing that you have been putting off. Daily Meal: Traveling lunch, to be eaten alone while reading or working. Anodos Invocation (After each line of the invocation, all call out: "We are ready to ascend!") We gather at the foot of the mountain. The way forward is high and steep. When we look up, we are intimidated. We think about all the things that we would rather do. Many of them seem sensible. Why should we be here? There is work to be done, plenty of it. There are tasks which have lingered on our shelves for months, or years. There are people whose needs cry out to us. There are places that we must go, must see to. The world is such a great place, and the errors are many We should be spending our time doing this. That mountain path is so steep. It is a waste of time. Our shoes are thin. They will be full of holes before we reach the top. There are boulders that could fall. We could be killed. Is it worth our lives to climb this thing? Surely it will be here next year, in five years, in ten. Surely there are better things to do. Surely we can put it off for one more day. After all, we have put it off this far, and no harm has come of it. Look at that path. It forks and diverges. We might lose our way. We might be lost there forever. Are we truly ready for this? Are we truly ready for this? No, we are not. But it does not matter. We must climb it anyway. For there is a time for all things, and that time is now. Take your nourishment, my sisters and brothers, and climb. For the time has come to ascend. Song: Going Up The Mountain Song: Mountain God
[Source:paganbookofhours.org]