Schedule
Our Samhain Rite is on 1 November 2025 at CedarLight Center and on Zoom.
- 4 PM: Doors open to guests
- 6 PM: Pre-ritual brief
- 7 PM: Ritual begins
- After ritual: The Feast!
- 10 PM Doors Close
(You don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here.) - Cost: $20.00 suggested donation
Times are subject to change, please check our website blog, our Event Calendar or our Samhain Facebook event for the most up-to-date information on the ritual. All High Rites are open to the public, so feel free to bring a friend 🙂
Times are subject to change, please check before you leave.
The rite is open to the public, however, we are encouraging all persons attending events at the grove to be fully vaccinated. Please attend via Zoom if you are sick; that is why we provide it.
Zoom Info (TBD)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/
Meeting ID: 468 067 1478
Lore of the Season & Ritual Information For the NORSE celebration of SAMHAIN
Theme: Honoring The Ancestors, specifically our dead (individually and collectively)
Prayer: We come together in the Norse tradition with a Blot to the dead.
Note, the Wild Hunt started as a procession of the dead returning to visit their loved ones. The folk left out and extra plate of food and a candle burning in the window or outside to help them find their way home.
Deities of the Occasion: Odin and Freya as choosers of the slain and psychopomps of the dead, also gods of magic and seership.
Gatekeeper: Idunna
Outsiders: Thor
Earth Mother: Jord (Yorth)
Mothers of Waters
Bardic Inspiration: Bragi
We will follow our usual order of ritual. Below are portions for group participation.
Processional: Music or processional Folk light candles and go around the sanctuary 2-3x.
Meditation Involving the Ancestors
Lighting the fire with the candles and the Unity fire charm
-The folk light the torches and circle around clockwise to put their candles in the fire to light it.
Our dead: An invocation and then the group calls out the names of the dead we want to join us.
(We could drum or rattle or just call the names into the darkness)
Blot Everyone brings a cup that can easily be poured into. The small glasses will not be good for this. Encourage the folk to bring their own cup, horn, chalice, etc.)
Round 1 to the gods:
Rounds 2 and 3 to the ancestors: #rd round can also be to the gods if you have no more ancestors to call.
Order of the Dead
Personal Magic while we drum
What to Bring
Please bring a dish to pass that will serve approximately 8 people. We will need both main and side dishes. You may bring something to drink with the folk after the rite if you chose. Alcohol will consumed only in moderation and only by adults over 21. ** We have folks with severe allergies and food sensitivities so a list the ingredients if available is much appreciated.**
Suggested Seasonal Food:
- Crock pot dishes are encouraged as they can be kept warm, you bring it with you and it can be easily taken home with you. (No one has to wash it at the grove.)
- Chilis
- Stews and Soups
- Anything Seasonal!
- Various fruits for this time of year
- Baked breads and pastries
- Pumpkin dishes or orange dishes in general
- Lots of apple dishes!
- Apple cider and mulled spices
- Ancestral recipes or foods your ancestors enjoyed.
- We always need help with main dishes!
There are cans of sparkling water and sodas available at the Grove for $1.00 each. Feel free to contribute beverages to the Grove! Filtered water is available from the kitchen sink in the Grove Space. Ask any member how it works.
Dressing in garb or the manner of the spiritual ancestors is encouraged. Dress for the Weather if you are joining us from an outside location. The High Rite will be done outdoors, and it may be cold. If it rains we will be under the pavilion. Be prepared with a coat/cloak, hand warmers, lap blankets, and warm clothes. If you have a chair you’d like to sit in during the High Rites, we suggest bringing that too.
Children and Pets
Children are welcome to all CedarLight events, but small children must be attended at all times because our center is not child proof, there are stairs, fires, candles and small items that could be swallowed. We do not yet have children activities planned for this event however that can change if we know they are coming.
Pets, with the exception of service animals, however, are not allowed because we have learned from past mistakes that not everyone knows how to approach an animal and not every animal will behave predictably with many strangers around. Thank you for understanding.
Suggested Offerings
At CedarLight Center, burnable offerings can be made BUT cleared with the firewarden(s) and Chief Liturgists – these can be letters to the dead, incense, flowers, food, etc. Poems, songs, prayers for the dead are totally appropriate. Please check with the Chief Liturgists BEFORE, the pre-ritual briefing to discuss your offering. Otherwise it can be done silently while we are passing the basket to to offer to the ancestors.
During our Samhain Rite, the members of our Order of the Dead rededicate themselves to that work will have the ability to do so.
We will have an ancestors altar outside that will be devoted to our dead. Folks are encouraged to bring pictures of their dead but please do not bring originals. It has rained during Samhain in the past and we don’t want anyone to lose an original picture. We will have tea lights and holders outside. Please don’t put tea lights directly on the tablecloth.
- We have several ongoing fundraisers; however, we request donations to CedarLight to replenish the funds we spent to replace our roof and gutter. This helps us maintain our parsonage and sanctuary in the spirit of supporting our community.
*We have envelopes near the donation cauldron, we take PayPal, see email address below, or we take checks, just note on the check what donations go where.
PLEASE NOTE: We take oaths very seriously. Any oaths given as an offering MUST be cleared with the Senior Druid prior to the High Rite. Please see Sean-Paul upon arrival if you plan on giving an oath.
Ritual Etiquette
- Do not honor deities of different pantheons than those being honored at this rite
- (TBD) PLEASE KEEP YOURSELF MUTED ON ZOOM. Zoom Attendees are encouraged to make their own offerings at home but there will be no audio input into the rite from Zoom. Attendees who continually disrupt the ritual with background noise because they are unmuted will be removed from the Zoom room.
- Offerings will be mainly given in silence as a group, but if you have something you wish to say, sing, or recite, let the Chief Liturgist know ahead of time so they can make time for your offering
- Do not declare any oaths during the rite without expressed permission from the Chief Liturgist well before the rite.
After Ritual
If folks wish to hang out after the rite, the Zoom room (TBD) will remain open for socializing. Feel free to bring dinner and make it a virtual potluck! We won’t even nag you about washing the dishes but request each person washes their own to help the hearth wardens!
Cost/Donations
All CedarLight events have a suggested donation of $20 per person. This can be contributed to Dagda’s Cauldron either at the Grove, or online via paypal to cedarlightgrove@gmail.com. All donations go towards CedarLight Center bills and upkeep.
Our Samhain High Rite will be held on Saturday, November 7.
Please note: Due to the ongoing COVID restrictions required by Baltimore City, we are unable to accommodate more than 25 people to celebrate rites at CedarLight Center, and this includes the ritual team on site. If you would like to celebrate with us at CedarLight, YOU MUST RSVP to events@cedarlightgrove.org and we will let you know if there is still space available.
Masks will be required inside the building for all participants at CedarLight Center and outdoors where social distancing is not possible.
All are welcome to participate remotely via Zoom, that link will be posted on our public Facebook page at 5pm on the 7th. Don’t use Facebook? Send an email to events@cedarlightgrove.org and we will email you the link when we open the room.
