(This festival fell on the 21st of February in 2009. For information on the Wuruma Wheel of the Year, click label at end of post.)
(I am pronouncing Wuruma as WUH-ruh-muh.)
The Wuruma Wheel applies to the seasons occurring on the NSW Central Coast (just above Sydney). It is not the same as the Southern Wheel. (For Southern Wheel click label at end of article.)
I have named some of the Wuruma Wheel festivals after their British/European counterparts. This merely for convenience.
I have not thrown out the Southern Wheel and have no desire to do so. The Southern Wheel connects me to my British and European ancestors, and to the community standard of Australian Neopaganism.
February 2009 was my first celebration of Wuruma Lughnasadh. Later celebrations of it may differ.
On and around February the 21st the flowering gums were and still are in bloom and the rainbow lorikeets have been and still are feasting on them.
I took the flowering gum and the lorikeets as the themes for my Wuruma Lughnasadh altar. I decorated it with gum flowers dropped by the lorikeets and I was lucky enough to find a shed lorikeet feather so that was included too.
I do not know what form or forms the rituals of the local Aboriginal people took and take. If it is secret business I do not wish to find out. Where there is something inappropriate to the Wuruma in the Neopagan rituals and altar, I leave it out of the Wuruma.
Two main issues influence my Wuruma altars and rituals. One is the secret business issue and the other is the amount of inaccurate and confused lore about Aboriginal spirituality and culture within white Australian society. Until I have accurate lore from Aboriginal people from my area and the elders' permission to use it, I am basing my Wuruma rituals on Anglo-Celtic Neopagan rituals.
Below are some parts of my Wuruma Lughnasadh ritual.
For the smoking ceremony (smudging) I collected leaves from native trees in the area, put them in a fire-proof bowl and lit them.
(Australian native leaves produce plenty of smoke so if it’s too windy to do this outdoors I recommend disabling any smoke alarms beforehand. Visit from neighbours and the fire brigade tends to disrupt ritual.)
I smoked myself thoroughly and enjoyed the scent of the burning gum leaves and casuarina needles. I live in a flat and my altar is indoors and so I had the smoking ceremony outside then carried the ash in to the altar.
The elements I use on my Wuruma Wheel altars differ from those on my Southern Wheel altars.
Southern Wheel Elements:
Fire for North
Air for West
Water for East
Earth for South
Wuruma Wheel Elements:
Water for East
Fire for North
Earth for West
Air for South
For Water I used a rough wooden bowl, Fire was the smoking ceremony, Earth was a handful of local sand, Air was the lorikeet feather plus feathers shed by the local pelicans and galahs.
I call the quarters in my Wuruma rituals because they help me to disengage from the whitefella world of my town and plug into the native flora and fauna and landscape.
Below are the quarter calls I wrote.
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Quarter Calls:
East, Element of Water
Touch me with your gifts of undiscovered deeps, soft rain and bush creeks,
Come down from the clouds to water the Autumn Earth
Hail and welcome.
North, Element of Fire
Touch me with your gifts of light and energy and wild beauty,
Bring your fire to benefit the bush and the people
Hail and welcome.
West, Element of Earth
Touch me with your gifts of quiet rest, golden stone and sheltered places,
Yield up your stored warmth to ripen the Autumn harvests
Hail and welcome.
South, Element of Air
Touch me with your gifts of wind song and coolness and rain-filled cloud,
Bring your storms and clouds to cool down the Autumn Earth
Hail and welcome.
Calling the Gods:
I call the European gods of Australian Neopagans as I know nothing of the gods or spirits of the area. There were a lot of storms around the time of the Wuruma Lughnasadh so I called Striker (generic name for the thunder god) and the Harvest Lord for the harvest of gum flowers the lorikeets were enjoying.
As in previous Wuruma rituals, I addressed this explanation directly to the gods and spirits of the area, asking them for forgiveness if I unwittingly used secret lore.
Path-working:
At the Wuruma Beltane in 2008, I meditated on the natural landscape around me, using the flight of a native bird over it to explore it. This meditation worked well so I used it again.
This festival was my third on the Wuruma Wheel and I am still feeling my way in terms of suitable ritual, flora and fauna, correspondences and so on. My 2010 Wuruma Lughnasadh festival could be quite different. Only time will tell.
The next festival on the Southern Wheel is Autumnal Equinox on the 21st of March.
The next festival on the Wuruma Wheel of the Year is Wuruma Samhain on the 31st of May.
Southern Wheel of the Year
Wuruma Wheel of the Year
