General Ritual Format
One advantage of being a Sol is not having to use anyone else's Patrons.
I've established a fairly set pattern, though this is only the beginning of my second year in ADF. On the Quarter Days (Solstices and Equinoxs), I do a Norse ritual, down to the mead (expensive as hell, since they don't have any US brewed stuff... I am very conservative with this stuff, both in and out of ritual). On the other Holy days, I do a Celtic-focussed ritual. The same structure is in each... in fact, it's basically one ritual, slightly altered to suit the purposes of each day.
First, I start with my preparations. These generally include 4 pieces of bread (of 2 different kinds... 3 pieces of one, 1 of the other), three candles, a small, Tupperware bowl, an incense burner and a stick of incense, and a sacrifice (mead on Norse Days, Killians or Guinness more often than not on Celtic days... my gods deserve only the best, even if it does damn near impoverish me), and something to keep the beat... I used to use a staff, but now I have the remains of the dowels I cut my runes out of... much easier to carry.
When I get to my site (I use a small grove of trees on campus), I set everything up. The three candles (one for Ancestors, one for the Alfar or Sidhe, and one for the Gods) are placed in the lee of an oak tree. Directly in front of them goes my bowl, filled with water (before I had a bowl, I would scrape one out of the dirt). The incense burner goes right in front of that. Bread is off to one side, along with my sacrifice (because of fire codes, I can't burn my sacrifices, so poetry dedicated to the gods is right out. They're twiggy about candles, even), and whatever is keeping my beat. I light my candles, naming the Kindred they're dedicated to as I do so.
First, I circle the grove (using my beat-device to keep time), stopping each time before the altar to say something. Usually, this is about what the day means, and is always ad-libbed... the one time I tried to work from a script, I had a crappy ritual, because I got too obsessed with the script. I do this three times, deosil (sure, it's more Wiccan than Druid, but hey, the gods are happy with it). It usually ends with an invitation to those present (usually invisibily, though squirrels have come in occasionally) to come and join me.
After I've invited everyone in, I go to the edge of the circle, carrying the one odd piece of bread. This, I offer to the Outdwellers, asking them to leave our ritual in peace, and not interfere. I usually tear up the bread and throw some to each direction while I talk (tearing it up also insures that the birds will have an easier time with it). Ever since I started
doing this, my rituals have gone much better, so I'm going to keep doing it.
After that, I address each of the Kindreds, offering them each one of my pieces of bread, again torn up. I generally drop these on the ground while I offer them to that Kindred, as my well is really too shallow to accept offerings, and I can't burn things. Again, birds generally clean up for me. I also, usually, offer them something to drink, as well as taking some myself. Generally, I offer them each a full beer on Celtic days, and a sip of mead on Norse days, and take a similar amount for myself. For one thing, the beer is easier to portion out that way (the mead comes in a rather large
bottle), and it just seems more appropriate.
With that done, I begin the central part of the ritual. This is basically a walking, talking, meditation on the meaning of the day, given in Bardic voice to the general public (usually trees and squirrels... occasionally a bird will listen, and very rarely will I see a person walking by). I tell about the day, what it means, and why it's important to me that it means that. At this time, I light the incense stick, dedicating it to the Kindred that best fits the Holy Day (Ancestors at Autumnal Equinox and Samhain, etc.). If I have anything prepared (very rare), I make use of it now (usually reading it aloud).
By this time, it's usually raining pretty good (I've done two rituals... Midsummer and this last one... in which it was _not_ raining heavily), so I wrap up the ritual. Since I live a hermetic existence, I usually don't have too much to ask for, and my praises have been worked into earlier parts of the ritual, so that's usually simply asking the Kindreds to strengthen in me the Virtues, so I may better serve them. After that, I thank everyone for coming (again, gaining the odd looks of the squirrels), step to the edge of the ritual space and thank the Outdwellers for their cooperation, and
proceed to circle the grove again (again beating out a rythm), this time widdershins.
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