Words for the Changeling

Here is an assortment from the Commonplace Book, arranged by how you might wish to use them in ritual, prayer, and other things of this sort.

Ritual Introduction

Who hath said: the Great God Pan is dead?

Once upon a time
in the heart of the British countryside
there lived a fair maiden
who try as she might could not fit into the world around her.
Wherever she would turn
a great darkness would follow
then one night
she had a strange dream
and was told the answers to all her problems
Lay within the land around her....
She was told the truth was in the soil.

She was born and bred with the birds.
Their words were her words.
For she was come out of the earth and water;
From lily leaf and ash bole.
She said, “I am the moaning forest’s daughter,
A tree hath my soul.”
She slipped away between sunset and moonrise,
Between town hall and steeple,
Back to her own people.
Who knows where she wanders, where she lies?

Prayer

Through the weird in the wood and the mysteries of wandering,
I have sought you here in the dark heart of all forests;
dancing deepdreaming alive and unwaking
at the edge of the wood at the edge of autumn at the edge of the day.
Go through and through me, like wine through water,
and alter the colour of my mind.
I am yours, betwixt-and-between
Come, apple-sweet murmurer; come, harp of my gladness; come, summer, come
Make now my hands all the better to serve you with
Make now my eyes all the better to see you with
Make now my ears all the better to hear you with.
I am the forest's daughter: a tree hath my soul.

Invocations

Come, apple-sweet murmurer; come, harp of my gladness; come, summer, come

I wander off the woodlands paths and I dance them. I hear the rustle in the trees and I dance them. I hear the motion of the dandelions and I dance them. I hear the sun and the moon and the stars and the silence and I dance them. I hear red winds and I dance them. I hear the mountain flowers and undergrowth and I dance them. I hear the bees when they take their honey and I dance them. I hear my breathing and my heart and I dance them. I hear the wonder and delight and I dance then.

Mantras

These are to be chanted rhythmically, over and over

Will you won't you will you won't you will you join the dance?

She wants to be flowers/they make her owls

blissa bleoum, blostma hiwum - ‘pleasure’s hues, blossom’s tints’.

Why do we dance/why do we live

And dance she did/for dance she must

Sweetest tongue hides sharpest tooth.

What we see and what we seem are but a dream within a dream.

Float on a river/forever and ever

woman to man. man to beast. beast to girl. IO Pan.

Har, har, Hou, Hou, danse ici, danse la

Words of the Lady

He gave me life, who brought forth this light
and drew out that brightness, graciously revealed it.
I was glad with songs, decked with colours,
in pleasure’s hues, blossom’s tints.
Men beheld me, feasts never ceased,
they rejoiced in the gift of life. Ornamented horses
bore me across the meadows on paths of joy,
beautifully hung about with long branches.
Then growth was awakened, the world came alive,
stretched up under the skies, covered with strength.
Guests came, mingled with noisy chatter,
pleasantly lingered, adorned with delights

Happy are they who live in the dream of their own existence and see all things in the light of their own minds; who walk by faith and hope; to whom the guiding star of their youth still shines from afar and into whom the spirit of the world has not yet entered…the world has no hand on them.

Ending

Let us go hence into the dark of darkness beyond the stars, the darkness of everlasting.