Offered here is a series of rites for the transformation of a fallow area into a sacred garden dedicated to Ceres. Suggested here are prayers which are based on Latin texts, or which use formulas similar to those found in dedicatory inscriptions from Rome and among other Italic cultures of the Republican era. Some are taken directly from such sources, while others have been adapted; in both cases the source is indicated. To make such a transformation requires a series of steps to appease the guardians of the selected space and to expel any unwanted influences, as well as to gain the approval of the goddess and invoke Her presence into the garden. I.
1.
The dedication
Gods and goddesses oversee every location. In addition a location may already be the residence of some unknown lesser deity. As a first step then the gods and goddesses need to be called upon to approve the project. General offerings are made of sweet breads and wine:
Di Deaeque veneror, qui haec locum colunt, precor quod rem meam propter quem veni vobis propitie respecta sit.
You Gods and Goddesses, who cherish this place, reverently I pray that the purpose for which I have come to this place may be looked upon favorably by you. (Plautus: Poenulus, 950-3)
Next a vow to Ceres is required, stating that a garden is to be dedicated in Her honor.
Hunc
locum tibi dedico consecrorque. Ceres, qua domus tua Trinacia est et cuia habitatio ubique;
Ceres, Mater Deorum, Dea testem te testrix mihi, si inhabites hortum meum tum
ego, dico Dea, ut tu audias lactem bibere dato. Illaec advorsum si quid pecasso Dea veneror te ut miserus ego
esse.
This place I dedicate and consecrate to you. Ceres, you who make your special home in Sicily and who inhabits every place; Ceres, Mother of the Gods, I declare to you as my witness, if you shall dwell in my garden then I, I say to you Goddess that you may hear, I will give you milk that you may drink. And if ever I should leave my vow to you unfulfilled I pray that I shall suffer misfortune. (Catullus, Carmen XVIII; Plautus: Rudens 1338-49)
The area must now be cleared in preparation for forming the garden. Trees may be removed and fallow lands plowed. First, however, the residing deities would have to be appeased and asked that the land be dedicated to Ceres in their stead.
Si
deus, si dea es; quoium illud sacrum est, uti tibi ius est vino piaculo facere
operis faciundi causa, ergo harumque rerum ergo, uti id recte factum siet,
eius rei ergo te hoc vino piaculo quod libo bonas preces precor, uti sies
volens propitius mihi domo familaeque meae liberisque meis, harumce rerum ergo
macte hoc vino piaculo libendo esto.
If a god or a goddess you may be, for whom this place is sacred, it is only right then that I make this offering of wine for the work that I am about to perform here, in order that my work be made properly, for this reason I pray to you in good faith and make this offering of wine, that you shall look favorably on me, my house and my family, and my children. For the sake of these things, accept this wine in offering for atonement. (Cato, De Agricultura, 139-140)
II.
Forming the sacred garden
The garden itself must now be built in a proper manner. This requires three basic steps. Forming the mundus at the center, building up the boundary, and marking off the area around the boundary. During the first step auguries are taken to ensure that the project meets with the approval of Ceres and the Aesai who are the shrouded gods.
The garden is laid out in the manner described by Pliny (Natural History XVIII. 76-77). Observe where the sun rises on the day of the equinox. On the sixth hour after sunrise, when the sun is at its height, face so the right shoulder points towards sunrise. With a hoe make a furrow through the central axis of your shadow. This line, called the decumamus, is made twenty feet or so, and points north; a small circle is made at its center, and the line also points south. Then a second line, the cardo, is drawn passing through the center circle on the axis of one’s shoulders. This line runs from east to west. Do not orient to the north, nor even plough or do any work in the fields or garden while the wind comes from out of the north. Nest are made two lines obliquely through the umbilicus circle to form an ‘X’. These will mark the solstice risings. Be sure to verify the southern direction and always lay out the land by it, as it never moves, but the east-west line shall.
In the umbilicus raise the gruma, a staff about the height of a man. There you are to raise a small square tent, the tabernaculum, opened to the south. Draw out the templum as a rectangle in a 6:5 proportion, designating the sixteen places of the sky, and read the auguries. If no sign is given disapproving the work you are undertaking, then form the mundus beneath the tabernaculum. The mundus is a pit, square in shape, the bottom is made smaller than the opening. Place within the mundus the votives to Ceres and cover with the ashes of the sacrifices that were made. Then cover the mundus with a stone.
Next a furrow is made, ploughed to build up the land that forms the boundary of the garden. With the right shoulder bared, and the plough turned inward, begin in the west and move in the direction of the sun deosil, forming a circle. This boundary is the sulcus primordialis.
Beyond the mounded boundary of the aggeri set stones to mark the extent of the poemerium, a space on either side of the sulcus primordialis that is to remain cleared. Thus the garden is formed. In front of the mundus, on the west side, erect a simple altar of turf or stone, on which to make sacrifices.
III.
Ambarvalia
With chant and dance the offerings to be made to Cerus, consort of Ceres, are to be carried around the perimeter of the Garden of Ceres. After the garden is completed ambarvalia will be conducted for Ceres and/or Cerus. In ancient times the sacrifice made was a suovitaurialia; that is, a sacrifice of a sow, an ewe, and a cow when made to Ceres, or a boar, ram, and bull when made to Cerus. Such blood sacrifices were not always used however, as under the proscriptions of Numa, and appropriate offerings may be substituted instead. This first ambarvalia is made to Cerus, calling upon Him to expel any evil influences from the garden that might do harm to any plants or flowers, who are the daughters of Cerus and Ceres. The ambarvalia is made three times around the perimeter. The perimeter is to be swept, aspersed with vervain water, and incensed with laurel or frankincense. As one conducts the ambarvalia, the feet stomping in rhythm, a chant is lifted:
Pro
filiae calamus:
Enos Cere juvate! Enos Pater juvate! Enos Cere juvate!
Horto
Pater celere: Horto Cere celere. Hort Pater celere!
Neve
sine ruina, neve sine vastita, viduata ne sine,
Limes sali detine omnigenum malefi, Pater Cere celere,
Si nos quando incurrunt, cruor satur fueri cum vim sui comede.
Enos Cere juvate! Enos
Pater juvate! Enos Cere juvate!
Pater Cere triumpe! Pater
Cere triumpe! Pater Cere triumpe!
For
the Daughters we call out:
Cerus assist us, Father delight us; Cerus come to our aid.
To our garden father hurry;
to our garden Cerus come; to our garden Father hurry.
Do not allow ruin to take us, nor devastation, or even
destitution to become our fate,
From the boundaries of our dance keep back all evils; Pater
Cerus hurry to us,
And should the evils rush upon us, sate yourself on their gore
and feed upon their power
Cerus assist us, Father delight us, Cerus come to our aid,
Triumph Father Cerus, triumph Father Cerus, and triumph Father
Cerus.
(
Carmen Fratrum Arvalum)
At
the completion of the ambarvalia, before the entrance to the Garden of Ceres
on the west of the
sanctuary (fanum), face to the east and cast out the evil
influences that might remain within:
Exi!
Si hodie natae, si ante natae;
Si hodie creata, si ante creata;
Hanc pestem; hanc pestilentiam;
Hanc viduitam; hanc vastitam;
Hanc siccitam, hanc calamitam, hanc intemperitem;
Hac religione evoco, educo, excante,
De istis herbarum consereris.
Exi!
Get out! Today
from the daughters, before entering the daughters;
Today created, before they
were created;
This disease, this pestilence;
This want, this desolation;
This drought, this misfortune, this inclemency of weather;
With pius rite I call out, I summon, I sing forth,
From the herbs and plants of this field.
Be gone!
(Marcellus
Empiricus, De medicamenti 15.11: Incantamente
magica)
Next
is made the sacrifice on the boundary to Cerus. At the beginning of the sacrifice offerings are made
to Janus, Jupiter and Juno.
First for Janus burn incense of laurel.
Cut the strues cakes, stack them into a
pile, and then with the knife feed them into the flames:
Jano Pater, te hac strue
ommovenda bonas preces precor, uti sies volens propitius mihi liberisque
meis domo familiaeque meae.
Father Janus, in offering
you these strues cakes, I pray in good faith that you may be favorable to me,
to my children, to our home and family.
(Cato, De Agricultura, 134)
Then wine is poured in offering to Janus:
Jane macte estae strues
esto, macte vino inferio esto.
Janus, for the same reason
as I have offered you strues cakes, I now offer you this wine.
Next
burn saffron, sage, and orris root for Jupiter and Juno, offering them fertum
cakes in the same
manner as above:
Jupiter Junoque vos hoc
ferto obmovendo bonas preces precor uti sies volens propitius mihi
liberisque meis domo familiaeque meae.
Mactete hoc ferto.
Jupiter and Juno, in
offering these fertum cakes to you, I pray in good faith that you will be
favorable
to me and my children, to my home and family.
By this offering may you be strengthened.
(Cato, ibid)
Next wine is poured for each in turn:
Jupiter macte isto ferto
esto, macte vino inferio esto.
Mater Juno isto ferto esto, macte vino inferio esto.
Jupiter for the same reason
I offered you fertum cakes, I now offer you this wine.
Mother Juno, for
the same reason I offered you fertum cakes, I now offer you
this wine.
(Cato, ibid)
Next
is made the offerings to Cerus for His assistance in guarding the Garden of
Ceres and the plants and
herbs to be grown within its borders.
Laurel and mints are burned as incense.
Three offerings should be made. Perhaps
most appropriate for Cerus are strips of beef, drizzled with oil and coated
with flour,
which are then grilled and consumed.
Bread drizzled with oil, cheese and arugula or other herb might be
offered as a substitute. Milk
with honey, oil, and wine are poured as libations.
At Iguvium three bulls
were sacrificed along with two different grains, and wine and
mead were poured as libations.
Pater Cere, te precor
quaesoque uti sies volens propitius mihi domo familiaeque nostrae, quoius rei
ergo terram meam hortemque meam dona circumagi iussi, uti tu
morbus visos invisosque,
viduertatem vastitudinemque, calamitates intemperiasque
prohibessis defendas averruncesque;
utique tu fruges herbasque grandire beneque evenire siris
duisque bonam salutem valetudinemque
mihi domo familiaeque nostrae; harumce rerum ergo, terram
hortemque meum lustrandi lustrique
faciendi ergo, sicuti dixi, macte hisce dona immolandis esto;
Pater Cerus, eiusdem rei ergo macte
hisce dona.
Father Cerus, I pray to you
and ask you, that you may be favorable to me, our home and family, for
the sake of which I have ordered these offerings to be brought
around my land and garden, in order
that you may prevent, repel, and divert diseases seen and
unseen, deprivation and desolation,
misfortune and inclement weather, and that you allow the fruits
and herbs to grow and turn out well,
and give good health and well-being to me, to our home and
family; for the sake of these things, for
the purification of the land and the garden, and for the
purifying as I have said, may you be
strengthened by the sacrifice of these offerings; Father Cerus,
for the same reason may you be
honored by these offerings.
(Cato, De Agricultura 141)
IV Affirmation of the Dedication
Now
that the garden has been built, the land and the herbs growing within the
garden purified, the final
phase is to consecrate the garden to Ceres in fulfillment of
the vow made earlier. This will
entail making
a sacrifice to Ceres within the garden itself, involving
several steps. First, however,
one must enter the
garden with a libation for the god or goddess who previously
resided on the land, and now will act as
guardian of the entrance to the Garden of Ceres.
Bibite, festivae fores;
potate. Fite mihi volentes propitiae.
Drink, festive entrance, drink up, and be inclined to favor me. (Plautus, Curculio, 89)
Enter
the Garden of Ceres. No iron or
steel utensils may enter the Garden of Ceres; one should be
dressed in white on this first occasion, with no binding or
knots in their clothes or hair, and it is perhaps
better to enter barefoot.
On other occasions other colours may be worn as appropriate.
Sweep the area around the altar on which sacrifices will be offered,
and asperse it with verain water. Circle
the altar
three times, knocking on the ground around it with the augur
lituus or with a wooden instrument and
incense the altar with frankincense.
Standing at the altar before the mundus, facing East, offerings to
Ceres that will later be made should include any or all of the
following: sweet cakes drizzled with honey,
piles of wheat and spelt, salt, beans, rape seed, fruits and
herbs of the garden, and libations of milk
mixed with honey. Hyacinths, poppies, dragontail, and pennyroyal, or other
flowers in season should be
placed on the altar. A
fire is built directly on the altar or in a special urn.
Incense of laurel, poppy seed
and pennyroyal is to be burnt.
The
central part of the ceremony of dedication is the sacrifice to Ceres.
At the altar shall stand a priest
to perform the ceremony, along with assistants, and augur(s),
and tibicae or musicians who are to play throughout the ceremony.
The procession of the ambarvalia is lead by a main celebrant,
approaching the
altar with his right hand held forward at waist level, his palm
up. Before any sacrifice may be
made
auguries are taken to ensure that nothing may prohibit it from
taking place at that time. If the
augurs see
no ill omens, then the main celebrant should order that the
sacrifice be made. This he or she
may do by
calling out,
Ei, perscrutamini frumenta,
accerse hostias, ut ego sacrificem sacrissima Cereri
“Go, search for the grains, fetch offerings, that I may sacrifice to Ceres most holy!”
Child
assistants (gemelli) should then
bring forward the various offerings that are to be made to Ceres
and the other deities. These
are handed to the assistants who await them at the altar.
The gemelli are
then dismissed and return among the celebrants.
The priest should then invoke the deities who will act
as witnesses to the ceremony; his left hand raised to the Dii
consentes, his right hand beaten on his chest
as each name is invoked.
Invocation of the Di Deaeque
Jane, Juppiter, Mars,
Quirinus, testem vos testor mihi huic caerimoniae.
Illaec advosum si quid
pecasso, Di maximi, veneror vos ut miserus ego esse.
Janus, Juppiter, Mars, Quirinus, I call on you to bear witness to this ceremony. And if I do anything to violate this, great Gods, I pray that I shall suffer misfortune. (Plautus, Rudens 1338-39)
Having
called the gods to act as witness to the ceremony, the priest then makes
offerings to each in turn. Appropriate
incense in burned on the altar. Cakes
are cut and piled in preparation for offering.
Wine
poured into a paterna for making libations.
Iano pater, te hac strueo ommovendo bonas preces precoruti sies volens propitius mihi
Father Janus, in offering you this heap of cakes, I pray with virtuous prayers, in order that you may be favorable and gracious to me. (Cato, De Agricultura, 134)
Iano pater, uti te strue
ommovenda bonas preces bene precatus sum, eiusdem rei ergo macte vino
inferio esto.
Father Janus, as in offering you the heap of cakes
prayers were well spoken, for the sake of the same
things, be honored by this humble wine.
(Cato, De Agricultura, 134)
Similar prayers and offerings are then made to Juppiter, Mars, and Quirinus in turn.
Ordering the Sacrifice
The
priest then turns to the chief celebrant and asks, “Do you order me to make
this sacrifice to Ceres?” Upon
an affirmative answer, the priest then says, “I demand of thee, (name or
title), some tufts of grass.” The
celebrant then replies, “Take those that are pure.” The priest then asks,
“Do you constitute me as the representative of those who have gathered here,
that on their behalf this sacrifice is made, sanctioning also my vessels and
assistants?” To which the
celebrant replies, “So far as may be without hurt to myself and those so
gathered, I do.' A small portion
is cut away from one of the piles of grain offerings.
The priest touches the forehead of the celebrant with a pinch of the
grain and then places it into the fire on the altar. The smoke is observed to see that the offerings are
acceptable. (Livy, AUC 1.24)
Ceres
must now be invited to enter the garden.
By extending Herself to enter, She shall leave Her
presence in the form of a numen within some object inside the
garden. Generally a rock or stone, or a
statue is used for this purpose, where the numen will reside.
Ceres alma precor
venerorque veniamque ad horto peto ut tu venias; propitiique ad me meosque
venias. Sic haec ita feceris ut sciamus intellegamusque, voveo
vos libamenta facturum bene mereri
de religione Cereri.
Nuturing Ceres, I pray, I
entreat, I ask your indulgence, to this garden I ask that You come; come then
to favor me and mine. If
You make this to happen, that we know and are given a sign (of Your
acceptance), I vow to You offerings of our first fruits and to
well serve in Your devotion.
(Macrobius, Saturnalia
3.9.7-8)
Offerings
are now made to Ceres and Her varied numina.
As the first line of the litany is said aloud, pour
a libation of milk and honey to Ceres, and offer a portion of
grain into the flames upon the altar.
The priest beats his chest as each numina is addressed, and
another libation is made to Ceres with the
last line of the litany:
Sanctissima Ceres cuia
habitatio Trinarcia tua est et ubique, Mater Deorum, bonas preces precor,
laetus lubens laudes ago et grates gratiasque habeo.
Vervactrix laetus lubens laudes ago et grates gratiasque habeo;
Reparatrix laetus lubens laudes ago et grates gratiasque habeo;
Imporcitrix laetus lubens laudes ago et grates gratiasque
habeo;
Insitrix laetus lubens laudes ago et grates gratiasque habeo;
Obaratrix laetus lubens laudes ago et grates gratiasque habeo;
Occatrix laetus lubens laudes ago et grates gratiasque habeo;
Sarritrix laetus lubens laudes ago et grates gratiasque habeo;
Subruncinatrix laetus lubens laudes ago et grates gratiasque
habeo;
Sterculinia laetus lubens laudes ago et grates gratiasque
habeo;
Messatrix laetus lubens laudes ago et grates gratiasque habeo;
Convectrix laetus lubens laudes ago et grates gratiasque habeo;
Noduterensa laetus lubens laudes ago et grates gratiasque
habeo;
Tutilinia laetus lubens laudes ago et grates gratiasque habeo;
Promitrix laetus lubens laudes ago et grates gratiasque habeo;
Sic veneror te, Dea Optima, laetus lubens laudes ago et grates
gratiasque habeo.
Next
the priest is to sanctify the various offerings to be made as part of the
sacrifice. This is performed
according to the Libri pontifices,
sprinkling the offerings with mola salsa
or with salt as may be
appropriate, blessing them with sanctified waters and murmuring
the invocation of Ceres in which She is addressed in Her secret name.
Each offering is then to be sliced into with a sacred knife. At this
point
the offerings have been sanctified and may not be touched.
From among the loaves of bread to be
offered, one is selected, sliced into cakes, and piled.
These cakes are then drizzled with honey.
Each cake in turn is then lifted with the sacred knife and fed
into the altar’s fire. Herbs
and other
offerings are done likewise. Libations of milk and honey are poured.
The
priest then touches each of the other loaves of bread with his hand, thus
profaning them. These are
then taken by his assistants to be distributed among the
celebrants and eaten.
Having
consecrated the garden and performed the first sacrifice to Ceres within its
confines, the priest
then says:
Sanctissime Cerere hoc
hortem a solo dedo; sic votum solvo laetus libens.
To the most holy Ceres I dedicate this garden from the earth; thus I fulfill my vow gladly and willingly.
Finally
juniper is bay are burned as an offering to Vesta and a libation of wine is
made Her, as in the
manner performed to the other deities above.
The priest then concludes the ceremony by announcing to
the celebrants:
Illicet.
Vadete in pacem Cereri
It is done.
Go in the peace of Ceres.
Now
that the garden has been dedicated to Ceres, its confines purified, rites may
be performed in its
district in Her honor. The
herbs of the garden are held to be sacred. They may be harvested as
medicinal herbs to heal others, or for similar purposes.
The first fruits of each year should be offered to
Ceres, and a portion of any herbs harvested there after should
likewise be given to Ceres.
Di deaeque vos semper bene ament.
Ab mano M. Horatii