New Year Prophesies : The Feast of Carmentalia

On January 11, gather a group of women together. Ask them to bring pens and paper and offerings of fruit, flowers, or vegetables to the goddess Carmenta. Use these to build an altar, with the bounty placed around a black bowl filled with water that will be used as the scrying mirror. Place candles around the room and turn down the lights. Form a circle around the bowl and altar, and as each woman places her most special offering beside the bowl, she must speak aloud the name of her offering:

    Pomegranate (or orange or lily, etc.), Goddess’s herb,

    perform for me enchantment superb.

    You give us grain and bread.

    Foretell for me the year ahead.

After placing the offering to Carmenta on the altar, each woman should kneel over the mirror and look upon the water. Some people may see images, but oftentimes the information comes as an impression, thought, or meditative reflection. People should only share their visions if they feel the need to do so, but do make a little time available for each woman in case she wishes to speak what she has seen.

After everyone has had a turn, everyone should chant and sing together:

    Daughters under this sun,

    sisters under this moon,

    tonight, we receive your blessings.

    Carmenta, goddess great and good—

    we thank you for the year to come.

Now open the circle and sit in silence for at least ten minutes so that everyone present can record her impressions and visions from Carmenta in a journal or on the paper each woman brought. In years to come, if you and your circle of women decide to observe the Feast of Carmentalia annually, as I recommend, you can share and compare notes from prior years. This is a wonderful way to process the passages of your lives. Afterward, a feast is called for. The fruit and veggies from the altar should be consumed, and the flowers should decorate the dining table. Make sure to cleanse the space very well with incense smoke at the end of the evening, as remaining energies should scatter and not stay in the home. Water from the scrying bowl should be poured into the earth outside.