Sýndesis: The Winter Binding, A Seasonal Rite of Passage, Provision and Hearth
Details
## NOTE: Due to the weather, this ritual has been moved ONLINE
Please join us at https://stonybrook.zoom.us/j/99746792247?pwd=OQabwoiSQA4aGDaSAN5luFjMWgn3Ir.1
Because this is an embodied ritual, participating with simple household items will deepen your experience. If possible, please gather the following before we begin:
- A candle
- A bowl of water with salt in it
- A small staff, stick, pen, pencil, or other upright object
- A root vegetable, bread, or a bowl with grain
- A length of cord, string, or ribbon long enough to wrap around the salt water bowl and the stick
- A small pinch of a traded ingredient (e.g., salt, black pepper, nuts or seeds, dried fruit, oil, spice)
- A piece of paper and a writing utensil
You are still very welcome to attend if you don’t have every item, but having them nearby will allow you to enact the binding with your own hands.
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In midwinter, the land here rests. Yet, we are still fed.
This February ritual keeps watch over how nourishment reaches us when local fields are quiet, and what it means to depend on distant places, fragile systems, and the work of unseen strangers to keep food flowing during the hardest part of the year.
Together, we will turn back toward those enduring pathways, and honor Poseidon, Hermes, Demeter, and Hestia in a rite rooted in the realities of winter as it is lived here on Long Island. We'll focus on safe passage and exchange, the boundary between hunger and sufficiency, and the hearth as the place where what arrives becomes what sustains us.
This is a contemplative ritual about tending what must be held until spring returns.
No prior experience with Hellenic polytheism is required. All people of good will are welcome!
If you have any questions, we're happy to hear from you.
The land rests. The bonds remain.
This ritual holds what must endure until the turning of the season.