*This report was originally written by Sorn during his long tenure as Ritari. It has been reposted here in an effort to collect all our resources on our new site.
Keeper of Seasons Hall met to celebrate its fifteenth Winternights November 10, 2012. While for the most part the weather to date had been warm and dry, the morning we met at the Pueblo Montaño trailhead was cold, overcast, and windy. Intermittent drops of rain fell as we made our way to our destination on the bank of the Rio Grande, the same site we had used last year. Perhaps because of the weather, we saw less wildlife than in previous visits, though we did see a few ducks and crows, and at least once we heard the sound of cranes flying overhead.
Because of the unpleasant weather, we had decided ahead of time to not linger by the river. I poured some steaming mulled mead I had prepared at home from my thermos into a horn and then we began our celebration. I announced the purpose for our gathering and hailed both the powers of the previous season as well as the ones of the season to come. We then worked our way through the rounds of sumble, hailing the gods, our ancestors and heroes (especially our female ancestors), and our own deeds. After I read the Keeper of Seasons Hall hail for the year, we shared a few donuts, made a libation with the rest of the mead, and made an offering to the river before returning to the trailhead and our vehicles. We met up again at the new Annapurna’s location on 4th Street, where we shared breakfast and company for a while before going our separate ways.
The Keeper of Seasons Hall Hail for 2012:
With the holding of this blot, our hall has stood to see fifteen winters. Slowly though it started, our hall continues to move forward. Again those ravens who take flight in spring have sought our steads in these winter nights, and again the hall who takes its name from them seeks these holy works and each other in blessing, raising high the horn and continuing to blot the holy powers, blithe and bold, with the will to live well.
In the seasons to come let us seek to bring forth all that we wish to have in our hall, but as Odin trembles Munin’s return, may we be ever mindful that memory is foundation. May we wax in words and deeds in this fifteenth winter!
Hail to you, good friends of the hall; in high esteem should all be held. From these words, may worthy words follow and from this deed, great deeds find their footing.
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