The Steaks Rite

Every year, on the weekend following Veterans Day, the group I am part of does a special rite to pay homage to:

1: male energy
2: warrior energy
3: hunter energy

We called it "Steaks for the Lord of the Underworld". OK no, it's not really a "Heathen" type of name, but we chose that as a counter to the "Cakes for the Queen of Heaven" ceremony that some people in the pagan world have done.

I sort of got the ball rolling and the idea planted into the minds of three of the men in our group, two of whom are military veterans (Joe and our friend Windsinger). Admittedly the results of this are eclectic, but there were reasons for doing it that way. Joe is actually deeply Asatru and fulltrui to Odin specifically. He normally wouldn't have created an eclectic rite such as this, but it seemed to work out ok in the long run.

In this photo, Joe sounds the horn to begin the first annual Steaks for the Lord of the Underworld rite, November 2007:



Here he is again (in what is admittedly a very blurry picture that I took) leading the rite:



This photo shows the altar setup, three swords to represent the Gaels, the Romans and the Vikings, and our blessing bowl:



In this photo, our friend Windsinger (one of the co-creators of this rite) smiles approvingly at the altar:



The Hand of Tyr presiding over the assembled people (ok so it's a welding glove; we didn't have access at the time to a gauntlet):



Three veterans drink a toast (Joe, US Army; Windsinger, US Air Force; Steve C, USMC):



In this photo, Joe demonstrates the stabbing motion that was typically used with that style of sword:



And of course, there's a reason we call this STEAKS for the Lord of the Underworld:



Dead animal flesh, roasted over hot coals! This is not a feast for vegetarians; part of what this little ceremony does is honor the hunter and the prey.

It's kind of a darkish, somewhat somber ceremony, but we do want to keep it dignified and respectful and of course we always have a good time at the feast afterwards.