Gathering for the Blood of RA

From an old post last year....

Home. The weather is warm enough to stay out without a coat. Finally.

Slymer asked me yesterday to show him which areas to mow. He started but the worshipers of the Sun were everywhere, some groups measured in the hundreds, all with big beautiful uplifted faces, all peering at the sun. All ready.

I need 5 pounds for every 5 gallons of the Blood.

So I bowed to the throng, thanked them, and did salutations to Ra. 

As I bowed down to take them one by one,  a red tail screamed from the on top of the old tree, lifting off from him to soar over the fields of clover, looking for blood of his own to drink. The geese overhead found a spot in the far field and slowly descended to eat and bed down for the night.  The train was on it's way, I could just hear it in the back of my mind. An intrusion but one I could dispense. Puppy was there watching over me and Myrrh was at my feet.  The honey bees were helping themselves to the nectar of the faces, while the sun slowly slipped lazily towards the horizon.

I was a weaver once. Not a great one, but decent at best and it was the best way to relax.  Just you and the weave. Your mind did not become embroidered and immersed with details.  It was just the shuttle going through the fibers and the sound of the loom as you moved it back and forth. Meditation from pure creative effort.  Gathering for the Blood is very much the same. All the details are just part of the fabric, the sound of the hum of the universe all around you.

I normally gather them in the first of the morning, just as they open up and turn towards the sun.  But by then I am at work, so to save time and to make sure that I get them in their prime, I have to do this in the evening with not a lot of extra time to give to the gathering.  In the time that I had though, and before they closed up for the night, I gathered 4 pounds. I'll be ready if I can get another 6 to 11 pounds. 

To gather them, you find the largest upturned faces, full with not a brown tip. You make sure they are not a resident for small spiders or have any honey bees hovering over them.  Then you snap the heads off just under their green base. No stems allowed, no leaves.  That would just bitter the blood.

Then you clean them - pull out all the yellow petals and throw away all the green.  You put them in a big pot, pour boiling sugar water over them, some raisins, or grapes (not many), a few oranges, let it set for one or two days and throw in some proofed yeast. Shazam!

Ah, the Blood of RA. Kisses from the sun. 

Wear your sunglasses.