Tethering Ceremonies

Purpose

On the Western side of the Great Island, they celebrate various seasons and occasions as many other beings on the planet of Riterra do. One unique set of rituals to the western plains and the P.A.C, are tethering ceremonies.
Tethering ceremonies are usually family or community focused.

Different versions of tethering ceremonies are used for different things, although they all share several similarities. Bringing people together is the main purpose of the ceremonies. There are many reasons that the people may be brought together.

• The birth of a child or a marriage.
• The appearance of a visitor to a community or tribe.
• Honoring people that have done a great service.
• Taking in someone from outside of a family or tribe, in the case of an adoption of a child or a another person joins a family, organization, or tribe.

There are even tethering rituals done at funerals, to tie the memory and protection of an ancestor to a group so that they are still part of the Ether of the community.

Major Components

What specific things are used and done in a ritual are usually varies in some way across tribes and regions of the west. However, across the Methati Plains and where various psy reactives live, there are often four things that are always present in every version of the the tethering ritual:

• a source of light (often sunlight)
• something to represent a bond
• something to represent a commitment
• something to be shared (often this is food)

Light

Light is often used to to represent guidance and direction as well as cleansing in some cases. This is why most tethering ceremonies are held in the warm and brighter seasons or at least during the daylight hours.


Bonds

Bonds are a lot more varied in nature, they can be anything from sharing energy to markings of some kind to vines to ropes made from hair or fabric. 


Marking of Commitment

There needs to be something that is used to mark a commitment either for the person being honored or person who is undergoing a joining ceremony of some sort. Usually this is a symbol that is given to a participant in a ritual. Or the person gives something of themselves to the community, etc. 


Sharing

To seal a tethering ritual there must be something shared between the honoree or participant and those they are being connected to. This usually a feast after a ceremony. With several hands having made the food to share not only with the people involved but the community, group or family. Sometimes, the person under going such a ritual will have to share a talent, food, service or other offering to the community. 

Known Tethering Rituals

The Conferring of the Standards

The ceremony initiating or promoting those who have earned the right to be a Standard Bearer. 

Common Methati Rituals

Rooting Ritual

The rooting ceremony is commonly done during the longest and brightest season. This ritual is often used as a way to bring new people into a tribe, with each tribe having their own way of going about it.

In the case of the Liran, the tribe that adopted Jack and his aunt, their ritual is focused on service and severance. The person that is being adopted into a family or the tribe is the focal point of this ritual.
First, during the spring, they will be required to hunt, work, make or grow something to share with the family. Then on the day of the ceremony, they will present what they have made to the matriarch of the family or the tribe's leader at dawn. Then they will perform menial tasks for the elders and their new family until the sun has reached its peak according to their age and ability. 
Then they will find will find a plant of some kind and take out the longest root they can find. Then the plant they took the root from will be taken with them. They are then required to find the brightest place in their territory. They will meditate on their connections to the family and the community they are joining while wearing the root somewhere on their person, usually looped about their wrist or head. There is a prayer that is said at the end. Beesching the spirits or gods they choose to bless them and their new family. If the adoptee is a child, they will just warm the root and themselves in the sun for a few minutes and say the prayer. 
Eventually, they will be fetched by the elders of the community and taken back to the center of the community. Once this is complete, they will be taken to the home of their new family and the stems and roots of the plants and flowers around the family will have been woven into a bundle and the root the new person has will be woven around it.
The bundle will be used to paint the family sigil on the forehead of the adoptee by the matriarch of the family or one of the elders. Then the next oldest of the same gender will paint the same sigil on the heart of the adoptee. Then the sigils will be placed on the foreheads and chests of the immediate family members as well. They will all stand in a circle in the brightest part pf their property or home. Then energy flows from one person to another causing the sigils to glow. Once the glowing stops the paint will have vanished into the skin of the family members. Once the light vanishes the family celebrates before going to a large feast made by the rest of the community, sometimes using food the person may have gathered during the day or the spring. 

Lifespring Ritual

Another example, is the lifespring ritual the often takes place in the brighter seasons as most Methatis do follow the mating seasons of the animals that they can shift into. The ritual itself is pretty much the same across the various tribes of the plains. So, most children were born then. But it can be done at any point of the year as long as there is light.
The ritual is used to welcome new children into the families and introduce them to the communities at large. They are very similar to the rooting ceremony in that resolve around tethering the child to their family. When the child is old enough to help with menial chores, they will be introduced to the community slowly. 
The ritual itself is similar to the final steps of the Rooting ceremony, the child will be painted with family sigils as well as the family members. The immediate family place their hands on baby while extended family place their hands on the shoulders of the immediate family. The energy is poured into the child and the child will glow. Once the child glows, the community will celebrate with the families. 
However, if the child does not glow in the sunlight, they are said to be a moon child and a different ceremony is performed for them during the full moon. They are known as "moon" children, believed to become powerful Mathati.

Primary Related Location

Great Island find a Methati word

Related Ethnicities

• Astras