An essay from the Templar Ritualist course at templared.org
The Ritual of Lib T
he history of humans offering liba- found throughout cultures and across almost tions and toasts as part of rituals, every geographic region of the world. Nonefeasts, and celebrations of passage is theless, the types of libations, their perfornothing new – although it remains perhaps mance, cultic usage, relation to other rituals, one of the least understood rituals today. The sacrificial materials, and possible meanings word “libation” is derived from the Latin differ from one religion, tradition, or custom, libatio, meaning “sacrificial offering of drink.” to the next. The word relates to the Greek noun loibē The libation ceremony typically (“libation”) and the verb leibō (“to pour out a consisted of two parts: first, the act of pourlibation”), used since Homer.1 Other words ing out a liquid or a grain (such as wine, milk, commonly associated with toasts share simi- honey, water, oil, and in some cases even lar origin: the word “cheers” originated from blood) and, second, its place, or vessel, into the old French word chiere which meant which was poured an offering or sacrifice “face” or “head.” By the eighteenth century, (on the ground, into chasms, upon an altar, the word morphed to mean “gladness” and over a victim, or into a bowl) to a deity or was used to express encouragement.2 Today, to ancestors.3 Evidence of libations has been “cheers,” is simply a symbolic and succinct way traced back to the Bronze Age, in libation of toasting good cheer and good health in pitchers and bowls discovered in excavations camaraderie. Although, in our Templar and or depicted in stone reliefs and vase paintings Masonic rites, we usually substitute another or on gems, seals, and rings. word depending on the ceremony (such as in In Ancient Egypt, a liquid offering for saying, “partake”). the dead was made, typically of water, likely Traditions of libations and toasts can be representing the rhythms of the Nile River being a source of life and death.4 The first 1. https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/ encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/ 3. https://www.theknot.com/content/afrocenlibation tric-libation-wedding-ceremony 2. https://www.farmersalmanac.com/why-do-we- 4. https://vinepair.com/wine-blog/libations-andsay-cheers-30416 the-ancient-history-of-pouring-one-out/
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