Name Meaning:

Big Wave

Also Called:

Drofn, meaning Foam-Fleck

Color:

Deep blue

Animal:

Whale

Specialty:

Bara rules the sea’s relationship with the land, which is to say that of attack and erosion. She is a large mermaid with a club, with which she strikes the land and steals more of it for the floor of the ocean. She is the bringer of the tsunami.

Her Gifts:

Persistence, and the endurance of water. Wrath.

Offerings:

A piece of land thrown into the ocean, but only one that you have the right to give (because you have some right to the land itself).

Altar items:

Blue glass sea floats. Whale figurines. Blue glass fishes. Driftwood.

Invocation

image by Fireheart Tashlin

Hail, Lady of the Big Wave,
The tsunami that crashes into the shore,
The endless lapping of the sea as it devours
Sand, earth, stone, even mountain.
You are determination itself, Bara,
Ready to take a million years
To grind the earth back down into the sea
From whence it came so long ago.
With the splash of a whale’s tail, you smile,
You tell us that your whales were once land-dwellers
And changed, and this too could be us
If we had only gone forward with our transformation
Instead of haring back to the ugly brown place
After only a few million years of ocean.
Lady of the Big Wave, have patience with us,
Help us to achieve determination as great as yours,
And grant our home at least a few more
Millennia beneath our feet.

Ritual: Wave Force

If you would gain some small part of the ocean’s strength and force, carry a chunk of earth to the ocean and throw it in. If you can’t get to the ocean … well, this is complicated, but Bara won’t go for a chunk of earth flushed down the toilet. You’ll have to find someone who lives near the sea and mail it to them, and ask them to fling it into the ocean for you. As soon as they call and say it’s done, you can then do the ritual.

If you’re at the ocean, take a large stick (perhaps a sturdier piece of driftwood) and wade into the surf. Strike the ground eight times as the tide goes out, and then strike the water eight times as it comes in. Speak Bara’s invocation, and ask her for some of the ocean’s strength for your physical endurance. If you are on land, fill a bowl with water and add several large pieces of rock salt. Take a pestle and smash them to pieces in the water, then strike the water eight times and repeat as above. If she is willing to help you, a large wave should come and attempt to knock you over.