Ritual For Mabon

I’ve done it. I’ve finished my first written ritual and I’m very excited to share it. This ritual, as some of you may recall, is for Mabon, and I found myself needing to do some research before writing this ritual.
From my research, I found out that Mabon is the second harvest and celebrates the harvest of apples and grains. It also focuses on thanksgiving and honoring trees. I decided to try to incorporate all these elements in my written ritual.
As some of you may recall, Kansas spent most of the summer in a drought this year. This affected the growth of crops, and while we had a harvest, it was not the best it could have been. Still, I am thankful for the harvest that did occur and still think it is important to thank Spirit for this. Another idea of Mabon that I tried to incorporate was the idea of asking for the harvest to be strong next year. I felt like this was necessary, so I made it a big part of this ritual. I hope you all enjoy reading this and I hope it is helpful to those who are looking for ideas for their own Mabon rituals, or those who may like to practice the ritual I have written.

Blessed Be

Mabon Ritual

Items: one corn dolly for each person, corn bread for liberation/communion, Apple cider for liberation/communion, quarter representations, bowl

Location: Anywhere, but after ritual, you will need to find a garden to place the blessed corn dollies in. This can be a personal garden, or a community one. One that grew food to be consumed is preferable.

1. Cast circle and call quarters.

2. Have each person hold their corn dolly in their hands. Imagine the strength of the harvest as a bronze light and put that light into the dolly. Imagine the bounty of this year’s harvest, and all the food it has produced. Imagine then, the bounty of next year’s harvest. Have one person say the following blessing, or take turns saying it in a group line by line:

Spirit of the great harvest, we thank you,

Many blessings you have bestowed in view.

Our crops that have grown great and mighty tall,

We now take joy in harvest for the fall.

We ask blessings upon this our off’ring,

So our next harvest will new bounty bring.

May this blessing bring crops that are so strong,

That we may take part in them all year long.

3. Hold hands over the pitcher of apple cider and say:

With this drink from the apples of the Earth,

May we never thirst and all have great mirth.

Pour apple cider into cups and pass them to each member. Have each drink some, but leave some in the bottom of their cup. Pour the extra into the bowl.

4. Hold hands over the corn bread and say:

With this bread from the strong grains of the Earth,

May we never hunger and have great mirth.

Pass the bread to each of the members, and put some into the bowl.

5. Close quarters and close circle.

6. Pour the contents of the libation bowl by a tree. Take blessed corn dollies and put them in a garden.  

Inspiration

So, perhaps it is too early to be thinking about Mabon. This year it is on the 22nd of September, and while some may think this is early, I’m a bit of a planner. Not to mention, I was asked to help write the ritual for my pagan club on campus. In truth, I probably won’t be attending this ritual, since I might be going back home that weekend to see my friends, since the holiday falls on a weekend. But I offered to write a ritual and give it to one of the other members so that she can modify it as she sees fit. I mainly decided to do this because I haven’t written a full ritual for a group and I figured this is the best way to expand my writing skills along with my spiritual ones. Maybe it won’t be the best ritual I’ve ever written, but it will be a start, and we all have to start somewhere when we begin new tasks.

So, for the blue moon that occurred on the thirty-first of August, I made a bottle for inspiration to help spark some ideas and hopefully give me a little help. In this bottle I put the following ingredients:

Lavender and chamomile, ground with mortar and pestle (scents that inspire me)
Metal clock gears (for the working and turning of imagination)
Rose perfume (another inspiring scent)
Light of a flashlight (which I shined to illuminate the bottle)
Green ribbon tied around the top (Green for the growth of ideas)
Parchment scroll, with the spell written on it

At first, I thought I would write some lines of inspiring writing from writers on the parchment, but then I decided against it. I decided my spell needed to be something I wrote, and that I needed to find the words to kickstart my own writing and imagination. This bottle, I think, has already had some effect on me. My use of words in my writing has excelled, and I am very excited to do some research and write my very first group ritual.

Maybe, in a couple of weeks, I will be able to share it here. If not in full, I’m sure I’ll share its progress. Till then, my readers.

Blessed Be

Love in a Bottle

So, it’s official. Classes will begin tomorrow at my university and I’ve been moved in and gone to countless events already to kickstart the year, including convocation. Needless to say, I’m super excited for classes to start. Oddly enough, my move-in day started on the new moon and classes will start during the waxing of the moon. Coincidence? I’ll leave that for you to decide.

Last week I talked about finding a space to do ritual. I think I’ve found one that’s secluded enough, but not an unsafe place. I’m very excited to try this space out. Also, I found a space for my altar in my room above my bed like last year. My living arrangements are wonderful, as always, and made even better by these few things. I’m looking forward to a great year.

At first though, I have to admit I was anxious. I was enjoying summer and enjoying seeing my friends from highschool. I was really nervous about leaving, but I knew that a lot of them were going to university too, some for the first time. Now that I’m here, I realize why I like university, and that, as always, it isn’t the end of the world to move. I’ll see my friends again, and our reunion will be awesome.

There is one person I really didn’t want to leave behind however. This person is very dear to me, and I still miss her. So, before I left, I decided to give her something. I wanted to make her something she could remember me by. I decided to give her some of my love contained inside a bottle.

I thought of all the things that made me think of love and went on a hunt to find them. I put in dried white rose petals, dried carnations that she gave me in the past (including the blue ribbon tied to them), a little bit of my Taurus oil (not only my zodiac sign, but also ruled by Venus), some rose perfume, lavender, a metal heart charm, wheat thresh (it makes me think of home and of a comfortable love), two marbles (one blue like water, one green like earth), rose quartz, a blue butterfly that makes me think of her, a piece of parchment with quotes from Shakespeare, and words I whispered into the bottle before I closed it.

When I gave it to her, I told her she could open it and read the note when she missed me the most. I know it might not be the same as having me there, but I wanted to give her something to remember me by and remember how much I care for her.

This bottle creation led me to think of other things I could bottle as well, and how I could use my bottle collection for my magick. Now, a friend of mine has been making magick bottles herself for a while now, and they are charms one would wear as jewelry. I have one from her, in fact, and I have to give her some credit for putting the idea in the back of my mind. In truth, glass bottles are appealing to me, hence why I collect them, and I’m realizing now that I can use them beyond the basic witch’s bottle for protection.

I’ve already bottled some of the beach from the Gulf coast. Now, I think I will work on bottling other things. On my list currently are theses:

Autumn Air

Ocean Air

Field Air

Fire

Earth

Inspiration

Home

Freedom (a little ironic, I know)

These are just a few, and my list grows longer each time I think about it. I’m very excited to give these a try, though bottling ocean air when I’m landlocked will take some planning.

I hope I’ve inspired you to look around your house at your collections and see how to make them into a magickal endeavour, a spiritual endeavour, or just a fun craft. Also, one  last note, now that I am at University, I may not be writing in this blog every week. I will try to go for every other week, since my studies should come first. Happy new school year!

Blessed Be  

Back to School

Oh my goodness... where did my summer vacation go? Okay, move-in day for university is creeping up on me, so I thought for this week I’d discuss being at college and keeping up with my spiritual studies as well as my academic ones.

Last year, I struggled with feeling connected to my faith. I kept it a secret most of the time, and didn’t practice a lot of magick. Second semester was a little better than the first, since I joined the pagan group on campus and got to know a few people who share my faith. I learned many things and shared some of my knowledge. My personal development struggled a little bit though. This year, I want things to be different.

So, for this year, I plan to find a space that is secluded, but safe enough to practice ritual. This ritual space hunt might be difficult. I went around campus looking for spaces last semester with my club and couldn’t really find the perfect spot that felt safe enough. But, I will look again this year in hopes to find a spot.

Secondly, I will need to find a good space for my altar. Since I share a space with three other women in my room, it will have to be somewhere special and I will have to make sure my altar doesn’t draw unwanted attention. Last year, the room I was in had a shelf above the bed. This was perfect for my altar and my magickal supplies, since I was on the top bunk and it was a space that was really my own. I’m in a new room this year though, so I’m not sure if there will be a shelf in that spot. I hope so, but if not, I may put my altar in a drawer and pull out the drawer when I want to use my altar.

Thirdly, I will continue to meet at the pagan club meetings so I can continue my studies and keep learning. My club also meets for holidays too, so I will probably be doing some ritual in that way.

I don’t have many ideas beyond these for now, but I will continue to think on them. I want this year to be different. A book was recommended to me by a friend of mine. I’ve seen this book before, but have never picked it up to read it cover to cover. It’s called Rocking the Goddess by Anthony Paige. It’s a book that focuses on wicca for the university student and seems to be a good read for those going to university. This book has now made it to my priority list and I hope to learn from it. I hope it is helpful to others too.

If you have any suggestions for a witch going to college, feel free to leave comments below. I know I’m not the only one, and I’m certain we could all learn from each other.

Blessed Be

Elements

Learning about different cultures, I have found, always makes me question my own. My most recent question: Why is North earth, East air, South fire, and West water? Each of these four elements has a direction associated with it, but who came up with these? Has the creator of this phenomenon been gone for so long we don’t remember why these elements are important to their respective directions?

This question hit me as I was studying a book on Feng Shui. The book is an excellent book and I am learning much about the ideas of Feng Shui and some of the ideas of eastern society. In the ideas of Feng Shui, there are five elements. They are fire, earth, metal, water, and wood. Not only is air not an element, spirit not mentioned as one, and metal added to the list, Feng Shui also focuses on eight directions, the four cardinal directions and the four directions between the cardinal directions. South is represented by fire, Southwest by earth, West by metal, Northwest by metal, North by water, Northeast by earth, East by wood, and Southeast by wood.

Interestingly enough, I found this so strange that I wondered why Feng Shui has these elements in these directions. Then I paused, and wondered why I had not asked the same for wicca? I had accepted that North was earth, that East was air, that South was fire, that West was water, and that the center was spirit. I never questioned such a thing before.

I found myself questioning now though. So, I decided to look online to see if anyone had an answer. Many didn’t seem to talk about why the elements were placed as they are. I then came across a website that talked about the elements and directions in relation to where you live. They insisted that this was what mattered, along with how one felt about where each element should be placed. If it felt wrong to put water to the West, then put it where it felt right. For people who live in the Northern hemisphere, the weather becomes warmer as we travel towards the equator, and this may be why the element of fire was put in the South. But, for people who live in the Southern hemisphere, the opposite is true. When you travel North, the weather warms.

Now, I have no qualms with the elemental placements. In fact, the traditional placements feel very natural to me. But what surprises me is that I did not question this before. I accepted, and thinking about it now, if I were to align myself with the land around me, the oceans are to the East and West of me, the land rises to the East (since in Kansas, the land goes down in elevation when you travel West) but the fertile farm land is in the West, air flows in all directions because I live in the Midwest, and the warmth comes from the South and the bright sun that moves East to West. The elements are all around me and they more surround me than are placed in only one quarter. This feeling of being enveloped and surrounded brings me comfort.

Now, does this mean I won’t cast my circle with the traditional elemental directions? No, but it does mean that I feel I have a deeper understanding of what it means to be connected to all the elements and to have them in all places. This also means that if someone were to put an element in a different location, I probably wouldn’t blink twice. What I love about my faith is that it is my own, and what I love about faith is that everyone else has their own too. It’s okay to believe something different, to think for yourself, and to have the grace to understand that others have the same right. Our differences make us unique, and they bring us together in new ways of understanding one another, not in ways that separate or break us apart.

So, wherever your elements are, whatever they may be, they are special to you, and that’s all that matters.

Blessed Be      

Relating with Others

For this week’s entry I’ve decided to talk about a tarot spread one of my friends came up with. I asked her if I could share it, since I think it could be useful to others, and she said yes. I’m not sure if she has a name for it, but here I will refer to it as the relations tarot spread.

This spread has five cards, and it is designed to see how two people relate to each other and see each other. The two people sit across from one another. Each has two cards in front of them, one on their left and one on their right. Then there is a card in the middle that is always read right side up. The two cards in front of each person are chosen by that person and the card in the middle is chosen by both persons.

Now, the card to the left represents what you think the other person thinks of you. The card on the right is what you think of the other person. The card in the center is the card that describes your path together.

This spread also, while seeing how two people can connect, can also resolve disputes between two people. It can bring out into the air what each person is thinking, and the center card can be how to resolve the issue at hand, or the heart of the issue that needs resolving. I’ve done this spread a few times before, and one of the times was to work out issues I was having with a close friend of mine. We ended up working it out with a third party member there to help us interpret the cards so our emotions didn’t get the better of us.

So if you know two people wanting to work out an argument and they don’t know how, or you want to see how you connect with someone else, I suggest this spread. Happy reading.

Blessed Be

Cookies with Happiness Baked In

On Friday night, I was to attend a birthday party of a close friend of mine. She had asked that if anyone could bring a treat to share for the party, it would be appreciated. Worried that I would not have time to make anything because of my work schedule, so I decided to not worry about bringing anything. However, I really wanted to help out and cook. I do enjoy cooking and it’s a way I relax. So, despite the fact that I might not have enough time, I decided I would plan to make something anyway.

I pulled out all the cookbooks I could find, wanting to make something special and something grand. As I looked through the books on the night before the party, the grand recipes I found either took too much time, or I did not have all the ingredients. Disheartened, I started to look at simpler ideas. My grandmother suggested I make chocolate chip cookies. At first, I was a bit upset with the simplicity of the idea, but I was convinced. I did not have much time, but I was determined still to make them special.

So, while on break at work on Friday, I asked the birthday girl if she wouldn’t mind if I used magick in the cookies I was going to bring. She didn’t, and so I set to thinking about how I could make these seemingly ordinary chocolate chip cookies extraordinary. When I got to thinking about it, there was nothing very ordinary about chocolate chip cookies in the first place. They held the warm memories of my childhood and filled me with thoughts of happy times with the people I love.

I decided then to imbue the batter with happiness. When I got home from work (I even got let off early that day), I brought some elemental representations downstairs and made a small altar on my stovetop, asking for the elements to assist me. I felt their presence and began my work. I remained focused on my intent as I mixed, preheated, beat, and folded in every bit of happiness I could muster. When the cookies were done and I brought them to the party, they were very popular. By the time I brought the container home, it was empty, not a single cookie left. Everyone had a really good time at the party too, and I felt the warmth of happiness in the air. I hope to use this recipe again, and I wonder what else I can do to magickally enhance my comfort foods for myself. Below, I include the recipe for “Happy Cookies” in case you’d like to make them yourself.

Blessed Be

Ingredients:
--2 ¼ c. all-purpose flour
--1 tsp. baking soda
--½  tsp. salt
--1 c. (2 sticks) butter, softened
--¾ c. granulated sugar
--¾ c. packed light brown sugar
--1 tsp. vanilla extract
--2 eggs
--2 c. chocolate chips

Directions:

1) Pour flour, baking soda, and salt into a bowl, asking for blessings of joy and happiness from the sun and the god. Stir these ingredients with a whisk.

2) Beat together butter, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla in a separate bowl, asking for these ingredients to be blessed with joy and happiness from the Lady and the moon.

3) Add eggs to the butter mixture, asking for the blessings of the Lady for life, new beginnings, and the joy that comes with these aspects.

4) Integrate the flour mixture into the wet mixture, combining the joyous forces of the sun and the moon, and the Lord and the Lady, together.

5) Fold in chocolate chips. Ask for the blessings of joy to be brought into the cocoa as you do so.

6) Drop teaspoon sized balls onto greased cookie sheets and bake in a 375 degree oven, asking the oven to bake in the joy and finalize the process. ask for the blessing on the cookies so all who eat them will feel joy and happiness in their hearts.

7) Bake 8-10 minutes and cool on a wire rack when done.

Notes: Play joyful music if you wish.