To be recited on Midsummer’s Day, thrice before and thrice after gathering herbs for magickal workings:
Pagans who base their practices around western European pre-Christian traditions commonly observe a set of holidays. These are often grouped together as the Wheel of the Year, which is a way of visualizing the progression of seasons and sacred days as a cycle.
Litha is a solar festival that takes place on the longest day of the year — Midsummer.
Litha is a name given to the summer solstice. In the northern hemisphere, this takes place around June 21st.
Because of the Earth’s axial tilt, this actually corresponds with the winter solstice in the southern hemisphere, so Pagans in the south typically celebrate Litha around December 21st. This is considered to be the time when the sun and solar deities are at the height of their power.
It’s hard to say when summer solstice celebrations really began. As long as humans have relied on plants and grazing animals for food, they’ve tracked the seasons.
The word “solstice” comes from Latin, and roughly translates to “sun stands still.” The solstice, then, is the point when the sun seems to stand still in the sky. In other words, it’s when the daylight hours are at their longest.
Nobody’s really certain where the name “Litha” comes from, either. One source cites a document called The Reckoning of Time (De temporum ratione) written by Saint Bede in 725 CE.
In it, he recorded a lot of Anglo-Saxon Pagan concepts, and the names of the months were among them. This time of year was allegedly named “Līða,” which translated to “gentle” or “easy to navigate.”
It was so named because this time of year marked the best weather for sailing, since the breezes were steady and not too powerful. June was Ǣrra-Līða, or “the first Litha,” while July was “the second Litha.”
Another source, Greer’s New Encyclopedia of the Occult, cites J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy as the actual origin. In it, the Hobbits’ called midsummer Lithe.
It’s possible that we may never find the true name of this holiday. Many of the cultures that inform modern-day European-based Paganism had strong oral traditions, and placed less emphasis on writing. As a result, the only written records left behind stem largely from invaders and other outside observers.
Traditionally, Litha was a time to light bonfires, celebrate marriages, feast, sing, and dance. It’s a time when the weather is at its warmest, and all of the crops are at their most fruitful. This is a celebration of plenty, partnership, and community.
In Wicca, it’s customary to use this time to work solar magic, magic for men’s issues, and rituals for community stability, success, environmental healing, and strengthening relationships.
In ancient Rome, people celebrated Vestalia around midsummer. This was to honor Vesta, a virgin goddess of the hearth, home, and family. Under normal circumstances, only her devotees, the Vestal virgins, were allowed into the sacred inner areas of her temples.
During Vestalia, the inner sanctums of her temples would be opened for all women to come make offerings and request her aid and protection.
In some forms of Wicca and …
Beltane was an important festival in the Celtic calendar. The name originates from the Celtic god, Bel – the ‘bright one’, and the Gaelic word ‘teine’ meaning fire, giving the name ‘bealttainn’, meaning ‘bright fire’.
This is the beginning of the ‘lighted half’ of the year when the Sun begins to set later in the evening and the hawthorn blossoms. To our ancestors Beltane was the coming of summer and fertility. Nature is in bloom and the earth is full of fecundity and life.
Beltane falls halfway between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice and is a Cross Quarter Day.
Beltane is one of the four Celtic fire festivals marking the quarter points in the year – feasts were held and bonfires were lit throughout the countryside. Fire was believed to have purifying qualities – it cleansed and rejuvenated both the land and the people.
The ritual welcoming of the sun and the lighting of the fires was also believed to ensure fertility of the land and the people. Animals were transfered from winter pens to summer pastures, and were driven between the Beltane fires to cleanse them of evil spirits and to bring fertility and a good milk yield. The Celts leapt over Beltane fires – for fertility and purification.
Young men would circle the Beltaine fires holding Rowan branches to bring protection against evil – its bright berries suggested fire – malign powers were considered particularly active at the year’s turning-point.
It was considered unlucky to allow anyone to take fire from one’s house on May Eve or May Day, as they would gain power over the inhabitants.
A Beltane fire festival is held annually in Edinburgh, at Calton Hill on 30th April – a May Queen and Green Man, representing Beltane fertility and renewal lead the celebrations on the hillside.
The Beltany Stone Circle in the North West of Ireland is named after the Beltane festival as the sunrise at Beltane is aligned with the only decorated stone in the circle.
The Triple Goddess – worshipped by the Ancient Britons – at Beltane is now in her aspect of the Maiden :
The May Queen, May Bride, Goddess of Spring, Flower Bride, Queen of the Fairies
– a symbol of purity, growth and renewal.
The Crone turns to stone on Beltane Eve.
May blossom symbolises female fertility, with its creamy/ white, fragrant flowers. Hawthorn blossom was worn during Beltane celebrations, especially by the May Queen.
It is believed to be a potent magical plant and it is considered unlucky to bring the blossom inside the house, apart from on May eve.
Beltane is a time of partnerships and fertility. New couples proclaim their love for each other on this day. It is also the perfect time to begin new projects.
The maypole – a phallic pole planted deep in the earth representing the potency and fecundity of the God, its unwinding ribbons symbolized the unwinding of the spiral of life and the union of male and female – the Goddess and God. It is usually topped by a ring of flowers to represent the fertile Goddess.
Paganhill, near Stroud, has one of the tallest maypoles. The Puritans banned maypoles during the 17th Century.
It was a Celtic tradition to fell a birch tree on May day and to bring it into the community.
Crosses of birch and rowan twigs were hung over doors on the May morning, and left until next May day.
Beltane cakes or bannocks – oatcakes coated with a baked on custard made of cream, eggs and butter – were cooked over open fires and anyone who chose a mis-shapen piece or a piece with a black spot was likely to suffer bad luck in the coming months. They were also offered to the spirits who protect the livestock, by facing the Beltane fire and casting them over their shoulders.
At Sheen do Boaldyne, in the Isle of Man, twigs of Rowan are hung above doorways as protection – the opening of Summer was regarded as a time when fairies and spirits were especially active, as at Samhain and the opening of Winter.
The ‘Obby ‘Oss, at Padstow, Cornwall – wearing of animal skins was believed to be a relic of a Pagan sacred marriage between earth and sky, and the dance enacts the fertility god sacrificed for the good of his people.
The May Queen – Maid Marion/the Maiden consorts with Robin/ the Green Man in Celtic celebrations of May day.
Going ‘A-Maying’ meant staying out all night to gather flowering hawthorn, watching the sunrise and making love in the woods – a ‘greenwood marriage’.
The dew on the May day morning is believed to have a magical potency – wash your face and body in it and remain fair all year, and guarantee your youth and beauty continues – men who wash their hands in it will be good at tying knots and nets – useful if you’re a fisherman!
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Whether you just moved into a new home or you’ve been living in your home for a while, it is always a good idea to cast a protection spell over your space. This process doesn’t have to be elaborate or complicated. In fact, it generally involves about two steps: cleansing the space and then protecting it. Any other steps in the process are entirely optional and can add to the potency of your spell. If you are in search of a simple protection spell for your home, be sure to read this post to the very end!
Believe it or not, the energy of your home can have an effect on your physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. This energy usually accumulates over time, but certain factors can play a role in how quickly unpleasant energy settles into your spaces. For example, if you spend a lot of time in emotionally charged situations during the day, you may end up bringing some unpleasant energy home with you. This energy may accumulate faster than if you spent your days in more pleasant or neutral situations. Surrounding yourself with unpleasant energies could lead you to feeling drained, grouchy, and generally not spiritually well in your own home.
Energy can also accumulate due to other people in your life. This includes people you let into your home such as family, friends, and even employees, and people that don’t come into your home but still send their energy in your direction. Putting up a magical protective barrier around your home can help to protect against physical damage such as break-ins, storms, or similar. It can also help protect your home against magical or psychic attacks from others or keep a wandering spirit from making itself too comfortable.
Clearing your home of unpleasant energies and protecting it from external energetic forces is very simple. Keep reading for some tips to get you started.
Whether you are an animist or not, spend some time in your space. Light some incense if you want, play some nice music, and meditate in the heart of your home. Close your eyes and focus on your surroundings. Your home knows what it needs. If you listen well enough, it will tell you.
Once you’ve made the decision to clear out the energy from your home, it’s time to get to work. But what does clearing a space even mean? Well, you are going to be removing all energy from the space. This process clears out the energy, both good, bad, and otherwise, to leave room to call in what you want. If it makes it easier, you can think of this as an energetic cleaning rather than a physical one, though the two may look similar and utilize similar tools. This is step one of a good home protection spell.
One of the easiest methods of clearing a space is to clear it as you clean it. Charge your cleaning supplies with your magickal intention. You can do this by holding them firmly or holding your hands over them and speaking your words of intention over them. This could sound something like, “As I physically clean my space, so too do my cleaning supplies clear my home of unwanted energies and entities.” Then you use them to physically clean your space. At the same time, the energy you put forward to charge your supplies will also magickally clear the space.
Another method of clearing your space would be through the use of smoke or sound. You can burn special incense or herbs that have cleansing properties. One popular herb to burn for cleansing is rosemary, but any that you find clearing will work just as well. If you can’t use smoke you can cleanse with sound through clapping or bells. You can also use homemade cleansing sprays, too.
Once you’ve cleared your space, you will want to call something in to fill it. This step is optional, but keep in mind that nature doesn’t like a vacuum and nothing is truly empty for long. Use this step to call in the energy you want in your home. This can be done by playing some calming music, burning some relaxing or joyful incense, or decorating your home with pleasant flowers. Again, this can all be customized to suit your needs and desires for your space.
Once your space is cleared and you have called in the energy you want, now it’s time to protect that energy. We are going to be making a salt powder to be used at the thresholds of our home. For this step, be sure to have some salt on hand. Salt is a wonderful protective ingredient to use in your powders, and for this recipe, it is the base ingredient. Salt is good for repelling and absorbing negative energy, keeping the energy that crosses your threshold in line with your intentions.
Along with salt, here are some more ideas of protective herbs you can include in your recipe.
This powder is designed to protect your home with good energy and keep it free from problems. Support the magickal maintenance of your home with this protection powder.
Salt – absorbs and repels negative energy
Rosemary – for protection (can substitute other protective herbs)
Jar or Bowl – for mixing the ingredients together
As Samhain approaches, you can decorate your home with a number of easy craft projects. Start celebrating a bit early with these fun and simple ideas that honor the final harvest, and the cycle of life and death
Do you have Pagan kids coming over for a Samhain event? You can have a kid-friendly celebration by putting together a goodie bag that’s representative of your Pagan spirituality. The key here is to do some creative, outside the box thinking. Sure, there are a ton of Halloween decorations in the store at this time of year, but not all of those are really connected with Pagan religious belief systems. They’re really more about the secular celebration of Halloween, which is fine, unless you’re looking for kid-friendly stuff that honors Pagan spirituality.
Here are a few things to try:
Finally, remember, Samhain is the same day as Halloween, so never underestimate the power of a few strategically placed pieces of delicious candy!
The Wheel of the Year is a symbol of the eight Sabbats (religious festivals) of Neo-Paganism and the Wicca movement which includes four solar festivals (Winter Solstice, Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice, Fall Equinox) and four seasonal festivals (celebrating or marking a significant seasonal change). Contrary to modern-day Wiccan claims, there is no evidence of an ancient Wheel of the Year in its present form but it is clear that the Celts of thousands of years ago celebrated the festivals the wheel highlights, even if these celebrations were known by another name now long lost.
In the ancient Celtic culture, as in many of the past, time was seen as cyclical. The seasons changed, people died, but nothing was ever finally lost because everything returned again – in one way or another – in a repeating natural cycle. Although time in the modern world is usually regarded as linear, the cyclical nature of life continues to be recognized.
The modern-day Wheel of the Year was first suggested by the scholar and mythologist Jacob Grimm (1785-1863 CE) in his 1835 CE work, Teutonic Mythology, and fixed in its present form in the 1950s and early ’60s CE by the Wicca movement. The wheel includes the following holy days (most dates flexible year-to-year): …
Daylight hours are gradually lengthening, and the Earth is beginning to stir. Although she is still in the middle of her winter’s rest, our planet subtly begins to plan. It’s appropriate that this period is represented by Aquarius, an air sign, since all change begins first in the mind. Every new thought or idea is full of raw potential as the Earth is now,nailing for the touch of fire to ignite her new growth period. Uranus is the ruler of Aquarius, and the planet best known for its jurisdiction over the future. This electric energy only looks forward, never back. It is during Imbolc, in fact, as the Sun is passing through Aquarius, that many ideas are born. As we prepare for the upcoming Equinox, then, it’s important to be sure that we’re looking ahead, as Uranus does, with all the electric enthusiasm and genius of Aquarius. Honor the potential of the coming spring by uncovering your gift of prophecy. Whether you use a crystal ball, a dream journal, or another type of predictive tool, prepare for the Equinox in your heart, by understanding how much is possible now.
©️ By Kim Rogers-Gallagher Llewellyn’s Witches’ Datebook 2000 Page 95
At Lammas, the Sun is at the very peak of Leo, the sign this planet loves above all others. Our star’s warmth is at its most powerful now in the Northern Hemisphere, as it appears directly overhead. At this time, life too, ia at its peak—as are the crops. The ancients celebrated this festival by giving thanks for their first harvest, most especially the grain harvest, even as they accepted the beginning of the God’s descent into the underworld. The myth of the asteroid-Goddess Ceres (Demeter), giver of the grain, also relates to this season. It was now when she would bid her daughter Farwell, since Persephone was obligated to return to the Underworld to rejoin Hades (Pluto). So bereaved was Ceres to see her daughter leave her, she refused to all the Earth to produce grain until her return. At this time,nothing, modern practitioners should be remind of both astrological principles: the fullness of life the Sun brings, and the necessity for rest, as signified by the coming fall.
©️ By Kim Rogers-Gallagher Llewellyn’s Witches’ Datebook 2000 Page 95
Witches Of The Craft® 
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