Tag: Candlemas

June New Moon 2022 Insider – Anne Ribley

New creation timelines are being called forth. Super-charge intentions with a New Moon Ritual.
Currently, a powerful cycle of growth forward is forging a new future. The 7 easy steps to spiritual practice of the Manifesting New Moon Ritual can create the clarity connection to manifest your clear intentions and hold space for the world needs from each of us at this time.
Put pen to paper, antenna to God/Source,/Creation. Set the intentions with your “write it right” list/letter. Allow yourself to name it and claim it. Open yourself to the support ready to step forth in ways beyond what is known at this time.
June Manifesting New Moon Focus:
1. SETTING NEW CREATIONS INTO LIFE
Powerful new creational energy is being activated to catalyze new creations, ways of being. What’s your energizing word that represents your focus and frequency for the new creations calling your life currently?
2. DEEPER DESIRE LINES
The power of the current time is causing a dropping into the deeper desire lines that have been rising to the surface. Listening in. Leaning in. Loving them to be heard, healed, and honored.
What are the deep desire lines in your life ready to be lifted to the surface for love and attention to come more online and alive?
3. GROW GRACEFUL GROUND…

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The June 2022 new moon will bring intense, overwhelming emotions

Let’s get emotional!

A new moon in Cancer will put you in your feels beginning June 28, 2022. New moons open a door to you that had been previously locked, encouraging you to venture forth into new territory.

New moons also offer new beginnings and a chance to look at things from a different perspective, depending on where they fall in the sky. Cancer is a Cardinal Water sign, which means that we are encouraged to assess our emotional stability and security, as well as the foundation our lives stand upon.

We can initiate new emotional journeys now as we also reflect on where we have been and how our ancestors led us to be where we now stand. New moons occur usually once a month and are always tied to fresh starts, new cycles and unique journeys. Depending on where they fall for your Rising and Sun signs, you’ll see an opportunity to seize the day and create actions that will ultimately culminate within the coming year ahead.

Read how your zodiac sign will be affected here and for more information on the new moon, check out the information after the horoscopes. Follow me for daily insight or read 2022 predictions for your zodiac sign or your 2022 love life and relationship horoscopes now!

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Happy Litha Blessings

Litha/Summer Solstice Correspondences

From FlyingTheHedge.com – Litha Correspondences

Symbolism: life, fire, rebirth, transformation, power, purity

Symbols: sun flowers, leaves, sword, spear, sun, God’s eye, sun wheels, bonfire, balefires, fire, sun dials, bird feathers, seashells,

Colors: red, gold, orange, yellow, white, green, blue

Food and Drink: mead, ale, summer fruits and vegetables, strawberries, honey cakes, whipped cream, oranges, lemons, summer squash, honey

Herbs: Saint John’s Wort, lavender, rose, peony, vervain, mugwort, chamomile, chickweed, chicory, sun flower, lily, thyme, hemp, fennel, nettle, wisteria, rue, fern, heather, oak, yarrow, holly

Deities: Ra, Bast, Helios, Oak King, Fotuna, Arinna, and other sun god.

Crystals and Gemstones: Lapis, diamond, tiger’s eye, emerald, jade, and other green stones

Animals: butterflies, wren, horse, stag, robin, cattle, phoenix, dragon, faeries, satyrs

Magic: Litha is the time to celebrate the Sun and all that he provides for us. Protection spells and fire magic are great to perform on this night. Make protective amulets to be empowered in the balefire lit on Midsummer’s eve. Looking to promote a transformation, a new career, or create a new or strengthen an old relationship? Litha is a great night to perform such magic. Collect herbs, especially St. John’s Wort, on the eve of this sabbat to bring luck and enhance the herbs’ power. Renew your wedding vows or just enjoy the time with your friends and family. This is also a great time to communicate with faeries and seek their help if you so wish. Be careful though. Faeries can be tricky.

Please note this is not a complete list but a brief overview of symbols, colors, herbs, deities, and the like. If I have missed something that you feel should make the list, please feel free to contact me via the comments or through email. Willow

Spell for Today – Midsummer’s Day Herb Gathering Spell

Midsummer’s Day is a traditional time for Witches in all parts of the world to gather herbs from their gardens or from the wild to use in potions, dream pillows, and other forms of spellcraft.  They may be dried and burned on a charcoal disc during your magick spell or ritual.  All herbs collected at Litha are considered to have extra magickal and healing properties. 

To be recited on Midsummer’s Day, thrice before and thrice after gathering herbs for magickal workings:

“Herbs of magick, herbs of power,
Root and bark, leaf and flower,
Work for me when charms are spoken,
Potions brewed and curses broken!”

Happy Yule Blessings

Celebrating Litha: Traditions, Herbs, Symbols & More

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.

About Litha

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.

Origins & History

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.

Traditions

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.

Folklore

In some forms of Wicca and …

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A Very Happy and Blessed Beltane To All

For Your Viewing Pleasure – Beltane

Edinburgh’s Beltane Fire Festival celebrates the rebirth of summer with fire, dance and drumming c. 2017

Celtic festival of Beltane heats up in Scotland c. 2018

Printable Some Beltane Information

Spell – Home Protection Powder: A Simple Spell Recipe

(YOU CAN COPY AND PASTE ANY SPELLS POSTED TO A DOCUMENT TO PRINT AND/OR SAVE ON YOUR COMPUTER)

Home Protection Powder: A Simple Spell Recipe

From spells8.com

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!

Why bother about the energy of your home?

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.

Make a Connection

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.

Clearing it Out

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.

Calling it In

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.

Choose Your Ingredients

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.

Rosemary

Vervain

Bay Leaf

Aloe

Black Salt

Simple Home Protection Spell

Recipe by Francisco Huanaco

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.

INGREDIENTS

  • Salt – absorbs and repels negative energy

  • Rosemary – for protection (can substitute other protective herbs)

  • Jar or Bowl – for mixing the ingredients together

DIRECTIONS

  • Get your Salt

    Salt is protective and also repels negative energy. It is a good foundational ingredient for any witch to have and makes a simple base for our spell.
  • Get your Rosemary

    Rosemary is an herb that is commonly used for protection. In this case, you can use dried rosemary, fresh rosemary, or even substitute with an essential oil or other protective herb.
  • Mix it Together

    In your bowl, mix the salt and your protective herbs together. As you mix them, you can call on your guides, Gods, or other spirit allies to help you if you want. Stir in a clockwise motion to combine the ingredients as you say the following.
  • Sprinkle it Around

    With your mantra or affirmation in mind, sprinkle the salt mixture along every threshold and entry into your home. Include all doors, windows, and walkways. You can even repeat the above incantation if you’d like, drawing on the energy of the salt mixture as you do so.

For Your Listening Pleasure – Beltane

A Pagan Love Song (Beltane)

For Your Listening PLeasure – Samhain

Samhain

Projects to Celebrate Samhain, the Witches’ New Year

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

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Pagan Treat Bags for Samhain

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:

  • Decorate the bags themselves with symbols that are meaningful to you – depending on the pantheon your group honors, you might include designs that are associated with Greek, Roman, Celtic, or Norse mythology.
  • Small herbal sachets: sew herbs into a fabric pouch. Use lavender to help with dreams, or other appropriate plants.
  • Crystals and gemstones: As long as the kids attending your event are beyond the put-everything-in-your-mouth stage, you could include rose quartz for love, hematite for protection, and more.
  • A Portable Altar Kit: Depending on how old the kids are, think about making an altar box that fits in a backpack or pocket. This might not be useful or safe for really young children, but older tweens and teens could use it responsibly.
  • Divination tools: make a simple pendulum with a stone wrapped in wire and attached to the end of a chain. Add a simple divination set by painting symbols on stones or wooden discs.
  • Wands: Make a simple wand with a stick and a crystal wrapped in wire.
  • Deity symbols: Does your tradition honor a particular god or goddess? Consider adding representative symbols – owls for Athena, cats for Bastet, or an antler for Cernunnos. Try printing out a wallet-size image of the deity on heavy cardstock, add a prayer to your god/dess on the reverse side, and laminate it.

Finally, remember, Samhain is the same day as Halloween, so never underestimate the power of a few strategically placed pieces of delicious candy!

Click here for more craft ideas for Samhain from learnreligions.com

Wheel of the Year

 

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): …

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Magickal Ideas for Imbolc

Let’s Have Some Fun – Lammas

 

Let’s Have Some Fun – Imbolc

 

For Your Listening Pleasure – Imbolc

Music for Imbolc – Brigid’s Day Songs (Celtic Festival)

Flashback 2004 Imbolc

 Imbolc

Celebrate this festival by draping the altar in white and silver. Kepp the entire altar white — white candlesticks, white incense bowls, etc. Represent the Goddess with a figure of a horned cow. If you wear robes in ritual, honor Brigid in her guise as the goddess of the dairy by wearing white. With Neptune lending the glamour to your robes to the Sun this time, as glitter to your robes with sliver and “diamonds.” Let your imagination run wild.

Save snow from the last storm, or use crushed ice, and put it out in bowls on the altar. Scrub clean an old milke bottle or cream jar and fill it with fresh milk; freshly made mozzarella cheese will round out your cakes and ale. Nestle all bowls in the snow.

The planetary energies are particularly favorable this sabbat for working magic for world peace. Place all the candles you’ll be using this year on the altar and start this ritual in the dark — this is, without lights. Add your magic to the returning Sun. Dedicate and consecrate all your candles during this festival of lights, and consecrate your agricultural tools for use in the coming cycle of growth. This is the festival of new beginnings.

Copyright By K. D. Spitzer in Llewellyn’s Witches’ Datebook 2004 Page 39