Tag: Ritual

Air in Feng Shui

Air in Feng Shui
 
Feng Shui means literally “the way of wind and water,” or symbolically, “the natural forces of the Universe.” These forces affect everything in our world. Europeans call the science of Feng Shui geomancy. Hawaiians and Native Americans practice their own form of Feng Shui, each seeking to live harmoniously with nature. The ancient Chinese believed in and lived their lives by these natural forces. One of the strongest and oldest natural forces is called chi.
 
Chi, also known as the breath of nature or as “the dragon’s celestial breath,” is everywhere and, many believe, represents the truest abstract energy in the Universe. Chi is an invisible energy that circulates everywhere but gathers in certain place, which are said to be good in Feng Shui. Chi enhances happiness, prosperity and longevity, and it is the life force inside all living things. Good relationships, a healthful lifestyle, and meditation can increase levels of chi energy.
 
In Feng Shui, winds are sometimes thought of as bad because they scatter chi rather than accumulate it. When selecting a place to build a home or to hold a ritual, avoid places that are windswept. This can be hard if you live on the prairie or beside the ocean, but in those cases, just try to schedule your rituals on days when the wind is calmer. If you have a home where it’s windy, you might want to perform a weekly ritual to encourage the sylphs to leave chi where they find it.

The Modern Coven: Importance of Documentation

The Modern Coven: Importance of Documentation

Author: RedHawk

After a ritual with my coven sometime ago, it occurred to me that we’d all had a really good time, gotten a lot out of it, but alas, had nothing of the physical realm to show for it. Then it hit me. I am a military-trained videographer with an HD camera I wasn’t using NEARLY as much as I thought I would. How fortuitous is that? Two problems were solving each other.

Beautiful. It’s like they used to say on the old TV show “the A Team”: I love it when a plan comes together. Now all I had to do was sell it to my High Priestess.

I tossed my sales pitch around in my head for hours…. what I’d say, how I’d say it. What could I do to convince her we needed to start producing an audiovisual representation of how we did things? After all, it could potentially have a significant impact on later generations of Dragonstone (our coven) and ourselves when we wound up doing our AAR (Sorry, a military term: After Action Review) .

I guess my biggest concern in photographing rituals was that these are sacred, religious rites and even in the process of documenting them, sanctity needed to be preserved. Then again, I’ve photographed lots of weddings, baptisms, and confirmations, and this has never been an issue in the past.

Much to my surprise, it took little more than the mere suggestion. My HPS had always considered our group a modern coven with a forward-thinking attitude. For her, to be anything less is to become obsolete.

Honoring decorum and tradition is paramount. Clinging to it to the point of spiritual stagnation, however, inhibits the growth of the people within. I’m paraphrasing, of course, but you get the idea.

So as of now, I am the considered the coven’s “documentarian.” Since we have a highly organized structure in the coven, we have what are referred to as “points of service.” It’s our way of serving the various needs and functions within the group.

For instance, some may help keep the herb closet stocked, others may help out with the website. I was now the person in charge of keeping an audiovisual record of the coven’s goings on.

There would, of course, be issues.

I should state up front, that we are not, by virtue of our tradition, a skyclad coven—so that would never be an issue. But what about people who were uncomfortable with being photographed?

Personally, I hate being photographed. That’s why I always volunteer to be the one taking pictures. If it were an open ritual, whoever was joining us would also have to consent to being photographed. These were just the beginning of a host of potential things to be ironed out.

But most importantly for me, I’m still a part of the coven…and I need to be involved and an active part of the ritual or event taking place. Fortunately, these issues aren’t as complicated as they appear to be on the surface. As a rule, you really don’t need consent from someone to photograph him or her for personal use. Or in the strictest sense here—for coven-related purposes only.

As long as it’s not going to be used to sell something (commercial purposes) or mass distribution (i.e. YouTube) , you’re usually good. However, anyone from the outside, joining the ritual, needs to understand (well in advance) that you are photographing the ritual for archival purposes. Giving them advance notice, allows them a chance to opt out if they don’t want to be photographed.

As for the members of your coven who don’t want to be photographed, this is where the HPS needs to step in and smooth things out. In short, that’s why they’re the High Priestess.

As for my coven, they’re a pretty shameless bunch. So most love getting face time, the rest put up with it. I’m neither here nor there about it. I view it as a necessary part of keeping a true record of the coven’s history and practice.

Now…what to photograph?

This is the real beauty of it and what makes it stunningly practical and ruthlessly efficient. Technically you can photograph ANYTHING!! And we do! I’ve yet to photograph a ritual per se. But that little omission is just a week away from being a reality (i.e. this upcoming Samhain) .

Another use we’ve found for documentation is classwork. We have members in different states (some thousands of miles away) who simply aren’t able to take part in coven rituals and classes on a regular basis. Therefore, documenting the class gives them a chance to take part (in an after-the-fact sense) from far away.

Also keep in mind, with technology as consumer-based as it has become, it’s quite simple to ‘burn copies’ of any recorded event for all of those involved. This would especially come in handy for rituals such as handfasting for which you KNOW multiple copies will need to be made.

Sometimes we just get together for grins and giggles. You know summer picnics and the like. Having a visual reminder of just how silly and giddy everyone got, makes me smile. Much better than just a few still pictures.

These are just a couple of ideas on how to incorporate video into coven workings. These uses are as infinite as the variety of rituals you can do.

In closing, this method of record keeping was never meant to be a replacement for a Book of Shadows or a Grimoire. Consider it merely a supplemental. But it’s a position worth considering in larger groups, particularly if the group is expected to continue long into the future. (Sure, it requires someone to purchase a video camera, but they’re so cheap and common these days and usually someone within the coven is likely to already have one.)

Imagine what the covens of old would’ve done if they’d had this technology at their disposal. Now…. imagine what WE could’ve have learned from them if they had.

Candle Magick 101 (continued)

Candle Magic 101

(continued)

8. When you dress a candle for magical use, imagine that it is a psychic magnet with a North and a South Pole. Rub the oil into the candle beginning at the top or North end and work downwards to the half-way point. Always brush the same direction downwards. This process is then repeated by beginning at the bottom or south end and working up to the middle.
9. The best type of oils to use for dressing a candle are natural ones which can be obtained quite easily. Some occult suppliers will provide candle magic oils with exotic names. If the magician does not want to use these, he can select soluble perfumes sold by craft shops for inclusion in candles can be recommended.
10. The candles you use can be colored in accordance with the following magical uses: white-spirituality and peace red-health, energy, strength, courage, sexual potency. pink-love affection and romance. yellow-intellectualism, imagination, memory and creativity green-fertility, abundance, good luck and harmony blue-inspiration, occult wisdom, protection and devotion purple-material wealth, higher psychic ability, spiritual power and idealism silver-clairvoyance, inspiration, astral energy and intuition orange-ambition, career matters and the law.
11. If you wanted to use candle magic for healing, you would select a red candle to burn. To pass an exam, burn a yellow candle, to gain esoteric knowledge burn a blue candle or for material gain, burn a purple one. Its is obvious these colors relate to the signs of the zodiac and the planetary forces.
12. The simplest form of candle magic is to write down the objective of your ritual on a virgin piece of paper. You can use color paper which matches the candle. Write your petition on the paper using a magical alphabet, such as Theban, Enochian, Walachian, etc. As you write down what you want to accomplish through candle magic–a new job, healing for a friend , a change of residence, a new love affair, etc.–visualize your dream coming true. Visualize the circumstances under which you employer telling you that your salary has been increased or conjure up a vision of your perfect love partner.
13. When you have completed writing down your petition, carefully fold up the paper in a deliberately show fashion. Place the end of the folded paper in the candle flame and set light to it. As you do this concentrate once more on what you want from life.
14. When you have completed your ritual, allow the candle to have completely burned away. you do not need to stay with the candle after the ritual, but make sure that it is safe and that red-hot was will not cause damage or fire. Never re-use a candle which has been lit in any magical ritual. It should be only be used in that ritual and then allowed to burn away or be disposed of afterwards.
15. If you are conducting a magical ritual which involves two people {e.g. an absent healing for a person some distance away} then the second person can be symbolically represented during the ritual by another candle. All you need to do is find out the subject’s birth date and burn the appropriate candle for that zodiacal sign. If you can, also write their name in the candle with a burning tool and if possible, create an empathic link, if possible with a picture, some hair, a finger nail etc. Also, if you can, get a candle the appropriate shape (male/female) or inscribe a female sign – d or a male sign – e. If you want, you can inscribe all this below the candle. Remember, to dress a candle, dress from the middle to the top, then from the middle to the bottom.
The zodiacal correspondences are as follows:

Aries Red
Taurus Green
Gemini Yellow
Cancer Silver
Leo Orange
Virgo Yellow
Libra Pink
Scorpio Red
Sagittarius Purple
Capricorn Black
Aquarius Blue
Pisces Mauve

Smudging as an Air Ritual

Smudging as an Air Ritual
 
Smudging is an easy Air ritual designed to purify, provide balance, cleanse, or sanctify a sacred space. You can smudge a room, a piece of furniture, or even yourself.
 
Let’s say that you inherit a bookcase from your in-laws. You need the extra room, but you want to eliminate their essence. A smudging ritual can purify the bookcase and bring some harmony back to your living space.

There are any number of smudging herbs, but some are more traditional than others. These three are most closely related to the Element of Air:

Sage–There are several different kinds of sage, and all types work for smudging, but perhaps the king of sage is white broadleaf sage. It is the most aromatic and is excellent not only for smudging to cleanse and purify, but also for meditation.


Sweetgrass–As its name suggests, sweetgrass produces a sweet, light fragrance when burned. Believed to attract only positive spirits, it is excellent for cleansing a sacred space.
 
Lavender–Most useful for attracting peace, happiness, and restful sleep, lavender imparts a lovely aromatic, refreshing scent when burned.
 
Smudging can be accomplished by using a smudge stick or by burning loose herbs in a smudge pot or a firebowl. First dry the herbs by hanging them upside down in a still room, a pantry, or some other dry room where they won’t be disturbed. They will need to dry for several weeks.

If you want to use a smudge stick, cut your dried herbs into 5- or 6-inch lengths, bundle them together , and bind them tightly with red thread, which represents the Fire Element. Use a candle to light the bundle because you will want to hold it in the flame long enough to get the stick really smoking. The combination of Fire and Air purifies the space or object and disperses negative energy. Use a feather or your hand to fan the smoke into the corners of the room you’re purifying. Smudging is the equivalent of spritual spring cleansing. You might find that the house feels cleaner and brighter, even though you haven’t dusted or vacuumed.
 
Sweetgrass is often braided into a small rope to be used in smudging. Tie off the ends with red thread. Although you can find sweetgrass growing wild in some prairie places, it’s rare; you might have to grow your own.

MAKING AN ATHAME

MAKING AN ATHAME

An athame is traditionally a double-bladed knife with a black handle. Very few
people make their own, although it is possible to do so. Most people obtain one
and personalize it in some way. This is most commonly done by inscribing
symbols or runes on it. In some traditions specific symbols are required and
have been handed down through their lineage. In others and among eclectic Wicca
groups, these can be personal.

How do you do this? You cover the blade with Paraffin. (WAX) Then you let it
cool. Next you take a LONG sharp NAIL and inscribe the symbols in the wax.
Then you use dilute Hydrochloric acid – careful, this stuff is dangerous, and
drop by drop place on the blade where it shows through due to your inscriptions.
When the acid has worked – usually fairly quickly – you rinse the blade under
running water THOROUGHLY and then you use VERY hot water and a lot of elbow
grease to remove the wax.

If ANY ACID FALLS ON THE SKIN RINSE THOROUGHLY UNDER COLD WATER IMMEDIATELY and
if there is a burn of any type, seek immediate medical help. IF it gets in the
eyes, again rinse immediately and completely and CALL THE EMT/PARAMEDIC UNITS.
It is best when doing this if you wear either some type of glasses or goggles
and rubber gloves.

DO NOT INGEST THE ACID OR LEAVE IT WHERE IT COULD BE INGESTED BY A CHILD OR
ANIMAL. Also be careful of how you dispose of the rest of it – do so in an
environmentally SAFE way.

This sounded like a little too much for me, so I tried another method. Koren
made a beautiful athame for me and I personalized it by putting herbs of my
choice in the handle and sealing this with a favorite crystal of mine – again
with his help.

Oh, if you absolutely can’t get a double-bladed knife – in Massachusetts, for
example, possession of such a weapon is a CRIME – get a single-bladed knife and
grind down the other edge as much as you can.

As I said, the Athame is USUALLY black-handled, but there are exceptions – I saw
one Lady use a knife with a deer’s hoof for the handle. She was oriented toward
her Native American heritage as much as her Craft, so it had deep significance
for her. I also saw – in fact a friend of mine was selling it – a BEAUTIFUL
homemade athame with copper tubing forming a cross hilt and crystals in each of
the three tips for the handle. (this was almost a small sword) AS ALWAYS USE
WHAT SPEAKS TO YOUR OWN SOUL!!!!!

The athame is usually NOT used in circle for anything other than ritual and
ceremonial purposed. If you need to inscribe a candle for Magick or slice the
bread for the cakes and wine part of the rite, you usually use a BOLINE or white
– handled knife, often a small dagger or even a pen-knife, set aside for these
purposes.

Empowerment Ceremony for Wands, Rods, Staves, Stangs, and Brooms

Empowerment Ceremony for Wands, Rods, Staves, Stangs, and Brooms 

Timing: New moon (unless the item will be used to specifically to vanish, then choose dark moon or moon in Scorpio).

Supplies: One red candle; holy water or Florida water; salt; empowering oil; incense of your choice; a carving tool or wood-burning tool; a selection of magickal symbols; a pencil (to trace the designs before you carve or use the wood-burning tool); thirteen bricks or white stones; one cauldron.

Pre-Ritual Preparations: Choose and carve the magickal symbols you desire on the piece. Build your circle with the bricks or stones. When you are finished, sprinkle both wooden tool and circle with holy water or Florida Water. Libation to the Gods.

The Ritual: Cast your circle around the stone circle, which will be in the center. Place the cauldron in the stone circle. Light the fire candle and place inside the cauldron. Call the quarters. Invoke deity. Place the wooden ritual piece inside the stone circle. Pass the four elements over the item (fire, incense, salt and holy water). Stand over the circle, raise your arms to the heavens and say:

Mistress (Master) of the Universe! I call thee forth to cleanse and consecrate this (name of item). Empower this (name of item) in the name of universal perfection!

Outstretch both hands toward the item.

(Name item), I conjure thee in the name of the Mistress (Master) of the universe to work all forms of magick for me! Ye shall conjure, banish, empower or cast aside negative energies as I so dictate. Ye shall overcome all obstacles in the performance of these task. At my very touch ye shall awaken into life in preparation for any and all magick and respond with perfection to my very will, and you shall retain your power in fallow days when magick is not required.

So I will, so shall it be!

Rub the item with the holy oil, then draw an equal-armed cross in the air over the item to seal your work. Complete the ritual by offering a libation to the Gods. Thank deity. Close the quarters. Take up the circle with your fingers and place the circle energy in the tool by directing your finger at the tool and envisioning the energy leaving your finger and entering the tool. Leave the item in the light of the following full moon for at least one hour.

Stang

Stang 

The stang is a straight branch with a fork or Y at one end, and is most used in ritual circle as a type of centerpiece representing the magick of the three –the trinity– in the following ways: Earth, Sea, and Sky; Body, Mind and Spirit; God, Goddess and Unity; the three faced of the God; the three faces of the Goddess; and the crossroads of life. Stangs used today are normally five to six feet in height and are often decorated with ribbons and flowers that match the seasonal ritual. The stang also relates to the legend of the World Tree, and in some ritual groups it is the pole of libation, where gifts of food and liquid are arranged or poured by the base in honor of the Gods. This is similar to the pole erected in the center of a Voodoo rite, dedicated to Damballah, called the Ponteau Mitan. The stang is normally place at the north (the seat of all power) or directly behind the altar. A few groups, often with Druidic leanings, place the stang in the center of the circle.

The Broom

The Broom
 

The broom might be, along with the cauldron, the most famous tool connected popularly with witches. Traditionally an element symbolising the union of the masculine and feminin principles, was used not for flying, but for the ritual cleaning of the working space, and protection and fertility rites. Some authors suggest the broom was the perfect place to hide the wand during the Witch Hunt, disguising it as an element of daily use.

Sir James Frazer in “The Golden Bough” gathers multiple examples of rituals that involved the use of a broom, generally as a symbol of fertility or fecunding energy. According to one of those, to assest the fertility of the fields a young woman had to circle them once they were sown, naked and riding a broomstick. In these rituals might be seen the remains of the primal fertility rituals, where the High Priest and the High Priestess symbolised the marriage of Earth and Sky, the Goddess and the God, renewing the fertility of the land.

Another version suggests that if we want a cleansing broom, it should be made of willow wands, which was believed of old to cast off evil spirits. This was believed to the point of considering the whipping with willow wands a sure method of exorcism.

The truth is, our ritual broom must be of the old style, made of wigs or straw, and it must be reserved to a symbolic pass to cleanse the place of any type of energies before starting any ritual, and as every tool named so far, must be kept for this purpose only. The best results will be achieved if we make it ourselves, but due to the difficulty of this task, we can safely leave it in someone else’s hands, if we’re careful enough to do the energetical cleansing before using it.

It’s use is not strictly necesary, so let us not despair if we can’t find a broom maker where we are: we can easily go on with our celebrations without the broom, as long as we replace the cleansing action with a similar one.

The Chalice

The Chalice
 

The chalice is a smaller version of the cauldron as a representation of the eternal feminin and the element of water. We’re talking about a goblet, usually of the round type, in which we’ll have water represented during rituals, even though on ocassions it might contain some other liquid, for example wine during the simple feast.

The selection of the apropriate chalice is a delicate task. We could use a glass one, even though the traditional is made of metal: gold, brass, silver or the like. We must be very careful when choosing, preffering the ones with their inside covered in glass, silver or stainless steel, because metals like copper and brass can be poisonous when in contact with alcohol. We must also consider the size, preffering the middle-sized, to make it easier to handle. It’s not necesary to get a very ornated one; it’s perfectly valid to use, if wanting to, one of grannie’s crystal glasses, if we perform the appropriate ritual cleansing.

Shops specialising in wedding gifts are bound to have sets of two metal gobblets perfectly capable of handling alcoholic beverages (the ones that have problems when reacting chemically with the metal), and so can be a good place to find our chalice. Having an extra one can be useful if we want to perform rituals where we need both water and wine (or similar), and we won’t have the cauldron available or we’ll be using it for other purposes. Personally, I’d rather have two chalices: a brass one for solar celebrations, and a silver one for the lunar ones.

The ritual uses of the chalice centre mainly in being the holder of the chosen liquid, whether it’s water to purify the circle, or the chosen drink for the simple feast or ritual libation. Usually it’s use will be the first, and even if we can replace it with any glass, due to the ease of getting hold of one, I think it’s better to chose once and for all, and use the chalice regularly, not ocassionally.

The Cauldron

The Cauldron
 

The Cauldron has a mythological based on the Celtic traditions, and another on popular beliefs. It has been associated with witches from the begining, as the place where the infamous potions were boiled. The symbology takes it both as a tool of transformation (elements enter it in one state and leave it in another) and as an image of the mother’s womb.

Celtic mythology tells us about the Goddess Cerridwen, who cooked in her cauldron the potion for wisdom for a year and a day, curiosly the same time one needs to serve as an acolite before being formally initiated. There are many mentions to the witches’ cauldron, and among the most famour we can name the one featured in a scene in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, when they make a potion as Macbeth decides his future as a traitor. Another legend taken from the Mabinogion tells us of a cauldron that has the virtue of bringing dead warriors back to life.

The cauldron we’re talking about here doesn’t need to be enourmous like we see in the movies. It’s still somewhat easy to find cooking pots very much like we need, even though they’re not the average nowadays. During rituals, depending on the size, we can either put it on the altar, or on the floor, to our left.

The uses of the cauldron varies. As representing the Primal Womb, is obviously feminin, belonging to the element of water. But as it’s solidly built, and usually isolated from the floor by three legs, we can use it, for instance, for every ritual that requires a small fire, or the burning of an element (paper or candles), without worries about security risks. It’ll be usefull in every case we need to symbolise a transformation or rebirth. Also, when full of water it can symbolise the element, though we’ll generally use the chalice. Another of it’s ritual uses can be as a place to discard every material used along the ritual, for instance matches or ashes, to keep them off the altar.

As with all tools, but with this in particular due to it’s possible uses, we must remember to scrupulously clean it after it’s use.

If necesary, it can be replaced by a small metal bowl if we need to burn something, or with the chalice if we just need it to contain water.

The Athame

The Athame

The athame is the practitioner’s ritual knife, symbolising the masculine principle, asociated to the element of Air, and according to several authors also with Fire (for the fire used during the forging of the blade). Other tools closely asociated with it are the Sword and the Sickle (a small knife with a scythe-like blade, very popular in british traditions).

The Athame traditionally must have a black handle and a double-edged blade, even though we’re not really going to use the blade too often. The main function of the Athame (and the Sword) is to direct the user’s energy, whether when tracing the circle, or casting a spell. It’s also used, raised high as a greeting, when calling the four quarters when casting the circle. Some traditions also used a smaller, white handed knife for everything that implies cuting or carving.

The sickle is used in a similar manner, mainly to cut ritual herbs, thanks to it’s shape. We could say it’s a direct heir of the small gold sickle druids used to cut ritual herbs, mainly mistletoe. The only difference is that due to it’s curved shape, similar to the waxing moon, it symbolises the feminin principle, and can be used in some lunar rituals. For more practical uses, it can be replaced with the athame, the same as the white handled knife.

The Sword is not strictly a necesary element, even though it’s highly decorative. It has exactly the same ritual uses of the athame, directing the energy projected by the witch. The only problem it can pose is the uncomfortable size when working in smaller places, along with it’s weight. Unless we were lucky enough to get a short sword, they’re generally heavy items, difficult to handle, at least for a woman. And let us not get into the difficulties of taking it along to an open place to perform a ritual, which can be illega in several countries. Whatever the uses we’re planning, it can well be replaced by the Athame, and we’ll gain in comfortability and practicity.

Daily OM – A Special Goodnight

  

A Special Goodnight
Creating a Nightly Ritual

 

Behind us lies the previous day and all that has come before; ahead of us, dawn heralds all that is yet to be.

At the end of the day, as the sweet, dark stillness of night beckons us to lay down our bones and rest, we find ourselves at a clear transition point: Behind us lies the previous day and all that has come before; ahead of us, dawn heralds the unfolding of all that is yet to be. While many of us have morning rituals that connect us with our center and help us to set intentions, we may want to explore the magic and power of nighttime ritual as well. It holds for us a beautiful chance for self-appreciation and blessing. Before you go to bed each night, you can send gratitude, compassion, and healing to the being you have been up until this moment. And you can send lightness and love into the future for the one you are in the process of becoming.

Though simple, this action honors the journey you have taken thus far, while opening you to the wonderful possibilities still ahead. When you consciously engage with your own evolution this way, you may find that your sleep gets sweeter, filling your night with a deeper sense of trust and relaxation. As you rest, you can surrender to these peaceful hours, knowing that the road behind you has been seen and acknowledged with respect and kindness, while the path ahead now holds your own benevolence and well wishes.

This bedtime ritual empowers you as the only one who can determine the meaning of your own past and the hopefulness of your future. By setting this special time aside each night, you can begin to orient yourself on your path of growing. It allows you to let the past have its place, to trust that the future is taken care of, and to simply rest yourself in the graceful arms of the present moment.

Finding and Blessing Your Home

Finding and Blessing Your Home

 

by Bronwynn Forrest Torgerson

Spring is in the air, and the nesting urge has begun. Here is a light-hearted and airy house-finding and house-blessing ritual for people who know in their bones that it’s time to seek out a home of their own. You’ve long outgrown your parents’ nest and passed the nomadic apartment dweller phase. The new you longs for stability and a place to call home. You want your name on a mailbox, invitations to homeowners’ association meetings. You covet a mantel on which to display Grandma Madison’s china or Grandpa Rossman’s musket. You yearn for trees you can get to know over many seasons and neighbors you can count on, and you have your resources all in a row. This springtime ritual can help sharpen the focus and bring your dream house into the land of manifest reality.

Do your mundane homework first. Check the listings and property values, and listen up for real estate agents that are real wizards at cinching a deal and taking your priorities to heart. Then enter the magickal realms…

House-Hunting Ritual

For the house-hunting ritual, you will need:

  • A bird’s nest (Warning: shakest thou not the nests from the trees, but go ye into craft stores instead, where such things await in great bounty!)
  • A hollowed-out and dried egg that you can write on with a fine-point marking pen
  • A gold candle
  • A house representation
  • A piece of parchment paper
  • A small fire laid of straw and twigs

Make a simple altar outdoors, with those things important to your tradition. For your house representation, many possibilities exist. Do you own a Monopoly game? Pluck a green plastic house from the box. Have a Yule decoration shaped like a gingerbread house? That will do fine. You can also simply draw a house outline on the parchment paper, leaving room for your list of specs. Don’t worry if it’s not perfect. Love and the universe will make it so. On the egg, write “My new home.” You can add your name, date and runes or other magickal sigils if you want.

Now comes your shopping list. Be as specific as you can, while keeping a healthy amount of realism in play. Where should the house be, in conjunction to work, school, culture, family, etc? Envision your ideal floor plan, describing it in words. Is there a yard? A garden space? Is the place environmentally friendly? How big is the garage? What would you like to be within strolling distance of? For price range, you might want to give two figures — the first being what you’d prefer to pay, and the second being the most you can go.

When you are done, roll up your parchment paper so that it’s a thin enough scroll to be inserted through the open ends of the hollowed-out egg. Where else would a dream house hatch? Cast the circle in your way, lastly lighting the gold candle and invoke your patron deity, or whomever you feel most likely to help you in this rite. You may wish to call upon the Goddess in her guise as bird goddess, ancient mother of us all, from whom the egg of the world was laid. Other hearthfire keepers might include Juno, Vesta, Brigit or Hestia. Nordic types may turn to Frigga as queen mother of Asgard, or even to good friend Thor, said to gladly bless a new home and to party with the best. A suggested invocation might be:

By the spark within Your breast,
Feel my longing for my nest.
Grant that I, contented, dwell
By sacred words and ancient spell.
So mote it be!

Holding the egg cupped in your hands, and speak aloud your dearest wishes and desires for your home, including the timeframe in which you hope to find it. Kiss the egg gently and lay it in the nest, thanking Deity for making it hatch with its otherworldly, all-knowing magick. Lay the nest atop the twigs and straw you will use to kindle the fire, then light the spark. As the nest, egg, and your vision burn, know that your mental blueprints are rising to the heavens where your Hallowed House Hunter is seeing them clearly and already beginning to discern where your perfect home might be.

Close the circle in your way, but allow the gold candle to burn out. If that is not possible all in one night, pinch it out and relight it for the next several nights until the candle is gone.

Get yourself a cardboard box and pack some unneeded things away. This signals the universe that you are becoming mobile and can take occupancy of your new home as soon as the closing documents are signed.

House-Blessing Ritual

Huzzah! The Old Ones and your banker have coming shining through! You dance a wild jig, sign a million papers and are petrified and exhilarated. You are now a homeowner! For this house-blessing ritual, you will need:

  • A white taper candle
  • Blessing oil (your choice of scent)
  • Sage or incense
  • A crystal dish or clear bowl
  • Bells

The first New Moon after you have keys in hand and have unpacked enough things to live sanely from day to day, invite friends over to bless your new home. Ask each to bring you a coin from the happiest place they have visited recently — so that your home might be blessed with happiness and prosperity — and a bell to ring for mirth and to summon the fey folk forth.

Light the candle, and trace an invoking pentagram at every entrance, asking that truth, benevolence and harmony enter in. You may wish to add an extra wish for great sex, creativity, personal growth and new opportunities, or other heart’s desires. Hand your favorite blessing oil to a special friend, and have him or her bless each reflective surface by drawing the same invoking pentagram in oil and expressing the same wish. Burn some sage or your favorite magickal incense, inviting all unseen creatures of goodly heart and helpful hands to come and dwell herein.

After this is accomplished, guests may deposit their coins one by one into the dish, telling of the happy place in which the coin made its way into their pockets. Never spend these coins, but rather look upon this hoard as treasure of the heart and a certain guarantee that you will never be destitute.

Now those guests who have bells should go merrily ringing and dancing through the place, proclaiming lighthearted wishes for you as they do so: “I wish for your cat to love it here! I wish you incredible sexual romps! May nothing you cook in this kitchen ever burn! May there always be wine in your fridge!” Let unbounded imagination bring forth creative, graphic, heartfelt and humorous wishes. Well-wishers may shout “huzzah!” or “so mote it be!”

Now it is time to sing to the house itself, blessing it with your hopes and praise. What better tune than the 1980s classic rock tune, “Our House,” by Graham Nash? Here are some magickally-modified lyrics, penned by yours truly, to serenade your new home:

Oh my/your house is a very, very, very fine house!
With friends in every chair
And love beyond compare.
Yes my/your house is a very, very, very fine house!

Oh my/your house is a very, very, very fine house!
Prosperity abounds
And hearty laughter sounds.
Oh my/your house is a very, very, very fine house!

Oh my/your house is a very, very, very fine house!
Health, wealth, good fortune too.
All blessings come to you.
For my/hour house is a very, very, very fine house!

This would be the perfect time for a toast, to you, to the God/dess, to your new home, and to many years of happiness together.