How to Hold a Gratitude Ritual

By Patti Wigington

Do a Gratitude Ritual to express your thankfulness.

For many Wiccans and Pagans, autumn is a time of thanks giving. Although this is the most obvious around the Mabon holiday, if you live in the United States, most of your friends and family will be giving thanks in November. If you’d like to tie in to that a little, but with a Pagan flair, you might want to consider doing a short gratitude ritual as a way of expressing your own thankfulness.

Here’s How:

Before you begin, decorate your altar with symbols of the season. You may want to choose items that represent abundance, such as:
- Baskets of fruit, such as apples or grapes
- Cornucopias
- An abundance mandala
- Colors associated with abundance, such as gold and green
- Symbols of things you’re thankful for, such as your health or your career
- Photos of your family and friends who mean a lot to you
You’ll also want to have a candle on your altar. Gold or green is preferable, but you can use another color if it signifies abundance to you. Also, make a batch of Gratitude Oil ahead of time to use in the ritual.
If your tradition calls for you to cast a circle, go ahead and do so.
As you begin, take a moment to reflect on the abundance in your life. When we say abundance, it doesn’t necessarily mean material or financial gain — you may be abundant if you have friends who love you, a satisfying family life, or a rewarding career. Think about that things you have for which you are most grateful. These are the things you will be focusing on in this rite. As you’re thinking about these things, anoint the candle with the Gratitude Oil, and then light it on your altar table or workspace.
If you have a particular deity in your tradition who is associated with thankfulness, you may wish to call out to this god or goddess and invite them into your circle. If not, that’s okay too — you can express your gratitude to the universe itself.
Beginning at one corner of the table, begin saying the things you are thankful for, and why. It might go something like this:
I am thankful for my health, because it allows me to feel well. I am thankful for my children, for keeping me young. I am thankful for my career, because each day I get paid to do what I love. I am thankful for my job, because I am able to feed my family. I am thankful for my garden, because it provides me fresh herbs. I am thankful for my coven sisters, because they make me feel spiritually complete…

and so forth, until you have expressed your thankfulness for everything in your life.
If you’re doing this ritual with a group, each person should anoint a candle of their own, and call out their own things that they are thankful for.
Take a few more minutes to meditate on the candle flame, and to focus on the notion of abundance. While you’re thinking about things you are grateful for, you might also wish to consider the people in your life that are grateful towards you, for the things you have done. Recognize that gratitude is a gift that keeps on giving, and that counting one’s blessings is an important thing to do, because it reminds us of how truly fortunate we are.
Note: It’s important to realize that one of the things about being thankful is that we should let people who have made us happy know they’ve done so. If there’s someone specific you wish to thank for their words or actions, you should take the time to tell them so directly, instead of (or in addition to) merely doing a ritual that they’ll never know about. Send a note, make a phone call, or tell them in person how much you appreciate what they’ve done for you.

What You Need

Symbols of what you’re thankful for
A candle
Gratitude Oil

Today’s I Ching Hexagram for September 20 is 42: Increase

42: Increase

Hexagram 42

General Meaning: Substantial progress and increasing prosperity is pointed to. In whatever forms it takes, periods of increase are exhilarating, as long as you go with the flow while it lasts and keep the interests of others in mind. Like white water on a river, periods of increase are often of short duration; it furthers one, therefore, to shoot the rapids now, while the opportunity is there.

A good sense of direction in times of opportunity involves commitment to the needs of one’s cohorts and dependents. Only by realizing that to lead is really to serve, can an effective leader contribute to a lasting increase in prosperity for all. In times of general increase, those who contribute most directly to the common good will also receive the greatest rewards.

When opportunities for increase arise, supreme good fortune comes to those who act swiftly and boldly, while avoiding the trap of letting their actions be only self-serving. If you aspire to a position of prominence, the most enduring strategy is to work to raise the tide of your entire pond, rather than to try to swim upstream on your own.

When the times favor prosperity, and when leadership is in the hands of the broad-minded, supreme good fortune results.

Calendar of the Sun for September 20

Calendar of the Sun

Carista – Day of Peace in the Family

Color: Lavender
Element: Water
Altar: Upon a lavender cloth set a tray of cakes shaped like clasping hands, and many cups full of hot tea.
Offerings: Promise to attempt to be more considerate of those you live with.
Daily Meal: Any food, but it must be served from one great plate for every table, and it should not be in separate portions.

Carista Invocation

May there be Peace in this house.
(Response: “May there be peace in this house!”)
Peace can be a hard mistress.
The daily round of the ordinary,
The simple turn of day and night and day
The presence of the same souls
Can come to be like a shadow on the sun,
And yet Peace still demands
That we find a way to move past
That ordinariness
And all the thousand thorns and briars
And bring Peace into the house.
(Response: “May there be peace in this house!”)
Take the hand of your sister, your brother,
The one who shares your roof, your table,
The ground you walk on,
Whose feet know the boards as well as your own,
And swear to find a way
To bring peace into the space between you.
(Response: “May there be peace in this house!”)

Chant:
My brother, my heart, my sister, my soul;
My family, my life, come in from the cold;
My sister, my heart, my brother, my soul;
My family, my life, that makes this life whole.

(Instead of a ritual, this period of time should be used to mediate and address problems between members of the community, with emphasis on peacemaking and compromise and useful solutions. At the end of the meeting, all share cakes and tea.)

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Daily Feng Shui Tip for September 19 – ‘National Women Road Warrior Day!’

Ladies, put your pedal to the mettle since it’s ‘National Women Road Warrior Day!’ But before you get behind this battle or your steering wheel be sure to follow a few tried and true Feng Shui rules for owning the road. First is to be sure that the car is clear of clutter. Another Feng Shui car cure is to hang a round and faceted clear quartz crystal with red thread from the rearview mirror. If you find this crystal distracting, keep one in the center well of the car or in the glove box. Speaking of that, Feng Shui says to keep six faux peacocks in that same space to guarantee that you not only enjoy the journey but also arrive at your destination. Lastly, a blend of ten drops each of lemon essential and peppermint oil can keep any warrior awake and alert. Okay, ladies, today’s your day. Start your engines! But not first without following a few of these Car Shui rules!

By Ellen Whitehurst for Astrology.com

PRINCIPLES OF WICCAN BELIEF OF THE COUNCIL OF AMERICAN WITCHES

In April 1974, the Council of American Witches adopted a set of Principles which we personally believe in.

1) We practice rites to attune ourselves with the natural rhythm of life forces
marked by the phases of the Moon and the seasonal Quarters and Cross Quarters.

2) We recognize that our intelligence gives us a unique responsibility toward
our environment. We seek to live in harmony with Nature, in ecological balance offering fulfillment to life and consciousness within an evolutionary concept.

3) We acknowledge a depth of power far greater that that apparent to the average person. Because it it far greater than ordinary it is sometimes called
“supernatural”, but we see it as lying within that which is naturally potential
to all.

4) We conceive of the Creative Power in the universe as manifesting through
polarity–as masculine and feminine–and that this same Creative Power lies in all people, and functions through the interaction of the masculine and feminine. We value neither above the other, knowing each to be supportive of the other. We value sex as pleasure, as the symbol and embodiment of life, and as one of the sources of energies used in magickal practice and religious worship.

5) We recognize both outer worlds and inner, or psychological, worlds sometimes known as the Spiritual World, the Collective Unconscious, Inner Planes, etc.–and we see in the inter-action of these two dimensions the basis for paranormal phenomena and magickal exercises. We neglect neither dimension for the other, seeing both as necessary for our fulfillment.

6) We do not recognize any authoritarian hierarchy, but do honor those who
teach, respect those who share their greater knowledge and wisdom, and
acknowledge those who have courageously given of themselves in leadership.

7) We see religion, magick and wisdom in living as being united in the way one views the world and lives within it–a world view and philosophy of life which we identify as Witchcraft–the Wiccan Way.

8) Calling oneself “Witch” does not make a Witch–but neither does heredity
itself, nor the collecting of titles, degrees and initiations. A Witch seeks to
control the forces within him/herself that make life possible in order to live
wisely and well without harm to others and in harmony with Nature.

9) We believe in the affirmation and fulfillment of life in a continuation of
evolution and development of consciousness giving meaning to the Universe we know and our personal role within it.

10) Our only animosity towards Christianity, or towards any other religion or
philosophy of life, is to the extent that its institutions have claimed to be
‘the only way’ and have sought to deny freedom to others and to suppress other ways of religious practice and belief.

11) As American Witches, we are not threatened by debates on the history of the Craft, the origins of various terms, the legitimacy of various aspects of
different traditions. We are concerned with our present and future.

12) We do not accept the concept of absolute evil, nor do we worship any entity known as ‘Satan’ or ‘the Devil’ as defined by the Christian tradition. We do not seek power through the suffering of others, nor accept that personal benefit can be derived only by denial to another.

13) We believe that we should seek within Nature that which is contributory to our health and well-being.

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
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11	12	13	14	15	16	17
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How to Hold a Gratitude Ritual