Fifth Night

Your affirmation for today: I welcome healing energy into my life. Every day and in every way, my body enjoys the healing perfection of the universe. Thank you for my healing. Rain cleanses, regenerates, and blesses all it touches. I welcome the healing of rain.

Your symbol for today: rain

Begin your day: Before doing your affirmation today, ring your bell or chime the number of times that matches your lucky number. Take your time; let each note drift and fall silent before you begin the next. Now, begin in the morning by reading the affirmation for the day. Today’s segment concentrates on rain, associating this energy with that of the healing power of Spirit. Close your eyes, quiet your mind, smile, and allow Spirit to fully enter your body. Then repeat the word rain softly, conjuring your vision of rain in your mind. Open your eyes, and repeat the affirmation at least three times. Remember to smile as you finish! Throughout the day, repeat the affirmation as many times as you like. Begin and end with a smile. Write down in a small notebook (or your HedgeWitch journal) anything unusual about this day and events, people, or places that carry a strong rain association. In this way, you will be prepared to perform the fifth night Rite of Rain. Don’t be surprised if it actually rains today!

To do today: Find a unique and interesting bottle to hold the water used for tonight’s rite. You may wish to select a bottle that has a large-enough opening to insert herbs and a good cap with an easy-pour function. A fancy oil/vinegar bottle might suit your needs. From now on, this will be your healing bottle, used in various cleansing and healing ceremonies. Sterilize the bottle before tonight’s ceremony.

Today I will release…anything in my life that refers to sickness. I will replace these things with bright colors, affirmations of healing, etc. Rather than worry, I’m going to do activities that keep my mind off my fears of sickness. Instead of saying: “I feel sick,” I am going to say: “I feel good. Thank you for my healing,” and then I will smile. I will wash all my curtains, throw rugs, pillows, etc.

Weekly planner: If you are spending a week on this rite, look through Sections 4 and 5 of this book and choose one or more projects, techniques, or formulas that you feel relate to healing, and make those items. In this way, you will continue to build your HedgeWitch magickal cabinet of supplies.

Herbs for today: Yarrow, one vanilla bean, birch or willow leaves, rose petals, spearmint; place a small amount of this mixture in the sterilized bottle. For incense: a ground mixture of dried allspice, peppermint leaves, pine needles, and pulverized lime peels (or two drops of lime essential oil).

Supplies for tonight: small fire-safe cauldron, above-listed herbs, one bottle of rain water (best) or spring water (if rain water is unavailable; you will need enough to place in your special bottle and the cauldron), one aqua candle, a candle holder that can fit in the cauldron, incense mixture, incense holder, charcoal tab made specifically for incense, a light blue or light green (or this color combination) piece of cloth with the type of healing you desire in your life written on it (size of cloth varies to suit your needs—use one square yard for asperging a large area with sacred smoke, or you can choose an eight-by-eight-inch or six-by-six-inch cloth)

Rite of Rain

Place your magick key and the special glass bottle filled with the listed herbs beside your pebbles on your altar. Fill bottle with blessed water. Swirl the bottle nine times, intoning the following charm:

Gifts of rain and flowing grace

Create for me a sacred space

Where peace and healing now abide

And Spirit travels by my side.

Sprinkle the pebbles with a bit of the holy water from the special bottle. On the aqua candle, inscribe the word rain with a pin, nail, or clay-inscribing tool. Place the candle in a safe holder. Put the holder in the cauldron. Fill the cauldron with blessed water, covering the candle holder with water. The bottom of the candle should be immersed one inch in the water. Light the candle. Add seven drops of the herbal holy water to the water in the cauldron, repeating today’s affirmation three times. Step back, smile, relax, and connect to Spirit. Ring your bell or chime the number of times that matches your personal magick number. Intone the following charm at least nine times, until it begins to sound like a sweet mantra:

Herbal magick’s secret seal

Of rain, of hope, and how to heal

Spiral power in my palms

I activate the healer’s song.

Light the charcoal incense tab and sprinkle the herbal mixture on the tab. Waft the smoke over and around your body with the healing cloth you prepared, pushing the smoke (negativity) down and into the ground. Repeat this action until you feel cleansed and peaceful.

Meditate for fifteen minutes on the meaning of rain and healing in the life of a spiritual person. Draw your special rain sigil in your journal. Allow the candle to burn completely until it is extinguished by the water in the cauldron. Bury the candle end off your property. You can either burn your healing cloth or carry it with you, filled with healing herbs, until you are fully healed, and then burn it. You can also cut the cloth into small pieces to burn in a small cauldron. If you absolutely cannot burn it, shred the cloth and distribute it off the property in various trash bins. Now that you have experienced using cloth and sacred smoke as a cleansing vehicle in ritual, you may wish to embroider a special cloth that can be washed and hung out to dry after each use. You can also refrigerate the remaining water in your special bottle (shelf life is about two weeks). This water can be used to asperge sacred space, in healing work, dotting on petitions, etc. Dispose of the water that was in the cauldron off your property, preferably at a crossroads. Do not drink.

Contemplate, in your journal, how you are continuing to build your spell of personal transformation. Speak not of what you are doing. Silence, as in a garden of perfection, will whisper great power in your ear.

Before you drift off to sleep, close this evening by saying:

Peace with the gods

Peace with nature

Peace within.

It always works.

Always a blessing.

Remember to smile!