Days 121–150
Magical Items to Gather
Here is a list of items you will need during the next month of training:
Day 121
• 1/4 ounce powdered sandalwood (better: 1/4 ounce powdered hawthorn wood)
• 1 teaspoon dry crushed almonds
• 2 teaspoons frankincense tears
• 1 teaspoon dry meadowsweet
• Vegetable glycerin
• Rose essential oil
• Rosemary essential oil
Day 122
• A 5–6 inch green taper candle
Day 125
• A bundle of dried twigs from local trees or
• A 5–6 inch red taper candle
• Cinnamon essential oil
Day 126
• A red pen
• A 12-inch ruler
• Chamomile essential oil (optional)
Day 128
• A “wreath frame” (found at a craft supply store)
• Straw or dried moss (found at a craft supply store)
• Dried flowers
• Sand/stones
Day 131
• Chamomile essential oil
Day 132
• 11/4 cup blanched almonds
• 11/4 cups sugar
• 3 large egg whites
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• The zest from 1 orange
Day 134
• A small piece of topaz or a piece of gold
• A small clear-glass container
Day 136
• 1/4 ounce pine (wood), either powdered or chips
• 1/4 ounce powdered sandalwood
• 2 teaspoons white copal
• 1 teaspoon dried bay laurel
• 1 teaspoon hemp seed (because this item may be difficult to procure, it is listed here for traditional purposes only; it is not a required ingredient)
• Vegetable glycerin
• Cedar essential oil
• Carnation essential oil
• Cinnamon essential oil
Day 137
• A 5–6 inch brown taper candle
Day 140
• 4 dried stalks of wheat or
• 4 fresh flowers with stem and bud attached
• A cauldron or other vessel in which you can burn items safely
• Old newspaper or kindling
• A boline (the Witch term for a small sickle) or paring knife
• Several small candles or tea lights of any color
Day 146
• 1/4 ounce oak (wood), either powdered or chips
• 1/4 ounce powdered sandalwood
• 2 teaspoons frankincense
• 1 teaspoon dried oats (you can use the easily found rolled flakes such as that found in oatmeal)
• Vegetable glycerin
• Patchouli essential oil
• Rosemary essential oil
Day 147
• An ordinary garden sickle
• 1/4 ounce black polyurethane paint
• 1/4 ounce red polyurethane paint
• A thin detailing paintbrush
Day 148
• Two 5–6 inch brown taper candles
Day 149
• 2 teaspoons fenugreek seed
Day 150
• A 5–6 inch green-yellow taper candle
Day 121
Beltane: Incense and Oil
Beltane Incense
Burn this incense at your Beltane ritual, or at any time that you want to bring about the energies and insights of Beltane.
What You’ll Need:
• A handful of powdered sandalwood (better: a handful of powdered hawthorn wood)
• 1 teaspoon dry, crushed almonds
• 2 teaspoons frankincense tears
• 1 teaspoon dry meadowsweet
• Vegetable glycerin
• 10 drops rose essential oil
In a medium-sized bowl, place your powdered sandalwood. Stir in about two tablespoons of vegetable glycerin. Add the tablespoons one at a time and then mix with a metal whisk or a fork. You simply want to create a soft, fluffy compound. Do not add the second tablespoon of glycerin if it feels like it would be too much, causing the incense to be too wet.
Now add your essential oils and whisk. Add your other dried herbs and mix thoroughly. Wait for at least a day for the compound to settle before you sprinkle it on hot coals.
Beltane Oil
Use this oil to anoint attendees of your Beltane ritual. You can also use this oil any time you want to awaken the insights and mysteries of Beltane. This oil activates the magical energies of sexuality, love, and union.
What You’ll Need:
• Vegetable glycerin (or a carrier oil such as grape seed oil)
• 4 drops rose essential oil
• 3 drops rosemary essential oil
• Pinch of frankincense
Find a one-ounce bottle. Fill the bottle halfway with vegetable glycerin. Add plain water until the bottle is three-quarters full. Add your essential oils. Add dry ingredients, close the lid, and shake the bottle. You can use this magical oil immediately.
Day 122
Contemplative Day: Life Itself
Meditative Question: What is this life?
Symbolic Color: Green
Symbolic Direction: North
This month’s contemplative question brings you toward realizing your place within the vastness of life itself. It challenges you to explore your place in the world and the purpose of your being. It opens your spiritual senses so that you come into accord with the natural world and the energies of the goddess and god. It is an important question to face as you travel along the path of Wicca.
The magical power you are able to accrue over the course of your year and a day practice is in direct proportion to your ability to align your life with that of the natural world. This contemplative question allows you to see the connection between you and life itself.
Solving this month’s contemplative question will not be easy. In fact, you may choose to return to this question time and again until you reach a satisfactory understanding. Through the process of unraveling the question of the month, you will notice an increase in your wisdom and magical power. Many magical folk gain clarity in the issues of their everyday living as a result of engaging in this unique, contemplative work.
As usual, begin by finding a comfortable, meditative sitting position. This time, sit facing the north. Light a green candle, place it in front of you, and cast your gaze upon the flickering candle. As you have already learned in previous contemplative questions, be sure to sit holding the question for 20 to 30 minutes.
This month’s question is one that both scholars and mystics have pursued over the course of history. Neither through intellectualization, free-association, nor even through guessing can you arrive at a satisfactory or compelling resolution and mystic realization. Don’t expect to unravel the mysteries of this contemplation in one day. Instead, hold the question firmly in your mind over whatever length of time may be necessary. See the question as it manifests in each of your activities. Do not try to logically answer the question. Instead, become one with the question itself in each of your tasks. Be this question as you eat, sleep, work, and play. Over time, a shift in your perception will take place and you will realize your own answer.
Day 123
Devotional Day:
Honoring Dionysus
Table of Correspondences: Dionysus
Symbols: Grapes, wine, wheat, pomegranates, and the lyre
Tools: The wand, the chalice, the thrysus (a fennel stalk)
Magical Essences/Herbs: Cedar, white oak bark, and sage
Direction: Dionysus is aligned with the west
He Rules: Insight, mystic awareness, the ability to see other dimensions, ability to commune with elemental forces
Animal Symbols: Snake, bull, goat
Sacred Foods: Wine, whole grain breads, and pomegranates
Magical Stones: Black diamond
In Greek myth, Dionysus is a complex god of vegetation, spiritual rebirth, sexuality, and ecstasy. He represents the untamed, ecstatic force behind all magic. Dionysus’ title is dithyrambos, which means “twice born.” He was first rescued from the womb of his human mother by Zeus, and then embedded for the remaining term of gestation in Zeus’ thigh. Thus, Dionysus was said to be born both of mortals and gods. Because of this, he is a being that lives between the worlds, a concept that is sacred to all Witches.
When you evoke your spiritual center connected with Dionysus you also evoke spiritual insight, mystic awareness, the ability to see other dimensions, and the ability to commune with the elemental forces of nature. Dionysus’ sacred symbols are grapes, wine, wheat, pomegranates, and the lyre. Dionysus’ magical colors are maroon, deep blue, and purple. His magical essences and herbs are cedar, white oak bark, and sage. The times of the day that you can easily evoke the presence of Dionysus are at dusk and midnight. Wine, whole grain breads, and pomegranates are Dionysus’ sacred foods.
Dionysus Practice
In honoring Dionysus today, make an altar that includes his sacred symbols. Light appropriately colored candles and intone the syllables of his name once and again, in sustained tones, saying “Di-o-ny-sus!” Continue to chant his name until you feel or sense his presence. Once he has arrived, spend some time contemplating what it might mean to serve this aspect of deity. Take time to contemplate the fact that you are an expression of both humanity and the gods. Honor this god today by encouraging others to step outside of the usual bounds of thinking, speaking, and action.
Day 124
Day of Silence and Review
Today, as you observe silence, focus your attention on the interplay between thoughts and emotions. Do not attempt to limit your thoughts or your emotional reactions to the events of your day; simply observe the activity and how one factor might influence another. When the day is complete, answer these questions:
• In what way did my thoughts impact my emotions?
• In what way did my emotions impact my thoughts?
• What might happen if I alter either my thought or emotional pattern?
• How do the interplay of thoughts and emotions affect my physical energy or health?
• How can understanding the interplay between emotions and thoughts help me develop spiritually?
Review
For today’s practice, take time to ask yourself the following:
• Of the information I have learned up to now, what stands out most as vital?
• What information seems least relevant to my spiritual development?
• Which of the practices seemed to move me spiritually, and which had little impact?
• Of the information I have learned so far, what would be best to review? (Take time to review it now.)
Day 125
Summer Solstice
The sun is at its zenith—and paradoxically begins its decline—during the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the solar year. The Solstice usually occurs between June 19 and 23—when the sun enters the sign of Cancer. In old Europe, the Summer Solstice, or Midsummer, was an important fire festival. In some ancient accounts, villagers would set wheels made of straw or cartwheels smeared with pitch ablaze and then roll them down a hill to signify the sun’s descent, or gradual darkening, which followed this longest of days.52 Another Midsummer custom involved farmers lighting torches and then parading them around newly ripening fields. The intention of this rite was to drive out harmful dragons or spirits that might cause sickness in their communities. The rite was also aimed at preventing weakness in the harvest. Interestingly enough, the mythical dragon is a universal symbol for the element of fire, which is the primary energetic expression of Midsummer. In yet another custom, villagers would wrap a wooden pillar in a thick coat of straw and place it at the central part of town. The pillar was then set afire. The central pillar represented the phallic Maypole previously planted in the earth-womb at Beltane. Symbolically speaking, this magical act represented both the empowerment and the destruction of the phallic principle. In other words, the principle of life (as represented both by the sun and the phallus) was simultaneously at its height and in its decline at the time of the Summer Solstice. It was the realization of this principle, which includes a juxtaposition of power and energy, of height and decline, of life and death, that captured the ancient imagination. The most common Midsummer practice for the ancient Europeans was the lighting of immense bonfires at the tops of hills. The bonfires were a communal event and each of a village’s family members were required to contribute firewood, straw, and twigs to the fires. Once a bonfire was extinguished, villagers would remove glowing embers and place them in the earth near their homes. They might also place them in their crop-producing fields or in the fireplace. One custom in some villages was to set the bristles of old brooms ablaze and then fling the entire broom into the air. The youngest male of a household would then preserve the remaining broom handle so that it could be stuck into the ground to protect gardens and vegetation. In other accounts, magical folks would use the extinguished, yet still smoking, broom bristles to fumigate and bless new homes.53
Practice: Fire Purification
What You’ll Need:
• A bundle of dried twigs from local trees, or
• A red candle
• Cinnamon essential oil
• A cauldron or deep iron cooking pot filled with sand (or stones)
Fire has a purifying quality. In some ancient medical practices, doctors would use fire to cleanse and seal wounds. Fire purifies because it exhausts a source of fuel completely and cleanly. When something is burned completely, thoroughly, it is gone—cleansed from existence.
In today’s practice, you will cleanse your spirit of unwanted energies, toxic forces, and in the process you will unburden your life of wasted energy. To begin, gather together some dried twigs (if you can find them; if not use a red candle). Bundle the twigs at one end with some twine and set that bundled end into a pot or cauldron filled with sand or small stones. Be sure that that the bundled end is securely wedged into the sand or small stones before you go to the next step.
Close your eyes and sense where in your body you hold dark, hot, or heavy energies. You do not need to name the energies, just sense where they are. Once you have done this, smear the twigs (or candle) with cinnamon oil. Light the bundle of twigs (or your candle) on fire now and stand back. As the bundle burns, use your hands to touch or symbolically scoop the unwanted energies away from your body and then push this energy into the fire. Imagine that the fire burns these energies completely away.
Day 126
Summer Solstice’s Meaning
If you think in terms of symbolism, the Summer Solstice holds a wealth of it. Let’s begin with the sun. If you change your perspective slightly to view the sun’s annual passage through the heavens as a symbol that represents the passage of years in your own life, Midsummer suddenly communicates to us a vital message. Summer Solstice is the mid-point of the solar year. Symbolically speaking this represents the midpoint of a human life. Just as the sun is at its height of power at Midsummer, it also begins its decline. This is a wonderful natural meta-phor for our own lives when we face the crossroads of our midlife.
But as we turn the wheel of the year to face Midsummer, how do we respond to fully facing the matter of our own mortality? This is a shamanic conundrum, an important challenge that cannot be solved through planning or strategy. Many people face the issue of their mortality for the first time during the well-known midlife crisis, a time marked with frantic activity and desperation to turn back time, or to change one’s life from perceived insignificance. Behind the frenetic activity is a deep, nonverbal, unconscious fear of death. What should we do with all of this? Should we run and hide? Should we just give up?
Nature provides us with an answer, which is encoded in the sun’s activity. When we think of the sun in its decline, we note that it does not scatter its power in fear and desperation. It does not attempt to turn back time or change the way things are. It simply shines fully, brightly—just as it is—fading, fading into an ever-darkening year. In our own lives, this symbolizes the practice of accepting fully our lives as they are in the moment without fear or striving for effect. It teaches us to acknowledge and surrender to a natural progression that cannot ever be changed.
The Midsummer celebration should open your consciousness to living fully in each moment, accepting your life just as it is. Tomorrow may or may not come. How does this knowledge affect you?54
Practice: Solar Magic House Blessing
What You’ll Need:
• A page of blank white paper
• A red pen
• A ruler (to help create the solar mathematical table)
• Chamomile essential oil (optional)
Today, and on the actual Summer Solstice, bless and energize your home with the sun’s “magical square,” also called the planetary kamea by the ancient magus Cornelius Agrippa.55 The kamea is meant to mathematically represent the spirit or energy of the sun (or of other planets or spiritual powers). By creating the solar magical square and by placing it over your doorway, you assure the strength and vitality of the sun to permeate your home and your life.
To begin, take out a blank piece of paper. Magical squares are traditionally engraved on never-before- used parchment paper, but most magical practitioners agree that regular blank white paper is effective. Use a ruler or a straight edge to create an equal-sided square. Inside of this square create six rows and six columns (equally spaced), so that you have 36 smaller squares within the larger square. Fill the squares as shown here.
Cut out the square and rub the edges of the paper (rubbing clockwise around the edges) with chamomile essential oil. Hang this over the front door of your home.
|
6 |
32 |
3 |
34 |
35 |
1 |
|
7 |
11 |
27 |
28 |
8 |
30 |
|
19 |
14 |
16 |
15 |
23 |
24 |
|
18 |
20 |
22 |
21 |
17 |
13 |
|
25 |
29 |
10 |
9 |
26 |
12 |
|
36 |
5 |
33 |
4 |
2 |
31 |
Day 127
Summer Solstice: Fairy Energies
Midsummer is the perfect time to commune with the world of fairies. Belief in fairies was widespread in pagan Europe, especially in Ireland. Scholars are uncertain about the origins of the fairies. W. Y. Evan Wentz proposed three theories of the fairies in his book The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries. One theory says that they are vestiges of the early Celts’ rationalization about natural phenomena. The second of his theories suggests that the fairies were a race of small or pigmy people who were forced to live far from the Celtic tribes. The third theory states that the fairies were fictitious; they were folklore passed down from ancient Druids.56
Whether these creatures exist in physical form is a matter of debate. In occult lore, fairies are nature spirits of the air. Witches who tap deeply into the tides of nature feel their spiritual presence. According to myth, the favorite places where you can find these spiritual forces and tap into their energies include most untamed natural settings but especially:
• Near or beneath ferns
• Near or beneath toadstools
• Small grassy mounds (also called fairy mounds or fairy hills)
• Near or inside of wells and natural springs
• In fields of wildflowers or wild herbs
• In forests
• In deserts
• Near fireplaces and bonfires
Take time to explore a natural setting today where you sense that you might find fairies. While you are there, sit on the ground, close your eyes and silently invite the fairies into your presence. Do not make sudden moves or open your eyes. Simply sit and allow the energies to surround you. You may feel tingling or a tickling sensation on the skin or internally. This is how many folks report they first experience the elemental energies.
After a few minutes of experiencing the fairy energies, silently thank them and let them know that you will be leaving their magical plane. Open your eyes and place an offering on the ground. Then leave the spot and do not return. In Ireland, traditional offerings include bits of cheese, eggs, apples, or bread.57
Day 128
Summer Solstice:
Making the Sun Wheel
What You’ll Need:
• A “wreath frame” (usually bought from a craft supply store)
• Straw or moss
• Several 4 x 4 inch squares of paper
• Dried flowers
The Sun Wheel practice is a way to honor and energize the archetypes of the sun in your life. To create the traditional “burning wheel” or “solar wheel,” begin by purchasing a wreath frame from a craft supply store. If you do not have a wreath frame handy, you can simply soften a freshly cut, thin tree branch in cold water for 8–10 hours. Then tie the ends together to shape the branch into a circle. This will be your wreath frame. If you choose to make your own wreath frame, be sure to begin the project at least 1–2 days before using it for any magical purpose. The purpose of making the wreath frame ahead of time is so that it will have a chance to dry out.
Attach dried moss or dried straw to your frame. Once this is complete, take time to write down your talents, skills, or accomplishments. List one talent/ skill on each 4 x 4 inch square of paper. Twist these pieces of paper, pack them into the straw and moss and attach them with florist’s wire. Finish the wreath with some beautiful dried flowers. Dried sunflowers are particularly magical and evocative of the season. Set the wreath in a place of prominence to evoke the qualities of the sun in your life. You will need this wreath for tomorrow’s practice.
Day 129
Summer Solstice:
The Burning Wheel
What You’ll Need:
• Your finished sun wheel
• Old newspaper, twigs, or other suitable kindling
• Sand and stones
• A barbecue or fire pit
Take your decorated wreath to a fire pit or other location where it can burn safely.
In this next portion of the magical working, use extreme caution when handling fire. You, your loved ones and property can be burned, damaged, or injured if you do not use standard fire safety procedures as outlined in earlier practices. If you do not wish to use fire, simply visualize the process of lighting the wheel aflame. If you do use fire, I strongly recommend keeping sand, water, and a fire extinguisher on hand for emergencies.
Set the wreath into a fire pit and place old newspaper or other kindling in and around the wreath to assure that it will properly catch fire. Light the kindling on fire using a long wooden matchstick or long-nosed lighter and quickly step away from the fire. Allow the wreath to burn completely. Have sand, water, and a fire extinguisher nearby to extinguish the fire should it pose any danger.
While the wreath burns, hold the palms of your hands toward the flames and recite this traditional Old English Summer verse:
Traditional Old English Verse
Summer is icumen in
Lhudle sing cuccu!
Groweth sed and bloweth med
and springth the wode nu.
Sing cuccu!
Awe bleteth after lomb,
lhouth after calve cu,
Bulluc sterteth, bucke sterteth.
Murie sing cuccu!
Cuccu, cuccu,
Wel singes theu cuccu.
nu swik thu naver nu!
Sing cuccu nu, Sing cuccu!
Contemporary English Translation
Summer is a-coming in
Loudly sing cuckoo
Groweth seed and bloweth mead
and springs the wood anew
Sing cuckoo!
Ewe bleateth after lamb,
Calf loweth after cow,
The bullock jumps, the buck mounts,
Merry sing cuckoo!
Cuckoo, cuckoo!
Well singest thou cuckoo,
Nor cease thou never now!
Sing cuckoo now, Sing cuckoo!
Day 130
Summer Solstice: Sun Vigil
Today, honor the sun by watching it set. Go to a favorite natural setting where you can clearly see the sun set on the horizon. Before you do this, check in your local newspaper or almanac to know the exact time of the sunset—otherwise you may be waiting for a long time for the big event.
When you arrive at the viewing spot, lay out a comfortable blanket and sit on the ground. Close your eyes and feel the warmth of the sun on your skin. Mentally thank the sun for bringing light into your day. You can make an offering of some sweet cakes or a libation of wine on the earth at this time. Without directly looking into the sun’s light, peer now and again at it as it sinks into the west. After the sun has set, take time to consider the following:
• What personal associations do you have with the sun?
• What memories do you have related to the sun (sunburn, a favorite sunny day, etc.)?
• What feelings or energies do you sense as the sun sets?
• How might the energies you have sensed be useful to you in your life?
Day 131
Summer Solstice: Solar Healing
What You’ll Need:
• Chamomile essential oil
The sun has magical healing properties from which Witches and magical folk draw. Witches traditionally practice this sun-drawing technique at sunrise—or at least within the first hours of sunrise. Go to some place where you can have a full view of the rising sun. Face the sunrise, close your eyes, and feel the solar warmth on your skin.
Now imagine that the sun draws out from you any heavy, dark energies. Any illnesses or emotional difficulties you face can be eased if you allow the sun to draw them out from you now. Imagine them leaving you, floating up and out toward the sun, where they are annihilated forever.
As you stand there imagining the energies leaving you, repeat the following chant to the sun thrice:
Morning sun, take my pain!
Ease my heart; illness wane.
Conclude the rite by anointing your heart chakra (at the center of your chest) with chamomile essential oil, which aligns you with the essence of solar energy.
Day 132
Summer Solstice: Sun Cakes
During the solstices and equinoxes, many Wiccans make sun cakes, which are small, simple cakes (or more properly, cookies) that contain solar properties. Witches typically eat these during the main part of a solstice or equinox ritual. During the ritual, a facilitating Wiccan priestess or priest blesses the sun cakes by drawing the power of the sun down upon them. As celebrants eat their sun cakes they use their creative imaginative abilities to visualize the power of the sun entering them, gently warming the spirit and imbuing them with the life-giving energies of the sun.
Practice: Making Solar Cakes
What You’ll Need:
• 13/4 cups blanched almonds
• 11/2 cups sugar
• 3 large egg whites
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• The zest from 1 orange
Put your almonds into a food processor and grind them until they are a fine powder. Use a cheese grater to remove the colorful outside part of the orange rind—its “zest.” Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Using an electric mixer, blend together the orange rind, ground almonds, egg whites, vanilla extract, and sugar. Beat this together until thick. Roll the dough into small balls and set them on a nonstick baking sheet. Flatten the balls with your fingers, making a circle. Make sure to moisten your fingers with some water before flattening the balls to avoid sticking. Use a toothpick to make a dot at the center of each circle.
This symbol of the circle with a dot at the center is the zodiacal representation (also called a “glyph”) of the sun.
Day 133
Summer Solstice:
Solar Cake Blessing
What You’ll Need:
• Sun cakes
• Four gold taper candles
In today’s practice, you will imbue the cakes you have made with the energies of the sun. Set the cakes on a windowsill during the daytime for at least an hour.
After the cakes have had a chance to soak up some sun energy, bring them to a table. Light four gold candles and set them in a circle around the platter of cakes. Stand in the “Provider” magical pass position, with your right hand up at shoulder height, palm facing away from the chest. The left hand is open at the hip, with the palm facing away from the hip. Modify this pose by hovering the left palm slightly above the platter of sun cakes. Close your eyes and imagine that the sun’s rays enter in the space between your brows and channel down through your left hand, entering into the cakes.
While you do this, say the following incantation:
Wheel of the sun,
Great wheel of time,
Radiant scepter, shining over all!
I draw thee down,
To enter here,
Become these cakes
O shining Sphere!
When you are finished, open your eyes and place the palms of your hands together to stop the flow of solar energy. Eat one or two of the cakes. Share them with friends or with anyone who needs solar energy, blessings, or healing.
Day 134
Summer Solstice:
Stone Waters
The sun at its full power is a perfect time to make magical stone waters. A stone water is plain spring water into which you drop a quartz crystal (or other gem). This then is placed in the sunlight to “steep” for several hours. In magical practice, the crystal yields its spiritual essence, like a tea bag sitting in a warm sun-tea jar. This practice comes from the early Celts who would place white or rose quartz crystals into boiling water, which was later cooled and applied to the body for healing.58 Magical folks use stone waters for many purposes, but they use them predominantly for healing or for absorbing the magical attributes of particular stones or gems. In this case, we will make an elixir that contains the magical essence of the sun.
What You’ll Need:
• A small clear-glass container
• A small piece of topaz or a piece of gold
The method is simple. Hold the small topaz or the piece of gold up to the first rays of the sun. Imagine that your mineral absorbs the sun’s rays. Next, set the stone into a small clear glass container of water. Place the container with the crystal on a window ledge where the sun can shine on it all day long. At the end of the day, remove the stone and drink the water. As you do this, you will absorb the energies of the sun.
Day 135
Summer Solstice:
More Stone Waters
Try making a stone water with other magical rocks. Here is a short list of stones and the properties they traditionally impart:
Amber: To enhance beauty
Amethyst: Magical dreams and visions, tranquility, spiritual awareness
Bloodstone: For success in business, courage, and healing; magical power
Jade: Luck, love, longevity, health, prosperity, wisdom
Moonstone: Moon goddess energies, psychic ability, love
Marble: Success, prosperity, solidity
Obsidian: Peace
Opal: To bring about change, magical ability, prosperity
Quartz crystal: Psychic ability, awareness, receptivity
Day 136
Summer Solstice:
Incense and Oil
Summer Incense
Burn this incense at your Summer Solstice ritual, or at any time that you want to bring about the energies and insights of Summer Solstice.
What You’ll Need:
• 1/2 handful of pine (wood), either powdered or chips
• 1/2 handful of powdered sandalwood
• 2 teaspoons white copal
• 1 teaspoon dried bay laurel
• 1 teaspoon hemp seed (because this item may be difficult to procure, it is listed here for traditional purposes only; it is not a required ingredient)
• Vegetable glycerin
• 5 drops cedar essential oil
• 3 drops carnation essential oil
• 3 drops cinnamon oil
In a medium-sized bowl, place your powdered sandalwood. Stir in about two tablespoons of vegetable glycerin. Add the glycerin one tablespoon at a time, mixing with a metal whisk or a fork. You simply want to create a soft, fluffy compound. Do not add the second tablespoon of glycerin if it feels like it would be too much, causing the incense to be too wet.
Now add your essential oils and whisk. Add your other dried herbs and mix thoroughly. Wait for at least a day for the compound to settle before you sprinkle it on hot coals.
Summer Oil
Use this oil to anoint attendees of your Summer Solstice ritual. You can also use this oil any time that you want to awaken the insights and mysteries of Summer Solstice. This oil activates the magical energies of joy, freedom, power, and strength.
What You’ll Need:
• Vegetable glycerin (or a carrier oil such as grape seed oil)
• 5 drops cedar essential oil
• 3 drops carnation essential oil
• 3 drops cinnamon oil
• Pinch of chamomile flowers, hemp seed, white copal, or all three dried herbs!
Find a one-ounce bottle. Fill the bottle halfway with vegetable glycerin. Add plain water until the bottle is three-quarters full. Add your essential oils. Add dry ingredients, close the lid, and shake the bottle. You can use this magical oil immediately.
Day 137
Lammas
On the eve of August 1, Wiccans gather to celebrate the first of their harvest festivals, which is Lammas. The name Lammas is a derivation of “loaf-mass,” or hlaf-mas,59 an ancient celebration of the bread loaves that villagers would fashion from the first grains of their harvest. The gathering of grains and making of loaves marked the beginning of the harvesting season in rural Old Europe.60 In Ireland, they call Lammas the feast of Lughnassadh (pronounced Loo’-nah-sah)—the feast of the Celtic god Lugh. Occultists draw parallels between the Celtic Lugh and the Roman Mercury,61 since both are gods who are skilled in all arts—especially in magic. Lughnassadh was aptly named because it was a tide of great natural magic for the rural folk of Europe. The earth, their mother, was providing them once more with fruits and grain so that they might live. They watched seed become sprout, bud, leaf, and then flower. To the ancient mind—and still to us today—this was a feat of stupendous natural magic.
The theme of sacrifice was an important aspect of the ancient celebrations of Lughnassadh. This sacred harvest represented the sacrifice of the horned god, as he manifests through the grain, to sustain human lives. This archetypal theme of altruistic sacrificial offering (in this case through death) is the same found around the globe in various guises, but which remains a familiar centerpiece of the Christian mythos. In the Celtic mythic cycle of the Mabinogian, Lugh represented the European manifestation of the sacrificed god archetype.62 Other names of the Old European sacrificed god were John Barleycorn and the Green Man. Pagan folk of Old Europe would actualize this theme of the sacrificed god through the reaping of their first crops, which represented the god sacrifice.63
Celebrants might mark the feast day with circular dances aimed at regenerating the earth and building the community. They might also offer newly harvested crops as sacrifices to the old gods. Celtic pagan priests would invoke the gods Lugh and Danu to protect the harvest. Villagers might then play at games that represented the winnowing of grain.64
Practice: Harvest Luck and
House Protection
What You’ll Need:
• Fresh produce of your choosing (favorites among pagans are corn and squash)
• A brown taper candle about 5–6 inches in length
One magical Lughnassadh custom was bringing the prized and highly magical first sheaf of corn across the front door threshold of one’s home. The villagers would offer this honor to the person who obtained the first sheaf of corn, and the custom would ensure luck and protection from illness and poverty for the coming year. In your practice today, go to the grocery store and select a produce (or grain) item that has symbolic attributes that represent a quality you would like to bring into your life. For example, you may select a bunch of carrots because their orange color seems to represent the warmth of the sun. Or you may select a red pepper because you want to bring zest and vitality into the home. An apple might appeal to you because it represents soothing feminine energy. Be creative in your own selection process, make your own symbolic associations.
Bring the produce or grain to your home, but before you bring it inside, light a brown taper candle (a color that represents the earth and harvest) and hold it in your left hand. Stand before the front door of your house, hold the food item above the lit candle flame, and say:
O Holy Lugh, Lord of the Harvest,
Bring [state your desire] into my home,
With this harvested fruit of the land.
Step over the threshold of your front door. Place the food item somewhere near the door through which you just entered and set the candle close by. Allow the candle to burn completely out. After the candle extinguishes, prepare and eat a portion of the food item in silence.
Day 138
The Meaning of Lammas
The central symbol of Lammas is the sacrifice. But what exactly is the nature of sacrifice? A typical sacrifice involves something (or someone) giving of itself for the sake of others. In this broad definition, sacrifice involves one form of energy giving itself up so that it can transform into something else. From this perspective we can see that soil, for example, offers itself in sacrifice in order to nourish seeds. The seed’s sprouts then offer themselves in sacrifice to become plants. Food sacrifices its energy so that it can become our bodies. It is this mystery of sacrifice, of selfless offering, that lies at the core of Lughnassadh.
The fact of existence is that life feeds on life. When one ponders this state of survival, naturally thoughts can lead to questioning the purpose of living itself. What is this life that feeds on itself? Perhaps it is comforting to know that you are not alone when facing this daunting reality. Since the beginning of time, human beings have struggled to reconcile human consciousness with this mystery of life feeding on itself. 65
One well-known Wiccan principle that seems to stand in stark contrast to the reality of Lammas is that of “harming none.” This is a central tenet of The Wiccan Rede, which is a rule of thumb that guides Witchcraft magic and practice. In the Rede, Witches are bade to “harm none, and do as ye will.” However, the question remains: how can we survive without “harming?” Life survives by killing and eating other life. There is no other way.
There are two principal views to be considered: the deity perspective and the mundane perspective. The deity perspective encompasses the mystical view of existence and the sacrifice inherent to being alive. In this view, there are no distinctions between life and death, light and dark, here and there. Life is one functioning whole unit. From this detached (perhaps indifferent) universal perspective, there is nothing personal about life feeding upon itself. There is no harm caused to anything or anyone because nothing lives independent from anything else. In the deity perspective, there is no one to harm and no one doing the harm. When we view this same natural cycle from a mundane perspective, we label it “killing and eating,” but from the deity perspective the label is removed—it is merely one of the myriad functions of existence.
However, there is also the matter of the practical mundane perspective, which does recognize differences and can see the difference between killing and not killing. It is in this realm that we live on a daily basis. From this perspective, we notice “harm.” So, in one perspective there is no harm, and simultaneously, there is harm. It is a difficult quandary for each of us to consider, and the celebration of Lughnassadh calls our attention to this mystery and invites us to face it head on.
In considering these mysteries, Lughnassadh awakens in us a sense of conscious living. It calls for each of us to adopt the frame of reference of the great whole as we live our daily lives and consume. When we realize that we owe our lives to the plants and animals that we consume, we open our consciousness to an enduring sense of gratitude.
Practice: Pagan Grace
Today, before each meal, consider the substances that are about to sacrifice themselves so that they can become your own body, your own life force. Instead of thanking some notion of a divinity (as you might do in mainstream religious practices), thank the animal or plant that has given its life so that it can become you. With each mouthful, open your heart in thanksgiving.
• Did this practice change anything internally for you? If so, what changed?
• Is thanking the animal or plant that gives its life any different than thanking a god or goddess? How?
Day 139
Lammas: Breaking Bread
Breaking bread is a central Lughnassadh custom. In this ritual, members of a spiritual community gather, and each attendee bestows personal thanks and good wishes into a central loaf of bread. One member of the group then holds the bread before the community and breaks it. Each member then consumes a small portion of the loaf in order to assume its virtues and blessings. This will be our practice today.
What You’ll Need:
• A whole loaf of bread, unsliced
• Several 4 x 4 inch squares of blank paper
• A red ink pen
• A cauldron or other burning vessel
Gather together a group of magical practitioners (or try this on your own). Have participants use the red pen to write down a wish or a blessing for the coming year. Place the papers in a heavy cauldron or other deep metal container. Light the wishes on fire. Hold the loaf above the flames and imagine that the energy of these wishes enters from the flames into the loaf of bread. While this happens, say:
Hoof and horn, hoof and horn,
All that dies shall be reborn!
Corn and grain, corn and grain,
All that falls shall rise again!
We all come from the goddess,
And to her we shall return;
Like a drop of rain,
Flowing to the ocean!
Break the loaf in half just as the flames begin to die out. Pass pieces of bread to the participants, saying:
May we never hunger.
If you are alone in this practice, say:
May I never hunger.
As you eat a piece of the bread yourself, imagine that you become filled with its virtues.
Day 140
Lammas: Harvesting Rite
What You’ll Need:
• 4 dried stalks of wheat, or
• 4 fresh flowers with stem and bud attached
• A cauldron or other burning vessel
• Old newspaper or kindling
• A boline or paring knife
• Cutting board
• Several small candles or tea lights
At dusk, create a magical ritual space by lighting small candles (or tea lights) and placing them in a 9-foot circle on the ground. If your home or magical practice space does not allow a nine-foot circle, create a 6-foot (or in tight spaces, a 3-foot diameter circle). Set up a table to be your altar at the center of this magical space. Set all of the required ritual items on this table, along with a few more candles so that you can see. Use a compass to designate in your circle the four quarters: east, south, west, and north. At each compass direction, inside of your candle circle, place one of the wheat stalks (or flowers).
Begin by placing one wheat stalk on the ground in the east of your circle, saying:
I reap with knowledge.
Place one on the ground in the south of your circle, saying:
I reap with action.
Place one on the ground in the west of your circle, saying:
I reap with sensation.
Place one wheat stalk on the ground in the north of your circle, saying:
I reap in silence.
Then return to the east and hold your hands up high, saying:
All must end; this is the way.
What doth rise, but not decay?
Lugh has come, the Barleycorn,
I raise the scythe and now ’tis shorn!
Now collect the wheat (or flower) in the east, south, west, and north. Hold them together in a bunch and place them on the cutting board. Using your stronger hand, cut the buds from the stems with one firm stroke. Light the kindling in the cauldron and then ritually place the buds into the fire. Watch them burn in silence, meditating on the principle of sacrifice. When you are finished, extinguish all of your candles and bury any remaining ashes or buds.
Day 141
Lammas: Meditation
Have someone read this guided imagery to you while you meditate with eyes closed, or tape record it in your own voice for later playback.
Reader:
Close your eyes and take several deep breaths. Imagine that you become weightless. You drift in the air and soon you feel your spirit body moving through time and space. Vague images and colors flash past you as you move speedily.
Soon the movement stops and you find yourself in a field of ripening wheat. You stand in the field with the waving golden crowns brushing against your body. Begin to breathe deeply and you will notice with each exhalation, your body dissolves and becomes part of this wheat field. Imagine yourself, your energy, and your consciousness spread now across the entire wheat field. Feel your wheat-body flow and shudder in the rushing wind.
Soon you notice that farmers come with sickles and they begin to harvest your body. There is no pain in this experience—there is only the giving of your body freely, as nature always does. Do not hold back; imagine that you give of your wheat-body freely to those who reap. After some time has gone by, imagine that the wheat that made up your body is now being threshed and stored in great heaps. Imagine now the women of the village coming to you and taking of your body to make bread. Give of yourself wholly. Allow yourself to be one with the grain and one with the giving.
When you are ready, your consciousness collects and solidifies. Your spirit body now travels back through time and space quite rapidly. You are returning to the place where you began this journey. Once you feel yourself back fully to your physical body, wiggle your toes and fingers to awaken your full presence.
When you have completed the exercise, open your eyes and take time to journal about this experience.
• What was it like to dissolve and become the wheat field?
• What was it like to give so fully of your spirit-body?
• How can you use the insights you have learned in this meditation in your daily life?
Day 142
Lammas: Natural Giving
One of the main spiritual points within Wicca is for the practitioner to become unified with nature. Nature gives of itself freely. The grass grows no matter how many times you mow it. Trees annually come to blossom and offer their fruit, never giving thought to who eats. This natural selflessness, then, is the most powerful position in which you can place yourself for Lughnassadh. In magical practice, this is called natural giving. Selfless action is a vivid reflection of nature; it yields a positive flow of spiritual energy for yourself and for others.
Selflessness does not mean allowing yourself to be abused or to be taken advantage of by other people. It means not resisting when things need to be done. It means releasing into the flow of your own life without hesitation. It means engaging fully with nature and the universe. It means being life itself, which gives unquestioningly.
Practice: Giving by Listening
Choose an hour when you will listen deeply to someone else without commenting about your own life or interests. Simply listen with full attention to the details of the speaker’s words. Repeat back in your own words the information you have heard to demonstrate to the speaker that you have heard what he or she had to say.
Day 143
Lammas: Giving of Time
For one hour today, donate your time to some charitable cause. You can donate your time to AIDS awareness, to children in foster care, or to volunteering at a local homeless shelter. Choose an activity that allows you to offer your best efforts. As you prepare to engage in the activity and while carrying it out, note any resistance or internal commentary that may be going on.
• What was your internal process as you prepared to volunteer your time?
• What happened when you carried through with giving of your time?
• How did you feel following the activity?
• Did you notice any changes in your energy levels?
• Did you notice any changes in your awareness?
Day 144
Lammas: Giving of Energy
For one hour today, put your full energies into some task that does not benefit you personally. Perhaps you can prepare some food that someone else enjoys. Perhaps you can complete someone else’s dreaded tasks. Maybe you can offer one of the healing techniques you have learned to someone who needs help. As you prepare to engage in the activity and while carrying it out, note any resistance or internal commentary that may be going on. At the close of the exercise, take time to consider the following questions:
• What was your internal process as you prepared to give away your energies?
• What happened when you carried through with giving of your energies?
• How did you feel following the activity?
• Did you notice any changes in your energy levels?
• Did you notice any changes in your awareness?
Day 145
Lammas: The Garden
of Pomegranates
One law of magic that you will learn in detail later in your training tells Witches that whenever they expend energy, it is always returned multiplied. This holds true for the magical practices of natural giving. As you connect with the natural state of offering and allow it to guide you, you will also notice that the world responds in kind. In other words, you will begin to notice that the gifts of the universe, the necessities of your life, will magically always be on hand. Life and all of its bounty flows freely when you link to this magical tide.
The Garden of Pomegranates is a waking imagery that you can use to keep the energies of natural giving flowing in your life. Waking imagery is a term that I use to refer to a spiritual image that you keep in the foreground of your awareness so that it can guide your activities, speech, thought and effort. The Garden of Pomegranates is an image of divine, natural giving. To begin you will practice a guided imagery. You can either have a friend read it to you while you follow along, eyes closed. Or you can tape record it in your own voice for playback later on.
Reader:
Close your eyes and take several deep breaths. Relax your body completely.
(Reader: pause for a moment.)
Imagine that you are walking through a garden of lush foliage. As you wander you notice that you are following along a soft red-clay path beneath your feet. As you follow the path, you’ll notice that it appears to continually curve to your right. This is because the path is spiraling into the center of this beautiful garden.
(Reader: pause for a moment.)
After you follow the path for a while, you will arrive at an open, vine-covered, red-adobe arch. The archway opens to the most beautiful part of the garden filled with fruited pomegranate trees. Follow this path that leads to a clearing at the center of this pomegranate garden. At the central spot, you will notice a place of freshly dug earth. Squish your toes into the soft rich soil and immediately you will notice that your feet become rooted to the spot. The roots develop and swell beneath you. Your legs bind together and become a trunk and your arms become leafy branches that bear pomegranate fruit. Your limbs offer this succulent fruit to anyone in need of nourishment. Keep this image and the feel of becoming the offering tree in your mind’s eye.
(Reader: pause for a moment.)
Whenever you are ready, open your eyes. You can flash your awareness at any time back to the garden, your tree, and your fruiting boughs.
Your task today is to engage in your daily activities with this image in mind. You should give freely as the pomegranate tree.
Day 146
Lammas: Incense and Oil
Lammas Incense
Burn this incense at your Lammas ritual, or at any time that you want to bring about the energies and insights of Lammas.
What You’ll Need:
• 1/2 handful of oak (wood), either powdered or chips
• 1/2 handful of powdered sandalwood
• 2 teaspoons frankincense
• 1 teaspoon dried oats (such as rolled oats for oatmeal)
• Vegetable glycerin
• 5 drops patchouli essential oil
• 2 drops rosemary essential oil
In a medium-sized bowl, place your powdered sandalwood. Stir in about two tablespoons of vegetable glycerin. Add the glycerin one tablespoon at a time and then mix with a metal whisk or a fork. You simply want to create a soft, fluffy compound. Do not add the second tablespoon of glycerin if it feels like it would be too much, causing the incense to be too wet.
Now add your essential oils and whisk. Add your other dried herbs and mix thoroughly. Wait for at least a day for the compound to settle before you sprinkle it on hot coals.
Lammas Oil
Use this oil to anoint attendees of your Lammas ritual. You can also use this oil any time that you want to awaken the insights and mysteries of Lammas. This oil activates the magical energies of giving, prosperity, abundance, and riches.
What You’ll Need:
• 5 drops patchouli essential oil
• 2 drops rosemary essential oil
• Pinch of dried oak (powdered or chipped wood) or dried oats (such as rolled oats for oatmeal)
Find a one-ounce bottle. Fill the bottle halfway with vegetable glycerin. Add plain water until the bottle is three-quarters full. Add your essential oils. Add dry ingredients, close the lid, and shake the bottle. You can use this magical oil immediately.
Day 147
Lammas: Making a Ritual Sickle
The ritual sickle is one that you can use to bless your own garden, to consecrate your harvest bounty, or use in your Lammas rituals.
What You’ll Need:
• An ordinary sickle
• 1/2 ounce black polyurethane paint
• 1/2 ounce red polyurethane paint
• A thin detailing paintbrush
For this magical tool, it is best for you to purchase a new sickle from a hardware and gardening store. Magical sickles cannot have been used for any purpose other than symbolic. If you happen to have a sickle in storage that has gone unused, then that will do as well. Use any type of sickle, either the short hand-held or the long harvesting variety.
Sharpen the blade of the sickle using a sharpening stone. When the blade is highly sharpened, paint it with the black paint, front and back. Paint the handle as well. When painting the blade, be sure to leave a thin 1/4-inch margin of the sharpened silver blade edge unpainted. This margin represents the moon and the power of the goddess, who not only sows, buds, and blossoms, but who also reaps.
Wait for this to dry. Once dry, use the red paint and the thin detailing brush to apply the magical design below in a line across the entire blade. The design is based on the old Greek water-wave design below. Apply the design to both sides of the blade, then set the project aside to dry for the remainder of the day. Magically charge the blade by leaving it near a window so that the moon can shine down upon it.
Ritual Sickle Design.
Day 148
Lammas: Consecrating
the Ritual Sickle
What You’ll Need:
• Lammas incense
• A burning vessel (such as a deep cast-iron pot or an iron cauldron)
• Self-lighting charcoal
• Lammas oil
• Two brown taper candles
• The ritual sickle
On a table at twilight, set out the ritual objects: the sickle, the incense, oil, incense burner, and charcoal. Place the sickle between the two brown candles. Light the charcoal and when it begins to turn ash-white, sprinkle some of the incense on it. Hold the sickle blade over the smoke and say:
I consecrate thee, O harvest hand!
Do the Mother’s work,
And scythe the land!
Next, place the sickle back between the candles. Take out the oil and anoint the exposed silver edge of the blade with the oil, saying the incantation once again:
I consecrate thee, O harvest hand!
Do the Mother’s work,
And scythe the land!
Allow the sickle to rest between the two candles again. Sprinkle a dash of the incense on the coals once more and then allow the sickle to remain on the table until the candles burn completely out.
Day 149
Lammas: A Harvest Blessing
No matter the time of year, try this technique. Even if the ground is covered with ice and snow, the rite brings forth the energies of the Mother’s bounty.
What You’ll Need:
• Your ritual sickle
• Hot water
• 2 teaspoons fenugreek seed
• A clear, recloseable jar
Heat the water until it is just about boiling. Place the fenugreek seed into the small recloseable jar and pour the hot water over it. Allow this to steep and cool on its own, roughly 15 minutes.
Go to a garden with your sickle—and bring your fenugreek infusion as well. Within the garden, pound the handle of the sickle on the ground three times, hold it in both hands above your head and say:
Mother of all,
Of vine and grain,
Bring forth thy bounty
In the Mighty Ones’ names!
By all thy love,
Do thou descend,
Offer thy fruits
Without end!
Pantomime gestures of harvesting, using the sickle while waving it over the field in all directions. Then dip the tip of the blade in the fenugreek infusion and fling it toward the field, so that the fenugreek infusion sprinkles out to bless the soil.
When you are done, close the fenugreek infusion in the jar and return to your home. Strain out the infusion, allowing the seeds to remain in the jar. Close the jar back up and place it somewhere where you can see it regularly. This bottle is reputed to attract bounty, especially in the form of money. The next time you receive money, empty the jar immediately and bury the seed.
Day 150
Contemplative Day:
Finding Who You Are
Meditative Question: Who am I?
Symbolic Color: Green-yellow
Symbolic Direction: Northeast
What is it that makes up this entity called “you?” Are you the body? Are you the mind, feelings, memories, or your history? As you explore this month’s contemplative question, you also explore a core spiritual realization. Through it you come to see what forces underlie your existence.
To begin working with this question, assume your usual meditative sitting position in a quiet space while facing the northeast. Light a green-yellow candle, place it before you and gaze upon the flickering candle. Hold the question firmly, internally, for 20 to 30 minutes. The resolution of this question may require you to sit with it more than once. If so, simply add it to your spiritual routine until you arrive at a magically satisfactory insight. Over time, a shift in your perception will take place and you will know just who you are.