WitChY wOrLd

here are a few spells,
meditations, and tidbits
of "witch-isms" that i have
gathered over the years from various
sources. (friends, internet, or my
own book of shadows.)

**MOON PHASES**

~WANING/NEW MOON: during the time AFTER a full moon, the moon is waning until it is a new moon. it is a good time for BANISHING negetive things in your life and negetive energy around you. it is a good time to clean your alter and get rid of old junk.
~WAXING/FULL moon= after the moon is new...it starts waxing until it is full. this is a good time to BRING THINGS INTO YOUR LIFE (such as jobs, money, love..etc.)


NEW MOON RITUAL:
*needed: 4 candles representing the elements
(RED/SOUTH/FIRE, BLUE/WEST/WATER, GREEN/NORTH/EARTH, and YELLOW/EAST/AIR.
~also: 2 candles for the god/goddess.
~a piece of paper and pen
~a fire proof container (cauldron)
~incence (in the east), water (west), salt (north)
*after calling upon the elements to aid you, and the calling open the god/goddess, and establishing the circle:
surround yourself in white light.
*meditate on the things you want to BANISH from your life.
*write down the things you want to be rid of (ie. jealousy, hate, negetivity..etc.)
*fold the paper into 3, and meditate on it once again.
*run the paper through the incence, the candle in the south, sprinkle it with water and salt and ask that the elements help remove these things from your life.
*now light it on fire, and put in fire proof container.
*picture all those things being removed from your life.
*close circle.


SUMMER SOLSTICE:
here is a blessing for the summer solstice
to help bring love and light into your life ;)
(it is from HOPE'S wiccan website)

Giver of life and Source of All
Loving Truth of the heavens
May your energy sing through the Universe
as we grow to understand our own power
May we take up your cause of peace and freedom
As you sustain our hopes
May our children know compassion, harmony and love
Feed us with the challenges we need for today
And let us have gratitude for our trials
As well as for our victories
Let us be gracious with our strength
And Let us eclipse our self-doubt
As the sun spirals its longest dance,
Cleanse us
As nature shows bounty and fertility
Bless us
Let all things live with loving intent
And to fulfill their truest destiny
This is our wish and our thanks
Blessed Be



***LUGHNASADH***
(also known as lammas, "festival of light", cornucopia..



** It is the turning point of the earth's life cycle. Festivities and rituals typically center around the assurance of a bountiful harvest season and the celebration of the harvest cycle. A bountiful harvest insured the safe passage of the tribe through the upcoming winter months. The gathering of bilberries is an ancient ritual symbolizing the success of the Lughnasadh rituals.. If the bilberries were bountiful the crops would be, also.
***Lughnasadh is the festival in honor of Lugh, the Irish God. Lugh, God of All Skills, is known as the "Bright or Shining One", He is associated with both the Sun and agricultural fertility. Lleu, Lugh's equivalent in Britain and Wales, is the son of Arianrhod, Goddess of the Stars and Reincarnation.
*Many grains, seeds, herbs and fruits can be harvested and dried at this time for later use through the remaining year. Corn is one of the vital crops harvested now, and in some areas the sacrifice of the corn king is performed. Death and rebirth are apart of the cycle Lugh journeys through in his mating with the Goddess, during the waning year.
**Lughnasadh is a time of bounty, celebration, and hopes for an abundant harvest season. We celebrate the bounty of our own life's harvest, the work we have done in and within our own lives as well as in our community. We understand and acknowledge the need for successes in both the physical and spiritual realms


~AuTuMn eqUinOx~

***MABON***
~is the second harvest festival.
It occurs around 21st-23d of september.
(This year it is on the 22nd)

very much like THANKSGIVING.
*The symbolism around MABON is the second harvest,and equality and balance.
When DAY and NIGHT are equal.

*The DIETIES associated with this lesser
sabbat are wine dieties such as BACCHUS,
and DOINYSUS. The emphasis is on the Goddess
in mother form. (persephone and demeter)

~MABON is a time to reap the fruits of our labour and lessons, both crops and experiences.
*complete projects
*meditation and prayer for a good harvest season
*prosperity magick
~COLOURS associated with mabon are:
deep gold, ORANGE, GREEN and LIGHT BROWN, RED.
alter decorations include: acorns, indian corn, leaves, corn dollies, gords, Pine sprigs, fruit and nuts
*Mabon Lore:
A traditional practice is to walk wild places and forest, gathering seed pods and dried plants. Some of these can be used to decorate the home; others saved for future herbal magic.

~see my "witchy wisdom" page for a mabon ritual :)
~see my "cauldron" for mabon and fall recipes
~see my "do it yourself" page for mabon crafts

Autumn colors of red and gold
As I close my eyes tonight
Such a wonder to behold
I feel the God/dess hold me tight
Watch leaves turning one by one
Though it grows dark, I shall not fear
Captured bits of Autumn Sun
For Divine Love protects all here
Soon they'll fall and blow away
Through the night, until the morn
The golden treasures of today
When the shining Sun's reborn
When the trees are bare
Time to sleep, time to dream
And the ground grows cold
Till warm gold rays upon me stream
These warm memories
I'll still hold.

(from a Mabon poems page)

**MINI MABON RITUAL**

Arrange the altar, light the candles and censer, and cast the Circle of Stones.
Recite the Blessing Chant.
Invoke the Goddess and God.
Stand before the altar, holding aloft the basket of leaves, and slowly scatter them so that they cascade to the ground within the circle. Say such words as these:

Leaves fall,
the days grow cold.
The Goddess pulls her mantle of Earth around Her
as You, O Great Sun God, sail toward the West
to the land of eternal enchantment,
wrapped in the coolness of night.
Fruits ripen,
seeds drip,
the hours of day and night are balanced.
Chill winds blow in from the North wailing laments.
In this seeming extinction of the God's power, O Blessed
Goddess, I know that life continues.
For spring is impossible without the second harvest,
as surely as life is impossible without death.
Blessings upon you, O Fallen God, as you journey into
the lands f winter and into the Goddesses loving arms.

Place the basket down and say:

O Gracious Goddess of all fertility, I have sown and
reaped the fruits of my actions, good and bane.
Grant me the courage to plant seeds of joy and love in
the coming year, banishing misery and hate. Teach me the secrets
of wise existence upon the planet.
O luminous one of the night!

Works of magic, if necessary, may follow.
Celebrate the Simple Feast.
The circle is released.





**CHECK OUT MY "CAULDRON" for some mabon recipes!!;)<
SAMHAIN.

***SAMHAIN*** (or Halloween)
Samhain(pronounced Sow-in, Sah-vin, or Sahm-hayn), known most popularly as Halloween, marks the end of the third and final harvest, is a day to commune with and remember the dead, and is a celebration of the eternal cycle of reincarnation. Samhain (once again Halloween) is the most coveted sabbat by the Wiccan (and many Pagan) religions.

In the European traditions, Samhain is the night when the old God dies, and the Crone Goddess mourns him deeply for the next six weeks. The popular image of her as the old Halloween hag menacingly stirring her cauldron comes from the Celtic belief that all dead souls return to her cauldron of life, death, and rebirth to await reincarnation.

**The pagan Samhain is not, and never was, associated with evil or negativity. It has always been a time to reaffirm our belief in the oneness of all spirits, and in our firm resolution that physical death is not the final act of existence. Though death is very much a part of Samhain's symbolism, this Sabbat also celebrates the triumph of life over death.

**While it is true that Samhain is no more evil than any other holiday, it is also a fact that evil does exist, and pagans have always been aware of this. Our ancestors sought to protect themselves on this night by carving faces in vegetables to place near windows or at the perimeters of their circle. These were the forerunners of our present day jack-o-lanterns


*COLOURS associated with SAMHAIN are:
~black
~orange
~dark brown
~deep gold/yellow

*ALTER DECORATIONS:
~gourds
~jack-o-lanterns
~pictures of loved ones who have passed on.
~apples, leaves,
*INCENSE =Sandlewood, apple, nutmeg, sage
*HERBS= Heather, mandrake, apple, acorn, mullein,
*STONES = all BLACK stones, emerald and jade.
*DIETIES: The Goddess in CRONE form = HECATE(goddess of fertility and moon-magick, and protectress of all Witches), MORRIGAN (Celtic goddess of death), CERNUNNOS (Celtic fertility god), and OSIRIS (an ancient Egyptian deity whose annual death and rebirth personified the self-renewing vitality and fertility of Nature).


*Things to do on samhain:
~decorate your house with pentagrams
and black candles to ward off negetivity
~carve jack-o-lanterns and put them in the windows
~bake pumkin or apple pie for your samhain feast
~scry (a form of divination) by the fire or a mirror
~write down all the things you want OUT of your life
(ie. negetivity, bad habits..etc.) write them on paper and ask that the Goddess and God remove those burdens from your life. set it on fire (and put into a fire proof bowl/cauldron) while envisioning the negetive leaving.



Yule.....TO COME SOON! :)




>**O S T A R A **(around March 21st but date may vary by more than two days )
~also known as: Spring Equinox, Ostara, Alban Eiler, Esther, Eostre, Ostarun, startag', Eastre, Eoastrae, Oestre
~The first true day of Springtide. The days and nights are now equal in length as the Young God continues to mature and grow. We begin to see shoots of new growth and swelling buds on the trees. Energy is building as the days become warmer with promise.

*The Eggshell Fertility Talisman (for ostara)

For this talisman you will need a small green circle of cloth, a needle and thread, a piece of paper with a picture of your goal, eggshells, and some fertility herbs such as bistort, carrot (root and tail), nuts of all kinds, wheat, myrtle, rice, rye, barley, pine cones, acorns, juniper, pine, cedar, lemongrass, honeysuckle, and turnips. You may also include stones associated with fertility such as holey stones or geodes. Handle all of the ingredients, infusing them with your desire to have a baby. Then place them together in the green cloth and sew them shut. Holding the talisman between your hands and your belly, say:


Charm of egg and life to be,
power of fertility, come to me.
Like the Goddess whose blood mingles with mine,
so shall I give birth in nine months' time.
Wear the talisman over your belly area as much as possible, renewing your intent by chanting the above quatrain when you can to assist you in becoming pregnant.

*Other Egg Magick

Use a broom to sweep hard-boiled eggs from outside your home to the inside to bring in abundance and fertility.
Use brown eggs in magick to assist in animal husbandry or to ease a pet through giving birth.
Brown eggshells can be added to protective or healing magick for pets or livestock.
Bury rotten eggs near a crossroad to cause abundance to be taken away from an enemy.
Paint half of a hard-boiled egg in a traditional god color such asred or gold, and the other half in a goddess color such as silver or blue, to represent the whole of creation. Let your own feelings about colors guide your final choices.
To ensure that there will be no shortage of food at your home during winter, and to help keep those living there safe, bury one egg at each of the four cardinal points of your property: east, south, west, and north.
Add well-washed eggshells to talismans for protection.
To assist a couple who is having trouble conceiving, decorate a plastic or wooden egg to give as a fertility talisman.
Decorated eggshells hanging from bushes and trees shed blessings of abundance on the land they surround.
Bury eggs in your garden before doing your spring planting.




*BELTAINE*
(spring fertility sabbat)
celebrated on the eve of MAY (april 30th)
Beltaine or MAYDAY as it is commonly refered to,
originated in Pagan Europe, and was a festive holiday
celebrating the first spring planting.
*here is a small ritual to celebrate beltaine
*this will be updated shortly!!*





**IMBOLC**
(FEB. 2)


Imbolc (em-bowl-c) also known as Imbolg, Candlemas, or St.Bridgets day appears sundown on February 1 and continuing through the day of February 2. The meaning of the word Imbolc is literally "in the belly" (of the Mother).
~This sabbat is a special day to honor the Great Goddess Mother Brigid. The Goddess is in her maiden form now and the newly reborn God at Yule is now an adolescent.

~The making of grain dollies, often called corn dollies and that of the unilateral cross called Brigid's cross were traditions in Ireland and continue to this day.

~This sabbat is also a night when the spirits of the dead walk among the living and can be seen safely at a crossroad. The crossroad represents balance and protection. Which is reenacted in the making of Brigid's cross which represents the safe crossroads.

~Imbolc is also the festival of lights. Candles are lit throughout the house in profusion. The light acts as sympathetic magick of the sun and warmth emphasizing that Spring is not far away. Imbolc is the start of the lambing season, the first signs of returning life, the quickening of the year.

At Imbolc it is a customary ritual for Witches to pour milk (or cream) onto the earth. This is done in thanksgiving, as an offering of nurturing, and to assist in the return of fertility and generosity of the earth to its people (the return of Spring).

***Beltane***


Also known as May Eve, May Day, and Walpurgis Night, happens at the beginning of May.
*It celebrates the height of Spring and the flowering of life.
*The Goddess manifests as the May Queen and Flora. *The God emerges as the May King and Jack in the Green.
*The danced Maypole represents Their unity, with the pole itself being the God and the ribbons that encompass it, the Goddess.
*Colors are the Rainbow spectrum. Beltane is a festival of flowers, fertility, sensuality, and delight.

*Prepare a May basket by filling it with flowers and goodwill and then give it to someone in need of healing and caring, such as a shut-in or elderly friend.
*Form a wreath of freshly picked flowers, wear it in your hair, and feel yourself radiating joy and beauty.
*Dress in bright colors. Dance the Maypole and feel yourself balancing the Divine Female and Male within.
*On May Eve, bless your garden in the old way by making love with your lover in it. Make a wish as you jump a bonfire or candle flame for good luck. Welcome in the May at dawn with singing and dancing.