Song of Self Ritual for Self-Expression and Introspection

This solo ritual is one that I find particularly entertaining. It requires you to look hard at yourself, but it’s also fun. Essential elements that are necessary for this ritual include:

• Big sheets of butcher paper
• Color markers, glitter, beads, shells, cloth, ribbon, yarn—whatever colorful materials you respond well to
• Sewing kit and craft boxes with random scraps, buttons, and/or shiny objects

It is good to undertake this ritual on a Sunday, but whenever you need support, reserve half an hour of quiet time and brew up some willpower to help you with your self-expression. Light a white candle anointed with peppermint oil and light spicy incense such as cinnamon. Prepare for your Song of Myself by sipping this warm drink for encouragement: Take a sprig of mint (homegrown is best), a cup of warm milk, and cinnamon sticks and stir together clockwise in a white mug. Recite:

    Herb of menthe and spicy mead,

    today is the day I will succeed.

    In every word and every deed.

    Today I sing the song of me.

Drink the brew while it is still warm and “sit for a spell.” You will know when you are ready.

Now take the paper and markers and begin your song of yourself. Write with any marker you pick up and finish this sentence at least twenty-four times: I am _______. Be as wild and free and true as you can. You are so many things. Express them here and now, once and for all. I will share some wonderful “Songs of Self” that I have seen and heard:

    I am a wild woman.

    I am beautiful.

    I am wide.

    I am a secret.

    I am sexy.

    I am brilliant.

    I am a blue sky.

    I am all possibility.

    I am a dream come to life.

    I am truth.

    I am the Goddess.

    I am the living incarnation of wisdom.

    I am life.

    I am a living blessing.

    I am the road.

    I am perfect.

    I am a tiger.

    I am yesterday and today.

    I am hope.

    I am angry.

    I am art.

    I am a crone.

    I am a sister to the sun.

    I am a poem.

    I am creative.

    I am me!

This can go on as long as you want it to. Only when you feel you have expressed every aspect of yourself should you put down your marker and begin to decorate the paper. Paint on it; glue mirror shards to it; create one or many self-portraits. Scrawl symbols on it. Write more words, allowing yourself total and absolute creative freedom. There is no wrong or right; there is only you and all your myriad aspects. Celebrate yourself and reveal yourself completely. By the end, you should have a one-of-a- kind self-portrait that tells your real story. Hang your self-song portrait in a sacred place, perhaps near your altar or shrine area. Its energy will permeate the place with your personal essence in a wonderful way.