Saturday Spell for Contacting Spirits

Outside of the witchy world, it is not well known that Saturday is the optimal day for contacting those who have passed from this realm to the next. When Samhain, to mark the end of the harvest season, falls on a Saturday, it gives a big boost to our ability to make contact through the veil between the worlds. After nightfall, you can speak to lost loved ones or others with whom you desire contact.

Gather together

    * an amethyst of the deepest, darkest purple, obsidian, and/or rainbow moonstone (see spell)

    * your Book of Shadows and a pen

    * strong-smelling incense, such as frankincense, nag champa, or sandalwood

    * a fireproof clay or glass dish

    * sage for smudging

You can either use one of each of the three crystals, or three of the same kind of crystal. Sit in a comfortable position on the floor or on a pillow with your Book of Shadows and pen nearby. I learned from High Priestess Z. Budapest that “the dead love incense, the stronger the better and it will call them to you.” Light the incense in the fireproof dish and pass the crystals through the smoke. Then touch your third eye with one of the crystals for a moment and picture the person you want to contact. Place that crystal by the dish of sweet-smelling smoky incense. Take the other two crystals in your hand and speak this spell aloud:

    Great Goddess, I call ___ [speak the name of the spirit] forth now.

    From this side, to you, will I bow.

    Words of wisdom, we need here and now.

    Peace and love is here, I vow.

    With harm to none, Blessed be thou.

Now pass your Book of Shadows through the incense smoke and start writing down the messages. Whatever comes into your mind is what you are meant to know. After a few moments, thank the spirit and say goodbye, directing it back to its side of the veil. Extinguish the incense and light the sage and give a very good smudging to the area. Place your Book of Shadows on your altar and consider the message this generous spirit has given you.

Writing to Archangel Michael for Protection

 

A study of angelic lore across the traditions indicates that the archangel Michael is the oldest and most powerful of all angels, and as a personal protector he can be called on or invoked when you need him for courage, insight, spiritual growth, guidance, or in times of urgency.

There are many ways to call on the guidance of the angels. You can do this with a pendulum or meditation ritual; ask him to join you in a walk or in your dreams. In fact, in your dreams you will be much more open to receiving his messages. Before inviting Michael into your dream world, breathe deeply and achieve a state of total calm. Then think about why you feel the need for his guidance. Write down in your dream journal or Book of Shadows a specific invitation to him, such as, “Michael, please come to me and help me to know if this potential new love (or new home or job, etc.) is right for me. Yes, you can and should be that specific. The clearer you are, the easier it is for the angel to provide aid. As you fall asleep, think about the circumstances and drift into your sleep and your dreams. The answer will be in your mind when you wake up. Write it down in the same journal and thank your angelic guest with a prayer of gratitude.

Gratitude Prayer Spell

Gratitude is not only uplifting but feels wonderful. There is powerful magic in recognizing all that you possess.

Timing: When moon or sun is in the sign of Taurus it is the time of prosperity and security. Time this ritual for a Thursday during that lunar or solar sign as Thursday is “Thor’s Day” and the day of abundance. It is also the perfect time to acknowledge the gifts of life.

Sit in a comfortable position and close your eyes. Think about your blessings. What are you grateful for at this moment? Breathe steadily and deeply, inhaling and exhaling slowly for a few minutes. Now pray aloud:

    Good gods and Goddess, giver of all the fruits of this earth,

    Thank you for all bounty, beauty, and well-being,

    Bless all who give and receive these gifts.

    I am made of sacred earth, purest water, sacred fire, and wildest wind.

    Blessings upon me. Blessings upon we and thee.

    So mote it be.

Record your blessings in a journal or in your Book of Shadows. You should perform this gratitude prayer spell periodically and look back at your blessings and reflect upon them. This is also a wonderful grace to say at the family meal to offer thanks for all we are given.

Recording Your Rituals

I recommend creating a Book of Shadows to keep notes on ceremonies you have participated in and witnessed. Your BOS can and should be a document of what works for you in terms of specifics—moon phases, colors, numbers, herbs, etc. You can greatly expand your BOS with notes on your ritual projects and your life as a work in progress. Here should be your musings, your writing of invocations, your hopes, and your intentions. I call this the “journal of the journey,” and it can take any form of your imagination as long as it catches the deep truths of what you hope to accomplish.

Your ritual record need not be fancy, but it should be raw, honest, and real. Tell the stories of what really happened, mistakes and all. Those who are the most truthful and open will gain the most from their record of experience. Not every group ritual will be a smashing success—someone will be grumpy, someone else might say the words wrong, or you will all get nervous and forget what to do. Or nature may change your plans. For example, an outdoor full moon circles planed for a year may be driven indoors by a rainstorm that puts out the candles and wilts every spirit. Nevertheless, I am always encouraged and amazed to discover the so-called mistakes we learn most from. If everything is perfect, the ritual is more likely to slip from memory. Life itself is messy and bumpy. Think of the metaphor of the Navajo blanket in which the weaver, despite his skill, always makes one mistake. The metaphor is that life itself is not perfect, and the blanket should be reflective of life. That one “crooked thread” can be the strongest stitch holding the fabric together.

At one full moon weekend, a woman’s circle organized by Z. Budapest started off badly when several women didn’t show up, failing to help pay for the retreat house. The ever-resilient Z. only noted the resulting blessings. The women present created a coven of thirteen, a number sacred to the goddess. With fewer women, we could cook and clean up faster, leaving more time to hike in the woods and pray. During the first hike, we discovered a natural spring bubbling out of the side of the mountain. Inspired by this miracle of nature, we splashed and bathed and Z. created an on-the-spot goddess water rite. It was the highlight of the retreat, and an unexpected blessing. Pure magic was woven by Z.’s experienced hand with this crooked golden thread. By documenting and sharing the ritual stories, I have learned much about ritual and about myself in the process. 

Designing Your Own Rituals: Traditional and Alternative

Participating in ritual can change your life. Even practicing one ritual can uplift and inspire you for years, and regular involvement can lead to spiritual riches. Ritual is soul work. Increasingly, with our hectic workday schedules, you may find yourself creating rituals and meditating alone, praying by yourself, and performing daily spiritual practices solo.

In addition to planning more intricate proceedings, you should also craft little on-the-spot private rituals that serve immediate spiritual needs. You can celebrate your gratitude to a deity that is special to you or light a candle and meditate at your altar on a holy day. Your rituals should reflect the ebb and flow of you outer life and your inner work.

This kind of ritual is simple and pure; I call it real ritual. Your spiritual pursuits should be a mix of simple, solo ceremonies and more complex ones that you perform alone or with others. The work of the soul is stimulated by interactions with others and grows in your time alone. Rituals enliven and add meaning to each day. Your simple daily ceremonies and practices are the individual threads that weave the fabric of your life rather like a tapestry quilt that grows thread by thread, stitch by stitch, and square by square. You need the threads, the patches, and the squares to hold together the tapestry of a rich, memory-filled, and meaningful life.

You can choose from the wealth of correspondences in the appendices to add layers of meaning, depth, and effectiveness, building your knowledge, expanding your experiences, and connecting you to the world’s wise traditions. Also, by keeping a Book of Shadows or personal ritual journal, you will have your own set of measurements and memories of what has worked for you. The appendix gives ingredients that you can add to your ritual “recipe.” Let’s say you want to create a personal and private ritual to get a new job. You can look up the best time to do it in the Ritual Resources section and you will see that a Thursday new moon would be an optimum choice to perform such a ritual. 

There are also different divinities you can choose from to call upon for help in this ritual, from jovial Jupiter to the very sympathetic and helpful Lakshmi, to name just two. There are also a variety of herbs and plants you can choose from to assist with money matters, along with correct colors for candles and essences for both incense and oils that supply abundance. When you create your new job ritual, therefore, you can select the right traditional correspondence that matches your need and you are halfway there.

Focus and attention concerning your intention are of equal importance. In terms of the language of your original ritual, you should write from your heart, which will ensure that the words will personally affect you and work for you. Believe in yourself and believe in your intention and the right words will flow. There is no exact science to writing rituals. Just match the words and correspondences to your intention, and you will be a creator of rituals.

It is natural that once you are completely comfortable working with the realm of existing rituals, you should begin to trust you own intuition and create your own. Listen to your inner voice and trust yourself. Correspondences are a start, but you must take a leap of faith and delve into the depths of your own psyche for rituals you create, enact, and share with the world.

While we know there is no exact science to ritual design, there is an art to it, and the knack is developed from participating in group rituals, learning from the experienced elders, performing private rituals, and endeavoring to craft rituals on your own for every season and reason. The art of creating rituals is the work of the heart, and while it is not always easy, it is the work of creating joy in your life. With each ritual, you are taking a step to a reality of your own creation. Rites and ceremonies serve many purposes in our lives. They can be designed to fulfill one person’s wish, help a member of your spiritual circle, or help heal the entire world like the Dalai Lana’s sand mandala ritual. There are no limitations to the scope of rituals you can design. Where there is need, you can supply intention and inspiration and, in so doing, spread bliss in your wake. Rituals can change the world, and your rituals will most certainly change your world. When you are designing ritual, you are really designing the life of your dreams. 

Consecrating Your Ritual Tools

You should design a personal consecration ritual for your magical tools. Use the following ritual as a simple “temple template” to build on. In essence, in this ritual you are dedicating yourself and your tools for the betterment of all and setting a foundational intention for your good works. Every time you acquire a new tool or treasure, perform this rite. As you grow in experience, you can embellish the ritual. Refer to your Book of Shadows. Is there a certain phase of the moon that brings you more clarity? Should you use corresponding colors, crystals, essential oils, incenses, and herbs for your own astrological sun and moon sign? Is there a specific deity with whom you feel an affinity? Use these correspondences to begin designing the rituals of your dreams. The more associations you learn and use, the more effective your power will grow. Keep good notes of your ritual work in your BOS, and soon you will become a “maestro of magic."

The Essential Toolkit: Everything You Need for Rites and Rituals Part I

Every ritual tool is sacred to the individual who is performing the ritual act. Whether your find your tool in a store or whether it is given to you as a gift, each tool should hold special meaning and should feel absolutely perfect to you as you

use it.

Athame

Pronounced “a-THAW-may,” this is your magical knife. It can also be a ritual dagger or sword, and I have even seen a Tibetan dorje (the thunderbolt of the god) used as an athame. The athame represents and contains yang energy, or the male aspect of the gods. Ritual knives are also associated with the element of fire. For these two reasons, your athame should be placed on the right side of your altar. The athame is used to direct the energies raised in your ritual. Because it is not used for cutting but rather for the manipulation of the forces involved in the work of enchantment, an athame is usually a dull blade. Some Wiccan traditions specify that the handle of the athame should be black or very dark in color, since black is the color that absorbs energy. A dark-handled knife thus becomes quickly attuned to the ritualist.

Bolline

The bolline is a (usually) white-handled knife that is used for making other tools and for cutting materials such as cords and herbs within the magic circle.

You can create your magical wand, for example, by cutting off a tree branch with your bolline. This increases the energy held within it and creates a magical tool by using a magical tool. You should also use your bolline for carving symbols and names into your candles and wands as well as your other tools. A bolline generally has a curved blade and a white handle to distinguish it from the athame. It is similar to the athame in that it also embodies the yang, or male, energy. 

Book of Shadows

Your Book of Shadows (BOS) is your record of ritual work. At its finest, it should be a history of all your rituals, energy work, circles, spells, and all the magic you have manifested. It should be a journal of all that you have practiced and wrought. In your BOS, you should keep a record of your research and the lore you have discovered. Is there a particular phase and sign of the moon that works especially well for you? Document it here, and you will be building a practice that you can apply to future rituals. This will also be a great help in recording your ritual work and evolving and developing as a ritual designer. All the astrology, herb lore, crystal information, and other knowledge that I share in this book comes from the detailed notes I keep in my own BOS. I have discovered that the new moon in Pisces, for example, is the best moon phase for me to work rituals of change. After documenting this information and performing both new and traditional, time-tested rituals and spells with the new moon in Pisces, I learned from a professional astrologer that it is my natal placement—the moon is in the same phase and sign in which is positioned at the time of my birth. Thus this moon phase and sign accords with my own energy and creates a time when my personal power is at its peak. Through trial, experimentation, and much practice, you will discover secrets of the universe for yourself and record what you learn in your own BOS.

The Book of Shadows can be a tremendous aid if you use it daily or as often as possible. Whenever you come upon a bit of wisdom regarding the nature of ritual or magical work, write it down. This should also be a book of inspiration, filled with your own thoughts, poetry, and observations. Most importantly, it should be a record of results. If you track the effectiveness of a ritual, you can use this information and newfound wisdom in the future. Your BOS should be a book you turn to again and again. It can be a gorgeous, hand-crafted volume of handmade paper and ribboned bookmarks or a simple three-ring binder. Just make sure it appeals to you so that you will use it often and well. 

Broom

As a magical tool, the broom was born of the practical magic of sweeping the ritual area clean before and after casting a spell. With focus and intention, you can dispel negative influences and bad spirits from the area and prepare a space for ritual work. In bygone days, pagan marriages and Beltane trysts took place with a leap over the broom, an old traditional element of handfasting, or pagan wedding. While this happens more rarely now, the broom has grabbed the popular imagination as the archetypal symbol of witches.

Your broom is an essential tool for energy management. Obtain a handmade broom from a craft fair, not a machine- made plastic affair from the supermarket. A broom made of wood and woven from straw will be imbued with the inherent energies of those natural materials. Also, do not use your ritual broom for housework, as this would mix up energies in your home and sacred space. Many of you may well consider your home to be sacred space in its entirety. Keep your regular household implements separated from your ritual tools nonetheless. This is a matter of protecting yourself and the energy of your sacred space. Any of your cleaning implements, such as a broom, can very easily have chemicals from regular housecleaning remaining on them. In general, it is not advised to use tools such as a ritual knife to debone a chicken, for example, as this reduced the effectiveness of your ritual tools and risks a confused blending of mundane and magical energies. If you treat your ritual tools with the utmost respect, they will serve you well. Over time they will become deeply imbued with magical energy through exclusive use in your workings. The Wiccan tradition holds brooms in high regard, and some witches have an impressive collection of brooms, each named to distinguish between their roles as “familiars,” or kindred spirits. 

Count Your Blessings: Morning Moon Meditation

Plan this for an early morning when you can still see a sliver of the moon as the sun rises. Sit in a comfortable position in front of your altar and meditate. Think about your blessings. What are you grateful for at this moment? There is a powerful magic in recognizing all that you possess. Breathe steadily and deeply, inhaling and exhaling slowly for twenty minutes. Then chant:

Great Goddess, giver of all the fruits of this earth, 
Of all bounty, beauty, and well-being,
Bless all who give and receive these gifts.
I am made of sacred earth, purest water,
Sacred fire, and wildest wind. 
Blessings upon me. Blessings upon thee, 
Mother Earth and Sister Sky.
So mote it be.

A wonderful practice is to record your gratitudes in your Book of Shadows or a thankfulness journal. At the end of the lunar year, you’ll have your own Book of Blessings you can reflect upon and share with others.

Ritual Knotting – Cords to Strengthen Your Life’s Energy

All you need is a paper scroll and a length of red thread or cord. The color red signifies life and active energy. After you feel you have fully focused your energy into the scroll, roll it up.

Now, proceed to tie knots in the order of the following traditional chant:

By knot of one, this ritual is begun.
By knot of two, my wish comes true.
By knot of three, so mote it be.
By knot of four, the magic is even more.

By knot of five, the gods are alive.
By knot of six, my intention is fixed.
By knot of seven, under the influence of heaven.
By knot of eight, I change my fate.
By knot of nine, all powers are divine.

When you have completed the knots, tie the cord around your scroll. Note in your Book of Shadows when the power of this spell unfolds. This will be very useful for future knotting work.

Count Your Blessings: Morning Moon Meditation

Plan this for an early morning when you can still see a sliver of the moon as the sun rises. Sit in a comfortable position in front of your altar and meditate. Think about your blessings. What are you grateful for at this moment? There is a powerful magic in recognizing all that you possess. Breathe steadily and deeply, inhaling and exhaling slowly for twenty minutes. Then chant:

Great Goddess, giver of all the fruits of this earth,
Of all bounty, beauty, and well-being,
Bless all who give and receive these gifts.
I am made of sacred earth, purest water,
Sacred fire, and wildest wind.
Blessings upon me. Blessings upon thee,
Mother Earth and Sister Sky.
So mote it be.

A wonderful practice is to record your gratitudes in your Book of Shadows or a thankfulness journal. At the end of the lunar year, you’ll have your own Book of Blessings you can reflect upon and share with others.