A Ritual to Banish Your Illness

A friend of mine gets a cough every January like clockwork and has not quite figured out what causes it. In addition to some good commonsense health practices and extra attention to hydrating, herbal tea remedies, and healthy food with lots of rest, we created a banishing ritual that we performed outdoors. In current times, it could be performed remotely to good effect. Gather together:

• One gray candle
• Frankincense incense and burner
• Large fireproof dish
• Clary sage essential oil
• A three-foot length of thin jute or cotton rope
• A sharp knife
• Black tablecloth
• A bowl of water

Create a kind of simple outdoor altar on a table outside and cover it with the tablecloth. Now place the water, incense, candle, knife, and the rope on the altar.

The person who needs to release the illness or difficulty should raise their right hand and say aloud:

    Here and now may this place

    be consecrated before the spirits of earth,

    air, fire, and water,

    for we gather here

    to perform a peaceful parting.

    We hereby banish ________ [fill in the name of the illness or

    whatever needs to be banished]

Say the name of the person for whom the spell is being worked and light the candle and incense.

Now, take the rope and carefully cut it in half. Place the rope pieces on the incense and the incense charcoals in the fireproof dish and let the rope burn completely. Repeat the prayer and end with:

    May all be well, may I be well.

    Blessings to all and blessed be.

Put the candle and the incense out in the water bowl. Take the ashes from the rope and scatter them on a patch of earth nearby. Pour the water on the ashes, and you have now banished what you need to eliminate from your life.

Garden of Prosperity: A Ritual to Plant New Beginnings in Your Life

Nature is the ultimate creator. At a nearby gardening store or hardware store, get an assortment of seed packets to plant newness into your life. If your thumb is not the greenest, try a wildflower mix or poppies, which are extremely hardy and will grow quickly and spread, beautifying any area. They reseed themselves, which is a lovely bonus.

On a new moon morning, draw a square in your yard with a “found in nature” wand, a fallen branch. Apartment dwellers can use a planter on a deck or a big pot for this ritual. Each corner of the square needs a candle and a special stone. I get my stones at new age bookstores, which often have the shiny tumbled versions for as little as one dollar. Mark the corners as follows:

• Green candle and peridot or jade for creativity, prosperity, and growth
• Orange candle and jasper or onyx for clear thinking and highest consciousness
• Blue candle and turquoise or celestine for serenity, kindness, and a happy heart
• White candle and quartz or limestone for purification and safety

Repeat this chant as you light each candle:

    Greatest Selene, I turn to you to help me renew,

    under this new moon and in this old earth.

    Blessings to you; blessings to me.

    Blessed be.

Put the seeds under the soil with your fingers and tamp them down gently with your wand, the branch, which you should also stick in the ground at this time. Water your new moon garden and affirmative change will begin in your life that very day.

Anointed with Almond: Candle Magic to Attract Wealth

Using almond oil is a simple way to attract money, and it can be employed to ease the discomfort of financial stress. Dress some green candles with a drop or two and burn them every day—this simple ritual will make a substantial difference. Almond oil works quickly because it is ruled by Mercury, the god of rapid change and communication, who operates in the realm of air.

While burning your almond-anointed candles, call upon Mercury:

    Winged one, bring with you better days.

    Blessed be to all,

    and may they share

    in the bounty to come.

While almond oil is a strong recommendation of mine, it is not the only oil you can use to enhance prosperity! Some floral essences that you can use to anoint your candles include:

• Carnation (a.k.a. Jove’s flowers), which contain the strength of Jupiter and can facilitate healing, power, and fortune.
• Chamomile, which is said to bring success in gambling.
• Cinnamon, sacred to Venus and known to help bring good luck.
• Honeysuckle, which can bring psychic powers and creative inspiration, is also one of the most effective of all oils in attracting money.

To Attract Blessings We Unite: A Full Moon Rite

Here is a beautifully simple way to attract money and blessings to you and your circle. Be sure to pass on some of the good fortune that has shone on you in order to keep the flow of abundance in circulation. This ritual is most effective performed at midnight on a full moon. This ritual is intended to be performed in a group, so you will need to gather together companions with whom you are spiritually in tune. Ask each of the participants to bring a green candle with their name scratched into the wax. Find the biggest green candle you can get and light it at the stroke of midnight.

Ask each ritualist to step forward and say their name, lighting their candle from the large one. Pray aloud:

    Holy Moon on this bright night!

    Now is the time for fortune to shine.

    Mother Moon, lend us your power

    in this midnight hour.

    Full moon bright, full moon’s light,

    grant to us our wish tonight.

    Let abundance flow from this rite.

    With harm to none, so mote it be.

Allow the candles to burn out on their own.

As they flicker under the full moon, gather the circle in a comfortable spot and talk about what you want to manifest in your lives. The more specific you are in the discussion, the better. This rite bears repeating every once in a while to renew its power.

Summoned by the Light of the New Moon: A New Vocation Spell

The new moon is an excellent time for ritual, especially when your focus is on bringing new things into your life, such as a job change. If you’re seeking employment, try out the following ritual to manifest your desires. Get your supplies out:

• 2 green candles
• 2 white candles
• 2 gold candles
• 2 pieces of green jade or another green stone
• Cinnamon oil

Line up the candles, alternating the colors. Anoint each one with cinnamon oil, and rub a little oil on the stones, too. Start at one end and light each candle. As you light each one, repeat these words:

    A new career is what’s desired,

    I cast this spell so I’ll be hired.

    By the light of this new moon,

    I need a new job soon.

After all the candles are lit, take each stone and gently pass it through the flames, being careful of your fingers. Then hold the stones in your hands and visualize the type of job you want to get. After the spell, pocket the stones and carry them with you. You should have a new job by the next new moon.

Celebrating Abundance: A Thanksgiving Ritual

This day of giving thanks denotes the high point of the year; the crops are in their fullness, weather is warm and the countryside is bursting forth with the beauty of life. Pagans know we have the heavens above to thank for this and the gods of nature must be acknowledged for their generosity with a gathering of the tribe and a feast, ideally in the great outdoors.  Ask invitees to bring harvest-themed offerings for the altar: gourds, pumpkins, bundles of wheat stalks and corn, fresh pickings from their garden and food to share in thanksgiving made from the same- pies, tomato salads, cucumber pickles, green beans, corn pudding, watermelon, lemon cakes, berry cucumber, apple cider and beer brewed from wheat, hops and barley. This celebration of the reapings from the summer season should reflect what you grown with your own hands. Fill your cauldron or a big beautiful colored glass bowl half-full with freshly-drawn water. Get packets of tiny votive candles for floating in the water. At the feast table, make sure to have a place-setting for the godly guest Lugh who watched over the plantings to ensure this bounty. Place loaves of home baked bread by his plate.

When all guests have arrived, everyone should add a food offering to the plate of the god and light a candle to float in the cauldron.  Cut a slice of the loaf of bread for Lugh and begin the ceremony with this prayer of thanks:

    Oh, ancient Lugh of the fields and farms,

    We invite you here with open arms,

    In this place between worlds, in flowering fields of hay.

    You have brought the blessings we receive this Thanksgiving Day.

Begin the feast and before the dessert course, everyone should go around the table and speak to their gratitude for the gifts of the year.

Peace of Mind Blessing Bowl

While a bowl is not a tool in and of itself, you can utilize bowls in your spellwork often, anytime you are inspired to do so. Three simple ingredients—a red rose, a pink candle, and water—can bestow a powerful blessing. The rose signifies beauty, potential, the sunny seasons, and love for yourself and others. The candle stands for the element of fire, the yellow flame of the rising sun in the east, harmony, higher intention, and the light of the soul. Water represents its own element, flow, the direction of the west, emotions, and cleansing. This ritual can be performed alone or with a group in which you pass the bowl around. Float the rose in a clear bowl of water, and light a pink candle beside the bowl. With your left hand, gently stir the water in the bowl and say:

    I give myself life and health, refreshing water for my spirit.

    I give myself time to rest and space to grow.

    I am love. My heart is as big as the world.

    I am peace of mind. So be it, now and always.

Keep the blessing bowl on your kitchen altar for three days and three nights. Dry the red rose and keep it on your nightstand or desk where it will always fill your heart with love.

Midsummer Day

Essential elements for a Celtic-inspired Midsummer ritual are a wooden wheel, fallen branches and firewood, multicolored candles, multicolored ribbons, food and drink, and flowers for garlands. This ritual should be performed outside, ideally on a hill or mountaintop, at dusk. Call the local fire department to verify the fire laws in your area. You will likely need a special permit to light a bonfire, and certain areas may be restricted. Always clear the grass and brush away from your fire area, and make sure to dig a shallow pit into the ground. Circle the pit with rocks to help mark the edge of the fire pit as well as to contain the accidental spread of fire. Have a fire extinguisher, a pail of sand, and water bottles nearby in case the fire gets out of control. One person not directly involved in the ritual should be on hand to watch the fire at all times. Make sure the fire pit is far enough away from surrounding trees and other landscape features to allow for a group to dance around it.

Lay the wooden wheel down in the circle of stones, and arrange the fallen branches and firewood around the edge of it. The wheel represents the turning of the year, and the sun on its daily and yearly cycle. Tie the colored ribbons on the nearest tree. While these preparations are being made, the priestess to lead the ritual should meditate in the area where the ritual will be held, connecting to the goddess. The gathered celebrants should weave garlands of flowers while the sun slowly sets. Just before the sun vanishes completely, the priestess should direct the gathered celebrants to ready their candles, or more ideally, torches. The priest lights them, declaring:

The fire festival is begun.

Under this longest day of the sun. 

Let us go forth and make merry. 

The god and goddess are here!

All say:

Blessed be!

The priest leads the celebrants into the circle where the priestess waits, and directs them to throw their torches and candles in the bonfire. The priestess raises her arms and invokes the Goddess:

Great Earth Mother and Lady of the Forest, 

Be with us here and now!

On this night the Goddess reigns supreme. 

On this, our night of our midsummer!

All say:

Blessed be!

All should dance in the direction of the sun (clockwise) around the fire, raise their arms, and clap and shout for joy for as long as they want. When people begin to tire, it is time for the feast. The priest directs the blessing of the food:

Blessed Lady of the Forest,

And old god and animals, spirits of the wild, 

Bless this food and drink,

That it may strengthen us in your ways.

All say:

Blessed be!

Everyone should share in the refreshments and eat, drink, and make merry. Another round of dance and song is in order. When the bonfire has turned to ash, the priestess declares the ritual to be over and says:

Our revelry this day is done, dear one. 

Gods of the old and spirits of nature,

We thank you for your blessings this night. 

This rite is done.

All say:

Blessed be!

Make certain the fire has completely gone out before you leave the ritual site. Soak the ashes with water and clean up the site. Always leave a natural area cleaner than you found it. 

The New Moon

The new moon is sometimes called Diana’s Bow, a reference to the Roman goddess of the hunt. The Maiden phase arrives when the moon comes out of the shadows and begins to show its first glimmering crescent of light. The new moon is the time to begin new projects and bring new energy into your life. It is an auspicious time for blessing rituals. I save new ventures to begin them on the new moon. Now is the perfect time to plant a garden, reorganize your office, start a new business, begin an art project, or embark on a new relationship—anything that requires the energy of developing and growing. Budding and building are the key words for the new moon.

New Moon, New Beginnings

This new moon time is a wonderful opportunity to involve yourself in personal improvement and transformation, whether spiritual or health-related, like practicing yoga or following a new diet. The new moon has great advantages for healing. This phase is also marvelous for rituals that draw something to you. Rituals and charms commenced in the new moon can have tangible results by the next new moon. Divinatory rituals performed during the new moon can also bring great clarity.

Here is a new moon ritual to ignite new energy for new projects and new beginnings.