Libations for Ritual Gatherings

Whether it is a high holiday or a humble family get-together, festive beverages add to the celebratory aspect of the occasion and bring people together in joy and appreciation of each other. How many times have you been to an event where, after you were introduced to a food, dessert, or drink that was completely new to you, you loved it and were asking for the recipe? Parties and group rituals are a wonderful way to share delightful treats with the special people in your life. These gatherings make our lives meaningful and will become memories you will treasure.

Gem-Magic Get-Together

Forget the Tupperware party and have a gem-magic party with your girlfriends instead. Make popcorn, eat pizza, drink champagne, and, most importantly, make magic together. What could be more fun? All you have to do is pick a night and assign everyone two ingredients to bring—one snack and one batch of crystal beads. You provide the thread, tools, glue, and good vibes.

Think about beginning the night by making brooches. A brooch worn over the heart is a symbol of loyalty and love among friends. You’ll need to get some flat-circle brooch pins at a craft store. Give each person at the party a brooch and ask her to choose a partner. Using glue, each gal will encrust the front of her brooch with as many crystals as possible in a color and an array that best represents the personality of her partner. Then, the partners exchange brooches. Your gaggle of girlfriends will be forever bonded by their love brooches, not to mention the glue!

Here are a few other festive and fun projects you can whip up together: birthstone bracelets, bewitching barrettes, pendulum pendants, true-love tiaras, blessing bracelets, bodacious bobby pins, and nights-of-enchantment necklaces. The possibilities are endless; let your imagination (and your friends) run wild!

Lammas Day: A Ritual of Gratitude for the Changing Seasons

Essential elements for this ritual are sheaves of grain (such as wheat or barley), a cauldron, water, one floating candle, one candle for each person present, and essential oils of rose, lavender, or other summer flowers.

Your Lammas Day ritual should be held on August first, the beginning of the harvest season in the ancient cycle of the year. To create the sacred space of the ritual, arrange the sheaves of grain in the four directions around a cauldron. Fill the cauldron three-quarters full with water, then add essential oils of the flowers of summer. Cast your circle in the usual manner. 

At this point, the leader of the ritual should light the candles and then hand them to each person and guide the participants to form a circle around the cauldron. Now the floating candle should be lit and placed in the cauldron by the leader, who says:

    O Ancient Lugh of days long past,

    be here with us now

    in this place between worlds,

    on this Lammas Day.

Rap three times on the cauldron and say:

    Harvest is here and the seasons do change,

    this is the height of the year.

    The bounty of summer sustains us

    in spirit, in soul, and in body.

Now the group circles five times around the cauldron. All present should then speak their gratitude for the gifts of the season and the riches of the summer’s bounty. Storytelling, singing, and dancing should all be a part of this rite; when the tales have been told and the songs have been sung, the leader determines when the rite is done by putting out the candles and proclaiming:

    This rite is done!

Close the circle.

You can create your own variations on this Lammas Day celebration, incorporating your own views on the summer season and how you show appreciation to nature and spirit. One lovely way to celebrate Lammas Day, anciently named Lughnasa in Celtic cultures, is to have a feast that begins and ends with gratitude and blessings for the food and wine, with a place set and food set aside for the great godly guest, Lugh.

Put a Cork In It - Charmed Life Charm

The next time you enjoy a beverage sealed with a cork, keep the cork. This does not have to be a champagne cork—they are all lucky. When a bottle is shared and the occasion is a happy event or joyous moment, secret away the cork from the bottle, making a wish for repetition of the pleasure as you do so, and placing a coin in a slit in the top of the cork.

Now you must sleep on the cork every night (under your pillow) and keep it in your pocket all the next day. Rub the cork any day thereafter when you wish to hear from the other person or people who shared the bottle with you; do not wish for love but rather for continuing happiness. The cork symbolizes buoyancy, not love.

Celebrate these events throughout the year to find your lucky cork:

January 1: New Year’s Day

February 14: St.Valentine’s Day

March 8: International Women’s Day

April 22: Earth Day

May 1: May Day, Beltane

June 19: Juneteenth

July 20: National Moon Day

August 4: Dom Pérignon invents champagne in 1693—celebrate!

September 20: International Day of Peace

October 15: Festival of Mars (Ancient Rome)

November 5: Guy Fawkes Day

December 5: International Volunteers Day

A Lovely Night for a Moon Dance - Saturn Day Night Fever

Here is a pagan party plan which is wonderful for weekend evenings. You can add many embellishments such as important astrological or lunar happenings, but you should gather your friends or coven and celebrate life any Saturday night of your choosing. If the weather is warm enough, have the festivities outside. Otherwise, make sure to choose an indoor space with enough room for dancing, drumming and major merriment. Ask each of your guests to bring cake, cookies and sweets of their choice along with their favorite beer, wine, mead, cider or ale and sitting cushions. Place the offerings on a center table altar and light candles of all colors. Once everyone is seated and settled, the host or designated circle leader chants:

Gods of Nature, bless these cakes.
That we may never suffer hunger.
Goddess of the harvest,
Bless this ale,
That we may never suffer thirst. Blessed be.

The eldest and the youngest should serve the food and drink to all in the circle. Lastly, they serve each other and the leader chants the blessing again. Let the feasting begin!