Fill Your Life with Enchantment

We are experiencing a witchy renaissance here in the early years of the twenty-first century. I get frequent requests from friends and, thanks to the quick connections of social media, questions via Facebook about how to handle the stress, strain, and busyness of modern life. I am honored to be able to help in any small way and am constantly seeking new methods for healing magic and insights and spells for sacred self-care.

One thing I do know, both from my personal experience and from my circle, is that spellwork and habitual ritual can be healing in and of itself. Rites and ritual gatherings regulate our lives, individually and as groups. Anthropologists, psychologists, and other students of the human race have shown that ritual has existed since the dawn of humanity and has always played an important role in culture. Scholars of the psyche, including Freud, who eloquently addressed the role of ritual, speak of the power of ritual and how it brings people together physically and emotionally. Ritual creates “communities” from which spring a sense of unity, harmony, and belonging.

These magical moments are very important; they signify that we have stepped out of the routine of the ordinary day to day and are exploring a higher consciousness. I believe a moment spent in ritual is embracing life itself. Even 5 minutes of sacred time can change your life for the better. And that is my hope for you: a life enriched through these easy enchantments and simple spells. May you enjoy much peace of mind, prosperity, love, and sheer joy!

Pagan New Year: A Solo Ritual for Samhain

Samhain, also known as the Celtic New Year, is the most profound, important, and best known of all pagan sabbats. Samhain is perhaps the favorite Celtic high holiday of all. After all, it is the witches’ New Year celebration and the time to honor and commune with your elders and family members who have passed on to the other side, as well as the time to celebrate the passing year and set intentions for new blessings in the new year to come. 

Supplies:

• Altar space
• 8 candles
• Powdered incense
• Bread
• Salt
• Wine

1. Prepare for this most holy night and rite by setting up an altar. Place three candles on a stone altar to represent the Triple Goddess and five to represent the points of the pentagram. The star of the pentagram should be drawn with powdered incense of the self-lighting variety to be lit later. Gather together bread, salt, and wine for the sacrament.
   
   
2. After you have made your preparations for the altar, ready yourself by bathing and meditating. Anoint your body before dressing in a robe or gown befitting this night when the veil between the worlds is the thinnest. As you ready your body, mind, and spirit, consider what has taken place in the preceding year. Cleanse your mind and heart of old sorrows and most especially of angers and petty resentments. Bring only your best into this night. After all, this is New Year’s Eve for witches, and you want to truly connect with those who have gone on to the other side.
   
   
3. Walk alone to the place of the ceremony and kneel before the altar. Before lighting the candles on the altar, say aloud:
   
   This candle I light for the Maiden’s brightest glory.
   
   Light the candle and bow to the Maiden.
   
   This candle I light for the power and passion of the Lady, the Queen.
   
   Light the candle and bow to the Queen.
   
   This candle I light for the unsurpassable wisdom of the Crone.
   
   Light the candle and bow to the Crone.
   
   
4. Light the incense, and then gazing at the candles on the altar, say:
   
   These do I light in honor of the Triple Goddess
   on this sacred night of Samhain.
   I create this holy temple
   in honor of the Goddess and the God
   and all the ancient ones.
   From time before time,
   I pay my tribute and my devotion
   In love and greeting to those beyond the veil.
   
   
5. Now light the candles that represent the power of the five-pointed pentagram. Rap three times on the altar with your hands or with your wand. Then say:
   
   This is a time outside of time
   in a place outside of any place
   on a day that is not a day
   between the worlds and afar.
   
   
6. Pause and listen to your heart for thirteen beats, then hold your hands in benediction over the bread, salt, and wine. Now say:
   
   For this bread, salt, and wine,
   I do ask the blessings
   of our Maiden, our Queen, and our Crone
   and of the God who guards the Gates of the World.
   
   
7. Take the bread and sprinkle a bit of salt over it, saying:
   
   I ask that I and all whom I love
   have health and abundance and blessings.
   
   Eat the bread, and hold up the goblet of wine, saying:
   
   To a spirit that remains strong and true!
   
   Drink the wine and declare:
   
   By the Triple Goddess and her godly consort, so mote it be!
   
   
8. At this point, a danse macabre to any dark folk or Gothic music of your choosing can end the ritual—I suggest any music by the band Dead Can Dance. You should also spend time meditating or allowing yourself to ease into a trance state to communicate with your beloved dead. Hear the messages they have for you and let them know you.
   
   
9. When you feel the ritual has ended, quench the candles, and then say:
   
   Though these flames
   of the material world
   be darkened,
   they shall ever burn
   in the world beyond.
   This rite is ended.

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.