Activity: Form a circle and use oranges to symbolize the sun. Recall the many gifts that we receive from the sun.

Goals: Understand the important things that the sun provides for us, such as food, energy, heat and light. Understand that we can show our appreciation for these gifts.

Age: Younger Children and Older Children

Procedure: Have the children stand in a circle with their eyes closed. Have each child hold one hand open, palm up, in front of him or her. Take chilled orange sections, or pieces of other bright, sunshine-like fruit, and place one in each waiting hand. Ask the children to guess what you have passed out. Once someone has guessed correctly instruct the children to open their eyes but not to eat the oranges yet. Hold up a whole orange and tell the children that it represents the sun. Have each child name one thing that we receive from the sun; then he or she can eat the orange slice. Remind the children that it is the food energy created from sunlight by plants that enables people to do this, or any other activity.

Materials: Sunny area, enough chilled and peeled oranges to provide one section for each child, a whole orange.

A suggestion from BabooKyra: I’m going to do this with my campers. The only thing I’m going to change is that we will pick the oranges ourselves and use whole oranges. After the ritual, I’ll give them spices to make pomanders. The scent will remind them of camp for years.

Disclaimer: No one involved in this blog or its contents may be held responsible for any adverse reactions arising from following any of the instructions/recipes on this list. It is the reader’s personal responsibility to exercise all precautions and use his or her own discretion if following any instructions or advice from this blog.

Fair Use Notice: This page may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This website distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107.

Write your birth-sign on a small stone in permanent pen. In a large flower pot, place the stone at the bottom. Plant a marigold on top, placing seven stones around the plant. As you work, chant:

"Sing me the song of seasons
Show me the sun’s delight
Open my heart for you radiance
Lead me towards the light."

The marigold is the flower of endurance that always turns its face toward the sun, following its path through the sky. This ritual will give you endurance.

Disclaimer: No one involved in this blog or its contents may be held responsible for any adverse reactions arising from following any of the instructions/recipes on this list. It is the reader’s personal responsibility to exercise all precautions and use his or her own discretion if following any instructions or advice from this blog.

Fair Use Notice: This page may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This website distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107.

Ingredients:

• 5 drops tea tree
• 11 drops lavender
• 3 ounces distilled water

Combine tea tree with lavender oil for a soothing after sun skin treatment. Place the mixture in a bottle with a spray atomizer attachment and mist skin whenever cooling relief is needed. Be sure to follow the application with a moisturizer.

Cool as a Cucumber Soak
by Renee Rouleau, From Self Magazine 1/90

Ingredients:

• 6 large cucumbers, skin removed, pureed in a blender
• 2 cups powdered milk
• 2 tsp dried lavender flowers, if available (do not use Lavender Oil)

Cucumbers & milk are anti-inflammatory, and this works on sunburn. Mix the ingredients and pour into a clean bottle. Apply directly to skin or add 1 cup oft he mixture to a lukewarm bath and soak for 20 minutes.

Sunburn and Itchy Skin Bath Vinegars
Copyright by Nerys Purchon (AKA Ravenna Morgan)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups (500 ml) vinegar
• Lavender flowers
• 1 tablespoon (20 ml) glycerin

Put the mixed herbs (see recipes below) into a large jar, cover with warm cider vinegar then with a vinegar proof lid. Stand in hot sun or other warm place (such as a crock pot) for 24 hours. Strain the vinegar, add more fresh herbs and repeat the above process. Repeat once more if very strong vinegar is desired.

To use: Pour 1/2 cup (125 ml) in the bath after the bath has been drawn, mix well with the water. Stay in the bath for 15-20 minutes to obtain the full effect, or add 2 teaspoons (10 ml) to 1 cup (250 ml) water as a facial skin toner, aftershave or after shower splash, or use neat as a deodorant, or use 1 tablespoon to 1 cup warm water as a hair rinse.

Natural Sunscreen
From Herbs for Health and Healing by Kathi Keville.

Ingredients:

• 2 oz sesame oil
• 2 oz aloe vera gel
• 1 tsp vitamin E oil
• 24 drops lavender essential oil

Combine ingredients. Shake well before using. Remember, this will not provide total sun protection.

Soothing Summer Body Spray Recipe
From Pioneer Thinking

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon witch hazel
• 1 teaspoon lemon essential / fragrance oil
• 1 teaspoon cucumber essential / fragrance oil
• 1 cup water

For a refreshing cool feeling, make an after shower spray by combining all the ingredients. Place in a pump spray bottle.Note: Don’t use if you have sensitive skin, the lemon may irritate it.

Disclaimer: No one involved in this blog or its contents may be held responsible for any adverse reactions arising from following any of the instructions/recipes on this list. It is the reader’s personal responsibility to exercise all precautions and use his or her own discretion if following any instructions or advice from this blog.

Fair Use Notice: This page may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This website distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107.

Ingredients for salad:

• 1 small can pineapple slices, drained
• 4 firm ripe tomatoes, thickly sliced
• 1 large cucumber
• Chopped Mint

Ingredients for dressing:

• 2 Tbs finely chopped mint
• 1/3 cup white vinegar
• 1/4 cup oil
• salt and pepper

For salad: Cut pineapple slices into large pieces. Score cucumber with a fork and slice thinly. Put tomatoes, pineapple and cucumber in a bowl. Pour over prepared dressing; toss well. Refrigerate. Before serving sprinkle over with chopped mint.

For dressing: Put mint and vinegar in a small saucepan; bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer 1 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. When cold, strain into a screw-top jar, add oil, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Shake well.

Disclaimer: No one involved in this blog or its contents may be held responsible for any adverse reactions arising from following any of the instructions/recipes on this list. It is the reader’s personal responsibility to exercise all precautions and use his or her own discretion if following any instructions or advice from this blog.

Fair Use Notice: This page may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This website distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107.

Litha is the time of the summer solstice, and it’s a season of great solar energy. A great project to put together is a blessing besom. Sweeping is, after all, one of the best ways of making a space sacred and clean. Make a blessing besom, and you can use it to physically cleanse your home, and then hang it up to keep positive energy flowing around you.

To make a blessing besom, you’ll need the following:

• A broom – either make your own, or purchase one at a craft store
• Ivy or vines
• Flowers and herbs from your garden
• Ribbons
• Small bells

Wrap the ribbons and ivy around the handle of the broom. Don’t wrap them too tight, though, because you’ll want to be able to tuck sprigs of herbs and flowers into the ribbons. Once you’ve added all of these things, tie a few small bells onto the broom, so that it will jingle as you sweep. In many cultures, bells are used as noisemakers to frighten away evil spirits and negative energies.

If you like, you can consecrate your blessing besom as you would any other magical tool. Use it to sweep around your home, starting near a window or a door, and working in a deosil (clockwise) direction. As you do so, you may wish to chant something like this:

Sweeping, sweeping, ’round the room,
Blessings from this cleansing broom.
From floor to ceiling, and all between, 
May this space be fresh and clean.
Sweeping good energy here to me,
As I will, so it shall be.

You can find additional broom/besom info and blessings here

Disclaimer: No one involved in this blog or its contents may be held responsible for any adverse reactions arising from following any of the instructions/recipes on this list. It is the reader’s personal responsibility to exercise all precautions and use his or her own discretion if following any instructions or advice from this blog.

Fair Use Notice: This page may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This website distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107.

It has been really, shall we say busy? around here…

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Sabbat 

• Midsummer

Other Names

• Summer Solstice
• Litha
• Alban Hefin
• Sun Blessing
• Gathering Day
• Feill-Sheathain
• Whit Sunday
• Whitsuntide
• Vestalia
• Thing-tide
• St. John’s Day.

Symbols

• Fire
• The Sun
• Blades
• Mistletoe
• Oak Trees
• Balefire
• Sun Wheels
• Faeries

Colors

• Red
• Gold
• Green
• Blue
• Tan

Deities

• Father Gods
• Mother Goddesses
• Pregnant Deities
• Sun Gods

Activities

• Jumping Balefire
• Gathering Herbs
• Clan Gatherings
• Well Dressing

Taboos:

• Giving Away Fire
• Sleeping Away from Home
• Neglecting Animals

Animals

• Robin/Wren
• Summer Birds
• Horses
• Cattle

Stones

• Emerald
• Jade
• Tiger’s Eye
• Lapis Lazuli
• Diamond

Foods

• Summer Squash
• Lemons
• Oranges

Plants

• Oak
• Mistletoe
• Frankincense
• Lemon
• Sandalwood
• Heliotrope
• Copal
• Saffron
• Galangal
• Laurel
• Ylang-Ylang

Meaning

• Honoring of Sun/God at His power
• Saying Farewell to the Waxing Year
• Preparation for Harvest
• Honoring the Pregnant Goddess
• Beginning of The Waning Year

Attunement Teas (Individually or Blended)

• Anise
• Carrot Drinks
• Lemon
• Nettle
• Orange

Ritual Oils

• Heliotrope
• Cinnamon
• Sandalwood
• Lavender
• Orange
• All Mint Oils
• Lemon
• Saffron

Mythical Creatures

• Satyrs
• Faeries
• Firebird
• Dragon
• Thunderbird
• Minticore

Key Action

• Nurture and Love.

Goddesses

• Aestas (Roman)
• Athena (Greek)
• Bona Dea (Roman)
• Chup-Kamui (Japanese)
• Damona (Breton)
• Dia Griene (Scottish)
• Elat (Semitic)
• Erce (English)
• Freya (Norse)
• Gokarmo (Tibetan)
• Hathor-Tiamet (Egyptian)
• Isis (Egyptian)
• Juno (Roman)
• Keca Aba (Russian)
• Kupulo (Russian)
• Marici (Tibetan)
• Nut (Egyptian)
• Robigus (Roman)
• Shekinah (Hebraic)
• Wurusema (Hittite)
• Zoe (Greek)
• Aine (Irish)
• Artemis (Greek)
• Banba (Irish)
• Cerd (Iberian)
• Dag (German)
• Dana (Irish)
• Djanggawaul Sisters (Aboriginal)
• Eos (Greek)
• Eriu (Irish)
• Gerd (Teutonic)
• Grian (Irish)
• Indra (Aryan)
• Jord (Teutonic)
• Kali (Indian)
• Kou-Njami (Siberian)
• Mabd/Maeve (Irish)
• Mitra (Aryan)
• Olwen (Welsh)
• Sekhmet (Egyptian)
• Vesta (Rome)
• Zatel-Ekwa (Hungarian)

Gods

• Baal (Phoenician)
• Bochica (South American)
• Dagda (Irish)
• Dharme (Aryan)
• Hadad (Syrian)
• Hyperion (Greek)
• Gwydion (Welsh)
• Llew (Welsh)
• Maui (Polynesia)
• Orunjan (Yourban)
• Ra (Egyptian)
• Thor (Norse)
• Ziuhtecutli (Aztec)
• Apollo (Greco-Roman)
• Balder (Norse)
• Chacol (Mayan)
• Donnus (Irish)
• El (Semitic)
• Helios (Greek)
• Ganges (Indian)
• Legba (Voodun)
• Lugh (Irish)
• Oak/Holly King (Anglo-Celtic)
• Prometheus (Greek)
• Sol/Helios (Greco-Roman)
• Upulero (Indonesian)
• Zues (Greco-Roman)

Disclaimer: No one involved in this blog or its contents may be held responsible for any adverse reactions arising from following any of the instructions/recipes on this list. It is the reader’s personal responsibility to exercise all precautions and use his or her own discretion if following any instructions or advice from this blog.

Fair Use Notice: This page may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This website distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107.

Special notes: Rededication to the Great Goddess and Great God. Time when the Sun casts three rays to light the world.

Altar supplies: Incense, burner, chalice of water, salt, pentacle, dagger, 4 element candles, chalice of wine, wand. A red candle (set to the right of cauldron)cup of fresh water set in the cauldron with a green or blue candle on the left.

Cast the Circle
Light the green candle to the left of cauldron

Green forest Mother, bless this water, I do ask. 
Great One of the stars, spinner of fates, I give honor to you, 
and call upon you in your ancient names, known and unknown.

Light the red candle to the right of cauldron

Mighty Sun God, god of fertility and plenty, be here with me now, I do ask. I give honor to you, and call upon you in your ancient names, known and unknown.

Raise your arms over the cauldron and say

This is the sacred cauldron of the Triple Goddess. 
The touch of its consecrated water blesses and renews, even as the rays of the Sun nourish and bless all life.

Pass your hands/arms between the two candles, making wishes as you do; or set them on the floor and walk between them. Dip forefinger of your power hand into the cauldron water and trace a pentagram on your forehead. Kneel before the altar to rededicate your life to the Old Gods.

I will serve the Great Goddess and give reverence to the Great God. I am a pagan, a stone of the ancient circle, standing firmly balanced upon the Earth, yet open to the winds of the heavens, and enduring through time. May the Old Gods witness my words!

Place wine chalice on pentacle and lift it high

Honor to the Old Gods! Merry meet and merry part and merry meet again!

Drink the wine, saving some to be put out for the little people or to be given to the earth

Continue with a Simple Feast and Closing the Circle 

Disclaimer: No one involved in this blog or its contents may be held responsible for any adverse reactions arising from following any of the instructions/recipes on this list. It is the reader’s personal responsibility to exercise all precautions and use his or her own discretion if following any instructions or advice from this blog.

Fair Use Notice: This page may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This website distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107.

From Pagan’s Palace – Now Gone

Midsummer’s Day is a traditional time for Witches in all parts of the world to gather herbs from their gardens or from the wild to use in potions, dream pillows, poppets, and other forms of spellcraft. To be recited on Midsummer’s Day, thrice before and thrice after gathering your herbs for magickal workings:

"Herbs of magick, herbs of power,
Root and bark, leaf and flower,
Work for me when charms are spoken,
Potions brewed and curses broken!"

Disclaimer: No one involved in this blog or its contents may be held responsible for any adverse reactions arising from following any of the instructions/recipes on this list. It is the reader’s personal responsibility to exercise all precautions and use his or her own discretion if following any instructions or advice from this blog.

Fair Use Notice: This page may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This website distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107.

When I was a young girl, I had a book of tales and poems about fairies. I don’t know where it is now, probably on one of my parents’ dusty bookshelves, mis-sorted after a move. It was a big book, mostly pictures, and it fascinated me: I wanted to get into that world, in with the fairies. I only remember one verse: "The fairies will be dancing, when there’s a ring around the moon." But I remember that the big fairy holiday was Midsummer Night.

On Midsummer Night, the witches, the fairies, the spirits of the dead, the wraiths of the living: all will be abroad and visible. I couldn’t have been more than five, but it enchanted me, the idea of slipping out at midnight, stars veiled in the humid dark of summer, maybe with a flashlight (a candle would have been more romantic but harder to get), to a ring trodden bare in grass that flickered around my ankles. The circle would break, a small, bony hand held out to mine…

But I knew if I tried slipping out I’d get in trouble. Moreover, I was confused. It seemed Midsummer Night was June 21, or thereabouts, but wasn’t that the beginning of summer? If so, why was it called midsummer? I consulted my mother, but the contradiction didn’t bother her; she said that was just the way it was. It was only much later that I stumbled on the answer, that if Beltaine is summer’s start the solstice falls at Midsummer.

In medieval times, Midsummer was the feast of St. John the Baptist. The herbs of St. John are St. Johns Wort, hawkweed, orpine, vervain, mullein, wormwood and mistletoe. Plucked (depending on your tradition) either at midnight St. John’s Eve or at noon St. John’s Day and hung in the house, they will protect it from fire and lightning. Worn about the body, they will protect you from disease, witchcraft and disaster.

Previously, Midsummer was one of the great fire festivals of Europe. At Stonehenge, it is said, Midsummer was a time of human sacrifice. The children’s counting-out rhyme "Eeny, meeny, miney, mo" may be a relic of the means by which the Druids chose their sacrifices.

It was around Midsummer when my friend Holly and I decided to enchant David, who was the cutest boy in our class. We were 11, and what might happen if he really fell in love with both of us didn’t cross our minds. (I think each of us in her heart of hearts felt he’d choose her.) Holly got a copy of the Dell pocketbook Everyday Witchcraft from the stand at the grocery store checkout line, and I talked my mother into buying me one too. One of the love spells instructed us to collect grass from his lawn and make a charm from it.

So we slipped out and met at dawn . I remember the feel of dawn asphalt cool beneath my feet. In Kansas City the lawns are pretty big; sitting on the sidewalk at the far corner of David’s lawn, at the bottom of a steep incline, we ran little risk of being seen. So we collected a few strands and sat a while, basking in his nearness.

If an unmarried girl, fasting, on Midsummer Eve at midnight sets the table with a clean cloth, bread, cheese and ale, leaves the yard door open and waits, the boy she will marry, or his spirit, will come in and eat with her. Plant two slips of orpine (Sedum telephium) together on Midsummer Eve, one to represent yourself, one to represent your lover. If one slip withers, the one it represents will die. But if both take hold, flourish and grow leaning together, you and your lover will marry.

It was around Midsummer also, and I, 13, but not much the wiser, when my friend Vanessa and I did candle-magic on a mutual friend, Troy. Vanessa made a good, thick candle-poppet of him, with the wick for his head. She was angry at him, and her spell was to banish him; she buried the candle-poppet in the gutter outside her house. I had a crush on him, and my spell was quite the opposite, though I didn’t confess this to Vanessa. Our spells must have crossed, because while Vanessa and Troy made up, ever afterward Troy had an aversion to me.

To become invisible, wear or swallow fern seed (that is, fern spores) that you collected on Midsummer Eve. On Midsummer Eve at midnight, the fern blooms with a golden flower. If you pluck this flower, it will lead you to golden treasure. In Russia, the flower must be thrown in the air, and it will land on buried treasure. The Bohemians believe that if you pluck the flower and on the same Midsummer Night climb a mountain with the blossom in hand, you will find gold or have it revealed to you in a vision. Bohemians also sprinkle fern seed in their savings to keep them from decreasing.

It was the fairies, and charms like those of Midsummer, that led me to the Craft. I won’t swear all the high points of the summers of my youth happened on Midsummer Night, but Midsummer is a kind of distillation of all summer. On that night, perhaps you can brush back a feathery, green- smelling branch to see, dancing in a ring, fairies. Or sometimes you might find such a ring indoors.

[Enter Puck, carrying a broom]

"Now it is the time of night
That the graves, all gaping wide,
Every one lets forth his sprite,
In the church-way paths to glide.
And we fairies, that do run
By the triple Hecate’s team
From the presence of the sun,
Following darkness like a dream,
Now are frolic. Not a mouse
Shall disturb this hallowed house.
I am sent with broom before,
To sweep the dust behind the door."

(from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by William Shakespeare)

Merry Midsummer to all.

Disclaimer: No one involved in this blog or its contents may be held responsible for any adverse reactions arising from following any of the instructions/recipes on this list. It is the reader’s personal responsibility to exercise all precautions and use his or her own discretion if following any instructions or advice from this blog.

Fair Use Notice: This page may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This website distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107.