Rose Ariadne's Chitchcraft Blog

Dear Friends,

We have come to the end of our Wheel of the Year with the Witches’ New Year’samhain.
Halloween has overtaken October 31t, but it is we Pagans that made the day special to begin with.

Samhain means “End of Summer”. Its historical origin is The Feast of the Dead in Celtic lands. Samhain night is the best night of the year for contacting those who have passed on before us. It is said that the veil between the worlds is very thin during this time.

Darkness increases and the Goddess reigns as the Crone, part of the three-in-one that also includes the Maiden and Mother. The God has passed to the other side and becomes the seed of his own rebirth at Yule. Many Pagans prepare a Feast for the Dead on Samhain night, where they leave offerings of food and drink for the spirits. The popular children’s custom of trick-or-treat stems from an Old English practice in which children went door to door begging “soul cakes” to feed the wandering spirits.

Divination is heightened during this night as well. Even those new to tarot, runes or other divinations will have clear understanding of the messages of the future during this night. Plan a special reading for your circle or yourself.
It is also an appropriate night to make a besome, or ritual broom. Here are some instructions to guide you:

You will need a four-foot dowel one inch in diameter, a ball of twine, scissors, and straw or other long strands of pliable herbs. Take the straw, or another herb you have chosen for the bristles, and allow them to soak overnight in warm, lightly salted water. The water softens the straws to make them pliable, and the salt soaks out former energies. When you are ready to make your Besom, remove the straws from the water and allow them to dry a bit, but not so much that they lose the suppleness you will need to turn them into your Besom.

Find a work area where you can lay out the length of your dowel, and begin lining the straws alongside the dowel. Starting about three inches from the bottom, lay the straws, moving backward, along the length of the dowel. Begin binding these to the dowel with the twine. You will need to tie them very securely. You can add as many layers of straw as you wish, depending on how full you would like your Besom to be. When the straw is secured, bend the top straws down over the twine ties. When they are all gently pulled over, tie off the straws again a few inches below the original tie. Leave the Besom overnight to allow the straw to dry.

The dowel part of the Besom can be stained, painted, or decorated with Pagan symbols, your Craft name, or any other embellishments you choose. Dedicate your finished Besom in your Circle as you would any other ritual tool. Although Samhain is a time of celebration for all Witches, I find it better to socialize earlier in the evening and then hold a private ceremony at night. Much of Samhain is very personal, and a solitary or small circle with your loved ones allows you to explore divination, make plans for the coming year and focus on remembering your loved ones who have passed. The Samhain season is one of remembrance, both of the dead and of your own personal goals and missteps throughout the past year. I’ve always seen it as a time for evaluation and readjustment in my life. I re-center myself, make new goals and thank the God and Goddess for another wonderful year.

Love And Light,

Rose Ariadne, Your Warm And Caring “Resident Witch In Charge”

Dear Friends,

Mabon season always puts me in the mood for the coming holiday season. Plus, I am a cold weather person and this holiday gets me excited for pulling out my winter clothes and bundling up for some good rain and snow. Mabon is the second of our harvest festivals and is celebrated between September 20 and 23rd. It changes from year to year depending on the date of the Equinox. During Autumn, we begin to see the waning of the Sun more obviously now as the days continue to grow shorter until the Wheel of the Year spins around again to Yule.

At the Autumn Equinox, the days and nights are equal. It is a time of balance, but light gives way to increased darkness. It is the second harvest, and the Goddess mourns her fallen consort, but the emphasis is on the message of rebirth that can be found in the harvest seeds. The Autumn Equinox is a wonderful time to stop and relax and be happy. While we may not have toiled the fields from sunrise to sunset every day since Lammas – as our ancestors did – most of us do work hard at what we do. At this time of year, we should stop and survey the harvest each of us has brought in over the season. For us, like our ancestors, this becomes a time of giving thanks for the success of what we have worked at.

For your Mabon ritual, focus on the fading God and the continuing harvest of the Earth’s bounty. The following ritual is the basis for our current coven ritual.

Decorate the altar with acorns, oak sprigs, pine and cypress cones, ears of corn, wheat stalks and other fruits and nuts. Also place a small rustic basket filled with dried leaves of various colors and kinds on the altar.

Arrange the altar, light the candles and censer, and cast your circle. Invite the elements and your Deities.

Stand before the altar, holding aloft the basket of leaves, and slowly scatter them so that they cascade to the ground within the circle. Say such words as these:

Leaves fall,
the days grow cold.
The Goddess pulls Her mantle of the Earth around Her as You,
O Great Sun God,
sail toward the West to the lands of
Eternal Enchantment.,
wrapped in the coolness of night.
Fruits ripen,
seeds drop,
the hours of day and night are balanced.
Chill winds blow in from the North wailing laments.
In this seeming extinction of nature’s power,
O Blessed Goddess,
I know that life continues.
For spring is impossible without the second harvest,
as surely as life is impossible without death.
Blessings upon You,
O Fallen God,
as You journey into the lands of winter
and into the Goddess’ loving arms.

Place the basket down and say:

O Gracious Goddess of all fertility,
I have sown and reaped the fruits of my actions, good and bane.
Grant me the courage to plant seeds of joy and love in the coming year,
banishing misery and hate.
Teach me the secrets of wise existence upon this planet,
O Luminous One of the Night!

Works of magick, if necessary, may follow.
Close the circle and enjoy the bounty of the season.

Brightest Blessing,

Rose Ariadne, Your Warm And Caring “Resident Witch In Charge”

Dear Friends,

Lughnasad, or Lammas as it is also termed, is the first of our annual harvest celebrations. It is celebrated on August 1st. Now is the time to teach what you have learned, to share the fruits of your achievements with the world. It is considered a time of Thanksgiving and the first of three Pagan Harvest Festivals, when the plants of Spring wither and drop their fruits or seeds for our use as well as to ensure future crops. Also, first grains and fruits of the Earth are cut and stored for the dark Winter months.

This is a time when the God mysteriously begins to weaken as the Sun rises farther in the South, each day grows shorter and the nights grow longer. The Goddess watches in sorrow as She realizes that the God is dying, and yet lives on inside Her as Her child. It is in the Celtic tradition that the Goddess, in her guise as the Queen of Abundance, is honored as the new mother who has given birth to the bounty; and the God is honored as the God of Prosperity.

Symbols to represent the Lammas Sabbat include corn, all grains, corn dollies, sun wheels, special loaves of bread, wheat, harvesting (threshing) tools and the Full Moon. Altar decorations might include corn dollies to symbolize the Mother Goddess of the Harvest. Other appropriate decorations include summer flowers and grains. You might also wish to have a loaf of whole cracked wheat or multigrain bread upon the altar.

Here is my adapted bread recipe I use at Lughnasad and throughout the year:

Whole Grain Bread
In a large mixing bowl combine:
2 cups milk (warm to the touch)
2 packages of dry baking yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
Cover this mixture and set aside in a warm place until it has doubled (about
half an hour). Add to this mixture:
3 tablespoons softened butter
2 eggs
1 cup of unbleached white flour
Stir until bubbly. Now mix in:
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup of rolled oats
2 cups stone ground wheat flour
2 tablespoons sesame seed

With floured hands, turn this dough out onto a floured board and gradually knead in more unbleached white flour until the dough is smooth and elastic and no longer sticks to your fingers. Place this dough in a greased bowl, turning it so that the dough is greased. Then cover it with a clean cloth and keep it in a warm place to rise until it is doubled (about an hour).Then punch it down and divide it into two or more elongated loaves, roughly sculpted into mummiform shapes, and placed on greased cookie sheets. Cover these and return them to a warm place until they double again. Bake the loaves in a pre-heated oven at 350 degrees for about an hour, or until they are done and sound hollow when tapped.

The celebration of Lammas is a pause to relax and open yourself to the change of the Season so that you may be one with its energies and accomplish what is intended. Visits to fields, orchards, lakes and wells are also traditional. It is considered taboo not to share your food with others. Spellwork for prosperity, abundance and good fortune are especially appropriate now, as well as spells for connectedness, career, health and financial gain. One of my most favorite Lughnasad traditions is making a corn man wheel to represent the fading God. Try it out yourself!

You’ll need a wire coat hanger, cardboard, and several ears of Indian corn complete with the husks. Bend the wire hanger into a circle keeping the hook to hang it by. Cut out a small cardboard circle to glue the tips of the ears of corn onto. You may want to create your Corn Man Wheel as a pentagram using five ears, or a Solar Wheel using eight ears to represent one ear for each Sabbat. Attach the ears of Indian corn around the perimeter of the wire circle. Wrap the husks around and glue where necessary, leave some of the husks hanging loose to fray out from the edges and make it more decorative. Where the ears of corn meet in the center, glue them together.

Love And Light,

Rose Ariadne, Your Warm And Caring “Resident Witch In Charge”

Dear Friends,

Shakespeare honored this time of year with his Midsummer Night’s Dream. And we as Pagans honor it with our celebration of Litha. The Summer Solstice, the longest day, is a time of triumph for the light. It is believed that Midsummer Night’s Eve is a special time for those who believe in the Faerie traditions. Like Samhain, this is a day where the veils are thin between the realms of the Sidhe (the Faerie realm) and the world of mortals. It is a time for merriment and the making of wishes.

This is also a celebration of the God and the warmth and power of the sun. It is also a good time for a rededication as well as pet blessings. It is also a good time for healing, love and protection magickal workings This is also the time to gather the herbs from your garden. Tradition suggests using your boline or a scythe to cut the plant by the moonlight.

We perform a ritual each year that honors the God in his greatness, and recognizes the next turn of the Wheel of the Year. With the celebration of the light, we realize that the balance of the year is turning again.

You’ll need a tall white or yellow candle and a short black candle, cauldron for burning, incense (Frankincense, Myrrh, Sandalwood, Jasmine, rose, lotus, other flower), bowl of blessed, pure water and your wand.

Cast the circle, call the corners, light your altar candle and the Goddess and God candles.

Pick up your wand, and with arms upraised, face the South and say:

I celebrate the noon of Summer with this rite
held in honor of the Blazing God of the Sun.
All of nature vibrates with the fertile energies of the Goddess and the God.
The Earth is bathed with the warmth, and light and life of the Sun.
The Wheel of the Year turns again.
Since Yule the light has been growing ever stronger.
At Ostara the light finally became greater than the dark,
and the light has kept on growing until today,
the middle of the time of light, Litha, Midsummer.
From here, the light begins to fade again,
until once more, the Wheel will turn to darkness and Yule will return.
Today the Sun is high, the Light is bright, the Earth is warm.
As the Lord of the Sun blazes above,
the Fires of my celebration shall flame below.

Place your wand back on altar. Face the altar and light your white and black candles.

Brother Sun and Mother Moon, day is longest now.
Energies of the brilliant Sun aid all at work or having fun.
Longest day, a blessing is, from rise to set supreme is the Sun.
Fueling growth and passions bright, strong and true is the solar light.
Bounty grows and river flows, as Earth is warmed and lighted.
Creative energy reaches zenith on this day of shortest night.
Crops grow high and excitement grows, with each new ray of Sun.
Every day, all creatures play and hail the mighty Sun.
Ancient solstice, fires burning, honor the Sun and feed the light.
Druid, Indian, Norse, and Celt all danced on Summer Solstice, joyously felt.
Solar winds and solar flares wash away our hunger and our cares.
Mighty Sun, King of warmth, makes humans to frolic and bees to swarm.
Keep this day in memory bright, to warm you on long winter nights.
May the rays of solstice keep us warm, all through the year.
So mote it be.

Celebrate Litha in all its glory and enjoy you the long days while they last!

Brightest Blessing,

Rose Ariadne, Your Warm And Caring “Resident Witch In Charge”