Samhain Divination Pt 1

In many agricultural societies, a popular pastime at Samhain was that of divination - after all, this is a time when the barrier between our world and the metaphysical realm is at its thinnest. From scrying in a mirror to using an apple to foretell the name of one's future lover, many traditional divination methods were practiced in rural cultures for centuries. You can use them today for your own divination at Samhain, or any other time of the year.

                         

• Apple Divination

Apples have always been popular tools for foretelling the future. There are a number of traditional methods in folklore for seeing who one's lover might be.

• Peel the apple, keeping the peel in one long piece. When the peel comes off, drop it on the floor. The letter it forms is the first initial of your true love's name.
• Wait until midnight at Samhain, and cut an apple into nine pieces. Take the pieces into a dark room with a mirror (either hanging on the wall or a hand-held one will do). At midnight, begin eating the pieces of apple while looking into the mirror. When you get to the ninth piece, throw it over your shoulder. The face of your lover should appear in the mirror.
• If a girl has more than one potential lover, peel an apple and pull out the seeds. Place a wet seed on your cheek for each boyfriend. The last one left stuck to the skin represents the suitor who is the true love.

 

    

• Water Divination

Water is known for its magical properties in many belief systems, so it's only natural to use it for divination workings. Try one of these on Samhain night.

• At midnight on Samhain, go to a lake and gaze into the water. You should see your lover's face reflected in the lake before you.
• Fill a cauldron with water, and then light a candle. Drip the hot wax into the water, and see what shape it forms. The shape will indicate the profession of your future lover, if you're working on love magic. It can also foretell changes in your non-romantic life, such as job issues or questions related to home and family.
• Find a moving body of water like a stream or river. Select a piece of wood to represent the person you wish to be your lover, and throw it in the water. If it floats downstream, he will be true and constant. If the wood gets caught up on the bank, or sinks, your lover will be unfaithful.

    

• Foretelling with Food

There are a number of divination methods that use foods, baking and cooking as their focus. Some of these are still practiced today.

• Scottish Bannock Divination: in Scotland and northern England, a girl would bake a bannock cake in the evening. In complete silence, she walked to her room and placed the bannock under her pillow. Her dreams that night would show her the face of her lover, and in the morning she ate the bannock.
• To find out if you'll find love in the coming twelve months, separate an egg and drop the white into a glass of water. If it sinks immediately, love is forthcoming. If it floats on the top of the water, you'll spend the next year alone.
• Take two nuts, one for yourself and one for your lover. At midnight on Samhain, place them on a grate over your fire. If they burn well, you'll have a long and happy relationship. If one nut pops or burns, it means one of you will be unfaithful.
• Hazelnuts can be used in workings related to divination and dowsing - tie a ripe one onto a string and use it as a pendulum.

Origins of the Word Mabon

In Welsh folklore, there is a figure known as Mabon ap Modron, or Mabon son of Modron. He appears in some of the Arthurian legends, as one of Uther Pendragon’s loyal servants, and as a follower of Arthur himself.

Also of note, there was a female Cornish saint named Mabyn, to whom the founding of St. Mabyn’s Church is dedicated, although there is speculation that the church was actually started by the Welshman, Mabon, rather than the female martyred saint. Mabyn’s festival is celebrated on November 18, approximately halfway between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice.

There is much discussion in the Pagan community as to whether one of these figures provide the name of the autumn equinox holiday, Mabon. Interestingly, it appears that the tradition of calling the autumn equinox by the name Mabon goes back only to around 1970, when author Aidan Kelley wrote was gathering information for his 1991 book, Crafting the Art of Magic, and assigned new names to the Sabbats, most of which were rooted in Celtic lore. The purpose, Kelly has said, was to conceptualize modern Pagan religious ceremonies.

Historian Ronald Hutton has pointed out that there is no academic evidence indicating that ancient Celts called their equinox celebration Mabon.

In Druidic traditions, the autumn equinox was referred to as Alban Elfed, meaning the light of the water. This name refers to a time of year in which the balance of light and dark shifts, so that the darkness begins to take over.

All About Litha: The Midsummer Sabbat (June 21st)

An Ancient Solar Celebration:
Nearly every agricultural society has marked the high point of summer in some way, shape or form. On this date – usually around June 21 or 22 (or December 21/22 in the southern hemisphere) – the sun reaches its zenith in the sky. It is the longest day of the year, and the point at which the sun seems to just hang there without moving – in fact, the word “solstice” is from the Latin word solstitium, which literally translates to “sun stands still.” The travels of the sun were marked and recorded. Stone circles such as Stonehenge were oriented to highlight the rising of the sun on the day of the summer solstice.

Traveling the Heavens:
Although few primary sources are available detailing the practices of the ancient Celts, some information can be found in the chronicles kept by early Christian monks. Some of these writings, combined with surviving folklore, indicate that Midsummer was celebrated with hilltop bonfires and that it was a time to honor the space between earth and the heavens.

Fire and Water:
In addition to the polarity between land and sky, Litha is a time to find a balance between fire and water. According to Ceisiwr Serith, in his book The Pagan Family, European traditions celebrated this time of year by setting large wheels on fire and then rolling them down a hill into a body of water. He suggests that this may be because this is when the sun is at its strongest yet also the day at which it begins to weaken. Another possibility is that the water mitigates the heat of the sun, and subordinating the sun wheel to water may prevent drought.

Saxon Traditions:
When they arrived in the British Isles, the Saxon invaders brought with them the tradition of calling the month of June Aerra Litha. They marked Midsummer with huge bonfires that celebrated the power of the sun over darkness. For people in Scandinavian countries and in the farther reaches of the Northern hemisphere, Midsummer was very important. The nearly endless hours of light in June are a happy contrast to the constant darkness found six months later in the middle of winter.

Roman Festivals :
The Romans, who had a festival for anything and everything, celebrated this time as sacred to Juno, the wife of Jupiter and goddess of women and childbirth. She is also called Juno Luna and blesses women with the privilege of menstruation. The month of June was named for her, and because Juno was the patroness of marriage, her month remains an ever-popular time for weddings. This time of year was also sacred to Vesta, goddess of the hearth. The matrons of Rome entered her temple on Midsummer and made offerings of salted meal for eight days, in hopes that she would confer her blessings upon their homes.

Midsummer for Modern Pagans:
Litha has often been a source of contention among modern Pagan and Wiccan groups, because there's always been a question about whether or not Midsummer was truly celebrated by the ancients. While there's scholarly evidence to indicate that it was indeed observed, there were suggestions made by Gerald Gardner, the founder of modern Wicca, that the solar festivals (the solstices and equinoxes) were actually added later and imported from the Middle East. Regardless of the origins, many modern Wiccans and Pagans do choose to celebrate Litha every year in June.
In some traditions, Litha is a time at which there is a battle between light and dark. The Oak King is seen as the ruler of the year between winter solstice and summer solstice, and the Holly King from summer to winter. At each solstice they battle for power, and while the Oak King may be in charge of things at the beginning of June, by the end of Midsummer he is defeated by the Holly King.

This is a time of year of brightness and warmth. Crops are growing in their fields with the heat of the sun, but may require water to keep them alive. The power of the sun at Midsummer is at its most potent, and the earth is fertile with the bounty of growing life.

For contemporary Pagans, this is a day of inner power and brightness. Find yourself a quiet spot and meditate on the darkness and the light both in the world and in your personal life. Celebrate the turning of the Wheel of the Year with fire and water, night and day, and other symbols of the opposition of light and dark.

Litha is a great time to celebrate outdoors if you have children. Take them swimming or just turn on the sprinkler to run through, and then have a bonfire or barbeque at the end of the day. Let them stay up late to say goodnight to the sun, and celebrate nightfall with sparklers, storytelling, and music. This is also an ideal Sabbat to do some love magic or celebrate a handfasting, since June is the month of marriages and family.

via http://paganwiccan.about.com

-The Crafty Witch

How To Honor the Sacred Feminine with a Goddess Ritual

When Margaret Murray wrote her ground-breaking God of the Witches, in 1931, scholars quickly dismissed her theory of a universal, pre-Christian cult of witches who worshipped a singular mother goddess. However, Murray wasn't completely off-base; a number of individual cults existed in pre-Christian Europe which honored mother goddesses of their own. In Rome, the cult of Cybele was huge, and the mystery traditions of Isis soon took on a mother-goddess status. Take advantage of the blooming of spring, and use this time to celebrate the archetype of the mother goddess, and honor your own female ancestors and friends.

 

Difficulty: Average

 

Time Required: Varied

Here's How:

1. This simple ritual can be performed by both men and women, and is designed to honor the feminine aspects of the universe as well as our female ancestors. If you have a particular deity you call upon, feel free to change names or attributes around where needed. Otherwise, you can use the all-encompassing name of "Goddess" in the rite.
2. Decorate your altar with symbols of femininity: cups, chalices, flowers, lunar objects, fish, and doves or swans. You'll also need the following items for this ritual:
   
   • A white candle
   • An offering of something that is important to you
   • A bowl of water
   • A handful of small pebbles or stones
   
   
3. If your tradition calls for you to cast a circle, do so now. Begin by standing in the goddess position, and saying:
   I am (your name), and I stand before you,
   goddesses of the sky and earth and sea,
   I honor you, for your blood runs through my veins,
   one woman, standing on the edge of the universe.
   Tonight, I make an offering in Your names,
   As my thanks for all you have given me.
4. Light the candle, and place your offering before it on the altar. The offering may be something tangible, such as bread or wine or flowers. It can also be something symbolic, such as a gift of your time or dedication. Whatever it is, it should be something from your heart. You may want to read up on Offerings to the Gods for some ideas.
5. Once you have made your offering, it is time to call upon the goddesses by name. Say:
   I am (your name), and I stand before you,
   Isis, Ishtar, Tiamat, Inanna, Shakti, Cybele.
   Mothers of the ancient people,
   guardians of those who walked the earth thousands of years ago,
   I offer you this as a way of showing my gratitude.
   Your strength has flowed within me,
   your wisdom has given me knowledge,
   your inspiration has given birth to harmony in my soul.
6. Now it is time to honor the women who have touched your life. For each one, place a pebble into the bowl of water. As you do so, say her name and how she has impacted you. You might say something like this:
   I am (your name), and I stand before you,
   to honor the sacred feminine that has touched my heart.
   I honor Susan, who gave birth to me and raised me to be strong;
   I honor Maggie, my grandmother, whose strength took her to the hospitals of war-torn France;
   I honor Cathleen, my aunt, who lost her courageous battle with cancer;
   I honor Jennifer, my sister, who has raised three children alone…
7. Continue until you have placed a pebble in the water for each of these women. Reserve one pebble for yourself. Finish by saying:
   I am (your name), and I honor myself,
   for my strength, my creativity, my knowledge, my inspiration,
   and for all the other remarkable things that make me a woman.
8. Take a few minutes and reflect on the sacred feminine. What is it about being a woman that gives you joy? If you're a man performing this ritual, what is it about the women in your life that makes you love them? Meditate on the feminine energy of the universe for a while, and when you are ready, end the ritual.

Tips:

1. This ritual can be adapted for a group easily; with a little planning it can become a beautiful ceremony for a number of people. Consider doing it as part of a womens' circle, in which each member honors the others as part of the rite.

What You Need

• A white candle
• An offering
• A bowl of water
• A collection of pebbles or small stones

-The Crafty Witch

Water Visions Spell

For the month of April I had opened up to some of my followers and asked what type of spells do they use and need on a daily bases or just in general - each blog post except for holidays or days of importance I will be posts a different spell every day.

Todays Spell

Water Visions

You need:

• A bowl of water

      • One candle (color optional for intent)

Light candle and set bowl in a place close to the candle to catch or reflect the candle flame and say

 
“Water shining
 Water Deep
 Bring me answers that I seek”

 

 

-The Crafty Witch



Elemental Correspondences

The elements in this case refer to the four basic elements of alchemy, Fire, 
Earth, Air, and Water, rather than to the elements of chemistry. Historically, 
in the west, it was believed that all things were made up of various proportions 
of the elements. Each of the elements was studied to determine it's nature and 
characteristics which were set to writing by the early alchemists. Each of the 
four correspond to various traits, feelings and purposes. In Wicca each of the 
cardinal points is associated with one of the four elements, as is each of the 
points of the pentagram, with the addition of spirit for the uppermost point.

The designations of the elements are somewhat different in the East, in China 
they are Metal, Wood, Fire, Water, and Earth. Wood dominates in spring and the 
East, Fire in summer and the South, Metal in the autumn and the West, Water in 
the winter and the North. In India the elements are Earth, Water, Fire, Air and 
Ether. In Tibet they are La - vitality, Sok - life potential, Lu - bodily 
health, Wangthang - personal power, and Lungta - wind horse.

The following charts outline the nature of each of the elements. Elemental 
correspondences may be invoked in ritual by representations or symbols of the 
elements. A candle or oil lamp may represent fire, incense may represent air, a 
bowl or cup of water may represent water, and sand or a stone may represent 
earth. In ritual the elements are also represented by the ritual tools; the 
Athame, the Pentacle, the Wand, and the Chalice; the attribution of these and 
descriptions of their use is on the Ritual Tools page. Choose the element that 
corresponds best to your ritual intent. Elemental Correspondences Western

 

Symbol/Color & Element

Fire - Red

Earth - Green

Air - Yellow

Water - Blue

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-The Crafty Witch