I danced with the Maiden upon the lea. She turned her fearless gaze on me,
Said, “There’s so much you’ve never been
You still could be. Have you been caged,
Or do you walk free . . . ?”
Race with the old gods,
Run through the night!
Reach for the power,
Reclaim the right!
The Mother came down a sweet green lane
With cakes and daffodils.
She said, “Through Beltane’s blossoms
Is Imbolc’s pledge made real.
Some regret the youth that was spent;
Tell me, are you fulfilled?”
Sing to the old gods,
Sing through the night.
Pray for the courage
To finish the fight.
I called the Crone one night alone,
We talked for quite a while.
She said, “You’ve done okay, kid;
I rather like your style.”
Then grew the Hag more pensive,
I heard her heave a sigh . . .
“Why is it man cannot understand,
You must live before you die?”
Soar with the old gods
So brilliant and bright!
Burn like a comet
With no end in sight!
January
All About Journeys
Although we of the Craft honor Samhain on October 31st as the old year passing and the new one just begun, the calendar on the wall still guides our life. In January we look out over the uncharted landscape of another year: pristine, full of promise, potential, hopefully prosperity and success—but inevitably changes, too. In January we reflect on where we wish to be living this time next year. We look back over the auto payments and repair bills, and consider whether it may be time for a worthier steed. We plan how to get from point A to point B. We take stock of our lives. In this chapter, those readers who are longing for a home to call their own will find a way to call it into being and to claim and bless it when it appears. There are charms to ensure your car’s safety on the road and a method of releasing your four-wheeled steed when a new one would serve you better. Come share my journey, dear reader, as you embark on adventures of your own. Let us begin.
There’s No Place Like Home Although spring is far from sprung, your nesting urge has begun. Tired of living in cramped quarters with insufficient closet space to store your ritual robes? No room for your cauldron collection or latest stockpile of herbs? Then perhaps it’s time to find a new place to hang your pointy hat. Roll up those witchy sleeves and let’s get cracking. Here is a lighthearted and airy house-finding and house-blessing ritual for people who know in their bones that it’s time to seek out a home of their own. You’ve long outgrown your parents’ nest and passed the nomadic apartment-dweller phase. The new you longs for stability and a place to call home. You want your name on a mailbox, invitations to loathsome homeowner’s association meetings. You covet a mantel on which to display Grandma Madison’s china or Grandpa Rossman’s musket. You yearn for trees you can get to know over many seasons and neighbors you can count on, and you have your resources all in a row. This home-finding ritual can help sharpen the focus and bring your dream house into the land of manifest reality.
Do your mundane homework first. Check the listings and property values, listen up for real estate agents that are real wizards at cinching a deal and taking your priorities to heart. Then enter the magical realms . . .
Calling Your Home to You You will need a bird’s nest, a hollowed-out dried egg that you can write on with a fine-point marking pen, a gold candle, an object or drawing to symbolize your house, a piece of parchment paper, and a small but sturdy fire to be laid of straw and twigs. Warning: shakest thou not the nests from the trees but go ye into craft stores instead, where such things in great bounty await! Make a simple altar outdoors and decorate it with those things important to your tradition. For the representation of your house, many possibilities exist. Do you own a Monopoly set? Pluck a green plastic house from the box. Have a Yule decoration shaped like a gingerbread house? That will do fine. You can also simply draw a house outline on the parchment paper, leaving room for your list of specs. Don’t worry if it’s not perfect—love and the Universe will make it so. On the egg, write “My new home.” You can add your name, date, and runes or other magical sigils if you want.
Now comes your shopping list. Be as specific as you can, while keeping a healthy amount of realism in play. Where should the house be in relation to work, school, culture, family, and so on? Envision your ideal floor plan, describing it in words. Is there a yard? A garden space? Is it environmentally friendly? How big is the garage? What would you like within strolling distance? For price range, you might want to give two figures: the first being what you’d prefer to pay and the second being the highest you can go.
When you are done, roll up your parchment paper into a scroll thin enough to be inserted through the open ends of the hollowed egg. Where else would a dream house hatch? Cast circle in your way, lastly lighting the gold candle and invoking your patron deity, or whomever you feel most likely to help you in this rite. You may wish to call upon the Goddess in her guise as Bird Goddess, ancient Mother of us all, from whom the egg of the world was laid. Other hearth fire keepers might include Juno, Vesta, Brigit, or Hestia. Nordic types may turn to Frigga as queen mother of Asgard, or even to good friend Thor, known to gladly bless a new stead and to party with the best.
A suggested invocation might be:
“By the spark within my breast,
Feel my longing for a nest.
Grant that I, contented, dwell
By sacred words and ancient spell
So mote it be!”
Holding the egg cupped in your hands, speak aloud your dearest wishes and desires for your home, including the time frame in which you hope to find it. Kiss the egg gently and lay it in the nest, thanking Deity for making it hatch with all-knowing magic. Lay the nest atop the twigs and straw you will use to kindle the fire, then light the spark. As the nest and egg burn, know that your mental blueprints are rising to the heavens where your Hallowed House Hunter is seeing them clearly and already beginning to discern where your perfect home might be.
Close circle in your way, but allow the gold candle to burn out. If that is not possible all in one night, pinch it out and relight it for the next several nights until the candle is gone.
Get yourself a cardboard box and pack some unneeded things away. This signals the Universe that you are becoming mobile and can take occupancy of your new home as soon as the closing documents are signed.
House Blessing Ritual Huzzah! The Old Ones and your banker have come shining through! You dance a wild jig, sign a million papers, and are petrified and exhilarated. You are now a homeowner! The first new moon after you have keys in hand and have unpacked enough things to live sanely from day to day, invite friends over to bless your new home. Ask each to bring you a coin from the happiest place they have visited recently so that your home might be blessed with joy and abundance, and a bell to ring for mirth and to summon the fey folk forth. Provide an attractive crystal dish or clear bowl to hold the coins.
Light a white taper candle and trace an invoking pentagram at every entrance, asking that truth, benevolence, and harmony enter in. You may wish to add an extra wish for great sex, creativity, personal growth and new opportunities, or other heart’s desires. Hand your favorite blessing oil to a special friend and have them bless each reflective surface by drawing the same invoking pentagram in oil and expressing the same wish. Burn some sage or your favorite magical incense, inviting all unseen creatures of goodly heart and helpful hands to come and dwell therein.
After this is accomplished, guests may deposit their coins one by one into the dish, telling of the happy place in which the coin made its way into their poc...
