New Moon Old Magick

Good morning dearies!

I’d like to share a small, solitary and personal Beltaine ritual for this evening.  This is my Beltaine Gift for you.  This ceremony uses rhythm, music, dance and visualization for a bit of a different and fun approach.

To start with, I’d like you to get out your dance music. What we are looking for are a number of songs with driving rhythm, rich sound, and minimal lyrics that just make your feet want to move.  The best examples I can think of are a bit dated.  I’m quite ancient, after all!  So insert your own choices here, but I like to use Mickey Hart’s post Dead recordings.  Planet Drum, Global Drum Project, Supralingua, etc.  You want to create a small playlist of work, specifically for this ritual, that gradually rises in intensity for about 1/2 hour or so.  Make sure you vet the music and carefully place each song, because when you are raising the cone of energy, there is nothing more frustrating to get your body to a rhythmic pitch and then be plunged suddenly into something ballad-like or contemplative.  We are not trying to shock your system, or to indulge in a long multiple hour ritual with several participants, but to rise smoothly and rather simply to the energetic climax of the ritual.  This is not a cerebral ritual of air.  We are welcoming in the season of fire!

So here is your list of magick ‘stuff’ for tonight.  On the cheap.

• A small glass jar (or cauldron) with a tea light or votif candle therein.
• A ritual candle symbolizing the presence of the Divine Light
• Green ribbon or strips of material to wrap.
• A rich smelling incense – patchouli, amber, cinnamon
• your music
• your wand if you have it
• something to light the candle
• salt and water in your usual vessels
• a ritual robe, nightgown, clean t-shirt and shorts, etc. – something that is clean and comfortable and easy to move in.
• an extra jug of water to subdue the fire elementals should they escape!

ALSO

• An object symbolizing that which you are intending to manifest.  Make it as simple as possible.  If you are a more advanced ritualist, you can bring paper and pen and ink into the circle.  Decide ahead of time what you will write, and remember to bring an ashtray for the burnt ashes.

❧ ❧ ❧ ❧

This time we are going to start a bit differently.  We will create the circle before the ritual.  You will be stepping thru from the mundane world into the space between the worlds to create that which you wish to bring into being.

For example: The main thrust of our ritual will be to create balancing energies for the planet.  We are in dire need of balance as the human race continues to create imbalance with industrialized pollution.  In ceremony we can help Mother Earth create balance out of disharmony.  In addition, you can also work for your own goals of creative and positive change.

Actively work for the goals you wish to bring into being.  Put some thought into what you wish, well in advance of the ritual.  Remember, as we said in the previous post, this is a holiday of positive creative manifestation.  This is not a time to dump or to work to remove, or to strike out at a person or situation in impatience and anger.

Please Note:  Actually, it’s never really a good idea to use rage or negative emotion in ceremony at the level in which we are working.  Not unless it comes up in process and you are working to transform it.  That is a bit more advanced than we want to deal with tonight, but just a word to the wise.  If anger comes as part of your process, then let it flow into light, let it transform into joy.  The anger itself is not bad, but we are working to turn the focus to creative joy.  Tonight, the energies are quite powerful, and you will be living with what you make for yourself.  Choose wisely and generously, with hope and love in your heart.

For myself personally, I’ll be working on my art career, such as it is.  I’d like to achieve more financial stability from my own creative efforts.  So in addition to working on Harmony for Gaia, I’ll also work on the dance of Balance in my own creative energies, and the desire for a more prolific art practice.  The thought being that the more art I make, the more energies of financial return I invite into my life.

For my personal object I could use a small painting or carving, or both, or perhaps even a Tarot card or three. If I was going with the Tarot, I’d use three cards to symbolize the cycle of creation: Mother, Father, and conception or Child; Yin, Yang and the Tao; talent plus work equals creative production; Spirit plus Form brings Life.

Therefor, using the Higher Arcana, I’d probably choose the Empress, the Ace of Wands, and the nine of pentacles.  This is a purely personal choice, with the Empress symbolizing the creative force of the Mother, the Ace of Wands for it’s phallic Life Force, and the nine of pentacles or discs as my creative product or ‘wishes coming true’ card, since I wish to be prolifically creative.  This is just my own example, and you can use whichever pattern seems right to you, as long as you use symbols for a creative force plus a limiting or embodiment principle, and a card symbolizing manifestation.

I’d like to say, just for a moment, that there is a lot of negative superstition about the idea of manifesting our dreams.  Some folks feel that trying to do so is to ask for trouble, that they have to ‘pay’ for what they get.  This is often an extension of personal guilt or feeling that they don’t deserve happiness.  While it is true that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, in this instance you are paying for your success by breathing.  By doing the Work.  We are put upon this planet to be a manifestation of the Divine Creator.  Our work is a manifestation of Divine Creation.  If we are working with Love in our hearts, this opens us up to dancing in harmony with the Divine Will, however you choose to symbolize that to yourself (God, Nirvahna, Gaia, Innana, Christ, the Giant Cosmic Mushroom).  If you have not Love, then you are working against the Harmonic pattern and can cause yourself difficulties.

Biminiscape

SO, once you have assembled your elements and tools, choose a time when you will be able to work undisturbed, and a place where music and dancing will not bring curious lookie-loo’s.  A note here: your music does not have to be loud.  Indeed if music will draw attention or curiosity, you can play it on your iPod with your earbuds in.  As long as it moves you and is relatively interruption free.

❧ ❧ ❧ ❧

Here are the ritual steps.  Read them over carefully first so that you know what to expect.  You can print this out to have with you, but may not need to, as the ritual itself is pretty simple and adaptable to your needs and level of experience.

• Enter your ritual space before the ceremony and cleanse it physically, assembling your ritual items.  Close the door on the space so that it remains undisturbed while you then go cleanse yourself. (shower and scrub! but avoid deodorant and perfume or other added scents)
• Dress in your ceremonial t-shirt, etc. and re-enter the space.  Make sure you have everything you will need and close the door behind you.
• Light the ritual candle upon your altar to symbolize the presence of Divine Light, and give thanks.❧
• Cleanse the space energetically, using your incense and walking in a clockwise direction around the space three times, allowing the smoke to permeate the space.  This is cleansing with ‘fire’.  However, if you are sensitive to smoke, you can use essential oil in a burner to the same purpose.
• Then use your salt and water.  Pour the salt into the water, symbolizing purity and the water of the source of Life, Marah the Great Sea from which we came.  Walk in the same clockwise direction three times, sprinkling as you go.
• Make sure once again that your items are within your ritual space, close at hand.
• Now walk the circle clockwise three times, visualizing the rising blue flame of your circle’s boundaries.  Let the cold fire rise higher as you go around until your space is encircled and sealed from disruption.
• Take a moment to acknowledge the Divine Presence in your space.  You can do this anyway you wish, either by praying to God, aligning yourself to Gaia, invoking and greeting the four Archangels.  It is your choice.  If you are a beginner, or desire a simple ceremony, simply pray to the Light, or to your God.  Greet the Divine presence and know that what you do here is in Service to that which is Good.
• Now turn your music on low.  It is beginning.  Start softly.  Move gently.❧
• Take your candle in your jar or cauldron and your green ribbon or material.  Wrap the jar with the ribbon, or place the cauldron in the center of your green material, setting it upon the floor in a place within the circle where you will not risk knocking it over, but will be able to jump over it when you wish.  If your altar is in one of the directions, the middle of the circle is an excellent place.
• Turn your music up slightly.

• Spurge yourself, or allow the smoke of the incense to waft over you.  Yes, you can certainly use warm essential oil if you are hyper sensitive to smoke.  The point is not to choke you, but to open your sensory doors by knocking on the most primitive one – the sense of smell.  Allow the scents you have chosen to fill you and begin to move in the scents and the rhythm of the music.  Turn it up a bit if you wish, just a little at a time.
• Now pick up the salted water and still moving sprinkle yourself gently just a little.  Do not turn the bowl over your head, just let the water spritz down like the gentle first drops of a Spring rain.❧
• Continue to move and begin to pick up steam.  Continue to turn up the volume a tiny amount at a time as is comfortable for you.
• Now pick up the object or things you have brought into the circle to symbolize your desire: 
  
  The creative object or the cards, the bank book if you wish to be more financially stable (with a symbolic amount written on the top check made out to yourself), or the heart symbol for a more loveable you if you wish to manifest joyful relationship; perhaps even a picture of yourself, photo or drawing of yourself fit and strong, if you are working on a healthy body and strong mind.  If you wish to work on your magickal practice, pick up your wand.  These are only suggestions.  Only you can know what symbols mean to you.  If you are a more advanced ritualist, you can use runes, ogham, astrological symbols, even Atlantean or another magickal language to bring your meaning into the circle, writing them now upon paper with your ritual inks.  You can plug in your own knowledge within the framework of this basic ritual.

• Taking your symbol in your hands, move around the circle, dancing as much or as little as you wish.  Continue to raise the volume as is comfortable and move as much as you wish.  You will probably feel more and more like dancing if your music is good, once you get over your initial feeling that you are making an idiot of yourself!
• As you move, as you feel the music feel you, and allow your body to beat with the rhythm of the drums, begin to also visualize Light rising from the Earth.
• Begin with Red Light, the color of Love and red roses, of Life Force and blood, rising up around you from beneath your feet up your legs to your hips.  Let your vision of this light fill the whole circle and rise slowly as the drums beat and you move gently around.
• Allow the red to mutate into the Orange of Will as the Light rises past your hips and lower belly,
• then to Yellow Light like the sunshine of your Higher Will as it rises past your solar plexus, the lower edge of your ribcage.  If you like, you can visualize a glowing sphere like the sun between your lower ribs, below your breasts and above your belly button.  Feel the warmth!  This is the Sun of Divine Will where it lives within you.
• As the Light continues to rise it changes to Green.  Green for the open heart and the Love of All Things in Creation.
• Fill the circle with your green energy as it rises past your breasts and
• as it reaches your shoulders it changes to Blue.  Blue for Truth and clear knowing as the Light rises up your neck and face.
• As it fills the circle around you and rises up past your nose and your eyes, the Light changes to Purple, the mystic Ray of Devotion and inner knowledge.
• Allow the Light to continue to rise up above your head, and let it become White Clear Light.  The Light of the Divine, the Presence of All Rays of Color.❧
• Continue to move and dance in these rainbow lights and let them flow around the circle.
• Begin to see that which you wish to bring into your life:

  A gallery filled with your art.  A bank account with a comfortable balance, enough to meet your needs and a bit extra; a company of good friends laughing and celebrating; see yourself as a loving being, feeling Love in your Heart; or see yourself as a physically fit being, mentally and physically strong, competing in the Iron Man or running in the woods, or performing acts of strength the mean something to you.  Use the symbols you have assembled and carry in your hands to assist your visualization.

• As you find yourself approaching your peak energy, within your mind’s eye, see the White Light blossom above your head, this is the Light of Divine Becoming, Kether, the I AM.
• Allow it to flow down your Center, down thru the top of your head, your throat, and into your Heart.
• Let it blossom out from there, the Light stretching out your arms, and down thru your belly, hips and legs.
• Fill yourself up with Light, until you are a complete Light Being, dancing in a room filled with colors and the energy of Love and Joy, bringing Balance and Harmony into manifestation.
• Place your objects upon your altar, and when you wish and the energy builds, jump your candle.
• Make it a part of your dance and the music, and if you can, allow the climax of the music to time this for you.  You are crossing the divide into Life, bringing your Divine Fire to the Earth Realm.
• Allow the White Light at your core to join with and flow into the Rainbow Light around you in an enormous Flash! and know that your desires are already manifesting, and that your Balance is part of the Earth’s Balance.
• Feel the Earth below you begin to receive the energies you have raised, like crops soaking up the rain, feeding the energies of Gaia with the Clear White and Rainbow Light of Balance and Harmony.  Offer Her every bit of extra energy within the circle.
• Continue to dance as you let the energies settle, and gradually turn down the volume on your music as the Lights settle into earth.  Finally, place your hands and feet upon the earth and let any remaining extra Light flow down into the Earth.  We are giving the Energies from this ceremony to Gaia for Her use.  She needs us as we need Her.❧

• When you feel that all the remaining energy flow has been properly grounded in Earth, and that you are fully back into your body, allow the music to end if it has not already.
• Those of you whose wands have been sitting upon the altar can now be sure that your wand is awake!  Spend some time holding it before you completely close the circle, and allowing your energies to resonate together with your wand before wrapping it carefully, and putting it away until the next time you have need.

• Pinch off the Beltaine candle.
• Thank the Divine for bringing the presence of Light to your work.
• Walk counter clockwise around the circle three times and visualize the sealing cold blue flame of the circle ebbing down into the earth once more.
• Pinch the altar candle and go eat something.

  Chocolate is good in small amounts.  So is anything that is complex carb like a root vegetable or whole grain.  Please take my advice and have something ready.  It is very easy to simply sit after a ritual, and drift half in and half out, and not take the trouble of cooking.  So if you can just grab it, that’s the best.  That will help ground you the rest of the way.  Also be aware that this ceremony runs lots of energy thru you, so drink lots of good pure water to help flush yourself out.  Otherwise you may find yourself with sore muscles in the morning.

If this ritual was interesting enough to you that you’d like to learn more about my ritual magick series, and would like to participate in the eBook Challenge, you can contact me at the link in the sidebar and tell me:

1. the one thing you would most like to learn about Magick, and
2. what you would like to get out of your magickal practice.
3. Please also tell me a bit about yourself, if you’d like.

You can go here to read about the Challenge.

I hope to hear from you, my friends.  Have a blessed Holiday, and and wonderful Season.

Blessed Be,
Marie Angeli

Hello dears!

Blessed Beltaine!  May this holiday bring you love and joy as you gather with your dear ones to celebrate the full blossoming of Spring.

Shrub Rose

There are some disagreements about exactly when Beltaine should be celebrated.  This is one of the four bonfire holidays, or fire festivals.  Currently, we are between Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice.  Beltaine celebrates the stepping thru from the otherworld into life.  It is the joining of male and female forces into conception and birth.

Some urban (and suburban) witches choose to celebrate this holiday on April 30, the night before May 1.  In most modern neo-pagan traditions it’s become fixed there, because of our contemporary dependence upon the fixed calendar.  One traditional witch I know tells me that in some circles, Beltaine is a week long holiday, a gathering of the tribes, as it were.

With my astrological bent, I focus on a bit of a different anchor for this holiday.  I was told many many years ago, and I personally agree with this, that originally the long gathering of the Beltaine celebration peaked when the Sun hit 15 degrees of the sign we associate with this holiday – Taurus.  There is a beautiful and symmetrical logic to this view, if you will but look.

Traditionally, the four bonfire festivals occur in the ‘fixed’ sign attributed to one of the four elements.  If you look at the wheel of the year, with it’s twelve signs, there are three signs in each of four elements: cardinal, fixed, and mutable.  And each of these three phases of the elements is a different expression of that element.  Beltaine is celebrated in Taurus, the fixed sign of earth.  Another example is it’s polar opposite Samhain, or Halloween to you muggles, which is celebrated in Scorpio, the fixed sign of water.

Why fixed?  And why 15 degrees?  Well, the fixed sign of an element is the fullest expression of that element.  Taurus is earth.  It is a force of fertility and creativity, and yet it is also firm in it’s grounding and manifestation.  If the water element harkens to potentialities and the impulse to create, the attraction of polarities, and coming together in love, then earth is conception, pregnancy, and birth.  It is definitely here and now, and we can ignore the earth element only by proceeding with our eyes closed, risking running into the stone wall right in front of us.  However the earth also provides us with the path supporting our feet, and soft moss upon which to rest, as well as the trees that cover and shelter us.

15 degrees of Taurus is the exact center of the sign.  It is the fullest expression of the most fixed of the earth signs.  In rock language, that would be granite.  It is at this moment that we are able to manifest that which we would bring into our lives.  It is traditional on Beltaine to jump over the bonfire for luck in the coming year, and to bring your wishes into manifestation.  It is also a night in some traditions when men and women would pair off after a certain amount of celebration, Beltaine ale, dancing, and bonfire jumping, and other miscellaneous partying, and vanish into the night woods or countryside.  Any child of that celebration night would be considered a holy or sacred babe, a lucky child.

Flower Child

Historically, May Day is another incarnation of this holiday, the May Pole, with its maidens dancing with ribbons and wrapping the pole, and its unashamedly phallic symbolism, is in itself enough of a description of what this celebration is all about.

A word to you wand-makers, this is your holiday!  Take your wand out and bring it to your Beltaine parties.  Put it on the celebration altar for blessing, and carry it with you over the bonfire.  If you are celebrating by yourself, forgo the bonfire jumping and use a candle in a jar or one in a cauldron for safety’s sake.  If you haven’t yet chosen or applied your decorations to your wand, it does not matter in the least!  This is an ongoing project that may last quite a while until you feel it is done.  But now is the time to wake the current in the wand that was sleeping when you cut it and claimed it for your own. Wake it with chanting, dancing and drumming.  Wake it with song and blessing.  Wake it and enjoy!

This year, the Sun will reach 15 degrees of Taurus in the small hours of the morning on May 5th at Greenwich, UK.  That will mean 10:25pm on May 4th, 2012 on the East Coast of the US. You can calculate from there to your own time zone.  This is the time of peak Earth for the year, folks.  I highly recommend doing some sort of ritual to bring your desires to fruition. If nothing else, plant something that will bear fruit into fertile earth, feed and water it well, and as you do so, pour your desires into it.  Allow it to carry the energy of that which you wish to bring in for yourself and your own life.  Remember, this is not a time to try to manipulate other’s lives, or to apply destructive force to something you do not want.  This is a time to celebrate and pull into being that which is good.  I will return in a day or two with a peak Beltaine ritual for the night of the 4th, if you so choose to use this manifestation energy!  May your efforts be blessed.

Thank you for reading my blog this past season, my friends.  I wish for many more posts that they may be of use to you for your enjoyment and edification! Blessed be.

Marie Angeli