Tag Archives: Sabbat

January 30, 2012 · 11:17 pm

Blessed Imbolc 2012……….

Merry Meet again friends.  Hope all is well with all of you!  Whew….I don’t know about you but I’m tired and energized at the same time!  I have spent a couple weeks really deep cleaning my house..”Spring” cleaning as some say….to get my home ready for Imbolc.  I have cleaned high and low, ceilings to floor, linens and curtains washed, ceiling fans cleaned, cobwebs and dust bunnies swept away.  Closets, drawers, and cupboards are organized and de-cluttered.  Furniture swept and cushions flipped and fluffed. Bathrooms scrubbed, floors swept and mopped……  Everything has been cleaned!  My house looks great…the energy feels great and I’m ready for Imbolc.  That is why I’m both tired and energized.  I’m tired from the work….but so energized in what I’ve accomplished and how great my house feels!

Now…there is still a couple things that need done…and they will get done..just not by Thursday. LOL.   Carpets are going to be cleaned but not til March or so..after our chance of snow is gone.  My windows need cleaned ..the high ones we don’t do ourselves..and again, that will be done in the Spring.  Now…tomorrow, I will be smudging the house in every corner.  Placing my protection sigils all around the house, fresh salt in all the corners etc. The weather is going to be very Spring-like..near 60*!  I’m going to take advantage of that.  Opening windows to let that fresh air come in and the stale air out.  Really, we have had an amazingly mild Winter this year.  So many warm days and very little snow.   I am still hoping for a good snow!  The kind you get snowed in, fire going, jammies on and hot drink in hand, can’t go anywhere snow.  Now that all my housework is done, I could just relax and read and work on my BOS and things I have a hard time finding time for 🙂  But the mild Winter has been very nice as well.  As a matter of fact, I plan on going for a walk at our local nature preserve and enjoying that warm weather! There is a rescue raptor center there..and I love to go and visit the owls that reside there permanently.  I adore Owls and need a fix!

 I got my altar done today…thought you would like to see the pictures.

I went with pretty much a red and white theme, with a bit of gold and green thrown in.  The red and white is traditional colors for the Goddess Brighid.  This year, I’m using her colors to honor her. The green, shown in the live greens from my yard, and the green celtic knots on the votive holders..represent both her mantle of green, the seasonal greens that will be burned in a fire on Imbolc, and of course the green celtic knots represent the fact that she is Celtic. I chose  a silver candle for the Goddess and a gold one for the God.

In the greens I put some red feathery stalks and will add red and white fresh flowers by thursday.  I have all my usual altar reps for the elements, my tools etc.  Ok…the Goddess statue is my new gorgeous Hecate statue.  I do not have a Brighid statue so Hecate is standing in for her.  Brighid is a triple Goddess as is Hecate the crone aspect of a triple Goddess.  They both mean so much to me that I don’t think Brighid will mind 🙂  Isn’t she gorgeous? I can’t stop looking at her!  My goddess is standing on a favorite book of poetry..a very old, fragile book of Tennyson poems..as Brighid was the Goddess of poets.  There is a bit of silver in my pendants as well to represent her smithcrafting.   Blessing oil for my re-dedication, some ribbons I’ll use for cord magick, my 7 candles…red and white..in a circle for another ritual I’ll do.   Crystals, more candles, and my cakes and ale will round it out.  I really like it! It feels good to me 🙂 

No matter how much or how little you do to get ready for Imbolc, do something to recognize the day.  If all you do is light a candle, take a walk, open a window, have a quiet meal with your family..whatever you please is just fine.  But honor the day.  So many people are not overly fond of Winter.  Imbolc, lets us know that Spring is coming and it will be here before we know it!  It’s a promise from the Goddess, Mother Earth, the Sun God.  Enjoy the Sabbat…rest and relax for the rest of the Winter and I wish you all a Blessed Imbolc to you and your loved ones.  May the Goddess Brighid give you Peace, Love and Joy! 

Blessings and Light, Autumn 

 

 

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July 28, 2011 · 7:47 pm

Blessed Lughnasadh 2011…..

Merry Meet my friends!  Chances are there are some of you out there having the same weather I’m having here in Ohio!  Sweltering heat for a few weeks now! It is Hot Hot Hot!!  Though we’ve had some rain, our grass is brown and burnt from the heat.  My gardens…well some of it’s doing well and some of it not so much.  Even with watering, things are dying out.  I’ve never been a big fan of Summer because I don’t like it when it gets too hot, but this Summer has been one of the hottest I can remember for a while.  Because of this, my thoughts have turned to Autumn, my favorite time of year.  I’m dreaming of cool crisp mornings, leaves falling, pumpkins, apple picking, and warm things coming from the oven and the slow cooker 🙂 

Well…Lughnasadh, the first Harvest festival is upon us on August 1 and that just makes me smile!  Though we are in the midst of this heatwave and the peak of Summer…I can feel a bit of a shift around me.  The Sun is rising later and setting earlier, corn is tall and ready in the fields, the breeze feels different and our gardens are full and ready for harvest.  Stores even have their Autumn/Halloween decorations out on display! *sigh*  I love it!!

Today I was able to get my Lughnasadh altar ready.  I love the Autumn themed altars..more than any other.  The I kept in mind the Correspondences for Lughnasadh when putting it together and I was happy with the simplicity of it and how pretty it looked. 

Oh…the sunflower plate will hold my cakes of course! The crystals are any that are of the colors of Fall!  Green, gold, orange…aventurine, citrine, carnelian!  I have gold, orange and brown candles.  I wanted sunflowers but not luck finding them around here unless I raided somebody’s yard! LOL.  So I picked out some soft orange, purple, & yellow flowers and I LOVE the ornamental cabbage they stuck in the bouquet! The crow…well, crow’s and corn just go together 🙂  My “cakes and ale” will be homemade honey oatmeal bread, or corn bread, and a nice glass of red wine to represent the grape harvest.  I can’t wait to work at this altar.

Today I also put together a couple of herbed oils and an herbed vinegar.  I did a rosemary/olive oil, a basil olive oil, and a lemon balm/apple cider vinegar.  I lightly warmed the oils since I was using fresh herbs from my own garden.  I can’t wait to use them.  I’m going to use the basil olive oil on tomato/mozzarella stacks, the lemon balm vinegar in salad, and the rosemary oil will be great on grilled veggies and meats.  Yummy!  I really need to get more of these bottles too..I think they’re so pretty, inexpensive, and look great sitting on the counter.  Would make nice gifts as well. 

Now I’m going to be upfront and tell you that I do NOT have a formal ritual for Lughnasadh.  I’d like to write my own and frankly just haven’t had the time.  If you research it online, you will find the same 2-3 rituals written over and over again.  Scott Cunningham’s being one of them of course.  Though I don’t have one to share here with you, I can most definitely give you some ideas.  Doing a Blessing and a prayer of thanks for the bounty and abundance of the Harvest would be a perfect quiet celebration.  You can do this while eating the bread you have baked or even while mixing the ingredients to make it.  You can Honor the Sun God who is dying, to be born again by his lover, the Goddess, who is pregnant with him.  A great time to do that would be as the Sun is setting on Lughnasadh night.  Light a fire, burn some of your harvested herbs..and reflect on your year so far.  What bad habits would you like to let “die”?  What new things would you like to manifest..to grow in your life…as the Goddess is growing the God?  Smudge your house and throw open windows to allow good energy in and the negative out.  Really, I smudge for every Sabbat!  Harvest your herbs and can your veggies from your garden or make jams from the bountiful fruits that are ripe like berries, peaches and plums.  Go take a walk, enjoy the Sun while it’s still hot..you’ll remember the warmth in the dead of Winter.

I have decided to bake my breads on the weekend and I’m looking forward to it.  There is nothing better then the smell of bread baking and the taste of it warm, slathered with sweet butter…it makes my mouth water just thinking about it 🙂  I’ll be making the crab dip and the pear salad for sure as well.  Don’t forget to check out my recipes I posted in a previous post..let me know if you try them what you think! 

I wish each of you a Blessed Lughnasadh and May the Sun God shine on you and the Goddess surround you with Love. 

Autumn

*Sources…my pictures.  🙂  My words.

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Filed under Altars, Autumn, God, Goddess, Herbs, Lammas/Lughnassadh, Photography, Ritual, Summer, Sunrise/Sunset

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April 26, 2010 · 4:58 pm

Beltane altar……

It’s Beltane time my witchy friends..saturday May 1!  This Sabbat is all about Spring, fire, passion, fertility, the Union between the God and Goddess, and faeries!  It is the celebration of Spring being here, flowers, trees and shrubs blooming, young animals being born,  Father Sun burning bright and bringing warmth and longer days, and the faeries coming out to help our gardens bloom! 

I set up my altar a couple of days ago.  I used a white base cloth for light, bright days of summer, with a grass green over cloth to represent Spring and everything greening up in nature.  I place a red taper candle to represent Goddess and a white taper candle to represent God.  I used my Gaia and Greenman statues to represent the Earth waking up and greening also.  I have a faery, rose quartz, and a small potted blooming flower.  I still need to make my mini Maypole yet.  I also have the usual elements of my Athame and wand, and the 4 items representing the Elements which is my incense burner, a small green candle, a bowl of water and a bowl of salt.  It looks lovely and a very good representation of Spring.

I’m hoping if the weather is good to have a bonfire in our outdoor fireplace, to plant my herbs into their outdoor pots and I’ll do my Beltane ritual in the morning..to represent the coming of the Sun King as the Sun is climbing in the sky.  I will leave a crystal point and a bit of bread with honey as a gift to the faeries and ask them to help me with my gardening and herb growing.  They also will help to attract the butterflies, birds, insects, ground critters etc to my yard and care for them.  

I hope to find time to make oatmeal cookies or granola as grains are a good thing to eat for Beltane..along with dairy foods.  Homemade granola on yummy yogurt would be perfect!  I’m not going to have time to do May baskets but that is a lovely way to welcome Spring and to show your neighbors or friends appreciation for being in your life.  How nice would it be to find a May basket hanging on your front door on May Day!  I think I will though get a bouquet of spring flowers..daisies are my favorite!…for my own home.  Open windows and let the fresh air in and the negative old air out!  Start fresh  on anything you want to change in your life..now is the time!

I hope to spend the day with both of my daughters and my grandaughter having lunch and spending some time together. I hope that you have someone to share this wonderful Sabbat with…

with much Love and Blessings…Autumn

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