Copper Moon E-zine

Samhain & Wiccan Introspection

by Gwinevere Rain

You may have noticed that Copper Moon E-zine has been on a hiatus. Sometimes a brief respite is needed. But hopefully I can work through a back log of past submissions and post them little by little.

With Samhain approaching it brings the yearly cycle to an end and allows us to let go and start fresh. Referred to as the Wiccan New Year, Samhain is a time of introspection. For some it’s about letting go of a negative experience for others it’s about paying tribute to loved ones who have passed on to the “otherside.”

Several years ago I created a solitary Samhain ritual to celebrate the Wiccan holiday; I encourage you to partake as it can be meaningful when prepared and worked with love. This year I will honor my aunt who has passed on after a long battle with cancer. We can honor those who were in our lives, however brief, with kindness in our hearts. And take the time to shed the negatives in our lives to start the next cycle anew.

Feel free to post comment with your thoughts on Samhain: do you have any special traditions? How to do you focus your spiritual energy during this time? What sacred rites do you perform to honor your ancestors?

Celebrate the Sabbat Lughnasadh

by Gwinevere Rain

 Lughnasadh is the first of three Wiccan "harvest festivals" of the Sabbats. As the grain harvest festival it represents the offerings of mother Goddess (nature) and they dying (sacrificing) God. There are several deities that can be worked with and honored on this day but the two often cited are Gaia and Lugh. Gaia is the goddess of the earth and Lugh a celtic God of light.

If you choose to mark the day with a ritual, consider researching these deities or similar archetypes if you would like to draw upon a higher power.

During this stop on the Sabbat cycle (or wheel of the year), spiritually we seek to be thankful for that which we've obtained and also start to shed any negatives in our lives.

Author and Copper Moon writer Gede Parma contributed to the Llewellyn's Sabbats almanac, writing an article called The Grain Harvest. He writes, "This is a time to share with family, and to indulge in the gifts of Mother Earth, the first harvest blessings." He discusses the mythology associated with the holiday and offers information on creating and using Corn Dollies.

If you'd like to create a ritual: learn about symbols linked to the day, read other peoples rituals, look for unifying themes, consider colors, scents, food ideas and craft suggestions.

Pagan Pages offers straight forward correspondences to help you create your own ritual.

Most of all, just enjoy. Whether you go all out with an ornate ritual or simply light a candle and meditate on the meaning behind the day - feel the power within and all around you. Things are changing and the wheel keeps turning!

Related:
Last year SteelWitch wrote a great piece called "Lammas Ritual Feast – For a Solitary or Group." It incorporates a bit of Kitchen Witchery!

Imbolc for Two

By Steel Witch

At Imbolc we celebrate the coming of spring and the end of winter. Most pagans celebrate the goddess Brighid during this holiday, while others prefer Punxsutawney Phil. While not the longest night of the year, it is generally the coldest. I went camping on Imbolc once and I'm pretty much never going to do that again. Try to feel the cold a bit before this ritual so you can better appreciate the spring you are summoning in.

 This ritual is designed for two participants but will work perfectly well for one. If you are solo you will have to read both parts. You'll need a candle to represent the god, a candle to represent the goddess, and a large candle to represent the holiday in either white or red. You'll also want several smaller candles―this is a fire festival, after all! Tealights will work nicely. If you would like to decorate your altar/temple/house/pet, the colors of the holiday are red and white. Okay, so, the colors vary depending on which source you consult, so feel free to change them if you feel they should be different.

Jack-o-lantern Protection Spell

by Steel Witch

"Look on my Angry Face, ye Mighty, and despair!" 

Samhain is right around the corner and pumpkins are starting to show up in supermarkets.  It is a Halloween tradition in the US to hollow out pumpkins and make them into angry-faced lanterns by carving faces in them and placing candles in their innards.

With Samhain approaching it is a good idea to add a little more protection to the household as the veil starts to thin and spirits come out to play.  I've created a spell  using this popular craft as a base—a simple ward to keep away what spirits might wander by during the Samhain season.  

The Spell: Dead Gourd Ward; or, Mr. Angry Face

This spell creates a frightening ward to scare off meandering harmful spirits during the Samhain season.

Lammas Ritual Feast – For a Solitary or Group

By SteelWitch

Lammas/Lughnasadh is a holiday that celebrates the first harvest of the year while simultaneously honoring the Celtic god Lugh, master of all skills.  It is a feasting holiday that celebrates the first harvest with the fruits of said harvest.  It only seems fitting to celebrate the holiday with a home cooked meal that gives homage to the harvest with its ingredients and to Lugh with the skill used in cooking!  We're going to talk about the meal first, then take a look at the ritual preparations.

In most Sabbats you make room to give an offering to the gods, and room to ask the gods for something you desire in the coming months  I decided to do both with the meal.  Enough food will be cooked for all participants plus enough for an offering.  The ingredients chosen will correspond to my request from the gods.  This little piece of kitchen witchery was inspired by the Grocery Store Magick List on page 118 of Silver RavenWolf's Teen Witch.  Unless otherwise noted, all correspondences below are from that list.

The Meal

Step One: Choose your dish.

First thing to do is choose what you want to cook.  What kind of food do you like to eat?  What kind of food matches your cooking skill?  I've decided to make a stir fry for a few reasons. First, I love stir frying.  Second, I got a copper bottomed wok at Goodwill which is an absolute joy to work with.  Third, a stir fry allows for a lot of freedom in ingredient selection.  You can put just about anything in it, from meat to nuts to fruit.  If you're an inexperienced cook, you could make a sandwich instead! You can put almost anything in there, too, and it will taste great.

Another important factor is number of participants.  You need to feed everyone who is participating a full meal with enough left over to give to the gods.  This ritual is especially fun because most of the setup is in the cooking.  Even if you are a solitary with non-magickal friends and family you can still invite them to enjoy your meal!  Cooking for yourself is boring; cooking for others is a party.  Make sure whatever you choose is easily prepared for the number of people who will be eating.  It's generally considered unethical to surprise people with magick food, so be sure to tell them what you are cooking and why before they agree to eat.

Step Two: Choose your ingredients.

Yule Altar on a Budget

by Gwinevere Rain

I decorated my altar for Yule this year and spent under $15 doing so. Despite being on a budget, this was the best Yule yet with beautiful garland, new wine glasses for cakes & ale plus a really special ritual to pull it all together.

I had the opportunity to spend one of my favorite Wiccan holidays with some special to me, and with this anticipated ritual, I knew I wanted to go all out. Yet, like many are experiencing lately, money can be tight! So I started at the dollar store, developed a color scheme and progressed from there.

It took some time and a bargain hunting, but it can be accomplished. If you are stuck when it comes altar decorating for the holidays, take a peak at the list below to see how I managed to decorate for under $15!

Gwinevere's Samhain Ritual 2008

Samhain is The Witches' New Year. It marks the end of the current cycle (Wheel of the Year) while simultaneously starting off anew. Pronounced sow-in to rhyme with "cow" this holiday has its roots from Celtic traditions. Enjoy this solitary ritual on October 31st to mark this bewitching Sabbat. 

Suggested Incense:

Sandalwood, Myrrh, Copal, Patchouly, Sage, Cinnamon

Suggested Altar Decorations (real or faux):

apples, pumpkins, gourds, autumn leaves, corn husks, nuts, acorns, pomegranates. Pictures, cut-outs or symbols of ghosts, cats, bones, crows etc. Photographs of loved ones who have past. Various methods of divination are also appropriate.

You Will Need:

piece of paper, black pen

apple seeds, incense

(optional) black candle

(optional) fire-proof cauldron 

Decorate your altar as you wish (see suggestions). Place the paper, pen and apple seeds within reach. Light your incense, create sacred space. Invoke Goddess and God as well as the elements.

 

Say, 

"Welcome Goddess and God, 

on this Samhain night,

the third and final harvest. 

This time marks the death of old ways and energy

and sparks beginning and birth of new paths."

Summer Solstice Ritual

By Gwinevere Rain

The Summer Solstice, also called Litha or Midsummer falls on June 20^th in this year 2008. If you are a solitary practitioner, please feel free to use this ritual. You may print it out and place in your personal Book of Shadows, but I kindly ask that you do not re-publish online without my permission. Thanks & enjoy! For our friends in the Southern Hemisphere: Solitary Yule Ritual.

You Will Need:

Yellow candle and appropriate holder
Oil (such as grape seed or olive oil)
Gold sparkles
Damp paper towel
Small solar-themed offering/craft

In advance, create a small solar-themed craft to use within this ritual as an offering. Perhaps you can create a picture, collage, embroidered sachet, mirror with decorations, beaded design/jewelry.

To begin, cast a circle or create sacred space. Make sure you have all your supplies and pre-made craft with you.

Celebrate Beltane with Gwinevere’s Solitary Sabbat Ritual

Beltane is a significant Wiccan Sabbat. It is celebrated tonight April 30 (May Eve) into tomorrow May 1^st (May Day). It is drenched with heavy symbolism, mostly centering around the theme of fertility. For younger (or beginning) practitioners this motif can be intimidating so let me take a moment to explain . . . Late spring is a time when flowers and trees are in full blossom, animals are born and nature is fully awake (and fertile). These blossoming energies of nature affect our energy too, we become more attuned to the heightened power around us. Where as winter can feel slow and sleepy, spring (and Beltane) makes us come alive with light.

For this particular Sabbat, fertility symbols are heavily incorporated into ritual. The May Pole is a phallic symbol (honoring the God’s fertile energy) and the cauldron (and chalice) represent the Goddess’s womb (female energy). On Beltane we celebrate the Goddess and God, their sacred marriage and mating. In Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner, Scott Cunningham expresses this elegantly in the following passage, “They fall in love, lie among the grasses and blossoms, and unite” (66). This union can be represented in a variety of ways during a ritual in their honor. Here I’ve enclosed a solitary ritual for Beltane. We’ll use ribbons to represent the joining of the Goddess and God (a mini-maypole) as well as a candle to stand in for the Belfire.

Gwinevere Rain's Solitary Ostara Ritual

About Ostara
From Confessions of a Teenage Witch, "The vernal equinox falls on or around March 21st and occurs when the sun is at one degree Aries. On this first day of spring, the hours of night and day are equal, the God nears maturity, and fertility is abound with new floral and animal life" (page 131).

This year, Ostara falls on Thursday, March 20th. It is a time to recognize new beginnings as well as create more balance in your spiritual and/or daily life. Following this Sabbat, the next night (Friday 3/21) marks the Full Moon. This moon is in Libra, an astrological phase which also promotes balance, cooperation, compromise, friendships and partnerships.   

Now . . . Gwinevere's Solitary Ostara Ritual. Please use and enjoy! Copyright remains with Gwinevere and may not be reproduced without her permission.