25% Off Pre-Order Books with Code: PREORDER25 for Premium & Reward Members Shop Now

The Pocket Guide to Rituals: Magickal References at Your Fingertips

Add to Wishlist

The Pocket Guide to Rituals: Magickal References at Your Fingertips

eBook

$10.99 ~~$12.95~~ Save 15%

View All Available Formats & Editions

eBook
$10.99 ~~$12.95~~ Save 15% Current price is $10.99, Original price is $12.95. You Save 15%.

View All Available Formats & Editions

Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.

WANT A NOOK? Explore Now

Buy As Gift

Related collections and offers

LEND ME^® See Details

Overview

Pagans are familiar with celebrating the eight Sabbats of the Wheel of the Year with rituals, but are often at a loss of how to create rituals to celebrate other special occasions in their lives. The Pocket Guide to Rituals helps you create these rituals, to honor events from birth, marriage, and death, to seasonal miracles such as the first snowfall or the first spring blooms. Connor breaks down the process of creating rituals one step at a time to help you create complete, cohesive rituals to perform by yourself or in groups. She covers dozens of different kinds of rituals, eliminating the guesswork while encouraging creativity. The entry for each ritual includes details on six elements: theme; colors; crystals and stones; incense, oils, and herbs; altar decorations; and a sample of a completed ritual.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781632657879
Publisher:	Red Wheel/Weiser
Publication date:	03/22/2006
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	176
File size:	1 MB
Age Range:	3 Months to 18 Years

About the Author

Kerri Connor is the author of The Pocket Spell Creator (New Page Books) and former editor of The Circle of Stones Journal. Kerri is the High Priestess of the Sisterhood of Les Feys D'Avalon and has been practicing her craft for 18 years. She contributes regularly to PanGaia and other Pagan periodicals and dances under the moon in rural Illinois.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

Birth

Themes

Choose two or three themes on which to center your ritual.

* Celebrating life cycles

* Comfort

* Consecration

* Good health

* Growth

* Happiness

* Happy home

* Hope

* Love

* Luck

* New beginnings

* Patience (both for the baby and for the new parents)

* Peace

* Peaceful sleep

* Protection

* Security

* Strength

* Well-being

Colors

Choose colors that support your theme.

Black: absorbing negative energy and protection

Blue: hope, peaceful sleep, and protection

Brown: strength

Gold: strength, the Gods, and masculinity (good for male babies)

Green: growth, good health, luck, comfort, and security

Light blue: calmness, patience, and good health

Pink: love, household peace, and comfort

Purple: growth and strength

Red: strength and life cycles

Silver: femininity and the goddesses (good for baby girls)

Violet: peaceful sleep and healing

White: consecrating, peace, protection, innocence, and good health

Yellow: happiness

Crystals and Stones

Choose crystals and stones that support your theme.

Calming, good health, strength, and aids restful sleep: hematite

Good health: smokey quartz

Good health and comfort: sodalite

Good health and protection: jasper

Good health, comfort, and aids growth: celestite

Good health, protection, love, and peace: jade

Happiness: ruby

Happiness, love, protection, and good health: lapis lazuli

Joy and happiness: amazonite

Love, peace, happiness, and good health: rose quartz

Love, peaceful sleep, protection, and peace: moonstone and tourmaline

Luck: opal

Luck, happiness, protection, and good health: chrysoprase

Luck, love, and happiness: alexandrite

Luck, peace, and good health: aventurine

Peace: aquamarine, carnelian, and rhodonite

Peace and calming: calcite and kunzite

Peace and love: chrysocalla and emerald

Peace, happiness, and love: amethyst

Peace, luck, and protection: lepidolite

Protection: citrine, obsidian, and sunstone

Protection and luck: tiger's-eye

Protection and strength: onyx

Protection, good health, love, and comfort: topaz

Protection, love, and good health: zircon

Protection, love, and peace: malachite

Protection, luck, good health, and happiness: turquoise

Protection, sleep, and good health: peridot

Strength: bloodstone

Strength, good health, and protection: diamond and garnet

Strength, love, and protection: agate

Incense, Oils, and Herbs

Choose incense, oils, and herbs that support your theme.

Good health and protection: anemone, bittersweet, and blackberry

Good health, love, and protection: geranium and ginseng

Love, good health, and protection: beryl and sapphire

Good health, peace, and protection: olive

Happiness: witch grass

Healing and protection: rowan

Health: sassafras and sunflower

Health and love: rue

Health and protection: yerba santa

Health, protection, strength, love, and happiness: St. John's wort

Love: apricot, aster, bachelor's buttons, bleeding heart, lady's mantle, orchid, rye, sarsaparilla, senna, spearmint, spikenard, strawberry, sugar cane, tamarind, vetivert, and yarrow

Love and good health: apple and coriander

Love and happiness: Adam and Eve root

Love and luck: daffodil

Love and peace: scullcap

Love and protection: basil, clover, dragon's blood, parsley, primrose, and willow

Love, healing, happiness, and strength: saffron

Love, healing, luck, and protection: rose

Love, peace, and happiness: meadowsweet

Love, peace, and healing: gardenia

Love, peaceful sleep, and protection: valerian

Love, protection, and good health: balm of Gilead and barley

Love, protection, and happiness: hyacinth

Love, protection, sleep, happiness, and peace: lavender

Love, sleep, and luck: poppy

Luck: bluebell

Luck and healing: allspice

Protection: African violet, chrysanthemum, feverfew, frankincense, sage, snapdragon, Solomon's seal, witch hazel, and woodruff

Protection and good health: angelica, burdock, cedar, eucalyptus, and fennel

Protection and happiness: cyclamen

Protection and healing: sandalwood

Protection and love: wormwood

Protection and luck: aloe, bamboo, dill, and heather

Protection and restful sleep: agrimony

Protection, good health, and strength: bay and carnation

Protection, healing, and luck: oak

Protection, love, and health: mandrake

Protection, love, and peace: violet

Protection, love, good health, and sleep: rosemary

Protection, love, happiness, and good health: marjoram

Restful sleep, health, and love: thyme

Sleep, love, and purification: chamomile

Strength: sweetpea

Strength and protection: mugwort and thistle

Strength, protection, and peace: pennyroyal

Altar Decorations

There are dozens of ideas you can use to decorate your altar for a ritual celebrating the birth of a new life. Try using a receiving blanket for an altar cloth. Use items that represent your baby, including baby's first picture, toys, a rattle, baby shoes or booties, a bottle or a pacifier. You may also want to include pictures of family members who have already passed on. In your ritual, you can ask these ancestors to help protect and look over your child.

When choosing your colors, you may want to include the "traditional" pink for girls or blue for boys, or you can add in silver for femininity and the goddesses, or gold for masculinity and the gods.

Go over your list of themes and pick out items that can symbolize those qualities. Maybe you keep a four leaf clover, which would work well for luck. Comfort could be symbolized by a soft, warm blanket. Love can always be shown in the image of a heart. You can cut small hearts out of paper in your corresponding colors and sprinkle them all over your altar. The ancient Chinese kang is a symbol of good health. The dove has been used by many religions for centuries to symbolize peace.

Incorporate the colors you have chosen with flowers, ribbons, and candles.

Make a fresh bouquet of your chosen herbs and flowers. Crush dried herbs and flowers into incense and burn on a charcoal tab. Pure oils can be dripped onto a lit charcoal tab to release a burst of scent in a beautiful cloud.

Ceremony

Begin your ritual as you normally would with your own version of creating a circle and calling the quarters. Once you have completed your normal ritual opening, you may proceed using this sample ritual. You will also use your own closing once you have completed the specific ritual.

The baby should be present, but take care to keep the baby out of the direct flow of the incense smoke.

Say the following:

Oh great Lord and Lady, Father and Mother of us all, we come to you today to ask for your blessings upon this child, son/daughter of (mother's name) and (father's name).

As we celebrate this birth in the spiral of life, we ask you to bless (baby's name) with peace and take him/her under your protective wing.

May your love and light forever shine down upon (baby's name). May he/she grow to know your love, strength, and power in his/her own time, as well as the love, strength, and power that resides within her/his own heart.

May peace forever surround this child, but when difficulties arise, may (baby's name) have the strength to see them through.

As the wheel keeps turning, we shall rejoice in this gift of life, and celebrate each milestone (baby's name) achieves.

Thank you, Lord and Lady, for bestowing your blessings and love upon this child.

CHAPTER 2

Menarche/Puberty

Themes

Choose two or three themes on which to center you ritual.

* Celebrating life cycles

* Courage

* Femininity

* Fertility

* Growth

* Happiness

* Hope

* Love

* Masculinity

* Moon (for females)

* New beginnings

* Patience

* Protection

* Strength

* Sun (for males)

Colors

Choose colors that support your theme.

Black: protection

Blue: protection, hope, and change

Brown: strength

Gold: the God, strength, courage, and masculinity

Green: growth and fertility

Indigo: change

Light blue: patience

Magenta: change

Orange: courage

Pink: love

Purple: growth and inner strength

Red: courage, strength, blood, and life cycle

Silver: the Goddess, moon power, and femininity

White: protection

Yellow: happiness and sun power

Crystals and Stones

Choose crystals and stones that support your theme.

Courage: aquamarine and carnelian

Courage and happiness: ruby

Courage and protection: tiger's-eye

Courage and strength: bloodstone

Courage, happiness, and love: amethyst

Courage, happiness, love, and protection: lapis lazuli

Courage, protection, and happiness: turquoise

Courage, strength, and protection: diamond

Courage, strength, love, and protection: agate

Growth: celestite

Happiness: amazonite

Happiness and protection: chrysoprase

Love: alexandrite, chrysocolla, emerald, and rhodochrosite

Love and happiness: rose quartz

Love and protection: beryl, sapphire, and zircon

Love, courage, and protection: tourmaline

Protection: citrine, jasper, obsidian, peridot, and sunstone

Protection and love: malachite, moonstone, and topaz

Protection, love, fertility, and courage: jade

Strength and protection: garnet, lepidolite, and onyx

Incense, Oils, and Herbs

Choose incense, oils, and herbs that support your theme.

Courage: borage

Courage and love: columbine and yarrow

Courage, protection, and love: mullein

Fertility: bistort and carrot

Fertility and happiness: hawthorn

Fertility and love: chickweed, daffodil, and fig

Fertility and protection: bodhi, mustard, oak, olive, pine, and rice

Fertility, love, and protection: geranium

Fertility, protection, and happiness: cyclamen

Love: apple, bachelor's buttons, and bleeding heart (very symbolic for a female's ritual)

Love and happiness: Adam and Eve root, catnip, and witch grass

Love and protection: balm of Gilead, barley, basil, bloodroot (very symbolic for a female's ritual), parsley, and violet

Love, courage, and protection: cohosh

Love, protection, and happiness: hyacinth and marjoram

Protection: African violet, agrimony, aloe, alyssum, amaranth, anemone, and angelica

Protection and happiness: celandine

Protection and love: clove and dragon's blood

Protection and spirituality: myrrh (for use with God or Goddess themes)

Protection and strength: bay and carnation

Protection, love, and fertility: mandrake

Protection, strength, love, and happiness: St. John's wort

Spirituality and protection: frankincense

Strength and protection: mugwort

Altar Decorations

Decorations for this altar should be representative of a young adult. Include items that symbolize the themes you have chosen. If you are including fertility in your theme, you can include a rabbit (real or fake), or something from a garden such as corn. Growth can be symbolized with a live plant. The Japanese symbol Nintai represents patience.

An interesting item to include in rituals that celebrate life cycles is anything with a spiral form to it. You can make paper spirals by cutting a round piece of paper and then continue to cut following the edge all the way around, continually turning the circle until you reach the center. If your ritual is indoors, you can hang these spirals from the ceiling. If you are outside, hang these from trees or staked poles stuck in the ground. You can also stretch out metal springs for the same effect.

If your ritual is for a female, you should include plenty of red and silver, and lunar symbols. Decorate the altar and area around it with red and silver glitter or confetti. If outdoors, hang red and silver ribbons from tree branches if they are available. You can often find wooden moon cutouts at your local craft store. Paint them and hang them around your altar and circle area. Cut out small shapes of different moon phases from white or metallic silver piece of paper and scatter them on your altar. Larger moon shapes can also be hung.

If your ritual is for a male, you may wish to emphasize masculinity with the color gold. He will most likely want to relate more with the God now as he defines himself as a man. Incorporate sun images into your decorations. Cut out sun shapes and hang them, or find sun shapes from a craft store and paint them. You can probably find sun-shaped confetti at a party supply store.

Incorporate the colors you have chosen with flowers, ribbons, and candles.

Make a fresh bouquet of your chosen herbs and flowers. Use dried herbs and flowers to crush into incense to burn on a charcoal tab. Pure oils can be dripped onto a lit charcoal tab to release a burst of scent in a beautiful cloud.

Ceremony

Begin your ritual as you normally would with your own version of creating a circle and calling the quarters. Once you have completed your normal ritual opening you may proceed using this sample ritual. You will also use your own closing once you have completed the specific ritual.

Say the following:

(Bring the female the ritual is for to the center of the circle near the altar.)

Lady of the Moon, we come to you this night to honor (female's name) as she passes from the life of a child to the life of a maiden.

As the spiral of life continues, we all take on different forms.