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Magickal Musings From Infinite Flame

December 23, 2008
Define "wicked".......


Merry Everything!

Merry Christmas, Happy Yuletide, Joyous Saturnalia! Whatever you celebrate, I wish you peace and happiness during this festive time of year : )

The tree is decorated and the house looks festive, with red & green everywhere and, of course, candles glowing. I mailed my cards today (before Christmas!) and finished the shopping despite the snowy weather. Yes, I am a pagan but my family celebrates the traditional Christmas (especially my super-religious cousins) so I send them cards and join in the celebrations. After all, their holiday traditions come from pagan roots so why make waves. And I get to celebrate the solstice and Christmas! More presents!

Once again the holiday and the new moon are in the same week, so expect another newsletter next weekend. I am working on a datebook spell to ensure a prosperous year and I’ll share it with you then.

Heal the Earth with Gaea

This is a ritual we have been doing at the winter solstice for 3 years now. I found it in a book called Moon Magic by D.J. Conway. In the book, she suggests it as a full moon ritual, I made it part of our holiday. Usually I like to take a ritual or spell from a book and change it to make it my own. This one I left the words as she wrote them but made a few changes to the set up and changed it to accommodate four people. She spells the Goddess’s name Gaea instead of Gaia so I’m using her spelling.

She says to have some barley and/or bay laurel leaves in a cauldron on your altar and to leave that outside after the ritual as an offering. We have done this in the past however this year we did not. I poured some wine in the snow as our offering instead.

You need a brown candle and she suggests putting stones, crystals, something to represent the Earth ( a picture will do) and/or the Earth Mother Gaea on your alter and burn an earthy incense. For a single person, she has you light the candle and carry it to each direction to speak the words for that direction. For our 4 person ritual we all stood in our direction (we are lucky enough to have four people whose personalities each fit a different element but we are still able to get along! ) facing out to that direction. I lit the candle while speaking the beginning part then handed it to our “air” person to speak to the east and then we passed it to each of us to speak to our directions, and we all said the last part together. We all love doing this ritual because it doesn’t just say “do this for us”, it says “help us to do this”. Ok, here it is:

(set up your altar accordingly and cast your circle.)

Mother Gaea, Goddess of the Earth,
We give you honor
For without your care and being
We would have no home
Earth Mother, Hear our words
We have need of your divine presence

(light candle and carry it to the east)
Awake Earth Mother!
Your winds are heavy and foul
Sweep them clean again!

(carry candle to the south)
Awake Earth Mother!
Your children need your cleansing rays of light
Our atmosphere is in trouble!

(carry candle to the west)
Awake, Earth Mother!
The plants, animals and humans are in danger
Protect your children!

(carry candle to the north)
Awake Earth Mother!
The planet itself is sick
Do not destroy us in order to restore balance
Rather inspire us all to work together as healers of our world
Come again to your children, Gaea!

(place candle on the alter, stand with upraised arms)
Awaken our minds and souls, Gaea!
Teach all humans to respect their home.
Teach us all responsibility,
Whether it be of chemicals or population
Awaken us all to the needs of our Earth!

(thank Gaea for her presence and extinguish the candle. Put the barley/laurel outside as an offering to the Earth)

Scents of Yule

Here’s a tidbit or two about some popular scents.

The smell of ginger is associated with Christmas due to the baking of gingerbread at this time. The Crusaders were originally responsible for this treat as they introduced ginger to eleventh century Europe on their return from the Middle East. During the fifteenth century, French and German bakers united and formed gingerbread guilds. In those days there were strict laws regarding specialty breads and gingerbread was categorized as such so its production was only allowed during Easter and Christmas. Because bakers always had stalls in the European Christmas markets (and no Easter marketplace existed) the spicy scent became associated with winter holidays.

Peppermint has long been a part of Yule celebrations with its coolness symbolizing winter and its heat symbolizing the Sun. But did you know the candy cane was invented by an American confectioner who based its form and appearance on Christian roots? He formed it of white candy to signify the virgin birth, then shaped it in a ‘j’ to represent Jesus. The never-ending red stripe was to symbolize the blood shed on the cross. The candy itself is very popular, but the symbolism got lost somewhere along the way. Its still one of my favorite parts of Christmas and I always buy enough to have some left over in the summer to make peppermint ice cream....yummmm!

Have a wonderful Yuletide,
~~~~Rhiannon Rose

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Yule Symbols

  • Red
  • Green
  • White
  • Holly
  • Evergreens
  • Candles
  • Bells
  • Round ornaments (symbolic of the sun)
  • Yule Log
  • Gingerbread : )

 


Credit and
Butt-Kissing

Moon Magick by D.J. Conway, very good book, I highly recommend it. The rituals are well written and it includes some crafts and recipes too.

Yule by Dorothy Morrison, contains a lot of info about the season but very little as far as spells or rituals. If you are looking for holiday recipes and crafts, this book is filled with them.

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