Creating Personal Rituals

During times of personal transition, it can be both inspiring and motivating to create a personal ritual focused on the outcome you wish. Here is a simple outline that you can use for your ritual once you have decided on the intention of the ritual. Remember to have fun! Ritual does not have to be serious, but it does need to be focused. 

1. Create your environment.
Here you gather together the tools that you will need during the ritual. This might include objects to represent each of the 4 directions or elements (air, fire, water, earth) a candle for focus, things that are important to you. The space should be a place where you can be uninterrupted for about an hour. Use music, incense, candles.

2. Call in your helping spirits or allies.
Using a rattle or drum is great, but you can also use any musical instrument which calls attention to the beginning (and later end) of your ritual.

3. Do a meditation or drum to help you move into a deeper state of consciousness.

4. Set your intentions.
Here you would say what it is that you intend to do.

5. Make your ritual action.

6. Sing a song, say a poem, bring something creative into your ritual. Be spontaneous!

7. Say thanks and give gratitude.

8. Close the circle. ( Sound the chime, or say "It is done.")

Sample Ritual:  A good place to begin would be in a natural setting. Find a tree. Sit with your back up against the tree and listen. Let your mind become still and clear. The tree will remind you that you are a very ancient being with many lives and many experiences. There have been times when you have been filled with love and there have been times when you have been filled with fear. Let yourself remember some of these times. Breathe. Then let yourself remember a time in the recent past when you were very afraid, a time when you were unable to stay clear of negative energy. Breathing deeply, let the energy flow down your chakras into the earth, Say 'I now release all negative and distracting energies for the benefit of all concerned'. Breathe. Listen to the tree again. Remember that you are loved. Be grateful.


c. 2011 Victoria Marina-Tompkins

Celebrating the Winter Solstice: Lots of Ideas!

Celebrating Winter Solstice
by Selena Fox of Circle Sanctuary
excerpted with permission

Winter Solstice has been celebrated in cultures the world over for thousands of years. This start of the solar year is a celebration of Light and the rebirth of the Sun. In old Europe, it was known as Yule, from the Norse, Jul, meaning wheel.

Today, many people in Western-based cultures refer to this holiday as "Christmas." Yet a look into its origins of Christmas reveals its Pagan roots. Emperor Aurelian established December 25 as the birthday of the "Invincible Sun" in the third century as part of the Roman Winter Solstice celebrations. Shortly thereafter, in 273, the Christian church selected this day to represent the birthday of Jesus, and by 336, this Roman solar feast day was Christianized. January 6, celebrated as Epiphany in Christendom and linked with the visit of the Magi, was originally an Egyptian date for the Winter Solstice.

Most of the customs, lore, symbols, and rituals associated with "Christmas" actually are linked to Winter Solstice celebrations of ancient Pagan cultures. While Christian mythology is interwoven with contemporary observances of this holiday time, its Pagan nature is still strong and apparent. Pagans today can readily re-Paganize Christmastime and the secular New Year by giving a Pagan spiritual focus to existing holiday customs and by creating new traditions that draw on ancient ways. Here are some ways to do this:

Celebrate Yule with a series of rituals, feasts, and other activities. In most ancient cultures, the celebration lasted more than a day. The ancient Roman Saturnalia festival sometimes went on for a week. Have Winter Solstice Eve and Day be the central focus for your household, and conceptualize other holiday festivities, including New Year's office parties and Christmas visits with Christian relatives, as part of your Solstice celebration. By adopting this perspective, Pagan parents can help their children develop an understanding of the multicultural and interfaith aspects of this holiday time and view "Christmas" as just another form of Solstice. Have gift exchanges and feasts over the course of several days and nights as was done of old. Party hearty on New Year's Eve not just to welcome in the new calendar year, but also to welcome the new solar year.

 Adorn the home with sacred herbs and colors. Decorate your home in Druidic holiday colors red, green, and white. Place holly, ivy, evergreen boughs, and pine cones around your home, especially in areas where socializing takes place. Hang a sprig of mistletoe above a major threshold and leave it there until next Yule as a charm for good luck throughout the year. Have family/household members join together to make or purchase an evergreen wreath. Include holiday herbs in it and then place it on your front door to symbolize the continuity of life and the wheel of the year. If you choose to have a living or a harvested evergreen tree as part of your holiday decorations, call it a Solstice tree and decorate it with personal symbols.

Convey love to family, friends, and associates. At the heart of Saturnalia was the custom of family and friends feasting together and exchanging presents. Continue this custom by visiting, entertaining, giving gifts, and sending greetings by mail and/or phone. Consider those who are and/or have been important in your life and share appreciation.

Honor the new solar year with light. Do a Solstice Eve ritual in which you meditate in darkness and then welcome the birth of the sun by lighting candles and singing chants and Pagan carols. If you have a indoor fireplace or an outdoor fire circle, burn an oak log as a Yule log and save a bit to start next year's fire. Decorate the inside and/or outside of your home with electric colored lights. 

Contribute to the manifestation of more wellness on Planet Earth. Donate food and clothing to poor in your area. Volunteer time at a social service agency.