Middle Earth Magic: Inspired Ideas and Seasonal Spells for Your Enchanted Life

I grew up on a farm in West Virginia and learned much about herbs, trees, animals, gardening, foraging  and so much about nature. I incorporate this wisdom I learned from elders in my family into my spellwork. When I finally left the farm, I majored in Medieval Studies, my attempt to emulate my idol, J.R.R. Tolkien. All these influences led me to my own blended brew which I call "middle earth magic," containing a mix of the modern and the time-tested "old ways." 

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Beltane Rendezvous: Wiccan High Holiday of Love

This is the witch’s high holiday of love, observed on April 30 with feasting and ceremonial ritual. The Celts of old made this day a day of wild abandon, a sexual spree, the one day of the year when it is okay to make love outside your relationship. After an all-night pagan lovefest, May Day is celebrated with dancing around a beribboned May Pole. You decide how you want your Beltane to go, just as long as it is a fully sensual experience with food, dance, sex, and lots of laughter.

Ideally, you will celebrate Beltane outdoors. But if you are indoor-bound, at least serve the food and the drink on the floor and insist on bare feet and comfy clothes. Serve an ambrosial spread of finger foods with honeyed mead (available from some microbreweries), beer, and wine. As you light incense, set out a few dozen white, red, and green candles and arrange spring’s new flowers: daffodils and narcissus.

With arm extended, point to each of the four directions and say:

To the east,
to the south,
to the west,
to the north.
 
Then recite:
 
Hoof and horn, hoof and horn, tonight our spirits are reborn.
Welcome, joy, to my home.
Fill my friends with love and laughter.
So mote it be.

When your guests arrive, invite them each to light a candle of their choice and carve their secret Beltane wish into the wax. Ask them now to make an offering to the altar, which your invitation will have instructed them to bring: pink crystals, an apple for love, or perhaps stone-smooth sea glass from a beach walk. Sit everyone down to eat, drink, and make merry. Later, hand out colored ribbons and flowers to braid into other people’s hair, or around wrists, fingers, and toes. It will start getting markedly more pagan now. Turn the volume up on the music, though live guitars and drums are better. If your group is open-minded or of like mind, call a circle and invoke the randy May spirits.
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    Cerridwen Greenleaf has worked with many of the leading lights of the spirituality world including Starhawk, Z Budapest, John Michael Greer, Christopher Penczak, Raymond Buckland, Luisah Teish, and many more. She gives herbal, crystal and candle magic workshops throughout North America. Greenleaf's graduate work in medieval studies has given her deep knowledge she utilizes in her work, making her work unique in the field. A bestselling author, her books include Moon Spell Magic, The Book of Kitchen Witchery, The Magic of Gems and Crystals and the Witch’s Spell Book series.  She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.  

Comments

  • Meredith Everwhite
    Meredith Everwhite Monday, 04 October 2021

    Sorry, but...Beltane? It's October. Have I missed something?

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