Litha Ritual


For this ritual you will need to have holly and mistletoe, and salted water. The mistletoe should be placed on the altar, and the holly near it but just out of sight. you can use artificial if neccesary. If you have a pet or familiar, you can give them a special blessing in this ritual.

-Cast your circle as usual.

-Face your altar and say:
Blessed be this season of Midsummer. The sun rides at s peak in the skies above. The Goddess is heavay with pregnancy. Today I celebrate the light, for tomoorow that light will wane. Today I acknowledge the end of the waxing year, and the beginning of the waning time.

-Take your athame and raise it in front of you pointing up. Say:
Farewell to the waning year
Season of fertility and growth
and the time of planting

-Make the sign of the banishing pentagram. Say:
Welcome the waning year
Season of harvest and wisdom
Welcome to the bounty of autumn.

-Make the sign of the invoking pentagram. Set the athame back in its place on the altar, then switch the mistletoe with the holly. The holly is the symbol of the Holly King who now reigns over the rest of the ear. Midsmmer is a good time to renew your self-dedication. Take your salted water from the altar and hold it upward with both hands. Say:
O blessed Lady, whose belly quikens with the harvest bounty, fill this vessel of your womb with your holy presence that I might redeicate myself to your service. great mother of heaven and Earth from whom I and life was born. Womb to whom we all return to be born again, as did my ancestors so long ago, I stand before you today to acknowledge you as the Great Mother, giver of all life.

-Hold the container in your left hand and with your right hand, reach into the container and wet your fingertips. Bend down and anoint your feet. Say:
Bless my feet as I seek to walk your ancient pathway. Steer them in the direction of right and light.

-Anoint your heart area. Say:
Bless my heart which humbly turns to you in love and is given to you freely. Help me love unconditionally all my fellow living things.

-Anoint your eyelids. Be careful not to get any in your eyes. Say:
Bless my eyes that they may be open to the wonders of your world; that I may see you in all your guises; that I may see the unseen and know all truths through them.

-Anoint the crown of your head. Say:
Great Mother, bless my mind that it will always be open to you, and guard it that it not concieve to do harm to any fellow living creatures. May I always remember and follow the Wiccan Rede. I know taht if along your path I bring harm to any living creature that I will experience the same three times over. As all living things are one, as I harm others, I also harm myself. May I always seek a spiritual path in this earthly incarnation, and vome joyfully when my earthly time is done.

-Hold the container upward again. Say:
Blessed Lady of mant faces, you who are warrioress, protectress, instructress, inspirer, innocent Virgin, wise old Crone, and Great Mother. I present myself to you as your child, (state craft name if you have one), and ask that you accept my dedication to you. So mote it be, Blessed Be!

-Spend a few moments in quiet meditation on the meaning of the ritual you just performed. Close the circle whenever ready.



Litha Ritual #2

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