Ceremonies for Real Life

Excerpts from the Book

Full Moon Ceremony

When the Moon is full, fill a glass or pitcher with spring water. Place it outside somewhere (i.e., on a table in your backyard, on a window sill) under the light of the Moon and leave it overnight. You may place a clear quartz crystal in it (for clarity) if you wish. By morning, your water will have absorbed lunar energy. Drink it down! Relish it! Take it in!

Birthday

Birthdays also present us with an opportunity to honor the beautiful Earth and environment we were born into. Fill a pitcher with spring water and a few drops of gardenia oil for love, eucalyptus oil for healing, lavender oil for happiness and long life, almond oil for abundance. Choose a plant and water it with your magical potion. As you do so, offer a prayer for love, healing, happiness, long life and abundance to the Earth. It is said that what you put out into the universe comes back threefold. Prepare to receive your gifts.

Graduation

Letting go of things that no longer serve us helps us move forward. Set up a table or altar. Get a medium to large size bowl and fill it with dirt. Get another bowl and fill it with small stones (the kind you might find in a garden or on a beach). Place both on the altar. Ask all ceremony participants to think of something they would like to let go of in their lives — a fear, a relationship, a bad habit, a feeling, a situation, etc. — and have them come up to the altar. They should pick out a stone, let it represent the issue they would most like to shed, and bury it into the earth-filled bowl — in essence, giving it back or offering it to the Earth. After everyone has had a turn, ask graduate to come up to the altar and pick out five stones (or more, as the case may be) and to do the same, allowing each stone to represent her special set of issues. This should be done with intention and the belief that engaging in the act makes it so.

Wedding Ceremony

Have on hand two white candles to represent the bride and groom. Fill a bowl with any vegetable oil (preferably not olive oil) and add several drops of the following essential oils: ginger oil for love; cinnamon oil for luck, communication, light-hearted laughter, and fun of romance; rosemary oil for acceptance, health, and passion. (You might want to write place cards that say what each oil represents, and set them down next to the bowl). Set the bowl and candles on a table or designated altar. Ask all ceremony participants to take turns coming up to the altar. Instruct them to dip their hand in the oil and rub it into each candle. As they do so, they should make a strong wish that the bride and groom be blessed with all the magical properties of the oils. Ask bride-to-be to do the same and then to light the candles.

Anniversary

Write a list of things you love, enjoy and appreciate about your mate and/or your relationship. Read your lists out loud to each other. Prepare a second list of vows, resolutions and promises to each other for the year to come. Read your lists out loud, sign them and give them to each other.

Hearth & Home

Fill a plate with freshly picked red rose petals, which serve to generate warm, joyful, abundant vibrations in the home. Place a white candle in the center to invite clarity, spiritual guidance, and the brilliant light of God into your household. Set it on the altar in a spot of your choice and light the candle.

New Baby

Gather loved ones together to celebrate arrival of new baby. Buy 7 candles in the following colors: red, for vitality and luck; blue for healing powers, spiritual development, and protection; green for fertility and prosperity; golden yellow for intellectual development and strength of mind; pink for love, friendship, and happiness; orange for optimism and success; white for psychic development and protection. Set candles down on specially prepared table or altar. Before lighting each candle, say out loud what each color represents and ask the people in the room to close their eyes for a moment and to join you in wishing these benefits to the baby (whether he or she is soon to arrive or has already arrived). Tell them to imagine the baby enveloped by that color as they make a prayer to the universe that the baby be blessed with these gifts.

First Menstruation Ceremony

Prepare a large, white, 8" pillar candle, toothpicks, and a runic table*. Ask everyone at ceremony to have a turn taking a toothpick and scratching into the candle the runic symbol that most closely represents the wish, desire or goal you want to see manifested for initiate. Initiate should also inscribe a wish for herself. Prepare a short written statement (such as the one below) and read it to her out loud:

"This candle represents the love and magical intentions of your friends and family for you. Please light it now." [Wait until she lights it and continue.] "When the ceremony is over today, you can take it with you and light it every day until it burns down; or save it and light it whenever you feel you need the loving spirit, support, and encouragement of those gathered here today."

Menopause Ceremony

Gather close friends. Prepare four pitchers. One should contain water, which is a symbol for life, because it flows. In this context, the water represents your friend's former capacity to give life through childbirth. The second should contain milk to symbolize your friend's former capacity to produce breast milk. The third should contain water with red vegetable dye to symbolize menstruation. These represent a life phase, which needs to be surrendered in order for forward motion into the new life cycle to begin. The fourth pitcher should be empty. Have your friend pour a little bit from each pitcher into the empty one. These pourings represent an offering back to the universe of those gifts that were offered to her so many years ago. Ask everyone to come up and do the same, as all are there to help her offer them back to the source. Ask your friend to take the fourth pitcher and pour combined liquids into a plant, or back yard or front yard. Pouring the contents into the earth signals to the universe her willingness to surrender the self she has been so familiar with and to embrace the new woman now in the process of transitioning to a higher place.

Divorce

Invite your closest friends over and tell them that you would like their help in moving forward after your divorce. Explain that you would like them to help you write the book of your new life. Hand out a white sheet of paper to each person and ask her to draw any imagery that says growth, blossoming, blooming, leaping, flying or soaring. Obvious images are plants, trees, flowers and birds, but ask them to be as creative as they like — speeding bullets, planes, fast animal, etc. Stick figures are fine! This should be a fun (or even funny) exercise. Each person should give their drawing a title, i.e., "______ blooms like a spring flower." Or, "This tree represents _______ reaching for the sky." Ask everyone to show and tell and pass them around. Finally, prepare two pieces of cardboard or construction paper to serve as front and back covers for the new book of your life. Staple or bind together with string. Thank everyone and tell them that having this new book will enable you to keep their support, encouragement and love with you always.

Passing On

Gather close friends of departed person. Invite spirit of departed person to visit the ceremony by using ritual offered in first section of ceremony. Tell everyone that they are going to do a simple but powerful visualization. Each person should pick a scene or element of nature, and imagine themselves in it, fully incorporating smells, sounds and the way it feels to be there. Ask them to fill their being with that image, making it the purest and highest thought they ever had about themselves, and then to offer that image to the departed. In this way, departed persons can take the beauty of this earth and each of their friends' spirit with them wherever they go. Examples of possible scenes to imagine: a beautiful garden; a bright star; the sweetest-smelling red rose; a moonlit sky; the warm, blue Caribbean sea; and so on. The host of the ceremony should start by giving an example of the way to proceed with the ritual by saying: "I am _______ (imagery of choice)." She should stop, close her eyes to let the image sink into her being, then continue: "Dear _______ (Departed), I offer it to you with all my love." After everyone has had a turn, the host should thank the Departed for blessing the event with a spiritual presence and send him/her off with love.