Litha Blessings!

The eve of Litha is upon us, and although I'm excited to celebrate it this year, it's also a bitter sweet celebration.

It marks a month since Akura, one of our beloved cats passed away. It was a sudden and unexpected death, and it still hurts. She wasn't just any cat, and even though we saw her as our "fur child" - she was so much more than that... she was also my wife's Familiar.

It's hard to explain to muggles, and many people what this means exactly. Out of the 11 four legged, fluffy furkids in our home, only two have had this title. My boy Jinx is my Familiar, and Akura was my wife's. A familiar is not just another furry family member, but for us witches there exists a very special, spiritual bond with the animal.

During Litha, it's traditional to have an animal blessing rite, as a result every time I've thought of coming up with celebrations, or creating any rituals for the day, my mind turns to our beloved Akura, my heart hurts (sometimes I cry), and I struggle to move forward.

As a result, I thought it best that maybe we make it a more casual get together for the day. In true South African style we will be having a braai with seasonal salads. But I still want to do something to celebrate the day, so I will be having a small bowl to burn offerings in, and we will do a traditional jumping over of the fire for prosperity and abundance, and we will leave out some milk and honey for the Faye Folk.

I also still very much want to do something that includes an animal blessing, as my pets are such an important part of my life. Besides our loss, the other biggest hurdle we are facing is that there will be no less then twenty pets to be represented over three households, the logistics of getting everyone together for a quick blessing would prove to be quite difficult. Instead I've gone for a candle blessing, where I will be blessing a candle, which in turn when burned in the homes of the furry family members and will impart the blessing onto them. Here's the blessing I came up with, and hopefully you can use it too.

Animal Blessings Candle - blessing ritual

You will need a candle, preferably plain white

Dried chamomile flowers (or chamomile tea would work) – this is the flower for harmony (especially in homes with multiple pets), peace, healing and happiness.

Dried basil leaves – for protection

Dried cloves – for protection and healing.

You can place these herbs in a blessing oil to steep for a few hours (or for a day or two at room temperature), before using it to anoint your candle, or you can melt down some candle wax and place the herbs in the wax, to dip your pet protection candle in. Just make sure the wax isn’t too hot, or you might create a fire when you add the dried herbs.

Have your plain white candle and the oil or wax with the herbs in ready on your altar to be blessed. Set up your sacred space as you normally would, call on the quarters and invoke your deity.

When you are ready to bless the candle, place your hands over the candle and oil / wax herbal mix and say the following incantation:

Artemis, with your arrow straight and true

Bless this candle I bring to you

Imbue it with peace, harmony and love

And protection from you hereof

Bless this candle and its flame

So that all animals, wild and tame

Within the home where it may burn

Will your love and protection earn

Dip the white candle into the oil or wax, and then place it back onto your altar. Place your hands over it once again and repeat the above incantation.

When the candle is blessed, light it’s flame, and visualise the light extending out over your home, and keeping all the animals within happy, safe and living together in harmony.

If you are going to be gifting it to friends or your coven, as I am. Include a copy of the incantation, and a description of visualising the light extending out and over their furry loved ones, so that they can perform the visualisation when they burn the candle in their own homes.

To end today's post I want to finish off by sharing with you some Summer Solstice Facts. I wish you and your family an Blessed Litha, and for our friends in the North a Blessed Yule, and I wish you only the best for the year to come

Thousands of FREE meditations

As you know, I am a HUGE fan of a good daily meditation, what a lot of you might not now is that I actually create my own meditation music too.

That’s right, and believe it or not, but it’s one of the reasons I actually started The Wicca Series, some 11 years ago. 

My goal was to originally create a series of Wiccan and Pagan based meditations, and so The Wicca Series was born.

However, eleven years later and most of my meditations have evolved into music based meditations. A large majority of them contain binaural beats (Theta or alpha waves) to help you to truly focus your intentions as you meditate.

Would you like to listen to them? For FREE? Of course you do... they’re available to listen to on an app called Insight Timer. I’ve already had almost 60,000 listens to my tracks... and of course you’re welcome to leave me a “tip” if you like my music to thank me for all the hard work that went into creating it.

I know that my type of meditation music isn’t “everyone’s cuppa tea”, but there is good news. There are literally hundreds of other teachers available on the app with thousands of meditations to suit everybody’s taste.

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In fact it has officially become the most downloaded and used meditation app across the world, give it a try and you will see why. It even allows you to keep track of how often you meditate (and you score points too), you can meet fellow meditators and make new friends, and follow your favourite teachers that you would like to hear more of. 

Download it today, it has free version (which still has loads of features), and before you know it, you will find completing your daily meditations a breeze.

Summer is Coming

Summer is coming! It has been an unusually cool spring season for us here in Johannesburg, South Africa, with the occasional bouts of heat waves in between, which is why I'm looking forward to this Summer Solstice. 

That and for the first time in more than a decade (that's right, 10 years) I'm inviting guests over to celebrate it with me. Naturally I'm a little nervous, and when I start to worry about what I'm going to do and how the day should go, I remind myself that "I got this".

I'm planning a small feast and blessing, and pretty much a relaxed day all round, but I'm quite excited to be making it a special occasion with good friends. Of course I will be throwing in some milk and honey as offerings to the Faye, as well as a blessing for all animals and beloved pets (one of my favourite parts of the Summer Solstice rituals), and to finish it off I am setting up a small summer feast. My summer harvest is starting to grow in my garden, so it will no doubt be a really good "homemade with love feast".

I have also started to dry out a few smudge sticks as gifts for everyone, with the new year around the corner, it's a really great time to burn these to cleanse away the old dusty cobwebs of 2018 as we welcome the new energy of 2019. 

The only thing I have left to do is work out the day's schedule and how to go through the day, and although I might go about fussing about these things on the day, I have to say that I am really feeling good about it, because let's face it, the Summer Solstice is always best when spent with friends as we celebrate the Sun and the God on the longest day of the year, I can think of no better way of spending it. 

To finish I would like to quote this exert from Every Day Magic by Cassandra Carter

Litha - Summer Solstice - is the festival of the Sun's power, the longest day of the year. After this point, however, the year begins to wane. A good time to look at what brings light to your life and to think how you can nurture it, and yourself, as the darkness approaches.