Wiccan Tips

Everything You Need To Know About the Wiccan Holiday Beltane

Beltane means fire of Bel, who is considered a Celtic deity. The Wiccan holiday celebrates the arrival of summer. Beltane is a special fire festival celebrated for the coming of fertility in the land. Tied with the community’s needs just like other Celtic festivals, Beltane is a festival that marks spring and welcomes the farming season. Families and followers of the pagan religion come together in hopes of a fruitful year.
Some of the Beltane rituals include courting where the youth collect blossoms and light fires during the evening. The rituals lead to marriages to be conducted in the coming season or even immediately. As the holiday marks fertility, marriage is often encouraged. Fire plays an essential part in the festival as it is thought to increase fertility, purify, and cleanse. Cattles pass between two fires. The smoke from the fire is believed to ensure that fertility.
Beltane is the time when pagans believe that the God achieves maturity and strength to become the lover of the Goddess. Fertility plays an integral role in the holiday, and pagans strive to highlight fertility through different ceremonies and rituals. There are many traditions that associate fire with the celebration. It helps purify and revitalize. By leaping over the fire, it is believed that the fertility of the spirit, body, and mind, as well as happiness and good fortune, can be achieved. Beltane is considered to be the most sexual festival. However, pagans barely have sex during the rituals, even though most of the rituals imply fertility and sex. There is sexual imagery involved in the dancing tradition, and many pagans still follow it. Continue reading

Imbolc

Imbolc is the launch of Spring and the return of the Sun. It is the celebration festival of the end of winter, the dawn of the agricultural season and the approaching light half of the year. Continue reading

Moon Magick in Wicca

It is said the Moon to have a very significant role in performing magick for the Wiccans or even witchcraft and Paganism. Wiccans use the Moon’s magick to honor and please the Goddess on the Esbats.

The Moon has constantly played a very vital role in myths, legends and magickal mysteries of the world. Along with the sun, the Moon has also been thought of as a God and was worshipped as well. Mythically, the Moon is viewed to be associated with time, death, rebirth, love, passion, mystery and the Afterlife.

The Power of the Moon

Many people know of the energy that the Earth has on it. It receives energy from the sun as well. But, many Wiccans and scientists, in fact, believe that the Moon is also its own source of energy. While the sun has a sort of masculine type of energy, the Moon has more of a soft and feminine feel to its energy. Wiccans often describe it as the energy of the Goddess. Some people tend to feel a tug or a kind of magnetic pull towards the Moon. Most sensitive people are drawn to the Moon during a Full Moon as if someone is literally pushing them towards the Moon. Some people tend to get emotionally and physically heightened senses during the Full Moon. Continue reading

Obatala: Father Figure of the Orishas

Obatala is known to be a wise Orisha and is often also known as the chief and judge. He is married to Yemeya, who is the mother figure of all Orishas and is the Goddess of the Oceans. According to some patakis, Obatala is the father of all human beings. He and Yemeya created a lot of children. One day he got very drunk when making humans because he was thirsty and he drank some palm wine. Under the influence of the wine, he made some deformed humans. After he sobered up, he realized what he had done. He swore from that day that he would never drink and now every handicapped or deformed person has a special place in his heart. He takes extra care of them. Obatala shows mercy and compassion because of the fact that he realizes that he erred once when he got drunk on the palm wine. This is why he is also known to be the fairest Orisha of all.

Obatala was a very strong warrior when he was young and saw many injustices and wrongs being committed during those wars. Which is why when he became an Orisha, he vouched for peace. His experience on the battlefields angered him and now, as a judge, he is very much involved in the law and issues of justice. He will be involved in any kind of legal case or court issue. You can invoke him during such times for his help. However, do not invoke him if you are guilty unless you are willing to be punished for it. Obatala is also involved in karmic justice. If you think someone has done a karmic injustice to you, you can call to him for help. He will help you and make you be strong. He encourages humans to take responsibility for their irrational actions.
Obatala has no gender and is thought to be asexual. This signifies why he is rightfully thought to be the father of human beings. He has no patience for the gender fights which break out in the human community.

Obatala is also associated with the color white. He is known as the God of white clothing and even loves his food to be white in color. He loves white offerings with no spices or even alcohol. People tend to spread a white cotton ball on the offerings they make to Obatala to please him. People can even offer him eggs, rice, mushrooms, water, milk, crushed egg shells, snail shells, myrrh or tobacco. Obatala worshippers dance in white costumes and offer white pumpkin, coconut milk and light up sandalwood incense to please this Orisha.
Obatala is often found in churches, libraries, universities, mountains, forest and the military. His number is 8 and his feast day is the 24th of September. His tool is a horsetail fly whisk. All of the animals sacrificed to Obatala should be white in color such as she-goats, guinea hens, doves, and hens.

 

Learn more about Santeria and the Orishas with Lucumi: The Ways of Santeria

 

Smudging Your Home

Smudging is a ritual way to raise positivity and drive out negative energies or influences. It is an ancient Native American tradition to cleanse a person or location by the burning of herbs. The practice of smudging our homes, workplace, car, altars, sacred books, crystals, or gemstones has been a blessed ritual that has become more and more popular. 

The method can be as simple, or as complex, as you’d like to keep it. Smudging herbs are primarily used in the methods of a smudge stick, which are made by securing the herbs into a bundle. Although some individuals use only sage, other people believe that burning of two or more herbs at the same time is a powerful way to combine the energy of the different herbs in the ritual, ceremony or celebration. A number of commonly used smudging herbs include sage, sweet grass, cedar, frankincense resin, copal gold resin, myrrh resin, lavender, pine and juniper.

Before you begin, both you and your house should to be ready physically and mentally to start the cleansing. A disarranged and unclean house beckons negative energies. On the other hand, a clean, well- aired house conveys positive feelings to its occupants.

To begin smudging, ignite your smudge stick or bundle until it burns. It will typically burn out and start to smoke. If necessary, you can blow out the flame, but it ought to be smoking. This smoke is what you’ll utilize to smudge.

Using your hand or a feather, smudge yourself by fanning the smoke toward you, getting your entire body and afterwards step within the smoke. If you are smudging another person, make sure that they turn around so you can smudge both their front and back.

Burn the sage bundle cautiously and disperse the smoke with your hand or a feather, all through the house, walking to the different areas in a clockwise direction. Make sure that you do not make the house so exceedingly smoky that it becomes tough to breathe in. A small amount of smoke is sufficient to serve your purpose. On the other hand, give attention to the active areas of your house. 

As you are walking, focus on positive thoughts or speak a prayer. The goal is to call in what you most desire to come into your space. When you are done, gently put out the smoking smudge bundle by pressing it into a fireproof bowl or abalone shell. Make sure that it is no longer smoking and then leave it in the shell or bowl for a period of time.

When finished, discard the remains of the bundle outside the house by burying them or releasing them in moving water.