#pagan holidays
After so many of you enjoyed the low-energy ways to celebrate Samhain and Yule, I have decided to continue this little series for everyone who just doesn’t have the energy or time for big celebrations and rituals. Remember that your path is exactly that: only yours. Your practice isn’t worth less or means less just because it might be different to the ways others are able to celebrate. Have a blessed Imbolc my dear friends.
-Honey purifies and stands for beauty and prosperity, so you might want to stir an extra spoon in your morning tea or enjoy it on a nice piece of toast.
- Imbolc is a good time for beauty and selfcare magic and another way to benefit from the honey would be to mix it with some oats and milk and apply it as a face mask. Do something nice for yourself, maybe even draw some sigils onto yourself while applying it.
- Today we want to invoke the sun, brightness and happiness and invite them in our home. Citrus fruits represent just this. You might put some lemon in your water, snack on an orange or get yourself some sweet lemonade.
- Take a nice bath and try to use the time in there to reflect. What do you want in your life from this moment on? What brings you hapiness? A good idea would be bath additives with flowery or fresh scents, like lavender, roses or other flowers you enjoy.
- Imbolc is about celebrating light and the sun, so watching thesunrisewould be a nice way to start the day. If you can’t make it up early, you might want to watch a video of a sunrise or light a nice candle to welcome the sun’s returning.
- Integrate flowers in your day. It can be something that takes a little more time like planting some flowers in nice pots or your garden, but it may also be as simple as wearing clothes with a floral pattern, apply nail stickers with flowers on them or wear any colorful jewelry that might remind you of flowers.
After so many of you enjoyed the post about low-energy ways to celebrate Samhain, it is time to share some ideas on how to celebrate Yule without too big of an effort.
2020 was a hard year and everyone deals differently with handling the crazy stuff this year threw at us. You are valid and your faith isn’t less important or less worthy because you can not spend the energy you might want to on the celebration of the solstice. A blessed Yule to all of you!
-As an easy charm for good luck: Tie some tiny bells to a ribbon and wind it around the handle of your door. Who ever enters will be cleansed of their negative energies and the sound of bells will invite prosperity and luck inside your home.
-Treat yourself to some sweets. Doesn’t matter if self-baked or store-bought, we’re talking of all the delicious treats of the season full ofcinnamon (protection, luck), vanilla (friendship, passion), cloves (beauty, love) and ginger (energy, success). Yes, please!
- Give thanks and give back. You don’t need to volunteer for days to show your gratitude. Feed some birds, donate a bit to your local shelter if you have the money, small gestures matter!
- Who needs a big Yule tree? Get yourself some twigs (please don’t just break them off) from anevergreen and place them on your windowsill or inside a pretty vase.
- Solstices are turning points, times of change. Make a list (written or mental) and remember all the things you are grateful for that happened this year. Also note things that you want the new cycle to bring to your life. Keep the list close
during the time of the solstice and burn/bury them at the end of The Twelve Nights.
- No energy to decorate your altar? Decorate yourself. Wear green, red, gold or silver colors and jewelry with rubies, garnet, jade, agate or rose quartz.
Have a blessed Yule and feel free to reblog and add to the list!
It’s no secret that seasonal depression paired with a pandemic take a toll on
a lot of people. Sometimes we also just feel exhausted, we have too little time or just too little motivation to do big rituals or fancy ceremonies. Here is for
everyone who doesn’t have the energy at the moment but still wants to celebrate this holiday. Blessed Samhain to you all!
- Eat an apple. Apples aren’t just symbols of Samhain, they also represent beauty, the divine, immortality and healing.
-Set an extra plate at dinner tonight. An easy gesture to show your ancestors or other passing souls that they are welcome and honored in your home.
-Meditate a few minutes before sleeping. You don’t need to take time out of your day to meditate, just use the last few minutes before you fall asleep to remind yourself of the things you are grateful for and what you would like to let go of.
-Open your windows wide. It doesn’t have to be an hour-long walk in nature all the time. Open your window and welcome the new cycle with all its prosperity and the healing it will bring you.
-Leave water and/or your crytsals somewhere where the moonlight reaches them tonight. Tonight is full of energy anyways but the blue moon boosts this a lot more. Your crystals and the water will hold this energy for later when you feel you have enough energy to use them.
-Place an offering on your windowsill. It can be a piece of bread, a glass of wine, some honey or a little milk. But whoever passes by will appreciate being able to strengthen themselves for their way back home.
I hope these will help some of you, feel free to add and reblog!
Reminder for Beltane/May Day
Today is Beltane! (or May Day)
There are so many ways for you to celebrate and honor the coming of Summer. You can do divination, plant some herbs/flowers, make some strawberry jam, the world is your oyster!
For anyone who can’t celebrate today or feel like you aren’t doing enough: it’s perfectly okay to hold off on any celebrations until the next day, next week, or even later this month! The world has been really tough these past few years, the Gods, Spirits, and Mother Nature understand that we live in a hectic world and don’t want you to overdo it.
Happy Solstice and Full Moon!
Happy Solstice! ✨✨
“But Corvid, why should I pull twice daily?”
There are a few reasons as to why, actually:
- If the deck is new or newer, the more frequently you use it, the more attuned you become to it. It also becomes more accustomed to you and your energy.
- The first card you pull is great to give you an overall outlook on what is to come for the day. A lot of people do this. What people sometimes forget is to pull at the end of the day to see what you can learn from what happened during the day, even if you think nothing happened.
- Sometimes, if my day is busy, I’ll even pull three times. The third time will be in the middle of the day as a sort of check in to see how things are playing out and to see if there’s anything I need to pay mind to.
**Note: As with all tips and tricks, these are not end all, be all. This is just simply what I do and why I do it.
A blog that describes my morning on yule.
I woke up at 5:55 am, before my 6:00 am alarm. I was so excited, I woke up several times in the night to look at the clock and make sure I didn’t wake up late.
I layered on four skirts, black leggings, two sweaters and my winter coat. When I finally made it outside, it was still dark. I gathered all my magical items on my altar table and set up the candles by the light of my flashlight. Next, the fire was built so that I could light it as soon as the sun rose.
I cast a protective circle, called the elements and sat down to watch the sunrise. My coffee warmed my hands and the steam brushed my face. A plate of cookies sat nearby. Blankets were piled around my shoulders.
The sun touched the tree tops around me. They blazed like a torch. A signal that it was time to light the fire. I lit my yule log that had my hopes and wishes drawn in chalk.
I chanted a passage from my book of shadows. It spoke of the lengthening days and the end of the longest night.
Watching the sunrise was one of the most special moments of my life. I watched the sky turn from light blue, to pink, to orange, to blazing yellow. I felt the power of the rising sun run through my body. It left me feeling tingly and warm.
I cast a future happiness spell and filed my cauldron with pine branches and clear quartz.
I sat, covered in blankets, and watched the world brighten little by little. The fire continued to burn happily. All was beautiful and peaceful. The birds sang. I heard a roosters call in the distance. The cold wind bit at my nose. My outstretched fingers warmed by the fire. The sweet taste of jam cookies lingered in my mouth.
I felt happy and alive. The wheel of the year continued to turn.
Blessed Solstice.
As an agnostic modern witch, sometimes very old holiday traditions are hard to follow. I don’t have a patron deity or anything but I do still celebrate Christmas. So I put together a modern 12 day holiday guide so I can still celebrate the 12 days of Yule without having to try to cram everything in around my and my family’s work schedule. Now there are tons of ways to celebrate and tons of different traditions out there, so you can adapt this guide however you want.
A Lazy Witch’s Mabon
Today is Mabon (September 21st-23rd, technically celebrations can last through the 28th though) this is the holiday where the day and night are again equal right before the nights start getting longer than the days and the cold sets in. Around this time is when the second harvest would take place for those with farms.
The main themes that are celebrated in this holiday are balance, changing of the seasons, gratitude, and sharing.
Here are some simple things you can do to celebrate!
- Decorate your altar, you can do this with just things you have around the house or on the ground. If you live in an area with pinecones, those work just fine! Acorns? Perfect! Leaves? Wonderful! Any red, yellow, brown, or orange cloth? Include it! (This can even be clothing if you don’t mind having it on your altar)
- Since feasts are out of the question (partly because that’s a lot of work for a lazy witch guide, partly because there’s a pandemic and having a feast goes against social distancing), you can see incorporate the holiday into your personal meals. Have a lot of seasonal foods, like carrots and potatoes. Apples and pomegranates are also used traditionally to celebrate mabon.
- Either set up or recharge and check on home protection wards. Especially as the cold season approaches (and Samhain on roughly a month) you want you house protected from negativity.
- Make a talisman or sigil to help with seasonal depression. Something that will help keep your mood and energy balanced over the next few seasons until the weather warms up again. Might post a very simple talisman spell for a necklace after this.
- Make or buy a potpourri. For those that don’t know what it is, its a collection of dried herbs, leaves, flower petals and spices that are used to make you house smell good. Put traditional ma on herbs and spices in there as well as acorns or pinecones, bark from trees, and more to give it a more fall, woodsy look. Just put it out in pretty bowls around your house and you’re all decorated!
- Spend some time outside and take notice of the change in the air. Is the air colder? Are the plants changing? Are leaves changing colors yet? Meditate on this.
You don’t have to go all out for every holiday every year. Be easy with yourself and do as much as you can while preserving your mental health.
Happy Mabon witches
Things to do with dried rose petals
- Steep them in your tea
- Bake them into your pastries
- Smoke them
- Grind them up with your salt
- Burn them with your incense
- Add them to your altar
- Add them to your cleansing water
- Place them in your bos
Feel free to add you own ideas!
I know it’s not just me when the seasons get colder it puts me in the mood to do witchcraft
Being a solitary Wiccan (in study!) can be really difficult sometimes, but today I realized that celebrating holidays alone is maybe the hardest part, especially since my religion is secret to almost everyone I know, especially my family.
No holiday meals together, no harvest parties and celebrations, no coven meetings or special celebrations; just me. But I do what I can to make the holiday special, I prepared a nice Lughnasadh dinner and left offerings for the Horned Hod, and told him I hoped it would give him strength before his death in the upcoming months.
Nothing fancy, just developing my relationship with deity; do what you can!
Samhain Correspondences!!
Top left from- Wildwood & Sage
Top right from- waywardinspiration.com
Bottom left from- mumblesandthings.com
Bottom right from- Mabon House
It’s no secret that seasonal depression paired with a pandemic take a toll on
a lot of people. Sometimes we also just feel exhausted, we have too little time or just too little motivation to do big rituals or fancy ceremonies. Here is for
everyone who doesn’t have the energy at the moment but still wants to celebrate this holiday. Blessed Samhain to you all!- Eat an apple. Apples aren’t just symbols of Samhain, they also represent beauty, the divine, immortality and healing.
-Set an extra plate at dinner tonight. An easy gesture to show your ancestors or other passing souls that they are welcome and honored in your home.
-Meditate a few minutes before sleeping. You don’t need to take time out of your day to meditate, just use the last few minutes before you fall asleep to remind yourself of the things you are grateful for and what you would like to let go of.
-Open your windows wide. It doesn’t have to be an hour-long walk in nature all the time. Open your window and welcome the new cycle with all its prosperity and the healing it will bring you.
-Leave water and/or your crytsals somewhere where the moonlight reaches them tonight. Tonight is full of energy anyways but the blue moon boosts this a lot more. Your crystals and the water will hold this energy for later when you feel you have enough energy to use them.
-Place an offering on your windowsill. It can be a piece of bread, a glass of wine, some honey or a little milk. But whoever passes by will appreciate being able to strengthen themselves for their way back home.
I hope these will help some of you, feel free to add and reblog!