Midsummer

Like every other sabbat, Litha comes with its own beliefs. Besides the well-known and traditional rituals of lighting a bonfire (or building a smaller fire to be jumped over), as well as drinking, dancing and making love, there are many lesser known rituals linked to the celebration of midsummer.

To honor the culmination of the Oak King's rule, men traditionally wore wreaths of woven oak leaves on their heads and women wreaths of midsummer flowers. Pick some blossoms and place them under your pillow on Litha night and you will dream of your future husband.

Want to be healthy throughout the coming year? Then be sure to be up to see the sun rise on the solstice. If you're in need of healing, the calendula (marigold) plant was believed to possess miraculous healing powers when picked on Litha. The traditional healing plants to be picked on the sabbat for the coming year are fennel, rue, rosemary, lemon verbena and st. john's wort, among many others.

Place a swag of summer greenery over your front door for a year of luck and prosperity.

And despite the joy and abundance associated with midsummer, there is always at least one festival that flies in the face of love, health and prosperity. Fortunately, the medieval French ritual of burning cats on midsummer's night has long since disappeared (especially if you happen to be a cat).

A blessed Litha to you all and safety in all you engage in that night.

Photo courtesy of mermaiden creations on flickr.

Trees 101: The Beech

Beech trees have a long magickal and medicinal history. Used for centuries in Druidic rituals, forked beech branches are also a great choice to use as a divining or dowsing rod. Associated with rebirth, reincarnation, transformation, and ancestors, beech trees are used as protection against lightning strikes as they are a good conductor of electricity.

Beech is known as the "mother of the woods" and is the Beech Queen to the Oak King, providing shelter to shorter, smaller trees and food for humans and animals. Beechnuts are believed to bring wisdom to those who eat them and are used as protective amulets. They can also be carried or worn as lucky charms. The beech tree is associated with time, wisdom and knowledge. Scratching your name or wish on the bark of a beech tree- either on the tree itself or a piece torn off, written on and then buried- will ensure that your wishes will come true. This simple wishing spell dates back millennia.

Likewise, the bark, leaves, roots and sap all have medicinal properties. Beech is said to cure burns, ulcers and liver problems, as well as tuberculosis. Beech bark and leaves can be used as an astringent and can even be found in many modern skin care products. Beech brings relaxation to those who use it.

Using beech wood in your spellwork will bring stability to your life, will help you bring your intentions to fruition, can be used in cleansing and protection rituals, is a perfect offering for the Goddess(es) you may worship and can be used to contact ancestors in ritual as well. Beech vibrates to a feminine energy as well as to the elements of fire and water and is ruled by the planet Saturn.

Photo courtesy of Kornelis on flickr.

Trees 101: The Holly

Holly is one of those rare plants that remains green and thrives this time of year when all is sleeping or dead, and as such deserves its reputation (along with oak) as one of the two most magickally powerful trees. It is the power in these two woods that spawned the legend of the Oak King and the Holly King as oak thrives during the warmer, lighter half of the year and holly in the darker months of cold. But holly is in fact symbolic of the Goddess, with its red berries representing the blood of life she bestows on us. It is one of the nine sacred woods of the sabbat fire and represents, through the Goddess, justice.

Holly is used for protection against witchcraft, evil spirits, mischievous sorcerers, poison and lightning and having holly in your home, especially at the new year, is guaranteed to bring luck and safety to your house and all who dwell within. Keep a small sprig of it in your home throughout the year to manifest its protective properties continually. It's lucky for a man to carry a bit of holly on his person as holly is a "male" plant in contrast to ivy which is "female." Holly berries can be used to predict winter weather. If you see holly bushes with an abundance of berries, it's sure to be a harsh winter as the Goddess is guaranteeing an ample food supply for our wild friends, both furry and feathered. If you are startled by a wild animal while out walking in the woods, throw a sprig of holly at it and it will lie down quietly and leave you alone, even if you don't actually hit the animal!

Holly can be used medicinally to fight fevers and to stop jaundice and it is used to enhance dream work. Dreaming of holly means that you must attend to that which troubles you, but picking holly leaves in a dream means you will live a long life. On a Friday after midnight, and in total silence, gather nine holly leaves, wrap them in a small white cloth using nine knots to tie it closed and place it beneath your pillow. Your dreams will be sure to come true.

Holly is ruled by both Mars and Earth and vibrates with a masculine energy to the elements of earth, air and fire.

Photo courtesy of Tollen on flickr.

Yule Lore

The solstice this year occurs at 12:47 PM EST on December 21.

The celebration of Yule has always revolved around fire and light, this being the longest night of the year. From this day on, the sun once again gains in strength with each passing day. On the night of the solstice, villagers would celebrate the rebirth of the Oak King and the coming light with enormous bonfires built in their fields and they wassailed the crops and trees of those fields with spiced cider and other drinks. Wassailing comes from Middle English by way of old Norse and traditionally meant to toast one's health or luck with drink but the word wassail has since most frequently been used to refer to the actual drink of mulled cider, wine or beer that has had sugar, cinnamon, apples and other fruits added to it and served as a Christmas punch. The term wassailing can also be used to refer to revelry in general, which is fitting for the celebration of this sabbat.

Children would be escorted from house to house with apples and oranges spiked with fresh cloves and these would be placed in baskets lined with evergreen boughs and wheat stalks dusted with flour. The oranges and apples were symbolic of the sun, the evergreens eternal life, the wheat represented the abundance of the harvest and the flour the triumph of light and life. Holly, mistletoe and ivy were used to decorate inside the house as an invitation to the Nature Sprites, in the hopes that they would join in the night's celebrations. A sprig of holly was frequently kept by the front door year round to ensure good fortune for those who dwelled within.

The highlight of the night's celebration was the lighting of the Yule log, which must either have been harvested from the owner's land or given as a gift. Traditionally, a Yule log must never be bought. It was then placed within the fireplace, decorated with evergreen boughs, sprinkled with cider or beer, dusted with flour and then set ablaze where it would be left to burn throughout the night and then worked so as to remain smoldering for twelve days before being put out. A small piece from the fire was kept and used the following year to start the next year's Yule fire. Various woods are believed to be the traditional one for a Yule log fire, from ash to oak to willow, but my personal preference is for birch.

However you choose to celebrate this sabbat, do it with great joy and energy! Feel the delight in your heart as you welcome back the sun as it warms our planet and brings new life in the wonderful new year to come. Peace!

Photo courtesy of mukumbura on flickr.

Trees 101: The Oak

The second tree of the nine sacred woods of the sabbat fire is the oak. The sacred oak is the symbol of strength, of the God at his most virile. The ancient Greeks knew the oak as the "Mother Tree" and believed that man was created from the branches of the oak, a creation myth that I find much lovelier than woman being born from Adam's rib. In fact, many ancient cultures around the globe have myths that have their earliest peoples being born from oak trees. Some believe that acorns were the very first food found by man.

Everyone knows that oak is one of the hardest and sturdiest woods available and thus frequently use it for furniture and home building, but medicinally it can be used to treat sore throats, fevers and skin rashes, uses that are not as well known. Carrying an acorn brings luck to the bearer and acorns can be used in divination as well. Burning oak leaves in your home will help to clear away negative energy and the wood can be used in ritual or on an altar to represent the God. Yule is when the Oak King vanquishes the Holly King and so oak is always the traditional wood for the Yule log. Be sure to save a small piece of it to light the Yule log the next year as tradition requires! Many believe this sacred tree of the God is a doorway to other realms and if you have ever really looked in awe at an enormous oak tree, it isn't too difficult to believe. It is also believed that the roots of an oak tree extend into the earth as far as the visible tree is tall above the ground, increasing its strength.

The oak tree is masculine and vibrates to the elements of both air and fire and is ruled by the planet Jupiter as well as the sun. Oaks are one of the nine sacred woods for a sabbat fire in which it represents the God. Traditionally, oak is burned at Litha as this is the time of the year when oak reaches the peak of its power and strength.