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October Magic Ritual Kit

Brigid’s Grove Prepared for our Creative Spirit Circle.

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Listen. The veil is thin. I spin the web. I call the circle.

I honor the ancestors. I am she who

weaves the whole She who

holds the all She who

knows the pattern of the ages.

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Ritual Recipe: Liminal Space

“Some October, when the leaves turn gold, ask me if I’ve done enough to deserve this life I’ve been

given. A pile of sorrows, yes, but joy enough to unbalance the equation.”

–Barbara Crooker

“Ritual is a way of speaking to the Goddess. In it women invoke both the inner and the universal deity

into the circle or group. Ritual is a way of reaching the be-ing of the Goddess, of the earth mother, and

of women’s Goddess-within. It is a way of creating thoughtfully chosen changes in the earthplane and

in women’s individual lives” (p. 45)

--Diane Stein, in Casting the Circle

Supplies:

Ritual Kit contents (available from brigidsgrove.etsy.com) or similar supplies you have collected

yourself

Goldstone

Story Goddess (any style)

Herbal offering

Candle

Bowl of water

Something sharp which can be used to carve the candle (knife, pin, toothpick, sharpened stick,

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pen/pencil)

Womanrunes book and card set or other oracle deck

Journal and pens

Optional: essential oil(s) for dressing your candle

This ritual may be done in solitude, or adapted and used with a group. Before you begin, decide which

elemental ritual you will be doing with your herbal offering (see page 9) and make sure you have what

you need for that ritual-within-a-ritual.

1. Put your goldstone by the threshold of the room you are in and set up a simple altar with the rest

of your ritual supplies and anything you’d like to add.

2. Offer an invocation, inspired by one by Renee Starr:

I stand in the center of your wheel, Great Goddess and I ask for your guidance, your essence,

and your blessings.

Let us turn to the East and call it in. Cool air. Fresh breath of wisdom. A sigh of release and freedom.

Let us turn to South and call it in. The brightness of new ideas. The warmth of the sun. The heat of our own skin.

Let us turn to the West and call in it. The rainfall. The sweep of the river. The swift hum of blood in our veins.

Let us turn to the North and call it. The solidness of stone. The grand arc of the trees against

the sky. The anchoring of our own feet on this beautiful ground.

3. Stand upright with your arms extended by your sides and your palms open. Center yourself in your

body, in this time and place, by humming gently as many times as you wish. Visualize your aura.

Where is it? What color is it? Where is it extending? Is it reaching into the fields of another person,

place, or group? Is it imbalanced or disrupted?

4. Hold your goddess in your hands. Call your spirit in, call your spirit back, from hubbub and bustle

and time pressure and to-do's.

I call my spirit back

I call my heart

I call my soul

I call my spirit back

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I am centered

I am whole.

You may also wish to say something like this:

I call my energy back to me.

I release whatever is blocking me.

I create a circle of open, clear, safe

space in front of me.

I call my energy back from wherever it

has wandered.

I create balance and harmony in my

aura right now.

I am centered and grounded.

I call my spirit back.

I call my spirit back.

I am whole, clear, and free.

5. Put one hand on your heart and one

hand on your belly and hum several

times again, visualizing your aura as

whole and completely connected to/

surrounding you.

Optional addition 1: You may then wish

to use some of Donna Eden's techniques from her Five Minute Energy Routine.

Video version

Handout version

Optional addition 2: Listen to the song Calling it In by Mary Isis and let your first responses to these

journal questions flow.

Where do you want to flow?

What are you calling in?

6. Hold your goddess sculpture and read the Blessing from the Harvest Queen aloud (or other

poem/prayer that you enjoy, or spontaneously offer).

7. Read the article about Liminal Space (page 10) and work with your Hecate wheel and/or the

liminal space mandala activity

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8. Based on what you discover in this exercise, carve symbols, words, or reminders to yourself on

your candle. You may wish to consciously or intuitively choose Womanrunes symbols to carve into

the candle. Light your candle and float it in your bowl of water.

Optional: here in sacred space, bless and dedicate

any of your sacred tools and ask for additional

guidance on the themes of this ritual, your life, or

the questions you are experiencing while in

liminal space.

9. Perform your ritual-within-a-ritual with your

herbal offering to seal your ceremony and the

work you have created, as well as to give thanks

to the earth and the Goddess for holding you in

ritual space.

Close the ritual by singing:

I am here

I am alive

I am whole

All is well.

(My Red Tent singing this is here)

“Every time you are aware of yourself slipping you call your spirit back, you call your attention back, call

your focus back. It is a constant discipline. It's as simple as that. You make it your discipline.

It's quite an elegant spiritual discipline and a very healthy one, because you live it every moment of the

day. You're constantly calling your spirit back. And, it helps so much because it makes you aware of how

easily you negotiate the presence of your spirit in your body, how easily something can take it out…”

--Caroline Myss, Anatomy of the Spirit

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Blessing from the Harvest Queen

May the sunset cloak of shorter days enfold you May you dance with the patterns of crimson and gold leaves May you sing with owl and coyote in crisp moonlight May you savor the orangeness of pumpkin and yam and feel the sweetness of honey on your tongue. May you listen to the dreams of seed corn May elderberry strengthen you with stored sunshine May persimmon grant you a fleeting hello May the poignant flare of an October rose kiss you with hope. May your rooms be wreathed with smiles. And, may you remember the grace and wisdom found in both gathering and releasing.

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Hecate of the Three Ways

She who shows her incisors She who midwifes death She who illuminates the crossroads. She who gathers and releases She who creates and destroys. She who covers and reveals. She is the darkness and the light within it. She is the crossroads and the path. She is the guardian and the wayshower before her and behind her is the knowing unknown.

Honey Roasted Vegetables Recipe My family delights in the orange vegetables of autumn with regular helpings of roasted fall vegetables. Here is our simple recipe. Enjoy!

½ stick butter (4 TB)

¼ c. honey (more or less according to taste) Sprinkle of salt

3 large peeled and chunked sweet potatoes 1 lbs baby carrots (one bag) or 4-5 large carrots peeled and sliced Optional: half of an acorn squash, peeled and chunked While you are cutting the vegetables, preheat the oven to 350. Put the honey and butter into a cake pan and set it in the oven to melt (about 7 minutes). Toss the cut up vegetables in the melted honey and butter mixture and return to the oven for 45-60 minutes, stirring/tossing every 15 minutes. Vegetables are most delicious when they have some browned areas and are caramelized.

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Elemental Herbal Rituals Adapted from Scott Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magickal Herbs

EARTH Take your herbs and charge them/it with your energy and goddess energy. Take the bag to a wild place

where plants grow, i.e. a forest, your backyard. With your hands, dig a small hole in the Earth and pour

the herbs into it, or simply scatter them upon the earth. Visualize your need strongly. Cover the herbs

over and leave the area. It is done.

AIR Take your herbs, and charge them/it with your energy and goddess energy. Visualize your need –

literally tell the herbs what they are being sent accomplish, breathing your intention/purpose/question/

need into them. Stand outside, preferably on a hilltop or peak. Hold the herbs in your power hand, and,

facing North, blow a little of them in that direction. Turn East and repeat the spell, then do so in the

South. At the West, blow all the herbs from your hand. Visualize your desire surrounding you and filling

you, then release the power you’ve built up into the wind. It is done.

FIRE Take your herbs, and charge them/it with your energy and goddess energy. Hold them in both hands,

visualizing your need/intention/question/purpose--see the energy you’ve built up leaving your body and

flowing into the herbs. Build a fire in a fireplace or light a campfire outdoors, or if these are not

available, light a candle, and have a fireproof dish handy. Throw the herbs into the fire, or light them

with the flame of the candle and place in the fireproof dish. As they burn, see the smoke as the energy

of your desire floating up into the Universe, seeking out its manifestation. It is done.

WATER Take your enchanted herbs to a river, spring, lake, or seashore. Hold them tightly in your power hand

and visualize your need/intention/desire/purpose/wish/question. With a sweeping motion, scatter the

herbs into the water and watch them drift away. It is done.

or...

Take the enchanted herbs and draw a bath. Scatter the herbs in your bath water, then sink into the

water and bathe, visualizing your need/intention/desire/purpose/wish/question the entire time. When

you are done, gather the herbs from the tub and place them outside in the Earth, or in a potted plant. It

is done.

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To Light a Flaming Pumpkin: The

Inexact Art of Family Ritual

Our bounty is in

creativity

friendship

community

the myriad small adventures

of everyday.

We tell of magic

and moonrise

and listening to the pulse

of the earth beneath our feet.

Ah, October. Fall has settled into the trees and

air. As the sun was setting and the full moon

was rising, my family stood together in the dim light on our back deck, lit a fire in a hollowed out

pumpkin and offered handfuls of herbs into the flames as we celebrated our blessings, our harvests, and

our bounty, as a family and as individuals. As we spoke aloud our blessings and our bounty, our words

got deeper, broader, and more authentic. My twelve year old son stepped forward to say how thankful

he is that he gets to live with his best friend, his fifteen year old brother, and they embraced over the

flaming pumpkin. My fifteen year old son offered his thanks for a family that has “cool rituals like this”

and my four year son offered his blessings for the “energy we feel together.” My seven year old

daughter offered her gratitude for pandas and for toys.

The next week, we returned the seeds to the pumpkin and released it to the outdoors to grow next

year.

Sixteen years ago, I held my first Winter Solstice ritual. I wrote my wish for a baby onto a small piece of

paper and rolled it up into a “seed” of my dreams that I planted within a special wooden box. On the

autumn equinox the following year, I gave birth to my first child, a son who now stands inches above

me, but who joins hands with his family each month to sing “Dance in the Circle of Moonlight” together

on the back deck under the full moon. After having this first baby, it became increasingly important to

me that we celebrate holidays and traditions that reflect our spiritual values and worldview rather than

the packaged version of the holidays offered by society, or the religious observances of dominant faiths

that do not match our own. While we have celebrated the wheel of the year together in a variety of

ways in fifteen years of parenting, it hasn’t been until this year that I feel I’ve finally truly hit my stride in

planning fulfilling, nourishing family rituals. Perhaps it is because I am no longer trying to juggle nursing

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a baby or changing a diaper while simultaneously also guiding a ceremony. Perhaps it is because I’ve

loosened up and accepted the myriad imperfections possible within a multi-age celebration. Perhaps it

is because when one of the children wanders off during circle or interrupts me while I’m talking, I accept

it as part of the flow, and continue our work without breaking my stride. Perhaps it is because I now

laugh too when someone makes a joke during my careful ritual, and continue to roll with it, instead of

feeling like it is disrespectful. Perhaps it is because I consider a 15-20 minutes family ritual perfectly

sufficient instead of trying to plan for a full-fledged, retreat-style “program” of activities. Perhaps it is

because we’ve joined hands in family circle in so many ways and for so many years that we all now trust

that I’m not giving up on doing this together.

This year we’ve anointed one another’s foreheads with fragrant oils while standing in the freezing water

of a freshwater stream. We’ve felt the raindrops kiss our faces and the rays of the sun peek in and out of

the clouds as we celebrate the summer solstice by releasing wildflowers into the river. We’ve howled at

the moon together, built a green man face from leaves, stones, and sticks in the field, created flower

mandalas, thrown pinches of cornmeal into the woods as a symbolic sacrifice, soaked our feet in warm

water laced with rose petals and then massaged one another’s feet with lotion, walked through a spiral

of candlelight, and offered handfuls of herbs into a flaming pumpkin.

As we notice the changing seasons and honor the call of nature within our lives through ceremony,

celebration, and song, we make visible the interconnected dance of life. We reaffirm our commitment,

our relatedness, to each other and to the natural environment around us. We communicate with and

are in relationship to that larger force of life and spirit that we call Goddess. And, we bring our spiritual

beliefs into our bodies, hands, minds, and hearts in an ever-spinning Wheel of celebration, attention,

observation, enjoyment, communion, and love.

“We can think of ritual as the container we weave in which we can be carried away by magic and

ecstasy.”

—Starhawk and Valentine, The Twelve Wild Swans

Here’s a simple outline for a family Samhain celebration:

Group hum/centering: an element common to each circle I priestess, whether family or larger, this practice quite literally brings each member of the circle into resonance with the group. We practice by placing our hands on one another’s backs and taking a few deep breaths together, usually while I guide us through a few words about releasing other thoughts, worries, or ideas we’ve brought with us to the ritual and just bringing ourselves fully into this moment together, sharing space with one another. We then hum together three times, to unify our energy and bring us together into ritual space. This shared hum truly does bring you into harmony with one another. I find this to be a very connected and simple

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means of casting a circle with our own bodies and physical energy. We usually hum in unison three times. With kids, sometimes it is not in unison and my eyes meet my husband’s over their heads in an effort to stifle laughter at the discordant chorus we create. Invocation using the body (this works well for kids because it is physically involved and interactive, rather than just listening):

Turn to the south, the element of fire, and rub your hands together, feeling the heat generated by your own body. Take your warm hands and place them on your heart, letting the heat sink into you. Feel how Fire lives in you. All say: Welcome fire, welcome south.

Turn to the west, the element of water, and lick your lips. Look at your wrist, at the blue

tracing of veins in your arm mirroring the pattern of the rivers running to the sea. Feel and appreciate the waters of your own body and how they are connected to the waters around the world. Feel how Water lives in you. Welcome water, welcome west.

Turn to the north, the element of earth, and feel the strength and stability of your own body, connected to the earth. Stomp your feet on the ground. Pat your hands against your thighs, feeling your strong legs and the presence of your own body, here on the body of the earth. Turn to the person next to you and give them a hug, feeling their solid presence. Feel how Earth lives in you. Welcome earth, welcome north.

Turn to the east, element of air, and take a deep breath in unison, inhale, exhale, feeling the breath of life in your body. Puff your breath out or take a deep sigh. Feel how Air lives in you. Welcome air, welcome east.

Light pumpkin (to prepare in advance, make sure you’ve cut the top off the pumpkin and hollowed

out the seeds—keep the seeds to plant with the remnants of your fire later. You may start the fire

with paper and a lighter and then keep adding herbs to keep it burning, or you may stoke it by

putting some alcohol in the bottom of the pumpkin to begin with. Alcohol burns cool and can create

a longer lasting, less smoky flaming pumpkin.

Offer your bounty with herbs sprinkles/handfuls—these can be spontaneous spoken aloud

declarations of your harvest, your celebrations, your gratitude, etc. What are you thankful for?

Optional: offer any sacrifices/releasing on slips of paper into the flames.

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Sing: Samhain is Here, Hallowed Evening, or Dance in a Circle of Moonlight

Closing prayer (to close our rituals, my family always joins hands and says the following prayer in

unison. You might choose a different prayer or choose to speak a blessing spontaneously based on

the mood, energy, and events of the evening):

May Goddess bless and keep us.

May wisdom dwell within us.

May we create peace.

(Carol Christ in She Who Changes)

Song Lyrics:

Samhain is Here, adapted from Gathered Here in

the UU Hymnal Singing the Living Tradition:

Gathered here

in the mystery of the hour

gathered here

in one strong body.

Gathered here

in the struggle

and the power.

Samhain is here.

Samhain is here.

Dance in a Circle of Moonlight modified from Marie Summerwood’s chant, Dance in a Circle of Women

Dance in a Circle of Moonlight Make a web of my life Hold me as I spiral and spin Make a web of my life

Hallowed Evening (by my kids and me)

Hallowed evening

Hallowed night

We dance in the shadows

We offer our light.

Credits:

Body invocation modified from Gathering for Goddess by Melusine Mihaltses

Flaming pumpkin inspiration from Coloring Book of Shadows: Planner for a Magickal 2018 by Amy

Cesari

Additional Articles:

All We Need to Make Magic by Molly (Feminism and Religion)

Tips for Rituals with Kids by Molly (Brigid’s Grove)

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Liminal Space

“The autumn woman moves towards dreamtime. Though she knows her limits, she has also felt limitless. She has known the ineffable. She wakes at night from dreams of high windy places where

small blue flowers bloom, and she knows in her bones that such places exist. Luminous beings appear in her dreams and pull her towards them. She recognizes the dust of infinity in a windstorm, the fragrance

of timelessness in a fire…”

—Patricia Monaghan, excerpted from Seasons of the Witch

The darker months of the year, as well as points of significant personal transition (such as childbirth), finds us in a time of liminal space.

"In anthropology, a liminal space is a threshold. It’s an ambiguous space in the middle stage of rituals, when participants no longer hold their pre-ritual status but have not yet begun the transition to the status they will hold when the ritual is complete. That liminal space finds us between who we once were and who we are becoming. It’s disorienting, uncomfortable, and it almost always takes far longer than we expect."

The following Liminal Space exercise comes from Heather Plett. She explains that liminal spaces might feel like "wasting time" or like "nothing is happening," but truly, "It’s a time of hibernation, a time of transformation, a time of resting, and a time of deep learning." She uses the metaphor of a caterpillar to explain the energy of liminal space.

Nobody teaches us more about liminal space than the lowly caterpillar. Not knowing why, and not having the capacity to imagine its future as a butterfly, a caterpillar knows only that it must surrender, shed its skin, create the shell of a chrysalis, and then dissolve into a formless, gel-like substance awaiting rebirth.

The liminal space is about surrender. It’s about releasing the caterpillar identity before we have the vision for the butterfly. It’s about falling apart so that we can rebuild. It’s about daring to go into the darkness so that we can, one day, emerge into the light. It’s about trusting Spirit to direct the transformation.

One of the most critical things that the caterpillar teaches us in its transformation is that we need the shell of the chrysalis to hold space for us when we fall apart.

We need a protective shell that holds us in our formless state. It keeps us safe in the midst of transformation. It protects us from outside elements so that we can focus on the important internal work we need to do. It believes in the possibility for us even before we have the capacity to believe it ourselves.

When we enter our own chrysalis, whether that is the waiting place of divorce, grief, pregnancy, job loss, career change, graduation, children moving away, or any number of human experiences, we must

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build our own chrysalises that hold the space for our transformation. Like a patchwork quilt, we stitch together the people or groups who hold space for us (family, friends, pastors, therapists, coaches, churches, sharing circles, etc.), the practices that help us hold space for ourselves (journaling, artwork, prayer, body work, meditation, etc.), and the spaces which make us feel safe for transformation (our home, the park, a church, etc.)

You may choose to follow Heather's prompts for creating a mandala about liminal space, or you may wish to incorporate parts of it into working with the Hecate Wheel that follows

Heather's Liminal Space Mandala Instructions:

1. Draw a large circle and a second slightly smaller circle inside it. 2. At the centre of the mandala, glue or draw an image or words that represent the liminal space. (I used an image from The Waiting Place in “Oh, the Places You’ll Go”. Another idea might be an image of a chrysalis.) 3. In the space between the image and the next largest circle, write sentences, words, or phrases that represent what The Waiting Place is like. Explore your emotions, fears, resistance, etc., and also explore your wishes, your opportunities for learning, etc. You can use the following as prompts for starting your sentences: – I feel… – I am… – I fear… – I want… – I will… – I am learning… – I wish… 4. Imagine that the outer rim (between the two outer circles) is your chrysalis. Inside the rim, write down all of the people who hold space for you, all of the practices that help you hold space, and all of the places you go when you need to hold space for yourself. 5. Colour/decorate your mandala however you wish. As you are doing so, set an intention for what you wish to invite in as you surrender to the chrysalis. For example, I whispered an intention for more patience and grace as I wait for the next story to emerge.

Hecate Wheel

The Hecate Wheel is an ancient Greek prayer wheel. It may be used

for meditation, divination, or as a mandala. At the center of this one

is the Sun, from Womanrunes, the Rune of Healing, which you may

use as a healing intention focus point. You may color or decorate the

Wheel, cut it out and mount it so it can be spun, use it as a grid for

crystals, mini goddesses, or cards. It may also be incorporated into a

Liminal Space exercise above, such as using the Hecate Wheel at the center of your larger mandala

drawing, or using it as the base of your mandala itself.

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Claim Your Magic Witch’s Hat Layout

1 2

3

1. What am I afraid of?

2. What is my magic?

3. Action. How to get there?

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Cauldron Layout

Adding

Steeping

Dishing

1. What am I bringing to the mix? What am I adding to the Cauldron? What

flavors am I mixing in? This might be something I’ve been reluctant to share or

it might be a promise I’m keeping to myself.

2. What needs time to steep to reach its full potential and maximum flavor?

What is marinating and soaking and reaching for deepness and richness and

complexity? What does my body need? What does she know?

3. What am I serving up? What am I offering? When it is time for the feast, what

will I share?

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Come join the Circle!

Membership in the Creative Spirit Circle is FREE and packed with beautiful, bountiful

resources, including:

a free Womanrunes e-course

Companion online classroom

Goddess Studies and Ritual course

weekly virtual circles in our Facebook group

Red Tent, sacred ceremony, and ritual

resources

blessing posters and mandalas

access to Divine Imperfections sculptures

monthly Creative Spirit Circle Journal filled

with resources such as ceremony outlines,

articles, book recommendations, sneak

peeks, and special freebies.

Claim your place in the Circle:

brigidsgrove.com/come-join-the-circle

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Red Tent Initiation Program

Following the spiral path of maiden, mother, and crone…

This online course is both a powerful, personal experience

AND a training in facilitating transformative women’s circles.

You will listen to your deep self, access your inner wisdom

and prepare to step into circle as guardian and guide for

other women who are hungering for depth, connection,

restoration, and renewal in today’s busy world.

Practical Priestessing

Do you feel that divine hum of resonance in your bones when you hear the word Priestess? Do you want to learn tools, resources, and rituals for practical priestessing? This is a comprehensive six-month long, in depth priestess initiation program for women called to vocational priestess work.

www.brigidsgrove.com

Connect with Brigid’s Grove:

brigidsgrove.com

patreon.com/brigidsgrove

facebook.com/brigidsgrove

instagram.com/brigidsgrove

brigidsgrove.etsy.com

Creative Spirit Circle Facebook Group:

facebook.com/groups/

brigidsgrovecreativespiritcircle

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About the Author:

Molly has been gathering the women to circle, sing,

celebrate, and share since 2008. She plans and facilitates

women’s circles, Red Tents, seasonal retreats and rituals,

Pink Tent mother-daughter circles, and family ceremonies in

rural Missouri and teaches online courses in Red Tent

facilitation and Practical Priestessing.

Molly is a priestess who holds MSW, M.Div, and D.Min

degrees and wrote her dissertation about contemporary

priestessing in the U.S.

Molly is the author of Womanrunes, Earthprayer, She Lives

Her Poems, and The Red Tent Resource Kit. She writes about

women’s circles, nature, practical priestessing, creativity,

family ritual, and the goddess at Brigid’s Grove, SageWoman

Magazine, and Feminism and Religion.

About Brigid’s Grove:

Molly and Mark co-create original goddess sculptures,

goddess pendants, and ceremony kits at

brigidsgrove.etsy.com. They publish Womanrunes and the

accompanying oracle deck, based on the work of Shekhinah

Mountainwater.

Brigid's Grove integrates Molly's priestess work with our

family's shared interests in ceremony, art, gemstones,

metalwork, nature, and intentional, creative living.

Brigid is the Irish triple goddess of smithcraft, poetry, and

midwifery. She is also a Christian saint associated with

midwives, birthing mothers, and infants.