2010 Sabbat Dates

The Sabbats are based on astrological times. Culturally, we celebrate Beltane on May 1st, but the actual cross quarter time always falls a few days later, around the fifth of May. I personally recognize & honor the power of both days. All of the following times listed are in Universal Time.

Imbolc
February 3rd, 22:30

Spring Equinox
March 20, 17:32

Beltane
May 5, 14:32

Summer Solstice
June 21, 11:28

Lughnasa
August 7, 14:45

Autumn Equinox
September 22, 03:09

Samhain
November 7, 12:33

Winter Solstice
December 21, 23:38

Pagan Wiccan Wheel of the Year Calendar Dates 2009

Pagan and Wiccan Holy Days of the Year.

February 1st - Imbolc. Moonrise @ 9:53am

March 20th - Spring Equinox or Vernal Equinox @ 5:44am

May 1st - Beltane. Moonrise @ 12:12pm

June 20th - Summer Solstice @ 11:43am

August 1st - Lughnasah . Moonrise @ 4:32pm

September 22nd - Fall Equinox or Autmnal Equinox @ 3:23pm

October 31st - Samhain. Moonrise @ 4:32pm

December 21st - Winter Solstice @ 10:46am

To purify your home in winter

If you have pine boughs left over from your Yule decorations this is a wonderful way to use them before they dry up.

To purify your home in winter, mix a pinch of ginger and all spice with a drop of olive oil in a 1/4 cup of water. Anoint the tips of a small pine branch and sprinkle in the corners of your home. Begin in the north and work clockwise around your home. Give special attention to the windows, doors and fireplaces.

Labyrinth Meditation Solstice Ritual

A labyrinth is an ancient symbol that relates to wholeness. It combines the imagery of the circle and the spiral into a meandering but purposeful path. The Labyrinth represents a journey to our own center and back again out into the world. Labyrinths have long been used as meditation and prayer tools.


A labyrinth is an archetype with which we can have a direct experience. We can walk it. It is a metaphor for life's journey. It is a symbol that creates a sacred space and place and takes us out of our ego to "That Which Is Within."



This year we used the labyrinth to create our circle for Winter Solstice ritual. The labyrinth ended with our Yule tree in the center. Our ceremony included a blessing of the tree and decoration, giving thanks to all that has been sacrificed to sustain us.



The addition of a walking meditation was critical to developing a new level of magic for our coven. It created a sacred space for each individual and heightened the trance state of all who entered. It automatically cast the circle for us and held the energy invoked. Then, as we processed out, the labyrinth served as a division between the worlds that we could re-enter slowly in contemplation and at our own pace. For rituals centered on giving thanks, a labyrinth is a highly recommended addition.

Winter Wassail and a tribute to the trees

As a tribute to the apple trees that fed them year round, the Anglo-Saxons made a drink of mulled cider that they would bring to wassail the trees in the orchard.

The drink was simmered apple cider, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, allspice, a slice of orange, a dash of ginger, and a finger full of honey. Since apples are the property of Bride, honey should be added from the mount of Bride (Venus) - having been tasted first, so the Goddess may trust the honey's source.

When the Wassail was ready it was custom to gather in the apple orchard and sing and toast with drink. Sing to the trees your thanks for all they give - asking nothing but good stewardship in return. Sacrifice some of the Wassail at the root of the trees with your blessing.

If you do not have apple trees, then choose what works for you. The winter is when nature takes her rest from all the work she does to provide us with sustenance the rest of the seasons. Any time around the solstice is a great time to appreciate her with this simple ritual.

Sugar Body Scrub

This is a great spa treatment that you can make at home.
If you have dry or sensitive skin, this is a good choice for you.

1 cup sugar (preferably raw)
1/2 cup vegetable oil (olive or grape seed are good choices)
7 drops Lavender essential oil
4 drops geranium essential oil
2 drops sandalwood essential oil
2 drops ylang ylang essential oil
optional: 2 Tbs jojoba, avocado, or almond oils

Mix all ingredients in a glass bowl. Use a stainless steel spoon to combine the sugar and oil.

Kitchen Witchen: Lavender Salt

Flavored salts are very easy make and give the heavier winter meats a nice lift.
For this recipe, you will need

1 Cup Celtic Sea Salt

1 Tbs. Lavender flowers
1 tsp. dried lemon peel
1/2 tsp rosemary

Place the dried lavender, lemon peel and rosemary in a dedicated coffee grinder. Pulse until powdered. In a glass bowl, combine Celtic Sea Salt
with powdered herb mix. Place mixture into airtight glass jar. This herbed salt mixture is great as a lamb rub, on fresh tomatoes or steamed veggies, like asparagus.

Evergreen Kissing Balls

Mistletoe, or the golden bough, is a parasitic plant that grows on a variety of host trees, including the mighty Oak. Mistletoe is a sacred plant to the Druids and is also featured in Greek, Norse and Roman mythology and lore. It is an evergreen that bears fruit at Winter Solstice and is thought to have been used in the Druid Solstice Rites as a symbol of immortality.

For this project, you will need:

• A potato
• evergreens like holly, ivy, pine, rosemary, and of course, mistletoe
• ribbons & tiny ornaments to decorate
• a sturdy wire to hang the ball

Many people make the kissing ball with foam balls or florists forms, but I think that using a round potato for the base is better for the Earth. The moisture in the potato will naturally help keep the cut greens fresh. Gather evergreens like holly, ivy, pine, rosemary, and of course, mistletoe (to be added as a trim at the end).
Soak greenery to be used in water overnight. You may need to poke starter holes in the potato with a skewer. Insert evenly sized sprigs of the evergreens into the potato until it is completely covered. You can make a wild, more organic shape, or carefully space the evergreen sprays to form an even, well-rounded ball. When the ball is shaped to your liking, trim it with ribbons, berries, mistletoe or tiny ornaments. In order to hang from a doorway, fasten a long piece of wire to the ball.

Kitchen Witchen: Spicy Chocolate Cookies

For this recipe, you will need:

• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 3/4 cup cocoa
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 teaspoons ground cardamom
• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 2 cups light brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
  

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Mix together dry ingredients (flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt and spices) and set aside. Cream butter and sugar together well, scraping sides of bowl as needed.
Add eggs, vanilla, and rum and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy.
Add dry mixture gradually, blending at low speed just until combined.
Carefully mix in chocolate chips.
Drop by rounded tablespoons, 2 inches apart onto a cookie sheet.
Bake 11-13 minutes.
Remove from pan and cool on a cooling rack.

Kitchen Witchen: Love Chocolate

This loved up cocoa mix is a great way to keep you and your beloved warm. Package in a red or pink jar for tasty gift.

For this recipe, you will need:

• 3 cups powdered milk
• 3/4 cup cocoa
• 3/4 cup vanilla sugar
• 2 Tbs rose petals (make sure these are unsprayed and suitable for human consumption)
• 1 tsp lavender
  
• 1 tsp cardamom
  

Grind the rose petals and lavender in a dedicated coffee grinder. Add the powdered flowers to the remaining ingredients in a large glass bowl. Pack the mix into an airtight jar or decorative tin.
Make a label with instructions to prepare the mixture.
Hot Chocolate
Serves 1
4 tablespoons Hot Chocolate Mix
8 ounces boiling water
Add marshmallows or whipped cream.

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Vanilla Love Sugar

Vanilla is a sexy smell and flavor that comes from an orchid, pictured above. A native plant of Mexico, it is the only edible fruit in the orchid family. Mexico's Totonac people, tell a folk tale about Xanat, the youngest daughter of a fertility goddess who fell in love with a mortal. Because they were unable to marry, she decided to transform herself into the first vanilla plant. With this self sacrificing act of eternal love, she hoped to always provide he true love with pleasure and happiness. I wonder if this is the root of vanilla's aphrodisiac qualities? It has been administered by doctors as a tonic to ensure male potency and "stimulate the sexual propensities"


Making Vanilla Love sugar is very easy.
For this recipe, you will need:

• 1 vanilla bean
• 2 cups of sugar

Put sugar in to a glass, airtight container. Split the side of bean with back of knife and scrape seeds into the container with the sugar. Bury bean in sugar and seal tightly with lid. Let sit for 1 to 2 weeks. One tablespoon of vanilla sugar has the flavoring power of 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Kitchen Witchen: Wassail

The word 'Wassail' is derived from the Old Norse 'Ves heill'. The Old English salutation 'Wes Hal' is derived from this Norse greeting and means 'Be In Good Health'. Wassailing is not just an excuse to drink and be merry, but is a serious ritual in areas like rural Devon where the apple plays an important part of the local economy. People gather in the orchards around a selected tree with the hardy spiced wassail in tow. The tree is celebrated and honored with music, singing, dancing and offerings of wassail soaked toast. Shotguns are fired and a general racket is created by the crowd, banging their saucepan lids and making percussive noises on all manner of improvised instruments. I imagine this is for purification as well as the traditional reason - to wake up the tree ready for the next crop. Anything that will help the trees produce a generous harvest is wholeheartedly encouraged.

Old Apple tree, old apple tree;
We've come to wassail thee;
To bear and to bow apples enow;
Hats full, caps full, three bushel bags full;
Barn floors full and a little heap under the stairs

Traditional recipes often have eggs and ale or mead in them. Here is a adapted modern version of wassail with honey and spiced red wine.

• 2 Cups water
• 1 Cup organic honey
• 4 whole cloves
• 3 sticks cinnamon
• 2 apples cored and wedged
• 1 inch of grated fresh ginger
• 1 lemon, thinly sliced
• 1 orange, thinly sliced
• 1 bottle medium dry red wine

Boil together water, honey, cloves, ginger and cinnamon for five minutes. Add apple wedges and thinly sliced lemon and orange (rind and all) and allow to stand for 7 or 8 minutes on low simmer heat. Add the red wine and heat slowly until just below boiling point.

Wassail Bowl as a Pagan Present

There is a wondrous feeling of commradery and celebration when you pass a bowl of tasty grog around the circle. The Winter's Solstice is a time to give thanks for making it through the season, as it marks the shortest day of the year. "We have faith that spring will return in her veiled robes of the green goddess."

But the Wassail Bowl has an interesting origin.

The passing of the bowl probably originates from a toast that still exists in Scandinavia. The familiar modern Scandinavian toast "sköl" derives from "scole", the drinking bowl shaped like the upper half of a human skull.

Originally, these bowls were fashioned from the actual skulls of enemy killed in battle. The pagan Scandinavians celebrated Juul (Yule) and passed skulls full of drink to celebrate. The actual verbal toast used was the old Norse wes heill meaning "to your good health."



When Norse invaders came to Celtic lands, they brought their own customs. They passed eventually into local culture. They were adopted and morphed into their more familiar forms of today. Now we commonly pass a wooden bowl, perhaps the influence of the druids and the reverence of mistletoe.

If you are a master with a lathe, you may enjoy the challenge the making a wooden bowl to suit. But, if you cannot, you may carve symbols and decoration into a pre-made wooden bowl instead. If carving doesn't suit you, you might get creative with some silver paint.

Giving a Wassail Bowl is a highly symbolic gift. It should be treasured among loyal friends and family.

Aztec Hot Chocolate Mix

This spiced cocoa mix is a great way to keep warm, all winter long. Packaged in a cool jar and it makes a unique and tasty gift.

For this recipe, you will need:

• 3 cups powdered milk
• 3/4 cup cocoa
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 Tbs cinnamon
• 1 teaspoons ginger powder
• 1 teaspoons cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Sift the ingredients into a large glass bowl. Pack the mix into an airtight jar or decorative tin.
Make a label with instructions to prepare the mixture.
Hot Chocolate
Serves 1
4 tablespoons Hot Chocolate Mix
8 ounces boiling water
Add marshmallows or whipped cream.

I have even been known to add tequila! If you want to try a delicious spicy hot chocolate, but don't have the time or desire to make this mix, try Organic Fair Trade Xocolatl Hot Chocolate from Dagoba

Witches Brew: Prophetic Dreams Tea

Making batches of dried tea is a very inexpensive and lovely way to shared herb magic or botanical alchemy. Most everyone enjoys a good cuppa, pagan or not. We will post more tea recipes that both the muggles and pagans in your life will appreciate. But to kick off the Witches Brew series, timed with the full moon, it seems only right to start with a recipe for Prophetic Dreams Tea. You can usually find a good selection of bulk herbs at your local health food store or at a herb or magic shop. For this recipe, you will need

• 3 parts Rose Petals
• 2 parts mugwort
• 2 parts Yarrow
• 1 part mint
• 1 part jasmine
• 1 part chamomile
• 1/2 part Cinnamon Stick, break or grind into chucks.
  

Mix all ingredients in a glass or wooden bowl. Package in a food grade, airtight container, amber glass is preferred as light degrades the aromatic and magical properties of dried herbs & flowers.

If you want to go the extra mile, you could create a tea kit with Organic Hawaiian Lehua Honey, a wand style tea infuser and a Fairy Magic Ceramic Travel Mug.

Altar Cloth

Altar Cloths made to express particular sentiment are a wonderful addition to any spell casting. Altar cloths can change an area of dedication from a love altar to a health altar rapidly. They are usually one of the first pieces of altar building to be considered for any ritual.

You can never have to many. As a matter of fact, as you build your own personal collection, you will start to determine what makes them "collectible". Consider your criteria when making them as gifts. There are several things to ponder:

• Shape -rectangle, square, round, ect.
• Color - choose according to the planetary attribute or vibration you wish to invoke.
• Size - measurements have their own magic. Look to numerology and Magic Squares for more information.
• Decoration - symbols and ornament can be added to the cloth. Your choices are endless, but pertinent. Beads, bones, feathers, fringe, ribbon, yarn, embroidery, painted stencils, and freehand painting are just a few of the choices you have to embellish the cloth.
• Symbols and design - do your research. Choosing symbols for another can be tricky. I find meditating on my best intention for someone usually reaps reward.

As with any creative endeavor, its really an expression of your souls love for another. So flow with it. Imbue your project with the right vibration when making it and it will be cherished no matter what.

If you don't have time for such a sewing project but like the idea for a gift, here are a few I would recommend.

Going Green for Solstice

One of my favorite Solstice gifts to give are small pots of kitchen herbs. They communicate the meaning of the season on many levels. First there is the literal "green" life affirming nature of a live plant in the middle of winter. Second, anyone doing any cooking knows the power of a little herbal magic..add some basil for love, rosemary for fond memories, lavender for protection, and so on. Third, they are very environmentally friendly and a sustainable gift that keeps on giving.

I love to paint the clay pots with positive messages that are fun to have in the kitchen or a home window sill somewhere. Quotes like " A Goddess Lives Here" or "Kitchen Witches Cook With Love" work for me. But you can just paint symbols or what have you to decorate the pots.

Typically, I will paint a set of six 2" pots and use herbs like Oregano, Rosemary, Chive, Basil, Sage, and Mint. You can choose whatever combination of herbs you wish. Happy planting!

If you are pressed for time or don't want to get dirty, you could always buy a kit, which contains three blue glazed planters with a matching drip tray, premium seeds, organic soil and growing instructions.

The French Country Herb Trio contains seeds for parsley, marjoram and lemon basil; while the Italian Herb Trio comes with basil, oregano and chives.

All content here is copyrighted by Free Spells Daily 2008. Rabbit stop stealing our posts and reposting them as yours.

Citrus Bay Flavored Vinegar

5 cups organic apple cider vinegar
pared zest of an orange
16 fresh bay leaves
optional bay leaves & orange zest to put int he bottle after infusion

Bring apple cider vinegar just to the boiling point in glass pan.
Put orange zest and bay leaves into a clean, sterilized wide mouthed jar.
Pour vinegar over the zest and leaves.
Seal tightly and leave in a sunny place for 2-3 weeks.
Feel free to gently agitate or invert jar.

After 2- 3 weeks, strain the infused vinegar, discarding zest and herb.
Pour into clean, sterilized bottles or jars.
Add optional pared zest and bay leaves for decoration.
Seal and store in a cool, dry, dark place.

If you are pressed for time or lack the kitchen witch gene, you could always buy a fabulous flavored vinegar and add a little of your own magic. This Citrus Oil & Mango Chardonnay Vinegar is created individually, by hand, bottle by bottle, in small batches.

All content here is copyrighted by Free Spells Daily 2008. Rabbit stop stealing our posts and reposting them as yours.

Organic Cranberry Cordial

For this project, you will need

• 6 Cups (24oz) organic cranberries, chopped
• 4 cups sugar, organic
• 3 cups premium vodka, I prefer organic Ocean vodka

Mix all ingredients in 2 quart jar.
Cover tightly and let stand at room temperature 2 weeks.
Stir mixture or invert the jar daily.
Strain; pour cordial into decorative food grade bottles and seal.
Makes about 5 cups cordial.

Orange Clove Pomanders

Both oranges and cloves have long been magically associated with love, money and prosperity. Giving the gift of a prosperity charm is always welcome.

For this project, you will need

• Large orange
• Whole Cloves
• Ribbon for hanging
• Toothpick

Using the toothpick, make holes in your orange. These holes will be used to poke the whole clove into. Keep adding the cloves until your design is complete. You can cover the entire orange with cloves, or you can make patterns by arranging the cloves in circles, lines or spirals. The fruit will shrink as it dries so space the cloves about 1/8" apart.

Use some ribbon to tie a large bow around the orange for hanging. These make great end of year gifts for kids to give teachers and are lovely to have around during solstice.