This ritual is designed to be performed on one’s own using readily available items. It can also be adapted to work in a group. There are a few tasks that need to be completed before the ritual (preferably the day before)
Items
- Representations of the elements
- Air: lit incense or a feather
- Fire: a lit candle or some chilis
- Water: a bowl of water or a shell
- Earth: a stone or a bowl of salt
- a blown egg (can also be dyed), or a drawing of an egg on a piece of plain paper that can be easily torn up
- 1 teaspoon of seeds (flower, fruit, grass, vegetable or grain) or dried flowers
- a strip of cloth (or small fabric pouch) big enough to enclose the egg
- a pen or needle and thread to draw or sew the sigil onto the cloth
- A piece of ribbon or string to tie the bundle
- a small jar of cold scented water (can be a floral water or water with a couple of drops of perfume, juice, or scented oil)
- A small bowl to soak the ribbon or string in
- A lit candle for the pre-ritual
Pre-Ritual
- Place the ribbon or string into the bowl. Have a lit candle near the bowl
- Carefully pour the cold scented water into the bowl as you feel the awakening Spring around you and in you. Feel the Spring infusing the water, saying:
“Frost and flame, flower and fruit, bind the spring by seed and root”.
- When you feel that the ribbon has been infused, take it out of the bowl and wring it out. Hang it up to dry.
- Give the water to a plant (indoors or outdoors) or dispose of it in a way that seems fitting to the ingredients.
- Meanwhile embroider or draw the story sigil onto the cloth or pouch (but not with the ribbon or string that will be used in the ritual spell)
Ritual set-up
- Place objects that represent the elements at the four quarter points of your circle.
- If you wish you can mark the circle space with flowers.
- The circle only needs to be big enough for you to sit inside (unless it is for a group ritual).
- Place the following objects at each quarter point:
- East: lit incense or a feather
- North: a lit candle or some chilis
- West: a bowl of water or a shell
- South: a stone or a bowl of salt
Ritual
- Make sure you have your cloth, string, egg and seeds / dried flowers with you in the circle space.
- Sit in the centre of your circle with the sigil cloth before you. On your left have the blown egg. To your right have the seeds and dried flowers.
- Visualise yourself as a pillar of energy and pull light into yourself from above and below.
- Connect a beam of light to each quarter and feel the representations of the elements glow.
- Visualise a connecting beam around the circle – joining each quarter point around the circumference of the circle in an anti-clockwise direction
- Expand the beam of light into a sphere connecting at the points above and below.
- Make the sphere live apart from your will.
- Sit facing the East with the egg (or drawing) at your left and the seeds at your right.
- Have the spell cloth / pouch and string in front of you. (Reverse this if your dominant hand is your left)
- Lay the spell cloth out and ritually trace the sigil upon it with your finger (you could also use a wand if you have one).
- As you do so, say the story of the sigil to yourself.
“The moon goes round the earth, the earth goes round the sun, when day and night are equal, the greening has begun.”
- Feel the sigil come alive.
- Take up the seeds / dried flowers and hold them in your right hand.
- Take up the egg and hold it in your left hand (or reversed if needed).
- Holding the objects, stare at the sigil before you and begin to contemplate the mystery of balance, the turning of the year from the balance of equal day and night, to the daylight being in the ascendant.
- Feel the mystery infusing your very being – even as you feel the balance of the egg and seeds moving through your body.
- You feel the forward motion of the wheel turning and begin to lean towards the cloth before you.
- When you feel the connection to the objects, the sigil and the mystery reaching their height, gently place the egg and seeds onto the cloth or inside the pouch. (If you are using a paper drawing of the egg, gently tear the paper into tiny pieces before placing them in the cloth / pouch)
- Take up the infused string and begin to bind the cloth over the egg and seeds, as you do so, chant:
“By egg and seed, by sigil true,
the powers be bound by the spring renewed”
- Keep chanting and binding until it is time to knot the string about the spell bundle. Then say:
“By my will, so mote it be,
let spring renew and growth be seen.”
- Now crush the bundle between your hands, rub your fingers and hands together and crush the egg and dried flowers inside the cloth. The seeds can remain whole (if they are to be planted) or be crushed as needed. Feel for them inside the bundle.
- As you crush the ingredients chant:
“Thus we banish Winter, thus we welcome Spring.
We say farewell to what is dead and greet each living thing”.
- Contemplate the bound bundle before you.
- Feel that the magic of Spring’s growth, renewal and change has infused the bundle.
Closing the circle
As you will be completing the ritual spell outside of your circle, now is the time to close your magical space.
There are several ways of doing this. Choose a method from below or close it in your usual manner.
- Disconnect from the elemental representations and directions and then let the circle space diffuse by your will.
- Disconnect from the elemental representations and directions and see them fade. Imagine that you are piercing the circle from within, parting a gateway and allowing the energies to return above and below to the earth and sky.
- Bring the beams in from above and below and from each of the four directions in either a clockwise or anticlockwise movement (as per your preferred direction) and then clap your hands three times and place your palms upon the ground.
Releasing the spell of spring’s growth
- When you are ready, take up your spell bundle and stand up.
- The spell bundle can now be released as a spring blessing upon a threshold, used in a project for growth, or released as an offering into a garden depending on the seeds and whether they are appropriate for the chosen landscape.
- You can perform the release straight after the ritual, or the next day as appropriate.
For a house blessing:
Walk the bundle around your dwelling including the kitchen, and finish at the front door.
“Bless my hearth, my home and hall, By spell of spring, be blessed all.”
Empty the crushed contents in a semi circle across the threshold (or if this is not possible, hide the bundle by the front door).
For a garden blessing:
Walk the bundle around a garden. Choose a spot to plant the seeds (in a pot or garden bed)
“Bless the soil, the seed and sun. By spell of spring, the growth’s begun.”
Empty the contents into the soil, pressing in the whole seeds and leaving the eggshells and crushed dried flowers on the surface.
Either dispose of the string and cloth in a manner appropriate to you, or keep them on an altar.
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