Artwork by Jos. a. Smith©
Used with the permission of the artist

Boudica

Pagans and food – a winning combination.  We love to eat and we love any celebration that involves food. 

In the Wheel of the Year, we have three Harvest Festivals:  Lughnasadh, Mabon and Samhain.  The best known is the Samhain, as it is also our New Year as well as our celebration of our Ancestors and those who have passed over to the Summerland.   On this holiday we usually have large celebrations with friends and family.
 

But the celebration of Lughnasadh is a small and quiet celebration of one of the smaller turns of the Wheel of the Year.  This holiday celebrates the harvesting of the grains and the berries.

OK, so what does this mean to me? 

As pagans, witches, or those who are of the earth based spiritualities, we strive to tune our bodies to the cycles of the Earth and the universe.

To read the rest of Boudica's Lughnasadh ritual please click here. 

Other rituals by Boudica on TWPT

• Midsummer Ritual
• Lughnasadh Ritual
• Mabon Ritual
• Samhain Ritual
• Yule Ritual
• Imbolc Ritual
• Ostara Ritual
• Beltane Ritual

During Litha, there seem to be two main focuses-one is the Midsummer Faerie aspect, which I explored in a ritual sometime back.  Here is another focus-the Oak King/Holly King duality.  Here we have the changeover from Waxing Year to Waning Year and so I devised a ritual which celebrates both the ascendancy of the Holly King and the death of the Oak King.  This ritual is from my book, Dancing With The Sun-you may not reprint it without permission.

This ritual, taking place at sunrise on the Summer Solstice, requires some advance planning and practice, but is a striking ritual to perform. 

One man will represent the Holly King and one man the Oak King.  If they are married, their wives will represent the Oak and Holly wives, if not--then choose other women from your group for these parts.

To read the rest of Yasmine's Summer Solstice ritual please click here

During the waning half of the year, we encounter the energy of sacrifice, of descent into the Underworld. The three harvests, the Grain Harvest of Lughnasadh, the Harvest of Fruits at Mabon and the Harvest of Meat at Samhain, represent the dying cycle of the year, the turning of the Wheel to more barren times. Life at one time was far more precarious than it is now; our ancestors relied on the harvests to see them through the icy parts of the year. Our forebears were never sure whether the world would come through the hard times or not each season; weather being unpredictable; life never being stable. If there was not enough grain, fruit, meat..........they would starve.

For the rest of Yasmine Galenornorn's Samhain ritual please click here.

Several years back, I wrote this ritual and we performed it on Midsummer's Night Eve. It was wonderful, magickal and strong. I will someday include this in a book, so it's not for the publishing, but I hope you enjoy performing it and that it helps you tune into the faerie energy. It works best with a larger group (at least 15) of people. Sections of this are taken from my book, Embracing The Moon, and may not be reproduced without credit given. ~Yasmine Galenorn

Click here to read the entire ritual.

This ritual was written at a time when I did not have a qualified Priest in my group. However, it may easily be adapted for those groups in which the Priestess and Priest work together. It may be just as easily adapted to solitary work. Join us as we celebrate the Witches new year and a time of year when the final harvests are taking place. A time for reflection and a time to look forward to the coming year. A time to remember those who have passed over into the summerland and to celebrate their lives.

To read Dorothy's Samhain ritual and to gather some inspiration for your own ritual please click here.