Midsummer Ritual

Before the rite, make up a small cloth pouch filled with herbs such as lavender, chamomile, St. John's Wort, vervian, or any of the Midsummer herbs. Mentally poor all your troubles, problems, pains, sorrows and illnesses, if any, into this petition as you construct it. Tie it shut with a red string. Place this on the altar for use during the rite. The cauldron should also be there or nearby. Even if you use candles to mark the quarters, the red candle in a holder should also be on the altar. For outdoor rituals, light a fire - however small - and drop the pouch into this.

Arrange the altar, light the candles and censer, and cast the Circle.

Stand before the altar and say, with wand upraised:

I celebrate the noon of summer with mystic rites.
O great Goddess and God,
all nature vibrates with your energies
and the Earth is bathed with warmth and life.
Now is the time of forgetting past cares and banes;
Now is the time for purification.
O fiery Sun,
burn away the unusefull,
the hurtful,
the bane,
in your omnipotent power.
Purify me!
Purify me!
Purify me!

Lay the wand on the altar. Take up the herbal petition and light it in the red candle on the altar (or, if outdoors, the ritual fire). When it is burning, drop it into the cauldron (or some other heat-proof container) and say:

I banish you by the powers of the Goddess and God!
I banish you by the powers of the Sun, Moon and Stars!
I banish you by the powers of Earth, Air, Fire and Water!

Pause, seeing the hurts and pains burning into nothingness. Then say:

O Gracious Goddess, O Gracious God,
on this night of Midsummer magick
I pray that you charge my life with
wonder and joy. Help me in attuning with
the energies adrift on the enchanted night air.
I give thanks.

Reflect upon the purification you have undergone. Feel the powers of nature flowing through you, washing you clean with divine energy.

Works of magick, if necessary, may follow.
Celebrate the simple feast.
The Circle is released.

Back to Chapter 2: Rituals