Author: A Solitary Pagan
Blackberry Wine
Ingredients 3 pounds of blackberries3 pounds of sugar1 gallon of boiling water Method Wash berries, put in large bowl and pour over them the boiling water. Stir well, then cover the bowl and leave for ten days. Strain liquid through muslin, add the three pounds of sugar and stir well. Cover the bowl and leave for three days, but stir daily. Put into bottles and cork, loosely at first. The wi...
Dandelion Wine
Ingredients 2 quarts of dandelion flowers3 pounds sugar1-ounce yeast1 lemon1 orange1 gallon boiling water Method Pick the dandelions on a sunny day. Pick just the heads until you have two-quart jugs full. Wash flowers and put them into a large bowl. Slice orange, and lemon thinly and add to the flowerheads. Pour boiling water on top of them, and stir well. Cover bowl, leave for ten days, no ...
Old Fashioned Ginger Beer
Ingredients For The Starter:1/2 Ounce Yeast2 Teaspoons SugarTo Feed The “Plant”:7 Teaspoons Ground Ginger7 Teaspoons SugarTo Flavour:1 1/2 Pounds SugarJuice Of 2 Lemons Method Mix starter ingredients with 3/4 pint of warm water in a glass jar. Stir, cover, and leave in a warm place for 24 hours. This is your starter “plant”. Feed the “plant” with 1 teaspoon each of ground ginger and sugar each day...
Tea Potions
The brewing of magickal potions is a traditional skill of witches. Images of the cackling witches in Macbeth might come to mind, with their bubbling cauldron and horrible potion ingredients, or one may think of Cerridwen, whose legendary potion had to brew for a year in order to yield three drops of magickal elixir—but in reality, potions can be made quickly, simply, and from ordinary ingredients....
A Beltane Ritual For Fertility And Earth Energies
Such a ritual can be used to encourage creativity and growth of all kinds. It may be performed either alone or in a group, with everyone present joining in the chants. Use as many kinds of wood as possible in the kindling for your fire. Traditionally the magical trees were oak, ash, thorn, willow, birch, rowan, alder, holly, and yew, but you can use wood indigenous to your region. An arboretum wil...
Beltane, Correspondences
Candle colours: Dark green, silver and red Symbols: Fresh greenery, especially hawthorn; any flowers that are native to your region, placed in baskets; dew gathered on May morning (girls should bathe their faces in it), coloured ribbons, twigs from the three trees sacred to the festival (oak, ash and thorn) or any other woods from your own area Crystals: Clear crystal quartz, golden tiger’s eye, r...
Beltane, The Festival Of Fire
This Celtic festival of summer is also called Bel-fire, the festival of Belenus, the Celtic god of light. Time: Sunset 30 April-sunset 2 May (31 October-2 November in the southern hemisphere) Focus: The fertility of the Earth, creatures, crops, people, and animals; the instinctive energies that can be manifest as passion whether in sexual terms or for any cause; the interconnectedness of all exist...
Beltane Rites and Rituals for a Hedgewitch
This is another traditional time when the veils between the worlds are thin, and we can encounter beings from the Otherworld easily as we slip between the worlds. It is traditionally a time to honour the Fair Folk, as well as the fertility of the land in hopes of great abundance in the autumn. We can work with the Fair Folk to ensure that our endeavours are successful. In your liminal place, call ...
Things To Do at Beltane, Conceive a new project
Conceive a new project, grasp that idea, and get on with it.
Kitchen Witch: Beltane, May the First
We still observe May Day, a contemporary version of an ancient European Pagan religious celebration. In earlier times, Beltane was connected with the dairy, and so ice cream, yoghurt, cheese, custard, quiche, and all other dairy foods are appropriate fare. Oatmeal cookies and oatmeal bread also fit the symbolism of Beltane, the high point of spring. This customary food comes from Scotland. Many ce...
Beltane
Also: May Day, Walpurgis, Roodmas Beltane, celebrated at the peak of spring around early May, is one of the four main fire festivals native to Celtic culture. The other festivals, commonly referred to in Neopaganism as the “Greater Sabbats” are Imbolc, at the peak of winter, Lammas, at the peak of summer, and Samhain at the peak of autumn. Beltane is usually celebrated on May 1st and the night pri...
Things To Do at Beltane, Dress your home and/or altar with greenery
Dress your home and/or altar with greenery – especially with hawthorn, rowan and birch branches. Ask permission from the tree before you take anything.