Rituals for Lammas

Midsummer / Lammas / “Lunasa”

Lammas is a Sabbat celebration of summer and light. It marks the season of action, sun and prosperity. Think of bountiful harvests and expressing gratitude. The Southern Hemisphere Witches and Pagans celebrate this seasonal occasion on the 1st of February but this year, it will fall on the 4th of February, 2024.

However, for Northern Hemisphere Witches and Pagans, the opposite season will be celebrated on the 1st of February, Imbolc, to mark the affair of spring.

Historically, the arrival of Lammas marked the beginning of the grain harvest. The Witches Wheel of The Year continually turns through the seasons, renewing annually. The Sabbats are a way to get in touch with each cycle and be present with the changes of nature.

Lammas is a midpoint between seasons. There are four cross quarter days that fall between the solstices and equinoxes. They are considered the “Greater Sabbats” marked on the Witches Wheel of The Year. These seasonal indications have been transformed and retold by many figureheads in Modern Wicca and Witchcraft subgroups. 

At the core of these celebrations, we are united by our curiosity and shared belief in divinity that is present in all of nature. Magick is our will and spiritual intention transformed into ritual, practice and way of life.

Ways to celebrate

• Bake fresh bread, cakes and goods (get creative and add seasonal fruits!)

• Host a gratitude circle and or have a picnic with family, friends or your Coven (Everyone brings their own harvest or baked goods to share!)

• Garden and collect herbs, fruit or vegetables if you have access to freshly grown produce (make sure to save the seeds for your next harvest)

• Write an intention list, burn it and use the flames to scry (bonfire, cauldron or candle scrying)

• Gratitude journal or meditation (collective and individual gratitude)

• Adorn your home with flowers and fresh herbs

For more ways to celebrate, head to our Lammas celebration blog here.

Ritual Preparation

Prepare your altar using your spell jars for success, prosperity crystal grid, or have a bath using the prosperity ritual bath kit. Do a tarot reading using black onyx paired with rough carnelian. 

Use fresh summer flowers, fruit offerings, candles, incenses, herbs and don’t forget your cauldron. Line your magick circle with salt, set your crystals on the four cardinal points or on your prosperity grid.

The Altar

• Yellow altar cloth

• Yellow, black and white candles

• Bell

• Salt

• Cauldron and tongs

• Resin, herbs and oil such as frankincense, rosemary, basil & rose

• Crystals such as citrine, red aventurine, red jasper, brown jasper, moonstone, carnelian

Prepare your space

To begin your ritual, create a space in which you will not be interrupted. Clear your mind and mental body through meditation or deep breathing. Use candles, essential oils, spray, smoke cleansing or any additional natural elements to prepare your space. Centre your emotions and draw upon the forces available to you. 

Create your circle boundary using items such as stones, cords, ribbons, crystals, oil drops or spray, salt or salt water. A sword, athame, wand, stick, finger or hand may be used to draw out your circle. Whatever you are comfortable with using. 

Open and close your ceremony through meditation, visualisation, bell sound, verbal instruction, or specific items to seal your space. This will ensure you are casting your spells and magick in a space that is shielded from the distractions of the material plane

Sigil Activation Ritual

1. Clear your space using salt sprinkled around your circle.

2. “Open” the circle by using your hand to motion a circle and add in a symbol you feel comfortable with like a pentagram, sun, or even the word “open”. You may also simply think the words “Open the circle”.

3. Set your altar cloth on a surface, prepare select herbs in a dish or cauldron and place a candle in the center of the table. 

4. Select crystals and candles to symbolise elements or cardinal points and then arrange them in their corresponding order. 

5. You may wish to move around your circle to open the cardinal points or elements with whichever items you have chosen to be represented by objects. (Do whatever you’re comfortable with: follow your instincts and witch-tuition.)

6. Use an athame to inscribe a sigil on a candle. You may also use oil to mark a candle with prosperity, abundance or happiness sigils. Sprinkle herbs over the candle. 

7. Light the candle when you’re ready and allow it to carry your intentions for the near annual cycle of seasons. 

8. Extinguish the candle flame with a tool or blow it out when you are ready. Let the smoke carry your intentions into existence.

9. Close the space to complete the ceremony. Break the salt circle, affirm “Close Circle” aloud or internally. You may remove the imagery of the symbol within your circle that was created at the beginning of the ritual. You can also move in an opposite direction of the original circle cast.

Intention Letter Ritual

1. Set up your altar cloth and arrange your candles to correspond with each element.
2. Mix salt and water together. (Hint: bless water by charging in sunlight and stirring in your intentions). Place liquid contents into a spray bottle and spray your space. Alternatively, use a pre-made cleansing water or room spray! 
3. Use a wand or your thoughts to draw your circle perimeter and “open” the space. 
4. Light your candles and arrange your journal or piece of paper on the altar. Pick a crystal to imbue with your intentions or annual manifestation. 
5. Write your intentions and manifestation goals for the next harvest cycle. 
6. Prepare your cauldron with fire and safely place your page of intentions into the flames. Release the outcomes. 
7. Hold your crystal and surrender the writing details to the Divine, Nature, Deities, Universe or Consciousness. Visualise the crystal being the anchor to carry this hope for you.
8. Once it feels complete, extinguish the fire with salt water or snuff the flames with a cauldron lid or fire tool.
9. You may keep the cauldron ash and mix it with oil and herbs. This can be used as ink for another ritual, or you can put your crystal into the mixture. Let it charge with the intention and brew longer. 
10. Once you are finished, remove the crystal and place it by your front door, gate, on an altar, wear it or place it in a bag. Allow it to reinvigorate your energy and intentions each time you check on the crystal. 
11. “Close” the circle with a verbal instruction, or mental projection.

Gratitude Journal & Future Scrying Ritual

• Create a space or set up your altar cloth, candles, flowers and oils.

• Set a candle in the centre of your altar/sacred space.

• Clear and bless your energy by burning cypress or rosemary. You may also spray rose water around yourself. Moon water can be substituted for burning items.

• Use a bell and move around your circle to set the boundary. 

• Affirm that the ritual is “open” and begin.

• Light your candle (decorate with oils and herbs before lighting the candle, if it feels right for you. 

• Use a sheet of paper from a book or journal. Write down everything you are grateful for. Note what is already here that you’re grateful for or what you may be sowing and working towards. It all exists now regardless of their current energy form. This represents your current harvest.

• Once it feels complete, train your eyes to gaze at the candle flame. Take in a few deep breaths. Study the space approximately two inches around the fiery glow. 

• Set your intention to visit the future. Let yourself daydream, and become more relaxed. Note what comes through in the form of symbols, inspired ideas, images, feelings, or moving pictures. 

• Write down anything that you sense. It may be confirmation of what’s coming in the next annual cycle or the outcome of what you’re building on your gratitude list. It is possible that what you divine or receive is the outcome of the seeds that you have sown.

• Blow out your candle or use a tool to snuff out the flame.

• “Close” your circle by ringing the bell and moving in the opposite direction or stating that the circle is now closed.

• Keep your writing, and refer back to it over the next few full moon lunar cycles. Let the illumination of the enhanced phase shed light on what you may need to refine, or revise. Tarot or Oracle card rituals will be useful.

HAPPY LAMMAS TRAGICS!

In the alternating rain and heat of this summer sunshine, may you be feasting on the delicious goods and nectar of your harvests. May your gardens be plentiful, and your pockets full. Whether you are surrounded by the abundance of kitchen witchcraft, the rewards of fertile work, study, self development effort and progress, or you’re basking in the love of yourself and other people: we’re all so proud of you here at Tragic Beautiful, and we’re rooting for you during this next upcoming annual seasonal cycle!

Written by Bridgette Scalisi & Shelley Scalisi-Kruger