Summer Solstice Prosperity Ritual

This year I had a very low key Summer Solstice, doing an impromptu prosperity ritual rather than a more elaborate full Sabbat.  I’d had grand plans for going out to a big public ritual, but in the end plans fell through.  Things have been rather busy lately and my brain really wanted to just listen to some Debussy and read a nice frivolous novel rather than stress out about driving the hour out to the ritual site and celebrating with a group I’m not all that familiar with.  I went with my instincts and stayed home.

So there I was home alone on the Summer Solstice with no responsibilities other than doing whatever working my heart felt compelled to do.  Not so bad eh?  The day before I’d picked up some chocolate coins at the store with the thought that they’d be great to use in a prosperity ritual.  The coins were sitting on my kitchen counter in front of a half-empty jar of homemade almond granola and an almost dead jar of honey.  As I stood there I realized that I had all the makings of a prosperity spell sitting right in front of me.  I looked outside at the gloriously blue and warm morning and decided to go with it. 

Still in my PJs, I scooped up the honey, granola, and chocolate coins and headed into the yard – followed by my fuzzy familiar, Cleo.  I sat down in the grass by our enormous rhododendrons and took a few minutes to listen to the birds (and my neighbor’s weed whacker) and enjoy the sunshine.  Cleo took the opportunity to hop into my lap and get fur on absolutely everything – gotta love kitties. 

After a few minutes of meditation I kicked Cleo out of my lap and cast my circle.  I felt that all of the elements and deities of the day were already present, so I didn’t bother doing any formal calling or invoking.  I said a few words on the nature of the solstice and asked that the energies of the day allow my prosperity working.  I poured the granola in a half circle in front of me and offered it to nature, particularly to the birds and insects that call my backyard home.  I poured the honey on the ground just beyond the granola and offered it to the earth, in gratitude for the sweetness of the summer season.  Then I held the bag of chocolate coins in my hands and raised them towards the sun.  I asked that the power of the Summer Solstice enter and infuse the chocolate, so that as I consumed them in the days to come I would be consuming the potent positive summer energy.  I asked that they be infused with the energies of prosperity, healthy, wealth, happiness, and comfort.  When I felt that the coins were sufficiently energized (and before they could start melting) and placed them in the shade behind me and gave thanks to the energies that attended and aided me.  I dispelled my circle and then headed back inside.

Now I’ve got a bag of magickally charged organic chocolate coins sitting on my earth altar.  I’ve been eating one a day and am absolutely enjoying it.  There’s something luxurious and rich about good dark chocolate that make it particularly apropos for prosperity work.  That it’s delicious doesn’t hurt either ;)

I do love simple, heartfelt ritual.  There’s something about doing what you feel just when you feel it’s right that it’s hard for more rigidly planned rituals to replicate.  As much as I love a good formal ritual, for my personal work I think I’ll stick to going with the flow.

Cleo says Hi

Prosperity Ritual

Last week I found out that my boss is moving on to another job at the end of the month.  This woman is quite possibly the best boss I have ever had.  She's been my partner in crime on a massive implementation project, a shield against the insanity of other managers, and a sympathetic ear when I've needed it most.  I'm kinda devastated that she's leaving. To add insult to injury, she's leaving the week before we roll out the implementation we've been working on for the last year and a half - so I get to do it by myself.  But wait, it gets worse.  She let me in on some confidential info that the firm is going to be shifting things somewhat in the very near future.  My job is secure, but it's likely that I'm going to get a lot more responsibility dumped on me with no extra recompense.  Lovely.  Just fricken lovely.  So I decided it was apropos to do a prosperity ritual as soon as possible.

The day after I found all this out I trucked on over to Edge of the Circle to stock up on some gold chime candles and some money drawing incense.  I figured that I needed to do something fast because my boss was trying to fast-track a raise for me before she left and I wanted to give that as much energy as I could as soon as humanly possible.  I also wandered into a cute little art shop in Ballard (whose name escape's me) and got some canvas artist trading cards to make a talisman for myself.  I have a pretty decent herb and oil stash at home, so I wasn't too worried about those ingredients.

I had planned on doing my ritual in the hour of Jupiter on Thursday, but life interfeared and it just didn't work out.  I didn't want to wait a week for another Jupiter-Jupiter hour, so I ended up doing it during the hour of Jupiter on Friday.  Not perfect timing, but at least the moon is waxing.  I set out all my ritual components on my altar and got down to business.

I normally cast my circles using a sword, but this time I felt compelled to use a pair of arnis sticks as giant dual wands.  Apparently prosperity magick calls for super phallic circle casting - figures.  I then called the elements and deities, citing the powers associated with them I most wanted to bring to the ritual (abundance, clarity of thought, force of will, happiness, etc.).  I gave special attention to calling Jupiter, as that was the power I was banking on.  Then I explained to all the lovely forces I'd drawn up just what I wanted and why (to be paid what I'm worth in a job that doesn't make me want to jump off a bridge - not so much to ask I feel).  I lit my prosperity incense as an offering.

Next I assembled a mojo bag using a cotton tea bag (yes, I know it should really have been a hand sewn red flannel bag but I didn't have time to hit the fabric store).  I used a good tablespoon or so of calamus root, one enormous high john root, and a tonka bean, and then dressed it with some bergamot and vetivert oil.  I tied the bag shut using three tripe knots.

Then, I dressed my gold candle with the bergamot and vetivert oils and charged it.  I raised the energy by stirring up all the elemental powers in the room with my wands (they're weapons; they want to be swung around aggressively - I saw no reason not to indulge them).

I lit the candle and used the first three drops of wax to seal the knots of the mojo bag.  No wealth spilling out for me thanks!

While my candle burned I took out one of my blank artist trading cards and my colored pencils.  I took some time to meditate and decided to draw a talisman based on the sigil of Jupiter in Jason Miller's Advanced Planetary Magick.  I drew the sigil in blue, filled in with gold.  I sat it on a bed of green, sinking into brown earth, sinking into rock and magma.  Prosperity is always a seed rooted in the earth, to the imagery seemed to work.  I then filled in the sky with fiery orange for action and movement, to symbolize the prosperity energy firing off into the world to do its work.

I then made an offering of my favorite elderberry mead.  I took three sips and pledged the rest to Jupiter.  After that I was pretty keyed up and took a little time to ground.  

I thanked and dismissed the deities and elements, and dispelled my circle.  Once everything was open I took my mead outside and poured it into the garden to finish the offering.  Then I went back into my temple to hang out while the gold candle burned all the way down (never leave candles unattended folks, especially if you have cats!).  I put my talisman in my wallet (in the clear plastic pocket where your ID goes), that way it will both be next to the symbols of my wealth and will always be on me. 

The mojo will go into a special pocket in my work bag or be carried in my pocket.