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While a bowl is not a tool in and of itself, you can utilize bowls in your spellwork often, anytime you are inspired to do so. Three simple ingredients—a red rose, a pink candle, and water—can bestow a powerful blessing. The rose signifies beauty, potential, the sunny seasons, and love for yourself and others. The candle stands for the element of fire, the yellow flame of the rising sun in the east, harmony, higher intention, and the light of the soul. Water represents its own element, flow, the direction of the west, emotions, and cleansing. This ritual can be performed alone or with a group in which you pass the bowl around. Float the rose in a clear bowl of water, and light a pink candle beside the bowl. With your left hand, gently stir the water in the bowl and say:

I give myself life and health, refreshing water for my spirit.

We all need a health and happiness boost sometimes. This spell, aimed at supporting mental and emotional well-being, is best performed when the hardy spirit of Thor is in ascendance. On any Thursday, take a blue candle, dress it with cedar or bergamot oil, light it, and say nine times:

Fears and woes, I take respite;

To clear energy and prepare for a week of calm clarity, find a blossom of your favorite white flower—iris, lily, rose—one that is truly beautiful to your eye. Monday’s setting sun is the time for this spell, enacted immediately after the sun goes below the horizon. Anoint a white candle with clary sage oil and place it on your altar. Take your single white blossom and add that to your altar in a bowl of freshly drawn water. Place sage leaves on a glass dish in front of the lit candle and speak aloud:

This fire is pure; this flower is holy, this water is clear.

Now that autumn is almost here, many types of rose bushes are producing fruit known as rosehips and rose haws. The dog rose or wild briar (Rosa canina) and the sweet briar rose (Rosa rubiginosa syn. R. eglanteria) produce some of the best rosehips. These roses have simple flowers with five petals. The flowers of the dog rose are white to pale pink; the sweet briar flowers are pink with white centers. Sweet briar’s leaves have an apple-like scent. Both plants are thicket-forming shrubs with arching stems studded with thorns.
        If you want rosehips to develop, the flowers must stay on the bush after they fade. Wait for cool weather before collecting rosehips. At the time of harvest, hips should be firm but have a little give. Sing or chant as you gather the rosehips, to put magical energy into them. They can be used for magical practices as well as a healing tea.
         Faeries are said to enjoy cavorting in dog rose thickets; the rosehip from a dog rose is also known as a pixy pear. In Scandinavia and Germany, roses were believed to be under the protection of elves and dwarves. During the Middle Ages in parts of Europe, a dried rosehip was carried as a charm against certain diseases as well as for protection against enchantment and sorcery. The rose was known as Frigg’s thorn to Germanic people.
        For drying rosehips, you will need a heavy-duty needle and thick thread to string the rosehips together into a circlet. Hang it in a cool, dry place until the rosehips are hard. Make a circlet large enough so when you lay it on your altar you can place things within the circle. Rosehips are especially supportive for clairvoyance. Consider making a smaller circlet to wear as a bracelet for divination, or psychic work. It can also be hung on your bedpost to enhance dream work. Use dried and crumbled rosehips to break hexes and in spells to banish unwanted things from your life. Carry a whole, dried rosehip to attract luck or provide protection.
        Rosehips are full of vitamin C and make a wonderful healing tea to have on hand for the winter. Gathering and preparing your own rosehips gives you the opportunity to infuse them with magical, healing energy. Give them a thorough rinse with cool water, let them dry, and then cut off the ends. If you are drying a circlet of rosehips, don’t cut off the ends.
        For use as tea or magical powder, cut the larger rosehips in half so they will dry faster. Lay them out in a single layer on a cookie sheet and place them on low heat in the oven with the door ajar. They will be hard and brittle when dry. Use a food processor to chop them into small pieces. Place the pieces in a sieve and gently shake them. This gets rid of the little hairs that grow on the rosehips. Store them in a jar with a tight-fitting lid out of direct light.
        When you’re ready for tea, put one to two teaspoons of rose hips in a mug and pour in a cup of boiling water. Cover and let it steep for about fifteen minutes, and then strain. Rosehip tea is a little tart, so you may want to add a spoonful of honey. While it can help ease a cold, a cup of steaming rosehip tea brings cozy comfort on chilly nights.
 

To begin this comforting ritual, anoint a yellow candle with calming and uplifting bergamot oil, then light it to bring mental clarity. Place a yellow rose in a vase to the left of the candle. To the right, place a bowl containing at least two citrine or quartz crystals.

Next, you will need saffron water, which is made quite easily by simmering a single teaspoon of saffron from your cupboard in two quarts of distilled water. Let the saffron water cool to room temperature and pour it into the bowl of crystals. Put your hands together in prayer and dip them in the bowl. Touch your third eye in the center of your forehead, anointing yourself with the saffron water. Now, speak aloud:

Life changes us as we go through it, day by day and year by year. Sometimes those changes fall under the umbrella of Big Official Life Changes that we already have rituals for in the modern western world: graduation, marriage, funerals.

But sometimes those changes don't have common, expected ceremonies associated with them. I've filled in some of those gaps in the pages of Ariadne's Thread, providing rites for coming of age, welcoming a new child into the family, blessing a new home, and more.

My next-door neighbor stands in his front yard, garden hose in hand.

Welcome to the Long, Hot Summer of '23. We haven't seen Drop One of rain in weeks.

“Fifty percent chance of rain tonight,” I say over the fence.

He casts his eyes up to the sky: Here's hoping.

“Maybe we need to start thinking about killing the black goat,” I say: my standard in-group joke during rainless times like this.

(Black for dark rain-clouds. Thunder likes goats, they say. A bull, of course, would be even better, but these days, who can afford one?)

“Any chance they'd take squirrel instead?” he asks. Drought notwithstanding, it's been a bumper year for mast; there are even more squirrels frisking around than usual, which in this neighborhood is saying something.

“Not a chance,” I say. “It has to be something you value.”

He shakes his head. Damn gods. “Well, here's hoping,” he says.

“Here's hoping,” I say, and move along.