“May you experience each day as a sacred gift wrapped around the heart of wonder.”
–John O’Donohue
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PaganSquare is a community blog space where Pagans can discuss topics relevant to the life and spiritual practice of all Pagans.
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Blog posts tagged in family ceremony
We are a circle 
within a circle
with no beginning
and never ending...
(We are a Circle)
The second advent candle is lit. The theme is Peace. The element is Fire. Passion. Warmth. Nourishment. Light. Creativity. May we stoke our passions mindfully and keep the fires of our spirits burning.
...
“Only in the deepest silence of night
the stars smile and whisper
among themselves.”
–Rabindranath Tagore
As we prepare for winter solstice, I like to share our family’s annual traditions and ritual processes. I’d also love to hear from readers in the comments with their own family traditions! We have celebrated the winter solstice together as our primary family ritual since 2003. There are several elements that remain constant from year to year and other elements that vary based on new ideas or projects that we decide to incorporate for that year.
The following is a brief explanation of three of our core traditions, which is then followed by a full ritual outline for a winter solstice ceremony! Make sure to read through to the end of my ritual outline for links to even more posts with further ideas and information.
“The tools are unimportant; we have all we need to make magic: our bodies, our breath, our voices, each other.”
We had a small family full moon ritual last night and incorporated a simple gratitude ritual into it. The sky was overcast so we couldn't actually see the moon, but my four-year-old daughter wanted to get out glow sticks left over from Halloween. We had SO much fun dancing around with them and making patterns in the dark night! We sang a chant I recently made up:
Hallowed evening
Hallowed night
We dance in the shadows
We offer our light.
Supplies
- Items from nature for a collaborative nature mandala: leaves, stones, acorns, seeds, twigs, feathers, and other items from nature (mindfully collected and ideally found on ground). If a group ritual, ask each person to bring a quantity of something to add to the mandala. If it is a family ritual, go out together before moonrise to collect your items. Note: Depending on size, composition, energy, and patience of the group, you may wish to create the mandala together first before beginning the rest of the ritual and then gather around it for the rest of the ritual itself.
- Paper leaves (can be simply cut out ovals using scrap paper) or dry, fallen leaves + markers to write on them.
- Optional: drums, rattles, or bells
- Optional: a candles for each participant (place around outer edge of nature mandala)
Before the ritual: ask each person to respond to the prompt: “my bounty is” and collate the responses into a collaborative bounty poem. If you are working alone, respond to this prompt on your own and form a poem for yourself (example poem)
