Bay Leaf Ritual for the New Year
HI would like to share with you a ritual I do every New Year's
that is quite involved and requires a lot of thought and
meditation time. It is derived from an ancient Greek ritual for
prosperity and fertility. As you may recall, ancient
Mediterranean Kings and Queens used to wear garlands of bay
leaves (as well as olive leaves) as crowns. Bay leaves, and
often bayberry leaves, are often used in Alexandrian magic as
well, as well to draw success in business and finances. I like
this ritual because first of all it is very "white" and it also
involves the writing down of your wishes. The writing down of
your wishes on 108 bay leaves works in the same way as a
positive affirmation. The stating of your goals and desires
allows you to properly manifest them in real life. Every year I
pull out my old bay leaves and sort through them and I am always
astounded by how many of my wishes have actually been granted.
For this you will need: a blank check a gold or silver pen (but
a green will do if you can't get those colours) Cinnamon incense
a green, an orange or a yellow or GOLD candle (whichever colour
attracts you the most) Orange oil, bergamot or success oil or
Horn of Plenty oil a package of bay leaves (whole) an envelope
pretty ribbon This ritual is for multiple wishes and is best
done when you have at least two hours to spare in meditation and
quiet. It is best done within ten days before or after the New
Year's. After the New Years or on New Year's Day is preferable.
First of all, take a bath in your favourite bubbles (Calgon,
take me away!) and put yourself in a calm and peaceful state.
You can play some steady rhythmic music if you like - anything
that puts you into a bit of a trance (chanting, new age.) The
first thing you are going to do is light the cinnamon incense.
Cinnamon is related to the planet Mercury and symbolizes
communication and quick results. Then I want you to scratch your
name and birth date on the side of the candle. Put the candle
plate that is wrapped in tin foil (to represent the moon). Then
I want you to take the blank cheque and write the amount of
money that you think you would like to make this year or the
amount you need to get out of trouble using a gold or silver
pen. Make the cheque payable to the order of yourself and be
sure to add a few more bucks in there as fun money.
The idea here is to make this cheque as pretty as possible.
Decorate it with lucky symbols such as dollar signs, hearts and
flowers so this money is brought to you with a sense of joy.
Once you are happy with your cheque, and have signed and
endorsed it and everything, I want you to anoint all four
corners of the cheque with one or more of the oils mentioned
above. To make it even more person adds a dab of your personal
perfume. Place the cheque you wrote to yourself under the dish.
Light the candle and say: "In the name of the I Am that I Am I
pray to the Archangels and their legions of light, I pray to the
blessed Virgin and her angels of compassion for the following
assistance and blessings" Now open the package of bay leaves.
There are two ways of doing this spell -- in a really BIG way or
in a more efficient manner. It depends how much time you have.
When I did this on my birthday I used 108 bay leaves (or
fragments of leaves because sometimes they crumble in the
package) but you can use less if you like. I used 108 because it
is a real magic number, but you can just do as many bay leaves
as you can. As the candle burns and the incense is burning too,
I want you to write on each bay leaf, a single word that
represents each thing you would like to happen in the near
future. For instance, if you are looking for immigration status
thing write the word "Citizenship" on the bay leaf. If you owe
the dentist money write, "dentist bill paid". If you would like
a lover to return write "lover returns". Each leaf has a wish
written on it. On the leaf after write "high paying job", on the
next one "safety", "security", "soulmate"... Place the leaves in
a circle around the candle in the shape of wreathe so that it
looks pretty and keep on doing this until you are all wished
out. Your candle should be circled by bay leaves each with a
wish written on it. This usually takes most people quite a
while, and before they know it, the candle has burned down.
If you finish writing the leaves early that is ok too, keep
burning the candle down to the bottom (so don't get a candle
that is too big.) After you have written a wish too, it helps if
you "let go of it" and resign your self to the fact that the
higher powers are taking care of it. After you are done writing
all of your wishes, I want you to say: "I consider this done in
this hour, in full power according to the will of God, helping
all and harming none Amen." After the candle burns out, I want
you to take the leaves and the cheque and put them in an
envelope. Seal the envelope, wrap it with a nice ribbon, kiss it
and put it in a safe place. Don't look at this again for a year.
Just rest assure that all is unfolding in the Universe as it
should. Blessings to all of you this New Year. xxx Samantha