Ritual Recipes

I learned a valuable lesson the day a skunk crossed my path. It was about animal totems and the magical medicine they offer. Seeing animals as spirit guides is at the heart of a public ritual I created for Samhain, the Celtic festival that marks the death of summer. The mysteries of Samhain are at the heart of the holiday we call Halloween.

The ritual offers ways you can connect with an animal totem that chooses you. Yes, it chooses you, not the other way around. You'll get a taste of the magical medicine of the bear, the bee, the hawk, the salmon.

You'll see how those gathered for the ritual called on the animals to help the survivors of the synagogue shooting in Squirrel Hill.

Books mentioned in the episode:

The Druid Animal Oracle by Philip and Stephanie Carr-Gomm

Animal-Speak by Ted Andrews

If you want do DO something to help heal the world, consider making a pot of healing soup. You won't find the ingredients in your pantry. You'll find them in your heart.

In this episode, I share a harvest ritual I created to empower each of us to be part of the solution, not the problem. The ritual involves receiving ingredients we need to heal ourselves and sharing ingredients we believe will help heal others. What kind of ingredients? Ask / Bridge / Courage / Dialogue / Friend / Honesty / Link / Protect / Seek / Team / Twinkle (yes, twinkle!) / Wisdom / Wish. These are just a few of more than 200 ingredients available for the soup.

What ingredient would you add? Let me know on Facebook.com/MoonnRiverRituals or email me at [email protected] . We'll be making a new pot of soup for the Spring Equinox next March.

Spring is here! It's time to break the bonds of winter. How? This episode offers safe and simple rituals for groups and individuals, adults and children, to celebrate spring: Break chains. Plant symbolic seeds. Plant metaphysical seeds. Wake up the trees!

As one season begins, another season ends. In the excitement of welcoming the new, don't forget what has been left behind.

Mentioned:

Episode 27 of "5 Minute Feng Shui," a podcast by Kathryn Weber, in which she talks about wood and paints a vivid picture of the power of spring.

A 2017 article written by Arjun Walia in Collective Evolution, talking with Dr. James Oschman, a biologist from the University of Pittsburgh, about the benefits of going barefoot.

The dark half of the year is fertile ground for fears. In this year's Samhain ritual, I incorporated a map of fears, a community fire, animal spirit guides, and the energies of the Maiden, Mother, and Crone.

Mentioned in the episode is the oracle deck "The Illustrated Bestiary" by Maia Toll, a beautiful, powerful, and poetic tool.

It was 2005. I was in New Hampshire, in the woods, with a small group of men and women who had come to study astrology and Goddess spirituality. One of the men, Dan Graham, commented on the red sweater I was wearing. He was totally blind.

That simple comment opened a discussion about how he could see color vibrations and how he could hear the subtle nuance of a smile or clenched jaw. Then he told me about this new thing called a podcast and how it had opened a new world for him. At the time, I couldn't grasp the concept of an ordinary person like me being able to communicate from my desk to the world. He assured me that not only would I grasp the concept, I'd be good at it.

I didn't launch Ritual Recipes until February 2018. Dan died several years ago. Now, whenever I sit down to record a podcast episode, I put on my headphones, turn on the mic, close my eyes for a few seconds, and give a good thought to Dan.