Cakes and Wine Ceremony

February 25, 2013 / Moonwater / 12 Comments

Wine

Cakes and Wine Ceremony

What is a cakes and wine ceremony? It is the process of using food and drink to replenish the energy spent doing the working or ritual. Food also helps you to ground. Why is grounding important? It helps you shed the extra energy that you may have accumulated during your working. We raise energy to do our workings and when we are finished we need to shed that energy. For that we use this ceremony, which also helps replenish your body of the energy it used to do the magick. So the ceremony has a dual purpose.

For this ceremony you first must bless the food and drink. You begin with the wine or juice.

1) Take the cup from your altar and pour the wine or juice into it. Then take the athame and dip its tip into the wine or juice. Say:

As the athame is the male, so the cup is the female, and so joined bring union and harmony.

2) Pour some of your blessed wine or juice into the offering bowl or plate on your altar. While doing this say:

To the Gods!

You can now partake in the beverage.

3) Take your athame and point it over the cake. Say:

Blessed be these cakes that they bestow health, peace, joy, strength, and that fulfillment of love that is perpetual happiness.

4) Take one of the cakes (or just a piece of the cake) and place it in the offering bowl or plate. Say:

To the Gods!

You can now partake of the blessed cakes.

Note that this ritual was written for someone practicing alone. If it is conducted in a group, pass around the cup and the cakes, each person taking a sip and one of or part of the cake. As each person passes the wine and cake, they should say to the next person:

As you hand the cup to another say: May you never thirst.

The person replys to this: Blessed Be.

As you offer a cake say: May you never hunger.

When the cake(s) is offered to you reply: Blessed Be.

The Wiccan Altar

November 7, 2012November 7, 2012 / Moonwater / 2 Comments

An Example of a Wiccan Altar

When I first started to learn from my mentor, it took me forever to remember where everything went on my altar. I would feel self-conscious about making mistakes. My mentor smiled and simply moved the item I had misplaced to where it should reside on the altar. So don’t beat yourself up if you need to use this picture for a while.

There are about just as many ways to set up an altar as there are people. Each person or group may have a certain way of doing an altar setup. Here’s an example of a Wiccan altar. Let’s start with the right side of the Altar.

As you can see at the top right is the “Cakes/Bread” You can use bread, cupcakes, cookies or a power bar for that matter. It should contain carbohydrates to nourish the body to replenish the energy you used during ritual.

Below that you can see the “Censer & Incense“. This incense burner has cone incense inside it. However, you can burn any kind of incense in this burner. Remember that incense, when burned, represents air on your altar.

You can see the “Taper (a long wick),” which is used to help light the candles. You light everything from the working candle. You can use the Taper to transfer the flame to another candle to light it.

To the right is the “Lighter” which is used to light the working candle.

Below that is the “Bell/Chime” that you use for ringing, when appropriate.

Continuing around in a clockwise direction is the “Pentacle”. You use the pentacle to help you focus your attention on your goal.

To the left of the pentacle is the “Athame” used to cast circle and to direct power.

Above the athame is the “Water in Bowl.” Water is one of the four elements and is used with the salt to make your holy water.

Continuing around we have the “Salt in Dish“. Representing Earth, Salt is put into the water.

Above the salt is the “Wine Filled Cup”. The cup as you remember is a female symbol and holds the wine/juice to be blessed.

Above this are the “Offering Dishes.”

Next you see in the middle the “Goddess Candle” and the “God Candle,” which are used to represent the deities.

Between the God and Goddess candles, find the “Working Candle,” which you use to light everything else during ritual. The Working Candle represents fire on your altar.

And flowers are always a nice touch for nature and the goddess.

We will discuss more on how to use an altar later. Have a great week!

Blessed Be,

Moonwater SilverClaw

The Tools of Wicca: The Cup or Chalice

September 9, 2012September 10, 2012 / Moonwater / 2 Comments

Merry Meet and welcome. Last time we talked about the athame. Today we will talk about the chalice or cup.

The Cup

The cup is an important tool, and it can be made of just about anything. Glass, metal, or even wood. Since plastic usually does not hold a magickal charge, we tend to avoid using that material. (I spell magick with a “k” at the end to distinguish it from stage magic which is just slight of hand.

Usually we pour wine into the cup, but, you can substitute juice if you do not drink alcohol. Some people are allergic to alcohol or simply choose not to drink it and that is fine.

After we’ve poured wine in the cup, we use a ceremony to bless it. After that, we pour a portion of wine into a small bowl as a libation to the Gods. We then exclaim, “To the Gods.” After that, we drink the wine from the cup.

If your ceremony includes more than one person, (if you’re not practicing as a solitary), the cup is passed from one person to another while saying: “May you never thirst.” The person, who receives the cup, replies, “Blessed be.”

In my next post, I will discus the water bowl. Hope you have a great day!

Blessed Be,

Moonwater Silverclaw