Sabbat Altar And Celebration Ideas For The Solitary Witch

Sabbat Altar and Celebration Ideas for the Solitary Witch

YULE Altar ideas: Put mistletoe and pine on your altar; put a candle up there to represent the Sun; keep your Yule log on your altar; use symbols of the Sun; decorate with red, green, white, blue, and yellow (red and green for holly, white and blue for snow and wintery colors, yellow for the Sun). Celebration ideas: Kiss a consenting person under the mistletoe for luck; give gifts; have a feast; make magickal wreaths with herbs corresponding to the spell intent (you might use lilac, lavender, and camomile for a wreath that brings peace into your home).

IMBOLC Altar ideas: Use candles to represent the return of spring; make a cute little corn dolly; put a Brigid’s cross on there to honor her; decorate with yellow and green to represent the Sun and return of spring. Celebration ideas: Clean your house; have a self-dedication ritual (to a particular path, deity, philosophy, standard of life, etc.); clean off your working altar and redo it; cleanse and charge any tools or crystals you need to.

OSTARA Altar ideas: Use fake eggs, rabbits, and other symbols of fertility or spring; put some potted plants on the altar; place some packets of seeds you might be planning on growing; decorate with purple, yellow, green, white, and other spring, pastel colors. Celebration ideas: Paint and blow eggs (take proper precautions when handling raw eggs, obviously, especially if you’re putting your mouth on them); if you have a greenhouse, want a potted plant, or it’s warm enough where you live to plant outside, plant some seeds; buy a potted plant; organize your herb shelf.

BELTAINE Altar ideas: Make a mini Maypole for your centerpiece; smack some candles up in there, especially beeswax, if that’s in your budget; put some faery symbols, like little statues or bells or something like that; a jar of honey or some beeswax is always dope; if you’re comfortable with it, some people like to put representations of genatalia on their altar. Celebration ideas: Light an awesome bonfire (also be very cautious with this because fire can quickly turn dangerous); leave offerings to the faeries; have a dance outside; this is a good time to plan to have a handfasting ceremony or wedding; cast any love workings you’ve been meaning to do; if you’re an adult and have a person/people who consent to it, you could choose to have sex during this time (but do be safe!); many people try to conceive children during Beltaine.

LITHA Altar ideas: Symbols of the Sun and the Moon, feminine and masculine symbols if that’s a thing in your tradition; decorate with black and white to symbolize the night and day. Celebration ideas: Get up before the Sun rises and go to sleep after it sets, so you can experience the day and night; have a bonfire (again, safety is important); have a picnic; just spend a lot of time outside.

LUGHNASADH Altar ideas: Put bread and grain on the altar; maybe some apples and other autumn fruits; pinecones and leaves are fall symbols; decorate with red, orange, yellow, brown, and other colors of the season. Celebration ideas: Bake (especially make the cute little bread men); give an offering to the Earth; go to an apple orchard and pick some apples; share a feast with the family or your friends.

MABON Altar ideas: Wine, or grape juice if alcohol is unavailable for any reason; leaves and pinecones; apples; a money jar (see first celebration suggestion below). Celebration ideas: For a week or two before Mabon, put money you can afford to give up in a jar, and donate it to charity or a cause you support on Mabon; have another apple harvest; have another feast; do a ritual to honor the Earth.

SAMHAIN Altar ideas: Pop a few gourds in there, more apples if you want; pictures of the deceased; tools for divination and spirit contact; decorate with black, white, and orange. Celebration ideas: Divination, spirit communication (obviously only if you know what you’re doing); hold a seance or a dumb supper if that’s more comfortable for you; light a candle in the window for spirits (use a fake one if you want it lit all night); leave some milk and honey for the Fair Folk; give offerings to the dead; put up wards and shields if you’re one of the people who would prefer to avoid spirit activity.

Green witchery: The basics

Being a green witch basically means you want to incorporate plants and nature into your craft! Other names include: nature witch, plant witch, garden witch, forest witch, etc.! I’ll talk about some of the basics being a green witch could entail, but this certainly isn’t an all-encompassing list!

On gardens and growing plants:

Whether you have a flourishing garden filled with everything one could possibly think of, a little windowsill herb garden with the bare essentials or one potted succulent; there’s no denying the joy that comes from helping green things grow!

A container around 2-3 feet deep and filled with soil is perfect for growing potatoes! Plop ‘em in, water them occasionally and harvest in the fall.

Plant things for the butterflies and bees!

Sage, rosemary, basil, mint, thyme, oregano and cilantro are all helpful herbs that you might consider planting.

Daffodils, marigolds, roses, sunflowers and primroses are my favorite witchy flowers.

Eggshells and banana peels are your friends.

These food plants can easily be regrown.

#garden witch / #garden magic / #garden tips

On bringing the green in (houseplants):

Let’s be real, not of all of us have access to areas for planting gardens, or infinite space for indoor plants! It can make being a green witch a bit tricky. 

Spider plants, lucky bamboo, air plants, aloe vera (succulents) and cacti are all pretty easy houseplants.

Terrariums are adorable and you can make them into mini gardens!

Grow one plant for each area of your life (happiness, mental health, etc) [source]

You can get bulbs for grow lights that fit into normal lamps, just be sure to put the plants directly under it!

Watering plants with rainwater will make them happy!

#houseplant magic / #houseplant tips

On incorporating nature:

Find a place outside you can safely visit. Try to spend at least five or more minutes a day sitting and watching. Quiet your mind and just be. (This could be your front porch or backyard, it doesn’t have to be in the forest)

Wander on some nature trails. Visit the local body of water. Walk outside.

Start taking pictures of beautiful wild places, or wildlife.

Learn about what birds and animals live in your area, and perhaps what their tracks look like.

Climb a tree, go swimming in wild waters, take your shoes off and feel the ground beneath your feet, remove invasive plants and plant native ones, pay attention to weather patterns, collect rainwater, etc.

#nature witch / #nature magic / #connecting to nature

On wild plants:

Get some basic plant field guides. I really like Audubon and Peterson, along with Botany in a Day. 

There are also plant apps and websites. 

Learn what plants have poisonous look-alikes and how to tell the difference.

Get a calendar. Go out at least once a week and document what stages the different plants are in. For example: March 4th. Oso berry leaves almost open. Nettles small but fully established. Bitter cherry has unopened flower buds. Salmonberry leaves almost open. Also worth adding where (elevation/location) which is SUPER helpful for harvesting reference later.

Pick a plant a week and research/journal it. Points include: What it looks like, what look-alikes there are, ecosystem + elevation it grows in, medicinal uses, edible uses, magical uses, etc.

Harvest plants and use them for medicine and food after safely doing research*.

#plant magic / #plant witch / #wild plants

Helpful links:

Green witch tips

Garden witch guide

Plant witchcraft: A beginner’s guide to growing

Tip: When your plant is dying

Keeping plants alive when you leave for a trip

Researching herb safety

Anatomy of plants

USDA plants database (external site)

Wildflower identification tool (external site)

Collection of helpful plant websites (external site)

Butterfly plants list (external site)

Bee friendly plants (external site)

Crystals and houseplants

Garden blessing

Plant growth spell

Spell to heal a wilting plant

Desert plant correspondences

Dealing with plant spirits

How to communicate with plant spirits

Bedridden witch: Nature edition

Crystals for Dream Work

I often use crystals when practising dream work and find them very powerful when used in meditation or under my pillow while I sleep. They can also be used in sachets, elixirs or to hold when recalling dreams.

Rainbow Moonstone- induces lucid dreams, astral travel, activates spiritual awareness.

Labradorite- stone of mysticism, astral travel, enhances clairvoyance, protects aura, past life recall and accessing Akashic records.

Lepidolite- induces prophetic dreams and lucid dreaming, dream recall and improves psychic ability.

Sodilite- prevents nightmares (make grid under bed), opens third eye

Lapis Lazuli- induces dreams of past lives, vivid dreaming and opens third eye.

Blue Kyanite- enhances psychic ability, spiritual awakening, lucid dreaming and astral projection.

Amethyst- induces prophetic dreams, lucid dreams and astral travel. Keep one near your bed to prevent nightmares, cleanse and charge regularly. 

Obsidian- very protective, prevents nightmares and helps one channel their higher selves.

Blue Calcite- calming, helps with anxiety induced insomnia, clairvoyance and induces prophetic dreams.  

Celestite-connects to higher, angelic and celestial realms, clairvoyance and connect with spirit guides.

Selenite- protects from nightmares and negative astral beings, connects to angelic realms and improves psychic ability.

Moldavite-high vibration *be careful when working with it because it is very powerful*, connects to higher realms, spiritual awakening, lucid dreaming and astral travel.

Clear Quartz-opens one up to receiving messages from higher realms, clears the mind during meditation, astral projection.

if we’re mutuals (especially if we’ve been following each other for years) just know I read your personal posts and I keep up to date with the stuff you talk about on here and I notice when you’re going through a hard time, I wish you happiness and success in your endeavours even if we’ve never spoken, and I feel that we are friends in a silent but caring way

The past few days I’ve seen a few people recommending you write sigils on  your rolling papers/blunt wraps etc and PLEASE NO. Don’t do that! Even if whatever you’re using says ‘non-toxic!’

Non-toxic means it won’t hurt if you /ingest/ a little. It doesn’t mean anything in regards to /Burning/ and then /inhaling/ the vapours and smoke! 

If you want to add sigil magic to your smoke, there’s So Many better ways to go about it.

✨Write or carve the sigil into whatever you’re going to use to light your joint. On your lighter, or carve it into a (natural wax, lead-free wicked) candle.

✨ Write it on a piece of paper, then tie your hemp wick around it, use the wick to light your joint, and then, (in a fire-proof container) let it continue to burn down to the paper with the sigil on it. 

✨Write a sigil on your paper tip, on the inside, where it won’t get hot enough to vaporize.Though I’d still stay far away from inks here, and stick to pencil, or better yet, a natural ink like fruit juice, coffee, wine etc. 

✨trace the sigil into your ground herbs before rolling

Just please! Don’t be burning and inhaling marker ink, pen ink, pencil etc.  ✨🌬🌳Stay safe, Cannawitches!

🌒🌕🌘