Ostara Solitary Ritual Guide

(adapted from Scott Cunningham’s Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner)

Place spring flowers on the altar and on the ground around and within the circle. Place the appropriate element at each of the four points: A potted plant at the North (earth), smoking incense at the East (air), a candle at the South (fire), and the cauldron or a bowl filled with water at the West (water). Also place a flower of the appropriate color at each point: North - Black, brown, green or white; East - White, bright yellow, crimson, blue-white or pastels; South - Red, gold, crimson, orange or white; West - Blue, blue-green, green, gray, indigo or black. Buds and blossoms may be worn, as well.

Arrange your tools upon the altar, light the candles and incense, and cast the Circle.

Recite a Blessing chant and invoke the Goddess and God.

Stand before the altar and gaze upon the plant as you say:

Hail Great Goddess, the chains of your wintry prison have fallen away.
Now is the greening, when the delicate scent of flowers drifts on the breeze.
The cycle begins anew and life rekindles itself by Your magic, Earth Goddess.
The God stretches and arises, fervent in His youth, and bursting with the promise of summer.

Touch the plant. Connect with its energies and, through it, all nature. Voyage inside its leaves and stems through your visualization - from the center of your consciousness out through your arm and fingers and into the plant itself. Explore its inner nature; sense the miraculous processes of life at work within it.

After a time, still touching the plant, say:

I walk the earth in friendship, not in dominance.
Mother Goddess and Father God, instill within me
through this plant a warmth for all living things.
Teach me to revere the Earth and all its treasures.
May I never forget.

Meditate upon the changing of the seasons. Feel the rousing of energies around you in the Earth.

If necessary, perform any works of magic at this time.

Earth the power raised and release the circle.