Witch's Broom

This one is one I found from Patricia Telesco, and I really liked it quite a bit so here it is!!

Preparations

Use oatmeal soap as part of your ritual bath. Fashion a Corn Maiden from dried husks and keep this to decorate your altar every year so your household will never want for food. Staying with this theme, have a bowl of dried loose grain to sprinkle around the circle during the invocation. This brings prosperity, protection, and fertility.

The Altar

Cover the altar with an orange-colored cloth. Decorate the surface with sheaves of grain, wheat and crab apples. Add a bundle of Indian corn as an alternative God emblem and a loaf of corn bread for the Goddess. Place the bowl of grain at one side of the surface, your seedling from Imbolc at the other; in the center, place a small bowl with a teaspoon of honey and your magical tools or artistic implements.

Also have a brazier of burning charcoal ready, upon which you can place any cleansing herbs you desire.

Invocations

At the altar, pick up the bowl of grain. Disperse this evenly around the circle as you invoke the quarters. I suggest beginning the invocation in the south, since the Wheel has not yet turned to fall.

South

Warm Rays of Sun that nurture seeds to maturity,
I call and charge you.
Let your burning flames forge and temper my spirit
through the smelted fires of creation.
Hail, Fire, Hail!

West

Warm Water that saturates Earth’s seeds to grow,
I call and charge you.
From you am I born,
from the ocean’s waves by sea, and spray, and mist.
Hail, Water, Hail!

North

Warm Earth that roots seeds in its womb,
I call and charge you.
Let your rich soil grant my spirit sanctuary
in the house of the ancients.
Hail, Earth, Hail!

East

Warm Airs that carry seeds to the waiting Earth,
I call and charge you.
Let your singing winds fill my heart and soul
with the canticle of the Mysteries.
Hail, Air, Hail!

Center

Great Spirit who gives life to the seeds,
I call and charge you.
Let your presence bind the elements together
and birth the grains of magic in me.
Hail, Spirit, Hail!

Mediation and Visualization

In Scotland, it’s customary to pay bills today and make an accounting of finances on Lammas. Following in this tradition, this combination meditation and spell helps draw money to you. When the financial blessing arrives, set it aside for emergency use.

Before beginning the meditation, prepare a dollar bill wrapped three times around with a string. Leave enough string so you can place the money across the table from you. Also find a green candle; carve it with the image of a dollar sign, and put it in the middle of the table.

Light the candle, put the dollar bill across from you with the string in your strong hand, and sit at the table. Center yourself. Observe the candle flame. Use it as a focus. See nothing else; know the flame to be the same as the one in your heart. Slowly let the image blur, and close your eyes.

Visualize the same brilliant light pouring down from the heavens to shower you with abundance. Change the color to greenish gold, the hue of prosperity. Let this energy fill you to overflowing. When you feel all but ready to burst, allow this power to flow into your fingertips toward the dollar bill across the table. Slowly draw the string into your hands, whispering:

Money to me; magic fly free.

Repeat this until the bill reaches your hands. Wrap the remaining string around the bill, and tuck it into a wallet or purse. Leave the candle to burn down on its own (in a fire-safe container); this will further energize the magic.

When this spell manifest, donate the dollar bill to a worthy cause to show thanks.

The Ritual

Stand before the center of the altar. Sprinkle whatever significant herbs you’ve chosen on the charcoal. When the smoke begins to rise, life one of your magical implements and move it through the smoke, saying, 

Today is the first harvest, and I wish to reap magic.
Lord of Light, Lady of Creation,
bless and charge this tool once again to be used in your service.

Repeat this procedure with each of your regularly used magical implements.

For those who have brought artistic tools to the altar, use this blessing instead:

Lord of Inspiration, Lady of Muse,
today is the harvest and I wish to reap creativity.
Bless and charge this tool for my art
 that it may ever reflect the growing spirit of light within me.

Put these items aside, except for the athamé (or a pair of scissors if you don’t use an athamé). Cut a leaf, flower, fruit, or vegetable off the plant you started at Imbolc. Drop a bit of honey in the soil to thank the plant for its gift. This clipping is about to become your offering of “first fruits.”

Place the clipping in the brazier, saying:

This is my gift to the God of the Sun,
and the Lady of the Earth.
As it burns, so too burns away my .

Fill in a bad habit or anything else you need to release, such as a memory from the past.

In its place, I reap.

Fill in an attribute you want to cultivate, or a need you have.

Teach me to receive nourishment and abundance
even as you nourish and fertilize the Earth.

Let this fire burn out of its own accord. As it burns, you may wish to chant this popular circle song, originated by Ian Corrigan:

Hoof and horn, hoof and horn,
all that dies shall be reborn.
Corn and grain, corn and grain,
all that falls shall rise again!

Closing the Circle

East

Lord of the Wind,
your seed carries the promise of future harvest from this place.
As we sow, so we reap, and sow again.
Go in peace.

North

Mother Earth,
your bounty sustains and blessed all.
Let it nourish my spirit and body until I rejoin you in this sacred space again.
Go in peace.

West

Lady of the Seas, of the cleansing, nourishing waters,
thank you for flowing into this place and my life.
Let drops of wisdom within me, as you go in peace.

South

Lord of the Sun, master of the Fire,
thank you for ripening the crops, and maturing my soul.
Energize this magic, as you go in peace.

Center

Lord and Lady of Creation,
thank you for watching over the seeds in the earth, and in my heart.
Manifest this magic, as you go in peace.

The Ritual has Ended.