Phoenix LeFae - Life Ritualized: A Witchs Guide to Honoring Lifes Important Moments

Llewellyn Publications

Woodbury, Minnesota

Copyright Information

Life Ritualized: A Witchs Guide to Honoring Lifes Important Moments 2021 by Phoenix LeFae and Gwion Raven.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any matter whatsoever, including Internet usage, without written permission from Llewellyn Publications, except in the form of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Any unauthorized usage of the text without express written permission of the publisher is a violation of the authors copyright and is illegal and punishable by law.

First e-book edition 2021

E-book ISBN: 9780738764764

Book design by Samantha Peterson

Cover design by Kevin R. Brown

Interior art by Llewellyn Art Department

Llewellyn Publications is an imprint of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data (Pending)

ISBN: 978-0-7387-6465-8

Llewellyn Publications does not participate in, endorse, or have any authority or responsibility concerning private business arrangements between our authors and the public.

Any Internet references contained in this work are current at publication time, but the publisher cannot guarantee that a specific reference will continue or be maintained. Please refer to the publishers website for links to current author websites.

Llewellyn Publications

Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

2143 Wooddale Drive

Woodbury, MN 55125

www.llewellyn.com

Manufactured in the United States of America

This book is dedicated to all our teachers who passed along

their wisdom, experience, and the art of ritual making.

Contents

List of

Chapter : How to Use This Book

Chapter : Defining Rites of Passage

Chapter : Birth

Chapter : Rites of Leveling Up

Chapter : Rites of Personal Identity

Chapter : Rites of Loss

Chapter : Spiritually Focused Rites

Chapter : DIY Rituals

Chapter : Final Thoughts about Rites of PassageWhat Does It All Mean?

Rituals

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Moving Sacred Space from the
Old Temple to the New Temple

Handfasting Ritual for Witches,
Pagans, and the Open-Minded

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Acknowledgments

First things first, there are a great number of people who helped make this book possible. Surely, there is someone we will forget to acknowledge, so we are taking care of you right now and giving you a great big thank you. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to anyone that we have ever circled with, been in classes with, or attended rituals with. Yall have impacted how we look at ritual and rites of passage, so thanks.

Big Wiccan Jesus gratitude to our dear friend and beloved, Jason Mankey, for writing the foreword to this book and for encouraging us to keep writing.

To the brilliant witches who contributed their wisdom and art: Misha Magdalene, Starhawk, Jhenah Telyndru, Seforayou are all simply amazing.

Thanks to our intrepid editor Heather Greene for winning the fistfight and being on board with this project. Mad props to Nicole Borneman for keeping us on track and being on top of all the important stuff. The entire staff at Llewellyn deserve a celebratory ritual of their own for joining us in the rite of passage of bringing this book to fruition.

Finally, most importantly, to our family and friends who are a part of all the personal stories we shared: Thank you for filling our lives with joy and love.

Disclaimer

In the following pages you will find recommendations for the use of certain herbs, oils, nuts, or other ritual items. If you are allergic to any of these items, please refrain from use.

Although the rituals in this book can help you if you are going through a hard time, the material in this book is not intended as a substitute for trained medical or psychological advice. The information in this book is not meant to diagnose, treat, prescribe, or substitute consultation with a licensed healthcare professional. Readers are advised to consult their personal healthcare professionals regarding treatment.

If you are struggling and need assistance, please reach out to the resource that might best to get you through it.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255.

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Hotline: 1-888-843-4564.

Foreword

W hen people ask me what the purpose of ritual is, I generally reply with the word connection. The idea of connection is readily apparent in the most common types of rituals performed by Witches and Pagans. During the sabbats, we connect with the earth, the turn of the seasons, and the Wheel of the Year. When we practice spellwork, we connect with the magickal current that has been a part of the human experience for tens of thousands of years, even if we arent always consciously aware of it. Some Witches and Pagans connect with higher powers and energies during ritual: ancestors, deities, the Fae, the Watchtowers, and many other entities.

There are also the rituals we do that connect us with community. Sometimes those gestures are small, perhaps sharing food and drink in the ritual context of cakes and ale, while other times they are large, such as an initiation into a tradition or group. Youll find a lot of community rituals in this book, many of them obvious, such as handfastings and blessings for newborn children (often known as Wiccanings). But the magick and wonder of Life Ritualized is that youll find other things to connect to in the course of reading this book that are mostly overlooked, and I know this is true because it happened to me.

When engaging in a ritual for what might feel like a mundane rite of passage, such as getting a drivers license, we are still engaging in connection. If you are a parent, rituals for events like this offer a chance to connect with your now-driving young adult, and for those who have just received their drivers license, they are connecting to what they have accomplished along with the potential and possibilities that come with such an achievement. Those are all important energies and feelings to connect with, and doing so through ritual makes them both more memorable and more powerful.