Our Midsummer celebration is fast approaching, with the Summer Solstice falling on June 20th at 5:44pm (EDT) this year. We're back again to show you our Litha altar and share some recipes and ways to celebrate the longest day of 2020.

The Wheel turns again, and brings us the warmth of the Sun and the beautiful colours of nature in full bloom.
This is the time of year when the focus of our altar is all about flowers and butterflies. This is the perfect sabbat to honor Mother and Father Deities, especially Pregnant Goddesses and Sun Gods.
Cybele, Danu, Durga, Gaia, Hathor, Isis, Kali Ma, Mary, Parvati, Radha, Shakti, Tara, and Yemaya are all Mother Goddesses, while Dagda, Govinda, Odin, and Zeus are Father Gods. Apollo, Aten, Horus, Lugh, Ra, and Sunna are Solar Gods.    

Decorating our Litha altar is always fun and colourful! There's a lot going on here (probably because it always feels like more is more with the summery altars), We've got a miniature orange tree and pretty yellow gerbera daisies. Unfortunately our Canadian gardens are just starting to bloom so there isn't much we can bring in from the garden yet, so a few potted plants add life to the altar.
There's a lot of yellows, oranges, and reds, the colours of the season. A green chime candle represents the Mother Goddess and a yellow one the Solar God, while Reiki votives representing Laughter, Joy, and Positive Energy brighten up the space. The altar cloth is a fun red with a white floral pattern. It's a little busy, but it ties in nicely with the season.
We also added a lot of stones, Carnelian, Garnet, and Citrine bringing out the colours of the Sun, while Tree and Moss Agates, Serpentine, Nephrite Jade, and Bloodstone represent the greens of Nature.
Also on display: a fantastic dragon incense holder with orange scented incense, seashells, butterfly stickers, and divination tools: a scrying mirror, miniature crystal ball, gold coloured rune beads, and a Faerie Rose Quartz pendulum.

Decorate your own altar with as much greenery as you would like, the more the better! Bees, butterflies, Faeries, dragons, sun wheels, seashells, and citrus fruits are perfect for your Litha altar.
Add green, red and yellow stones such as Emeralds, Green and Red Jades, Carnelian, Sunstone, Tiger Eye, and Citrine, and enhance your space with incense of cedar, frankincense, lemon, myrrh, rose, and lavender.

The Summer Solstice is all about family, friends, nature, and of course, the Sun! The most traditional thing you can do on Litha is to light bonfires (large ones outside, or smaller, more symbolic ones, inside) to honor this life-giving planetary body. This was done traditionally by almost all ancient peoples at this time of year, and continues on to modern times.

Bonfires
Jumping the fire or building two fires and dancing between them was a common way for our ancestors to celebrate Summer, and if you have a large enough property or access to open fields (and permits, I imagine), you can do the same. If you're reading this in any year other than 2020 (or possibly 2021), I would definitely suggest that you check for local celebrations, because this particular Solstice is well known for being the perfect time to have public, communal events. (*Always be safe when dealing with fires*)

Handfasting
Another traditional celebration during the Summer Solstice is to attend or host a handfasting. Even if you're already 'married', a handfasting ceremony is a beautiful , meaningful, and intimate way to bind yourself to the one you love. Instead of family and friends bringing gifts, plan ahead as a potluck, and everyone can bring something to eat or drink at the party!

The Spiral Dance
Lastly, the Spiral Dance is performed at Litha. You could probably figure out a way to dance it by yourself if you're a Solitary, but it's much more fun with others. Teach your friends and family (there are multiple videos on youtube) and dance it together, whether they're practicing Wiccans or not (after all, everyone dances!).

Spend Some Time with Nature
Show your love for Nature and the natural world. Spend some time in your garden, and if you don't have one, plant something. It can be as small as a potted herb on your windowsill or the construction of a new raised bed filled with vegetables in your yard. In fact, this year I built a small raised bed in my yard and filled it with native pollinator plants and a birdbath to attract more insects to my yard.  Growing your own herbs, veggies, and flowers is a great way to get into the practice of Green Magic!

A great project you can do alone or with your children is to build birdhouses, bird feeders, insect condos, toad houses, and bee homes. Plans, ideas, and tutorials are easy to find all over the web.

Take a walk through the woods or wild park near your home. Pay attention to the proliferation of life all around you. Really, really take the time to actually see it, from the tiniest aphid on the stem of a flower to the hawk gliding overhead, to the deer quietly munching on some grass. Pick wildflowers slowly. Examine each one's beauty and complexity. Smell their unique scent (or stink), and thank each one for their gift of beauty and colour, and then bring them home and decorate your Litha altar with them.

Greet the Sun
One of my favorite things to do Litha morning is to greet the sunrise. I wake early, brew some Magical Summer Solstice Tea, pour a small glass of brandy, and grab two honey cakes. I sit outside and watch the special sunrise while giving thanks for all the beauty of the natural world that surrounds me. When I'm finished my tea and cake, I leave a small plate with the second cake and the cup of brandy for the Faeries. Faeries love sweets and booze. Don't have any? That's okay, they're good with milk or cream too. However, be careful when leaving offerings to the Wee Folk, they are notoriously mischievous and unless you'd like to invite that into your home, leave all offerings for them as far from your door as possible.
(Solstice Tea recipe can be found at mountainroseherbs.com, Mysterious Dragonfyre is in no way affiliated with them nor do we receive any compensation if you purchase anything from their shop.)

Build Faerie Houses
While we're on the subject of Faeries, another fun project you can do with your kids is to make Faerie houses and doors. Again, lots of ideas and how-to's can be found with a few clicks.

Cleanse your Altar
Litha is also the perfect time to clean, cleanse, and refresh your altar. Remove everything from your altar, clean it with natural cleaners (salt water with fresh pine needles is a perfect 'dual' agent here, cleaning and cleansing), cleanse it with smoke, and finally anoint your tools before placing them back on the altar and decorating it for the season.

Divination
Lastly, this is the perfect time for some divination, specifically through Fire and Water. Scrying through the flames of your bonfire, the water in your nearest pond, or even looking to the skies and using the clouds are perfect ways to celebrate the season.

Traditional foods to enjoy and share with friends and family during Litha include: grilled foods (BBQ or any open flame), anything made with honey (such as honey cakes or mead), yellow, orange, and red foods to honor the Sun, juice made from fresh fruits (especially citrus), herbal teas (hot or iced), and all sorts of fresh fruits and veggies, especially from your own garden or your local Farmer's Market.

I usually give you a few recipes here to try at home, but I came across Raven and Crone (it's also an online store, but Mysterious Dragonfyre is in no way affiliated with them nor do we receive any compensation if you purchase anything from their shop) and they have a compilation of quite a few delicious Litha recipes , so we decided to post the link to their site and you can scroll through many there.

If you'd like a simple recipe for honey cakes made the way they did in Medieval times, we posted one in our Ostara blog post.

I would like to leave you with one very summery, very refreshing recipe before I let you go:

1 cup mixed fresh berries
1/2 cup frozen berries
2-3 sprigs fresh mint
1/2 cup sugar
4 cups water (filtered or spring)
juice of 10 lemons
1 small (750ml) bottle Moscato wine
1 lemon, sliced into rounds

Thank you for spending some of your time with me.
I wish you a blessed Litha!

Friday May 1st is almost here, so we wanted once again to peel back the curtain and show you our personal ways to celebrate Beltane.

This festival of fire and fertility opens the doors to the worship of all manner of Gods and Goddessses, including Fire, Fertility, Nature, and Solar Deities, and there are many to chose from. We personally turn to the Egyptian pantheon at this time, worshiping and honoring Ra and Sekhmet.
You may feel the pull of the May Queen Herself, the Welsh Goddess Creiddylad, but if not, here's a (very) short list of other Deities you may feel inspired by right now: Artemis, Bacchus, Bel, Cernunnos, Demeter, Flora, The Green Man, Hera, Pan, and Sheela-na-Gig.

We certainly have a lot going on here! To honor the Fire festival, we have lots of Fire! Six taper candles in shades of yellow and green are woven into the spaces of our altar tile, three tealights, again in shades of yellow and green, and the main event, a fiery cauldron! Earth and Nature are represented by a richly coloured green altar cloth, a Flower of Life incense holder, salt in one of the chalices (family heirlooms I love to use), a clover plant and home made wreaths of spring flowers. It's still cold here in the GTA, so this was what I could gather from my own garden. Bird's feathers and green moss agates round out this category.

Goddess and God are heavily represented on our altar since this is also a fertility festival. Sticks of incense and tall taper candles represent the Male, while chalices and a cauldron represent the Female. In honor of The Great Rite, we have the phallic, masculine, Maypole surrounded by the feminine wreath, and the athame penetrating another floral wreath evoke the same symbolism.

There are many ways to decorate and personalize your altar for Beltane. Green is the traditional colour for altar cloths, but you can also use yellow or blue. Add as many candles as you like, along with acorns, antlers, bees, birds, braids, butterflies, Deity statues, horns, rings, seeds, spring flowers, statuettes of couples, sticks, and swords. Sprinkle some stones and crystals about, such as amber, carnelian, emerald, fire agate, and malachite. Lastly, add the wonderful scents of jasmine, peach, rose, ylang ylang, and vanilla incense.

Beltane is the perfect time of year to perform fertility and love spells. Indeed, all spellwork related to closeness and prosperity are powerful at this time of year, whether you perform them with the intention of bringing another person closer, communion with your chosen Gods and Goddesses, fertile crops, or financial prosperity.

We would be remiss to post a list of May Day activities without starting with the most popular and widely known: dancing around the Maypole. MarthaStewart.com has a simple step-by-step guide you can follow to make one of your very own. I would suggest a floral ring for the topper rather than a finial, in keeping with tradition. If you don't want to erect a large pole in your backyard, or you don't have access to one, make a Maypole centerpiece for your altar like we did!

Have a (safe!) backyard bonfire. Traditionally, the Celts put out all other fires and kindled a special, sacred fire. All the people in the community came out and jumped the fire to purify themselves and to bring fertility. They would also drive their farm animals through the smoke for the same reasons. Once the celebrations were over, everyone took some of the sacred fire home with them to restart their own fires.

Spend some nature time and dress a tree. Traditionally, hawthorn, rowan, and birch trees were decorated with ribbons at Beltane, but any tree you choose will be happy for your company. As you tie a ribbon onto a branch, make a wish or say a prayer. Once you're done, dance around the tree, sing to it, talk to it, and/or just sit at it's base and honor the tree and it's fertility.

Make a wreath or headdress of fresh spring flowers. That may be a little more difficult for those if us who are Canadian and are just starting to warm up, but this time of year has it's fair share of grape hyacinth and a few yellow daffodils showing off their bright colours in my front yard. A walk through your local wild space will net you some pretty foliage that you can use, or you can always use greenery and make a mask to honor The Green Man.

Traditional foods to enjoy and share with friends and family during Beltane include: fresh baked bread, honey, oats (bannocks, oatmeal, oat cakes, oatmeal cookies), and dairy (creams and cheeses). Here are a few of our favorite recipes for you to try out.

1 cup uncooked rolled oat flakes
1 cup flour
1 cup brown sugar
¼ cup chopped walnuts
½ cup butter
½ cup white sugar
¼ tsp salt
3 tbsp maple syrup
3 cups sliced fresh strawberries

½ cup + 2 tbsp softened butter
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
1 egg
1½ tsp vanilla
¾ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
2½ cups oat flour
1 cup chocolate chips

Source: southernliving.com

½ (15-oz.) package refrigerated pie dough (such as Pillsbury)
1 small bunch fresh asparagus spears, ends trimmed
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 large leek, thinly sliced
8 large eggs
1 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1½ tsp kosher salt
¼ tsp black pepper
4 tbsp crumbled goat cheese
Fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, for garnish

Thank you for spending some of your time with me.
I wish you a blessed Beltane!

As Ostara fast approaches, falling on Thursday March 19th, We wanted to share some recipes, decorations, and ways to celebrate the Spring Equinox as the Wheel turns again.

Ostara is a wonderful time of year to ask blessings of and give offering to the Triple Goddess. In Dragonfyre Wicca, this is the time of year when the Queen of the Witches features prominently in our rites and rituals, and we set our altar with items sacred to Hecate. No matter which Deity you prefer to work with, it is easy to use our setup as a guide.

As you can see in the picture above, we have the main items set in the shape of a pentagram, with a framed print of the Triple Goddess representing Spirit, a beautiful chalice that belonged to my grandmother filled with spring water representing the Water Element, a patchouli-scented candle resting in a glittery holder represents Fire, Earth is represented with a soapstone trinket box containing pink salt*, and finally, a black brass incense burner contains purple sand, a charcoal disc, and some dried lavender, ready to burn during prayer. For an offering bowl, we used a tiny selenite bowl and filled it with apple chips that just came out of the oven.
*Why pink salt? Salt representing the Earth Element goes without saying, but we chose pink because its colour is perfect for the season.

This is the basic setup, which features items sacred to Hecate. Since it is Ostara, we like to add a few extra decorations which represent the Sabbat:

We’ve included a picture of our decorated altar, where we’ve added some yellow flowers and a potted shamrock, an egg (dyed using turmeric, see below) in a 'nest' of fresh thyme, and some rose quartz. Feel free to add any of the above, or mix it up a little with a floral wreath made from springtime wildflowers, which you can wear during ritual, then place around your statue or picture, statues of small springtime animals such as bunnies or lambs, and herbs and stones of the season such as lemon balm, sunflower seeds, rosehips, vervain, clear quartz, agates, lapis lazuli, and amazonite.

Ostara is all about springtime and the celebration of new life, and so at this time, it is a good idea to perform spells for prosperity, growth, and agriculture.

In the days leading up to Ostara, dyeing hard boiled eggs is an ancient tradition that survives to the present day among Wiccans, Christians, and many others. Highlight your wishes for the new season by decorating them with symbols of the season, and then consecrate them in the name of the Goddess of Spring and the God of the Sun.

Dyeing eggs from natural foods you may already have in your home is incredibly easy. Here are the basics:

Bring 4 cups of water and 2 tablespoons of white vinegar to a boil. Add colouring ingredient, lower heat, and simmer for a half hour. When the 30 minutes are up, remove pot from heat and let cool completely and strain to remove foodstuffs. Now, you can add your eggs, and once they reach the shade you like, remove them (with tongs!), dry them with a paper towel, and enjoy!

4 cups chopped beets will make pink eggs, 4 cups of onion skins orange, 3 tablespoons ground turmeric yellow, 3 cups of chopped red cabbage light blue, and 4 cups of blueberries dark blue.

I found this recipe and the colour combinations at goodhousekeeping.com, click on the link to be taken to their page with full instructions.

You can also create magickal amulets and talismans for fertility, protection, and prosperity. wisewitches&witchcraft.com has a great article with step by step instructions how to make portable magickal items.

On Ostara Eve, place some patchouli incense in a hanging censer (or any incense burner you can carry without dropping or burning yourself) and light a lavender candle (also in a receptacle that enables you to safely carry it). Carry both throughout your home, briefly visiting each room, and bid farewell to Winter and welcome the Spring.

Once your celebrations are done, take your crushed eggshells and toss them into your garden as an offering to the Fae Folk and as fertilizer for the new plants that will soon begin to poke their heads through the soil.

Traditional foods to enjoy and share with friends and family during Ostara include: biscuits, cheese, eggs, fish, ham, honey cakes, lamb, nuts, seeds, and sprouts. Here are a few of our favorite recipes for you to try out:

Deviled Eggs

6 eggs [hard boiled, cooled, and peeled]
1 shallot, finely diced
3 tbsp mayonnaise
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
Smoky (sweet) or Hungarian (hot) paprika

*Slice eggs lengthwise and remove yolks with a small spoon, being careful not to damage the white. Place whites on a plate and yolks in a small bowl.
*Add all remaining ingredients except paprika and mash and stir together with a fork.
*Spoon (or pipe) mixture back into holes left by the yolks, and top each with a pinch of paprika.

Honey Cakes

(I found this wonderful recipe for Medieval Honey Cake online! I bake them in ramekins so they’re smaller, and bake for only about 30 minutes. Source: poppyandprune.com)

3 cups cake flour
1 cup honey
½ cup oil
½ cup milk

*Preheat oven to 350°. Line the bottom of a 9” round cake pan with parchment paper and oil the interior.
*Mix together flour and honey. When reasonably combined, mix in oil. Then add the milk. When thoroughly mixed, the batter should have a consistency not unlike that of Play-Doh.
*Spread the batter into the pan, smoothing with a spatula. Bake 35-40 minutes. This cake is best served warm.

Ham & Spinach Quiche

(Source: catzinthekitchen.com)

1 store bought pie crust
7 eggs
1 cup chopped fresh spinach
1 cup chopped cooked ham
Salt and pepper
1 ½ cups heavy whipping cream
2 cups shredded cheese (a blend of cheddar, mozzarella, and monterey jack)

*Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
*Place pie crust in pan, flattening it into the sides and trimming any excess. Place in fridge while preparing filling.
*Crack eggs into a large bowl, and add heavy cream. Beat until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste, and then stir in cheeses. Add ham and spinach and stir the entire mixture until well combined.
*Pour mixture into pie crust, using a spoon to ensure that it spreads about evenly. Carefully place quiche in oven, and bake for 35 minutes, or until texture is “jiggly” but solid.
*Remove from oven and let sit for three to four minutes, then cut and serve immediately.

Thank you for spending some of your time with me.
I wish you a blessed Ostara!