Tag: #magic

Writing Prompts and Rituals to Celebrate Beltane and Inspire a Magical May

Jaclyn4 Comments

Beltane, also known as May Day, is the beginning of summer and a great time to connect with your creativity. This post includes 30 creative writing prompts for Beltane, an explanation of what Beltane symbolizes, some Beltane ritual ideas, and how to celebrate Beltane as a writer. 

30 Writing Prompts and Rituals for May Day How to Celebrate Beltane as a Writer Writing Prompts and Rituals to Celebrate Beltane and Inspire a Magical May

What is Beltane?

Beltane is a pagan holiday that celebrates the coming of summer. This sabbat takes place around the halfway point between the spring equinox (Ostara) and the summer solstice (Litha). In the Wheel of the Year, it is even considered the first official day of summer. It is a celebration of fire, flowers, passion, romance, and creativity. It is the time of year when the outside world begins to teem with life. Reproduction is on display, from the birds to the bees to the flowers and trees.  

Beltane is usually celebrated around May 1, though the exact date of the astrological middle between equinox and solstice can vary quite a bit. Beltane is also known as May Day or May Eve and shares similarities with Walpurgis Nacht and Floralia, the Roman celebration of the flower goddess. 

Beltane Rituals

Beltane Fires

Beltane is a fire festival, and bonfires are central in celebrating the holiday. My favorite Beltane ritual is the idea of lighting your hearth from the communal fire. Traditionally, all hearth fires would be put out and people would light their home fires from the larger communal Beltane bonfire. Fires were also used for cleansing and protecting livestock. Fire, even in the form of a candle or small fire in a fire pit can be a great way to mark this day. 

May Pole

Perhaps the most famous ritual of May Day is the May Pole. The most recognizable image of the May Pole is that of a large pole with ribbons strung around it. Often in the celebration of the May Pole, participants will erect a large pole or branch and dance around it. Beltane is a time of gathering after the harsh weather of winter, when everyone can finally come together outside and dance.

May Bush

One of the most beautiful traditional rituals for Beltane is the ritual of the May Bush, which is a small tree or even just a branch decorated with flowers and ribbons. The participants could decorate the tree to represent their wishes by writing them on ribbons, decorating the tree with something symbolic of the wish, or making the wish while they decorate. This ritual is easy to adapt to an at-home practice. Anything from decorating a tree in your front yard with ribbons to tying a wish on a favored houseplant will do the trick. Let the life and fertility of the plants around you help you find your own vitality and creativity. 

Beltane Symbolism and Correspondences

Beltane is especially known for flowers. Celebrants make wreaths and crowns and adorn themselves, their houses, and their beloved ones in flowers. White, red, yellow, and orange flowers are perfect for celebrating the strength of the sun and the arrival of summer.  Hawthorn, birch, and rowan are also associated with this sabbat. 

Oats, wine, and dairy are all foods associated with Beltane, so eat some oatmeal cookies after your wine, or drink some oat milk. But also, it’s an ideal holiday for feasting in general, so invite over some friends and be merry.

In case all the fires and phallic poles and vulvic flowers didn’t tip you off, this particular sabbat is also associated with romance and sacred sex. Beltane is often seen as the time of year that gods and goddesses come together to copulate and marry, so it can be associated with weddings, love, lust, and new unions. 

Colors associated with Beltane are green, silver, white, and the fiery romantic colors: red, pink, yellow and orange. In the same vein, crystals of these colors can also be used around Beltane. Emerald, malachite, carnelian, rose quartz, garnet, and bloodstone are all excellent crystals to celebrate this time of year.

How to Celebrate Beltane as a Writer

For writers, Beltane offers new, exciting ways to connect with the creative energies around us and inside us. As the landscape bursts forth with new life, so too can we find these fertile forces in ourselves and our own writing practices. If you have felt stuck as the winter dragged on, or are looking for something new and inspiring to light your writing fire, Beltane is the ideal time to act on those impulses. Here are some ideas for how to bring the celebratory, fiery, creative energy of Beltane into your writing practice.

  1. Experiment. Beltane is an excellent time to let yourself play, let yourself dance around the metaphorical fire of your writing. Try new prompts. Try a new form. Draw your story. Beltane is a great time to try something new and see where the fires of creativity take you.
  2. Honor your ancestors. At Beltane, like at Samhain, the veil between worlds is thin. This is an ideal time to think about your literary foremothers. Who has inspired you and your writing? Reread the things that lit your literary fires and let yourself reconnect to what got you writing in the first place. 
  3. Lose yourself in music. Have you been wanting to create a writing playlist? To find music that helps you write? To create your own background music? Beltane is an optimal time to immerse yourself in the ecstasy and rapture that music can add to your writing practice. 
  4. Let nature guide you. Take your writing utensils outside and let nature be your muse. Find a flower, animal or tree to inspire you. You could use this prompt about plants, or just allow a nature bath to renew your writing. 
  5. Light your candle from the communal fire. As we all begin to come outside and rejoice in the warmth of the sunshine, it’s an excellent time to connect with other writers. Join or start a writing group. Attend literary events or conferences. Find community that will inspire you and get your creative juices flowing. 
  6. Connect to your creativity. One powerful way to connect with your creative side is to establish a writing ritual. Here’s a guide to developing your own ritual and here’s a ritual specially made for connecting to creativity. 
  7. Start a union. Beltane is also a fortuitous time to hook up with other writers (did you see what I did there?). Find an artist or another writer whom you’ve always wanted to collaborate with and ask! Beltane will be supporting the endeavor! 
  8. Adorn yourself. Perhaps you are the kind of writer who is inspired to wear flowers in their hair. Ahem. Or perhaps some bright red lipstick, a new scent, or a particularly special piece of jewelry might help you connect to a different side of yourself as a writer.
  9. Adorn your space. If your writing space is a little on the tired side, this is a great time of year to introduce plants, flowers, and fire elements. Buy a bouquet for your writing space and see if the beauty of the flowers rubs off on your writing. Get a new candle or a new plant to help transform your office (or kitchen table) into a place where magic can happen.
  10. Explore your sensual side. If ever there were a time of year to explore the more sexual side of your writing, this is it. If you’ve wondered about spicing up your stories or trying your hand at writing romance or erotica, Beltane is ideal.

Creative Writing Prompts for Beltane

  1. Write about a marriage that happens when the veil is thin.
  2. Write about two characters whose hands are fasted together.
  3. Write about a character who jumps over a broom and finds themself in a new life. 
  4. Go outside and find a plant or animal that piques your interest. Research and write about their reproductive habits. (Here is an example.)
  5. Write a story or poem that centers around the different wishes tied to a May Bush. 
  6. Write from the point of view of a flower.
  7. Write about something good that comes from a fire.
  8. Create a character based on a dangerous plant. 
  9. Use music as inspiration. Put on something entrancing and just let yourself write whatever comes to mind. 
  10. Write about a sexual fire being rekindled. 
  11. Start a collaboration. Find another writer or artist who inspires you and create a story, poem, or work of art together.
  12. Write about a romance that sets the world on fire. 
  13. Write about a union that starts at the May Pole.
  14. Write about a dance that changes everything. 
  15. Spend time in a wooded area and listen for nature spirits or fairies. What do they tell you? What are their stories?
  16. Write about a sexual ritual. 
  17. Write about what happens when the spirits of nature come out to play.
  18. Use your favorite line from a song as the premise for your own piece of writing. 
  19. Write about your wishes. 
  20. Create a character who is transformed when they adorn themself with flowers.
  21. Write about an old woman decorating a may bush. 
  22. Listen to a tree (bonus points for birch, hawthorn, or rowan, which is also known as mountain ash). Find one particular tree and connect with it. What are its stories? Write what the tree knows. 
  23. Write about what grows when the veil is thin.
  24. This photo by Jacob Rank on Unsplash. 
30 Writing Prompts and Rituals for May Day How to Celebrate Beltane as a Writer Writing Prompts and Rituals to Celebrate Beltane and Inspire a Magical May
  1. This photo by Molly Mears on Unsplash. 
30 Writing Prompts and Rituals for May Day How to Celebrate Beltane as a Writer Writing Prompts and Rituals to Celebrate Beltane and Inspire a Magical May
  1. This photo by Becca Tapert on Unsplash
30 Writing Prompts and Rituals for May Day How to Celebrate Beltane as a Writer Writing Prompts and Rituals to Celebrate Beltane and Inspire a Magical May
  1. This photo by Sasha on Unsplash.
30 Writing Prompts and Rituals for May Day How to Celebrate Beltane as a Writer Writing Prompts and Rituals to Celebrate Beltane and Inspire a Magical May

28. This photo by Jennifer Marquez on Unsplash. (Seriously, check out her work for more inspiration. I had trouble picking just one!)

​​

29. This photo by Gaspar Uhas on Unsplash

30 Writing Prompts and Rituals for May Day How to Celebrate Beltane as a Writer Writing Prompts and Rituals to Celebrate Beltane and Inspire a Magical May

30. This photo by Evgeni Tcherkasski on Unsplash.

30 Writing Prompts and Rituals for May Day How to Celebrate Beltane as a Writer Writing Prompts and Rituals to Celebrate Beltane and Inspire a Magical May

What are you doing to celebrate? If you use any of these prompts or rituals, please let me know how it goes! Your work could be showcased here. 

If you are looking for more prompts and rituals based on sabbats, you can find them here. For more creative writing prompts, look here. If you’re interested in reading creative work based on some of these prompts, they are here. To deepen your writing practice with rituals, check out this post.

Rituals and Writing Prompts to Celebrate Ostara and Inspire Your Spring

Jaclyn20 Comments

The spring equinox, also known as Ostara, is a special time of year when the day and night are in equal balance. You can use these rituals and writing prompts to celebrate Ostara and inspire your Spring. The energy of this time can help you strengthen your writing practice, develop your creativity, and plant the seeds you will harvest in your writing. Embrace your potential as a writer and get inspired by the light and new growth the earth is offering. 

Creative Writing Prompts for Spring Equinox Ostara for Writers Rituals and Prompts for Ostara The spring equinox, also known as Ostara, is a special time of year when the day and night are in equal balance. You can use the energy of this time to strengthen your writing practice, develop your creativity, and plant the seeds you will harvest in your writing. It’s a wonderful time to embrace your potential as a writer and get inspired by the light and new growth the earth is offering.

What is Ostara?

Ostara is the pagan celebration of the spring equinox, the time when there is equal amount of daylight and night. It is the beginning of spring and usually falls around March 21st in the northern hemisphere and September 21st in the southern hemisphere. Astronomically, it can shift a few days from year to year. Ostara is considered the first day of spring and the last day of winter. It is the day that the earth begins to wake after the long winter. 

It’s a time of rebirth and a time of perfect balance. It’s a time to plant seeds and cultivate hope for the future. It’s a celebration of fertility and fecundity and creativity, which makes it an excellent time of year to harness the power of creation and imbue your writing practice with some magic. Things change on Ostara because it’s when the daylight begins to outweigh the darkness. Starting on Ostara, we get more hours of light than we do darkness, and it signifies the time of year when the light has overcome the dark. 

Ostara is the dawn of the Wheel of the Year. Ostara is named for the Germanic goddess of Spring, Eostre, which is also where the word Easter comes from. (Easter, by the way, is celebrated on the Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. Basically, it is the celebration of the first full moon of the Wheel of the Year.) Eostre, in turn, may be derived from the Proto-German Austro, meaning dawn. Though Easter and Ostara do not often correspond in terms of dates, there are many shared correspondences. Both holidays celebrate spring, rebirth, eggs, and hares. 

Ostara Correspondences

One of the most notable Ostara correspondences is the rabbit or the hare. The females of the March hare species can get pregnant with a second litter while they are already pregnant with a first, which is part of why they are a symbol of fertility and fecundity. Eggs are also a symbol of Ostara, and it’s easy to see why, given their connection with spring and new life. 

Ostara is also associated with spring flowers: daffodils, crocuses and pussy willows, all the flowers that are the first to come up in the spring. The colors of these flowers also correspond to Ostara: green, yellow, and purple. Also, pastels are always great for this holiday. The spring equinox is also a time to celebrate the trees coming back to life, so all kinds of seeds and seedlings are appropriate, as are venerating birch trees, alders, and ash trees. Crystals that are particularly relevant for Ostara are rose quartz, moonstone, and aquamarine, which are all associated with growth and new growth. 

Lemony and herbal teas and scents are also good representations of spring and freshness. Floral scents are also good: Rose, lavender, jasmine, and any kind of flower-scented incense or candles will help freshen up your space and make things feel renewed and abundant. 

​​How to Celebrate Ostara as a Writer

Ostara can be an magical time for any artist, and for writers especially. It’s a great time to set new intentions, let yourself be reborn, find more balance, and try something new. If you celebrated Imbolc, maybe you set new intentions and resolutions already. Here are some more ideas for developing your writing practice at this time. 

  1. Balance your writing practice. How can you create more balance in your practice? Are you pushing yourself too much in terms of marketing and not spending enough time on your writing? Are you concentrating on plot and not enough on character? Are you focusing on word count and ignoring your playful, creative self? Think about how you can find more balance in your writing practice and endeavor to use this time of balance and new beginnings to reset and begin new practices around your writing process.
  2. Start something new. As the buds begin to bloom on the plants, think about where you can also begin new growth. This is an awesome time to start a new project. A new draft, a new book, a new genre, a new job, a new writing ritual. What project have you been waiting to begin? What changes have you been wanting to make? The time is now! 
  3. Be playful and childlike. There is a childlike freshness to this time of year, and you can embrace that in your writing practice as well. This is an excellent time to take yourself less seriously, to inject some play into your writing practice. 
  4. Let yourself be reborn. You may have ideas about what kind of writer you are, and sometimes these ideas need to shift and change. Are there ideas about your writing or about yourself as an artist that you need to let go of? Maybe you think you are not creative enough, not fast enough, not prolific enough. Now is a time to let yourself be born into the writer you were meant to be. What can you do to begin to embrace your potential and new growth as an artist?
  5. Be intentional about the seeds you are planting. Take some time to think about what you want to see grow and blossom in your writing practice. Make a plan to take concrete steps to develop that. Maybe you want to develop a daily habit, be more inspired, read more. This is a great time to plant those seeds so that you can harvest what you have sown later in the year. 
  6. Do some planning. It can be invigorating and exciting to make a plan to start something new. This is a great time to use the energy of new beginnings to start planning and goal setting in new ways.
  7. Embrace your creativity. Ostara is all about fertility and creativity. It is the perfect time of year to tap into your creative juices and the fruitfulness of your writing practice. Here is a ritual you can do to enhance your writing practice and really open up your imagination. 

Creative Writing Prompts for Ostara

Use these creative writing prompts to support your creativity and writing fertility.

  1. What’s new this spring?
  2. Write about something just beginning to emerge.
  3. Do an erasure in which you delete exactly half of the words in order to make a new poem or story. 
  4. Write about an egg that hatches into something unexpected.
  5. Write about the world restarting, being reborn completely anew. 
  6. Go outside, and let the way the earth is changing inspire you. It’s a great time of year to take your writing outside and look for the small details. They are growing into something beautiful. 
  7. Write about the dawn of something new.
  8. Write about someone who is green.
  9. Write about someone who finds a strangely decorated egg. 
  10. Write about overabundance, the problems that can happen when you have too much of a good thing. 
  11. There is a folktale about Eostre changing a bird into a hare, which is why the Easter bunny is said to bring eggs. Write about an unbelievable transformation that radically alters the way the character gives birth or brings life into the world. 
  12. Write a story that takes place completely at dawn.
  13. Write a story about reconnecting with your inner child.
  14. Write an aubade, a morning love song about the ways that lovers have to separate as the sun comes up. 
  15. Sit with your back against a tree (bonus points for birch, ash, or alder!) and listen. Write the story of the tree. What does it see? How does it experience the world differently? What kinds of stories can it tell?
  16. Write about someone emerging from a long period of darkness. 
  17. Write about a death that is actually a rebirth.
  18. Write a piece inspired by Let’s Pretend We’re Bunny Rabbits by the Magnetic Fields.
  19. Write about finding a frozen creature and nursing it back to health.
  20. Write a piece about someone who dies every evening and is reborn every morning. 
  21. Write a piece that centers around seeds being planted. 
  22. Write a story in which someone brings in a new dawn. 
  23. Write about someone who begins completely anew and reinvents themselves from scratch. 
  24. Write a story in which someone whose wings are frozen finds a new life because they cannot fly. 
  25. Pick one of the greens in the Sherwin Williams color families and create a piece based on the name of the color. 
  26. Go outside and write a haiku (or set of haikus) based on the new growth and signs of spring that you find.
  27. Spend time with a child and write about the world through their eyes. 
  28. Wake up early and observe the dawn. Free-write everything you see, hear, and experience in the first hour of the day.
  29. This image by Annie Spratt from Unsplash

30. This image from Ashley Bean from Unsplash

31. This image from Tangerine Newt on Unsplash.

32. This image by Sydney Rae from Unsplash.

33. This image by Chris Jarvis on Unsplash.

34. This image by Jessica Felicio on Unsplash.

For More

If you are looking for more writing prompts, you can find them here. If you want more creativity in your writing routine, check out this post about creating your own writing ritual, or this post for a ready-made creativity ritual. 

How to Make the Most of Mercury Retrograde For Writers

Jaclyn2 Comments

Mercury Retrograde for writers

I have been thinking a lot about how to link my writing practice more closely to the cycles of the seasons, moons, and stars. There is a part of me that feels some dread every time Mercury retrograde approaches, and because of Mercury’s connection with words, this dread is especially acute when it comes to my writing. Though Mercury retrograde has a terrible reputation, we can work on using the energy of the messenger slowing down to rethink our direction with writing, revise our work, and refresh our plans, our spaces, and ourselves. 

What is Mercury Retrograde?

Mercury retrograde is the time when instead of traversing forward in its march through the night sky, the planet Mercury seems to move backwards. In Greek astrology, Mercury is the messenger of the gods. The planet symbolizes language, expression, and communication. When Mercury goes retrograde, all kinds of things about our communications can go haywire. We might get in arguments, be misunderstood, or have trouble with our words. Mercury also rules technology and travel, so people often report computer problems, vacation hiccups, and trouble with contracts.

A lot of people dread Mercury retrograde. It’s famous for creating trouble and basically gets blamed for every single thing that goes wrong. Ex back in town? Mercury retrograde. Computer on the fritz? Mercury retrograde. Stubbed your toe? Mercury retrograde! 

Mercury retrograde is so famous, there’s a whole slew of memes about it.  And I mean, A. Whole. Slew. 

Why Mercury Retrograde Matters for Writers

Are you a writer? Mercury is the planet of communication, self-expression, messages, and verbal communication. He is all about words, ideas, speech, and language. My writing friends, Mercury is our guy! So it’s no wonder that when he goes retrograde, we feel writer’s block or the story doesn’t flow or we lose our last draft or whatever. It’s a time when we accidentally hit send on that unfinished email to our publisher, drop our notebooks in puddles, or send out messages that we haven’t actually thought through. 

But it’s not all bad! When Mercury goes backwards, he’s just slowing down, and with that, he’s also asking us to slow down, to look within a little more than usual, and to take care with our words. 

This is not the time to send things out in the world. It’s the time to look within. This can be so difficult because we want to always be moving forward, getting in our word counts, or sending out submissions. But instead of working against the energy of Mercury retrograde and trying to force our way forward, we might be better off trying to slow down with the Messenger and use that energy to our advantage.

How to Work with (not against!) Mercury Retrograde

My favorite way of thinking about Mercury retrograde is to think of it as an opportunity to slow down and do “re-” activities. A big shout out to Stephanie Gailing at CreativeLive.com for introducing me to this way of thinking. She writes, “Mercury Retrograde is an amazing time to rewrite, re-edit, revise, reorganize, et al. Put “re”- at the beginning of any communication activity and discover the great new insights that this time period can offer.”

Basically, this is a great time to reset and re-evaluate all of your communications, self-expressions, and messages. If you are a writer, there is lots of room to move forward in purposeful ways while avoiding some of the troubles that Mercury retrograde can bring. 

Revise

Probably one of the most useful things we can do for our writing during Mercury retrograde is to revise. Mercury is inviting us to slow down and take a hard look at our words before we send them out into the world. If you are a writer, this is a clear sign that the universe has your back on any revision. Have a short story or poem that hasn’t felt quite right? It’s time to look at it with fresh eyes and get the words right, slowly and carefully.

Re-read

Often, we are told to re-read contracts during Mercury retrograde because those teeny tiny details can really come back and bite you. But for writers, this is an excellent time to read over old work. Maybe the last book in your series needs to be re-read before you start the next one. It might be useful to re-read an old favorite for fresh inspiration. Maybe it’s time to re-read that old draft before you start an edit, or maybe it will be useful for you to re-read some of your old work from decades past. You might be surprised at what you find. 

Re-envision 

Perhaps the retrograde is calling you to revise in a different way, perhaps it is telling you to rethink the vision you have for yourself and the direction of your writing or your life. Mercury retrograde is actually a great time for introspection, and maybe you, like me, need to rethink the words you use when you are talking to yourself and the story you tell about yourself. I am currently working through Rewrite Your Story: Get Unstuck, Reach Your Goals, and Become the Empowered Author of Your Life by Dan Teck. The book is focused on rewriting the narrative you tell yourself and it is geared specifically toward writers. I think this is an excellent use of some Mercury retrograde down-time.

Replan

I don’t know about you, but I often make plans that just don’t seem to stick. This might be a good time to re-evaluate what’s most important, what’s working for you and what isn’t. Can you do less and get the same results? Do you need more direction in your writing career? Remember, this is the universe explicitly asking us to slow down and rethink our direction. You couldn’t ask for more support in doing this. 

Reset

This is also an excellent time to reset your space. Maybe your workspace has you feeling uninspired or frazzled. Use this energy of going within to revisit that space and make it work for you. I wouldn’t make any large changes, like painting or buying new furniture. But it’s an awesome time to refresh. Move your desk to a new spot. Hang that picture that you haven’t had the chance to hang. Put up some inspiring quotes and get out some candles. Get your space looking spiffy, comfortable, and inspiring. Then when Mercury goes direct, you will be ready to go!

Reorganize 

This would be a great time to reorganize your files. I don’t know about you, but my folders often get messy because I feel like I don’t have time to sit down and organize them. Perhaps you want to create a Google Drive system, organize your thoughts in Scrivener, or finally dive into Notion.  Think of retrograde as the universe giving you time. Just make triple sure to back everything up! 

Reflect

Mercury retrograde is a great time to just sit with your thoughts. Maybe if your creative writing is not moving forward in the way you would like, you can use this energy just to journal about what you want for your writing. If you are looking for some introspective prompts, you can find a whole month’s worth here. Mercury retrograde usually lasts about three weeks, which is a great amount of time to start a habit. Perhaps this is an excellent impetus to commit to sitting down each day, just for the period of retrograde, and take a little time to journal. 

Relax and Rejuvenate

Sometimes it can be difficult to give ourselves permission to just relax and take care of ourselves. There are so many things pulling at our attention and asking for our time that we might feel guilty if we are not constantly being productive. Think of Mercury retrograde as the heavens expressly giving you permission. With all the mishaps that can happen during this time, the universe is practically forcing you to relax. Take a bath. Do some yoga. Take a walk. Play video games or whatever fills your cup. During Mercury retrograde, rejuvenating might be a much better use of your time than accidentally sending that embarrassing email to all your coworkers.

Recommit 

Maybe all you need to move forward after Mercury retrograde is to recommit to your writing practice and your goals. This is such a great time to think about what you can do to support yourself moving forward. Maybe you start working with writing sprints, start giving yourself rewards for your accomplishments, join a writing accountability group, or even just find a friend that can help you move in the direction you want to go.

We do not need to be scared of Mercury retrograde. Like all the cycles of nature that ask us to slow down and look within, Mercury retrograde can be a gift. If we work with the energy of slowing down and looking within, we can actually do some really important writing work during this time. Remember, when it comes to our writing, all of the “re-” actions will be supported at this time. So revise that manuscript, reread old work, re-envision and replan, relax, rejuvenate, and reflect. Mercury has got your back!

But also, recheck and reconfirm that you’ve backed up your work!