To aid the self-dedicated Wiccan Priestess and self-dedicated Wiccan Priest, here is the ritual script for the weekly Esbat of The Tree, as slightly adapted for our coven. Additional sources consulted included The Witch Cult in Western Europe, Poetic Edda, Magic and Healing, Anglo-Saxon Magic and Medicine Illustrated Specially from the Semi-Pagan Text “Lacnunga”, Witchcraft Today, The Silver Bough, The Lost Gods of England, Where Witchcraft Lives, Witchcraft the Sixth Sense, Witchcraft Ancient & Modern, What Witches Do, Natural Magic, Songs of Saxon Witchcraft, The Book of Tarot Illustrated with the Morgan-Greer Tarot, Buckland’s Complete Book of Witchcraft, Witchcraft From the Inside, Wicca for Life, and public interviews graciously given by High Priestess Eleanor Bone and High Priestess Maxine Sanders.
(The Erecting the Temple is performed. Priest and Priestess kiss. There may be flowers on the Altar.)
Priest: “Let us join in worship of Frey and Freya. Let us give thanks for all that we have; for the love we enjoy; for the kinship we share.”
Priestess: “Let us never forget what we owe to the Gods. For however our lives are shaped, they are so shaped by Our Lady and Our Lord. Theirs is the watch to keep; they are the ones who lead us on our paths.”
Priest: “It is right that we thank them for what we have. Yet also may we ask them for what we feel we need.”
All: “So be it!”
(All kneel. Then follow three or four minutes of silence, while each in his own way gives thanks or requests the help of the Gods. Priestess indicates when it is time for the Coven to stand.)
Priestess: “An’ it harm none, do what thou wilt.”
All: “An’ it harm none, do what thou wilt.”
Priestess: “Thus runs the Wiccan Rede. Remember it well. Whatever you desire; whatever you would ask of the Gods; whatever you would do; be assured that it will harm no one—not even yourself. ‘As ye give, so shall it return;’ Give of yourself, your love, your life; and so will you gain immeasurably. Take that which is not yours to take, and you may find it not what it seemed. The Gods are just and all they do with reason. Our Lady is Love; Our Lord is Strength. As we need them, they need us. Let us live and love together all in their sight. Love is the Law, and Love is the Bond.”
All: “So be it!”
(Then shall follow the Ceremony of Cakes and Ale. If there is healing, divination, or consecration to be done in the Temple, then it should be done somewhere between the Ceremony of Cakes and Ale and the final Clearing the Temple.)
Wiccan Healing Rite
(When all are ready the Coven rise and, holding hands, form a Circle.)
Priest: “Lord and Lady, be with us now.”
Priestess: “Help us to draw the goodness from our bodies and send it where it is most needed. We ask your help, this time, in sending our thought-force to…(Name)…dire is her/his need; great is our will. Let that which is ours be shared with her/him, that all may be well.”
(Coven slowly begins the dance. All chant as they dance:)
All: “Ye dark of night with shining Moon, bright of Star that shines from North; hearken to this Witch’s tune—a chant to draw the magick forth.
By all the powers of sea and land, by all the might of mind and will, as I command so make it stand. I chant this spell mine to fulfill.
Smoke of censer, blade of knife, powers in the Witch’s blade; waken all ye into life. Come ye as the charm is made.
Work the magick, work it well, Lord and Lady of the night. Send your aid unto this spell; work my will this magick rite.
By chanting rhyme, by singing song, by all the light of Moon, of Sun; chanting, dancing, loud and long. As I do say…so be it done!”
(When the dance is complete, the Coven then sits again, to rest, before the Clearing the Temple.)
Image: The Fairy Circle by Carlton Alfred Grant (1885-1899)
Lincoln Green 