Kitchen Witch - The Cailleach Ritual for Releasing

Circle casting written by Ness Armstrong.

Body of the ritual taken from the best-selling book The Cailleach by Rachel Patterson and arranged by Ness Armstrong.

You will need:

A sheet of paper or card (A4 size roughly)

Pebbles/Shells/Stones – we will be making a spiral on the paper or card, so enough to do this.

Glue – if you wish to stick the pebbles/stones/shells to the card.

Candle, holder and matches/lighter – a colour that speaks to you of winter or corresponds with the Cailleach: blue, white, grey but go with your intuition.

Circle Casting

By the Power of the snow topped mountains and the rugged landscapes

By the might of wintery biting winds and chilly breezes

By the warmth of cozy log fires and weak winter sunshine

By the waters of stormy seas and winter rain

We are connected.

Deity

She is ancient…

She is the landscape beneath our feet

She is the mountains and the hills

She is the rock and stone that leads down to the shore

She is wisdom

She is knowledge

She is mysteries

She is the old hag

She is The Cailleach

We welcome you!

(taken from The Cailleach by Rachel Patterson)

The Cailleach – goddess of the ancestors, wisdom that comes with age, the weather, time, shapeshifting and winter.

She is said to have shaped the landscape by dropping boulders from her apron, which given that she is often portrayed as a giant should have been an easy task.

Her time is Samhain to Beltane, which is when she is at her most powerful.

Towards the end of autumn when the weather starts to get that clear, fresh and chilly

air you can feel her draw near.

Often referred to as a Neolithic goddess, her origins seem to lie in ancient Britain. However, traces of her can be found across Europe, still as part of Celtic tribal history, but also in places such as Greece, Spain and Portugal.

She is probably most well known for her landscaping, with many mountains, caves, rivers and landmarks named after her. She is therefore, strongly associated with the elements of both earth and water.

The Cailleach is at her most powerful during the winter months, bringing the cold weather, icy winds and snow with her.

She is said to often ride a wolf (sometimes a wild pig) across the sky bringing the snow and riding the wolf through the lands crushing any signs of plant life.

But she is also seen as the midwife for the dying year, keeping the seeds of new life safe and warm beneath the earth, caring for them throughout the winter months so that they may become new life in the spring.

Work with her for balance, rebirth, cycles, endurance, overcoming hardship, letting go.

 We will be working with her for letting go of what no longer serves – be that old habits, negative thought patterns, or anything in your life that is taking up space where it is no longer required.

Light your candle and focus on the flame for a moment…

Think about what you want to let go of…hold that in your mind.

Place the paper or card in front of you, pick up your stones/pebbles or shells one at a time and place them on the card in a spiral, starting from the outer edge. Once you have reached the centre, take a deep breath and say something like:

 “I release what no longer serves me, I let go of all that is taking us space where it is no longer required”.

Nothing fills a void like negative energy, so we need to promote positivity and well-being. Trace your finger from the centre of the spiral back to the edge where you first started and say:

 “I fill this void with positivity and affirmations”

Allow the candle to burn out if you can, or snuff it and reuse it if you need to revisit your spiral again.

Meditation to Meet the Cailleach

Make yourself comfortable in a place where you won’t be

disturbed. Close your eyes and begin to focus on your breathing.

Take deep breaths in…and out.

The world around you dissipates and you find yourself on a hillside,

the air is biting cold and the ground beneath your feet is covered in

a fresh white blanket of snow. However, you don’t feel the cold as

you are wrapped in a warm woollen cloak, which you pull closer

around you.

You listen, but there are no sounds, just the silence of a land in

slumber beneath the snow.

Take a look around you and notice the landscape, the mountains

in the distance and the scattering of lone trees all standing bare

against the backdrop of snow. The sky is blue and the weak winter

sun is trying its best to warm the land.

As you look around you notice what looks like the entrance to a

cave and a slight waft of smoke drifting out from within, so you start

to make your way towards it.

Your feet crunch in the crisp white snow and your breath turns

to mist as you breathe. As you walk you notice a few large black

crows are circling above high in the blue sky.

As you draw near to the cave entrance you can smell the smoke

from a wood fire. It is dark inside the cave, but you enter hesitantly.

A voice calls out to you from the inner cavern inviting you to

come in.

You follow the voice and the smoke to see an old woman hunched

over a cauldron hanging above a wood fire. She beckons you to sit

down.

You sit in silence for a short while, watching the smoke from the

fire and the old woman stirring the contents of the cauldron. Then

she stops and comes to sit beside you. She takes your hand in hers

and looks at you. Her eyes are full of knowledge and wisdom and so

very ancient she holds the mysteries of all time.

Ask her what you need to know…listen to her answer very

carefully…

When you are finished, she reaches into her pocket and hands you

a gift, a reminder of what you have talked about. You take it and

thank her.

When you are ready you say farewell and rise, leaving the

warmth and darkness of the cave without looking back.

You walk back across the snow-covered hillside to the point where

you arrived.

Slowly and gently come back to the here and now, wriggle your

fingers and toes and open your eyes.

Eat. Drink and Chat

She is ancient…

She is the landscape beneath our feet

She is the mountains and the hills

She is the rock and stone that leads down to the shore

She is wisdom

She is knowledge

She is mysteries

She is the old hag

She is The Cailleach

We thank you for lending us your energies, Farewell!

 By the Power of the snow topped mountains and the rugged landscapes

By the might of wintry biting winds and chilly breezes

By the warmth of cozy log fires and weak winter sunshine

By the waters of stormy seas and winter rain

This ritual here is done but

We remain connected.

The Cailleach by Rachel Patterson