Submitted by Freyja, MyRitual Co-Founder
Originally posted on June 5, 2020
Where to begin...magic and a love of nature have been with me since childhood. My deeply Catholic mother didn’t know the power of impressing upon her only child that plants and trees and even objects had feelings...if you bumped into a table, you apologised to it - these memories of her fill me with such joy now that she’s gone. Even our house had it’s fair share of otherworldly encounters but I’ll save that for another post. Ultimately, I grew up on a farm in Ontario surrounded by nature and grounded in a deep respect for the land.
Although I only began this journey into witchcraft in earnest about 4 years ago, I see in hindsight I’ve traveled this path all along. I’ve read Tarot cards for years (I recently discovered a Tarot journal of mine from the late 80s!) and looking back now, at the time I don’t think I was really aware of who she was when I adopted the Norse Goddess Freyja as a gamer and twitter handle in the 90s. I guess that’s where my goddess journey began and how I’ve arrived here today on a brand new journey to officially step into my role with Ben in bringing My Ritual to life.
Now, let me introduce the three divine ladies of my altar and share the stories of how they’ve influenced my life to arrive at the purpose of helping to bring the magic of the Ancient Ones to life; I believe that never has the world needed their strength more than now.
Freyja: Strong, willful Freyja is my girl. I don’t know why she chose to help me find her at a young age. Maybe my Danish roots played a role but she’s been with me since my twenties. In this altar, I’m thanking her for always being there and asking for her guidance and support in bringing the ancient ones to life in this new journey we are on.
Hera: I met Hera in her Temple in Paestum, Italy at this time last year. The temple was beyond stunning and held an immense power over me just staring at it from outside the gates the night we arrived. The next day I immersed myself in everything Hera - I was there with my husband and she was the Goddess of marriage after all… Little did I know at the time but Hera is also the goddess of cheating spouses as she herself was married to the philandering Zeus. Fast forward a couple of weeks and to this day I’m grateful for the goddess Hera having helped me to see something that I could not have otherwise. Without her, I don’t think I would be where I am today.
Yemaya: Beautiful Yemaya. Santerian Queen of the Sea and Goddess of women. She is the beginning of the My Ritual journey for me. Meeting her and learning about Santeria on a trip to Cuba was the final catalyst for Ben and I to create the idea of My Ritual. Today I thank her for inspiring us and ask that she helps to guide us on this path.
A few weeks back I was at a crossroads between my past life and this new one. At those crossroads, I made the choice to focus full time on My Ritual and to live a more magical life everyday.
I hope you’ll join me, and us, on this journey as I want to share everything we learn and hope that you will find some magic yourself in our story and how we are working with these powers and influences in our daily lives.
Before we examine the individual altars, the overall full moon altar contains the elements of Earth - represented by the plants on my wall, Air - represented by the incense (Frankincense is my favourite for rituals) Fire: the candle and Water represented by Moon Water with salt in it. . And tonight’s full moon is in the sign of Cancer which is associated with the Chariot card from the Tarot. The Chariot personifies willpower and focus to tap into your personal power to manifest magic which goes along with this new adventure. BTW, the featured card is from the beautiful Witches Tarot deck by Ellen Dugan, my personal favourite deck.
Freyja is the ancient Norse Goddess of love, beauty, sexuality, fertility, and magic but she is also the Goddess of war and the Queen of the Valkyries. On the lighter side she is also the mistress of cats and you can see one at her feet. In my altar, Freyja is standing on a Norse inspired altar mat featuring the Norse compass Vegvisir. At her feet is one of the Rune stones that represents her called Kenaz which means the power to create your own reality. The offerings I’ve made to Freyja are among her favourite things, raspberry and mint. Included in the viking incense boat is the green stone Tourmaline which is aligned with Freyja and represents courage and luck.
The blessing I will use to invoke Freyja can be found here:
https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/227080006184139206/
Hera is the ancient Greek Goddess of marriage, children, familial love and married women and as the wife of Zeus she was the Queen of Olympus. In my altar Hera is standing on a bed of yellow rose petals because she loves flowers and this particular colour of rose is meaningful to me. The offering I’ve made to Hera are two of her favourite things, honey and pomegranate.
The incense boat holds a lapis lazuli associated with Hera which stands for wisdom and truth.
The blessing I used to invoke Hera can be found here:
https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/46936021104022558/
Yemaya is Queen of the sea and mother of all, her name means “Mother whose children are like fish”. Yemaya represents primal femine power and she is an Orisha from the Santeria faith which is an Afro-Caribbean practice with roots in the Yoruba religion. As Goddess of the Sea Yemaya loves the water and the colour blue and you’ll see her altar seashells, coral and blue glass stones at her feet - exactly 7 which is her favourite number. I’ve also added salt to the Water element, a common approach in Santeria and other practices to represent the sea. My offerings to her are an aloe vera leaf, which she adores, and pomegranate, a love she shares with Hera. A quartz stone is associated with Yemaya which is believed to enhance spiritual growth, spirituality and wisdom.
My invocation to Yemaya can be found here:
I hope you’ve enjoyed this ritual and found something inspirational for your practice.
Merry Meet and Merry Part, Blessed Be
PS: Special thanks to Wendy Rule for her amazing Elemental Chant soundtrack - btw Wendy Rule is my fav Witchy musician I highly recommend her beautiful music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08DfdLGz5No