Today I offer a second ritual meant to clear obstacles and create opportunities. My last post was a ritual specifically designed for someone working within the idiosyncratic framework of the Bell, Book, and Blade. This one is similar, but more universal: intended for anyone who practices witchcraft at an altar.
I have recently come to understand that the common name for this sort of ritual – “road opener” – has its origins in Santeria and Hoodoo, as does nearly everything modern witchcraft knows about candle magic. The component parts of the ritual below come to me by various and circuitous means, including the instructions of my familiar spirits, and I promise that, in the future, I will write about or provide references to the deeper history of rituals such as these.
As with my cleansing bath recipe, I am writing and publishing this in large part because, when I needed inspiration for my own first road-opening rituals, I found far more professional spell-slingers selling services than I found ritual scripts that I could pillage for inspiration, and too many of those scripts I did find various Psalms. So, being the change I want to see in the world, here is a road-opening ritual which I hope that other modern neo-Pagan witches will find useful and inspiring.
Preparation
Timing
The good time for this ritual would be in the first days after the full moon, or the last days before the new. A day and hour of Mercury, or Saturn, would also be good. An ideal time would combine both lunar phase and astrological day and hour: the Wednesday or Saturday immediately following the Full Moon or immediately preceding the New.
But needs like this do not always arise at the opportune moment. Strike while the iron is hot.
Supplies
- Bowl and/or holder (something firesafe to hold the candle and other materia)
- Cencer or brazier with appropriate charcoal (for burning some of the myrrh and abre camino)
- Sand or salt (as a base and heat-sink)
- Candle (red, orange, black, or white according to your taste or tradition)
- Abre camino root
- Myrrh
- Dirt from a crossroads (next to a highway or cemetery is great, but where your driveway meets the road will work just fine)
- A stick or cone of incense.
- Oil for the candle (road opener oil is great, olive oil consecrated just for the ritual is also fine)
- Pin, needle, small knife, or candle scribe
The Altar
You will need a flat space with room for all the materia, relatively firesafe, and which can be left out (at a minimum) for the time it takes the candle to burn.
Arrange your materials in a way that feels easy and holy and powerful to you, and where you can reach them all without knocking anything over. In particular, set them up so that you can suffumigate each component as you go.
The Ritual
Opening
Cleanse and purify yourself and your space in accordance with your traditions.
Cast your circle in accordance with your traditions, but emphasizing especially the powers of the quarters and the crossroads nature of the circle: the place where the worlds meet, be they mortal and divine; above, below, and between; however you arrange your cosmos.
Body
Stand or sit at your altar.
Take up your incense. In the name of the powers you honor, consecrate then light the incense. “O you creature of earth and fire, I call upon you to cleanse, purify, and empower these materials to aid in my work, to create opportunities for me and remove the obstacles that stand in my way, to open the roads, to make clear the ways.”
Take up your brazier or censer. Light your charcoal in the brazier, and suffumigate them together in the smoke of the incense. In the name of the powers you honor, bless and consecrate the brazier: “O you creature of fire, smoking brazier, I call upon you to serve as emisary, delivering my offerings to the gods, so that together we may create opportunities, remove obstacles, open the roads, and make clear the ways.
Pick up the empty bowl and suffumigate it in the smoke of the incense. In the name of the powers you honor, bless and consecrate the bowl: “O you creature of earth, brazen bowl, I call upon you to serve as vessel for my work, that together we may create opportunities, remove obstacles, open the roads, and make clear the ways.”
Pick up your salt (or sand) and suffumigate it in the smoke of the incense. In the name of the powers you honor, bless and consecrate the salt: “O you creature of earth, pure and potent salt, I call upon you to serve as a strong foundation for my work, that together we may create opportunities, remove obstacles, open the roads, and make clear the ways.” Cover the bottom of the bowl in salt.
Pick up your crossroads dirt and suffumigate it in the smoke of the incense. In the name of the powers you honor, bless and consecrate the dirt: “O you creature of earth, you earth of a place which is no place, I call upon you to bridge the gap between this place and all others, that together we may create opportunities, remove obstacles, open the roads, and make clear the ways.” Cover the salt with graveyard dirt.
Pick up your abre camino root and suffumigate it in the smoke of the incense. In the name of the powers you honor, bless and consecrate the root: “O you creature of earth, I call upon you to serve as symbol and agent of my need, that together we may create opportunities, remove obstacles, open the roads, and make clear the ways.” Sprinkle a good quantity of the root on top of the dirt and salt, leaving enough to burn throughout the ritual.
Pick up your myrrh and suffumigate it in the smoke of the incense. In the name of the powers you honor, bless and consecrate the myrrh: “O you creature of earth, I call upon you to bring divine power, that together we may create opportunities, remove obstacles, open the roads, and make clear the ways.” Sprinkle a good quantity of myrrh on top of the dirt and salt, leaving enough to burn throughout the ritual.
Pick up your oil and suffumigate it in the smoke of the incense. In the name of the powers you honor, bless and consecrate the oil: “O you creature of water, I call upon you to bring divine power, that together we may create opportunities, remove obstacles, open the roads, and make clear the ways.” Set the oil aside for the moment.
Pick up your candle and suffumigate it in the smoke of the incense. In the name of the powers you honor, bless and consecrate the candle: “O you creature of fire, I call upon you to serve as a the focus and agent for my work, that together we may create opportunities, remove obstacles, open the roads, and make clear the ways.””Hail Hekate, hail Hermes, hail unto you gods of the roads and the crossroads, of the below and the above, of the wide ways and of the secret ones also.” Keep your candle in hand.
Measure a bit of the myrrh and the abre camino root onto the brazier. Keep the smoke as thick as you can stand throughout the ritual.
Inscribe your candle with a crossroads sigil and/or a sigil representing your needs, then anoint your candle with the oil. Embue the candle with your power and your need. As you do so, invoke the powers you honor:
I call upon you gods and powers of the croassroads!
I call upon you keepers of the wide roads and the secret paths!
Open the roads before me and make clear the ways!
Remove the obstacles that stand between me and my desires and my ambitions!
Open the roads, make clear the ways!
Open the roads, make clear the ways!
Open the roads, make clear the ways!
Repeat the prayer at least three times. If there is a specific path you want opened, name it. If there is a specific obstacle you want removed, name it.
Closing
When the ritual is done, you will feel it. If you can, walk away from your altar without looking back, and do not clear away the detritus until the sun has set (if you performed the rite during the day) or risen (if you performed the rite at night).
Dispose of the materia by burning or burial, ideally at a crossroads, leaving three dimes as offerings.
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