The Year’s Dark Months Are a Magic Cauldron

A Fairy Yearwheel Ritual With Flowers

My paperwhite bulbs arrived a few weeks ago. The above photo shows some of them the day they arrived, after I nestled them into water, to start growing.

Growing paperwhites inside has become one of my Pagan holiday season rituals in recent years.

I developed a ritual that is the growing of paperwhites. It is one of my year wheel practices. Now I consider growing paperwhites to be among the Fairy Queen’s magic spells for the fall and winter months.

Over the dark months of the year, the ritual unfolds, giving me many blessings.

For example, the bulbs I started a few weeks ago will bloom in the dark of winter. The flowers’ bright star shapes and luxurious scent will lift my spirits from winter doldrums. Lovely flowers lift the spirits, but my paperwhites will do it all the more because I add ritual elements to growing them.

They’ll also remind me that the winter darkness is the Goddess’ womb. This understanding can be a bit of an antidote to depression caused by winter darkness. The ritual elements I add allow the paperwhites to help me experience myself as Her luscious, beloved child within that womb—that winter darkness. The experience is an effective antidote.

The blossoms also remind me that in the winter darkness, I am a bright star reborn every year.

Traditional European Witchcraft’s Power and Subtlety

Traditional European Witchcraft is not always overt. Instead of visible rituals, Witch Spirituality is often internal, an ongoing Shamanic journey through life. Visible manifestations might be, as an example, enjoying one’s day. Another visible manifestation might be attempts to make a positive difference in the world. In other words, visable manifestations might the rituals’ results on the mundane plane. They can be quite striking even though the rituals are not always so “impressive.”

Growing my paperwhites unfolds as subtle rituals throughout the dark time. The rituals include contemplations but they are more than thoughts in my head. These musings are enmeshed in magical spells, and thus shift my energy and the energy of my home, blessing it. The magic might help bring prosperity, wisdom about challenges I face, and just about any other blessing.

So not only do I remember that I am their child reborn. I experience the rebirth, in all its glory and power, as the paperwhites ritual develops over the later dark months.

I experience being held lovingly close by my Goddess, the Fairy queen, as well as by the Fairy king. I need this experience because I can get SADD during the winter. The paperwhite magic mitigates that.

Paperwhites rituals are hearth magic. Kitchen magic is often viewed as shallow and not very powerful. It can be one of the most powerful magics on the planet. I teach a Kitchen Magic course that goes deep deep deep.

We find Fairy secrets in many ways. We lose them if we become ego-ridden and think the only way we can claim them is to boast of them, shouting from the rooftops. We lose them unless we have the humility to hold them close in simple practices.

All my classes embody the Fairy secrets and include lessons about the various ways you can find Fairy secrets, as well as ways you can maintain them in your life. Several of my courses do this without any of their lessons including the term Fairy secrets.

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Fairy Witch, Francesca De Grandis, is the bestselling author of Be a Goddess!. She offers classes, psychic readings, and healings. Her Goddess spirituality embraces practical magic spells. Trained from birth in a Shamanic family tradition of Italian (La Vecchia Religione) and Celtic Witchcraft, her Witchcraft is an ancient Faerie Shamanism. An Italian Witch is also known as a Strega. Francesca equates Fairy Witchcraft with Faerie Shamanism.