Esme Midnight
Simple Sacred Rituals to Transform Everyday Life
Ritual as a Human Birthright
It seems to me that the human spirit thrives when we include special and sacred acts as a part of life. This can be done in many ways and on a regular basis, whether daily, seasonally, yearly or whenever the passion for it calls to us. We can construct such acts through learning many modalities, lineages, and systems of magic whether they be ceremonial, ecstatic or a combination of the two.
We can encourage ourselves to adopt our own style using any creative and unique sense of self. This involves cultivating our imagination. Whether or not we’ve lost touch with that aspect of ourselves, we can begin accessing it at any time. Imagination is a human gift and it opens many channels. It comes from within and also seems to exist outside ourselves, including the chorus of entities around us.
Some say we are beings of ritual and ceremony, that it is an essential component of being a member of our species, special to us. Of course, other earth beings probably have their ritual too, we just might be blind to them in most cases. I know I started to thrive in a myriad of ways when I got in touch with ritual and ceremony both in groups and by myself. It really started in an important way when I engaged in ancestor communication on a regular basis. This is just one example of personal connection with sacred practices.
Love as Living Ceremony
in sacred union.
Later in life I found myself married to a very wonderful and beautiful man, my sweet husband. We naturally fell into small informal rituals or specific intentions with quite a few special moments. We recognized how important some of our moments were and were inspired to utter strong sentiment and vows to each other at the times when we knew we wanted to commit ourselves to each other.
Or we focused our energy towards each other at pivotal moments where we felt the magic flow and coalesce to support our journey with each other. Some people may even bring more structure to such times and craft their intentions with more formal actions and processes.
We also found ourselves truly inside a magical container of meaning and love when we had the tiniest and most romantic wedding ceremony in front of two witnesses and an officiant who was my best friend. We let the day have a certain amount of mystery and spaciousness, and we also planned a handfasting ritual and wrote and read our vows to each other in an outdoor location special to us. We signed official paperwork and dressed up in the sweetest clothes we already owned.
One of my favorite parts was the intentional timing. We were married on the summer solstice, which is not only my favorite day of the year, but it is especially fitting because I associate my husband with Helios, the sun god. My Beloved is such a sun-person: a warm and radiant man who cherishes being outdoors (especially in the summertime). Additionally, from an astrological standpoint, it was one of the most auspicious days to get married, for our shared seventh house in Cancer.
Crafting Magic Through Everyday Imagination
What I didn’t know was that he had also been planning a deeply romantic surprise for the winter solstice—a set of rings, intentionally crafted to represent our bond of love and life partnership. He reached out to a very talented local artist, a dear friend of ours, shared his vision, and together they shaped the design. The rings were completed beautifully and right on time—handcrafted by the magical artisan who brought the rings to life.
Then, he planned a big reveal at our annual winter holiday party—the same gathering where, a year earlier, the group had offered a special prayer for me to find my partner. (And just a week after that prayer, he and I began our romance!) I truly believe in the power of praying for others.
Fast forward to the holiday party in December 2024. During the gift exchange game, my husband stood up, crossed the room, and picked up a wrapped box—the ultimate gift. In front of everyone, he delivered a beautiful, heartfelt speech about that prayer, our love, our wedding, and now… the rings. He had even written a poem on the box and read it aloud while I unwrapped them!
This was when I realized my partner had been unwittingly crafting ritual magic. At that point, I thought, “Wow, our rings are here, and we can start wearing them!”
But no. He wanted to wait until our larger friends-and-family wedding celebration, coming up on the next summer solstice. In the meantime, he had planned a small act of magic for us: we would each hold onto the other’s ring for the intervening six months, putting our energy and love into it.
After all, a central part of the ring-making process had been infusing each piece with the essence of the other. My ring is bright, golden and silver, carrying the warmth of his sun-god essence, Helios. His is burnished dark and gold, resonating with the moon and the witch of the night I commune with, Hecate.
We’ve been imbuing our love into one another’s rings ever since, leading up to our celebration. What a meaningful and thoughtful act of magic!
Tending the Flame of Sacred Practice
Our imagination and creative spirit are the foundation of ceremony and ritual. It is the thing that makes life feel ancient and special. Imagination is a gift humanity was blessed with, or just happens to have. If we do not use it, we are in danger of losing it.
Feel free to learn all sorts of traditions that you have access to, learn wisdom teachings, or study a certain lineage you have a connection with. Feel free to honor what you learn and adapt it to your life, your locality, your current culture.
Or if you feel strongly, go into specific study with hidden and sacred traditions that are kept tightly and intact. Either way, you will be tapping into a multidimensional reality where prayer, sacred moments and structured ritual along with ecstatic revelations will guide you closer to your inner sanctum, your intuition, your ancestors and the descendants.
This planet is special and keepers of ritual know that. This is one route in which purpose finds us, a place in time where we experience a deeper part of reality.
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