I do a lot of candle magic, in fact that is one of the biggest forms of magic I do, and defiantly my most favourite, and maybe most powerful! Most of my rituals revolve around candle magic, and invocation of the deities.

Here is my ritual outline:

Offering

I usually burn a bit of incense, and give some food to the fire using my handy dandy offering plate (toast or something)

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Invocation of the dieties

I almost always Invoke Morrigan and Dagda, and then any other special dieties for the prayer.

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Prayer (optional)

Praying to the dieties, plain and simple. Note: I consider any type of magic using the dieties as prayer. So like a wiccan spell to help you sleep would be like "Goddess of the moon and night but e to sleep!" I would consider that prayer, because it is calling on a higher power, using evergy outside yours.

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Spell work (if there is any)

Sending energy out for a purpose. Note: I only count it as spell work if you are just sending YOUR energy out, or your COVENS energy, NOT asking Lugh to send energy out for you. My spell work will generally be lighting a candle, and saying a chant while waving my wand etc.

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Thanks to God/desses

In this part I am just saying you know, thank you for joining me. That is if there was no prayer...when prayer comes in the its a whole different story. I thank them for all the effort they will send out for me, and listening to my prayer...

I have both an altar, and a shrine, and to me they are two totally different things.

My altar has few things that always stay on it, namely my knife, my offering bowl, and my bonsai tree.

The offering bowl is a very important part of my altar. In it I burn offerings, for my gods. Almost every ritual I do, or meditation, or prayer session or anything begins with an offering to the gods before I do anything. I burn a bit of incense, and an offering for the particular god/desses that I am requesting in my ritual space. I also do not burn the incense in my offering bowl, I have a particular censer for that hanging over the whole thing.

My bonsai tree is something very sacred and special, and has a place of honour on a little raised platform at the head of my altar. Trees represent the connection with the physical, and the divine. So this makes perfect sense why I have one one my altar, which is a space on the physical that connects to the divine.

A knife was a very important commodity to the ancient people. It could be used in so many ways, to help gathering food, hunting, and preparing the food. Honestly I don't really use it for the magical and ceremonial reasons but just to cut things, and use it just in a general way during ritual.

I also have what I would call "seasonal" things on my altar.

Spring:

I have generally a pot of potting soil (for the obvious reasons), and an egg (a symbol of fertility). I also keep one seed from the other ones I planted to show a portion of my planting is being sacrificed for the wellbeing and blessings of the gods. As time goes on I may pick a sprig off of a green healthy looking plant (after asking permission of course) and put it on my altar for spring. Green, yellow, and red candles adorn it.

Summer:

The plants begin to blosom, and that is what adorns my altar during this time. Sometimes I may put a little vanity mirror on it to reflect the sunlight, because this is a time of sunlight to me. I usually have my statues of Bile, and Lugh moved from my shrine (scroll down for more info about my shrine), to my altar, because they are gods of sun and light, and they are having their time at this part of the year.

Autumn

This part of they year is one of my favourites! I have autumn leaves fallen off their trees. Golden, red, and brown candles adorn my altar as those are the colours of the leaves. Any acorns, or other such offerings from the trees I take and but in a special place on my altar.

Winter:

This is one of the most boring times of the year for my altar. Everything lies dormant outside, and so I have black candles burning a constant vigil through the darkness. If possible I try to keep the sprigs of plant from spring on my altar, kind of like the light at the end of the tunnel. I also see this as the season for the moon, so I may ave a few silver candles burning for her.

The next portion of this post is on my Shrines. Shrines are places that remain untouched through out the change of the year. It has all the statues of my god/desses...I see it as a place that the gods are always present it, a place where I know I can get consolance from them.

My shrine is a 8 foot tall oak "book shelf" With images of salmon inscribed on it, as well as celtic knots running up and down the side of it. On top I have Dagda, and Morrigan, with an incense censer hanging between them. Then on each shelf beneath them (they sit on top of the whole thing and the censer hangs from the cieling) there are Brigit, Lugh, and Nuada, all with their respective incense holder. I am still trying to add to my collection, and actively seeking an image of Dian Cecht. I would like to fill the whole bookshelf up (except for the bottom one which holds all the extra incense) but that doesn't look like it is going to happen soon.

I have posted a few places saying that I was an Irish Reconstructionist, but it never occurred to me to make a blog post on it until Matt gave me that recommendation.

I follow the Irish gods, I am also pantheistic, I don't believe in one god, or the two gods so popular within Wicca. I worship the WHOLE Irish Pantheon. I do however, have particular god/desses that I call upon for purposes that show up often in my life, as well as god/desses who I have taken a particular liking to, or they have taken a particular liking to me.

My main Gods are Dagda, and Dian Cecht. My main Goddesses are Brigit and Morrighan. Dagda, and Morrighan are my patrons.

I do have an altar, but it is NOT anything like the Wiccan altars, it is simple, consisting of a tree, a knife, and a stone bowl I use for offerings. There are also particular items that are there only at certain times, such as things that circulate with the seasons. During rituals I sometimes have a bit of incense burning, and other things I need for the ritual.

The Wiccans use tools during their rituals, and so do I but for many different reasons. We may have the same ideas that go along with them, but the specifics do often change. Usually I have my wand/staff, robe, knife, offering bowl, and another bowl to hold all of the other supplies that I will need for a particular ritual.

I do a lot of magic with the gods, candles, stones, and herbs.

Ok, so I just looked back over my previos intro, and...needless to say it was not so good, otherwise I wouldn't be posting another one...

SO, My name is Tyler, I live in austin Texas and I am a Celtic Reconstructionist. I am in a coven which happens to be only very basic begginners, so I am just in the process of teaching them.

To me Celtic Reconstructionism is a very animistic thing.

I dont follow a "Wiccan Rede" "Witches Crede" or any "Rede of the Wicce," but I do follow my own code of ethics. I don't curse and or hex anyone, or atleast I haven't so far. You see if someone were to come into my house and harm my family then...THE FIRE AND BRIMSTONE OF HELL MAY ASEND UPON THEM! They get what they deserve ya know. If they do that much harm to me then I will provide the proper retribution. I do NOT however condone the practice of negative magic, more like...Just making instant Karma if you will.

I am a big fan of the candle magic, aswell as herbal magic.

I practice a bit of Hoodoo...dont know how that happened...but I do a very wee bit. One of the big things I do with Hoodoo is the idea that all things have an inherent magic, its just up to us to figure out what it is.

I do have somewhat of a family lineage...my Great-Grandma on my moms side practiced the "laying on of the hands" during prayer to heal people. My Great-Grandpa on my moms side practiced Kabbala, and Ceremonial Magic. My Grandma on my moms side practiced a mix of Ceremonial Magic and French Witchcraft. My Great Uncle was in a sex cult (lol!!!). Then my Grandma on my Dads side had the "Sight" she was born with a Caul and everything. She also noticed when things were wrong, such as there would be a huge snow storm coming and we thought we could go down to the market and get something between us being snowed in. She said she didn't want to go and left it at that. Turns out if we would have gone we would have been caught in the snow...just things like that.

I am an Irish immagrant, as of 2001...lol. My mom was actually a French immagrant to Ireland then we all immagrated when I was but a wee tot (lol [again]).

Outside of Witchcraft, I like to weightlift, oyu know strength traing and the such. I also like reading books, writing stories and hanging out with my friends who are all very funny, and we are like a mesh of people...I am good at having pretty much everyone like me no matter what "clique" they are in...

I am learning to speak Spanish and Gaeilge (Irish Gaelic), and I actually speak english as a second language, my first one was French...hence the Francais de Sorciere.

Feel free to email (i_love_eire@hotmail.com) or visit my myspace (www.myspace.com/francaisdesorcire) uhh I kinda think thats it...

I just want to give a shout out to Jaimie and Natasha, the best coven membres ever. I'd like to give a shout out to CovenSpace, you guys had a really really really great isea here so thank you for making this site...

Now then was that bettre?

Feel free to message me to ask questions and whatever...Peace out!! 

www.activeboard.com/forum.spark?forumID=103620 <-- Occult Workings

groups.yahoo.com/groups/austincovenandgrimore <-- Austin Coven and Grimore

sauledeplume.blogspot.com <-- The Premiere Witchcraft Page

They are really great, you will love them!!