Wiccan Wedding

Last Saturday, I was honored to officiate the wedding of a Wiccan couple in New Hampshire. Wicca is a contemporary Pagan religion which, like many other nature-based spirituality faiths, is pantheistic, meaning that the Divine is seen as everywhere and in everything. The couple chose to get married at the end of October because it is the time of the ancient celebration of Samhain (pronounced “Sah-win”), observed by Pagans and others around the world. It marks the end of the harvest and the start of the coldest half of the year (in the Northern Hemisphere), and some consider it to be a “spiritual new year”. It is also the time when we honor and remember our ancestors, because it is believed that Samhain is when the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead is at its thinnest.In addition to common features such as vows, exchange of rings, pronouncement, and kiss, this wedding incorporated many Wiccan traditions, beginning with all the guests in a circle around the couple, and included the following:

img_3536Casting the circle (creating sacred space) “I ask the God and Goddess, Guardian Angels and Spirit Guides to bless this circle. Come, come and be present with us, so that we may be free and protected within this space. So mote it be.”

Purification – This involves releasing negative thoughts and energies from within, via Native American ritual of smudging each person with sage (burning the dried herb then spreading the smoke over and around each person.) While being smudged, on each in-breath people visualize pure divine light coming in through their crown, and on out-breathe, they visualize thoughts, feeling, or energy being released out the soles of their feet. More