Friday, December 31, 2010

New Year's Eve - rites and rituals

I had a lovely New Year's Eve Day... noontime met with some friends... afternoon with family (translate 'grandkids!)... early evening supper and celebration with friends, phone calls from distant family.  But now it's evening and I'm home. By choice.  Alone. Not necessarily by choice.
Tempted to just answer some email, play a game or three, curl up with a book. But this is the last night of what has been for me (and so many others) a difficult year.  I have an need for rite and ritual to mark the end of the year, and to welcome in 2020.
For me, of course,  rite and ritual must include my beloved aromatics.

This is MY New Year's Eve rite and ritual..  Hope others will share theirs.

First I cleaned out the fire place.  Not just shovelled out last nite and last week's ashes, but swept it ... perhaps not spotless, but clean.   And laid a fresh fire to be lit...next year.  The ashes were carried outside.  (I'll deal with them during daylight, but they are out of here.)

When I finish typing this, I'm going to burn some sage throughout the house, every room and closet.  I'm grateful it's unseasonably warm outside...Doors can be open so the sage smoke can remove all the negativity that has accumulated in this house.   If I had no dried sage, or couldn't smudge for some reason, I would spritz each room and area with white sage hydrosol. But tonight I burn the sage in a large sea shell, as I was taught.

After that... a cleansing bath.   planning Dead Sea and Himalayan Salts,  and white sage and sweetgrass hydrosols in the water.

(I had thought about our Detox Synergy, there is, after all, nothing more cleansing. But I don't WANT cleansing on a cellular level and the resulting sleep disruption tonight. So the sign and symbol of white sage and sweet grass will do nicely.)

After the bath...  a pot of "Relax and Sleep Tea".   and, hopefully, to sleep through my neighbors' fireworks and mother nature's fireworks that are slated in the earliest morning hours.

In the morning?  the diffuser will have bright citrus and sparkling white fir to welcome the New Year with joy... and before my morning coffee the year will start with a "Cuppa Happy Tea"

that will be my New Year's Eve ritual this evening. What will be yours?

However you choose to celebrate this last night of 2019...be safe... and we will greet you next year!

3 comments:

Myside said...

Happy New Year Marge! I am curious as to what kind of Sage you used? ;-) I am in love with your Sagebrush essential oil. However, even the smallest amount, even under a drop, is sometimes overwhelmingly strong for a medium sized room. Do you dilute Sagebrush with alcohol aside from what you used for the New Year?

Marge said...

For New Year's Eve I didn't use the Sagebrush Oil, I smudged with some dried White sage leaves that I order from a Native trading post. I'm going to ask Christi to discuss the sagebrush oil ... she's the one with history in the South West, who fell in love with it. ;)

Herbs daily said...

Belated Happy New Year Marge :)
I love Sagebrush essential oil it works for aromatherapy :)