May queen lights the taper for the priest, who then blesses it & takes it from her & lights the ritual fire & says: Today the wheel has come to a special point, since Yule the light has been growing.

At Ostara the light became greater than the dark & kept on growing.

It has grown until today our festival of Litha, mid-summers day.

Tomorrow the light will start to fade, as the wheel turns to darkness & it is Yule again.

But today it is bright & merry we meet.

Today the sun is high, the world is warm & bright.

We as pagans celebrate this with fire, The sun blazes above, our fire blazes below.

Priest now blesses the mead / cider / or summer punch, fills the coven cup & says: "To the holly the oak & the hawthorn" [May Queen.]

Priestess blesses the bread & fruit or pudding & says:

The goddess is heavy with pregnancy just as the earth is pregnant with the coming harvests bounty.

Blessed be the wheel of life.

Each one drinks from the coven cup, the rest is poured on the earth, the May Queen passes around the platter of fruit each one takes a piece, the rest is returned to the earth.

All fill their glasses for the toast which is read by the oak king. The duel now begins, the May Queen crowns the Holly King.

Feast begins, the fire is jumped to insure a good harvest & to bring luck.

Some of the food from the feast is left behind for the fairies. If you own a holey stone this is the time to wear it. The herb melissa is used at this time as it is a special one associated with the fairy folk.

The Oak King represents both divine sun child & fertility God, the Holly King is both the harvest [John Barleycorn] & the father aspect, wise lord of the underworld or summerland of rest for the soul.

The May Queen in the light part of the cycle is spring maiden of fertility & growth, then at Yule she represents mother , at Samhaine she is the wise crone of magic & healing, we as Wiccan also recognise her maiden, mother & crone phases according to the moons cycles during the 13 esbats of the pagan

Year. At this festival the goddess in her harvest aspect awaits the feast of Lughnasadh when the crone retreats into the underworld with her Lord , she is invoked at Samhaine when the veil is thin & magic is to be made, & contact with the souls to be released is done either in ritual or as solitary rites without the coven being present.

Blessed be