HI would like to share with you a ritual I do every New Year's that is quite involved and requires a lot of thought and meditation time. It is derived from an ancient Greek ritual for prosperity and fertility. As you may recall, ancient Mediterranean Kings and Queens used to wear garlands of bay leaves (as well as olive leaves) as crowns. Bay leaves, and often bayberry leaves, are often used in Alexandrian magic as well, as well to draw success in business and finances. I like this ritual because first of all it is very "white" and it also involves the writing down of your wishes. The writing down of your wishes on 108 bay leaves works in the same way as a positive affirmation. The stating of your goals and desires allows you to properly manifest them in real life. Every year I pull out my old bay leaves and sort through them and I am always astounded by how many of my wishes have actually been granted.

For this you will need:

a blank check

a gold or silver pen (but a green will do if you can't get those colours)

Cinnamon incense

a green, an orange or a yellow or GOLD candle (whichever colour attracts you the most)

Orange oil, bergamot or success oil or Horn of Plenty oil a package of bay leaves (whole)

an envelope

pretty ribbon

This ritual is for multiple wishes and is best done when you have at least two hours to spare in meditation and quiet. It is best done within ten days before or after the New Year's. After the New Years or on New Year's Day is preferable.

First of all, take a bath in your favourite bubbles (Calgon, take me away!) and put yourself in a calm and peaceful state. You can play some steady rhythmic music if you like - anything that puts you into a bit of a trance (chanting, new age.)

The first thing you are going to do is light the cinnamon incense. Cinnamon is related to the planet Mercury and symbolizes communication and quick results. Then I want you to scratch your name and birth date on the side of the candle. Put the candle plate that is wrapped in tin foil (to represent the moon).

Then I want you to take the blank cheque and write the amount of money that you think you would like to make this year or the amount you need to get out of trouble using a gold or silver pen. Make the cheque payable to the order of yourself and be sure to add a few more bucks in there as fun money.

The idea here is to make this cheque as pretty as possible. Decorate it with lucky symbols such as dollar signs, hearts and flowers so this money is brought to you with a sense of joy. Once you are happy with your cheque, and have signed and endorsed it and everything, I want you to anoint all four corners of the cheque with one or more of the oils mentioned above. To make it even more person adds a dab of your personal perfume.

Place the cheque you wrote to yourself under the dish. Light the candle and say:

"In the name of the I Am that I Am I pray to the Archangels and their legions of light, I pray to the blessed Virgin and her angels of compassion for the following assistance and blessings"

Now open the package of bay leaves. There are two ways of doing this spell -- in a really BIG way or in a more efficient manner. It depends how much time you have. When I did this on my birthday I used 108 bay leaves (or fragments of leaves because sometimes they crumble in the package) but you can use less if you like. I used 108 because it is a real magic number, but you can just do as many bay leaves as you can.

As the candle burns and the incense is burning too, I want you to write on each bay leaf, a single word that represents each thing you would like to happen in the near future. For instance, if you are looking for immigration status thing write the word "Citizenship" on the bay leaf. If you owe the dentist money write, "dentist bill paid". If you would like a lover to return write "lover returns". Each leaf has a wish written on it. On the leaf after write "high paying job", on the next one "safety", "security", "soulmate"... Place the leaves in a circle around the candle in the shape of wreathe so that it looks pretty and keep on doing this until you are all wished out. Your candle should be circled by bay leaves each with a wish written on it.

This usually takes most people quite a while, and before they know it, the candle has burned down.

If you finish writing the leaves early that is ok too, keep burning the candle down to the bottom (so don't get a candle that is too big.) After you have written a wish too, it helps if you "let go of it" and resign your self to the fact that the higher powers are taking care of it.

After you are done writing all of your wishes, I want you to say:

"I consider this done in this hour, in full power according to the will of God, helping all and harming none Amen."

After the candle burns out, I want you to take the leaves and the cheque and put them in an envelope. Seal the envelope, wrap it with a nice ribbon, kiss it and put it in a safe place. Don't look at this again for a year. Just rest assure that all is unfolding in the Universe as it should.

Blessings to all of you this New Year. xxx Samantha