Handfasting and Wedding Rituals: Welcoming Hera's Blessing

Handfasting and Wedding Rituals has everything you need to plan the perfect Pagan wedding. You'll find advice and examples to help you with basic wedding planning, writing vows, and ritual construction, along with practical tips and great ideas about everything from low-cost wedding favors to candle and bonfire safety.

Handfasting and Wedding Rituals also includes sixteen full rites honoring a wide variety of Pagan traditions. Rituals in their full form can be used exactly as printed or modified to fit your needs. Each rite is categorized as level one, two, or three depending on their level of overt Pagan content and degree of participation expected from your guests.

Handfasting and Wedding Rituals has everything you need to plan the perfect Pagan wedding. You'll find advice and examples to help you with basic wedding planning, writing vows, and ritual construction, along with practical tips and great ideas about everything from low-cost wedding favors to candle and bonfire safety.

Handfasting and Wedding Rituals also includes sixteen full rites honoring a wide variety of Pagan traditions. Rituals in their full form can be used exactly as printed or modified to fit your needs. Each rite is categorized as level one, two, or three depending on their level of overt Pagan content and degree of participation expected from your guests.

Library Journal

Modern, chatty, and informative, this book by Kaldera and Schwartzstein (Urban Primitive) delivers an engrossing overview of rituals for today's pagan couple. Historically, the term handfasting describes a tradition from the British Isles in which a couple (typically peasantry) joined hands before witnesses to declare their union. It is commonly used by neopagans today to denote a wedding ritual. Having officiated at more than 100 handfasting ceremonies, the authors know their territory, and they have fresh and original views that set this title apart from other neopagan works on the topic. Realizing that not all couples are able to have openly pagan ceremonies, the rituals are divided into different levels indicating "obvious pagan content," ranging from fairly nondenominational to openly pagan. The ceremonies are inspired by a wide range of influences, mythological love stories, and belief systems (Grecian, Goth, Nordic, etc.). A wide variety of interfaith ceremonies is offered, allowing for just about any combination of religions, along with tips on finding officiates, suggested readings, and more. Perhaps the most distinctive chapter contains rites suitable for gays, lesbians, and transgender people, as well as polyamorous and nonmonogamous unions. An engaging book for neopagans and other couples looking for a twist. Recommended for alternative religion and/or wedding planning sections.-Mimi Davis, Broward Cty. Lib. Syst., Fort Lauderdale, FL Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Raven Kaldera is a pagan priest, intersex transgender activist, parent, astrologer, musician, homesteader, and the author of "Hermaphrodeities: The Transgender Spirituality Workbook" (XLibris Press). He is the founder and leader of the Pagan Kingdom of Asphodel, and the Asphodel Pagan Choir. He has been a neo-pagan since the age of 14, when he was converted by a "fam-trad" teen on a date. Since then, he's been through half a dozen traditions, including Gardnerian, Dianic, and granola paganism, Umbanda, Heithnir, and the Peasant Tradition. He is currently happily married to artist and eco-experimentalist Bella Kaldera, and they have founded the Institute for Heritage Skills.

...'Tis an ill wind that blows no minds.'

Contrary to popular legend, Tannin was not born in a log cabin in Springfield Illinois. She did, however, spend her entire childhood living on the Jersey Shore. It is in this notably non-New Age environment that her interest in Pagan/Occult matters began. Over the past 15 years, she has dedicated a significant part of her life in pursuit of various spiritual arts privately and professionally. Tannin has studied diverse practices and paths such as Gi Gong, Shamanistic energy techniques, Gnostisism, Afro-Caribbean religions, and even a pinch of Ceremonial Magick. Before she opened Bones and Flowers in the of 1997, she served as "Madame Espiritual" to two different Worcester Botanicas, a spiritual counselor in a New Age shop, as well as making countless house calls. At present, the proprietor of Worcester's only occult specialty store is also a crafter in diverse media ,and a legally ordained minister.