I was very excited to be asked to conduct the blessing ceremony for Saturday's Witchfest. This is the closing blessing for the festival. I didn't have a lot of notice to prepare it, and part of me was panicking but I'm so glad I agreed to do it!

Since I am a solitary witch, organising large groups of people is a bit intimidating, especially since some people want to be actively involved and others prefer to watch. Also because of fire regulations I couldn't use incense or candles.

Instead I used Rosemary from my garden - I went out and gathered a carrier bag full very early on the solstice morning, when all plants are at their most powerful. There was plenty to go round, and people were invited to take what they wanted.

Rosemary has amazing cleansing and protective powers and I concentrated on these bringing blessings to everyone present. I demonstrated a very short three line invocation to the solstice, which was fun and everyone joined in.

We then did some circle walking... changing direction so that we physically experienced the effect the solstice has upon us. Everyone was encouraged to shake hands with their neighbours and also to wish blessings upon them. THen we had a few minutes of some enjoyable cirle dancing. It was great fun and very calming.

We finished with Mr Penry's Welsh blessing (I did give a translation). It was a wonderful experience and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.