Wine Meaning and magickal uses

The classic cup of offering and celebration, for libations, cakes and ale, and joy.

• Intentions: Love, Prosperity, Peace
• Element: Water
• Planet: Venus
• Day: Friday
• Moon phase: Full Moon
• Parts used: Fermented grapes; grape juice works just as well

Safety: Wine contains alcohol. Drink only if you are of legal drinking age, and skip it if you are pregnant, in recovery, taking medicine that does not mix with alcohol, or driving. Non-alcoholic wine or grape juice works just as well for libations and cakes and ale. Grapes and alcohol are toxic to dogs and cats, so pour libations where pets cannot drink them, and never pour wine into houseplants.

How to use it

• Libation. At the end of a ritual, pour a little wine or grape juice into a bowl or onto bare earth outdoors as thanks to the God and Goddess, your ancestors or the land. Say what you are grateful for as you pour.
• Cakes and ale. Bless a cup of wine or juice and a small cake after your circle. Share them with your coven or enjoy them alone to come back to earth, and save the first sip and crumb as an offering.
• Chalice of love. On a Friday, fill your chalice with red wine or juice and drop in a rose petal. Hold it to your heart, name the love you are welcoming, and drink or pour it out with thanks.

Works well with: Mabon, Lughnasadh, Red Candle, Garnet, Venus

Folklore

Wine has been poured for the gods for thousands of years. Greeks spilled a little before every meal for the gods, and Dionysus, Bacchus to the Romans, was the god of the vine, ecstasy and theater. In Wicca the chalice of wine stands for the Goddess and the womb, and lowering the athame into it, the symbolic Great Rite, joins God and Goddess. Cakes and ale, a simple shared meal at the end of ritual, often uses wine or juice.