Also called pregnancy spell, spell to conceive, fertility blessing
Customs people have used to ask for a child, from Rome's Lupercalia and the Sheela-na-gig carvings of Irish churches to Japan's Kanamara Matsuri, with a gentle egg-and-candle blessing for the home. It is folk tradition, not fertility treatment.
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Take care: This is folk tradition, not fertility care. If you are trying to conceive, see a doctor, especially after a year of trying (six months if over 35). Never take herbs to promote or end pregnancy without medical advice; some traditional herbs, like pennyroyal, are poisonous. Infertility is stressful, and a counselor can help.
Every February 15, young priests called Luperci ran around the Palatine Hill striking bystanders with strips of goatskin called februa. Women held out their hands to be struck, believing it would help them conceive and give birth easily. The festival lasted until the late fifth century, when Pope Gelasius I opposed it.
These carved stone figures of a woman displaying her body appear on medieval churches and castles, most of all in Ireland. Folklore links some to childbirth: figures were said to be loaned to women in labor, and one was reportedly shown to brides. Their meaning is still debated.
Held on the first Sunday of April at Kanayama Shrine in Kawasaki, the festival asks blessings for easy childbirth, marital harmony and protection from sexually transmitted infections. It is now also a fundraiser for HIV research.
The wish for a child is behind some of the oldest rituals on record. In Rome, the Lupercalia each February 15 sent young men running round the Palatine with goatskin thongs, and women stood in their way hoping a stroke would bring a safe pregnancy. Plutarch described the scene, and the festival survived into Christian times until Pope Gelasius I campaigned against it in the late fifth century.
Medieval Ireland and Britain left the Sheela-na-gig, stone carvings found on churches from the twelfth century on, which some folklore ties to childbirth and brides. In Japan, Kanayama Shrine in Kawasaki has held the Kanamara Matsuri since 1969 for easy childbirth and marital harmony. Eggs and seeds, signs of new life in many cultures, appear in fertility customs from Easter eggs to wedding rice.
On the eve of 1 February, Irish and Scottish households invited Brigid into the house: they made her a bed, set out a doll of rushes or oats, smoothed the ashes to look for her mark, and left a cloth outside for her to bless as a healing charm.
A cross woven from fresh rushes on St Brigid's Eve and hung in the house and byre to guard against fire, hunger and harm for the year ahead.
Handfasting was the old English and Scottish word for a betrothal or marriage made by joining right hands and speaking vows. Today it usually means the modern ceremony of binding a couple's hands with cords or ribbons, which began in 1960s Wicca and is now common at many weddings.
Tell us what you need and we will craft a custom spell, charm or reading for it. Or call to book a reading or a road blessing in person.
