Here’s a simple baby blessing suitable for neo-pagans, druids, animists, and witches. Feel free to add the elements of your religious faith or ritual outlines to make it what you need. The container making is a good place for casting circle, or calling the elements, and if you’re a druid feel free to add in an omen taking before blessing the waters.

The Baby Blessing Ritual:

What you’ll need:

• Water: tap water is fine. If you do want to use water gathered from a sacred source, make sure to boil and strain it first.
• A fancy bowl
• A candle
• A baby blanket, ideally handmade by friends or family.

This is written within an animistic pagan structure. You can find an outline and guide here.

If you are going to have mobile children at the baby blessing, here’s some tips for working kids into ritual.

First acknowledge the land by calling on the Earth Mother:

Prayer of Stardust Speaking

The leaf falls from the tree that grows,
The tree grows from the soil that nourishes,
The soil wears from the rock that endures,
The rock solidified from the molten flows,
The molten flows were the space dust pressed into itself,
The dust that that became this planet we love,
This planet that spins around our yellow star,
The yellow star that was tossed into the vast emptiness of space.

The tree, the soil, the rock, the dust, the star that lights our way, we are all one. We are the earth that walks upon itself, that dances around the tree. We are stardust made self aware in the vast and unfathomable reaches of the night.

I am a small thing, I pray that in my smallness I find love, peace, and joy as I walk and dance upon myself, this stardust rock, my earth.

Next, make the container for sacred space:

Take salt or if your outside, powdered eggshell or flour, and make a circle around the area where you will have the ritual. You can also just sprinkle a bit in each corner of a room.

Music is good for creating sacred space, sing a song together, or even hum together. Ring a bell, or if you have a friend who is a drummer, ask them to drum while you sing.

Connect to the Spirits:

Do this as it works for you. I suggest at a minimum calling on the ancestors of the family, the spirits of the land, and the local river, and any guardian spirits or gods that the parents and participants work with.  You can do this by lighting candles, verbal invocations, or giving offerings such as grains or candy. (Spirits seem to like sugar as much as we do.) Any combination of those things can work well.

Again this is a good time for a song, if you are so inclined.  I like chants like We are the Flow, or ancestor songs.

The Return Flow:

After you have welcomed the spirits take the bowl of water and bless it with these words:

Waters of Life Prayer:

All Waters are one.
The water that flowed from this tap
Is the water that flowed from the pipe
Is the water that flowed from the aquifer
Is the water that flowed from the river
Is the water that flowed from the ocean
Is the water that flowed from the sky
Is the water that flowed from the sacred well where the gods reside.
All Waters are one.

Mark the baby with the sacred water and say:

You are a branch of the tree of people. In a line you are descended from all those who have given birth and loved and fought for what they believe in. You are descended from all those people who built our way of life and or freedoms. You are descended from all those people who worked and sweat, loved and lost. 

The Baby Blessing:

Take a moment to make sure you are connected deeply to your most rooted and genuine self, then say these words:

Little star, blessed one, you came down and chose this family.

May the sun shine bright upon you
May the moon in darkness guide you
May the stars in the sky watch you
May fate be be kind to you
May your loved ones aid you in the storms of life
May joy be yours and may there be little strife
May peace and happiness be yours all your days
May you find friends, love, and good work on your way.

Blessings of the Spirits be upon you.
Blessings of All Beings be upon you.

Expressing Gratitude:

After the blessing, it is good to take some time to express gratitude. Traditionally this is the time for formal “thank yous” to the spirits who were invoked. The essence of thank you is gratitude. Take some time to let each person in attendance speak toward their own gratitude, and if there is time, offer to let them each speak blessings and gratitude for and upon this new member of the community.

Take a moment to speak about the power of community and that it takes a village to raise a child.
and then end your ritual, either with words from your tradition or with something like this:
May the blessings of the spirits go with us,
May love for all beings reside with us,
May the sacred world be ever-present in our minds
May the road we walk be gentle, and may kindness find us as we are kind to others.
So be it. 

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