This time of year (especially between Imbolg and Ostara) is a great time to make blessed water from fallen snow.  The sun is growing in strength and light — a very positive energy thing! — and the clean cold air tends to make cleaner snowfall.

First of all, stop and think about how magickal snow is.  It takes very precise conditions to get good snow.  The temperature has to be just right.  The low pressure system has to intersect an area with sufficient moisture in order to have the precipitation fall, and if it’s not cold enough, you’ll get sleet, freezing rain, or just cold rain.  Not to mention, snowflakes are unique, each and every one.  That’s incredible to think about when you realize that water is one of the simplest molecules and yet it can form so many different patterns (just like humans can have such a wide range of abilities and traits and yet, we’re all different).

Making blessed water from snow allows you to capture all of that magick.  It’s different from gathering water from a stream where it’s flowing year-round.  To make blessed water from snow, you have to wait for that special gift and stop YOUR life to go gather it. 

The process of making blessed water from snow is very simple:

1.  Wash your hands with water and salt.  You want to cleanse your hands of all dirt and energetic “ick”.

2.  Take a large bowl — stainless steel, silver, pure copper, or glass are the best because they are fairly non-reactive with water (though any bowl, you’ll want to dry thoroughly when you’re finished).  Wash the bowl briefly with the salt water left over from your hands.

3.  Gather snow!  Take only the surface level — it’s the cleanest, as it was the last to fall, and it’s also furthest from the dirt.  Be careful if you scuff up bits from the ground to avoid getting the dirt in with the snow.  Do not take snow off your cars and watch for areas where you know people walk their dogs.  You will want to gather a large bowl full because you’ll be surprised how little you end up with once it’s all melted!  You can draw a pentacle in the snow or other sacred symbol and then scoop up the snow where you wrote the symbol — it will put the energy of the symbol in your bowl, too!  Consider writing words of blessing in the snow and scoop them into your bowl.  The possibilities are endless!

4.  Find a nice sunny place to place the bowl if you want sun energy infused in your water.  You can also make moon water if you know the night is going to be warm enough to still melt the snow — just put the snow in your freezer until the moon comes up and then set it out.  It’ll be melted by morning.  I personally prefer sun energy for this kind of blessed water.

5.  Adorn your bowl of snow with herbs and flowers that have the vibration you want in your water.  I use my water for cleansing, banishing, purification, and protection.  Rosemary and bay leaves, therefore, end up in my bowl.  Today, I found some bright holly springs complete with red berries to add as well.  I also sprinkle the bowl with blessed salt in order to add that energy as well.

6.  Place other symbols that have meaning to you in the snow.  I place a large metal pentacle in the bowl as well as my smaller pentacles.  I also placed my Bride’s cross and my amber flame of Bride pendant in the snow because I wanted the energy of Imbolg in my blessed water.  Pentacles, lotus blossoms, Celtic crosses, keys, various gemstones… there are all sorts of things you can add to your snow that will infuse the water with their powers as the snow melts.  Just do your research on what you will use the water for and add objects accordingly (ex. pentacles are empowering and protective symbols, and so are very appropriate to the water I make).  For the best results, use only pure metal items (sterling silver, gold, copper, etc).  You can even look to see which metal is associated with which planetary energy and use those correspondingly — get as specific as you want!     

7.  Allow the snow to melt.  Once it is melted, you will strain the water through a cheesecloth or metal strainer straight into its container.  This is VERY important.  Do NOT go fish your jewelry, symbols, stones, or the herbs out of the water!  You don’t want to touch the water in any way until you have it decanted into the bottle.  The point of making this water is that once you have begun the spell by letting the sun melt and fuse the energies, the water remains untouched. 

8.  Once the water is decanted, label it with the date, stopper it, and add it to your magickal cabinet.  Any jewelry items you added to the water should feel wonderful!  Be sure that you write down what you used in the spell, the date and moon phase, and the results.  Part of being a Witch is replicating magickal experiments!  Make sure you know what you did, what you got from it, and how to tweak it next time.

*SPECIAL NOTE:  This is one spell that is perfectly safe for children to help with.  My daughter did!  We had a wonderful time gathering items for the bowl and preparing it for the sun’s kiss.

I hope your blessed snow water turns out wonderfully — a little gift from my Book of Shadows to yours!

Photo by Bestrated1 (via Flickr).