I’ve never celebrated my birthday, it ages you
It’s why people in the Phillipines or other countries where the people who have no idea how old they are all look half their age
It’s crazy how our societies are full of casual magic and rituals most people don’t even know they are performing.
Take the birthday song, which is literally a fire ritual/candle magic:
1 your name (binds the work to a specific person)
2 is written inside a circle (standard boundary in ritual practice)
3 with fire inside it (a medium understood to translate something from the material plane into the subtle one)
4 and you chant “happy birthday to you” three times (standard number of repetitions across most traditions)
5 you state your petition/desire (energetic exchange, who are you making a deal with?)
6 and then you blow out the candles (you give it your breath/lifeforce)
This one is weird though because traditionally, you let it burn and blowing out candles is considered bad practice because breath is used to scatter rather than direct. But regardless,
7 the light goes out (and the wish goes with it into the unseen)
8 then there’s smoke (a traditional carrier)
9 there are the witnesses (group participation is supposed to amplify the energetic charge)
10 and lastly the secrecy (a ritual principle, the working is sealed by not being dispersed through speech).
So the full sequence is: contained field, named subject, fire lit, collective chant three times, silent petition, breath released, seal held (or not? because you extinguish it). But it’s a complete working.
OK, do we even realize what we’re doing?? Nobody ever stopped to think about it, isn’t that wild?
Many things are like this.