The Magick of Birthdays: Rituals, Spells, and Recipes for Honoring Your Solar Return

by Hannah Hawthorn

Celebrate your special day—and yourself—with simple rituals in this modern guide to ancient spiritual traditions.Your birthday is the ultimate moment to celebrate, honor, and reflect on who you truly are. This practical companion is a modern-day grimoire filled with rituals, spells, and other simple practices for making the most of your solar return. Practices include simple spell craft, candle magick, solar work, astrology and numerology, kitchen witchcraft, recipes for specific intentions, and more. Reflect on the past year, let go of what you don’t need, and move into your new year with clarity, purpose, and a touch of self-care magick. Blow out the candles in a whole new way this birthday and beyond.

Genres: Witchcraft, Nonfiction, Spirituality, Astrology, Paganism

204 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 12, 2022

Reviews

[Krissy · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

I liked this but I was disappointed because I thought there'd be more rituals and advice on how to celebrate birthdays. This is a good guide and introduction to the practice of magick, but it was lacking in reflections and rituals that mark the next year of your life. (I want to note that I bought this from an IG ad that hyped the book up to have these things.)

I liked the section about astrological charts, but I think you'd have to have your chart in front of you (or know it REALLY well) to get what you need from it and apply it. I was hoping for less info-dumping and more applicable practices and easy rituals.

[Kirsty Frewen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone who knows me knows I adore Hannah and this book! ♥️

My original post/review:

In her book, Hannah helps us to honour ourselves and our special day with the use of rituals, spells, and recipes! Alongside celebrating our Solar Return, she also helps us to learn more about Astrology and understanding our birth charts. These are some things that can be incredibly daunting when starting out, and even daunting to many practicing witches; but Hannah as always does a wonderful job at making this accessible and understandable for folks at any skill level. 🔥
This book, is such a wonderful place to start learning, or to simply find ways celebrate your Solar return ☀️
The book is written in such a wise, fun, and wholesome way. And wonderfully portrays ancient rituals and traditions in a new and modern light. ✨

I cannot end this post without mentioning how grateful I am to have been following Hannah for the past few years. I have said this before but it’s completely true; but she is such a breath of fresh air and such a ray of light in the Witchy community. ✨

[sophia · Rating 5 out of 5]

i literally started this book the day before my birthday so i feel like i have to wait a whole year to try most of these workings, but i felt this book was super informative and an excellent introduction to understanding the astrology of your birthday and honoring the sun, as a lot of sources focus on lunar magick and neglect the power of the sun. i felt the book was well written, with plenty of correspondences and workings, and split up into sections that made sense 🧡☀️💫

[Summer Danforth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book for my birthday and it’s absolutely my favorite gift! I’ve learned so much about myself and I especially enjoyed the rituals and recipes included in the book! The author has made a complicated subject very easy to understand. This makes a truly perfect birthday gift for all the people you love.

[Natasha Brinkley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a perfect introduction for learning how to practice magick in a way that is most relevant to you. It helps inform your practice your way, and offers methods for self discovery and reflection using astrology. Hannah changed the way I think about astrology and the importance of solar returns from the first chapter. Love!

[Charlie Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a great introduction to astrology. I loved this book so much. The rituals and spells included seem simple for beginners, and the way it functions as a work book in parts is very conductive to learning

[Cheroka Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved completing my Solar Return Ritual and learning about and planning on things for next year too!

Hannah keeps a great tone throughout the book as she speaks to, and guides the reader on their journey.

[ash (mymodernrenaissance) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this read. My birthday was actually yesterday. It didn’t really go as great, but hopefully I’ll be able to reference this book for future ones. It has a lot of information on astrology, and folk origins of different birthday traditions.

[Mitchell Stern · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall a very solid overview, though it’s a bit short when you discount the introductory astrological information that if you’ve read other books on the topic you’ve probably already seen.

[Darian · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a solid, rather introductory book with information on your birth chart and such but I had gone in expecting more information or a more in-depth look at solar returns.

[Kate Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

So cool to have a book that helps you understand your birthchart. It probably should have been titled more appropriate to that than birthdays in general.

[Nirce · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very friendly guide for creating a Birth Chart.

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I first heard about this book on TikTok and got super excited for it. However, I was disappointed after buying and reading it.

The majority of the book talks about how to get your astrological birth chart, basic astrology lessons, color correspondences, and how to do candle magic. This is fine if you're a beginner in those subjects, but if you're an intermediate or advanced practitioner, then this can come across as repetitive.

Solar return charts are mentioned and help you figure out what could happen in a year following a specific birthday date but it is a smidge more advanced than just looking at your birth chart and only gives interpretations for where the Sun will be in the solar return chart; you would need to read other books/do more research to understand the entirety of your solar return chart.

What I did like is the information about Sun correspondences, since I think that a lot of books/information out there focuses more on Moon correspondences and ignore the Sun. I also enjoyed the history of birthdays and the magic/beliefs people held about them. I was hoping for more rituals you could do for your birthday, but that chapter was super small. It would have been nice if there were also tarot spreads designed for birthdays but if the author doesn't practice tarot, then that would explain its absence. I did appreciate the meanings behind cake flavors, so if you have a specific intention you want to set for your birthday, you can choose based on cake flavor.

I recommend this book if you are a beginner/just starting out practicing and have an interest in astrology and magic, but if you are hoping for specific rituals/practices that you can do on your birthday or you are a more advanced practitioner, you might want to pass.