Place all items on altar in a pleasing fashion, with the candle on the pentacle and the apple, cakes, and other food off to the side for later. Cast the circle as normal.

Read The Charge of the Goddess or whatever inspiring piece you’ve picked out. If you sing or play an instrument, you can also use songs you know or songs you’ve written for this part.

Light the Goddess candle. As the flame catches, open your arms to the heavens and invite the Goddess and Her moon to come and join you in your circle and to imbue you with Her blessing. Stroke the candle with oil to bless it. Stand and approach each quarter of the circle, touching each element’s representative and inviting them to help you draw the moon into yourself. Open your arms again in the center of the circle and feel the moon approaching you, shining between your hands over your head, approving of your actions. Ask the Goddess to come into you, or if you are uncomfortable with that simply to attend your ritual. Kneel or sit and thank Her for Her presence, and then run through a list of all the things you are thankful for since Her last presence at your ritual.

Move the Goddess candle off of the pentacle. Pick up the green apple and hold it out in your hands. Ask the moon to descend into the apple itself. Then lay it on the pentacle and slice it in half with the bolline, separating the stem from the bottom. Take a moment to admire the star of seeds inside, symbolic of the divinity within all things. With the Goddess’s permission, bite from the left half of the apple, and then the right, acknowledging your acceptance of both halves of life: Male and female, light and dark, life and death. Remember you are taking in a piece of the Goddess, which was always there in the first place inside you. Simply take this time to acknowledge it. Place the apple in the libation bowl to be buried outside later.

Take up the journal. This can be a journal you regularly keep every day, or it can be simply a journal you only write in during your Esbats. Share your thoughts and musings with the Goddess in writing.

Eat your feast, which may be just crescent cakes and milk but can consist of any foods you deem appropriate. Remember to put a bit of everything you eat or drink into the libation bowl to be buried with the apple later. As you eat, meditate on the current position of the Goddess according to the time of the year; is She a maiden, a mother, or a crone? Focus on said aspects in yourself, and be as the Goddess is.

When finished, thank the Goddess and pinch out the Goddess candle, then dust the libation bowl’s contents with cinnamon to mark it as a gift for Her. Close the circle and bury the libation.