Birthday Portal Ritual
















These Videos are my gift to you.

I hope they bring you and your friends lots of birthday magic. Enjoy!

VIDEO #1
Introducing the
Birthday Portal Ritual

VIDEO #2  
Birthday Cards

VIDEO #3
Introduction to Tarot Practice and
the 5 Card Spread

Birthday Portal Ritual
Written Instructions


Birthday Portal Ritual Written Instructions


There are many ways to perform this ritual. It can be done alone or with one or two soul friends. The three main elements (watch the sunrise, take a mindful walk in nature, visit a magic store) can take as little as a couple hours, but perhaps 3-4 hours if you go all out. The idea is to intentionally mark a period of time for a mindful experience of these three elements, paying special attention to the ways that the universe is seeing you and celebrating you for the incredibly noble being that you are. Look for an invitation to play. Notice signs and magic. Listen for the messages of love and guidance that come to you. The universe, the Earth that you walk on, and the beautiful lights of the sky want to give you gifts, and it is important that you be open to receiving them. This is the one day a year that is all about you, and you have the opportunity to receive the gifts and messages that the universe, your higher self, and especially the Sun, the Moon, and the planets our solar system, have for you.


The birthday portal ritual includes three important parts: watching the sunrise (and/or sunset), a mindful walk in nature, and a trip to a magic store where you will find your birthday crystal and perhaps also a tarot/oracle deck, or some other magic object (perhaps a rattle, wand, or musical instrument). These are the three essential parts, but they are meant to flow with and around other unique birthday experiences like a concert, amusement park, or other elements like an astrology reading, tarot reading or some form of consciousness expanding journey.


Here are my full ritual suggestions. I have done this ritual differently every time, sometimes with more elements and others with less. Take whatever parts of these instructions that work for you on any particular birthday and then add your own flourishes. The more time, energy, and intention you bring to this ritual the more magic that results.

This ritual is about following your intuition and using extra-sensory perception to find gifts and receive loving messages of guidance

 

  1. Make contact with your inner child. Notice what age they are and tell them how much you love them and wish to celebrate them. See if your inner child has any special birthday wishes or requests. Tell them you promise to help their wishes come true. See how excited they are for the day, and let yourself get excited to show your inner child a great time. You might also do this step in advance of your birthday so any special plans can be made.
  2. Wake up early and go to a special spot near your home where you can see the sunrise. If you get up early enough notice the stars that are close to the spot where the Sun will rise. These stars and the Sun are exactly where they were on the day you were born. That is your Sun, and your stars. Your soul found its way to Earth navigating by these stars. Say hello to the Sun, and ask it to shine the way for your birthday portal experience. Ask the Sun to guide you and warm you on this special day.
  3. Perform a ritual cleansing and prayer before a birthday altar. This could be done before going to see the sunrise if time allows. Hopefully you have an altar that you work with regularly. If not, please see my videos on altar practice and the five card tarot spread above. Take a sacred shower or bath on the morning of your birthday, washing away the previous year, and opening to the year ahead. If you wish, add a smudging ritual to this process, lighting a smudging bundle, sage, or some form of incense, and passing it around your body and aura (you could ask a friend to help with this). Stand in front of your altar, light a birthday candle, and pray for birthday magic. Pray to be receptive to how much the universe loves you, sees you, and celebrates you.
  4. Birthday tarot spread. If you don’t have a tarot or oracle deck, consider buying one before your birthday, or you can get one when you visit your magic store. Pray for special birthday guidance and pull one or more cards. Tune into how the cards are sending you loving messages of guidance for your special birthday portal experience. Let the cards inspire your day and the choices that you will be making.
  5. Allow yourself to be pulled towards your portal entry in nature or to the magic store. This can be planned in advance or can be a spontaneous calling. Be open to surprising guidance and be willing to change your plans if you are so-inspired. This is the one day a year that your portal companions (if you choose to have them) need to be flexible and open to spontaneous impulses from you, the celebrant.
  6. Look for arches and gates, doorways and bridges, or some spot that when you cross through it, you’ve entered the portal. If it is in nature, let yourself be intuitively pulled to a unique spot that feels like the portal entry point. It could be crossing between two trees, or through a special rock formation. It will speak to you and tell you what to do. If you are starting at the magic store, it could be just outside the store, or the doorway to the store.
  7. If you have some kind of bell or rattle, shake that rattle and ring that bell so all the faeries know that you are ready to play.
  8. Open the portal. For this step you need to be creative and perform some kind of magic process that indicates the opening of the portal. I like to use a magic wand along with my rattle to draw the portal open, though a stick or finger will do quite nicely. Perhaps visualize a doorway of light opening. This should include some kind of incantation or prayer that can be said internally in silence, or out loud. Just try not to attract any unwanted attention from Muggles. This might include touching something near the portal as you say the prayer. Say this spell, or your own, as you draw the portal entry into being:

    “Birthday magic come to me! 
    I am here for you to see,
    and so I ask on bended knee:
    grant my wishes, send me signs,
    and set me free.”

  9. Now your only job is to surrender to the flow of the day, to stay in touch with your intuition, and to look for obvious signs that the universe sees you and is celebrating you. When in nature, be alert for any special encounters with birthday power animals or other unique expressions of nature. Whatever birthday magic you encounter, let it inspire your imagination and open your heart.
  10. At the end of the day, if weather allows, go to a special spot to watch the sunset and thank the Sun, your Sun, for the birthday magic and the love and appreciation that you are feeling. Take your birthday crystal and hold it up to the light of the setting Sun and ask it to help you remember what feels important to remember from this day. Hold the crystal up to your third eye and imagine sending the memories of how much you felt loved and appreciated into the crystal. Hear the crystal get excited and tell you that it promises to help you remember.  If you stay to see the sky darken, notice the stars that appear close to where the sun set and know that those stars are exactly where they were on the day you were born, and thank them for guiding you into and through your life. If you have an app like Star Walk 2 (available for both iOS and Android), take a look to see if there are any visible planets on your birthday, and perhaps make direct contact with those planets, thanking them for your magic day.
  11. Lastly, either on your birthday or the day after, take some time to journal about the experiences of your birthday and any guidance or messages that you received. This could also be a good time to write about any intentions that you want to set for the coming year, perhaps already taking the lessons of this birthday and applying them to plans for an even more magical birthday next year.

A Short Essay with Some of my own Experiences with Birthday Portals


Birthdays are filled with such power, from the original one on the day that you were born, charged with karma and with hope, to the really special ones that change your life forever. The rough ones are filled with so many important lessons, and the happiest ones filled with examples of what life can be at it’s very best. For me, I was blessed as a child to have parents who understood their power and importance, and I have many special memories. As an adult, like most people, it’s been a mixed bag, and as I’ve aged I realize that the roughest ones had the biggest gifts. They taught me to set myself up well for the best experiences, to have good boundaries, and to learn from my mistakes.


The inspiration for the Birthday Portal Ritual comes most directly from the Magic of the Harry Potter series. Portals are a big thing in that series. Wizards and witches know where they are, and everyday people just pass on by. There’s one at King’s Cross Station, that the muggles are clueless about, that leads to the train going to Hogwarts, and the children have to be taught the trick for entry. You have to know the magic trick to enter through that portal, and a birthday portal is the same. It might look like just an ordinary spot, but on birthdays it is a multidimensional wormhole that only the celebrant can unlock.


How to find your Birthday Portal? Usually these are found in places that you truly love, a treasured spot in nature, a travel destination, a shop with magic objects, or a concert of your favorite musicians. It could be an experience that has been magic in the past, or a new one filled with promise. As your astrologer, I’m here to advocate for a certain kind of portal that I have some experience with. This is the “nature walk/magic store birthday portal.” I hope you already love crystals and nature, but if not, a birthday is one of the best times to start loving them. 


Because crystals, spiritual books, and spiritual objects are so powerful, they tend to warp the fabric of spacetime in the immediate surrounding environment, and so all kinds of magic tends to happen in their vicinity. My all-time favorite crystal store is here in San Francisco. It is called “The Love of Ganesha.” It is owned and run by Noot, one of the sweetest heart chakra women I’ve ever met. She calls everyone honey. 


The store is on Haight St., a place where space-time is truly warped. The Haight is filled with powerful history, music, expanded states of consciousness, and strong magic. The people, the food, the stores, are all alive and charged with magic. If you explore the particular block that the store lives on, you’ll notice that there are other stores nearby that have a spiritual quality, whether it is the names of the shops, or the art that can be found. When I am within 100 yards of the crystal store I can feel it’s magic. For me, the portal is the whole block the store is on, but it is truly the entire neighborhood. There is a threshold at the start of the block, though, where there is a large mural of Jerry Garcia, and I feel him beckoning me towards the magic as he has been doing since I first heard him play in 1988. 


Let me describe what I’ve done to enter this portal on my own birthdays, and when I’ve entered with friends. Like in the Harry Potter series when the kids are entering the portal at King’s Cross station to the other dimension where the train to Hogwarts can be found, I like to imagine entering the portal in a discreet way, so as not to attract attention from muggles. In this case there is a particular parking meter where magic coins can open the portal. I stand in front of that parking meter and wait until no one is looking. I have a magic spell and a birthday prayer that I say quietly or silently focusing at my third eye, and I imagine placing the magic coin into the slot. And there you have it. Portal Open!


I had this one special experience at Love of Ganesha at the end of a portal walk with my dear friend Sonia. We entered and started looking around, when very soon we saw another friend of ours who remarkably was also on a birthday portal walk of her own. A month earlier I was visiting my parents in Florida when this friend Sharanya was back in San Francisco on her birthday. We spoke on the phone that day, and she was feeling a bit down and so I suggested adding the birthday portal at Love of Ganesha to her day. She did not go to the store that day as I suggested, but a few weeks later she was called to go, and it happened to be the exact same hour that Sonia and I were there. Birthday magic! I bought three beautiful Honey Calcite crystals that day, one for each of us, and whenever I hold that stone, I think of that day and my two dear friends.


Another special birthday portal adventure happened with my Dad who lives by a very magic island in Florida. I had already shared the birthday portal idea with him, and so we decided to do it at the beach. First we went to Cafe Bonjour to have an awesome brunch right next to the portal entry point, which is near a crystal store and a palm reading place. There is an archway there, and nearby a strange looking pipe that is painted pink. The trick for that portal is to hold the pink pipe and say a magic spell without anyone noticing. We entered through the arch and we went on our portal walk paying attention for any signs of magic on our way to the beach. As soon as we arrived at the beach we noticed three pelicans flying, and even though it was the daytime, we could see the Moon above the flying Pelicans. Right away we renamed that spot “Pelican Moon Beach” in honor of my Dad’s birthday. 


As we walked along the beach I was paying special attention for dolphins. I had been telling my parents about often seeing them down there, and they had yet to see one. So I was delighted when I spotted one and pointed it out to my Dad. We moved closer to the water and soon the dolphin came so close that we could see its full form below the water. Both of us were thrilled by the encounter and it will always be a special memory we will share.


I’ll mention one more birthday portal experience that I shared with my dear friends Jessica and Travis. This was for my 50th birthday, and it happened on another trip to Florida. It took a lot of effort and planning to be able to make it down there that year, and the whole trip was devoted to my birthday, something that I had never done before. This was definitely a result of a working with the birthday portal ritual, and the intention to take every birthday seriously. This was a birthday where I had a devoted birthday walk with my parents and a visit to a crystal store, but because this was a big birthday my friends surprised me with a trip to Busch Gardens for some Roller Coaster riding and animal encounters. 


We were all on the same page with it being a magic portal experience where we would be on the lookout for birthday magic, signs, wonders and lessons. There were many cool moments that day, but a few stood out. Everywhere you looked in the park that day there were signs and displays honoring the 50th birthday of Sesame Street which was born the same month as I was in 1969. I got to pose with an Elmo hedge sculpture who stretched out his hand to me with a cupcake. I got a hug from Big Bird and learned the best way to ride roller coasters, and when we passed by the Pink Flamingos I prayed for a pink feather. Later that day we passed by those flamingos again and the feather was mine. It was a day for my inner child and such a magic entry to my 50’s.


When you have a successful portal experience it has the power to transform and level up the entire year ahead. Whenever you begin any new cycle, whether it be at the new moon each month, or at your birthday each year, that moment and how you live it is a fractal predictor of the rest of that cycle. What the birthday feels like and looks like can give you a great sense of what the year ahead is likely to look like and feel like. 


There is a tradition in astrology where a special chart is drawn up on your birthday, it is called the solar return chart (I like to think of it as your Earth-Return chart). It is a chart for the exact moment that the Earth returns to where it was on your day of incarnation. The relationships between the planets on your birthday are said to predict the energies of the year ahead. These relationships are the same regardless of where on the Earth you celebrate your birthday, but where they are in the sky changes, and so in the tradition of astrology, it is significant the place you are in, whether at your home, or a special place you have traveled to. 


My friend Glenn always planned to travel to a special spot on his birthday, and he would look at the solar return chart for different places to decide where to travel. While I think the solar return chart can be very special to meditate on and plan for (and I can help you with that :-), what I think is most important is the people, places and activities that will shape your mindset for your birthday, and it is they that will shape the way the solar return chart manifests, so choose your portal companions and portal entry points carefully.


And so the birthday can be a quantum leap onto a new timeline that you can ride for the whole rest of the year. When you get really good at birthday portaling, you can link them together like a master surfer, catching the wave of one birthday and then spotting and visioning the wave of the following birthday, with each successful portal jump leading to more and more ideal timelines. Think of it, when you have a truly awesome birthday, the afterglow can impact your mindset for at least the following week, but if its done right, it impacts both the month (or months) before when the visioning and planning stages are happening, to the month or months after when the birthday joy has its ongoing impact with the integration of the experiences you had while in the portal. 


And if you have companions in your birthday portal, then surely those lovely ones will wish to invite you to join them for their birthday portal experience, and if you play your cards right, you might be having awesome birthday portal experiences every month or two. Your whole year could be a series of intentional portal jumps, one leading to the next where you share the magic with your closest soul companions. 


The more birthday portals you find and enter, the better you get at maximizing the experience, and the more impact they will have on the quality of the timelines you and your friends get to travel. What an awesome challenge, to get a little better at birthday portaling each year, and to see the benefits of sharing and receiving the gifts that the universe wishes to give you. And so, whether you are in the planning stages for your next birthday portal jump, or if it is your actual day of portal entry, I wish you a truly magical and love-filled birthday!



Copyright Matthew Stelzner 

Contact: [email protected] 

Website: stelz.biz
Phone: 415-254-3445


Tarot Cards:
Osho Zen Tarot
art by Ma Deva Padma


Oracle of the Hidden Worlds
by Lucy Cavendish
art by Gilbert Williams

The Heart of Faery Oracle
by Brian and Wendy Froud
art by Brian Froud



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