Today is a day of freedom, of celebration and sharing, and of unlimited possibility. To tap into this energy with a freedom spell, you will need some cinnamon, salt, sugar, pepper, and three candles, preferably one red, blue, and white. Place the three candles on a plain green cloth before you in a circle. Leave space in the center for small piles of cinnamon, salt, sugar, and pepper. Light the candles, and pick up a pinch of each substance as you speak its name, then speak the following verse:

I claim freedom
whose blessings are many and bountiful.
Life sustaining as salt,
Comforting as cinnamon, Sweet as sugar,
Sharp as pepper.
I claim freedom by my actions and my spirit,
I honor the freedom of others.
I claim justice Whose practice begins with me and flows through all things.
Sharp as salt,
Rare as cinnamon,
Nourishing as sugar,
Grounding as pepper.
I claim justice by my granting of justice to others.
I claim justice in the ways.
I respect the rights of those I disagree with,
I claim justice by all that is magical.
I claim the freedoms of belief, association, speech, education, to follow my dreams, to live in peace.
I claim these things by my daily actions and beliefs.
I claim freedom. By being a part of a community, I am free.
So mote it be.

Holiday notes:
On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. Philadelphians were first to mark the anniversary of American independence with a celebration, but Independence Day became commonplace only after the War of 1812. By the 1870s, the Fourth of July was the most important secular holiday in the country, celebrated even in far-flung communities on the western frontier of the country.