"Safe and sweet and strong…" When I heard the theme for this issue, "Peace and Power," those words came back to me. Although the Christian path is not the one I've chosen to walk (and although I no longer see Jesus, that wild rebel, as meek!), I do still want to be safe and sweet and strong. This incantation against the fearful things that come in the night's darkness still applies. The fear of the dark translates for grown-ups to the fear of what we can't control, and too often those fears come in the night, when we are most vulnerable to them. Having bedtime rituals and prayers binds up the ragged edges of our day, making a smooth place to lay our weary bodies down.

First of all, make your bed pure and peaceful. Yes, this means clean sheets. Never, ever, sleep on the same sheets in which you had a bad or restless night. If you're having a spate of such nights, this may mean a lot of laundry. But in the long run, it will pay off, and it's a great excuse to buy more sheets. At the very least, change your pillowcases. If you have had an especially bad night or if the demons keep returning, refresh everything: comforters, blankets, mattress pads, the bed itself. Flip over the mattress and put herbs and soothing stones (sodalite, lapis, amethyst, rose quartz) underneath it. While you are doing this, visualize Mother Night there with you, helping you make your sleeping place sweet. Open all the windows and refresh the air, no matter how cold or wet it is outside. Let whatever is lingering in the room have a chance to escape, so do this well before bedtime, if possible.

At bedtime, begin to let go of the cares of the day. Many sleep books suggest herbal potions to relax you and open you to dreams. If you use these from time to time, help the herbs along by invoking for peace as you drink, combining the herbal goodness with your own intentions and the Goddess's blessing.

Next, do some conscious work to keep your negative thoughts and worries away from your sleeping space. I've written in this magazine before about the powerful symbolic and literal power of doors and doorways. The threshold between this place and that place offers an opportunity to leave negativity outside and only carry peace in with you. (This goes for anything you read before sleep, too. Keep the horror novels, news magazines, and self-help books outside the bedroom. Harry Potter can come in, but Hannibal Lector gets the boot.) Make or decorate a container in which you can symbolically leave your cares outside the bedroom door. Choose an old cigar box or a lidded jar, in which you place slips of papers with all your worries scribbled down, sealing them in for the night. Scarlett O'Hara had the right idea: you really can think about all that tomorrow. When your troubles seem overwhelming, take some extra time to write a letter about it to the Goddess, and then put it in her "in-box," knowing that she will take over for the night, so you can rest.

It's not enough to just leave bad thoughts and energy behind when you go to bed. For those of us whose minds are always whirring, it's also helpful to let go of plans, ideas, intentions, and all the other thought-hamsters that spin on their wheels all night long. This is often best done by affirmations and self-forgiveness. Make some positive statements (either spoken or written) to yourself and to the Goddess, such as, "I did the best I could today. Tomorrow I will rededicate myself to work with renewed energy." Or "I wasn't able to return all my phone calls today, but I know my friends still love me. I'll make time to do that tomorrow, even if it's only for five minutes." And so on. The idea is to find peace and release from being chewed on in the wee hours by the guilt weasels. This is accomplished by a combination of acknowledging that you didn't fulfill all your obligations, forgiving yourself for being human, and making realistic promises for the next day. Then – and this is key – let it go. Lay it all down, trusting that in the night, by magic and by the Goddess's love, this worrisome pile of straw will spin itself into purposeful gold. There is nothing more that can be done tonight!

Next comes prayer. The image of the praying child kneeling beside the bed may not resonate so well with Goddess women, not least because of creaky old knees on chilly wood floors. But prayer and blessing still have a place in your bedtime rituals. This may be a single prayer that you repeat every night as a protective charm ("safe and sweet and strong"), a series of nightly prayers from a book such as Caitlin Matthews's excellent Celtic Devotional, or an improvised prayer that just comes from the heart. The important thing is not to bring the worries back in, however unintentionally. Practice prayers that are purely positive! For example, rather than saying, "Mother, guard me from nightmares and from all harm that may come near my house tonight" – which just invokes negative imagery in your sleepy and receptive mind – try something more like, "Mother, I am open to your infinite bounty of beautiful dreams. Bless me with deep, refreshing sleep, surrounded by your loving protection."

So, having sweetened your sleeping space and left the worries on the doorstep (or better yet, out behind the garage), you can slip into your welcoming bed. Take a moment to do big blissful cat stretches and give thanks to Mother Night – oh, what a delight to have a soft nest to return to! What a simple and luxurious blessing! And now it's time to enter the dream world. Whether you have a mate or not, the land of sleep is a place we all visit on our own. It is a form of solitary spirit work that everyone practices, although familiars do seem to come along from time to time, and can be great dream guardians. (Cats, in particular, being nocturnal, may appreciate an opportunity to chase down a worry-weasel or two.) As you drift into sleep, this is a wonderful time to work with visualizations, which can influence your dreams as well. Keep them fairly simple, so your mind doesn't start writing complicated screenplays and making casting calls just when you're dozing off. Create a beautiful dream temple you can visit, climb into a moonboat for a sail through the stars, or enter the faerie realms and be tucked in by Danu herself. Let your mind wander down a forest path to the lair of your guardian animal. As much as possible, release your thoughts from the earthly and the mundane, and prepare to go between the worlds.

When you awaken, having been guided and kept all night long by the loving Night Goddess, greet her sister Morning with renewed energy and hope. Keep the promises and intentions you made last night, so that the coming night's sleep will be even more peaceful, and each new day even more powerful.