The Spiral Dance Part 5

More complex visualizations are given in later chapters.

Concentration is the ability to focus on an image, thought, or task, to narrow one's field of awareness and shut out distractions. Like a muscle, it grows stronger with exercise.

Many people today practice forms of Eastern meditation-yoga, Zen, Transcendental Meditation-which are excellent for developing concentration. The more you practice the visualizations, the easier it is to concentrate on the images. The following three exercises will help improve your inner focus: EXERCISE 15: CANDLE GAZING In a quiet, darkened room, light a candle. Ground and center, and gaze quietly at the candle. Breathe deeply, and let yourself feel warmed by the light of the candle. Let its peaceful radiance fill you completely. As thoughts surface in your mind, experience them as if they came from outside. Do not let the flame split into a double image: keep your eyes focused. Remain for at least five to ten minutes, then relax.

Projection is the ability to send out energy. It comes quite naturally to most people, once they are aware of its "feel." Projection is also used in another sense to mean the ability to travel "out-of-body": That form of projection will be discussed in Chapter Nine. In the Tree of Life exercise and during the Group Breath and Power Chant, we have already experienced what it feels like to send out energy. Here are two other exercises: EXERCISE 16: THE DIAMOND Again, light a candle in a dim, quiet room. Ground and center. Gaze at the candle, and visualize a diamond in the center of your forehead, between and just above your eyebrows. The diamond reflects the light of the candle, and the candle reflects the light of the diamond. Feel the reverberation of energy. Hold for at least five to ten minutes, then relax.

EXERCISE 17: MIRROR, MIRROR.

Ground and center. In a mirror, gaze into your own eyes. Focus your attention on the s.p.a.ce between them.

Repeat your own name to yourself, over and over. Again, as thoughts surface, experience them as if they were outside you. After five to ten minutes, relax.

EXERCISE 18: THE ROCK.

Ground and center. Imagine that you are standing on the seash.o.r.e, looking out over the waves. In your strongest hand, you hold a heavy rock. Pick it up, inhale, and as you exhale, let it fly! Watch it splash into the sea just below the horizon.

Now look up again. Realize that you can see a horizon twice as far away. Mentally stretch to see it. In your hand, you hold a rock twice as large as the first. Again, take a deep breath, and, as you exhale, throw with all your might. Watch it splash into the far waves.

Once again, look up and realize that you can see a horizon twice as far away again. In your hand, you hold a rock twice as heavy. Take one more deep breath, and as you exhale, throw hard! Watch it splash.

Practice this exercise until you can feel the release of power that goes with the rock.

EXERCISE 19: THE HAMMER.

Ground and center. Visualize a heavy hammer in your hand. A stubborn nail is sticking out of a board in front of you. With all your strength, drive the nail into the board. Repeat, doing it three times in all.

Covens have many different ways of taking on new members. Some hold open cla.s.ses or study groups. We prefer to have initiates take on individual apprentices. Each newcomer gets individualized instruction, tailored to her particular needs. And each coven member has a chance to be an authority, and is forced to conceptualize her own knowledge of the Craft in order to teach it. Apprentices and their teachers develop a strong bond, so each newcomer feels she has a special relations.h.i.+p to one group member. Apprentices also develop a bond with each other as a group. They attend rituals together, so that n.o.body has to be the "only new kid on the block."

When I train an apprentice, I think of myself as being somewhat like a dance teacher. I suggest a regular discipline, including many of the exercises in this chapter, the "basic barre-work" of magic. Also, I try to identify areas of weakness and imbalance, and prescribe corrective exercises. For example, for one student whose mind continually wanders I might suggest concentration practice. For Paul, on the other hand, who studied for years with a sect of Buddhists and can, in his own words, "bore holes through walls," I suggested daily jogging.

During rituals, apprentices have a chance to combine skills learned in solitary practice into an intricate dance of power with the coven and each other.

As a basic, daily discipline, and I recommend three things. The first is regular physical exercise. The importance of this cannot be overstressed. Unfortunately, it is one of the hardest things to get people to do. The Craft tends to attract mental and spiritual types rather than brawny athletes. But magic and psychic work require tremendous vitality-literally, the energy of the raith, of Younger Self. That vitality is replenished and renewed by physical activity-much as the motion of an automobile's wheels turns the generator, which recharges the batteries. Too much mental and spiritual work that is not balanced by physical exercise drains our etheric batteries. Yoga is sometimes good, but it is usually taught as a spiritual discipline that opens the psychic centers, rather than increasing physical vitality. For our purposes, jogging, swimming, bicycling, tennis, or roller-skating are better-something active and enjoyable that gets us out into the elements. Witches who are physically disabled can find a regime appropriate to their needs and abilities. If you can spend some time each day outdoors, on the gra.s.s or under a tree where you can soak up elemental energies, you will reap many of the same benefits as the marathon runners.

The second thing I recommend for students is daily relaxation practice and a daily meditation, visualization, or concentration exercise. These often change as the student develops. Some people practice several at once, but one is enough. Too many are c.u.mbersome. At one point in my own training, I woke up in the morning and did a trance exercise at my typewriter for up to an hour, then twenty minutes of yoga, including meditations on the four elements and the Circle Visualization in Chapter Four. Later in the day I practiced deep relaxation and a lying-down trance. At night, I did a candle-gazing, a water purification, and a variety of personal spells.

Unfortunately, I had very little time left for actually living. After a few weeks, I decided that moderation was the essence of wisdom, in magic, as in other things.

The third practice I suggest is the keeping of a magical diary, called a Book of Shadows. Traditionally, this was the "recipe book" of rituals, spells, chants, and incantations, hand-copied by each Witch from her teacher. Today, although I blush to admit it, such information is generally xeroxed for coven distribution. The Book of Shadows is more of a personal journal. It may include descriptions of rituals, records of dreams, reactions to exercises, poems, stories, and trance journeys. Solitary Witches can use their Book of Shadows to develop some of the objectivity that generally comes from working in a coven. Trances and meditations can be written out in the journal. Tristine Rainer, in The New Diary, even describes techniques for using journal writing to remember past lives.

Womb, support group, magical training college, and community of friends-the coven is the heart of the Craft.

Within the circle, each Witch is trained to develop her inner power; her integrity of mind, body, and spirit. Like families, covens sometimes have their squabbles. But whenever the circle is cast, whenever they raise the cone and call on the G.o.ds together, they recognize in each other the G.o.ddess, the G.o.d, the life spirit of all. And so, when every initiate is challenged at the gate to the circle, she speaks the only pa.s.sword: "Perfect love and perfect trust."

CHAPTER 4.Creating Sacred s.p.a.ce.

Between the Worlds.

The Casting of the Circle.

The room is lit only by flickering candles at each of the cardinal points. The coveners stand in a circle, their hands linked. With her athame, her consecrated knife, unsheathed, the Priestess steps to the altar and salutes sky and earth. She turns and walks to the Eastern corner, followed by two coveners, one bearing the chalice of salt water, the other the smoldering incense. They face the East. The Priestess raises her knife and calls out: Hail, Guardians of the Watchtowers of the East, Powers of Air!

We invoke you and call you, Golden Eagle of the Dawn, Star-seeker, Whirlwind, Rising Sun, Come!

By the air that is Her breath, Send forth your tight, Be here now!

* For literary convenience, I have designated the Priestess as casting the circle. But any qualified covener, female or male, may take her role.

As she speaks, she traces the invoking pentagram in the air with her knife. She sees it, glowing with a pale blue flame, and through it feels a great onrush of wind, sweeping across a high plain lit by the first rays of dawn. She breathes deeply, drawing in the power, then earths it through her knife, which she points to the ground.

As she sprinkles water three times, the first covener cries out, "With salt and water, I purify the East!" The second covener draws the invoking pentagram with incense, saying, "With fire and air, I charge the East!"

The Priestess, knife held outward, traces the boundaries of the circle. She sees it take shape in her mind's eye as they continue to each of the four directions, repeating the invocation, the purification, and the charging: Hail, Guardians of the Watchtowers of the South, Powers of Fire!

We invoke you and call you, Red Lion of the noon heat, Flaming One!

Summer's warmth, Spark of life, Come!

By the fire that is Her spirit, Send forth your flame, Be here now!

Hail, Guardians of the Watchtowers of the West, Powers of Water!

We invoke you and call you, Serpent of the watery abyss, Rainmaker, Gray-robed Twilight, Evening Star!

By the waters of Her living womb, Send forth your flow, Be here now!

Hail, Guardians of the Watchtowers of the North, Powers of Earth, Cornerstone of all Power.

We invoke you and call you, Lady of the Outer Darkness, Black Bull of Midnight, North Star, Center of the whirling sky.

Stone, Mountain, Fertile Field, Come!

By the earth that is her body, Send forth your strength, Be here now!

The Priestess traces the last link of the circle, ending in the East. Again she salutes sky and earth, turns and touches the tip of her athame to the central cauldron, and says, The circle is cast.

We are between the worlds, Beyond the bounds of time, Where night and day, Birth and death, Joy and sorrow, Meet as one.

The second covener takes a taper to the South point candle and with it lights candles in the central cauldron and on the altar, saying, The fire is lit, The ritual is begun.

They return to the circle. The first covener smiles at the person on her left, and kisses her or him, saying, "In perfect love and perfect trust."

The kiss is pa.s.sed around the circle.

"The unfolding of G.o.d . . . involves the creation of new s.p.a.ce, in which women are free to become who we are. ... Its center is on the boundary of patriarchal inst.i.tutions . . . its center is the lives of women who begin to liberate themselves toward wholeness."

"Entry into the new s.p.a.ce . . . also involves entry into new time. . . . The center of the new time is on the boundary of patriarchal time. ... It is our life' time. It is whenever we are living out of our own sense of reality, refusing to be possessed, conquered, and alienated by the linear, measured-out, quant.i.tative time of the patriarchal system. "

Mary Daly.

In Witchcraft, we define a new s.p.a.ce and a new time whenever we cast a circle to begin a ritual. The circle exists on the boundaries of ordinary s.p.a.ce and time; it is "between the worlds" of the seen and unseen, of flashlight and starlight consciousness, a s.p.a.ce in which alternate realities meet, in which the past and future are open to us.

Time is no longer measured out; it becomes elastic, fluid, a swirling pool in which we dive and swim. The restrictions and distinctions of our socially defined roles no longer apply; only the rule of nature holds sway, the rule of Isis who says, "What I have made law can be dissolved by no man."4 Within the circle, the powers within us, the G.o.ddess and the Old G.o.ds, are revealed.

Casting the circle is an enacted meditation. Each gesture we make, each tool we use, each power we invoke, resonates through layers of meaning to awaken an aspect of ourselves. The outer forms are a cloak for inner visualizations, so that the circle becomes a living mandala, in which we are centered.

When we cast a circle, we create an energy form, a boundary that limits and contains the movements of subtle forces. In Witchcraft, the function of the circle is not so much to keep out negative energies as to keep in power so that it can rise to a peak. You cannot boil water without putting it in a pot, and you cannot raise power effectively unless it is also contained. Leaving the circle during the ritual is discouraged because it tends to dissipate the energy, although cats and very small children seem to pa.s.s across without disturbing the force field.

Adults usually cut a "gate" in pantomime with an athame, should they need to leave the circle before the ritual is ended.

The casting of the circle is the formal beginning of the ritual, the complex "cue" that tells us to switch our awareness into a deeper mode. In ritual, we "suspend disbelief just as we do when watching a play: We allow the critical and a.n.a.lytical functions of Talking Self to relax so that Younger Self may respond fully and emotionally to what happens. Younger Self, as we have seen, responds best to actions, symbols, tangibles-so this change in consciousness is actedput, using a rich array of tools and symbols.

In the permanent stone circles of the Megalithic era, where rituals were enacted for hundreds of years, great reservoirs of power were built up. Because the stones defined the sacred s.p.a.ce, there was no need to draw out the circle as we do. The form of circle casting most Witches use today probably originated during the Burning Times, when meetings were held secretly, indoors, and it became necessary to create a temple in a simple hut.

Witches may have taken over some forms from Cabalists. It is said that Witches often harbored Jews from Christian persecution and that they exchanged knowledge. (I must admit that, while Witches in general like to believe this is true, Jews don't seem to have heard of it-or, if they have, aren't advertising the fact.) Before any ritual there is always a period of purification, during which partic.i.p.ants can clear away worries, concerns, and anxieties that may hamper their concentration. Some covens simply aspurge (sprinkle) each member with salt water while casting the circle. At very large rituals, this is the only practical method. But for small groups and important workings, we use a more intense meditative exercise called the Salt-Water Purification.

Salt and water are both cleansing elements. Water, of course, washes clean. Salt preserves from decay and is a natural disinfectant. The ocean, the womb of life, is salt water, and so are tears, which help us purify the heart of sorrow.

EXERCISE 20: SALT-WATER PURIFICATION.

(This is one of the basic individual meditations that should be practiced regularly. During periods of high anxiety or depression or when undertaking heavy responsibilities, it is helpful to practice this daily.) Fill a cup with water. (Use your ritual chalice, if you have one.) With your athame (or other implement), add three mounds of salt, and stir counterclockwise.

Sit with the cup in your lap. Let your fears, worries, doubts, hatreds, and disappointments surface in your mind.

See them as a muddy stream, which flows out of you as you breathe and is dissolved by the salt water in the cup.

Allow yourself time to feel deeply cleansed.

Now hold up the cup. Breathe deeply, and feel yourself drawing up power from the earth (as in the Tree of Life exercise). Let the power flow into the salt water, until you can visualize it glowing with light.

Sip the water. As you feel it on your tongue, know that you have taken in the power of cleansing, of healing.

Fear and unhappiness have become transformed into the power of change.

Empty the leftover water into a running stream. (Alas, in these decadent times the nearest stream is usually running out of the kitchen faucet and down the drain.) EXERCISE 21 : GROUP SALT-WATER PURIFICATION.

Coveners a.s.semble in a circle, with incense and point candles lit. The Priestess goes to the altar, grounds and centers herself. She takes the cup of water in her right hand, saying, "Blessed be, thou creature of water." She takes the dish of salt in her left hand, and says, "Blessed be, thou creature of earth." She holds them both up to the sky with arms outstretched, and lets power flow into them, saying, Salt and water, Inner and outer, Soul and body, Be cleansed!

Cast out all that is harmful!

Take in all that is good and healing!

By the powers of life, death, and rebirth So mote it be!

She sets them down on the altar, and takes her athame in her strongest hand, saying, "Blessed be, thou creature of art." She spills three mounds of salt into the water and stirs it counterclockwise, saying, May this athame be purified, And may these tools and this altar be purified, as she shakes a few drops over the altar, then salutes sky and earth: In the names of Life and Death, so mote it be!

She then holds the cup to her heart and charges the water with power. When she can feel it glowing, she returns to the circe. The cup is sent around, and each person performs her or his private purification. Others may sing softly as the cup goes around. In a large group, three or four cups of water are charged at the same time; otherwise the cup may take hours to go around the circle.

When the cup returns to the Priestess, she sends a kiss around the circe. Then she begins the casting of the circe.

If the meeting s.p.a.ce is felt to need special cleansing, the following Banis.h.i.+ng can be performed.

* '"So mote it be" means "So must it be" and is traditional for ending a spell or magical working in the Craft.

EXERCISE 22: BANIs.h.i.+NG.

After the purification, the Priestess takes the sword or athame and goes to the center of the circe. She points the blade to earth and sky, and says, forcefully, Spirits of evil, Unfriendly beings, Unwanted guests, Begone!

Leave us, leave this place, leave this circle, That the G.o.ds may enter.

Go, or be cast into the outer darkness!

Go, or be drowned in the watery abyss!

Go, or be burned in the flames!

Go, or be torn by the whirlwind!

By the powers of life, death, and rebirth, All the coven together shouts: We banish you! We banish you! We banish you!

Begone!

All scream, shout, clap hands, ring bells, and make noise to frighten away negative forces.

Bath water can be "charged," and a few salt crystals added, and coveners can take a ritual bath before entering the circle. This is more fully described in Chapter Ten, on Initiation. Due to the limitations of time and hot water, it is best done at home.

* To magically "charge" an object means to imbue it with energy The concept of the quartered circle is basic to Witchcraft, as it is to many cultures and religions. The four directions and the fifth, the center, each correspond and resonate to a quality of the self, to an element, a time of day and year, to tools of the Craft, symbolic animals, and forms of personal power. Constant visualization of these connections creates deep internal links, so that physical actions trigger inner states. The action of casting the circle then awakens all parts of the self, and puts us in touch with mind, energy, emotions, body, and spirit, so that we are constantly made whole.

The "Guardians of the Watchtowers" are energy forms, the raiths or spirits of the four elements. They bring the elemental energy of earth, air, fire, and water into the circle, to augment our human power. The vortex of power created when we invoke the four directions guards the circle from intrusions, and draws in the higher powers of the G.o.ddess and G.o.d.

Each movement in a ritual has meaning. When we move "sunwise" or clockwise, "deosil," we follow the direction the sun appears to move in the Northern Hemisphere, and draw in power. Deosil is the direction of increase, of fortune, favor, and blessing. When we move "widders.h.i.+ns" or counterclockwise, we are going against the sun, and this direction is used for decrease and banis.h.i.+ngs.

The tools, the physical objects we use in Witchcraft, are the tangible representatives of unseen forces. The mind works magic, and no elaborately forged knife or elegant wand can do any more than augment the power of a trained mind. The tools are simply aids in communicating with Younger Self, who responds much better to tangibles than to abstracts.

There are two basic schools of thought about tools in the Craft: the ceremonial Magic school and what I call the kitchen magic school. Ceremonialists are purists, who feel that magical tools should never be handled by others or used for any but ritual purposes. Objects can become reservoirs of psychic power, which may be dissipated by, for example, slicing fruit with your athame. Kitchen magic Witches, on the other hand, feel that the G.o.ddess is manifest in ordinary tasks as well as magic circles. When you slice fruit with your athame, you consecrate the fruit, and a kitchen ch.o.r.e becomes a sacred task. Whichever school of thought you follow, it is a breach of manners to handle another Witch's tools without asking permission.

Tools may be bought, hand-made yourself, given as gifts, or found, sometimes in unusual circ.u.mstances. Mother Moth of Compost found her athame lying on the white line in the middle of the freeway when she was driving home late one night. A set of tools are sometimes given to a new initiate by the coven. When buying magical tools, never haggle over the price.

Correspondences may differ in varying traditions, and interpretations of symbolism may not always agree. The following are the correspondences used in the Faery tradition (complete tables are given beginning on page 283).

The East.