The Magic Theatre of Witchcraft

                                          by Ian Elliott   

Introduction:

The rites of witchcraft, whether performed alone or with others, are a form of magic theatre.  One goes to them not to sit in the audience but to participate in the performance.  Audiences can arrive tired, perhaps somewhat dispirited, prepared to relax and, if possible, receive some form of uplift from the spectacle.  This is not the case with performers; they must be vigorous, well-balanced in their energies, with energies pitched high and practically electric.  The rite itself should, if performed well, both deepen and further heighten those energies, but one goes to the magic theatre to give and share energy rather than to be lifted out of some swale of ennui.

To call witchcraft a magical theatre means that practical results are secondary.  This is at variance with many accounts of witchcraft, which emphasize the desired result to be attained, even though one is cautioned that such results should be forgotten at the conclusion of the spell.  The double-bind of forgetting is avoided in this approach, which sees the magic circle as neither primarily religious nor as an act of collective engineering, but as art.  A concert performance is directed towards the production of music, but the musicians are not producing music as workmen produce things, instead uniting with the music and with each other in music.  There is no separation between them and the music they make, or which makes itself through them, as there may be separation between an artisan and his artifact.  The same is, or should be, true of the art of magical theatre.  The theatre is not the place where the rite occurs, nor the script followed, nor even the objects employed in the rite; it is the act of creating the rite, in all its perceptible beauty, united with the persons creating it.  For this reason, needless to say, one must memorize any scripts before attempting to perform the rites pertaining to them.  But this is only partly feasible, in view of the tendency of witchcraft rites to have a lot to say.

Though the emphasis should be on art, this does not exclude the sacred.  Indeed, we should recall that theatre began in a sacred setting, as picaresque rites to Dionysus; and in this connection we should note that Pagan religion can be quite picaresque without losing one whit of the sacred. The use of salacious language in ancient rites of marriage, preparation for the mysteries, and sacred theatre, had as its main purpose to offend and thus drive off spirits of infertility, who were known to be great prudes.  This perhaps gives us a key to understanding the nature of antipagan deities, who insist on excluding such behavior from their own sacred rites.  If we can incorporate this element of ribaldry in our own circle rituals, we shall succeed in drawing nearer to the spirit of the old religions.

Pagan Belief:

In ancient religion, stress was laid on performing the rites, not on repeating credal formulations of belief over and over until the mind is hypnotized by words.  So long as one respected the gods and observed their rites, one was free to entertain a wide variety of beliefs about the origin of the world, life after death, and so forth.  Beliefs that insulted the deities were, naturally, excluded, but this left one with a great deal of freedom to believe what one liked, and to change one’s beliefs if one were so inclined.  Pagans tended to be a little vague about such matters, for belief per se was not regarded as particularly important.  What did the gods care what a mortal thought, so long as he or she was pious?  Not a whit.

Performing sacred rites induces a certain atmosphere of suspended disbelief.  This was the general attitude to the myths (which were originally not separate from ritual).  Even Socrates remarked that the traditional tale was good enough for him; he was more interested in ethical matters anyway.  The proper attitude to take into ritual is a readiness to act towards the focus of the rite as if the god or goddess exists.  That is all that is required: not to doubt, and to behave towards the object of prayer as if that being were real. 

This should be good news to modern witches and other neopagans, for they need not try to work up the intensity of belief characteristic of antipagan religions.  Indeed, if they try to approach the Circle like church, they will soon become exhausted, and conclude that paganism is too complicated and therefore too hard to practice.  It is not hard at all, if we bear in mind that we are about to participate in sacred theatre. 

The Temple:

The temple of witchcraft is built up partly from sacred objects, partly from ritual movement and acts, and partly from visualization.  All three elements work together to create the real illusion of a spherical temple.  A real illusion is defined here as an object-event that is experienced and has real effects, even if it is not amenable to outside scientific observation and measurement.  Another example of a real illusion is the aura of energy enfolding the bodies of lovers which is both felt and seen by them but only them.

The sacred objects which go into a temple are various but there are certain objects of central importance that are present on every occasion.  These include candles of various sizes and colors, incense and an incense burner, chalice, fossil stone or pentacle, magical weapons or tools, a bell, a salt censer, and various auxiliary items such as a water ewer, matches, an ashtray, cakes and ale, cushions for sitting around the altar, and of course the altar itself.  This list is not exhaustive.

The form of the temple itself, a sphere, is largely visualized through a series of ritual acts.  The equator of the sphere is marked out on the floor or ground by eight candles, set at the quarter and cross-quarter points of the compass.  The equator, or circumference of the circle, is generally nine feet in diameter.  Directly overhead, over the center of the circle, is the zenith or ‘height’ of the sphere.  This is visualized partly through the sweeping of miasma – old, stale energy – from the circle before it is cast by the use of a besom.  The besom is used to sweep the circle three times deosil (that is, clockwise), beginning in the east and finishing in the east again.  The first time around the besom sweeps at ground level; the second time at shoulder level, and the third time, at a forty-five degree angle above shoulder level, pointing upward.  This helps the coveners to visualize the upper parts of the sphere, and the zenith is established in the mind’s eye by acts of pointing straight upward using the athame. 

In the same way, the nadir of the sphere or ‘the deep’ is visualized by the act of pointing down with the athame, and later by the act of raising energy when building the Cone of Power.  The lower half of the sphere is an act of pure visualization, since the floor or ground presents the lower limit of the sphere so far as outward vision is concerned.  Each witch visualizes the lower hemisphere based on his or her experience in meditation, for the witch descends into his or her depths in meditation instead of ascending to the heights.  In this way, a witch becomes intimately aware of his or her lower levels of subconscious feelings and urges.  It is the aim of the Craft to raise the energy trapped at the lower levels into the full light of consciousness, both in meditation and in the raising of the Cone of Power.

The altar is generally placed in the center of the circle, though in some traditions it is placed in the north.  The advantage to having it in the center is that this helps the coveners to visualize the axis of the sphere, which passes through the center of the circle, up through the center of the altar, all the way to the height, connecting the height with the deep.  The axis is magically connected with the World Pillar (or trunk of the World Tree), round which the heavens revolve in pagan cosmology.  It is also magically cognate with the spine of each witch present.  The energy of the deep is raised through this axis, which is perceived as identical with the spine of each witch at the crucial moment.

Background of the Circle:

The spherical temple of  Witchcraft finds an ancient prototype in the description of a temple or hall of the Magi in Babylon in the first century C.E..  The description is by Damis, the secretary of the pagan mystic and wonder-worker Apollonius of Tyana, and was gotten second-hand from his master.  Apollonius was traveling east to India in search of arcane wisdom, with an aim to restoring the temples of the West to their original purity.  He lingered in Babylon for 18 months, conferring with the Median priests there, whom he described as “wise, but not in all things.”  As a non-initiate, Damis could not enter the temple.  Here is its description:

“The roof was dome-shaped, and the ceiling was covered with ‘sapphire’; in this blue heaven were models of the heavenly bodies (‘those whom they regard as Gods’) fashioned in gold, as though moving in the ether.  Moreover from the roof were suspended four golden ‘Iygges’ which the Magi call the ‘Tongues of the Gods.’  These were winged wheels or spheres connected with the idea of Adrasteia, or Fate.”  [1]

Mead goes on to identify the Iygges with the teachers of early humanity of Hebrew legend.  They are intermediaries between humanity and the greater gods as well as tutors.  In these qualities they resemble the Watchers of modern witchcraft, as that concept has developed in a number of traditions.  The Watchers sponsor the initiate from the first degree onwards, and through the elementals provide him or her with the energies of elemental Air, Fire, Water and Earth.  But the witch must cultivate this connection with the four Quarters and their inhabitants in order to grow in the Craft. 

The temple of witchcraft, though physically only a circle, is visualized as a sphere by the ritualists.   This visualization transforms the cast circle into a magical theatre, in which the powerful energies of the elements are added to the raised and combined powers of the witches present and directed to some constructive purpose.  In what follows I will present one particular way of raising the temple into the magical theatre, and of building up and releasing the Cone of Power.  There are many variations, but the particular method presented engages, or so I think, all the essential elements of the process.

Raising the Cone of Power:

Everyone and everything used in witchcraft must go through phases of purification, consecration and charging.  This begins with the witches themselves, who first cleanse themselves individually of miasma, that is, of stale energy connected with everyday concerns.  Next, the witches  purify themselves as a group, settling any differences (as least provisionally) between themselves and finally join hands in a circle to share bioenergy.   Meanwhile, the physical temple is erected.

The ringing of a hand-bell signals the inception of sacred time, and summons the witches to the temple.  They come in quietly and, moving sunwise around the altar, take their stations.  The time signaled and begun by the ringing of the bell is the time of the beginning, for this is a new world about to be created between the everyday world we know and the Otherworld of spirits.  The sea of Chaos lies between and underneath all worlds. [2]  Some of that chaos is about to be ordered into a cosmos, which though physically small will be complete in all the essentials of an ordered habitation.

Attention is now directed to the altar, where one or two large candles are lit in the center to honor the Lord and Lady and connect with their energy.  The elemental tools and magical weapons are purified and consecrated.  The chalice is filled.   The candles are lit round the circumference of the circle. [3]  The temple area is swept, asperged and censed.  There is a general feeling of anticipation, for the next step is to build the magical theatre.

First the circle is cast, from East sunwise to East again, by a priest or priestess with his or her athame.  This is a crucial moment for all present, for all must follow the casting with rapt attention, visualizing the bluish-silver light spilling from the tip of the athame along the perimeter of the circle.  It is not enough, though, to visualize the circling tip of light; the whole illumined circumference must be seen and retained as it grows to a full circle.  Thereafter, it must be kept in peripheral view throughout the rite.  It is this act that lays the foundation for the magical theatre.  Next, the quarters are called to the four cardinal points of the circle, again beginning and ending in the East and processing sunwise.   

Because the purpose of the rite is to effect change in the everyday world through the launching of a thought-form into the Otherworld of spirit, the energies raised within the circle must be augmented by the elemental energies of beings who remain outside the circle but who supercharge the energy of the raised Cone of Power through the four cardinal portals.   These powers also guard the portals and the integrity of the temple boundary from unwanted intrusion and from collapsing when the Cone of Power is released.  These wards, the Watchers and elementals, are next called to their stations on the cardinal points.  They are beckoned and invited to perch, as it were, on the portals, which are both doors to the temple and inlets for their more highly-charged energies.  The more sensitive witches may begin to feel a sort of throb along the circumference of the circle, like the pounding of surf.

Next the Lady and Lord are invited in and reside in the large candles at the center of the altar.  Now the pillar or axis of this little “world between the worlds” is visualized as passing up through the center of the altar between the Lady and Lord and extending from the nadir to the zenith of the spherical temple. [4] As the witches join hands and circle the temple slowly, the Pillar is visualized as revolving, from the polarity between the Lady and Lord.  The circling is slow at first as the High Priest or High Priestess states the magical purpose of the rite.  This purpose is then summed up in a word, which is repeated by the witches as they circle. 

The pace now picks up as the High Priest/ess recites a Witches’ Mill:

“On an oak-leaf I stand

 I ride the filly that never was foaled

 And I carry the dead in my hand

 Under the earth I go.” [5]

Each witch in turn takes a line and the mill is recited three times as they circle.

High Priest/ess then calls out the one-word magical purpose again and witches repeat it while circling a little faster.  It is repeated three times and then witches fall silent as they circle, each one visualizing an image to stand for the purpose.  After a moment, High Priest/ess begins the Witches’ Rune, two troubadour discoveries from the 12^th or 13^th century:

“Bagahi laca bachahe

 Lamac cahi achabahe

 Karrelyos

 Lamac lamec Bachalyos,

 Cabohagi Sabalyos,

 Baryolas

 Lagozatha cabyolas,

 Samahac et famyolas,

 Harrahya!” [6]

Witches repeat the rune three times, circling a little faster.

High Priest/ess immediately goes into the second part of the Rune, picking up the pace which now approaches the maximum speed consistent with safety:

“Eko eko Azerak,

 Eko eko Zomelak

 Zod ru koz e zod ru koo

 Zod ru goz e goo roo moo

 Eeo eeo hoo hoo hoo!” [7]

This is likewise repeated three times by the witches, at the end of which they stop, throw up their hands with the last “hoo!”, and each mentally projects his or her visual image of the magical purpose upward through the zenith.  At the same time, each witch mentally releases his or her gaze of the Watchers and their eyes.  A whoosh results, the release of the elemental energy at the cardinal points upward and inward to the zenith of the circle.  There it joins the uprush of witches’ energy, directed by the uprushing column of the World Pillar, and all join at the apex of the Cone of Power, which is then released through the portal of the height, at the temple’s zenith, the summit of the magical theatre. 

After releasing the Cone of Power, witches drop to their hands and knees to release any leftover energy back into the Earth.  Then all resume their stations and cakes and ale are passed around, as well as water, with some of each left over to be returned into the ground following the dissolution of the Circle.  Coveners sit quietly in fellowship with each other and the Lord and Lady, Watchers and elementals and any other beings attracted to the rite.  The Circle is now just a circle; the magic theatre is closed.  Spirits and helpers are dismissed, the Lord and Lady thanked for their presence.  The high priest/ess cuts the circumference of the Circle at its southwestern point and announces that the rite is ended.  The hand-bell is rung three times once more, signaling the end of sacred time.  Coveners go outside and return what remains of the water, cakes and ale to the ground.  The candles are snuffed out and the temple is disassembled, in reverse order to that in which it was assembled in the beginning.

---

[1] G.R.S. Mead, Apollonius of Tyana, pp 84-5.

[2] “World” is understood in the ancient sense as a cosmos or ordered habitation in space-time, not necessarily a planet.

[3] Or sometimes after the circle is cast, with the calling of Quarters.

[4] At certain times of year, when there is only one candle, the axis of the temple is visualized as rising through it.

[5] From Nigel Jackson, Call of the Horned Piper. p.  22 et passim.

[6] Farrar, Janet & Stewart, Eight Sabbats for Witches, p. 44.  Often misquoted, this troubadour chant can be viewed in manuscript in an illustration in plate 8 of Farrar, The Witches’ Way. 

[7] Recorded in a footnote by Doreen Valiente to Janet and Stewart Farrar’s Eight Sabbats for.Witches, p. 45.

Following the Sun-Wheel

The Shape of My Practice

by Ian Elliott             7-24-16

Dedicated to my High Priestess, Wendy Morris

I am a third degree Celtic witchcraft elder.  I live in Norway, a country with covens few and far between.  I helped found a coven still thriving in Colorado Springs, with my high priestess, Wendy Morris.  I moved to Norway eight years ago to be with my family, but I maintain contact with the coven in Colorado and my close friend Wendy.  I have been solitary for some years now, and have developed a style of solitary witchcraft which I would like to share with all who are interested.  My practice follows the paradigm of the Sun Wheel, which many will recognize in its calendar form, the Wheel of the Year.  However, it is not necessary to practice it on the calendar dates, though that is beneficial, especially if you are in a coven.  I will begin and end my description in the North, the Place of Power.

*

Witches chart their sacred occasions around the year on ‘the Wheel of the Year’.  The wheel resembles a compass, with the eight sabbats marked out on the eight cardinal and intermediate points.  Thus, Yule corresponds to the northern point, Ostara to the eastern, Litha to the southern point, and Mabon to the western, with Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh (or Lammas) and Samhain mapped to the northeastern, southeastern, southwestern and northwestern points, respectively.

The Wheel of the Year can also be used to map the lunar month and the twenty-four hour day.  The winter solstice (Yule), the dark moon and midnight correspond to the northern point at the top of the wheel.  By following the Wheel, witches and other Pagans can align themselves with the energies of those times.

In addition, the four quarters, marked out on the wheel by the lines connecting the intermediate points (northeast to southwest and southeast  to northwest) correspond to the four classic elements [1] of earth (northern quarter), air (eastern), fire (southern) and water (western quarter).  These elements contain inner elemental powers, the four powers of the Magus: to keep silent or be still (north), to know (east), to will (south), and to dare (west).  The ongoing purpose of witchcraft is to cultivate the four elemental powers in one’s life in a balanced fashion.

Once she is dedicated to learning the Craft for a lunar year and a day, the apprentice witch’s natal horoscope is charted, if birth information is available.  The planets’ positions in the various signs are noted with respect to the elements of those signs, and in this way the tasks chosen for the present incarnation are indicated, in order to achieve a better balance among the four elements.  As the balance between the elemental powers improves, the fifth power of the Magus gradually becomes available to the witch, the power to go, meaning to go on astral journeys up and down the inner pillar, exploring the various worlds or dimensions encountered along the way.

In my own case, I have most planets in air signs, then in water, then a few in earth and none in fire.  This is presumably because I have already done fire work in past lives and now I am meant to emphasize the other elements in that order.  Thus, I began by cultivating knowledge (air), then daring (water; daring to explore the unknown), then stillness, both mental and physical (earth), and, as a final touch, will (fire).  I am beginning to make astral journeys, first from a state of lucid waking, [2] and subsequently from lucid dreaming, dreaming while being aware I am in a dream.  Both are springboards to traveling up and down the inner pillar, cognate with the World Pillar or the trunk of the World Tree.

The Sunward Path

In witchcraft we say that words will have power if we do not tell lies.  We are not constrained to tell the truth on every occasion, but have the option to remain silent instead.  This is following the sunward path with our speech, and if we do this, the Sun will empower our words. In the same way, if we promise to do something, we should expend every effort to keep that promise.  Not to do so is another form of lying.  If circumstances prevent us from keeping our commitment, we should explain this to whomever we made our promise, and offer an alternative.  Otherwise, our word will be doubted, and we shall have to pull the weight of a broken commitment behind us. That will inhibit and diminish our magical power.

The sunward path is the path of optimum use of energy.  It is not an ethically prescriptive path.  It does not say, unconditionally, do not lie.  It says, “If you want to make the best use of your energy, either tell the truth or remain silent.”  It is similar to the Rede, which means advice.  “If you want to be free to do as you will, harm none.”

The Hindu teaching about this states that if we take our journey through life facing the Sun (and therefore following the Sun), the shadow of  pleasure will follow us.  If we turn our backs on the Sun, the shadow of pleasure will ever recede before us.  The shadow takes the shape of our own outline, but omits our substance.  Thus we will never succeed in catching our shadow.

This does not mean that the witch abstains from pleasure.  She is not running from her shadow, and accepts pleasure as it comes to her, but looks toward the Sun, the light of truth and Self-knowledge.  As the Sun lightens the world, it both symbolizes and embodies truth. 

Cultivating the Elemental Powers

In order to cultivate the four elemental powers of knowledge, will, daring and silence, a certain amount of free energy is necessary.  This energy is usually in short supply, because it has been appropriated by habits conditioned by society and largely squandered.  The key to accessing and cultivating elemental powers, then, lies in saving what little free energy we possess. 

In each quarter, the business of cultivating elemental power goes through four phases, corresponding to the three lunar phases of purification, consecration and charging, and culminating in the ‘earthing’ phase of the dark moon.  This last phase lies on the transition point to the next quarter.  Thus, the earthing phase of the northern quarter lies on the Imbolc northeastern point, overlapping a little with the quarters of Earth and Air.

Purification is governed by the Maiden and the waxing phase of the moon, and consists in freeing up a portion of our everyday energy, thus creating space for the influx of elemental power.  Before we can receive something new, we must let go of the old.  Once space has been created, the accumulated power can be put to some focused use.  This is consecration, governed by the Mother and the full moon phase.  As power continues to accumulate and be channeled into the consecrated purpose, it becomes magnetic, as it were, capable of creating real change in the witch’s habits and perceptions.  This is charging, the harvest of power governed by the Crone and the waning moon.  These phases need not occur during the actual lunar phases, for ‘she is old or young as she pleases,’ but timing to the lunar month invokes the Lady’s special assistance.  Finally, the cultivated power sinks into the witch and becomes second nature, part of her emerging magical personality.

The work of cultivation takes two forms, which may be called practice and praxis.  Practice involves performing or inhibiting certain actions at set times and, when possible, set places, preferably on a daily basis.  Praxis, a word I am adapting, consists of small actions taken randomly throughout the day or night when we think of them.  Both practice and praxis are necessary to cultivation, and should support each other.

The linchpin of praxis is to bear in mind the words “my energy.”  At any given moment, you have the freedom to observe what is capturing your energy, and to decide to withdraw your energy from it if you so choose.  “My energy, my choice” is the motto of praxis.  This is especially important in moments of negative expression, such as voicing irritation, which can whittle away our energy, or outbursts of anger, which can consume all the magical energy freed over the course of a day.

North

In the quarter of the north, praxis involves restraining certain habits of nervous motions when they start up: twitchings, scratchings, tapping the foot, and other small nervous movements which, taken collectively, consume a large amount of our energy each day and promote mental unrest.  When some energy has been saved and accumulated through praxis, the witch can try sitting still at certain times of the day, further quietening down the body through regular practice. 

As the body begins to be still, the restlessness of the mind comes to the fore.  The witch now realizes the point of cultivating stillness, and the full moon phase at the northern point begins, through meditation. 

Since the witch is left free at this point to choose how he or she will meditate, I can only describe my own experience.  As I close my eyes, I notice my phosphenes [3] briefly, then my current thought patterns emerge. [4] I note them as they recede, and presently I am able mentally to slip between them, falling a little down my inner pillar to quieter thoughts and feelings.  This feels like a sudden mild jerk, as in an elevator which has slipped its cable a few inches, or as we sometimes feel while falling asleep. 

My mind is still talking to itself a little, but increasingly it is more like whisperings.  The usual feelings and images which accompany me in everyday life recede, and presently older nuances of feeling from earlier times in my life float by.  These are accompanied with earlier feelings of my own existence, and I seem to become more flexibly myself, like a deck of cards that has been shuffled and re-dealt.  I am still myself – it is still the same deck – but there is a new deal. 

I may hit some hot spots at times, old obsessions or enthusiasms, and I try to work around these and continue descending into the quieter depths of memory.  I am going down into what witchcraft calls my ‘Deep’.  How far I go will depend upon how completely I have cultivated my four elemental powers in balance together.  Thus, the power ‘to go’, the power of aether or spirit, is approached gradually through many descents.  When I reach the Summerland or Tir-na n’og, and come into contact with my root-soul, I may experience aspects of myself from previous lives.  One Vedantin monk who went this far presently got up, quit the monastic order, and went into the desert to study wildflowers.  He had never desired to do so in living memory, but apparently he had been a botanist in a previous life.

This means to me that when I reincarnate, my root-soul begins growing a new shoot up into Middle-Earth, and as I live my life here, my shoot or inner pillar keeps growing.  The way back down to my root-soul, then, lies through my past memories and feelings.

On the way back up the inner pillar to my body resting in Middle-Earth, many feelings from my ‘Deep’ accompany me.  These include the way it felt to be me and alive many years ago, along with insights from those times.  As I awake into my everyday attention, these feelings and insights from long ago have at first an uncanny, fermenting effect on my everyday personality, like yeast added to bread dough.  At the same time, energy flows more freely through my mind, as some of my usual obsessions have been swept aside by the force of my descent and the arrival of past nuances of feeling.  I feel more childlike, for I have more free energy not harnessed by mental foci.  Children are playful because much of their energy is not directed by a mental agenda. Perhaps this is a foretaste of that joy reported by witches who have reached the ‘true Sabbat’.

As these nuances begin integrating with the concerns of my everyday life, the flow of free energy in me stirs within, and feelings of inspiration and intuition arise.  I have reached the boundary between stillness and knowledge, governed by the Dark Moon;  I have arrived at the northeastern point.

East

The northeastern point is celebrated at Imbolc, February 2^nd, or, more authentically, February 1^st. ^[5] This is the time when ewes begin to feel the stirrings of unborn lambs in their wombs.  Likewise, the witch, having reascended his or her inner pillar, feels the stirrings within of feelings and images recovered from the long past, along with the creativity enjoyed then before it was covered over and forgotten in later years.

This is a joyful phase, recalling the enticements of the elf-maid of Brittany, as she lured young men to the plain of Tir-na n’og, the plain of youth:

“Deuit ganin-me da gompezenn al Levenez

O! Mar goufec’h e teufec’h’vit atao!”

“Come with me to the plain of Joy.

Oh! If you knew, you would come there forever!” ^[6]

   

Energy must continue to flow freely in order for the ideas it contains to emerge at the eastern point.  The praxis for ensuring this is to catch the mind at the point of continuing past conversations, or anticipating future ones.  One simply acknowledges them, thinking ‘that is the rehash,’ or ‘that is the rehearsal,’ and the mind will tend to relax into the present sensuous moment.  This prepares it for the encounter with unique energy in the form of music, artistic images, or ideas.  The Maiden works with this in the phase of purification when she gradually winnows the free flow of feelings and images from the ‘Deep,’ shaping them towards the eastern point of consecration, when the Mother articulates them as ideas.  This is the time to surrender to the new, taking it in as for the first time, as we did in childhood.  Too much critical analysis at this point, saying “that sounds (or looks) like x,” will assimilate it to past habit, missing its unique quality.  A hallmark of such new ideas is that they are taken in lightly, without strong feelings of partisanship.  As children we felt free to learn a large variety of things and enjoyed playing at ideas, strong preferences being formed only later in adolescence.

South

According to my natal chart, I have no planets in Fire, and I have interpreted this as meaning I worked with that element in a past life, so that I need to catch up with the other elements.  That being so, I should have an overview of the quarter, and in fact I have.  The Sun-Wheel is often depicted in ancient cultures as a swastika, but note it is a sunwise-turning swastika, with the bent arms trailing back to the left, the opposite of the Nazi symbol.  To me the swastika resembles a fire-drill, as seen from above.  The bent arms are twirled sunwise, with the drill making friction in the flints below, in ‘the Deep,’ thus igniting the fuel at its base. 

At the southeastern or Beltane point, it becomes clear how one’s everyday life needs to make room for new knowledge.  Old habits must be set aside or redirected.  This is the purification phase of Fire, and here the fire-drill comes into play, creating friction between old and new habits, and building that magical heat the Hindus call ‘tapas,’ the fruit of spiritual discipline and austerity, which will rush up from the ‘Deep’ when it has accumulated sufficiently.

The practice of purification can involve something I call the ‘Inventory’.  A spell, music or other creative act is a projection of energy, and it requires a conduit to carry the energy involved.  Most of our conduits are blocked by past projects we have neither brought to completion nor canceled.  By making an inventory of the physical clutter in the home, or of an overcommitted schedule, a witch can discern which projects are worth completing and which should be dropped and forgotten.  In the case of the latter, the documents and other debris left over from the unfinished project need to be discarded or put to a different use.  In the course of doing this, the witch will acquire practice in putting a project out of mind, a process that is of paramount importance in spellcraft, after the spell is cast. 

Every project or task that extends over time requires a groove or conduit to convey the energy from one day to the next.  By canceling past projects that are no longer needed or desired, and by completing others, the witch opens up a number of conduits which can serve to convey the energy used in spells.  At the same time, beginning new projects makes use of the magic of the beginning, which becomes available increasingly as we get free of ever-pending tasks.  The witch moves out of the dead calm of in medias res, always being in the middle of affairs, to the creative space of beginning afresh.  New projects are then monitored and dropped if they become bogged down and no longer progress towards their goal. 

When home and schedule have been sufficiently freed from clutter, and the work needed to optimize conditions for the new project has been done, the witch has reached the southern point of Litha or Midsummer.  The Mother at the full moon phase now consecrates it to action.  In case of a spell, the witch may now resort to a book of methods. [7]  As the witch practices the mechanics of the spell, or the musician masters the new music, it becomes familiar and second nature.  The Crone’s phase of charging lends it a personal style, called ‘the knack’ at Lammas (or Lughnasadh), as  symbolized by the sacred loaf baked on that occasion and eaten at midnight.  

West

Let us review our journey thus far.  In the North, the journey back up the inner pillar brings with it liberated magical energy and psychic materials from ‘the Deep’.  At the northeastern point these are integrated with portions of the everyday psyche covertly, in the Dark Moon phase of Imbolc.  Every time this point is reached, the magical personality grows and partially replaces the old conditioned everyday personality.

At the eastern point, new knowledge emerges, and is articulated, through ideas, music, art, or the sense of a magical goal.

At the southeastern point, habits and conditions in everyday life are identified which must be changed in order to realize the knowledge physically.  This identification is intuitive at first, in keeping with the character of the Dark Moon.

In the south quarter, space is cleared for the spell or other creative work by suppressing or redirecting habits incompatible with its construction.  This is followed by the construction of the spell (music, art, etc.) in physical terms. The Crone charges the work accomplished by uniting it with the will, so that at the southwestern point the spell or other work becomes the knack, the personal skill of the practitioner.  As in previous Dark Moons, this is accomplished covertly, as symbolized by the oven baking the sacred loaf on Lammas Eve.

The western quarter is the quarter of daring, that is, daring to penetrate the unknown.  Its element is Water, which seeks the lowest point and goes around obstacles by taking their shape.  The work of Fire replaces many comfortable habits with the new construction of the spell or other creative endeavor.  These habits are missed because they provided a sense of orientation; they were shields against the onslaught of the unknown.

In the west the witch goes fearlessly into the unknown, in anything from taking a new route to work to undergoing some form of initiation.  The portals of the unknown lie in altered perception or attention.  The witch spreads his/her visual attention from where the eyes are pointing to the side, top or bottom of the visual field, and the aural attention to background sounds.  As much as can be seen of the head without looking in mirrors or some other reflecting surface is held in the attention.  This naturally places the attention on the periphery of the visual field.  Background sounds are reproduced mentally as a way of increasing focus on the aural environment.

These practices, or praxes, sound exhausting but are actually relaxing because they switch off our usual sensory filters.  The witch becomes one with his/her perceptual environment.  Every day is like a day at the beach.

Continual practice or praxis of redirection opens up the body at certain points, such as the muscles at the outer corners of the eyes, to an inflow of energy carrying feelings similar to those encountered in the north, during the journey down the inner pillar.  The difference is that now these feelings come up by themselves into the everyday world.  At the western point of Mabon one’s dead ancestors and friends may begin showing up in dreams.  When they do, they may be invited to attend ‘dumb’ suppers through the month of October, culminating in the great Sabbat of Samhain at the end of the month.  In the Craft we say that the human dead are released for visits at Mabon, and the nonhuman dead are added to their number at Samhain, in the emergence of the Wild Hunt.

It is at or around Mabon, the autumn equinox, that the ‘fast’ spell is cast, though a ‘slow’ spell can be cast at Samhain, earthed when finally  released. [8] This can be timed to follow the actual wheel of the year, or sequenced with previous work following the Sun-Wheel.  The Sabbats celebrate these points around the Sun-Wheel and often witches in a coven will time their private work to draw on the solar energies abundant at those times, but shorter sequences can occur outside the calendrical dates.

The spell, then, may be cast in Circle by raising the Cone of Power, working together with other witches, or some more private method, such as the spell of nine knots, may be used.  The important point is that the witch should be open to the spirit world through practices of daring, as described in the examples given above.  Note that these are my practices, but other witches may employ visualization, mantra, or a number of other methods.

At the northwestern point of Samhain, the ‘slow’ spell is released into ‘the Height’ and (with the Wheel of the Year), added to the Wild Hunt and earthed with it when it returns to the Underworlds.  Thence it will rebound into our world of Middle-Earth and accomplish its magical purpose.

It is now forgotten, as though it had never been, as the witch enters the quarter of silence and stillness once more.

*

Bibliography

Farrar, Janet and Stewart, Spells and How They Work, Custer, WA, Phoenix

        Publishing, 1990.

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[1] In modern terms, these four elements correspond to the solid, liquid and gaseous states of matter, and to observable energy or fire.  The fifth point of aether corresponds to more subtle states such as plasma.

[2] In lucid dreaming, we are aware of being in a dream while dreaming; in lucid waking, we are aware of being awake while waking. Neither state is taken for granted.

[3] Impressions of lights and squiggles produced by the pressure of the eyelids on the retina.

[4] In dreams these appear as synopses, defining in advance the current dream-situation.

[5] Changed to February 2nd by the Church.

[6]  From Janet and Stewart Farrar, Spells and How They Work, pp. 95-96.

[7] Such as Janet and Stewart Farrar’s Spells and How They Work.  See Bibliography.

[8] A fast spell is released suddenly, as with the Cone of Power.  A slow spell is released gradually, as with candle spells, which are cast gradually as a candle burns down.

Conserving Magical Energy

by Ian Elliott   2-5-13

We all contain magical energy, and this energy is unique to each of us.  But due to conditions of modern life, all of our magical energy is deployed in habits, habits of perception, of feeling, of thinking and doing.  Very little is left over every day for exploring our magical heritage.  This is why most spell books on the market are not much help in casting spells.  They take a cookbook approach which assumes that people as they are have sufficient magical energy available to make them work.  They don’t.

In order to access our own magical energy, we must begin by saving little amounts of energy which we otherwise fritter away each day in wasteful habits.  This is the starting-point of the Inner Craft.  It is a very small door, like the door Alice went through into Wonderland – she had to take a magic cordial first to make herself little. It begins, in other words, with small efforts.

Conserving magical energy requires patience.  It takes a while to save up sufficient energy to make a difference.  However, we are so used to our typical energy states, which run in cycles, that we recognize a difference in them almost immediately after starting efforts at conservation.  We may suddenly worry that we don’t seem to be worrying so much anymore.  This sounds silly, but we are so used to our own ups and downs that it takes all of a witch’s Power to Dare to venture into this unknown territory.

Here is a general map of our familiar territory, which we will be 

leaving behind:

1 – Cycles of worry and anxiety.

2 – Cycles of small nervous movements.

3 – Cycles of inner talk.

4 – Cycles of negativity.

5 – Mental and material clutter.

6 – Patterns of perception.

These are the main areas of our life which commandeer and squander our available magical energy.  The simplest one to start with is the second, small nervous movements.  When the witch sits, he or she is still.  This is the power of the North, the Power to Keep Silent, as expressed by the body.  Regular exercise is necessary in order to remain still in a vibrant, poised manner.  The witch notes the situations under which he or she tends to begin scratching, or tapping the foot, or whichever motion is involved.  If this occurs while sitting in a chair, the witch gets up immediately at the first sign of it, and does something else.  It is no good waiting until the train of habit runs you over; as soon as you see it approaching, you must get off the track.  This requires the cultivation of vigilance.

The first item on the list above may seem necessary to running our practical lives and avoiding financial or some other form of ruin.  If I don’t worry, how will I pay my bills on time?  The answer is to sit down daily, preferably in the morning, and make a list of daily obligations.  Plan on paper, or on the computer, and spend some time every day reviewing your plans.  If you have a long-standing problem, such as finding adequate employment, do something every day towards solving it.  Then, when you feel you have done enough for that day, close your planning book.  If there are tasks to perform, do them.  But by evening you should feel free to relax your practical self and see to other dimensions of your existence.

Eliminating clutter in your life, item number five, supports practical planning.  Go through your closets and shelves and dresser drawers, and examine all your papers and other stored items.  You may find something useful to your current needs.  Use what you find, or give or throw it away, or sell it.  The mind keeps track of everything buried deep in closets, even if you have forgotten some of those things consciously.  Dealing with them, finding a use for them, not only opens up new opportunities in your life, it unties little energy knots that you may have carried around for years. 

Clutter also occupies time.  We typically over-commit ourselves to meetings, projects, visits, and other entanglements which fill up our already busy schedules.  It isn’t necessary to be busy all the time in order to live a full life.  On the contrary, the more we do or promise to do, the less freedom we possess to explore new paths.  The multi-millionaire J.P. Morgan complained that he always felt hemmed in by his busy commitments.  Practice saying things like “I’ll have to think about it” instead of immediately saying yes. 

Inner talk, item number three, generally takes either of two forms.  I call these the rehash and the rehearsal.  The rehash involves repeating mentally conversations held recently, perhaps modifying the responses one made in order to appear cleverer or more compassionate to oneself.  We wish we had said something more, so we say it in our minds afterwards.  A certain amount of review of our behavior after the fact is a healthy habit, but a little goes a long way.  Obsessively revolving past conversations, or imaginary extensions of them, consumes an enormous amount of energy and increases our feeling of dependence on how others see us.

In the other direction we have the rehearsal.  We think about an upcoming event, an encounter with someone perhaps, and we begin talking to that person in our minds.  This can be more or less hypothetical, as of course all thoughts about the future are hypothetical to some degree.  Here again, there is a fruitful use of this habit, as when we are planning what we will say in a job interview.  But too much last minute ‘cramming’ is usually counter-productive.  Plan what you will do and say, then lay it aside and direct your attention to other things.

When a witch feels caught up in the rehash or rehearsal, he or she identifies it first, thinking “that is the rehash” or “that is the rehearsal,” and then turns the attention to the surroundings, or some other present reality, such as a book.  Here as elsewhere, it is a matter of knowing when to stop.

The fourth item, cycles of negativity, must be approached in a two-step process.  If we have habits of making sarcastic jokes, we may justify this by seeing ourselves as witty persons.  Encouraged by the laughter of others (which may have only been polite), we may feel that we have a reputation to uphold as comedians or critics.  Or perhaps we dislike political correctness and see ourselves as rebels when we make remarks some find offensive.  Or we may see ourselves as heroic figures motivated by righteous outrage to tilt at windmills. 

The first stage of saving magical energy by not squandering it in expressions of negative emotion is to discover what self-image, or images, we are using to justify such expression.  If your expression takes place in a social setting, you should consider the possibility that less grumbling or joking from you will be a relief to your usual audience.  If you express negativity in private, perhaps cursing other drivers or your computer, see yourself doing it and how absurd it would look to someone else. 

Once you have deflated the justification for your negativity, it will be easier to work on deflecting the expression itself.  Here again, think of the approaching train: you must see it chuffing along towards you from a distance and jump off the tracks well in time before it sweeps you up.  In other words, you must become familiar with your cycles of energy wastage so you will know when to break them.  Habit cycles are like chains, and every chain has a weakest link.  Finding the weak link is the key to breaking the chain.

In doing all these things, the witch should avoid the feeling that the Inner Craft is a goody-goody ethical pursuit.  It is nothing of the kind.  We want access to free energy, and in order to get it, we must become misers of energy.  We must bear in mind that all our energy is already deployed, and our only hope of breaking free from our energy strait-jackets is by saving little bits of it, one bit at a time.

Once we have become vigilant with these five items it will be time to turn our attention to the subtlest and, potentially, the most powerful form of conservation, changing patterns of perception.  We perceive all the time, and our way of looking at and listening to the world is a habit of such long standing that changing it is a most subtle affair.  It is necessary to have the other five areas well in hand before attempting this last, sixth one.  If we go for the sixth item prematurely, we shall achieve some novel effects, but before long we will drop it as an interesting exercise which goes nowhere.

The Inner Craft distinguishes between directing the attention to where the eyes are pointing, which it calls looking, and spreading the attention from that, extending it to perceptions lying to the side of where our eyes are pointing, or above or below where they are pointing.  The eyes do not move to these things, just the attention. 

In the same way, changing perceptual patterns involves extending the attention to background sounds as well as to sounds we are currently focused on.  We generally listen to background sounds sporadically and then shut them out if they are annoying or fail to interest us, as with muzack in a store or elevator.  The witch takes in all available sounds continuously, for this saves the energy habitually employed in blocking them out.  It takes much more energy to ignore peripheral sights and sounds than to include them in attention.  This is the secret of this form of magical energy conservation.

Attending to things to the side is called gazing in the Inner Craft.  We can gaze to the side of an object, such as a television screen, or we can switch our eyes to the side of the screen and gaze back at it.  If you practice switching back and forth from one form of gazing to the other, you will feel a sensation starting in the back of your head at some point.  Something will open up back there.  Don’t try to make this happen, or you will become involved in imagination.  Just be aware when it does happen on its own.

When you close your eyes to go to sleep at night, you will see little lights and patterns produced by the gentle pressure of your eyelids on the retinas.  These are called phosphenes.  Generally we ignore them and just go to sleep.  This is probably for the best, for if you follow them with the attention, you may or may not drop off.  But it isn’t necessary to keep your eyes open all day until it is time to go to sleep.  If you observe animals, they spend a good deal of time with their eyes closed.  This is especially true of cats, at least as far as my observation goes (I am a cat person).  You should rest your eyes two or three times during the day, and as you are not doing so to take a nap (though you may fall asleep anyway), you can observe your phosphenes.  This is called “reading the book of the eyelids” in the Inner Craft.

You may find, while your eyes are closed, that your hearing becomes more acute.  You can play with this sensation by opening and shutting your eyes at intervals.  Do this while sitting or lying at home, or while a passenger in a car or train, looking out the window.  Don’t try it while walking or driving!

Exercises of these sorts increase our use of the ears and relax somewhat our over-reliance on the eyes.  In particular, extending one’s visual attention to the side (or above or below) of where the eyes are pointing tends to relax the muscles at the outer sides of the eyes.  These are typically tensed because we are using our eyes to track on objects, as though they were searchlights.  Pueblo Indian chief Ochwiay Biano (Mountain Lake) once remarked to the psychologist C.G. Jung that “The white man’s eyes have a staring expression; they are always seeking something…they are always uneasy and restless …We think they are mad.” [1] From being searchlights, the eyes can become passive windows, taking in the whole visual field as it is presented. 

When the muscles at the outer sides of the eyes relax, the witch will feel a peculiar energy entering there, an energy carrying feelings 

and what might be called ‘wordless knowledge.’

Another way of taking in the whole visual field at once is to keep our headlessness in view. [2] Did you know you were headless?  You knew this when you were a small child, before you were told that ‘the baby in the mirror’ was you, yourself.  At that point, we began to ignore the little we could see of our heads without using a mirror or other reflecting surface: perhaps a blob for the nose, eyelashes in bright sunlight, or a cowlick hanging down in front.  If we keep those sensations in view, we will stay in contact with the whole visual field.  Losing those sensations, we tend to alternate between thinking and looking.  We feel that we are shut up in our heads, looking from moment to moment out of two portholes at the world around us.  If we keep our headlessness in view, we shall think and see at the same time, as Janus the threshold guardian does at the Pagan’s front door, looking out and in at once with his two faces. We shall live on the outside of our bodies.

There is much more to this part of the Inner Craft dealing with perceptual patterns, such as noticing shadows.  Cars at midday roll along over their shadow carpets without casting them back from the wheels.  When we walk home in moonlight, the moon keeps pace with us.  When we cross our eyes looking at two candles placed side by side at eye level, a third candle appears between them, combining their colors and features.  These are only a few out of many perceptual patterns which help to release our magical energy; but it is unnecessary to mention all of them, since practicing a few of the basic ones already mentioned will inevitably lead to all the rest.

If you take the six items above in the recommended sequence, you will be able to integrate the Inner Craft in your daily lives, and in the Circle you will hum with magical energy.

 Bibliography

HARDING, D. E., On Having No Head; Zen and the Re-discovery of

the Obvious.  London and New York, Arkana, 1986.

JUNG, Carl, Memories. Dreams, Reflections, New York, Vintage Books,

1965.

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[1] Jung, C.G., Memories, Dreams, Reflections, p. 248.

[2] See On Having No Head, by D.E. Harding.