Energy and the Magick Circle
When I made my initial foray into Witchcraft, almost all of the books I read included the instruction to “build a cone of power,” but none of them included any information on just how to do so or even what the cone of power was. The result of this was that for many years I suffered under the delusion that I was missing out on some great secret of Witchcraft. Lacking a teacher at the time, I didn’t have anyone to ask about the cone of power either, and talking to my friends about it seemed embarrassing. My solution to this problem ended up being to ignore the cone of power completely.
I never did find a book or a teacher to truly explain the cone of power to me. Instead, I began experiencing it during ritual. My coven would start chanting and dancing, and I’d feel our ritual area swell and pulse with energy. That energy would begin swirling around our circle, and as it circled it would become narrower at the top, looking like a cone point-side up or an upside-down tornado. There is no great secret to building a cone of power. It’s just something Witches do, often without realizing it.
The cone of power is simply the energy that Witches build up while engaging in ritual. In a well-cast magick circle, that energy will spiral upward in a clockwise direction, forming something like a cone. Generally that energy is then directed toward a specific purpose, such as finding a new job or a place to live. In my own practice I’ve directed the energy raised in circle toward a variety of purposes, from finding employment to healing my friends to protecting society’s most vulnerable members.
There’s another name for the cone of power too: magick, because that’s what it is. When Witches gather in a circle to try to create change, they are engaging in a magickal practice. The cone of power is one of those fundamental magickal practices. Though any Witch or coven can create a cone of power (and will often do so without even knowing it), there are ways to make that power more effective and a variety of things that can be done to create that power during circle.
Just What Is Magickal Energy
and Where Does It Come From?
One word that is constantly referenced in regard to the cone of power is energy, but what does that mean exactly and where does this energy come from? Since the magickal energies we use to create a cone of power can’t be seen, there are varying interpretations of what they are exactly and where they come from. To better understand how to manipulate energy, these are important questions to ponder, even if we won’t all agree on the answers.
The simplest way to feel energy is to clap your hands together and rub them until they start to get warm. Once they are warm, pull your hands apart and notice the power radiating between them. The power you feel between your hands is what most Witches call energy. You should be able to feel that energy become more concentrated when your hands are closer together and feel more spread-out when they are farther apart. You should also be able to shape this energy using your hands, turning it into a ball or perhaps stretching it like taffy. We usually can’t see energy, but it most certainly can be felt.
Energy in its raw form is neutral. Witches then bend, shape, and mold it to fit their desires. If we raise energy and concentrate on successful employment and financial opportunities, we infuse that energy with those qualities. If we raise energy while hurt or angry, those emotions will become a part of the energy. Raising energy is only half the equation; it’s up to us as Witches to infuse that energy with our intentions. Once we’ve changed the energy we raised into something that reflects our needs, that energy is then cast out into the world to manifest the change desired. The cone of power is especially effective in magick because it is a concentrated eruption of that energy, and the more energy you have to throw at a particular problem the better! That’s what makes the cone such a powerful tool.
If that sounds magickal, it should—energy is the building block of magick! Magick requires us to do more than draw a symbol or recite a few words; it requires us to raise and release energy. The more energy we raise, the more likely we are to achieve our desired outcome. Most human beings raise and release energy but have no idea how to harness that energy for productive purposes. Sporting events are great examples of this. You have thousands of fans yelling and cheering, and raising energy as a result, but they rarely know how to direct it toward anything positive. The energy is simply raised and released. Witches take all of that energy and direct it toward a specific goal.
The most well-known definition of magick comes to us from the English occultist Aleister Crowley, who wrote that magick is “the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will.” Crowley’s definition is a fine one, but it lacks an explanation of what causes that change. Certainly our will plays a large role. Magick can help us obtain what we truly desire and not just what we articulate, but in order to achieve change we can’t just desperately want something or leave everything up to our will; we have to direct energy at the problem. Magick to me is “the science and art of causing change to occur with the use of natural energies in conformity with will.”
I believe that energy comes from a variety of sources, some of which are easier to tap than others. What follows are some of the most common sources of magickal energy. You may find yourself disagreeing with some of them or being open to all of them. I’m not sure that it ultimately matters where energy comes from as long as we put it to use.
Energy from the Physical World
The earth and the universe have their own energies that we can utilize in our magickal practices. The energies of the earth are the energies that cause the seed to sprout and the wind to blow. They are the energies of life and death and are constantly swirling around us. To use them, we have only to reach out to them and draw them inward.
The easiest way to feel earth energy is to sit outside on the ground, with your back straight or possibly resting against a tree. Visualize your spine being in alignment with the earth and then reaching out from your body and into the ground below you. Once your spine has tapped into the earth, begin to imagine your body drawing energy up and out of the ground. Within a minute or two you should be able to feel the earth’s natural energies inside of you.
The energies of the earth will often vary from place to place. You might feel a burst of wild energy when conducting this little exercise in a forest, or get a peaceful feeling if doing it at the seashore when the ocean is calm. This exercise can also be done in reverse if you are trying to tap into something above you. It’s possible to draw in the violent energies of a thunderstorm by standing with your arms out over your head and concentrating on bringing that energy inside of yourself.
The green growing things tap into the earth’s natural energies, and we can often feel those energies inside of living things. Try hugging a tree and opening yourself up to the energy it throws back at you. If the tree is healthy, you’ll most likely feel love and contentment. I think trees are one of the easiest ways to feel the world’s natural energy around us.
In ritual I’m usually not in a forest or at a beach, so I draw the earth’s energy inward from my feet. Anytime I begin a major magickal operation, I imagine my feet as the roots of a tree going deep into the earth. Using those roots, I then pull energy up and out of the earth and into my own body. (My wife despises guided meditations that begin with “Imagine your feet are the roots of a tree” because it tends to be completely overused, but I find this to be an effective visualization while in ritual.) As the energy comes up through me, it then mingles with my own, creating a powerful magickal force.
Besides our blue marble of a planet, there are other celestial bodies that offer energy for us to tap into. The moon and the sun are obvious examples. Sunlight is an intense energy to work with and is fiery, just like its origin point. The moon is a bit more calm and measured, and its monthly cycle of waxing and waning offers abundant energies to use in magickal operations that require growth or getting rid of something. Even farther afield, the energies of the stars, galaxies, and other planets can be worked with too (though because of their great distance, their energies can be harder to harness).
The world we reside in is alive and teeming with energy and power. These natural forces are among the easiest to work with and utilize in ritual. They also work well in conjunction with the energy that resides inside ourselves.
Human or Personal Energy
There are a variety of ways to tap into and create energy through our own bodies. Some of these involve our magickal will, while others utilize physical processes. Most Witches eventually combine these two ways of raising energy because it makes our magick even more powerful than it would be otherwise (and most of us do this without even thinking about it).
The easiest place to start is with energy we create through mundane or physical means. Clapping and rubbing our hands together is one way to tap into this power, but there are other techniques that are just as effective, if not more so. One of my favorites involves the muscles in my hands and arms.
This is an easy exercise. To start, hold your arms out in front of you, with your elbows bent. Now squeeze your biceps and ball your hands into fists. As you flex your muscles you should feel the energy pulse in your arms, and when you release your muscles you should feel that energy move out of your body, gathering in front of you near your hands. The longer you squeeze and release, the more energy you’ll raise and gather in front of you. If you practice this little exercise long enough, you should feel the energy in front of you. (Generally this feels like the air around you is heavy.) This energy can then be used for spellwork.
If I’m using this technique for a personal spell, I’ll completely open up my hands and push forward with my arms as I relax my muscles for the last time. As I push the energy away, I’ll visualize it going out into the world and working to help me reach whatever goal I raised it for.
The hand and arm squeeze is a great way to feel the energy we can create with our own bodies, but it’s just the start when it comes to using our bodies to create and release energy. Nearly any physical act will release energy from our bodies, which we can then use for magickal purposes and building the cone of power. Breathing, dancing, and clapping will all work, though you may not feel things as directly as you can by squeezing your muscles.
There’s another source for our own energy though, and that’s our magickal will. Our will is the sum total of all our experiences, our emotions, and our interactions with other people, deity, and the world around us. I think of it as my inner furnace of magickal energy, and it’s where I draw some of my most powerful energy. Our magickal will doesn’t exist in any specific place in the body (there’s no organ or gland that stores our magickal energy); it exists within our soul. Our will doesn’t spend time contemplating the nature of the universe either; it’s a repository of our purest emotions.
When we feel something passionately, we are feeling our will. Think for a second about one of your most emotional moments. If you are like me, those moments were full of energy, which probably hung like a cloud around you for as long as you were emotional. I remember one Yuletide season when my now wife and I were a bit estranged. For the first time ever in our relationship, I was on the outside looking in. The love that I suddenly knew I had for her was not being returned. I spent that Sunday afternoon wailing and crying harder than I had ever cried before. I remember just how powerful my sobbing was; I had never felt pain like that in my life. My bedroom turned into a cloud of doom and despair. That was me releasing my will, and that particular day my will was completely shattered.
We can tap into our will when we are passionate about something, and that passion will most likely release energy that we can use for magick and to create a cone of power. When I gather with my coven, we often raise energy and direct it toward those who are the most vulnerable in society. Social justice issues are important to all of us, and when we all tap into those emotions, a great deal of energy is released.
If you are having trouble finding the will inside of you, find a comfortable place and close your eyes. Let your mind drift for a bit before asking yourself one question: What do I care most about? A few images will most likely appear in your mind’s eye. When I do this exercise I see my wife, my friends, my Craft, the natural world, and often a few of my most powerful memories. After the images have passed, focus your consciousness inward and reach out toward the source of those feelings.
Eventually you should be drawn to your inner magickal furnace, your will. I tend to visualize it as a blue-white ball of energy, pulsing, vibrating, and powerful. Once you’ve found it, try to pull a little bit of energy out of your will and then allow it to run through your entire body. As you feel the energy enter your arms, open up your hands and push the energy out of you. The more you work with this, the easier it should be tap into your own reservoir of personal power.
We also create energy in what often feels like mundane circumstances. If you’ve ever been to a sporting event with thousands of yelling, clapping, and stomping fans, you’ve been around a lot of really wild energy. That energy usually isn’t directed at anything specific, but it can certainly be felt and experienced. I often joke with Ari that if we put a well-trained High Priestess in the middle of every football stadium in the fall, we could solve a lot of problems! I’ve felt the same kind of energy at raves and at concerts, and it can be tapped into in a coven setting as well.
Any large group of people who are all focused on the same thing will produce a lot of ambient energy. If you are dragging, this energy can be tapped into to raise your own energy level, and sometimes it can be used to fuel your magickal work as well. Let’s say you are out shopping over the holidays and everything is wild and chaotic. You could gather that energy up and focus it on something more positive in your own life. Coven spells work so well because everyone in the coven is giving off energy when a working is decided upon.
When we focus on our desires in ritual, the inner and outer parts of ourselves will start working in tandem. The passions we have will flow through our bodies and will shape the energy we create with our movements and breath. When the physical and the spiritual parts of ourselves work together, we reach our greatest potential as Witches.
Energy from Deities
Most of us conceptualize deity in our own way. Some Witches see the gods as natural forces that work with the earth to keep everything humming and spinning along. Others see all the different deities that have ever been worshipped as real and distinct beings that just happen to be greater and more powerful than we are. Some see the individual gods as reflections of a greater power, like the idea that there is one Goddess and all the other goddesses throughout history are a part of that larger whole.
No matter how we look at deity, there’s no denying that when deity is invited into circle, it brings its own power with it. If you call to Aphrodite (the Greek goddess of love) and she chooses to show up at your ritual, your circle will fill up with her energy, and it’s an energy that will most likely make you feel loved, sexy, and perhaps a little amorous. The gods have energy and power, and when they step into our circles they add that power to whatever project we are working on.
The goddess Aradia is a goddess of justice, and if my coven is building a cone of power and we ask Aradia to be in our ritual and she shows up, she’ll add her energy to what we build. It can be like having an extra Witch in the circle, except in this instance that Witch is a goddess! Her energies will mingle with our own, creating something even more powerful than we could have built otherwise.
When the gods step into our bodies during the rite known as drawing down the moon (see part 4), we can tap into their energy and release it from our physical selves. Most people involved in ritual don’t draw down the moon, but anytime the gods are invoked (and show up), they can be a source of energy and a partner to a Witch or coven in their rites.
Energy from Other Sources
The first Pagan book I read as an adult was D. J. Conway’s Celtic Magic.71 In it, Conway writes that ritual magic
is merely the taking of energy from another plane of existence and weaving that energy, by specific thoughts, words, and practices, into a desired physical form or result in this plane of existence. The whole idea of magic is to contact various energy pools that exist in a dimension other than our own. 72
Conway’s conception of magickal energy was an important one when I was younger. When I was first starting upon the path of the Witch, I used to visualize pools of energy existing in places just outside of our own world and then reaching into them for energy in my rites and rituals. As I’ve grown as a Witch, I’ve mostly abandoned the idea that our energy comes from other dimensions, but I suppose it’s possible.
This visualization certainly worked for me when I was younger, and I’m sure there are still many Witches who use it today. If it’s an idea that works for you, then you should utilize it. Ultimately we can only theorize where energy truly comes from, and other dimensions don’t sound completely out of the question.
While I don’t subscribe to Conway’s theory today, I believe there are still some instances where we use magick from outside of our known world. I believe in the fey, for example, and think they exist just beyond what we know of the natural world. Since the fey sometimes lend their energies to the rites of Witches they like, I suppose that when this happens we are tapping into energies from outside our plane of existence. Ultimately, building a cone of power and working magick is about tapping into energy, regardless of where that energy comes from.
Setting Up a Magickal Space
A cone of power can be built nearly anywhere, but some places are more advantageous than others. When engaging in Witch ritual, I have two preferences when it comes to location: outdoors in a secluded private area, or an indoor space set aside primarily for ritual. Wherever you end up holding ritual, the most important thing is that it’s in a space where you won’t be disturbed. You don’t want people watching you like you’re an animal in a zoo, and you don’t want roommates or family members interrupting your magickal goings-on.
I live in one of the prettiest areas of the country, California’s Silicon Valley, but it’s teeming with people and there are very few outdoor locations in my immediate vicinity that provide any measure of privacy. Even my backyard is visible to several neighbors, so I do most of my work indoors. My indoor ritual space (or temple room) doubles as a guest bedroom when friends arrive from out of town to visit, but it’s mostly set aside for Witch activities. Before turning our guest room into a Witch room, we did most of our rituals in our living room.
Most of us probably don’t have a separate room to dedicate to Witch activities, and that’s okay. What’s important is transforming your common space into something more magickal. If you’re stuck doing ritual in the family den, put a tapestry over the television and bring in some extra candles instead of using a lamp. If your space feels more magickal, it will be more magickal.
Building a cone of power often requires a bit of space, especially if you’re practicing with a coven or circle of Witches. A traditional Witch circle is nine feet in diameter, which is the perfect size for a coven of thirteen Witches to run around in, though there’s really no right or wrong size. You’ll need a bit of room to move around in, which is why bedrooms usually don’t work very well for ritual—the bed just takes up too much space!
Once you’ve settled on a spot for ritual, you’ll want to cleanse the area before raising any energy. Cleansing is both a mundane and a magickal practice. If you’re bringing other Witches into your space, it should be tidy and clean. I always sweep and mop the floors of my house before every ritual. There’s nothing less magickal than stepping on a nail while building a cone of power! If my ritual is outside, I make sure there’s nothing that anyone might trip over in the space we’ll be using.
Magickal cleansing is a part of many Witch rituals and is generally performed at the start of most rites. It involves the removal of any and all negative energies that might be in your ritual space. What exactly is negative energy? In its simplest form it’s any energy in you or your space that doesn’t serve your working. Most often it’s an energy that feels icky or adversarial. Have you ever walked into a place that just gave you a bad feeling? That’s negative energy, and allowing it to remain can have harmful effects on the energy you raise and on your own psyche.
Negative energy can come from a variety of sources. I once bought a house where a stabbing had taken place, and the area where the event occurred made the hairs on my neck stand up (even before I knew what had transpired there). The energy generated during that event required cleaning up, and once my wife and I took care of it, our basement returned to normal (though it took some work). Examples like a stabbing in a basement are extreme cases though. Most of the time the negative energy in our ritual spaces doesn’t come from past traumatic events, it comes from us!
My house is generally a pretty cheerful place, but my wife and I both spend a lot of time worrying about work, politics, and a thousand other things. That “worry energy” rolls off us and into our home, and when we feel that energy it serves to amplify those feelings in us, or perhaps causes us to start worrying when we shouldn’t be. Even worse are the energies that come from anger, jealousy, and rage. Though we don’t spend a lot of time in our Witch room outside of ritual, those energies still manage to find their way into that space.
Magickal spaces also attract all kinds of entities who are curious about what we are doing. If you’ve got a ghost in your house, it most likely spends a lot of time hovering around your ritual area. Casting a magick circle attracts curious forces who would otherwise probably ignore us. Getting rid of those energies (and entities) is vital for casting a strong circle and raising energy.
Removal of negative energy before building the cone of power is vital. Allowing negativity to remain in sacred space will pollute whatever energy you conjure up, transforming it into something else. Negative energy acts much like a drop of ink in a clear glass of water. The ink doesn’t stay in one place; it affects all of the water in the glass, turning something clean and pure into something else entirely. Negative energy has the same effect if it’s not dealt with.
The most common way to remove negative energies from a ritual space is through censing and asperging, 73 a process that generally utilizes salt water and lit incense. Salt has long been known for its purifying effects, and mixing it with water allows it to be more easily sprinkled and shared in the ritual circle. Incense smoke has been used for millennia as a form of purification and can still be found doing that job today in the Catholic Church. An alternative to incense that still utilizes smoke is the smudge stick. Smudging is a Native American practice that most often utilizes sage and cedar for their cleansing properties.
Incense smoke and salt water eat away at negative energy, breaking it into little pieces until it’s basically dissolved. When censing and asperging my ritual space, I like to pay special attention to the corners, along with the doors and windows. Negative energy is most likely to collect in forgotten corners, and it most certainly enters our spaces through mundane means such as through doorways. I always spend a little extra time purifying any area that feels icky or uncomfortable to me.
Before being used for cleansing, the salt, water, incense, and flame are generally ritually blessed, with the first two materials being cleansed by the athame. There are many ways to perform this ritual, and I suspect many of you reading this already have such a rite. If you don’t have a rite for cleansing and consecrating the elements, such rituals are easily found in most Witchcraft 101 books and on the internet.
Salt water and incense aren’t the only materials that can be used to cleanse a magickal space. One of my favorite tools to use for this purpose is the broom (or besom). Using a broom to get rid of negative energy is much like using a broom in daily life, but instead of sweeping up dust you’ll be sweeping up energy. As you sweep, visualize any negative energy in your ritual space being swept, and don’t forget the areas up off the ground. When I use my broom to cleanse a room, I also sweep the walls and/or ceiling if I think they need it. Since the broom won’t break up negative energy like salt water does, I usually sweep all the negative energy that I’ve gathered up and out of my house.
Once your ritual space has been cleansed, you will be ready to cast the circle that will help create your cone of power—that is, as long as everyone in your circle is ready. Many Witches also ritually cleanse themselves before and during the setup of their magickal space.
Cleansing the Self
We humans create more negative energy than probably any other force on the planet, and in order for our magick to be effective it’s generally wise to get rid of this before building the cone of power. Many covens require all of their members to shower (often with salt or certain herbs) before ritual or to wash their hands with salt water. I think showering is a little extreme, but the method of cleansing the self is really up to each individual and not so much the work of the coven. However, there are a few tried-and-true methods that can be used with a group during ritual to help deal with unwanted energies.
The first method is to breathe out all of the negativity inside of us. This method works best at the very beginning of ritual, as everything we’ve expelled from our bodies has to be dealt with. Start by taking a big inhale, and as you breathe the air in, visualize it as strong and cleansing. Hold the air in your lungs for several long seconds, and as it’s inside of you, imagine it collecting all of the negativity within. Pour all of your anger, worry, work garbage, relationship problems, and whatever else into that air. Then as you exhale, visualize that energy leaving your body.
My coven generally opens every ritual with this technique. It helps to calm and center everyone in the circle and is an effective way to get our bodies and minds ready for ritual and magick. Breathe in and out several times, taking in big breaths, holding them, and then slowly releasing the air and anything inside of yourself that is unwanted.
The only downside to this technique is that it leaves a lot of negative energy hanging in your ritual space. (The bad energy has been expelled from your body but has not been taken out of your ritual space.) This negative energy can generally be dealt with through censing and asperging, which is one of the reasons we lead off with the cleansing breaths instead of saving them for later. Many covens cense and asperge the ritual participants as they prepare their sacred space, an especially wise practice after taking a few cleansing breaths. (The ritual broom-sweeping is an equally effective way to deal with this psychic residue.)
In my coven we also ritually purify everyone in the circle after taking our cleansing breaths. We ask the participants to visualize whatever negativity they have left inside of them gathering in their hands. (If you do this, feel all of the tension in your body rising up and collecting in your hands.) We then pour scented water over everyone’s hands using a large pitcher and bowl, blessing and cleansing them in the names of the Lord and the Lady. The negative energy is washed off them by the water and then collects in the bowl, staying there until we dump that water outside at the end of ritual.
The Magick Circle
Circle casting is one of the essential components of creating a cone of power. To put it simply, no circle (or a poorly cast circle) equals no cone of power. Circle casting is something every Witch should learn to do well, and it’s a practice that is often overlooked in books and by many teachers. A circle is more than where a Witch works in ritual; it’s a tool in its own right. Well-constructed circles are a necessity for effective spellcraft.
Circles have been used in spiritual settings for thousands of years. Before conducting a sacrifice, the ancient Greeks used to mark out a circular space. That space included the sacrificial animal of course, but also all of the participants, the altar, and all of the tools that were to be used during the ceremony. The Greeks created a circle for one of the reasons Modern Witches do today: to differentiate the sacred from the profane.74
The Modern Witch’s circle derives from ceremonial magick and the grimoire tradition, where circles were generally constructed for protection. Beginning in the Middle Ages, many magicians practiced magick to gain control over entities such as demons and angels. Because these magicians were attempting to bind and violate the free will of sentient beings, they often operated with a great deal of fear. They cast circles to keep out unwanted entities and to provide a layer of protection between them and the demons they were summoning.
Circle casting became a part of magickal orders such as the Golden Dawn, where it was used to facilitate spiritual experiences and to provide a safe place to practice magick. When Modern Witches began using magick circles, they incorporated the circle’s traditional uses (sacred space and protection) and added a third use: as a vessel to store energy. This is a unique characteristic that initially was found only in the circles of Wiccan-Witches.
When casting a circle, it’s important to remember that the circle exists for the following three reasons.
Sacred Space
The circle is a liminal space between our mundane world and the realms of the gods. While it might physically look like it’s located on this plane of existence, the circle exists “between the worlds.” It’s a space where we can freely feel the energy of goddesses and gods and call upon those who have left this world, both our beloved and our Mighty Dead.
Witchcraft rites can be conducted outside a circle, and it’s not necessary to cast a circle to feel the soul of a departed loved one or the energy of a deity, but the circle makes such things easier. I can talk to my wife if she stands behind a closed door, but it’s more difficult for me to hear her. The circle is an open doorway into another place that helps to facilitate communication with entities and powers greater than ourselves.
Protection
Circles are still used for protection by most Witches. A well-cast circle can help to keep any unwanted spirit, deity, or other entity out of your sacred space. It’s also a shield that keeps out and repels any negative energy that is being directed at you or your coven or that just happens to be floating through your ritual space.
I’ve also found well-cast circles to be extremely effective at keeping out the mundane world. When doing ritual outside, I’ve seen non-Witches (sometimes called cowans) in the vicinity either completely overlook the ritual I’m doing or go out of their way to avoid my sacred space all together. Phones have trouble ringing inside a well-cast circle, and other electronics will often malfunction. At an Imbolc ritual many years ago, my old landline phone started ringing the moment we took the circle down, and not a second before. This was especially surprising since I shared the house with six people and our phone rang almost all the time!
Storing Energy
All of the energy that’s raised in a circle will stay there until it’s directed to leave. This is what allows us to create a cone of power, and it’s a unique characteristic of many Witch circles. When the energy is released, it generally leaves through the top of the circle (the tip of the cone), and I often visualize it like a volcano exploding.
A well-cast circle will often result in your ritual space feeling like soup. The air will get heavy, and if you are sensitive to energy you can feel it rushing around you. During a rather intense series of initiations several years ago, my friend Angus was charged with “cutting” a doorway in the circle so he could leave our ritual space and bring in each individual waiting to be initiated. As the night went on, he began to comment on how hard it was to cut open the circle. So much energy had gathered (and was being raised) that it was difficult to get through, and it had nowhere to go since we hadn’t released it from the circle.
Oftentimes the temperature in your ritual space will go up after your circle is cast. This is no doubt partly due to having a bunch of people in close proximity to one another engaging in magickal work, but it’s also simply due to the fact that the circle is keeping all of that heat energy inside of it. The moment my coven releases our circle, the temperature in our ritual space goes down about ten degrees, and this is long before we’ve opened any door.
The ancient Greeks physically drew their circles upon the ground, as did many ceremonial magicians, and there are still some Witches today who do the same. If you wish to draw a physical circle to designate sacred space, there are several options for materials to use, with the two most common being flour and salt. Salt is especially effective because it adds to the protective power of the circle. Flour doesn’t provide that benefit, but it’s easily available and can be found in most homes. I rarely build a physical circle during ritual, but I sometimes do for initiations. In those instances I generally use dried leaves and/or flower petals. There are also Witches who have circles constructed out of wood or other materials that they put down in their ritual space. (I think such things look really cool but sound like way too much work to build and store.)
Having a physical circle (with the exception of one made out of salt or perhaps red brick dust) is really only a cosmetic consideration, and I believe that creating one only adds a level of confusion to what a magick circle essentially is, for while we use the term magick circle, our circles are actually spherical! They extend over us, under us, and all around us. They aren’t a wall, and they generally extend a bit outside of any physical boundary we might construct. (If they didn’t, they’d never be quite tall enough, and our heads would most likely poke out of the top of the circle near the perimeter.)
Most Witches cast their circles with either an athame or a sword, but those aren’t the only tools that can be used. There are some Witches who use a wand and a few who use a stang,75 and I’ve seen people use axes and spears as well. Nearly any tool capable of directing energy can be used to create a circle, and this includes natural tools such as our fingers. For many years my “athame” was my right index finger. Anything will work for casting a circle, but in my experience athames and swords produce the best results.
In addition to being practical, magick circles are seen by many Witches as symbolizing some of the universe’s great forces. The circle is sometimes compared to the womb of Mother Earth, and due to its circular nature is sometimes equated with the Wheel of the Year. With no beginning and no end, the circle has long been symbolic of unity and perfection.76 It’s not necessary to see a circle as symbolic of anything, but such associations can give your rituals a deeper meaning if they resonate with you.
Casting the Circle
Casting a powerful circle is about more than saying a few poetic words and waving a sword around. It requires concentration, will, desire, intent, visualization, and energy. The circle is where the work of the Witch is done, and its casting and creation should be taken seriously. Not every ritual will require a well-cast circle, but anytime the cone of power is built, circle construction becomes a major point of concern.
Most Witch circles are cast deosil, or clockwise. There is some argument over where exactly to start a circle casting, but generally it begins in the east (or possibly the north). I’m partial to the east because it’s the direction of the sunrise, so all of my circle castings begin and end there. Moving from east to south (and onward) and using a clockwise direction just feels natural to me. It’s also the direction that energy generally seems to move in, especially in the Northern Hemisphere.
On certain occasions there are Witches who cast their circles widdershins, or counterclockwise. This is usually done to accomplish a specific magickal goal such as cursing or hexing a troublesome individual. (Not every Witch believes in absolutely “harming none.”) Even if the energy raised from your cone of power is being directed toward a somewhat aggressive purpose, I recommend against a widdershins circle casting. It might be fine for certain types of spellwork, but I don’t think such a configuration lends itself to the cone of power.
Circle casting is about 50 percent mental and 50 percent physical. It requires us to visualize the energies we are sending out and to imagine the physical construction of the circle in our mind’s eye. The energies wielded by Witches are invisible to everyday vision; I believe they can be felt and sensed but not necessarily seen. In order to use these energies most effectively, we have to be able to picture them as visible things.
The first Witchcraft book I ever read as an adult recommended seeing the energies used to cast a circle as a blue-white light. I still use this image when casting a circle, but I know some Witches who see the energies they raise for circle casting differently. I know some who see the energy as fire-like, and others who visualize it as resembling the color of the sea or sky. Just how you visualize circle-casting energy is immaterial; what matters is that the visualization you use resonates with you. If blue-white light makes sense to you, by all means go ahead and use it, and if not, pick something else.
Effective creative visualization is important in circle casting because you are most likely going to get whatever it is that you see in your mind’s eye. Visualizing the energies being used will allow you to create well-defined boundaries for your circle. Seeing your circle as whole and complete will allow it to hold more of the energy you will be raising within it. (You certainly don’t want your circle to have a hole in it!)
When starting a circle casting, begin at the altar by taking a steadying breath and picking up your athame or sword (or whatever other tool you are using). Approach the east from a clockwise direction, and point your athame downward, projecting energy from inside of you out toward where you want your circle’s boundaries to be. Slowly begin walking around the perimeter of the circle, visualizing the energy leaving your athame while focusing your mind on the kinds of energies you are projecting outward.
During a circle casting there are a lot of things to process inside of our head. We are visualizing the energy leaving our body and actively creating the circle, but we are also concentrating internally on the kinds of energy we are manifesting. When I’m casting a circle, I concentrate internally on the three reasons for doing so: protection, sacred space, and holding energy. The energy that leaves our body during a circle casting is raw; it’s up to us to shape it and give it purpose. When we define what we are using that energy for, it will take on those characteristics.
I always cast my circles three times, pointing my athame downward on the first pass around the circle, at shoulder height during the second pass, and then upward during the third one. I do this to remind myself that I’m creating a sphere, and with each of my three passes around the circle I’m building another part of that sphere: from bottom to middle to top. A circle is not a brick wall, and the energies we use to create it will move around, rotating clockwise, much like the energy that we will soon pour into it.
Using a three-times-round casting technique also serves as a reminder of the three reasons why we cast a circle. Depending on the time of year and the operation the coven will be engaging in, I might add more protective energy to a specific circle casting or dedicate more energy to sacred space. At Samhain, for instance, I’m often worried about unwanted spirits showing up, and less so at Beltane.
The energy I use for a circle casting comes from two places: from inside of me and from the earth. When I cast a circle, I push energy outward from inside of myself, and since my feet are on the ground while I’m walking around during the creation of the circle, I attempt to draw energy up and out of the earth to add to my own. I think this gives the circle I create a more organic feel and helps to link that circle to the natural world.
With all of the things that are going on internally when I’m casting a circle, not to mention all of the things I’m doing while wielding a sword, saying something during a circle casting can be problematic. I’ve been a part of many circles where the circle caster was more worried about remembering a specific line than casting the circle effectively. If words are just going to get in the way, they don’t have to be said, or they can be said by someone else in the circle. At many rituals I will let someone else do the actual circle casting yet I will recite the words used to cast the circle.
The words we use in such instances can help to provide a degree of focus. Verbalizing our intent can add to the effectiveness of magickal operations, but it should never come at the cost of half-assing the actual magickal work. Most of us eventually learn to internalize most of the processes utilized in effective circle casting, which makes adding a layer of words on top of that pretty easy, but until that point is reached there’s no need to worry about the ritual script.
When coming up with words for a circle casting, I like to choose words that accurately reflect what I’m doing while casting the circle. There are no specific Witch words for any operation, though I suggest always using something that captures what your circle casting is trying to accomplish. All of the words I use in my circle castings are similar to this:
In perfect love and perfect trust I conjure thee, O circle of power! Let only truth and joy remain in this space as we cast out all wickedness and evil. Thou art a shield against the forces of wickedness and evil that would disrupt our rite, and an entryway into a realm between the worlds—where both gods and mortals tread! Thou art a vessel for the powers and energies we will raise together! So therefore I do bless and consecrate this space in the names of the Lord and the Lady. The circle is cast. So mote it be!
Since this is designed as a circle-casting rite for my coven, all those assembled are meeting in “perfect love and perfect trust,” but this is harder to ensure in public circles. The phrase “in perfect love and perfect trust” might be one of the most overused tropes in Witchcraft, but it should be reserved for when it’s an accurate statement of fact. A circle with ten people I’ve just met for the first time who may or not even be Witches is not a place of perfect love and trust.
My circles are places of “truth and joy” and are actively created to keep out “all wickedness and evil.” I double down on this idea by calling the circle a “shield.” While most Witches scoff at the existence of demons, there are all sorts of entities in the magickal and spiritual worlds that are not fans of humanity. Our ancestors were mortally afraid of the fey, and for good reason! While most entities from the fairy realm are rather benign, there are some who like to play tricks on humans and others who are downright hostile. The same goes for spirits: the unenlightened in life do not suddenly become paragons of virtue in death. Best to be careful.
The circle as a “realm (or world) between the worlds” is a common turn of phrase in many Witchcraft circles, and for good reason. To me the idea of standing between the worlds is one of the things that makes Witchcraft unique in the modern world. Churches may be holy to Christians, but they don’t exist in a space between heaven and earth—our circles do! Gods and goddesses can walk wherever they please, but it’s easier for them to interact with us in the land between the worlds.
Many of the rites I use for circle casting leave out any information about the circle as a place to gather energy, but I’ve included it here as a reminder of that third point. The circle is a “vessel for the powers and energies” created by Witches, and while sentences about that function lack a certain poetic grace, verbal cues have a lot of power. Saying things aloud is a spell all its own and helps to manifest what we desire in life and in ritual.
Taking down the circle at the end of ritual is just as important as creating it. You and I can simply walk out of a circle when ritual is over, but other entities may find themselves trapped inside of it if it’s not taken down. There’s also the problem of energy just sitting in a specific spot and not going back out into the natural world where it belongs. If we truly believe in the power of the circles we create, then we also have to believe in uncreating them.
Releasing a circle is much like casting a circle, only everything is done in reverse. The process starts in the east, with the sword held high, but this time you want to move widdershins. Walking counterclockwise helps to break up the energy in the circle and disrupt its natural flow, making it easier to send it on its way. I do three passes to take down the circle, visualizing it unraveling as I move around the circle.
While I often feel as if I’m channeling the energy used to create the circle back into my sword and therefore myself, there are others who view this operation differently. Instead, they see the uncasting as a breaking up of energies, with those broken energies then being free to return to where they previously were. I like the idea of drawing a little energy back into my sword or athame so it’s there for the next time I cast a circle, but there’s no absolute right or wrong way. As long as the energy is collected and/or dispersed, the circle has been taken down properly.
More important than any words said during the deconstruction of the circle is the act of taking apart the circle. As the circle comes down, you should visualize the energy used to create it dissipating and your ritual space returning to the mundane world. In my mind’s eye I visualize all of the powers called to during ritual departing from my temple room, and all of the energies that have been called up sent to where we desired them to go. After my three passes around the circle with my sword or athame first held high, then held at shoulder height, and then pointed at the ground, I make a show of placing my sword or athame back on the altar to signify the close of the ritual.
When verbalizing the circle uncasting, one of the most important lines I use is this:
All will be as it once was, and all that was here has been dismissed in the names of the Lord and the Lady.
I want all those I’m circling with to know that the gods, spirits, ancestors, and any other entities have been sent away and have moved on from our ritual space. This helps not only those I’m circling with but also possibly the spirits and deities themselves. We aren’t the only ones who need a verbal cue every once in a while.
The words I say when taking down the circle are similar to the ones I use to cast it, but I like to add that taking down the circle brings us back to a mundane space from a magickal one:
I cast this circle of power in perfect love and perfect trust, creating an entryway to the world between the worlds—a land where both gods and mortals may tread. You have served us well, O circle, and have protected our rite. I now take down that power, and all will be as it once was, and all that was here has been dismissed in the names of the Lord and the Lady. So mote it be!
The exact words are never as important as the intent. What’s most important is making sure to take down the magickal space that you’ve created.
Circle Etiquette
Too many Witches see sacred space as an imaginary construct and not a real power. Respecting the energies that give our circles power only helps to make our magick more effective and our interactions with deity more powerful. To maximize the power of your circle, there are a few easy things to do.
Only walk deosil while in circle. Since the energies of the circle move clockwise, walking counterclockwise while in circle disrupts those energies. Moving in a clockwise direction connects you to the circle and the energies raised within it. It may seem silly to walk all the way around the altar instead of just going a few feet counterclockwise to pick up the cakes and ale, but your circle will be all the better for it.
Not only should every Witch walk deosil while in circle, but everything should be passed around that way too. Anything that moves should take advantage of the energy current swirling clockwise around the circle. (My friends often laugh at me during circle because I’ve been known to let out a loud hissing sound when seeing and feeling someone walk widdershins during ritual.)
Cut a doorway in and out of the circle. Of course we can just walk through a circle if we want to, but that’s not good for the circle, nor is it fair to the other Witches around us. When we just walk through the perimeter of the circle without respecting it, we are disrupting its energy and getting in the way of the job we’ve created it to do. Emergencies happen, and sometimes we simply forget a lighter or whatever else, but when that happens, cut a doorway in and out of the circle.
Cutting a doorway in a circle is a relatively simple task. All it really requires is an athame. To cut a doorway, feel the power of the circle moving along its perimeter. Once you’ve found that, just cut a doorway into that circle, going clockwise again. In my mind’s eye I sometimes see this as cutting the threads that hold the circle together and creating a breach in it. The rest of the circle’s energy should continue to flow clockwise, with the door acting like a big rock in the middle of a stream.
Once the individual leaving the circle has stepped out of magickal space, close the circle behind them. In my mind’s eye I use the thread analogy, but this time I use my athame to stitch those severed threads back together. When the departed individual returns, repeat the process of opening and closing the circle.
There are some Witches who believe that doorways are best utilized in certain directions, but I tend to build them wherever it’s most convenient. The primary concern should be getting the individual Witch in and out of the circle as quickly, easily, and unobtrusively as possible. In my coven that means cutting a doorway in the northeastern part of the circle because that’s where the mundane door to our ritual room is located.
Having the person who cast the circle cut the doorway is generally optimal, though anyone can cut a doorway. I suggest using the circle caster to let people in and out of magickal space because they are probably most “in tune” with the circle’s energy since they played an outsized role in creating it. Covens and Witches who have worked together for an extended period of time probably all know how to work with each individual’s energy, so this is probably less of a concern with established groups.
What Energy Can and Can’t Do
(and How to Take Advantage of It)
Magickal energy is not a cure-all. It cannot cure cancer, get you a job, or make someone fall in love with you all on its own. If this sounds like I’m pooh-poohing magick, I’m not. I’ve seen it work too many times to discount it, even when my rational mind doubts its power. However, energy is a part of the natural world, and therefore it has to play by those rules.
Raising energy for a sick friend won’t instantly heal them or reverse a major disease, but it can be helpful. Energy raised and sent for someone battling a serious medical condition can provide comfort or give them a little bit of personal energy that might help them get through their day or, even better, fuel their fight. A friend of mine had a very serious case of lymphoma (a cancerous blood disease), and for months our coven raised energy for him. He told me that after our first energy raising he could see little golden parachutes full of energy descend from the ceiling and fall on him and his hospital bed.
We didn’t tell him we were doing anything for him, but he recognized our energy when it came to him. That energy didn’t fix all of his problems, and it would be another eight months before he was even ready to go back home, but it did make him feel better and gave him some strength to keep fighting. While raising energy, we visualized our friend: we pictured him healthy, happy, and not in pain. His doctors deserve far more credit than our coven for him being alive and back in the mundane world, but we gave what we could and he says that it helped.
I got my first book contract with Llewellyn (the publisher of this book) two weeks after a major job spell my wife put together. In that ritual we raised energy and visualized ourselves doing the kind of work we most desired to do. I saw myself in front of my computer typing for several hours a day. Two weeks later I got an email asking if I would be interested in writing a book. (There was a major happy dance after that email!) But the magick we sent out didn’t exist in a vacuum. I had been blogging for several years by that point and was a frequent workshop presenter at several large Pagan festivals. I had been doing the groundwork to write a book for years. The energy we raised that night didn’t get me a book contract all on its own; it was the final push in a long personal quest I had been engaged in for years.
Over the last several years we’ve seen a rise in hate crimes in the United States, and that has me worried for many of my friends. Because of this, at almost every ritual our coven raises energy directed to protect society’s most vulnerable folks. That energy is not going to end racism or transphobia, and we know that. We raise it and send it out into the universe so it can find its way to people who are being harassed, violated, and hated just for being themselves. The hope is that our energy will find its way to people when they need it most.
When preparing to build a cone of power, there are a few things you should consider to make sure the energy you are sending out will do what you want it to do. This is especially important when working with a group of Witches because everyone probably has their own idea of what sort of energy to raise if it hasn’t been truly specified.
Be Specific. All magick works best when we are specific about what we want and our goals. The first love spell I ever did was focused on me falling in love, which sounded great on the surface, but I should have asked for that love to be reciprocated! I fell pretty hard for a friend, but that love wasn’t returned. If you are raising energy to find a job, it’s best to envision doing something that you want to do instead of just thinking “job.”
One Bad Apple Can Spoil the Whole Bunch. If you’re trying to build a cone of power with someone who is distracted or angry at the world, things are not likely to go well. Their energy will most likely pollute whatever you are trying to accomplish. The cone of power works best when everyone is equally focused on building it. If someone you work with doubts the reality of what you are doing, that will hinder your results as well.
Stay Focused. Sometimes what we do as Witches ends up being funny, and there’s nothing wrong with responding to such things with a laugh. However, when someone continually tries to be funny in circle or lets out an uncalled-for quip in the middle of an energy raising, it’s not funny—it’s distracting. Building energy requires concentration and focus. Trying to be the center of attention or not taking what’s going on seriously isn’t conducive to effective magickal work.
Luckily most Witches are well aware of the challenges involved in building the cone of power, and behave and act appropriately. If you run into someone who has issues in that area, try speaking to them before or after ritual. The circle is no place to try to correct someone, and doing so there might result in some hurt feelings. The Witches I’ve known over the years always try to get things right and are generally open to constructive and positive criticism.
71. Celtic Magic is not a book that has held up particularly well (it contains some serious issues with history), but I will always treasure it because of the impact it had on my life.
72. Conway, Celtic Magic, 6.
73. Asperging is not a real word, though it’s used with some frequency by Modern Witches. It’s a variation of the word asperges (often spelled with the s in the United States), which is a Catholic rite involving the sprinkling of holy water. According to the Oxford Dictionary, asperges is a Latin word that literally means “thou shalt purge.”
74. Burkert, Greek Religion, 56.
75. The stang is a tool that was first popularized by the English Witch Robert Cochrane (see chapter 5), though it’s generally used as a focal point for ritual and not as an energy-wielding tool.
76. Guiley, The Encyclopedia of Witches & Witchcraft, 217.