Preparation for Ritual
Magic requires preparation. You don’t just jump into a ritual—you need to prepare yourself physically, mentally, and spiritually.
Getting Clean: Cleansing and Purification
The link between physical and spiritual cleanliness is nearly universal in magic traditions. Preparation for spiritual work often required fasting or a restricted diet, avoidance of alcohol, silence, meditation, ritual bathing, and other cleansing practices. We see it in Pythagoras’s insistence on a vegetarian diet for his students, in proscriptions against sexual activity in ancient magical grimoires, in the Jewish mikveh, and among ayahuasca shamans who insist upon a very strict meat- and salt-free diet before their healing ceremonies.
Why this universality? There are all sorts of metaphysical explanations, but in short: because these techniques have been tested and simply work. Preparations like the above help set your focus and intention for the work ahead.
So while it is not absolutely necessary, it is helpful to begin all magic, including resistance magic, with a purification ritual.
Bathing
The most simple and effective preparation for magical work is a salt bath. Just run a hot bath and add salt—sea salt, Epsom salts, or special scented bath salts. Even plain old table salt works fine. One to three handfuls is usually plenty.
Light four tea lights and place them away from anything flammable at the four corners of the bathtub (or in the four cardinal directions if your tub is round).
You can, of course, buy or make your own special salt baths with herb sachets or essential oils. Be very cautious about adding essential oils to baths because some can cause skin and eye irritation. Do your research first and start with a tiny amount.
If you don’t have a bathtub, simply rub your skin with salt while showering.
Use the same visualizations whether you are bathing or showering:
Breathe deeply as you soak with eyes closed. As you inhale, imagine the water entering your pores and filling your body with light. As you exhale, visualize and feel the purified water exiting through your skin and pulling out all negativity, toxicity, and stress from within you. Repeat for several minutes.
You can also cup your hands full of water and release it over your head, shoulders, chest, and back. As the water runs down your skin, feel and see it washing away all negativity and tension.
Say a silent prayer of thanks to the universe or your deity of choice and ask for cleansing and blessing on the work ahead.
After drying off, you can apply a special cleansing oil or lotion (see below).
Purifying Diets and Fasting
Fasting and dietary restrictions also help set your focus and attune your body and spirit. It can be as simple as refraining from particular foods (commonly meat or animal products) to fasting from food entirely.
The physical benefits of fasting have drawn increasing attention from scientific researchers in recent years, but it’s the magical aspects we are interested in. There are possible dangers, especially for anyone on medications or with health issues, so please talk to your doctor before you try it, and always start with a short period (say, four hours) before attempting a longer fast. And never attempt a dry fast (without water)—always stay hydrated.
I will usually refrain from all food for at least six and sometimes up to twenty-four hours before major spellwork. The bigger the spell, the longer I try to fast. The change in energy level and focus is dramatic.
If fasting is not possible or appealing, consider abstaining from animal products, processed food, sugar, and junk. Eat whole, unprocessed foods prepared simply.
One thing to keep in mind: it’s probably not smart to fast before heading into an unpredictable situation, like a protest, in which you may not be able to eat for a long time. Take a cleansing bath instead and have a big meal. Be smart and flexible, not dogmatic.
Anointing oneself (or another) with oil before magical work is common. My go-to is Hyssop Oil, which is easy to make—just add one part dried hyssop herb to three parts oil. After a few days, you’ll notice its pleasant vegetal scent, and the smell will only get deeper and more rich over time. You can use any oil, including olive oil (which has a long magical tradition), but some carrier oils, such as jojoba, apricot kernel, coconut, or almond oil, will last longer before developing an “off” scent.
For Power Oil, which I save for special workings, combine the following with your preferred carrier oil (with twice the amount of oil as dried material):
1 part hyssop
1 part angelica root
1 High John the Conqueror root (whole)
You’ll need a container large enough to fit the High John the Conqueror root (I use a small glass jar). You can powder it, but it’s quite the chore, so I just leave it whole. Let it sit in a dark place for at least three days.
I use the Consecration Ritual (page 160) to empower magical oils and then apply them to the top center (crown) of my head, my third eye (middle of forehead between and slightly above eye level), and the centers of both palms.
You can draw a symbol as you’re applying the oil—a pentagram, cross, and hexagram are common. I say a prayer in my own words, or sometimes use the good old standby, verse 7 of Psalm 51: “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” Only a small amount is necessary. Further uses of oil for protection are covered in a later chapter.
Prayer
Prayer is a great way to get your head straight before doing magic. Unfortunately, thanks to fundamentalist dogma and moribund religious traditions, many people have negative associations with the idea of prayer. So I will state clearly: you don’t have to cower before a spiteful sky god or supplicate yourself before whatever demanding deity your parents pounded into your innocent head.
Prayer should be a joyous, deep, personal connection to a force, principle, or deity, not a groveling plea.
The goal is to aim your spirit toward union with whatever deity or archetype floats your spiritual boat. The Great Goddess, Yahweh, Jesus, Krishna, Persephone, Ganesha, Buddha, Hermes, Aphrodite, Hekate, the Universe as the Ultimate Ground of Being, the void, your deepest/highest self—you get the idea.
Sit comfortably with your back straight. Breathe slowly, naturally, and deeply. There’s no need to measure or count your breaths.
Light a white candle and burn your favorite incense. Watch the flame for a few moments, and then close your eyes.
The key to simple prayer is to open yourself, in humble gratitude, to aspects of the deity or force that exists in the vastness within you and outside of you. Don’t ask for anything. Don’t desire anything. Be quiet and listen.
When you feel like you’ve made contact, simply let it unfold. Relax into the communion between yourself and the higher power. Breathe slowly and deeply and experience the connection for as long as you feel comfortable. You may see visions or hear sounds, you may get messages or downloads of information, or nothing much may happen at all.
When you feel ready, give thanks and ask for her/his/its blessings. Open your eyes and blow out the candle.
This form of prayer can work wonders for your mental and physical health, as attested by abundant anecdotal evidence and numerous controlled studies.
Working effective magic requires that you learn how to shift your consciousness into what I call the “ritual mind,” otherwise known as an expanded or altered consciousness or trance. You enter light versions of it when you’re caught up in a good novel or when you’re driving and forget how you got from point A to point B, and you can slip into it when you’re hovering between sleep and waking. But doing it intentionally requires a little practice. Without the proper focused and heightened consciousness, your rituals will be empty actions, with no more magical effectiveness than brushing your teeth.
Luckily, ritual itself is an effective tool for getting into the proper headspace.
The ritual mind is similar to a meditative state, but different in that while meditation is largely an inward-focused experience, usually with closed eyes, ritual mind requires physical action and outward-directed activity. It can be thought of as an active meditation.
A large number of time-tested techniques can help you transition from normal waking consciousness into the transmundane realm where magic manifests. Those techniques include stimulation (or dampening) of the senses, controlled breathing, visualization, words of power, posture and gesture, chanting, drumming, dance and movement, music, and psychoactive substances.
Combining techniques tends to work synergistically. In many of the spells in this book, you’ll utilize breathing, posture, visualization, movement, and words of power. You’ll stimulate your senses with colored candles, music, and incense.
Let’s look at some of these individual elements:
Stimulation or Dampening of the Senses
Sensory stimulation involves light, color, smell, taste, and touch. Sensory dampening is created with darkness, closed eyes, and silence. Sensory deprivation (float) tanks are the ultimate in sensory dampening technology, and a great way to experience deep relaxation and heightened inner visionary states.
Controlled Breathing
Focused breathing is a critical tool for magic. Slowing, deepening, and holding of the breath has powerful physiological and mental effects, calming the body and mind, while quickening the breath stimulates and energizes. Unless otherwise specified, always breathe slowly and deeply when working magic.
Visualization
Some people are better than others at visualizing, but everyone can get better by practice. If you’re feeling frustrated by instructions to visualize during your spells, try your best to imagine or experience the visual instead of seeing it. The more senses you can involve the better. If you’re invoking elemental water in a consecration ritual, for example, feel its coolness, hear its rushing currents, and taste it on your tongue. If a spell suggests visualizing your candidate winning an election, feel the endorphins rushing through your bloodstream as the winner is announced, hear the crowds cheering, and imagine yourself celebrating with friends. Feeling can be just as effective as traditional visualization in spellwork.
Words of Power
Spells utilize words differently from casual speech. Ritual words are weighted with meaning and depth, and the best spells resonate like great poetry. Some words can be intoned—drawn out and vibrated. Sometimes words that sound nonsensical or meaningless (voces magicae) can trigger powerful energies. Words or phrases can be sung, chanted, or whispered to create specific effects.
Posture and Gesture
Many spells call for adopting specific postures or using gestures to change consciousness or channel energy. The hands are frequently employed in ritual to sense, direct, contain, or concentrate energies. In Hinduism and Buddhism these hand gestures are called mudras.
Chanting
Repetitive chanting can induce a very deep state of expanded awareness, which is why it is widely used in many different spiritual systems.
Drumming and Percussion
Drumming is one of the oldest methods of trance induction and is a staple of many indigenous shamanic systems. Modern trance and electronic music works similarly to bring large groups into altered states, and it is often combined with psychoactive substances to further heighten consciousness. If you own a drum, practice different rhythms to see how they change your consciousness. You can also purchase recordings of drumming for shamanic induction.
Dance and Movement
Dance is often accompanied by drums and rhythmic instruments but can also be done in silence. One of the best ways to enter trance is to put on simple, rhythmic music and let yourself free-form dance. Let the energy of the music drive your body and avoid conscious control. Like the saying goes, dance as if no one is watching—which should be easy if you’re alone.
Of course, that begs the question—if you believe in an animist universe, are you ever really alone?
Music
Music is an amazingly diverse tool for altering consciousness. A song can inspire men to march to war, lift a crowd to ecstasy, or bring a rapt audience to tears. Think of songs from your childhood and adolescence and the immense depths of emotion they can stir, taking you back to peak moments in your life.
Music can also enhance ritual consciousness and help direct magical energy during magical workings. I suggest using sacred music, which is specifically designed to transport you from the monkey-mind into the realm of the spirit. Not the music you listen to solely for pleasure, but music that tunes the frequency of your environment.
This is a matter of taste, of course. I’m not a fan of anything that you’d hear coming from a boom box while getting your chakras adjusted at a holistic healing expo — in fact, I’m allergic to most music that falls into the new age category, especially Native American flutes played by non-Natives and backed with incongruous tinkly chimes, tablas, and synth swirls. Blech.
Chants (especially Gregorian and Tibetan) take me very deep very quickly, but try to get the straight-up vocal recordings and avoid those layered with synthesizers and other superfluous aural junk. Singing bowls are nice, too. Indian classical ragas and devotional chants can be powerful trance inducers, and if you’re into Western classical music, Chopin’s nocturnes are exquisitely calming and elevating preritual options.
You might want to try environmental recordings, particularly of ocean, woodland, and jungle settings. The Tintinnabulation CD (see resources), composed of layered, computer-modulated bells, is more of a deeply felt than heard soundscape and is useful for all sorts of meditations and magical workings when melodic music would be a distraction.
If you’re working with deities of a particular pantheon, such as Greek or Egyptian, you can seek out music reconstructed from their classical worship. When invoking Hermes, for example, I often use re-creations of ancient Greek music played on traditional instruments like the lyre and kithara. Streaming music services make finding such music easy, and the goddesses and gods seem to appreciate the effort.
I don’t use music during most workings, but I do use it beforehand to tune my environment and to help me get into a ritual mindset. Experiment and see what works best for you.
Psychoactive Substances
Although I find psychoactive substances extraordinarily valuable in many ways, I generally avoid using them before or during rituals. Your goal should be to reach powerful altered states via focused ritual activity alone, particularly when you are a beginner. Adding the unpredictable effects of drugs or alcohol will slow your progress considerably, and may give you an illusory sense of progress.
Once you are competent at getting to the proper state of consciousness through ritual, you can then consider experimenting with substances. But that is a road for very experienced witches and magicians, not novices, and even then, it must be done conscientiously and intelligently. If you want to explore shamanic paths that utilize entheogens be sure to use adequate precautions (especially in regard to the quality of your materials) and take care to know the laws in your region.
Under no circumstances should you ever take a psychoactive plant just because it’s in a book about witchcraft. Many witchy plants in the historical record, such as henbane, belladonna, Datura, and mandrake, can seriously derange or even kill you. Be wary of plant-based concoctions bought over the internet. The recent popularity of psychoactive “flying ointments” concerns me, as someone using too much or having an adverse reaction could easily wind up in an emergency room (or worse). Please exercise extreme caution when working with traditional psychoactive “witch” plants. My best advice is to avoid them.
Ground
When you finish a ritual, it is important to ground yourself and return to normal “mundane” consciousness. Stand up, shake a little bit, stomp your feet, and jump up and down. If your hands are feeling tingly and energized from your magic, shake them off as if you’re flinging water to dry them. The goal is to get back into your body and out of the deep ritual mindstate. If you don’t ground, you may continue to feel spacey, particularly if your ritual generated a lot of power.
It is also helpful to have a bite to eat. Chocolate is particularly good for grounding (not to mention delicious), as are spicy foods and sweets, and cakes are traditional postritual foods in witchcraft. Coffee tends to do the job quickly, too, as does an alcoholic beverage.
There are exceptions. You may want to go from a ritual directly to bed in order to cultivate dreams or hypnagogic visions. Or you may want to continue working on a project while still in the ritual mind state. But in the majority of workings be sure to ground, setting a clear demarcation between your altered state during magical workings and your Muggle mind.
Some witches use the term between the worlds to describe the liminal space in which they do magic. The Centering Ritual is a way to generate a magical space around you. It aligns you with the axis of the universe and connects you with the infinite. In your center you will find safety, peace, calmness, connection to divinity, and wisdom.
This is the core ritual that should be performed before all the other rituals and spells in this book. As such, you should practice it several times a week until you have it memorized. It can also be used nonmagically anytime you’re feeling disconnected, anxious, or out-of-sorts.
The ritual itself is very simple and is based on my years of exploration in a number of magical traditions. It draws upon elements of rituals found in sources as diverse as the ancient Greek Magical Papyri (the Heptagram ritual), contemplative Christian practices, Native American spirituality, and modern witchcraft, among others. It is also indebted to the legendary Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus and the well-known Hermetic maxim carved on it:
That which is Below corresponds to that which is Above,
and that which is Above corresponds to that which is Below,
to accomplish the miracle of the One Thing.
This is usually summarized as “as above, so below.”
The Centering Ritual is also a template upon which you can (and should) build and expand as you grow. Variations and further suggestions may be found in the correspondences in the appendix (see 224).
The Centering Ritual, as the name suggests, centers you in your body and creates sacred space around you. In a magical sense, you become the center or axis of the universe, the nucleus of a magical, protective sphere in time and space. And the center of your body—your heart center—becomes a brightly glowing pinpoint of divinity. As the Chandogya Upanishad eloquently states, “The little space in the heart is as big as this great universe. The heavens and the earth are there, the sun, the moon, and the stars, fire and lightning and winds are there also; and all that exists now and all that exists no longer: for the whole universe is in Him and He lives in our hearts.” 30
Stand or sit comfortably, with your back straight and feet slightly separated. Imagine a string pulling upward at the top and center of your head. This should naturally cause you to lower your chin a bit and further straightens and elongates your spine.
Close your eyes and breathe deeply and slowly through your nose, filling your stomach first and then your chest, and reversing the movement when you exhale.
Place your hands in front of your chest in the well-known prayer position, which is known as the anjali mudra in Sanskrit. Your thumbs should be together and resting on your breastbone, with your fingers extended and lightly touching (don’t smash your hands together—simply allow them to rest against each other, leaving a slight hollow in your palms). Relax your shoulders and elbows. The heart is considered the center of your being; therefore, you are bringing together polar energies (represented by your hands, left is receptive, right is active) and uniting them at your very center (heart).
Say, Spirit before me. You are not calling on individual spirits, but the universal spiritual consciousness that permeates and underlies our reality. Direct your consciousness ahead and feel the immensity of the universe expanding into infinity before you.
Say, Spirit behind me. Feel the immensity of the universe behind you, expanding into infinity.
Say, Spirit on my right, and feel the infinity to the right.
Say, Spirit on my left, and feel the infinity to the left.
Say, Spirit above me, and direct your consciousness to the cosmos above. Feel the universe stretching out to infinity.
Say, Spirit below me, and feel the expansion into the limitless depths of the earth.
Say, Spirit outside me, and feel the universal spirit surrounding you and permeating the universe.
Say, Spirit within me, and feel the infinity within your center. Visualize a bright light at the center of your chest, radiating to, and connecting with, all the directions.
Now a prayer. Begin by extending your arms to your sides, elbows bent, palms turned slightly upward. It should feel as if you are holding up a large, invisible balloon. This is known as the orans posture (Latin for “prayer”).
Say, Between the future, and feel the future unfolding in front of you. It may help if you visualize and feel yourself moving forward physically, into infinite, unfolding possibility.
Say, And the past, and feel and see the past unfurling behind you. Again, feeling yourself moving ahead physically can enhance the sensation. I visualize my body leaving blurry trails behind.
Turn your head to the right, saying, Between the sun, and extend your awareness to your right side. Visualize the sun, radiating heat and bright light, cradled in your palm.
Turn your head to the left, saying, And the moon, and extend your awareness to the left, visualizing the moon, cradled in your palm and shining brightly. Even better, find out the moon’s current phase and visualize it as such.
Tilt your head backward, gazing to the sky, saying, Between the heavens, and visualize the expanse of the starry cosmos above you.
Lower your head toward your feet, saying, And the earth, and extend your awareness down through your feet (or your tailbone, if sitting) into the dark, rocky depths of the earth. See the crystals within the earth shining like stars.
Lift your head and face forward, saying, As outside me, and extend your awareness to the full sphere of space beyond yourself, extending into infinity.
Bring your arms and hands back to the prayer position, saying, So within me. Feel the infinity at the center of your heart, deep and boundless.
Say (or intone), Amen or So mote it be. Or intone, Om, feeling the vibration of the mantra in the center of your chest (with your thumbs resting against your sternum you will be able to focus on the vibration). I find that stretching out the word or phrase and vibrating it results in a deeper connection. Experiment and see what takes you deepest.
Remain standing or sitting, feeling and visualizing your heart as the center of the universe. Breathe slowly and deeply, joyfully experiencing yourself as the nexus around which all else exists. You are present in the timeless now, between the future and the past, the heavens and the earth, the inner and the outer. This is where the magic happens.
When you feel ready, slowly open your eyes. At this point, you can end the ritual by grounding (stomping your feet, shaking your body) or continue with further magical working.
If it sounds complicated, it isn’t. You will probably have it memorized after a week of daily practice. Don’t worry if you mess it up or get confused, just keep at it and soon it will be second nature.
Keep in mind we are dealing with metaphorical centering. Obviously, a literal line drawn through you vertically doesn’t extend into a limitless earth but emerges on the other side of the planet and extends into interstellar space. Instead, we are dealing with symbolic space—the starry cosmos above and the deep, dark regenerative earth below. The center is a spiritual principle, but also a deep, powerful “place.”
Some things to remember:
• You may substitute another word for spirit if it fits your beliefs or tradition better. There is a famous Christian prayer called St. Patrick’s Breastplate that uses Christ, and it fits perfectly into this scheme, for example. You may want to try energy, power, Goddess, God, or names of individual deities or angels, beings, and so on. Experiment and see what works best for you.
• Aim to keep your body relaxed. Don’t strain or stretch beyond your limits.
• If you have disabilities that prevent you from performing the physical aspects of the ritual, visualize yourself doing them instead. In fact, once you are competent at the ritual, doing it in your imagination (while lying in bed, for example) can be very effective.
• You can say the words aloud or internally. Aloud is best, but if you must be quiet, try to hear the words aloud in your head. Some people try different ways of saying the words—stretching them out, using a singsong voice, or resonating them. Experiment.
• Don’t rush the ritual. Take your time and really feel and visualize as you go.
• You may want to visualize lines of energy extending through your body vertically and horizontally and stretching into infinity. They come to a point in your heart in the center of your chest.
• You don’t need to face any particular direction. That’s the beauty of this ritual—it creates sacred space around you no matter where you are or which direction you’re facing. Later, we’ll discuss circumstance in which you may want to align yourself with the four cardinal directions and how to alter this ritual to do so.
• As you become more proficient, you can begin to expand the ritual by adding other directional attributes, including visualizations and sounds (as found in the correspondences section on page 226).
Group Centering Ritual
One person stands in the circle’s center and leads the group in the Centering Ritual. After the final So within me, the leader says, Spirits of the four directions, of the heavens, and of the earth, consecrate this Circle of Art and guide us in our work. So mote it be.
The group responds, So mote it be.
Centering Ritual Cheat Sheet
1. Facing ahead, prayer position. Spirit before me.
2. Sensing behind. Spirit behind me.
3. Sensing right. Spirit on my right.
4. Sensing left. Spirit on my left.
5. Sensing above. Spirit above me.
6. Sensing below. Spirit below me.
7. Sensing all around. Spirit outside me.
8. Sensing within. Spirit within me. Arms in orans position.
9. Between the future … Feel the future, full of possibility, waiting ahead.
10. And the past … Feel the past streaming behind you.
11. Turn head to right. Between the sun … Visualize the sun.
12. Turn head to left. And the moon … Visualize the moon.
13. Look to heavens. Between the heavens … Visualize the starry canopy.
14. Look to earth. And the earth … Visualize the depths of the earth.
15. Face forward. As outside me … Visualize a sphere around you extending into infinity.
16. Return hands to prayer position. So within me. Visualize infinite center of your heart.
17. Intone, Amen, So mote it be, or Om.
Here is a basic spell to consecrate (make sacred) an object for ritual or other magical use. It can be used for everything from blessing salt for a purifying bath and energizing an oil, to charging a sigil and empowering your ritual tools. It is best done under a waxing or full moon.
Have the four elements represented on your altar (see the section on altars in Chapter Four), along with your incense censer. Use copal or frankincense (loose incense is best, but sticks and cones are fine).
Arrange three small white candles (tea lights are fine for this) in the center of your altar in an upward-pointing triangle. Light the candles to begin the ritual.
Stand or sit before your altar and perform the Centering Ritual.
Light your incense.
Hold your object (container of salt, mojo bag, vial of oil, sigil, ritual tool, etc.), then say,
Bless this (name of object), powers of earth (touch object to your earth symbol), water (touch water to your extended index and middle fingers and wet the object with them), fire (hold over your fire symbol), and air (hold in rising incense smoke or touch to feather); spirits of the heavens (lift toward sky) and of the underworld (lower toward altar or ground).
Then hold it in both hands in front of you. Say,
Consecrate this (name of object) so that it may serve its purpose well, for the highest good. So mote it be.
Lift the object and blow into it. Feel your personal energy, the breath of life, moving into it and awakening it. Say,
Awaken.
Place the object in the center of the triangle of candles. Place your palms over it. As you inhale slowly, feel and visualize energy pouring down from the cosmos and into the top of your head, then down to your heart (the center of your chest). At the same time, feel and visualize energy coming up from the earth, entering your feet, and meeting in your heart, where it mixes with the cosmic energy and glows brightly.
As you breathe in, feel the light energy pouring into your center, and as you exhale feel those energies from the heavens and the earth swirling, mingling, and glowing ever brighter.
Then, when it feels like the energy has reached a peak, inhale deeply.
As you exhale, see that powerful energy pouring out of your heart, running down your arms, through your hands, and into the consecrated object.
Let the energy flowing from your palms subside with your exhalation. Slowly bring your hands together in a prayer position over your heart. Feel and visualize the heart energy contracting, and then clap your hands three times. The third clap ends the ritual.
Shake your hands, as if flinging off water. Stomp your feet and shake your body to ground yourself.
Leave the object inside the triangle of candles for a few minutes, or longer, exiting the room if possible (and if safe to do so with candles burning). This is when it “cooks” and its energy settles into the new form. After a while, you should feel that it is ready. Extinguish the candles and place the consecrated item in a safe location on your altar (if you know it will remain unmolested by other people or pets), leave it under your pyramid, or tuck it safely away until you need it. You may want to wrap it in cloth for safekeeping. You should be the only one who touches your consecrated items—unless, of course, you’re consecrating objects for other people.
You may want to occasionally reconsecrate items as a way to recharge them. Use your intuition. If a particular object seems to have lost some of its energy, do a reconsecration and you’ll often see a noticeable improvement.
On the Casting of Circles
I’m going to say something that goes against the grain of many traditions, particularly witchcraft and Western ceremonial magic. It may be shocking and heretical to those of you who are long-time practitioners.
You don’t need to cast a circle to do magic.
Witches, please don’t throw the book across the room. Allow me to explain.
Magical circles are used for group workings in many traditions and, in fact, the idea of doing a group ritual without a circle would seem ludicrous. A primary reason is that the magic circle is used as a “container” to hold the rising group energy before it is released to do its work.
My philosophy differs. From my experience, group energy is just as effective when it remains contained within the individuals until it is consciously released. Instead of filling up the circle or sphere with the combined individual energy (and how does that happen anyway? Does it leak out during the ritual? Is it gradually released?), the participants build the energy up within themselves until the ritual’s climax or peak, when they discharge it to do its work.
Unless your system demands otherwise, there’s no need to “banish” negative energies or to work within a protected magical circle for your safety. You can work magic safely and effectively at your altar without going through a ritual to create a protective bubble. Nothing will hurt you, and your magic will be just as effective.
So why do so many traditions claim otherwise? While doing magic within a circle goes back to ancient Egypt (at least), the traditions that focus on banishing—and most of them fall broadly in the category of Western magic (traditional witchcraft, Wicca, and ceremonial magic that grew from the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and Freemasonry)—emerged from a narrow set of historical European systems in which spirits or demons were evoked and the circle served as a barrier to protect the magician from them. Many of these traditions treated the evoked entities with arrogance and cruelty, binding, bribing, and coercing them to do the bidding of the magician. It’s no wonder those magicians needed magical protection! Unless you’re doing goetic magic or working in the classical grimoire traditions, that hierarchical, patriarchal model should be abandoned.
That sort of magic is beyond the scope of this book anyway. We won’t be doing necromancy (summoning the dead) or conjuring demons to cajole them into running our errands. When our magic calls upon spirits, it is in the context of respect and cooperation. Attuning yourself with the Centering Ritual and working in service for the highest good of all is protection enough.
And if you use incense with protective qualities, such as frankincense or copal, you’re further cleansing and protecting your environment.
Now, having said all that…
Although I part with many established traditions when it comes to the emphasis on circles, banishing, and protection, there are times when it is prudent to create a circle (actually, an enclosing sphere). Such occasions may include when you feel the need for protection, either physical or mental/magical, when you have the need or desire to close off the outside world and minimize its influences, and when you are doing group rituals and want to sanctify your working space.
Let’s face it—activism and resistance can be dangerous. Your opponents, whether they are corporations, politicians, or a group of reactionary individuals, can be actively aggressive against you. In my days as a peace activist during the first Gulf War, I was run off the road by other drivers (on multiple occasions), my car and property were vandalized, and one night after work I was followed home by a group of drunks and pepper sprayed as I got out of my car (they didn’t like my “No Blood for Oil” bumper sticker). I know many people who have been subjected to physical abuse by police or counterprotesters. So doing some protection magic when you may be facing aggressive opponents is prudent (and see Chapter Five for other methods).
Your opponents may also use magical techniques against you. This is extremely rare but not unheard of. Alt-right groups during the 2016 presidential campaign employed chaos magic techniques against Hillary Clinton and her supporters, for example (and for a fascinating history of the magical battles of that election, see Gary Lachman’s Dark Star Rising: Magick and Power in the Age of Trump). A number of right-wing Pagan groups and magicians actively sought to oppose those of us doing the Trump binding spell (though their results were far more comic than troubling).
Beginning magicians and witches, particularly those with strong natural abilities, can sometimes generate energetic weirdness in their environments. It’s not harmful, but can become bothersome and annoying. It tends to manifest as unusual visual phenomena (like creatures or shadows moving in one’s peripheral vision) and can, on rare occasions, cause physical manifestations (noises, movement of objects, and other poltergeist-type effects). When I first began practicing Kabbalistic magic, the overhead lights in my basement started turning on and off by themselves. It was maddening to be in the midst of a deeply meditative candlelit ritual only to have bright fluorescent lights pop on. Talk about killing the mood! When I stopped doing the heavy ceremonial workings, the lights returned to normal and never exhibited that odd behavior again.
These low-level phenomena can also manifest as unpleasant, bizarre dreams or nightmares. This is quite rare, but if you find it happening to you, the protection ritual below should calm things down energetically. If that fails, just stop your practice and engage in social and nonmagical, mundane activities for a while.
When it comes to group workings, circles are a natural, nonhierarchical formation for gatherings. Doing rituals within a circle allows everyone to take part, and ritually defining the boundaries of your operation facilitates the proper atmosphere and serves to sanctify group space. The Hermetic Seal is an all-purpose circle or sphere spell you can use whenever and however you wish.
Spheres of Protection:
The Hermetic Seal
The ritual employs a charged symbol—either an equal-armed (Greek) cross 
or a pentagram 
—drawn in the air with a lit stick of incense or with your extended index and middle fingers. I recommend the incense stick for beginners, because in a darkened room the burning end will leave optical “tracers” that will help you visualize the symbols better. Any incense stick will do, but copal or frankincense are my go-tos.
First, a word about the cross. While Christian magical practitioners may certainly use the cross in an explicitly Christian context, the cross as a spiritual symbol long predates Christianity, with the earliest depictions dating from the late Paleolithic. It is found in religious iconography of the ancient Egyptians and the Maya of Mexico and Central America and is a powerful religious symbol of the African Kongolese, who revere it as denoting the crossroads between the cycles of death and rebirth. The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn’s Rose Cross ritual, which is much more complex but very similar in its protective effects to the Hermetic Seal, utilizes the Christian cross. If cross symbolism has negative associations for you, use a pentagram. Either will work equally well, as will an image of a rose.
I advise trying the cross first because of its geometry. You will be creating a spherical, 3-D matrix of protective energy, and the cross plugs in geometrically to the six points of that matrix.
Where you see the , use your glowing incense stick (or extended index and middle fingers) to trace it in the air before you, beginning with the top of the vertical arm to the bottom, then with the left end of the horizontal to the right. Visualize the symbol glowing red as you trace it, and see it lingering in space before you, a powerful ward against any intrusion.
If you use the pentagram , begin at the lower left corner, moving upward to the top center, down to the right, across to the upper left, and so on. This is known as a “banishing” pentagram, common to both Kabbalistic magic and a number of witchcraft traditions. In this case, you’re not actually banishing anything, merely sealing up your space with the symbols serving as a set of locks, guards, or wards.
This may all sound complicated at first, but when you try it, you’ll see how it all comes together logically and intuitively.
You will be moving clockwise and creating a sphere around you, so you will need to judge the required space. In a small space you may take a step or two forward from the center to begin the circle, whereas in a large room (such as for a group ritual) you will walk forward several steps farther to begin. If you are forced to do the ritual in a tight space (say, a bathroom), just turn in place. The effects are the same whether you’re casting the sphere for yourself or a large group.
If you’re casting a circle while standing at your altar, you can simply turn in place.
You can also set up the circle with white candles before you begin the ritual—it looks beautiful and reinforces the energy of the spell. I use twelve tea lights, starting with four in the cardinal directions and filling in two in each quarter.
Unless your tradition specifies otherwise, begin facing east (or in that general direction).
First, do the Centering Ritual (page 152) to get into the proper level of consciousness.
1. Light the incense stick and hold it in front of you in your folded hands at heart level.
2. Say,
I call upon thee, spirits, and ask for your blessing.
3. Step forward toward the east. With your right hand, trace your or symbol in front of you, visualizing it as hot, bright red energy, while saying,
Guardians of the east, protect me.
After you trace it, use the incense stick (or your fingers) to “shoot” your energy into the center of the symbol. See and feel powerful energy surging into the protective symbol as you push into the center, causing it to glow brightly. Try to time the drawing of the symbol and the words so that you’re saying “protect me” as you shoot the energy.
4. With your incense stick still pointing in front of you, walk along a circle to your right, stopping at the south. You are essentially tracing a horizontal line of energy as you walk, so visualize it glowing bright red as it trails the burning end of the incense stick.
5. Facing south, again draw your symbol, saying,
Guardians of the south, protect me.
Again, try to end your words as you’re shooting the energy into the symbol’s center.
6. Move along the circle to the west, continue tracing a horizontal glowing line of energy with the burning end of the incense, and stop in the west.
7. Draw your symbol and charge it as previously, saying,
Guardians of the west, protect me.
8. Move along the circle to the north, continuing the glowing line with the burning end of the incense, and stop in the north.
9. Draw and charge your symbol as before, saying,
Guardians of the north, protect me.
10. Move along the circle back to the east where you began, linking the horizontal line to the glowing symbol already hanging there in space. You have now formed a horizontal line connecting all four glowing symbols. You don’t need to say anything or draw the symbol because it’s already there. Stand still for a moment and visualize all four crosses (or pentagrams) blazing with protective energy in the air around you. Feel them as vividly as you can.
Now this is where it gets a little tricky to describe, but follow along and you’ll see it’s actually pretty intuitive.
11. With your arm extended in front of you, slowly turn in place to your right. As you are turning, begin to bring your arm overhead, stepping forward toward the center of the circle and continuing a vertical line to directly over your head. The idea is to time your steps so that when you arrive in the center of the circle the incense stick will be pointing directly overhead.
12. Looking upward at the sky, as you trace and charge your symbol as before, say,
Guardians of the heavens, protect me.
You are sealing the top center of the sphere you are creating.
13. Step to the west, tracing the line of energy from top center and joining it with the glowing symbol already suspended in the air in front of you in the west. Again, you don’t need to draw or charge the symbol because it’s already there—just make a point of connecting it.
14. Mirroring your action in the east, turn in place to your left, slowly bringing your arm and pointed incense stick downward this time as you step back to the center. When you arrive in the center of the circle, your incense stick should be pointing directly below you at the earth.
15. While tracing and charging your symbol, say,
Guardians of the earth, protect me.
16. Step back to the east, tracing the line of energy with the incense and linking it to the glowing symbol in the east. You have now connected all six of the symbols in a glowing, three-dimensional protective sphere and have returned to where you began.
17. Turn in place 180 degrees and step back to the center, bringing your hands into prayer position. When you arrive at the center, turn around again and face the east.
18. Stand quietly. See and feel all six glowing, charged symbols around you, connecting a matrix of vibrant, protective energy—in the east before you, the west behind you, the north to your left, and the south to your right, as well as above your head and below your feet. See the lines connecting the glowing symbols and forming the outlines of an impenetrable, sacred sphere.
19. Now visualize the symbol glowing within you and feel it connected to the energized sphere around you. You can imagine a line of energy going from the infinite heavens through the top of your head and out of your feet into the earth, while two other lines bisect you horizontally from north to south and east to west. Your body has become embedded in a three dimensional, six-armed cross with a glowing center at your heart.
20. See the grid turning into a sphere around you. Visualize it as bright, glowing gold.
21. Finally, say,
Bless (Protect) this Circle of Art
Guide me in my Work
Protect me from all harm
So mote it be
If that sounds complicated, it isn’t. Walk through the steps as you’re reading it, and you’ll see how intuitive and simple it is to perform.
Now you can either meditate or pray (sitting or standing), do your magic within the protected sphere, with a group inside the sanctified space, or any combination of the above.
Closing
To end the ritual, stand again in the center, facing east, with your hands in prayer position. Say,
All those present may now go in peace, with my gratitude.
Group Sphere of Protection
The ritual above can be easily adapted for group use.
For a simple sphere, have the group form a circle. One person walks the outside perimeter with incense in a censer (or holding a stick of incense) three times while all the participants visualize a sphere forming and surrounding the group.
For a candle sphere, everyone is given a candle (white, unless you’re using a specific color) and a larger “mother” candle is lit and placed in the center of the circle. The leader lights hers from the mother candle, returns to her place in the circle, then the person to her left lights her candle from the leader’s, and so on around the circle until everyone’s is burning. The group meditates silently, forming the sphere, and then proceeds with the ritual.
Notes
Why visualize the symbol as red? Red has been used magically as a protective color in many cultures (with ancient Egypt’s being an exception, as it was associated with Set and malevolent magic). Red says “stop!” and “danger!” and, as the color of blood, was painted on armor and weapons by ancient cultures. It is a firm warning to anything that may want to get through to STOP.
However, you can try other colors. If you’ve been doing the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram (LBRP) for a while, you’re probably used to using blue or white light. Experimentation is the key to establishing what works best for you.
If you’re doing other workings after you cast the circle, have your necessary tools and components with you at a temporary altar in the center when you begin. Most importantly, have a fireproof container or burner for your incense.
Unless you feel strongly otherwise, there is no reason to ritually close or shut down the circle. Simply visualize it fading when your work is finished and after you have sent away any attendant spirits.
30. Ioan P. Couliano, Eros and Magic in the Renaissance, trans. Margaret Cook (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1987), 133.