WAY

1

Waxing moon begins: start your lunation here

14

Approximate date of the full moon

15

Waning moon begins

21

Summer Solstice celebration

28

Dark moon:

end your lunation here

Introduction

I stood naked and blindfolded at the darkened edge of the circle marked by indecisively flickering candles. The high priestess pressed the sharp, cold end of a sword to my chest. I drew in a breath and knew things would be different from now on.

She was small, the dark-haired woman holding the sword, ready to initiate me into the First Degree of Wicca. Her voice commanded the space of soaring beamed ceilings and brick walls. “O thou who standeth on the threshold … hast thou the courage to make the assay?” she asked.

It was a good question. Did I have the courage? My mind drifted, only for a second, but in that moment I relived the journey to the edge of this circle.

It was the early 1980s and I was still a teenager. Reagan was in the White House, and “Thriller,” “Like a Virgin,” and “True Colors” were popular hits that regularly looped on the radio. Raiders of the Lost Ark and E.T. were the go-to films. Punk, new wave, and movies like Flashdance influenced the lacey-gloved and off-the-shoulder fashions we’d see. Hair was high, and I think most of my peers were too. And while my friends were busying themselves with the fun of the times, I was off scouring the shelves of musty bookstores and college libraries for anything that could teach me about Witchcraft.

I had been on this search, openly so, since I had turned sixteen. But much earlier than that, I would tend to find my way to the occult shelves at the library when my parents weren’t watching. Witchcraft was in my blood from a very early age, but I had to conceal it in my Catholic home. In order to bring such books home for study, I had to call it “research about the witch trials.”

In the 1970s, the typical community library was a barren wasteland for one’s search on the subject of Witchcraft. Aside from academic texts and the odd book discussing rites and practices from the “West Indies,” Africa, and Asia, there were few legitimate options for learning about what we call Wicca or Witchcraft today.

It was in April of 1979 that National Geographic featured a photographic tour of New England, which included a two-page spread of Laurie Cabot and her coven in Salem. The picture showed a group of mostly adult men and women, all clad in black, surrounded by a branching blue bolt of light. I knew that this was where I belonged. My search began in earnest far from the hidden library stacks to actual “occult shops” found in the nearby cities of Long Beach and San Pedro in California. The New Age movement wasn’t yet in full swing, and such shops were small, hidden away, and often dingy. They were really intimidating places to go.

Back then there was no Internet as we know it today, so the only way one could really learn about the Craft (at least initially) was through reading books. In those days, there were only a handful of books widely available to the novice that directly addressed the how-to of Wicca or Witchcraft. Most of us seeking information at that time encountered the books by the British Witches, such as Gerald Gardner, Alex Sanders, Doreen Valiente, and Janet and Stewart Farrar. Looking to the British traditions was important, it seemed, as England was ground zero for the tradition we today call Wicca. But there were other important and well-known authors of the time who came to influence the Witches of the 1980s. Paul Huson’s Mastering Witchcraft was an important work for many novices back then. Starhawk’s The Spiral Dance was a real blessing for me, and it continues to be an important guide for many seekers along the path.

In those spooky old shops, I frequently ran across copies of the medieval and Renaissance grimoires (spell books), such as the Key of Solomon, that of Abramelin, the magical tomes by Agrippa, and Francis Barrett’s The Magus. But these texts, with their arcane imagery, complex tables of correspondences, and convoluted Cabalistic formulae (usually written in Latin or Hebrew), served more to confuse than to enlighten. They intuitively seemed related to my search for Witchcraft in that they promised a magical path, but not only were they too obscure for an individual to comprehend or use in any meaningful way, but they offered no wisdom to the seeker. Formulas don’t teach how to live life in a wise and powerful way, nor do they teach how to tune in to the energies of the natural world. That was the kind of path I was seeking.

During my teen years in conservative Orange County, California, there were few options for learning firsthand the secret ways of Witches. At that time, Witches’ spiritual communities were very secretive, and legitimate practitioners in Southern California were deep undercover. My initial attempts at seeking training led to dead ends. Who was going to teach a kid, anyway?

As the Internet began to blossom, chat rooms designated to various special interests began to appear. It was in one of these chat rooms (dedicated to Wicca, of course) that I made my first honest-to-goodness Witchcraft contact. We met at his home in Santa Monica and circled together a few times, but it seemed to me that his approach to the Craft was highly individualized and did not resemble what I had already learned through reading.

I started posting flyers at one of the most well-known metaphysical bookstores in Los Angeles, the Bodhi Tree Bookstore in West Hollywood, looking to connect with those who practiced a Craft that resembled what I had learned from those treasured and, by then, tattered books from Gardner, Sanders, Valiente, and the Farrars.

The founders of the Los Angeles British Traditional coven Oruborus et Ova picked up my Bodhi Tree flyer, contacted me, and invited me to attend training in the loft of one of the coven members who lived in the downtown Arts District. It was through the principal teacher and the coven members Morven, Varda Ninna, Kestrel Morgan, Brigit Silverbranch, and others of the extended magical family such as Kalisha Zahr that I finally received “traditional” Craft training. Then came the day of my First Degree initiation. That moment of my life, in that magical womb of death and rebirth, changed everything.

Before I knew it, I was the coven’s working priest (all initiates are considered clergy at the time of the First Degree initiation), and I rarely got a break from my regular duties. At least twice monthly I met with the coven for sabbat or esbat rituals, initiations, healing ceremonies, or meetings to raise the cone of power for specific magical aims. I learned through practical training in the coven, while standing side by side with seasoned initiates who taught me the traditional forms of magic, the rites of passage, spellcraft, and the foundational lore, observances, theory, and theology. These were not things learned from books; these were the oral traditions of Witchcraft, usually only shared with initiates.

These have been the “colors” of my palette, as I learned to create magical art across my studies, and they are the ones that I will share with you during this year and a day. While sometimes innovative in their expression, all of the activities I provide in this course of study are deeply rooted in the long-standing magical traditions that have informed Wicca and its magical practices from its inception. These roots grew freely from the practices taught by Gerald Gardner to his initiates, and they were passed down the line until they came to me.

It seems so long ago that I stood at the edge of that magic circle, naked and blindfolded. Morven, Kes, Varda, and Brigit flanked me. Some of them still do to this day. They showed me what I was searching for all those years. “Hast thou the courage?” they asked me. This question holds true to this day, not just for me, but for each of us who takes up this path.

Do I have the courage to take up this art on a day-to-day basis? Do I have courage enough to commit to the discipline of training? Do I have what it takes to examine and then break through layer upon layer of self-told story and conditioning, forged by culture, family, time, and place? It takes bravery to question the foundations of our psyches that orient us to the world. Finally, I ask myself if I have the courage to stand amid those around me who fear Witchcraft (perhaps due to its name alone) and who may need help in understanding that this is a path of healing, nature, and spiritual devotion.

In order to have a real spiritual practice, permeable enough to enter our lives at each moment, these are the questions that are important to answer.

And now I ask you, who stands at the edge of this magic circle, “Hast thou the courage to make the assay?”

Why Another Year and a Day?

If you have already read Wicca: A Year and a Day, you may be wondering why there is another year’s worth of spiritual practice ahead of you. Didn’t I learn all that I needed to know? you may wonder. You learned plenty, especially if you made it to the end of the book. But learning a specific set of skills is not the same as cultivating your spirit. That process is a lifetime effort that requires daily attention and refinement.

In this second year and a day, the practices I offer allow you to hone and deepen the core practices taught in Wicca: A Year and a Day, to increase your magical competence, and to learn how to live while developing wisdom and a natural “spiritual energy field” that you can draw on anytime you need it.

In Wicca: A Year and a Day, there was a focus on learning technologies. These are important and have always been part of Witchcraft practice since its inception. Many of the skills you learned and practiced in that volume, such as spellcasting, scrying, and the like, relied upon your use of magical tools, oils, incenses, correspondences, and specific methods aimed at connecting you to your innate power. As you mature on the path, what becomes important is learning how you might move from a reliance upon formulas and procedures for magic and changing consciousness to relative freedom, where you allow formulas and procedures to inform your practice as an aid, rather than as a necessity. Therefore, during this year and a day, you will learn how to make magic an everyday event without having to pull out the athame, pentacle, chalice, and wand for every single magical working.

Don’t misunderstand me. The tools will always be part of the Craft and they are our treasured magical belongings. In fact, during this year and a day you will be using magical tools, incenses, oils, and technologies throughout. But like training wheels, you will also learn how to ride without the need for support at all times. Developing the skills necessary for spiritual freedom comes from engaging with principles for living your life in ways that continually align you with the basic axioms that govern magical energy.

There will also be an emphasis on developing a close bond with the natural world. Contemporary Western societies frequently teach us that humans, as a species, are the apex predators, the dominant species, and we do not have to pay attention to the living world at all. We are conditioned in powerful ways to see ourselves as separate from nature (including being separate from our human nature) just as we are fooled into seeing ourselves as separate individuals who have little if anything at all to do with one another. As part of living in our societies, we’ve incorporated this “rift” into our very beings. Drawing awareness of this into our moment-by-moment lives through a variety of practices can help bridge these artificial separations. But this process takes a hell of a lot of work. It really does.

Non-human life has consciousness, aliveness. Every non-human object has its own place in the great web of things that is not separate from you or me either. Everything interacts with the next thing, and it is critical for our spiritual advancement in Wicca to learn how to experience this reality clearly (as opposed to understanding it in our heads alone). This process allows us to know at the foundational, experiential level that we actually do fit comfortably into the wholeness of nature. One effective way to get there is to engage in an intense focus on the processes that heighten mindfulness of our place in the “great all.” Therefore, you will encounter many images and practices that ask you to compare yourself to things in nature. This isn’t done to develop a contrast (such as “wow, animals are so cool and I’m so lame”), but to develop a symbolic point of reference for the activity and the approach you may take in your own life. Practices such as this help us to shift toward understanding and then closing the gaps of experience we develop between ourselves and “others.” It also helps close the gaps we sense that can exist between our minds, hearts, and behaviors, which (if you’re like most people) almost seem to have their own rhythms and patterns that push and pull us across the span of our lives.

Through your work this year, you will learn practices that you can use long after you close the pages of this book. You can take them with you across your lifetime so that you may continue this important and never-ending process of spiritual refinement and natural alignment.

What Can I Expect to Learn?

As I discussed in Wicca: A Year and a Day, there are a great variety of traditions beneath the over-arching umbrella of contemporary Pagan Witchcraft. When most new Witches find themselves among a coven, or even when they encounter a teacher, they are almost immediately instructed in basic, general Witchcraft practices. But what one tradition considers “basic” may, in fact, be an idiosyncrasy of that particular group, teacher, or Wiccan tradition. Nevertheless, Wicca: A Year and a Day was my own attempt to expose you to what most Witches usually come to know during their first year of study.

During this second year and a day of study, I will approach the matters in this book as though you and I have already been working together for a while now. And after someone has studied basic practices for a year and a day, a coven or teacher invites the student to be initiated. (I discuss initiation in great detail later in this introduction and in the course of the year’s training.) After initiation, there is usually more focused/specialized training. The training a person receives after their first initiation relates to developing autonomy as a working priestess or priest of the Craft. Typically a student will learn the core teachings of a tradition (or group or teacher, as opposed to “general” Wiccan principles), the rationale of the practices they’ll learn, and some of the magical “secrets” known only to the initiated. So the focus gradually shifts from general studies (such as those of the first year and a day) to more specific forms of study and practice.

During this this second year’s journey, I will review a variety of historical facts and I will be working with the foundational texts and source materials that Gardner found important as he developed Pagan Witchcraft. I will let you know what current Pagan scholars say about our tradition as a whole, and I will give you examples and techniques for using the many source texts in your own magical workings.

In your second year’s course of study, you will have daily exposure to a wide variety of spiritual practices, which teachers usually encourage during the second year of training. Some of these practices are practical, such as learning how to put together herbs for ritual use, compose rituals for sabbats and esbats, and integrate magical practices and spiritual teachings into your everyday life. Others are more esoteric and involve developing practical experience with the old grimoires. Some practices may even feel a little daring, such as working magic during the dark of the moon (from which a good number of teachers shy away for really no good reason).

Other parts of the esoteric training will focus on building a capacity for containing and directing spiritual energy, gaining consistent exposure to ritual practice, learning how to effectively evoke, invoke, and banish spiritual forces and energies, and expanding your general magical repertoire.

At the conclusion of this year, I will (as any teacher might) invite you to take the second initiation. In the British traditions (which are the traditions that usually inform many other versions of contemporary Pagan Witchcraft), there are at least three initiations. Each initiation occurs following at least one year and a day of study, and they signify your position in the Craft, your tenure, and, many times, your spiritual advancement. The First Degree initiation represents Goddess energy. It is your formal entrance to the Witch’s path, and because it aligns with the Goddess, there is special attention to nurturing and developing the new Witch. Among the British traditions, the First Degree initiation is also when one becomes Wiccan “clergy.”

The Second Degree initiation elevates trained initiates to the status of autonomous teachers, with the ability to train and initiate others. The Second Degree aligns with the energies of the Horned God, and it is about knowing the tradition-specific lore so that you will be able to pass the tradition intact to others.

The Third Degree comes much later in one’s magical career and aligns with both Goddess and God energies. It is a degree that signifies spiritual advancement and fully integrated knowledge and experience.

I will emphasize the following three themes during this year’s training:

• Gaining focused, specialized training

• Undergoing a symbolic death and rebirth

• Service to others

Symbolic Death and Rebirth

This magical year will progress toward advancement to a Second Degree initiation (also called an “elevation”). This ritual focuses on a “descent” to the “underworld,” which is symbolic of your own death. There, in that place beyond human name, you as an initiate learn the deeper secrets of magic, then return to the land of the living. The ritual follows closely the Inanna or Persephone myth and underworld journey.

While you will not be learning tradition-specific lore so that you could readily pass information on to your own initiates, there are other important purposes of the Second Degree initiation that will become the focus of your training. One of the most important purposes of Second Degree training and elevation is fostering the “egoic death.” In Wiccan training, one moves toward becoming a “high priest” or “high priestess” at the Second Degree elevation. At that level one is no longer serving one’s own interest in the spiritual and magical practices of the Craft. The practitioner is now learning how to serve others.

Most definitely, there are seekers looking for advanced training for purposes other than this. But as assuredly as one foot falls before the next when walking, the egoic death that occurs during the Second Degree year of study will eventually arrive anyway.

The term “egoic death” is an elaborate way of saying that the training of Second Degree, no matter who teaches you, intends to move you as a practitioner from practicing your Craft for your own personal reasons out into the larger sphere of living in the world. When you join forces with everyone else, you are not living for individual aims, but learning to care for everyone, the planet, and all creatures. There is less room for ego to expand and flourish with a commitment to Second Degree elevation, and work toward the Second Degree works to shift the practitioner’s thinking from exclusively (or even predominantly) “me” to “we.”

Therefore, the symbolic death and rebirth motifs common to most Second Degree rituals are all about dying to the ego. We all have an ego, and there’s nothing wrong with having a healthy sense of self. In fact, it would be very difficult and even unhealthy to live in the world with no understanding of who you are. But, if not recognized and tamed, the ego tends to expand and create a lot of chaos and discomfort for ourselves and for others in our lives.

Once a person shifts out of solely ego-driven spiritual/magical practices, then there are deeper mysteries revealed to the practitioner. The world itself opens up, in essence. There is less need to bring out the candles and incense for creating magic in the world, because as a cooperative, “ego-reduced” participant in the world, the world has more room for you. The world cooperates back with you in ways you never imagined, and it requires a very different kind of effort on your part to make magic and effect change.

Service to Others

The training toward Second Degree is preparatory for serving others. The format, content, and agreement of that service are matters that reside solely between the individual Witch and deity. No one can define what might constitute that very personal covenant of service.

In some Wiccan traditions, there is an expectation that the Second Degree initiate will teach, form a study group, or develop a coven of their own. While these aspects of Wiccan service are important, an individual’s expression of service can be just that: individual.

Serving others may mean healing others, clearing homes of negative influences, ridding individuals of unwanted spiritual forces, doing magic to help others, channeling information for fellow Witches, or providing rites of passage for births, deaths, and marriages.

There may be more mundane expressions of service, such as developing a more cooperative spirit at work or developing more patience for difficult neighbors. It might mean devoting time to help with community-wide activities, social activism, political involvement, assisting the less fortunate, or giving of your time and talents to worthy causes that impact the world on a larger scale than simply your individual existence.

Who Should Read This Book?

Any reader who has ventured down the Wiccan road for a good long while, who has a grounded set of knowledge in the subjects discussed in my previous work, Wicca: A Year and a Day, will be comfortable with the experience ahead. Readers on this year-and-a-day journey would benefit most from having learned many of the Wiccan basics. A foundational, working knowledge of Wiccan theology, the God and Goddess of Wicca, the seasonal passages and celebrations, the magical energies of ritual hand gestures (which I call magical passes), how to cast the circle and evoke the elemental forces, and basic circle etiquette are all important for you to have mastered and incorporated into your regular Wiccan practice by the time you get around to exploring this book.

Other areas important to Wicca that will be beneficial to know before undertaking the activities of Wicca: Another Year and a Day include the basics of magical practices, such as basic magical correspondences, numerology, herbalism Witch lore, and using scrying tools in your spiritual work.

In Wicca: A Year and a Day, I also lead you, the reader, on a daily inner journey, so that by the end of the book you will have had a great opportunity to develop a deeper connection to the earth, to deity, and to yourself. Knowing yourself, your motivations, and your “conditioning” are always key magical workings in my estimation. Celebrated twentieth-century magician Dion Fortune defined magic as the art of changing consciousness. Therefore, knowing yourself, getting comfortable in your own skin, and seeing what makes you work from the inside out is crucial to this process.

This book assumes that the reader already has a good grounding in all of the content areas described. Many of the rituals and discussions—for example, the rituals and discussions of the sabbats—are built upon the foundational knowledge from Wicca: A Year and a Day. This second book contains a more focused, advanced curriculum, and I will not have the opportunity to review the general, foundational curriculum. I will rely on your personal judgment and discernment as to your readiness to engage with the intricate pathways of this year and a day of magical work.

There are circumstances in which some individuals may feel as though their years of experience in Wicca might allow them to bypass the more “basic” work of Wicca: A Year and a Day and jump right into the depths of this year’s magical agenda. I offer my complete respect to those readers who feel they would like to try this year’s practice without having gone through the foundational training. Please do remember that if you are coming from another magical system (such as shamanism, ceremonial magic, etc.), the symbols, rituals, and practices of Wicca may not be familiar to you. Starting with this second year’s journey without sufficient exposure to common Wiccan practices may be a challenge. If along the way, as this year’s magical work unfolds, you discover that you have missed some important training, you might consider switching tracks and exploring the program in Wicca: A Year and a Day.

Adjustments:
Your Second Degree Training Year

Through putting Wicca: A Year and a Day to use, readers reported that they discovered a greater sense of magical empowerment. But they also found the pace to be intense and sometimes challenging to commit to for an entire 366 days. I understand.

Each year and a day of practice presents its own unique set of challenges to juggle, not only magically but in our mundane lives as well. We all have complex lives that include a variety of variables, such as families, spouses, jobs, kids, and more. When you add in a year’s worth of daily spiritual practice, there may be a lot of pressure to keep up. And you may feel even more stressed if you notice that you are supposedly “falling behind.”

While I still hold that engaging with the practice on that level of intensity results in an important honing and tempering of a student, it should never become a burden. That’s how we develop situational avoidance and negative associations with our practice. In this volume, I have made a few adjustments to reduce any undue stress.

The pace of this volume is less demanding. Most magical workings have two or three days for you to work on them before you move on. But the activities still offer a rigorous study, guidance in a spiritual self-search, and practice that is aimed at cultivating depth, spiritual maturity, and above all, wisdom.

Buying Magical Equipment

There will be magical items that you’ll be using along the course of the year. Some of these items are new, and you will need to procure them. Others you may already have on hand. If you read Wicca: A Year and a Day, you’ll know that oils, incenses, herbs, and the like have always been a part of the Witchcraft tradition. You can likely reuse many of the herbs and candles from your first year. You will use all of the magical tools you’ve already obtained and consecrated during your first year, including:

• the athame

• the wand

• the chalice

• the pentacle

• the thurible

• the white-handled knife

In addition to these, there will be other supplies needed for this year’s practice. In many instances, I’ve been careful to study the different traditional magical formulae in order to find ways of recycling and repurposing the herbs and essential oils you’ll buy.

The quantities of herbs and oils I’ve specified for different workings are for individual use (as opposed to making mass quantities of anything) and are typically quite small. At the end of this volume, in appendix C, you will find lists of the items you’ll need to obtain during this year of study. It will be up to you to decide when to procure the items. I do, however, recommend that you plan to obtain the items at least one lunation ahead of wherever you are in the year’s schedule.

Appendix F describes the basic magical tools that you’ll definitely need to have before beginning training. If you have already read and followed Wicca: A Year and a Day, or if you have been following a “standard” variety of Wiccan tradition that uses the athame, wand, pentacle, and chalice, you will already have these tools at the ready. But if you are coming from another magical tradition or system, you will want to look at this appendix and procure or create the items on the list. Better still, if you are coming from another magical tradition or system that has no tools (or very different ones), I recommend that you first go through the instruction provided in Wicca: A Year and a Day.

I do not support or endorse any single distributor of magical supplies. There are many online retailers of mystic wares that can be easily discovered by going to your favorite search engine and typing in “Wicca supplies” or “Witchcraft supplies,” or by simply searching for the specific item you need, such as “dragon’s blood reed.” It’s as simple as that. But, of course, take time to compare prices and value. Find what works best for you.

Maybe it’s my age, but I happen to be a fan of brick-and-mortar Witchcraft shops. All of them. I find that they are hubs of witchy activity. You can meet all sorts of people when you visit a shop, and you might even find someone who is following the same path as you. Many practitioners are good about sharing. And even when they have a juicy “secret” requiring their silence, they always give clues so that you can continue your own search unhindered. I have found that Witches are always kind to one another in that way.

On another note, there are many lists of herbs and oils in this volume, and the sources of their correspondences are many and varied. I have condensed information from the sixteenth-century German magician Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, the lists from Abramelin, the Key of Solomon, Frances Barrett’s The Magus, Culpeper’s Complete Herbal, several grimoires from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and more than one Book of Shadows. The sources are varied and eclectic. I mention this to help you feel free in your use of herbs for the construction of magical incenses and oils. I will note, however, that I have tried each recipe myself and have found them to be effective in my own work. But remember that use of herbs in magical practice can be idiosyncratic; herbs can be a quirk of a coven, a Wiccan lineage, or an individual. Even if the herbal recommendations come from antiquity, that does not necessarily mean they will work for you today. So carefully consider which herbs to use and know that while the lists may align with someone’s individual idea of a magical affinity, they may not always work specifically for you. You should try out what I recommend and then make adjustments to the ingredients, if you sense that another approach may be wiser for you.

Finally, many times I will instruct you to use a computer printer. Not everyone has one. So I do provide alternatives at every turn.

Pace and Purpose

My first book placed an emphasis on the arts of magic only near the end of the year and a day of studies. In this volume, you will explore magical practices right from the start. I will assume that from the first volume (or perhaps from a teacher) you’ve already learned the basics of magic, and you are ready for the more advanced workings you will undertake as part of your second year and a day.

The Second Degree training is comparatively advanced, yet it has many similarities to the first year of training. Learning about the Craft happens in a spiral. You wind your way around the magic circle not just once, but at least three times before you finally arrive at the center, the innermost teachings of the Craft.

What do we encounter along the way to Wicca’s innermost teachings? Ourselves. Life in all of its unvarnished truth. Spiritual freedom and connection to all. True, there are oath-bound mysteries from the British traditions that I must keep. Understandably, some experiences require one-to-one guidance, and to share in a book those mysteries that are truly experiential, shamanic, and ecstatic would not only be inappropriate, but would likely end up creating confusion, rather than offering clarity. But along the course of this year and a day, I will make every effort to provide you with rituals, myths, and spiritual guidance aimed at fostering your own spiritual-experiential growth in a way similar to those who encounter the traditional Wiccan mysteries.

It is important to follow the slow pace of this book and this course of study. If you jump too quickly through the workings, you will have a scattered, disjointed, and probably meaningless experience. If you are overly enthusiastic, trying several workings in a single day, you will not experience the richness of each technique. The purpose of having one spiritual working to complete over the course of several days is to allow you time to steep in the energies of each practice. Speeding your way through this course will produce little effect and will not allow for this all-important “steep-time.”

In a quick-fix culture where microwaves can take too damn long, we have become hooked on fast answers and instant results. Slowing the pace as I am recommending can seem interminable, dull, and definitely lacking in the razzle-dazzle that we’ve come to associate with the Craft because of Hollywood’s flashy portrayals. Not only are there no demons to wrestle and no vampires to slay, but the path decelerates enough so that we can align with nature’s rhythms. Through this, we can begin to arrive at noticeable spiritual results.

Sometimes slowing the pace can cause readers to lose their mojo, their energetic momentum, to follow through on all 366 days. When the creeping pace of a year and a day of spiritual practice shocks the system and grinds against our need for speed, it suddenly seems as though our “other life” becomes more interesting, or more “important,” at any rate. We can be addicted to the drama of our lives and crave mind-blowing intensity. But it isn’t realistic, nor is it healthy, to seek a high level of intensity. Instead, why not be intense? Why not turn up the heat of attention on your spiritual practice and examine the internal structures that keep all of us looping back into habits and conditioned responses that may not be in our best interests, either magically or otherwise?

But, of course, all things considered, life can have a way of throwing us during a year’s time. Anticipate that this may happen, and think about your response ahead of time, well before you embark on a year and a day’s spiritual journey. If the road twists and turns well beyond what you can handle and if the events of your life seem to supersede your magical training, you might consider simply taking a break from this work. Try not to get too stressed-out if this happens. Respond to the demands of your life in a reasonable and responsible way. And when it is possible for you to resume your study, then do so.

On the other hand, if you are able to keep the pace, try to do so without missing days. Skipping many days in a row, or allowing weeklong intervals between magical workings, can also disrupt the magical momentum. Part of the work of the Second Degree is building up a “psychic reservoir” of magical power. Slow, daily progress is one of the best ways to achieve this.

How to Time Your Activities

I have divided the year into thirteen segments that correspond to the thirteen lunar cycles (plus two extra days) to accommodate a full year and a day. It will be important to time the activities of each lunation in such a way that it begins with the waxing moon cycle (when the moon is just starting to gain light) and ends with the dark moon (when the moon has lost its light and seems to be missing from the sky).

The actual date of the full moon is estimated to occur on the 14th or 15th night of each lunar cycle. The lunar cycles, again, were estimated at approximately 28 days. In fact, there are complex calculations necessary to accurately predict when the full moon will occur. Luckily we have almanacs and websites that can predict these for us annually. For convenience’s sake, I have placed the full moon ritual near the 15th day of each lunar cycle, so you can find it each month. You may have to move the date based on the full moon’s actual occurrence. If you find that you’ve needed to move the full moon date from the 15th day of the month to some other day, then:

• Start the very next day with the day of silence, which I recommend you observe the day following your full moon ceremony.

• After your day of silence, resume the flow of the book’s activities in their order after that.

Before you begin your studies, check online or in an almanac to see when the next waxing moon cycle begins, to time when you will begin the book. Your work for a lunar cycle should begin the day following the dark moon, and should end approximately 28 days later, or whenever we have the next dark moon.

The following is an example of how to time this just right. In it, I’ve imagined that the next waxing moon cycle begins on Sunday the 1st of the month as you begin your Second Degree training year. You would start your studies and practices on the 1st and continue through to the 28th, which is the end of the waning moon cycle.

Sample Calendar for June

As a refresher on the importance of the moon in Wiccan magic, keep in mind the symbolic and energetic qualities of the lunar cycles. The waxing moon (the time from the dark moon until the moon becomes full again) signifies a period of birth, growth, building, creating, and coming into full potential. The waning moon cycle traditionally signifies a cycle of cessation of growth, decay, and death.

Some Witches feel a little jittery around workings that involve the darker lunar cycles. But that’s frequently because we’re taught culturally to keep the things of shadow hidden away. Nevertheless, shadow, decay, darkness, and death are important and natural expressions of existence.

To ignore any part of existence is a magical mistake. Where is the darkness supposed to go? Where can we hide death, sadness, frustration? And if we do spend time suppressing these important parts of who we are, what will be the cost? Emotional and psychological suffering (as well as illnesses) are the fruits of long-term suppression of life’s shadow side. Seeing in the dark is just as important as knowing the places readily seen in the light.

Planning Ahead

Each lunar cycle will have important dates for you to keep in mind. Some days will be fixed celebrations, such as the lunar esbats. The full moon is traditionally when Witches perform their esbat rituals, which can include Drawing Down the Moon, calling upon deity for guidance, and engaging in all sorts of magical practices.

Important to the esbat celebration is the central, or main, magical working. This can be any working you feel is warranted, such as a special divination, a spell, a meditation, the development of some new magical tool, spirit communication, or more. During each lunar cycle you’ll be learning new material, and you can either save some of it for your main esbat working or simply repeat a spiritual practice you’ve tried before.

In addition to the esbats, there are other important days in the Witches’ year, including the four major sabbats and the four lesser sabbats. The four major sabbats occur on fixed dates:

• Samhain/All Hallows’ Eve, October 31

• Imbolc, February 2

• Beltane, May 1

• Lughnasadh/Lammas, August 2

The four lesser sabbats are the solar festivals, and because they follow the Sun’s progression through the astrological signs, like the lunar cycle, the lesser sabbats have movable dates. Once again, it would be wise to check an almanac or a web-based ephemeris to find the exact dates of these lesser sabbats and mark them on a calendar before you begin your second year and a day. To make the dates less mysterious, the following is a general guide to the ever-changing lesser sabbats:

• Winter Solstice, the Sun enters Capricorn—approximately December 21

• Spring Equinox, the Sun enters Aries—approximately March 21

• Summer Solstice, the Sun enters Cancer—approximately June 21

• Fall Equinox, the Sun enters Libra—approximately September 21

Basic ritual formats (based on traditional sources) for each of the eight sabbats are found in the waning moon cycle of the ninth lunation and throughout the tenth lunation.

Sabbat Ritual Format	Where Do I Find It?
Samhain	Ninth Lunation, Days 20–21
Winter Solstice	Ninth Lunation, Days 24–25
Imbolc	Ninth Lunation, Day 28
Spring Equinox	Tenth Lunation, Days 5–6
Beltane	Tenth Lunation, Days 10–11
Summer Solstice	Tenth Lunation, Days 16–17
Lughnasadh	Tenth Lunation, Days 21–23
Autumn Equinox	Tenth Lunation, Days 27–28

During the ninth and tenth lunations, you’ll be asked to write your own rituals for sabbats. As part of the discussion of the sabbats in each of these sections, I have provided basic sabbat templates that you can follow and use for your own seasonal celebrations for much of the year. Eventually, when you reach the ninth and tenth lunations, you’ll be asked to write your own sabbat rituals. But until that time, use the sabbat ritual formats I’ve provided.

Before you begin your year and a day of study, I recommend that you set up a calendar and plot out the following for each month:

• The date of each new and full moon

• The date of your full moon esbat for that month

• The date of any sabbat that month

Try to follow the schedule set up in the book for each lunation, while also making accommodations for esbat and sabbat celebrations.

It is of the utmost importance that you maintain the schedule of eight sabbats and thirteen esbats, as these are tides for aligning with sacred power. Try never to miss a single one, as these rituals form the core of your training.

Stepping into ritual space time and again helps to develop an aggregate of power for you. It cultivates ritual fluency and automaticity, which you’ll need whenever you attend other people’s rituals or if you host your own. Fluency and automaticity also form the groundwork for engaging in meaningful ritual “improvisation,” which is a great spiritual joy to experience as you advance in your practice.

For example, you might find moments in the standard ritual format that would benefit from your own wording, rather than from the words I provide. Or you may understand intuitively how using a different herb, oil, or other correspondences may be more effective in your magical workings. That’s because you’ll know through personal experience (through repeated practice and the natural trial and error that ensues) what will be conducive to a desired effect and what will not.

Moon-Wise Retreat Days

You’ll be doing something unique throughout your Second Degree year and a day of practice. I recommend that you set aside time for several two-day retreats. Your retreat days will not require you to leave your home, travel to some remote location, or isolate yourself from your family, friends, and loved ones.

That being said, these kinds of classical retreat-style activities have a place in spiritual practice for a reason. The purpose of finding some extended alone time is to help you gain some perspective.

Remembering that magic is about changing consciousness, it is important to have the time to look at our perspectives rather than through them. Distance from the habit patterns of daily life can help facilitate this process. Silence can help with this as well. I explain in greater detail what I mean by “observing silence” on your very first day of this course of study. But for now, at least consider that silence, stillness, can be absolutely shocking when you allow it to fully engulf you. Most of the universe is wordless, and allowing yourself time to experience this, away from excessive chatter and the demands of others, can help develop clarity on what really is valuable and what is not.

Gaining perspective in this way can help stop habit patterns that inhibit us as both magical and human beings. Habits can become enslaving agents when they go unnoticed. Hiding out in the shadows, habits of behavior and thought have the potential to keep you entrenched in beliefs, relationships, situations, and activities that disempower you and make you unhappy.

A life driven by unseen habits is typically, and eventually, painful. Life is meant to be about an ongoing cycle of movement, which includes the whole cycle of growth, change, death, and then regeneration. Habits keep us stuck and out of step with the powerful forces of life and nature. Meanwhile, Witches are interested in engaging with life, joining in the flow of it all, because nature, life itself, is the manifestation of deity. It is right here amid the messy “all” that our power blossoms and comes to life.

The purpose of a retreat day is to help you more definitively and concretely reunite with this vast flow. It is vital for you to have some extra alone time for this work to develop better footing in changing consciousness without being reflexively drawn back into habit patterns. This is especially important as you first work on changing the gravity of patterns.

If you’re not made of money (and few of us are), you can easily spend your retreat time at home, or even at a friend’s place, as long as those who are around you understand the purpose of the retreat, and they respect the schedule you’ll be observing.

After saying all of this, I also want you to understand that I know it may be impossible for some readers to have retreat days at all. There are no hard-and-fast rules for doing the retreats. They can be highly facilitative of your growth, and I do recommend that you try at least one retreat session in your training. But even if you simply cannot find time to engage in a retreat, know that the usual schedule of daily Wiccan practice as described in this book will still be excellent for your Second Degree training.

If you would like to try a retreat schedule, then it will be important to look at a calendar and synchronize it with these special retreat days, which occur at the outset of the third, sixth, ninth, and twelfth lunar cycles of your year and a day.

I’ve set things up so that you can engage with the retreat schedule at any time within the lunation. This means you can schedule a retreat on a weekend, which can help you find enough free time to follow the daily sequence of activities. The retreats should not replace your usual year-and-a-day practices. It is important to continue to observe the daily activities from the book. However, during Moon-Wise retreat time, you should incorporate these practices at the appropriate times specified on the schedule.

First Degree Initiation: Q and A

Q: What is Wiccan initiation?

A: Initiation is literally a starting point in your magical career. It is a ritualized enactment of one of the most important spiritual movements in any Witch’s life, which is to choose to live a life from spiritual intention, rather than by habitual conditioning. An initiation announces to the infinite, at all levels of existence, that you are working toward making your actions, particularly your spiritual ones, intentional. You intend through this process to seek a life of empowerment versus disempowerment. Wiccan initiation involves pledging your spiritual path to this very life, the one we are in right now, and vowing to live by the Wiccan laws.

Q: What are the Wiccan laws?

A: The main “law” of Wicca is to live in accord with the flow of life, and not in opposition to it. Overall, this means living life in accord with nature and actively choosing non-harming in response to life, when it is possible or when an action will result in greater harmony. Of course, living may mean harming other creatures. For example, the simple act of eating typically means that some plant or animal has died to sustain your life. Because life feeds on life, it is impossible to avoid harming altogether. However, on the Wiccan path, as you move into the sphere of magical empowerment, it is important to be conscious of when you are harming and to take active steps in reducing that harmful impact.

Q: What is the purpose of initiation?

A: The First Degree Wiccan initiation “starts” your spiritual motor. It announces to the universe your intention not only to live a spiritual life, but to live a life of a magical practitioner. It sets in motion the wheels of power that have been turning since before you ever picked up this book. It is the result of many lifetimes culminating in this event that places you at the hub of spiritual empowerment. The effects of participating in initiation can be astounding. Many people, following their initiation, report that their lives were changed for the better, or that they suddenly felt spiritually “protected.”

Q: Do I have to be initiated to practice Wicca?

A: No, you don’t. But choosing to live by vow, through disciplined, focused spiritual inquiry, can result in a powerful spiritual experience. If you are only interested in dabbling along the fringes of the Craft, you’ll never have, as mythologist Joseph Campbell has said, “an experience akin to that of a saint.” Campbell’s meaning was that those recognized as “saints” have had deep, initiatory, mystic experiences, some controlled, some not. But what differentiates Witches, shamans, spiritual magicians, saints, etc., from ordinary folks is their ability to experience deep mystical awareness. And from that state, they have the ability to channel spiritual power through intentional actions. This can only occur through giving yourself completely to a spiritual path. Initiation is not necessary to practice Wicca, but it is an invitation to plunge deeply into your life in a magical way.

That being said, I have provided alternative practices for those who wish to bypass Wiccan initiation.

Q: If I have already been initiated into the First Degree (or its equivalent), what should I do during the preparatory activities and the initiation itself?

A: Because the requirements for initiation vary between traditions and even between teachers within traditions, I recommend that you follow along with the programming I provide that leads up to the initiation. I also recommend going through the initiation process described in this book. Repeating initiations is common when folks seek cross-training from other lineages. If you’ve already been initiated, you might take the opportunity during the first lunation to engage with initiation and preparations in a new and very mindful way. For example, use this time to observe your own interior, your responses to practices and to the initiation itself, rather than going through the paces robotically. If you’re open to experiencing them, the practices I’ve provided in the first lunation can create shifts in consciousness that can make your magical practice stronger.

Q: Do the initiation rites you provide reveal oath-bound material?

A: No. The rites I provide are what Witches typically call “outer court,” meaning, they are not the rites handed down by initiators that reveal any oath-bound material. Initiation rites are meant to facilitate your spiritual growth and foster a magical life lived by sacred vow and intent. While I come from British Traditional Wicca, and I base my ritual theology, language, and imagery on classical initiation texts, the initiations I provide are not the oath-bound rites found in any Book of Shadows.

Understand that there is a vast array of opinions about initiations, ranging from “they’re not needed,” to “initiation is shamanic, and therefore spontaneous,” to the more conservative view that “one can only become a Witch by traditional initiation methods administered at the hands of a classically initiated Witch.” All of these statements can be true given individual circumstances and contexts. But for your training purposes, it’s important to know that these viewpoints exist, especially as you interact with others in the greater Wicca/Witchcraft community, and particularly if your self-initiation becomes a topic of conversation.

Witches at the more conservative end of the opinion spectrum may not view a self-initiation or an outer court initiation as representative of the full initiatory experience. These Witches would likely want you to undergo further preparation before you would be welcomed into their traditional circles. If you have the opportunity to initiate with a specific Wiccan/Witchcraft tradition, you will be able to experience the importance of having a witness to your spiritual vow. Within a spiritual community, you’re being held in trust and being held accountable for your oaths.

I believe that any form of initiation undertaken with a strong desire and spiritual intent can spark growth and an authentic spiritual journey. Therefore, I encourage you to engage with the initiation rites in this book for your own spiritual process, rather than for validation from others in any spiritual community.

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