One lonely afternoon when I was about six years old, with half my friends disappearing to Hebrew schools and the other half in Catholic schools, I asked my mother what religion were we and who God was.
She looked startled, then smiled and sat me down. ‘People think they need God to tell them the difference between right and wrong, to punish them when they’re bad and reward them when they’re good.’ My mother spoke slowly, carefully.
‘Your father and I don’t believe that. We believe in the goodness of the human heart, and that we’re each responsible for the world we live in, for making it a good world to live in. All you really need is the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.’
She paused, watching me as the thought sank in. ‘Does that make sense to you?’ she asked.
‘Yes,’ I nodded. ‘Treat people the way you want them to treat you.’ I thought about Joan, my friend across the street, in her white Communion dress.
‘But who is God?’ I asked. ‘Is he real?’
‘That’s a big question that adults have been fighting about for centuries,’ my mother replied. ‘If it still interests you when you’re grown up, you can look for an answer then.’
As I said earlier, I was satisfied with those answers, until something very different than the God of my childhood friends came looking for me. The divinity that calls to you, the form that It, She, He, They take on a hilltop in Ireland, a cave in Crete, or in a book read on a rattling subway train, whoever it is, whatever and wherever that expression appears, the revelation is yours and will be respected by other Wiccans.
Most faiths have specific theologies and views of deity, like the Abrahamic faiths most of us have grown up with that personify divinity as a Father God, sometimes with a Son, or as transcendent and non-gendered, though always described with male vocabulary.
Modern Wicca accepts that you can have an entirely different view of divinity than someone else who also considers themselves Wiccan, and Wiccan perspectives are diverse. There are Wiccans who honor divinity as both female and male, or duotheistic (like the Taoist yin and yang), which was revolutionary in Western culture (the Hebrew Shekinah was largely hidden, Mary was not divine, and any Muslim feminine expression is heavily veiled). For some Wiccans, especially Gardnerians, divinity is revered as the Great Mother Goddess and the Horned God of animals and the wild things.
There are Wiccans who recognize divinity as Mother Earth and the Triple Goddess of Maiden, Mother and Crone reflected in the Moon (and in women), and God as Son and Lover of the Goddess, as Green Man, God of Vegetation and Kings of Oak and Holly, and as the Sun God.
For many Wiccans, the Goddess and God are the Divine Couple who embody love as the energy of the cosmos. They are lovers, Mother and Son, Crone and Youth, Maiden and Lord of Time/Death; whatever forms they take, the Goddess and God are always connected in a life-generating relationship. Between the two poles they embody lies the full range of Creation’s diversity unified by the bonds of love. Together, they are One, beyond gender or polarity.
Some Wiccans consider themselves polytheists honoring many different Goddesses and Gods who are distinct beings, often associated with particular places or pantheons of non-Abrahamic cultures across the globe.
For other Wiccans, the many Goddesses are aspects of one Great Goddess and the many Gods aspects of one Great God. And some Wiccans, like the Dianic tradition, are monotheistic, honoring only the Goddess as the singular Source of Creation, or divinity that’s neither feminine nor masculine.
There are Wiccans for whom deities are entities with a literal existence and other Wiccans who view deities as Jungian archetypes or as symbols of underlying forces of Creation. And many Wiccans share a pantheistic perspective, viewing Goddesses and Gods as personifications of the life force manifested in Creation, as embodiments of the forces of Nature and anthropomorphic manifestations of a particular type of energy or power.
And many Wiccans combine many of these views or prefer to use non-gendered language like Beloved and Lover, still recognizing the creative polarity of Creation but leaving behind heteronormative language and limitations. Wiccans also encounter and work with the spirit beings of Nature like spirits of place, elementals (spirits of the elements), fairies and more, described by some as an animistic worldview.
When I’m asked which view I take, my reply is always ‘Yes.’
We’ll explore some of these views in upcoming chapters and also what’s most often shared by all Wiccans – the rediscovery of ancient and ancestral deities that pre-date Christianity, encounters within the realms of Spirit, experiences of divinity embodied and present in the natural world and therefore accessible and willing, when properly approached, to engage with humanity, and divinity as a Mystery just beyond the reach of understanding, pulling us forward into an endless dance of discovery.
Talking about divinity can never take the place of experiences with divinity. So, let’s take off the blindfolds tied on by a world that has taught us God is male, beyond reach or comprehension, or that nothing is sacred. Let’s see the Mystery hiding in plain sight.
Purification is a simple, powerful technique that gets the blindfold off. You don’t purify because you’re born with original sin, or because, if you’re a woman who menstruates, you’re impure, or you’ve eaten a forbidden food or touched someone who is taboo. For Wiccans, the human spirit and body, Nature’s spirit and body, are sacred. But we live in a human world that’s messy and stressful, full of worries, doubts and distortions.
If I think I’m not good enough, I’m blocked from fulfilling my dreams and my potential. If I think I’m not worthy of love, an obstacle stands between my heart and my happiness. If I think God is judging me, or is elsewhere and indifferent, or the world I live in is inanimate and indifferent, my ideas separate me from the Sacred.
Purification helps us clean out wounds so they can heal, removes obstacles and unblocks the natural movement of energy to and through us, with life-sustaining power. It clarifies our thinking, our hearts and our spirits, freeing us to see clearly, feel fully and be present with our souls, the Sacred and the world.
There are all sorts of ways to purify, many using Nature’s elements like Air, Water or Fire. Here’s a familiar, simple and effective purification using water and salt (to represent the element Earth).
Sprinkle salt into a bowl of warm water. You can also do this in a bathtub or shower.
Thank the salt water returning to the sea for lending you its cleansing gifts. Enjoy the feelings of clarity, freedom and release.
As soon as you can, bathe in the sea. Feel the water wake you, the tidal push and pull against your body, the blood in your veins coursing to the same rhythm. Taste the salt on your lips.
Purification helps free you from the false ideas and feelings separating you from your own inner divinity and from the divinity of the natural world that you’re a part of. It enables you to be fully present to the presence of divinity. ‘Yes, but how do I experience the Divine?’ I can hear you asking. You already have.
You can recite and record this guided meditation, and then listen to it as you practice, or read it first and then imagine. Find a spot, inside or out, where you can sit undisturbed. Turn off your phone, sit comfortably and close your eyes.
Let’s begin.
You’re going to remember what you already know.
Breathe deeply, inhaling and exhaling completely. Five full breaths. Relax your body, tensing and releasing your muscles from the top of your head to the bottom of your toes, continuing to breathe fully and deeply.
When you’re ready, focus on the memory of an occasion when you were aware of the presence of the Divine. Bring it fully and clearly to your mind’s eye. What did you see? See it clearly. What were you doing when it happened? Where were you? See your surroundings clearly. When did it happen? How old were you? See yourself clearly.
Remember what happened. Bring the events, the images and the sensation clearly to mind. How did you feel? Focus on the physical feelings you experienced. Did you feel a tingling sensation rush through your body? Did you get goose bumps? Did you feel a rush of heat? Did you feel your heart race? Feel them again.
Focus on the emotions you experienced. Did you feel startled, exhilarated, peaceful? Did your feelings change? Did you feel awe, joy, love? Feel them again. What happened? Did you begin to cry? To laugh, sing, pray? Take your time. Remember the sense of presence you experienced. Feel it again. Ask the Divine, Goddess, God, or both, to be with you and to guide you. Stay in your physical/emotional feelings.
When you’re ready, say thank you. Open your eyes. Rest in the feelings. Write about your experiences in your magical journal.
You have an innate ability to experience
the Sacred. Feeling that connection is
the source of magic that creates a life
of fulfillment, harmony and love.
Paying attention to the physical feelings of your first encounter with the Sacred is a reliable way to recognize and to invite the presence of the Sacred. It’s an age-old shamanic method with practical usefulness as well: practitioners of Wicca (and Reiki) rely on the physical sensations of light, heat and divine energies when sending and receiving healing energies.
From the very beginning, when the Goddess first called to me and ever since, I experience a rush of energy followed by goose bumps, a perception of everything brightening and then a sense of presence, as if the air is charged with electricity. That’s followed by joy, peace and love. However you experience it physically, what you’re feeling emotionally is wonder, even ecstasy. It’s what we feel when we experience something marvelous, miraculous, magical. It’s what we feel when we experience the Sacred. So, pay attention to your physical and emotional feelings.
You’ll also learn to pay attention to and cultivate other signs and senses, like premonitions and synchronicities, dreams and visions, encounters in altered states and more, which we’ll explore. Your encounters will grow in number and frequency as you increasingly let go of the old stories of separation from the Sacred and the false consciousness that has created (that God is off in Heaven, that the natural, material world, like our bodies, is ‘less’ than Spirit and ours to exploit, and that human beings have ‘fallen from grace’) and shift your awareness to the sense of presence that comes when you pay attention.
And that’s my definition of a Witch:
A person who’s paying attention
to the presence of the Divine.
But how do we learn to pay attention in the midst of all the stress and distractions of daily life? It’s actually simple. Create a daily or regular practice that evokes the physical sensations you have in the presence of divinity. You’ll know it’s working when you experience wonder.
When you wake up, before your day begins, take a moment to focus on being back in your body. Stretch, open the blinds and greet the world.
My morning ritual includes greeting my beloved, the Sun, water, joyful dog, feeding the birds, Honoring the Four Directions, which we’ll explore later. It begins my day in the right way – with love, connection, vitality, and gratitude. Practice paying attention to divinity every day and you’ll change the way you experience the world.
Creation embodies the Sacred. Divinity is
everywhere present in the natural world.
Everything that exists – you and other people,
plants and animals, Earth and sky, air and
water, seasons and weather, Moon and Sun,
stars and galaxies, quarks and quanta, matter
and anti-matter, the seen and unseen, the
manifest and the mysterious – is a form, an
embodiment, an expression of divinity.
That is what you see when the blindfold comes off – the Mystery hiding in plain sight. Once you experience that reality, everything changes. You change. And that unlocks the magic at the heart of Wicca.
Breathing can become one of your most powerful practices for experiencing divinity. It’s the first thing you did when you arrived here and it’s the last thing you’ll do when you leave. We do it constantly, without thinking, unaware that with every breath we take, the Divine is just a breath away.
Conscious breathing, or breath meditation, is one of the first things we do when we cast circle, and it’s a skill you can use anywhere, any time. It’s also the foundation for powerful magical techniques and much more that we’ll explore later. Let’s begin with the essentials of how breathing and breath meditation work.
First, breathing is a natural way to purify. Your body is cleansed each time you exhale carbon dioxide. Breathing meditation cleans away your mental clutter and your physical tensions. When your mind is clear, you perceive clearly. After all, it’s impossible to hear the voice of the Sacred if your mind is chaotically chattering, and impossible to receive wisdom and energy if your body is tense and blocked. With each breath, your body and mind become relaxed, still and quiet. Gradually, your awareness shifts and you are fully present in the moment.
Beginners often worry that they won’t be able to keep their mind from wandering and getting cluttered again, even for a few minutes, let alone longer. I have good news: your mind will naturally wander, even if you’ve been practicing for many years, and that’s ok.
There’s a trick to meditation: understand and accept that thoughts will enter your mind. Let them come and let them go. Just notice and release. And don’t give yourself a hard time. There’s another trick: when your mind wanders, simply bring your attention back to your breath. That will bring you back to the present moment. Breathing gives you something to return to when your mind drifts away to a thought, a memory of the past or worry about the future. Use your breathing to focus. This is also the purpose of using a mantra, a word or symbol, which we’ll explore soon. And remember: don’t criticize yourself.
Learning that it’s natural for my mind to wander, and that I could use my breathing to return to being present, made all the difference for me. No more performance anxiety. I was able to sit for 5 minutes, then 10, and finally as long as I wanted or needed. My mind still wanders, but I no longer get hung up with self-criticism. Instead, I notice my mind is wandering, I let go of the thought and return my focus to my breathing. I’m once again present in the moment. Among other benefits, it’s helped me become gentle with myself and to accept myself. And that has been incredibly useful in so many other areas of my perfectionist life.
Everyone’s meditating these days. The practical benefits of the practice are widely known – from better health to improved concentration and even greater success in business. There’s another important reason to integrate breathing meditation into our spiritual toolbox: divinity is just a breath away.
You can recite and record the following text and then listen to it as you practice, or read it first and then imagine. You can do this guided meditation anywhere; outside is always best. Find a spot that calls to you, and where you can sit undisturbed. If you’re inside, sit or lie comfortably. Hang a ‘do not disturb’ sign on your bedroom door and close it. And don’t forget to turn off your phone.
Let’s begin.
Close your eyes. Breathe deeply – exhaling completely and inhaling slowly and fully. Feel your body grow relaxed, your mind quiet. Inhale slowly and fully and feel the oxygen entering you, filling your lungs, carried by your blood, pumped by your heart. Feel the oxygen moving through every cell of your body. Feel it energizing you with life.
Exhale and feel the carbon dioxide leaving you. As it leaves, relax your body, starting at the top of your head. With each breath that you exhale, feel the relaxation moving downward, through your neck and shoulders, arms and fingers, chest and pelvis, thighs and calves and feet and toes. Exhale and relax. Inhale slowly and fully, holding the breath for a count of three, mind growing quiet and still. Exhale completely, body growing quiet and still.
Continue breathing, allowing your mind to become clear; allowing thoughts to move through, like a leaf carried on the wind, just noticing as they arise and letting them float away. Return your focus to your breathing – slow and steady, in and out. Mind growing still and body relaxing.
Continue for five full breaths, in and out. Breathe in and hold the breath for a count of three. Feel the energy coursing through you, nourishing you, sustaining you, energizing you. Exhale completely. Continue breathing deeply and fully. Feel your connection to the divine energy of Creation. Feel the energy of Creation coursing through you, nourishing you, blessing you.
When you’re ready, open your eyes.
You are never alone. Every breath connects you to the Sacred.