Appendix
– Magickal and Ritual Considerations
for a New Practitioner –
If you are just starting out as a ritualist or worker of magick, this section is for you. We will go over altar building, magickal dress, some magickal techniques, and some ritual design and templates.
Many opportunities for intuitive training are offered here, and there is a lot you can learn throughout the book in this regard. There are strengths to formal, structured, and performance-based practice. If a formal ceremonial format appeals to you, take what I offer here, adapt it, infuse it with your own spirit, and make it yours.
Altars
If you have an altar set up in your home you can dedicate to the goddess, you may do so by adapting the altar to her needs and desires. In this case, you will bring your rituals to the altar. If you have never built an altar, start with this section.
You can build your altar on any surface that makes sense to you. You may leave your altar up all the time or build it for rituals and take it down after you are finished. How “out” you are able to be about your practices will play a part in choosing the best option.
If you’re planning on leaving your altar up, do you want it to be in a more public and visible part of your home (or yard) or do you want it in a more private or secluded space? You may build your altar on a countertop, the top of a dresser in your bedroom, a table set up for this purpose, or outside on a stump, rock, log, or even on the ground.
If you’re creating a mobile altar that you can build and take down and rebuild for a specific ritual, you may find a milk crate or wooden or molded plastic box to serve the purpose well; you can store and carry all your altar pieces in the box, and then turn it upside down to use as your altar surface. If you use a milk crate, a cardboard, plastic, or wooden top will be needed to create a stable, solid surface.
To create your altar, you may want to place a cloth of an appropriate color on the altar surface. This color may be chosen from the correspondences offered in the chapters on the five faces, or you can simply intuit a color and go with that.
Next, place any tools and items you regularly use to create ritual space, such as candles, an incense censer or essential oil diffuser, and your magickal tools if you use them. If you like to make an offering or take a sacrament of wine, spirits, or juice in addition to water, make sure you have two chalices. Or you could use a shot glass and a chalice, depending on who you’re working with.
Place the parts that go into creating the altar specific to the ritual you are working, including your offerings to the aspect of her you are working with. Again, if you aren’t sure what these might be, look in the chapter of the face of the five you are working with.
Ritual Wear
When performing ritual alone I’m more likely to be skyclad (Witchy code for naked) than wearing ornate robes, but that’s mostly because I prefer being naked to being clothed. Even in group ritual I am not likely to be wearing fancy dress. The only time I can be relied upon to show up in ritual dress is when it is required such as in a performance-based ritual or when it has been commanded to me by the deity herself. When a goddess I’m working with requires costumery herself, of course I do as she requests. This is a phenomenon far from unheard of. Just like she will tell you what she wants on her altar, if you listen she may tell you what she wants you to wear to her ritual.
Generally, wear whatever makes you feel best. Whether you dress for comfort, for fashion, for devotion, or for fun, make sure you feel good. That’s really the only essential part. If you like wearing finery for ritual, do it up. If you want to be naked, do that!
Some Traditional Magickal Tools
There is very little standardization on tools and associations. As you will see, some items show up in more than one elemental category. Also, I have added some you won’t find in other lists of association. At risk of sounding like a broken record, do as you feel aligned to.
Air: blade/athame, pen, sword, feather, censer/incense, staff, wand, broom.
Gemstone: amethyst, fluorite, angelite.
Fire: wand, flame of any sort, blade/athame, staff.
Gemstone: tiger’s eye, tiger iron, carnelian, red jasper, fire opal, smoky quartz, obsidian.
Water: chalice, shell, cauldron, ocean glass.
Gemstone: pearl, blue calcite, sodalite, aventurine.
Earth: pentagram, disk, cauldron, mortar and pestle, salt, compass, rocks, lodestone.
Gemstone: crystals, hematite, jaspers, and all gemstones.
Center: bonfire, cauldron, altar, scrying mirror, lodestone, compass, candles, athame/blade, bell, pentagram.
Gemstone: crystals, lapis lazuli, gold, silver.
Broom: clearing space, warding. Also a fertility symbol.
Bell or singing bowl: to clear the space energetically, to call the spirits or quarters.
Tool Consecration
There are many ways to consecrate tools. Here is a very simple formula. There are two basic parts to consecrating: cleansing and charging. An optional third is dedicating. Again that main tool in consecration is your intention, so if that is in good working order, everything else is secondary.
Cleansing can be done with salt water or pure water if an item can take damp (some can’t, so use your good judgment), smoke (incense, wood fire, candle), air exposure, moonlight, sunlight, or soil.
If an item may rust or disintegrate, don’t use the water or soil options. If an item can take exposure to damp, burial for a time is a good way to let it discharge any negative energies it may be holding. Direct exposure to salt can also work, but iron combined with salt and dampness will get you rust, so be careful.
If you have a stone, gem, or crystal that you want to cleanse be sure to first research the care and feeding of your particular stone. Some stones cannot be soaked, but can be washed. Some, like pearls, are very absorbent; exposure to oils or solvents can discolor or degrade them.
Charging can be done using the same elements, but if you are using a tool for a connection to a particular element, it makes the most sense to use that element to charge the item. For example, if you’re going to use a wand to interact with fire you will want to charge the wand with fire; a candle is easy, and an outdoor bonfire—especially a dedicated festival fire—would be fantastic.
Dedication of your tools to one of her faces may be done in one of her rituals.
Magickal Timing
Moon cycles
Dark moon: the actual moment of the monthly Solar/Lunar conjunction, when the moon is not visible from Earth.
New moon: the point where the moon moves through the conjunction and is visible as a sliver crescent.
Quarter or gibbous moon: When the moon appears as a half-moon. The point between new and full, and between full and new.
Waxing: Increasing, or growing, from new to full.
Waning: Decreasing from full to dark.
Moon cycles are often employed in magick. The new to full and back to new cycle of the moon is used as a measure of magickal time, and different points in the lunar cycle offer different kinds of energy to power magick. Some practitioners begin spell workings on the full moon and work the spell though the following moon cycle back to full. Others start a spell at the new moon and work the spell through to the next dark moon. Some start, perform, or complete different kinds of magicks at different times of the moon.
Spells for growing, developing, bringing in, and increasing are often performed during the waxing phase as the moon grows larger, while spells for releasing, diminishing, letting go, or banishing are often performed during the waning phase between full and dark.
Year and a day
A year and a day is the amount of time many Wiccan and Neo-Pagan groups expect one to be in a group or coven before becoming an initiate, and sometimes between degrees. In some traditions, a year and a day is also a common “trial” hand-fasting period.
Elements of Ritual
There are as many ways to create and conduct rituals as there are ritualists to design them. Some people like grand, dramatic, scripted ritual. Some like simple, short, no-frills ritual. Some don’t mind reading out the spoken parts of ritual, the evocations and the invocations. Some would rather memorize it all before embarking on a ritual. Others prefer to make it up as they go along.
I deeply believe that there is no single “right” way to do ritual. The outlines, ideas, structures, and even invocations I offer here are suggestions. Even more shockingly, I will posit that every system of magick, ceremony, and ritual was made up by someone at some point along the way. Keep this in mind, and let it liberate you as you embrace magick in your own way.
Magickal consciousness is highly intuitive. As you feel ready to step more and more solidly into your relationship with magick, you will become a stronger and stronger ritualist. Trust yourself to come to the right words, the right movements. Trust your own voice, body, senses. Create your own invocations, castings, clearings.
I offered full and adaptable ritual outlines earlier in the book, as well as a more stripped down model in the actual ritual formats in previous chapters designed for her five faces. There’s something to be said for rituals that are simple enough to remember without a script.
Ritual, ceremony, and magick are very much about consciousness. There are many different ways to create one desired outcome.
Invocation and Evocation
Some use these terms interchangeably. Others don’t. For those who don’t, to evoke means to call, or invite, a being (goddess, element, entity) into the circle. Some just call evoking “calling in.”
To invoke means to call a being (goddess, element, entity) into and through, you. Or you may invoke a deity into another person who is prepared to take on that role for the ritual. See the section on spirit possession in chapter 12 for more.
Clearing Your Magickal Space
If you want to create a protected or sterile ritual space, but performing a banishing doesn’t feel authentic to you, you may instead want to smudge with sage, palo santo, copal, or other cleansing smoke.
If you don’t tolerate smoke, you may use salt traps to pull away negative energies. You may also draw your circle in salt to keep negative energies out. Or you can asperge the area with salt water.
You may also (or instead) mentally clear the area before you begin. This can be done by creating a simple banishing phrase and saying it out loud or silently. This phrase might be something like, “I now clear this space of all negative energies. This space is safe and protected.”
If you take any of these measures, your ritual space will be clear and protected. Some methods are likely to feel more solid or complete for you than others. Feel into it, and arrive at the one that best fits your sense of magick, aesthetic, style, and process.
Using Visualization in Ritual
Another word for visualization is imagining, so if visualizing is a stretch, try imagining on for size. Visualization, or imagining, can be used in place of movement or speaking in cases where moving or speaking aloud is not realistic. You can actually conduct a whole ritual in your mind through visualization or imagining. You simply imagine you are doing each thing. This is a great magickal skill to have, as sometimes doing a banishing ritual in the privacy of your mind is one of the most powerful things you can do to clear your space of negative energy or protect yourself.
There are traditions that use this method primarily for learning ritual. In some traditions you don’t do a ritual with voice and movement until you can do the whole thing without interruption in your mind.
Another use of visualization is to journey and find new information on spiritual levels. The journey may take you deeper into your own process, into other spiritual worlds, into contact with deities, spirits, angels, or other beings. Often journeying is a guided process either with a live guide or a recorded guided visualization.
Sometimes the process of journeying is aided by the use of sound, such as drumming or other music, in addition to voice. Journeying can also be intensified by use of incense, teas, scents, or any variety of plant medicines.
At its most basic level, just remember that visualizing can be as easy as imagining.
Scaling Things Down
The sections here are designed as large, ceremonial rituals that can be performed by one person, or can be adapted to be performed by a group as was outlined above. When there is space to perform a ritual in this manner it can be very powerful.
However, these steps can all be adapted to take up less space. If you don’t have room for four elemental altars, you can create a single altar and build in spaces to honor each of the elements on that altar, along with the goddess or aspect you are honoring. You may mark out these spaces with candles, herbs, gemstones, tools, goddess statuettes, or in any way that feels right.
A Witch’s Banishing Ritual
of the Pentagram, Modified from the
Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram
In addition to being its own elegant little ritual, the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram (also known as LBRP) is a simple and profoundly effective way to clear ritual space, cast the circle and call on the guardians of the gates all in one fell swoop. It’s a beautiful ritual when executed well, and can be modified to encompass your orientation. I call the modification I offer here A Witch’s Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram (WBRP). While retaining much of the structure of the LBRP, the WBRP encourages self-examination and personalization.
This ritual format originates in the Western ceremonial systems of magick, and therefore uses the directions in accordance with the assumptions held in those systems. You may switch the elements around as desired.
In the section titled “The Pentagram” below, you will be using words to clear and charge the quarters. The word will carry the intent of bringing the guardian, entity, or energy present. This can be done by assigning a goddess from a pantheon you work with to each quarter.
You may call upon goddesses for this work. For example, if you work the Roman pantheon you might call Aurora for air, Caia Caecilia for fire, Juturna for water, and Tellus for earth. If you work with the Orishas, is might be Ayao for air, Oya for fire, Oshun or Yemeya for water, Aja for earth. If you work with Feri Tradition Witchcraft, Arida for air, Tana for fire, Tiamat for water, and Belili for earth.
(I will stress that I am using these as examples of pantheons you may already work with, not suggesting these as goddesses to borrow without first creating a relationship.)
Since we are working with the fivefold goddess you may choose to use her names; perhaps Sapientia in the east, Potens in the south, Antiqua in the west, and Creatrix in the north. You may envision them all holding the circle with Femella in the center. Alternatively, you may say the name of the associated element according to your tradition or belief. You could work with what the elemental association represents; perhaps air as inspiration, fire as passion, water as regeneration, earth as wisdom.
Finally, you may use any of the words that have been used by any of the ceremonial magickians, including the names of the archangels—which you may potentially adjust to align with Vodou, Candomble, or Santería as well.
There are many formulas and phrases to use or modify, and you can easily find them by doing a web search on the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, or LBRP.
- 1. Enter circle.
- 2. At the center of your circle stand and face AIR, and perform The Witch’s Tree of Life:
- a. Point index and middle fingers of your dominant hand, folding other fingers.
- b. Touch forehead with the extended fingers, and say, “I am I.”
- c. Point to the sky and say “In harmony with the heavens,”
- d. Point to the ground and say “ … with the Earth,”
- e. Touch the front of your right shoulder and say “ … with the Sun.” (Adapt to left shoulder in the Southern Hemisphere if desired).
- f. Circle in front of chest to touch front of left shoulder and say “ … and with the Moon.” (Adapt to right shoulder in the Southern Hemisphere if desired).
- g. Bring hands to prayer position (hands facing each other in front of your chest) and say, “Forever and ever,”
- h. Lay left hand palm down on top of right hand palm up, in front of your solar plexus, and say, “ … so it is.”
- 3. The Pentagrams
- a. Walk to the AIR edge of the circle. (In Western ceremonial traditions, this is east.) Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, facing the altar or direction. Raise your dominant hand, and starting at the left lower corner trace a pentagram in the air with your finger, wand, or athame. You will use the earth-banishing pentagram for all quarters. (Note: If it works for you, visualize the pentagram in glowing light as you draw it. This may add impact.)
Banishing Pentagram
- i. Pointing toward the ground in front of your left foot, draw a line in front of you on the diagonal to up above your head.
- ii. From the apex, draw the line down toward your right foot.
- iii. Continue the line from your right foot toward your left shoulder.
- iv. Then from left to right in front of you, crossing at chest level.
- v. Then go from the right extension back to the left in front of your toe.
- vi. This completes the drawing of the pentagram. (You will do this four times—one for each of the directions.)
- b. Bring your hands back to your sides.
- c. Arms relaxed at your sides, slowly raise them to shoulder level, while you focus intently on the pentagram you’ve drawn and the word you will use to charge the direction in your mind.
- d. Once your arms are stretching out from your shoulders parallel to the ground (your body shaped kind of like a five pointed star), bring your hands to the sides of your face, palms facing back.
- e. Step forward strongly with your right foot into a shallow lunge while with both hands forcefully thrusting the energy forward, and say with intention the word you have chosen to charge this direction. With your intention you are energetically and magickally clearing your magickal and psychic space, and setting (or requesting, or calling to attention) a guardian in the direction you are facing.
- f. Step forward with your left foot to meet your right. Once standing fully erect, weight distributed on both feet, arms relaxed at your sides, bring your index and middle fingers of your right hand to your lips in the sign of silence—like you’re saying, “Shhh.” (This is the sign of the initiate.)
- g. Next, walk sunwise toward the next direction, while drawing an arc from one elemental point to the next. (This is the circle you are inscribing.)
- h. Standing facing the next elemental quarter, again draw the pentagram, and follow the same steps as above, using the word you have chosen for this element.
- i. Continue through the four directions in a sunwise progression, drawing an earth-invoking pentagram at each, and tracing an arc in the space between.
- j. Complete the arc back to AIR, having inscribed the whole circle and charged each of the directions.
- k. Turn sunwise to face the center of the circle again, and walk into the center of the circle.
- 4. Invocation of the forces of nature
- a. Standing in the center of the circle, turn sunwise until you again face AIR.
- b. Center, and then stretch your arms out at your sides until parallel to the ground, palms facing up.
- c. SAY: “Before me the rushing wind, behind me the raging sea, to my right hand the leaping fire, and to my left hand the cool and trembling Earth. For about me is the omnipresence of her body, and within me is the consciousness of the continuity of existence.” (Adjust for different elemental/directional correspondences as desired.)
- 5. Back to the Tree
- a. The practitioner performs the Witch’s Tree of Life again as in step 2.
Circle Casting and Opening
Depending on your magickal orientation, you may perform only this circle casting, and then move on to the rituals as I have written them for this book, for which you saw templates in chapter 14. Or, you may perform the circle casting and the calling of the elements (see below), and then the ritual. Or you may perform the WBRP banishing, then the circle casting, and calling the quarters—and deities, if you like, and then the body of the ritual.
You may choose to do none of the above, and use the simple format of the ritual templates as offered in chapter 14, or something else entirely. I will continue reminding you that you get to design your rituals in the ways that make the most sense to you.
To cast a circle is to create a bubble or sphere of sacred space. Many practitioners use an athame or a wand to cast and release the circle. With a blade (or a hand used with intention), it becomes the “cutting” of a circle. You are cutting yourself out of the mundane world, and into a space that is amplified, protected, and sanctified.
Casting and opening a circle, as any magickal act, must be done with intention more than anything. Adding actual function of movement may intensify. As you cast and then open the circle, visualize these things occurring. As you cast, envision the circle becoming a protective sphere. As you open, envision the sphere of sacred space dissolving into nothing.
Some Witches use the “Rule of Three” as a basis for ritual and magick. To cast a circle in the tradition I come from, you walk the perimeter of the circle three times sunwise to cast and three times opposite sunwise to open or release the circle. Like unwinding the magick. Depending on your tradition, you may have different assignations for the three times around, or walk the circle once to cast and once to open.
As you cast the circle you may voice an incantation (which you can write yourself, or find on websites or in any number of books), or you can do the casting and opening in silence. Whichever route you take, employ the energy of visualization in the casting and opening. You can lend your energy to the casting and opening without even saying a word.
Calling (aka Evoking) Elements and Spiritual Entities
The calling of quarters, also known as the elements, is a widespread Wiccan and Neo-Pagan practice. It is also employed in ceremonial, Feri, and many other traditions. Calling the quarters is asking the elements (or “guardians of the watchtowers” if you are ceremonially inclined) to be present in your working. Calling the elements is performed as an aspect of the WBRP, but if you choose to not perform the banishing, calling the elements may be done in concert with circle casting. Even if you do the WBRP, you may be inspired to call upon the elements in this more conversational manner.
You may call the four elements (air, fire, water, earth), or five (the four elements and center which is often associated with spirit, or with the ancients and future beings), or seven (the five already listed, plus above and below). You may also invoke Goddess and God if you desire.
Instead of any of these options, you may call each of the five as guardians (or servants) of the elements. You may do this with one each assigned to the element you associate with her.
Calling the elements and deities or energy forms can be done a lot of different ways. Many traditions have their own scripts for callings. Another way to do it is just to focus on the representations that the entities hold for you, the practitioner.
With all callings, it is traditional to close with the whole group saying a statement such as “So it is!” or “So mote it be” or “Air (or earth, fire, water, or she, or he) is here,” or “Hail, and welcome!”
Working in an intuitive manner, callings might go something like this:
For AIR: “Spirits of air, I call upon you. Please bring clarity, inspiration, and ease of communication to this circle. I call the spirits of dawn, new ideas, and freedom of thought. Please be present here, and bring your blessings to this circle. So it is.” And then ALL say, “So it is!”
For FIRE: “Spirits of fire, I call on you. Please bring passion, warmth, and transformation. I call on fire to warm and transform this sacred space. Bring your heat, desire, and light. Burn bright in this circle. So it is.” And then ALL say, “So it is!”
For WATER: “Spirits of water, I call on you. Please bring us sweet healing waters, tears of joy, and tears of loss. Bring to us the life, death, and regeneration all held in the watery womb. Please be present here, and bring your blessings to this circle. So it is.” And then ALL say, “So it is!”
For EARTH: “Spirits of earth, I call on you. Please bring wisdom, stability, creation, growth. I call on earth to bring us present to the very soil we stand upon, our feet growing roots like trees. Please be present here, and bring your blessings to this circle. So it is.” And then ALL say, “So it is!”
Continue, with whatever energies/entities you choose to call.
You may also wish to light candles at each elemental altar or on your central altar as part of the calling. The elements are most often called in a sunwise progression like the casting, usually starting with air, which in many cases is associated with the east, though some traditions start with earth.
Again, you get to decide. It’s your magick; do what feels right to you.
The Body of the Ritual
Believe it or not, all you have seen so far is preamble to the main body of the ritual, although it is quite important! The body of the ritual, where you do the working, comes next. In chapter 14 you saw ritual templates that could be plugged into this space depending on which aspect of her you are working with and what level of ritual (invocation, initiation, or dedication) you are performing.
This part is where you will make your offerings, and in group working where you will witness and be witnessed in your magickal work and commitments.
Releasing Quarters and Spiritual Entities
At the end of a ritual, entities and quarters that have been called must be released. Releasing goes in the opposite order of calling, starting with the last entity or quarter called, working back to the first. It can be very simply stated, such as “Spirits of Earth, thank you for your presence and your blessings on this circle” or as flowery as you like. In the tradition I grew up in, we would end the releasing with the statement “Go if you must, stay if you will. Hail, and farewell.” Use whatever wording feels right.
Some concepts to work with:
- • Gratitude to the entities who attend.
- • Permission for them to move on if they must.
- • Recognition that they are ever-present, and that it is our attention that leaves them.
Again, in group ritual, a group refrain is a useful piece of ceremonial technology. The phrase, “Hail, and farewell” works, as do many others.
A Comprehensive, Eclectic Ritual Outline
If you want to include all of the steps offered in your ritual outline, here’s a template of how it might look:
- 1. Perform WBRP.
- 2. Cast the circle by circumambulating three times sunwise.
- 3. Call elements in a sunwise progression, and call center.
- 4. Call deity/deities.
- 5. The central working of the ritual (healing, devotion, observation of sabbat).
- 6. Opening or ending the circle: at the end, everything is undone in the opposite order of how it was done, last to first. It’s like you’re walking back out to the world and you want to retrace your steps. Starting with the last invocation, release each deity, guardian, and/or entity you called. The releasing will move around the circle counter-sunwise.
- 7. Release deity/deities.
- 8. Release each element counter-sunwise.
- 9. Open the circle by circumambulating counter-sunwise three times.
- 10. Perform banishing counter-sunwise.
So Many Options!
You might be experiencing a bit of ritual design overload about now, and that’s okay! You’ve just consumed a huge amount of information. Take some time to let it settle. Try things on for size. Imagine yourself performing different sections that feel compelling to you. Feel into correspondences. Orient yourself to the space, or spaces, you will be performing your rituals in.
Over time you will find what works best for you, adapting and fine-tuning these elements to fit you and your relationship with your goddesses and gods even better. You will come into a fluidity with your invocations and other ritual language whether memorized or made up on the spot. You will become more and more comfortable in your capacity for design, and in your ritual facilitation.
As you work toward this, just remember you can use as many or as few of these elements as you like. The most important thing is that you build a ritual design that feels aligned and integrated for you, your gods, and whomever you practice with.