Eighth Lunation: Waxing Moon Cycle
Days 1–15
A Word to the Wise: Please note that there will be a Moon-Wise retreat schedule in effect at the start of the ninth lunation. Take time now to look at your schedule to find time for your participation in this important spiritual activity.
Day of Silence
Now that you are starting your eighth lunation, it is likely that by now you’ve had at least one experience of boredom with some of your practices. This may be especially true on days like today, where you find yourself challenged to stand steadfast within the purifying fires of silence.
The experience of boredom is a common one shared by all. But is it necessary? Does it say something about your own practice? And is there anything you can do about it?
The experience of boredom is one particularly common to humans because of our unique cognitive capacity to compare and contrast. Psychologist Steven Hayes says that humans linguistically and relationally frame together ideas, memories, sensations, and more.
One of the most common frames that we share is that of comparison. All of us learn the relationships between such ideas as better/worse, more/less, strong/weak, etc. But through no fault of our own, the same frames that serve to inform us can become the basis for real suffering.
If you unconsciously tie together opposing ideas such as better and worse, beautiful and ugly, etc., you are primed for misery. How? Say, for example, that on a birthday or during the winter holidays when you are supposed to feel happy, you suddenly find yourself feeling the opposite, which is sad. Or that when you are supposed to be doing an activity that relaxes the body, your heart beats fast, your breathing becomes shallow, and you suddenly find yourself feeling anxious.
Thus, boredom is a comment that the mind makes as it compares silence to other experiences that you have labeled “fun,” “exciting,” “interesting,” etc. The inner comment of boredom says to you, “This is not enough,” or “I want more from this experience.” Boredom may even build until it is a light form of anxiety in the body, which can be uncomfortable.
If you are truly attuned to the moment, to the life that is unfolding in this moment, then there is no such thing as real boredom. Silence is an opportunity to openly and fully engage with what goes on around you as well as inside of you.
The question I pose to you today is: Can you be present through boredom without attempting to manage either the circumstance or the feeling? Can you bring awareness to any feelings of boredom, any secret wishes that things would be more exciting, livelier, or more stimulating? Nothing more is needed from you for this process except simple awareness.
By questioning your boredom in this way, you disrupt the gravitational pull of habitual thinking. In this way, you free up channels of magical empowerment, no matter the circumstances of your life. You can choose a response to life’s circumstances, as magical folk do, rather than allow life’s circumstances to dictate which habit pattern you’ll exhibit.
The Witch’s magical path is not about seeking the safe (and limiting) haven of habits. It is about learning how to be alive, fully and freely, as you traverse this world. And from that aliveness, unimaginable stores of magical power flow forth.
Second Immutable Axiom
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Direction: |
Southeast |
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Power: |
The power of unity |
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Season: |
Late spring |
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Festival: |
Beltane |
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Theme: |
The interdependence of life |
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Date: |
May 1 |
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Axiom: |
A practitioner of the Old Ways lives with an intimate knowledge of life’s vast and inextricable interconnections. |
In Vedic mythology, “Indra’s net” is a magical net that hangs over Indra’s palace on Mount Meru. In the myth, Indra’s net has a multifaceted jewel at each vertex, and each jewel is reflected in all of the other jewels. Hindus use the image of Indra’s net to describe the mystical understanding of the interconnectedness of the universe. It describes the interpenetration of the microcosm (your personal experience in life) and macrocosm (the bigger life experience, shared by all).
Indra’s net serves as a metaphor for the magical axiom spoken of in the hermetic Emerald Tablet: “That which is below corresponds to that which is above, and that which is above corresponds to that which is below, to accomplish the miracle of the One Thing.” In other words, all things connect to one another. (Interestingly, the connections occur throughout all time and space.) Nothing is left out. No one and nothing is truly separate or alone in this magical view.
The Wiccan sabbat of Beltane focuses on the principle of interconnectedness. On May 1, this Witches’ celebration falls directly between the spring equinox and summer solstice, acting as an interconnected link between the two seasons. No single Wiccan sabbat sits in isolation. Each links to the next and usually references the one that precedes it (if not all of the others in the Wheel of the Year in one way or another). And all eight of the Witches’ sabbats are single interlinked units serving as a model for the interconnected stages of human life: birth, youth, maturity, old age, and death.
Witches incorporate many ancient customs that symbolize the interconnectedness of things. The ancient magical folk of Great Brittan and Europe would make pilgrimages to the holy wells first visited at Imbolc, thus linking one great Goddess festival to the next.
The lighting of bonfires also played a significant role in the Beltane customs from ancient days to present. The ancients would drive herds of cattle between bonfires, making sure they were enveloped in the fire’s ash and smoke. And folks would extinguish their home fires and relight them from a village’s central bonfire.
Bonfires serve as a great illustration of interdependence. A bonfire has three linked elements: wood, fire, and ash. All three are separate states. Firewood remains as such until there is friction, heat, and flame. When firewood burns, it remains in this state until all of it is consumed. All that remains is ash. Ash cannot become firewood again, nor can it become fire. All three states appear to be separate, yet the stage of ash is dependent on the state of fire, which is reliant upon firewood. None of these elements or states exists without the others. Similarly, life’s cycles move forward in links, spiraling in one direction, with each component of the cycle depending on another.
The ancient celebrations of Beltane, which marked the beginning of the summer season in the ancient world, were important for herdsmen. Beltane was the official time to drive herd animals to the fields for pasturing. And going even further back in time, the beginning of summer marked the beginning of the hunting season, linking together the herd animals, food, and human survival.16
At Beltane, Witches use sexual imagery and action to symbolize the links between us all. In the Charge of the Goddess, particularly the version penned by Doreen Valiente, the Goddess states that all acts of love and pleasure are the Goddess’s rituals. Rather than a call to hedonism, Valiente’s well-crafted poetry is a call for each of us to consider how all things connect, and to see that through recognizing and living within these interlinking connections it is possible to attain the natural state of grace, joy, or “pleasure.”
Once you stop living as though you are isolated, as though your life is completely your own, you can finally set aside behaviors that erode the fundamental nature of life. Yes, you and I are separate entities expressing ourselves through this existence. But in a fundamental sense, you and I are also expressing the same source, the same energy. And so is the chair in which you sit. And so is the dog barking across the street. And the garbage. And the flowers. Everything.
In fact, the whole cosmos is radiant with infinite magical action when you have your inner spiritual eyes opened to the experience of interconnection. Seeing life in this way reveals the folly of living with separations, as is our custom in the Western world. In the common mind, there are separations between the natural world and the people in it, between the animals that are domestic and those that are wild, between the state of our minds and the influx of emotions, between our emotions and our behavior, between science and spiritual insight. The list of dichotomies that live only in our minds is endless. Meanwhile, reality shows us another thing. The lines are blurry. The field in which we all exist is messy.
Perhaps it is wise to listen to the words of Rumi, the thirteenth-century Persian poet, who advised: “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there.” In order to live life through a unified view, it is important to check your personal and culturally shaped views at the door. In opening to a unified field of life, a natural joy floods through you.
Why? Because it becomes easier to see that you are not alone, nor were you ever. You are linked to it all. Each of us is a sparkling jewel in Indra’s net, reflecting all of the others.
It is a natural expression of the divine to reach out, to seek connection in this life. And when you live in accord with this immutable magical axiom, you invoke the joy of the Gods and welcome a deluge of natural grace into your life.
Power of Unity Incense and Oil
Magical Purpose: The Power of Unity Incense
is potent for bringing about insights and clarity of mind to see the unity in all things. Witches also use this blend to bless the altar and the participants in Beltane rituals. It is also burned during the Great Rite (ritual sexual union).
Power of Unity Incense
What you’ll need:
• Choose one of the woods that best suits your personal energies and spiritual aims.
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Sacred Wood |
Purposes |
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Birch |
Grace, feminine principle, growth, development, happiness, visions, sorcery, unadorned daily work, hardiness, resilience |
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Rowan |
The arts of all kinds, spinning, weaving, smithing, protection, spirit invocation, divination, healing |
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Ash |
Peace, healing, enchantments, transformation, resolution, mystic understanding, death and rebirth, Mother Goddess, shamanic flight |
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Alder |
Blending male/female principles, links to fairies, mysteries revealed, offerings to gods |
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Willow |
Healing arts, magic, cosmic birth, spiritual awakening, inspiration, purification, potential |
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Hawthorn |
Beauty, growth, love, sexuality, relationships, gateway to the otherworld, healing, wishes |
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Oak |
Strength, life, depth, blessing, protection, solidity, temperance, wisdom, Provider aspects of the God energies |
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Holly |
Growth, fertility, renewal, hope, luck, male principle |
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Hazel |
Wisdom, maturity, knowledge of other worlds, prophecy, visions, trances, sacred knowledge, spiritual devotion |
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Elder |
Magic, women’s mysteries, the Crone, darkness, protection, elves and unseen magical creatures |
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Apple |
Love, kindness, beauty, youth, generosity, relationships, magic, Witchcraft, fairies, healing, women’s mysteries |
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Yew |
Reincarnation, past lives, karma, law, speech, higher learning, mysteries |
Sacred Woods and Their Purposes
A Word to the Wise: In Wicca: A Year and a Day, you learned about many of the woods listed here, along with some of their basic magical properties and planetary alignments. The current list expands upon that basic knowledge.
• 1 teaspoon of each wood you choose to use
• 3 teaspoons dried rosemary
• Handful of dried rose petals
• 10 drops meadowsweet essential oil
• 1 ounce vegetable glycerin or other carrier oil
• An airtight container
Mix the dry ingredients first. Add the meadowsweet essential oil to the glycerin or carrier oil. Mix everything together until the dry ingredients take on the scent from the essential oil and the mixture looks fluffy. Keep stored in an airtight container until you use it.
Power of Unity Oil
Like the incense, the Power of Unity Oil ushers in clarity of mind to see unity in all things. Witches also use this blend to anoint the altar as well as the participants in Beltane rituals. Anoint both of the willing adult participants in the Great Rite with this magical oil blend.
What you’ll need:
• 4 drops meadowsweet essential oil
• 3 drops apple essential oil
• 2 drops rosemary essential oil
• Pinch of dried rosemary
• 1 ounce vegetable glycerin or other carrier oil
• An amber or dark-colored bottle with a tight lid
Mix the ingredients together and store in an amber or dark-colored bottle that has a tight lid to preserve the magical properties of the essential oils.
Finding Your Sacred Trees
Magical Purpose: Making interconnections with nature’s wise old ancestors.
There are many trees sacred to the folks of Old Europe. But, as you know from your practice thus far, sacredness abounds. The trees that Druids and Pagan folk found sacred were likely so because of their observed qualities: their tendency to survive, to remain green in harsh conditions, to produce beautiful flowers, to grow wild near sacred locations, etc.
Due to weather and soil conditions, many of the trees deemed sacred to our distant magical ancestors may not be growing in our neighborhoods. This means you will have to do as Witches across the ages have, and “act locally.”
All trees express the energies of the natural environment in which they live. Some are hardy because they live in harsh terrain or climates. Some are fragrant, and some seem regal.
Today, go out into your neighborhood and find trees that appeal to you. Research them. Find out what makes them special. Is one pest-resistant? Or fire-resistant? Or maybe there’s a tree that has survived a lightning strike. When you find one that especially calls your attention, spend some time with it. Sit beneath it. Breathe in its aroma, and touch the leaves and bark.
Once you experience the tree through your senses, find a comfortable sitting position at the base of the tree, with your back against the trunk. Close your eyes and imagine that your spine fuses with the tree trunk and that your body sinks into the base of the tree. Feel your body lengthen as your head becomes the leafy or branchy crown.
As you sit in unity with the tree, ask it to reveal its powers. What are they? Ask about the planet with which it aligns. Ask about sacred colors, aromas, and sounds that are part of the tree’s energies. Listen deeply.
When you have your responses, write them down in your journal. Trees are wise old survivors of the planet, and it has been my experience that on occasion they don’t readily give up their secrets. It might be best to try this procedure more than once, and on different days.
A Word to the Wise: Please note that there are two sets of activities for you on practice days 5–7.
Harvesting from Your Sacred Trees
Magical Purpose: Learning how to harvest while honoring the dignity of trees.
What you’ll need:
• A small amount of wine
• A 12-inch cutting from an old piece of your clothing
• Your chalice and athame
• Power of Unity Incense and Oil
• Thurible or incense burner
• Self-igniting charcoal (and something with which to light it)
• Your tree-pruning tools
You will be needing wood from your sacred tree for upcoming activities. The next days’ practice is about how Witches harvest sacred woods. Wiccan lore says that the Witch should cut wood intended for a sacred purpose from a living tree branch. This practice ensures that the limb retains the tree’s magical qualities. The practice in the upcoming days requires burning the wood, which will not be likely, given that freshly harvested wood typically contains too much moisture. However, if you collect a single branch from your sacred tree, you can add this to a larger bonfire.
There are practical branch-harvesting considerations that Witches would be wise to consider. Use proper tools, such as shears, loppers, and a pruning saw. For harvesting, choose only a smaller branch rather than a large limb. Try to find a branch that is no more than 1–2 inches thick. When making your first cut in the branch, do so just outside the branch collar, which aids the tree in sealing the wound quickly. Make the first cut on the underside of the branch, about five inches from the branch collar.
I no longer endorse using a pruning salve on the limb cut, as this may promote microorganisms and fungal growth. Trees have their own built-in healing mechanism to handle wounds.
Harvesting Sacred Woods Rite
Find a piece of clothing that you no longer need and snip out a 12-inch-long “ribbon” of the fabric. Bring this and the other tools to the tree. Look at the tables of planetary hours (in days 11–12 of the second lunation) and time this ritual so that it aligns with the planetary influence you discovered while doing your vision work with the tree in previous days.
Once at the tree site, light the Power of Unity Incense and walk around the tree four times, sunwise. Using the Power of Unity Oil, draw an invoking air pentagram on the east side of the tree trunk with your finger. On the south side of the trunk, use the oil to draw an invoking fire pentagram. Draw an invoking water pentagram with the oil on the west side of the trunk. Finally, draw an invoking earth pentagram on the north trunk side.
Go clockwise halfway around the tree until you are facing the tree from the south. While holding your athame, cross your arms over your chest in the Osiris position and say:
Thou who art good and strong
And sure,
Thou who smells of the
Rich earth,
Thou who grows from the
Pure land,
I ask for thy gifts
And thank thee for thy
Living treasures.
Set the athame down. Pour wine into the chalice and dribble a small amount over the branch you intend to cut.
Using your pruning tools, harvest the tree branch. Make an X mark with your oil near the wound, saying:
May you come to healing in time.
Cense the wound and say:
May you come to fullness in time.
Pour the remaining wine onto the ground at the tree base. Take the athame in both hands and place the blade tip into the wine-drenched soil, saying:
May you come to fruition in time.
Tie the piece of cloth snipped from your clothing around the cut branch stub. This is left as an offering, but it also ties your energy to the tree. Take the harvested tree branch and leave without saying more.
Bonfire Walk
Magical Purpose: A sacred rite for blessings by fire.
One of the key Beltane practices from Old Europe’s pagan past is either jumping through bonfires or walking between two of them. I have provided adjustments to this rite for city-dwelling readers. One of the key interests of the ancients in bonfire practices is to ensure that smoke from the fires engulfs anyone or anything that passes through. The ash and smoke were sacred remainders of the holy firewood being burned, and they carried the essence or spirit of the wood.
A Word to the Wise: Be exceedingly cautious when using fire in a ritual. Take care that animals and children are safely away from any fire and that you have a plan in place if the fire leaves your contained area. During a fire-walk, make sure you wear fire-retardant clothing or at least clothing that does not drape. Be sure to have sand, water or fire extinguishers, and cell phones available in the event of an emergency. If doing this activity feels unsafe, skip it and pick up with the next day’s practice.
Version I: Outdoor Ritual
What you’ll need:
• Wood from your sacred tree
• Dried wood for kindling
• Power of Unity Incense and Oil
• A lighter or matches
• Several gallon containers of water
• Shovel
• Bag of sand, gravel, or mineral soil (found at garden shops)
• Your circle-casting tools
• An altar cloth that you can spread on the ground
This rite requires you to bring many items to the outdoors. The entire rite can be a lot to manage, so this is best done with other participants, if you know of any to join you. Before you cast a circle in the outdoors:
• Know local fire restrictions. If going to a park or mountain area, you can usually obtain fire-related information from rangers, and sometimes you may need a permit for the fire. Plan ahead, if you can. If there are too many complications, you can use version II of the ritual, which can be done indoors.
• Look for posted information on signs or kiosks regarding fire danger. Be aware that in extremely dry and/or windy conditions, fire activities may not be permitted at all, nor should you attempt them.
• Create the fire pits. The pits for your fire should be nonflammable earth (it might even be best to add sand, gravel, or mineral soil to the base of the pit). Intense heat often sterilizes healthy soil, so choose your two fire-pit sites mindfully. Make the pits shallow enough to allow air circulation but deep enough to keep the fire contained. Set the two pits far enough apart so you can walk between them comfortably and safely while walking from west to east through the center of your circle.
• Clear away flammables. Make sure there are no dry leaves, twigs, pine cones, etc., that could catch fire in the immediate area. If there are, clear them away.
A Word to the Wise: Be sure you check ahead of time whether or not you can use your athame in the outdoor space without legal trouble.
You can now cast your circle, using your usual altar tools.
Be sure to cast the circle around the entire area where the rite will take place, including the two fire pits. During your consecrations with elements, use the Power of Unity Oil to consecrate yourself in the names of the Gods.
It is now time to light the fires.
• To start the fire, build a small “teepee” of dry sticks, twigs, and forest duff, and ignite it.
• Add larger pieces of wood as the fire gets underway, reserving the harvested branch from your personal sacred tree. As you light the kindling, say:
Fire, flame in the Old One’s name.
Hold the harvested branch and smear it with Power of Unity Oil from one end to the other. To increase the likelihood that it will burn, make sure the wood is thoroughly covered with oil. Once this is complete, place the harvested branch into one of the two fires. While doing this, say:
I call upon the Great Mother.
Place a small quantity of the incense in your palm and toss it into the opposite fire pit. While doing this, say:
I call upon the Horned Lord.
Grab your athame and stand before the two fires with arms folded across your chest in the Osiris position. Open your arms to the Mother magical pass position (with palms facing forward) and walk between both bonfires very slowly. As you do this, focus on the sensations on the soles of your feet as they come into contact with the earth, feeling sensations of pressure, balance, weight, etc.
After you safely pass between both fires, turn around to face them. Close your arms into the Osiris position once more and say:
Come, O come, ye Lords of Fire,
Bring forth blessings and inspire,
Health and hearth, love and peace,
By all the Gods these shall increase!
Stay with the fires now until they have burned to white ash completely. While they are burning as white embers, watch them closely for magical sigils that seem to form within the nooks and crevices. You may see a symbol only once, so be prepared with a twig so you can draw it on the ground beside you. Or you can use paper and pencil to draw it. If you’re like me, you may wait to see if the symbol repeats itself before you jot it down.
Once you have one or more symbols, hold your hands over each one and close your eyes. Ask that the meaning of the symbol be made known to you. Listen carefully to your intuition, and most importantly, remember what you have discovered.
Extinguish the fires by pouring water on them, stirring the ashes, and then applying more water. Repeat as often as needed. Ashes should be cool to the touch at this point. Using your index finger, take up some of the wet ash and draw the magical sigil(s) you saw in the fire on your body. The most powerful body locations are the forearms, forehead, and center of the chest.
Be certain that the embers are out and cold. Cover them with dry soil, and then pour more water over this before you leave.
Version II: Indoor Ritual
What you’ll need:
• Wood from your sacred tree
• Power of Unity Incense and Oil
• A deep, heat-resistant pot (such as a cauldron, a deep cooking pot, or a cast-iron pot)
• A trivet or large ceramic tile
• A lighter or matches
• Self-igniting charcoal
• Some sand, gravel, or mineral soil (found at garden shops)
• Your circle-casting tools
Cast your circle as usual, making sure to include enough space for you to jump the cauldron. During your consecrations with elements, use the Power of Unity Oil to consecrate yourself in the names of the Gods.
Place the ceramic tile or trivet (or anything that can act as a buffer between the vessel in which you light your fire and the floor, to prevent singeing). Put the cauldron on top of the tile, and place the charcoal in the base of the cauldron. Light the charcoal and heap some Power of Unity Incense over the coal. As you do so, say:
Fire, flame in the Old One’s name.
Take the harvested branch and smear it with Power of Unity Oil, then set this across the top of the cauldron so the smoke from the incense passes across it. Stand with your palms open and facing the smoke and the branch, saying:
I call upon the Great Mother and the Horned Lord.
Take your athame and stand before the smoking cauldron in the west of your circle (you are facing the east) with arms folded across your chest in the Osiris position. Open them up to the Mother magical pass position (with palms facing forward) and very carefully jump the cauldron. (Again, be sure to have a safety plan in place should you stumble and knock over the cauldron.)
After you safely jump the cauldron, turn around to face it. You’ll be facing west now. Close your arms into the Osiris position once more and say:
Come, O come, ye Lords of Fire,
Bring forth blessings and inspire,
Health and hearth, love and peace,
By all the Gods these shall increase!
Sit close to the cauldron now until all of the incense has burned to embers. Watch the embers closely for magical sigils and signs that seem to form within the nooks and crevices. You may see a symbol only once, so be prepared with paper and pencil to draw what you see. You may decide to wait for the symbol to repeat itself before you jot it down.
Once you have sketched one or more symbols, hold your hands over each one and close your eyes. Ask that the meaning of the symbol be made known to you. Listen carefully to your intuition, and most importantly, remember what you discover from your inner voice.
Extinguish the coal and the embers by pouring a small portion of the salt/water mixture from your altar over them. Using your index finger, take up some of the wet ash and draw on your body the magical sigil(s) you saw in the embers. The most magical body locations are the forearms, forehead, and center of the chest.
Doors as Links
Magical Purpose: Creating interconnections through doorways.
What you’ll need:
• Brightly colored flowers (about a dozen or more, if possible)
• At least 12 feet of brightly colored thread (Try a colorful needlepoint thread, which is usually thicker than typical sewing thread.)
• A long tapestry needle (usually with an elongated hole)
• Brightly colored beads (optional)
• Power of Unity Incense and Oil
Traditionally, doorways held great mystical significance to our pagan ancestors. Doorways received special attention during Beltane celebrations. The Irish felt that “fairies,” or sídhe (pronounced sheeth-uh), were most active at Beltane. In parts of Ireland and England, the sídhe were keepers of the doorways, which are interconnections between the human world and that of the Mighty Ones. There are Irish and English folk customs involving the decoration of doors and windows with brightly colored garlands, typically consisting of orange, yellow, or red flowers in recognition of them as “fairy doorways.”
Village pagan folk took steps specifically to protect themselves from the sídhe, who they feared might take their children across the doorway between the seen and unseen worlds. One remedy was to leave them food at the doorstep. According to traditional lore, sídhe favor dairy foods. Other customs for keeping the sídhe from doing harm included turning one’s clothing inside-out and carrying iron or salt in the pocket.
A Word to the Wise: Some scholars, notably anthropologist and folklorist Margaret Murray, advanced a theory about the origins of Witchcraft that included the fairies. In Murray’s view, the fairies were a race of people who were smaller and darker than their fair-skinned neighbors in the British Isles. She further noted that these people practiced and taught a folk-magic religion in Old Europe that became the target of the Christian Church during the Witch trials in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Murray suggested that the customs referred to in confessions extracted from common folk by witch-finders were actually those that dated back to pre-Christian antiquity. Murray’s ideas played a significant role in the development of Witchcraft in the 1920s. Soon after her writings appeared in 1917 and 1921, covens and “witch” groups began to sprout up in various locations in England. One such notable coven that evolved from these ideas was that of Gerald Gardner in the New Forest area.
Thread your needle with at least twelve feet of thread. Once you loop the thread through, tie the two loose ends together to form a knot. Anoint the entire thread with Power of Unity Oil.
Cut the stems off the flowers so that all that remains are the flowers and their hips. Use the needle to pierce a flower through the center of its hip. Drag the flower across the length of thread until it sits on the base knot. As you pierce the flower, say:
I string together the whole of life.
Tie another knot six inches above the flower. Pierce another flower and slide this down to rest on the second knot. Again, say:
I string together the whole of life.
Continue this process until your twelve flowers are all strung together. If you have more flowers than this, the garland will look that much more full and festive. You can also try stringing brightly colored beads between the flowers to add more color and charm. Choose magical colors of significance to your life right now. For more information on colors and their meanings, refer to the color chart from days 21–22 of the fourth lunation.
Next, light the Power of Unity Incense and consecrate your festoon in the smoldering incense. Swag the garland so that it drapes down and hangs in a place of prominence over your home’s entryway or your bedroom door.
Each time you pass beneath the flowers, use this as a reminder of your interconnection with life.
Magical Stillness: Preparations
Magical Purpose: Tapping solar energies to help create magical pauses.17
What you’ll need:
• A copy of the Second Pentacle of the Sun (see illustration). It would be convenient to print this pentacle from your color printer (if you own one) in yellow or gold ink. If not, you will have a chance to retrace the image with your own yellow or gold ink.
Second Pentacle of the Sun
• Yellow or gold ink
• 1 yellow votive candle
• A feather quill pen
• Sun Incense and Oil
• Your circle-casting tools
Information about the Second Pentacle of the Sun:
• Along the spokes of the central wheel, you’ll find the mystical characters of the Sun.
• Along the border, you find the names of the spiritual forces that govern the Sun’s magical force: Shemeshiel, Paimoniah, Rekhodiah, and Malkhiel. These names are of “subordinate” spiritual forces (the Key of Solomon refers to them as “angels”) to those of the Sun.
We all have magical potential, but there are factors that inhibit the growth of this potential. Have you noticed that some people seem more empowered than others? Well, what seems true is actually so. Some people’s magical workings seem to have great effect. The individuals themselves are robust and healthy. They have gravitas. The question is why.
As you’ve likely experienced by now, it is very important to create spaces of stillness for yourself periodically. But what can be even more powerful is stopping at various times throughout the day for a sacred pause of magical stillness. These sacred pauses allow small gaps to occur between whatever is happening and our tendency to revert back to our storylines. Creating a magical pause opens up the possibility for us to come in intimate contact with the present moment, which exists on another plane, far removed from the world of story.
It is important to know that “fixing” our conditioning, our habit thoughts, is a dead end. There is nothing that requires fixing. You are whole just as you are now. But to liberate yourself from the karmic effects of conditioning, all you need to do is pause and recognize. Rather than buying into your inner-churning story, take a step backward and make space around it.
When we don’t do this, we live in a little “thought bubble.” We limit our lives to relating to the thoughts and stories we have about the world, about our lives, rather than relating directly to life, to the objects, events, and sensations of our direct experience. Taking the pause starts the process of allowing us that naked contact without the buffer of mental explanation.
The procedure for the next couple days can help facilitate the magical silence. Our practice is to tap into solar energies, because pausing takes conscious effort. The Sun aligns with a variety of activities, but most important of all, it governs those of focus, intention, and conscious effort.
Even though these next couple days of practice will come and go, it will be important for you to maintain this essential magical pause practice on a daily basis.
Today’s working is about creating and charging the Second Pentacle of the Sun. Start by finding the Second Pentacle of Sun online and printing it out in yellow ink (if that is available for you). Before you print it out, be sure to match the one you find online with the one printed in this book. Or simply photocopy the one from this book.
Cast a circle in the hour of the Sun (refer to the planetary hours charts in days 11–12 of the second lunation). Place the Second Pentacle of the Sun on your altar pentacle. Light the yellow votive candle and place it atop the pentacle image. Light the Sun Incense and retrace the perimeter of your magic circle with its burning smoke. Anoint yourself at the heart chakra with Sun Oil, tracing (as best you can) the magical letters of the Sun:
Magical Letters of the Sun
Take the Second Pentacle of the Sun and bless it (lightly) with water and earth (salt/water). Try not to smudge the ink. As you bless the pentacle, say:
Great Mother and Horned One, (you may also use the names of the Goddess and the God with whom you are working)
Deign to bless and consecrate this seal of Art,
That it may obtain necessary virtue through thee,
To make whole, to subdue the mind,
And to forge a sacred unity.
Then pass the image through your fire candle’s flame quickly, so as not to ignite it. Pass it through the smoke of your smoldering Sun Incense. As you bless the image with fire and air, say:
Great Mother and Horned One, (you may also use the names of the Goddess and the God with whom you are working)
Deign to bless and consecrate this seal of Art,
That it may obtain necessary virtue through thee,
To make whole, to subdue the mind,
And to forge a sacred unity.
Using the yellow or gold ink and the feather quill, retrace the images of the Second Pentacle of the Sun on your computer-printout pentacle. While you do this, concentrate, imagining that your activity is imbuing the pentacle with spiritual power and your intention to create daily sacred stillness.
When you are finished, place the yellow votive candle on top of the pentacle and intone the following, based on the Orphic hymns and Agrippa’s formulation of forms aligned with the Sun. Begin by intoning the names of spirits aligned with the Sun:
Eko, Eko, Vau! (pronounced Vow)
Eko, Eko, Eloh! (pronounced Ee-low)
Eko, Eko, Shemeshiel! (pronounced Sheh-meh-she-el)
Eko, Eko, Paimoniah! (pronounced Pie-moan-ee-ah)
Eko, Eko, Rekhodiah! (pronounced Reck-oh-dye-ah)
Eko, Eko, Malkhiel! (pronounced
Mal-key-el)
With your wand, draw three sunwise circles above your head, imagining that you are collecting solar energy in the wand as you do this. Then quickly point the wand over the pentacle image, imagining the solar energy entering it as you say:
Ye golden Titan, whose eternal shine
With broad survey, you illumine the divine,
Self-born, unwearied in your golden light,
Behold he comes, he who vanquishes the night:
Lord of the Seasons, with your fiery car,
Your shimmering light dances, beaming afar:
All who see your golden might,
Know you also as Father of the Night.
Agile and hearty, honored Sun,
Fiery and bright, O Horned One.
Foe to wicked, and good man’s guide,
Over all you shall preside:
Immortal flames you set and rise,
Great eye of nature and starry skies,
The world’s great Father, over all you rule,
As Lord of Justice, Lover, and Fool,
We ask that on our rites you shine,
And bless thy suppliants with magic divine!
Stand while imagining the pentacle blazing with a brilliant golden light. When you sense you have empowered the pentacle sufficiently, say the following consecration:
Gracious Goddess, Mighty Horned One,
You who rule the world,
Who guide the tides of change,
Bless this magic I set before thee;
Let your power in this act of enchantment unfurl,
Let the task be worthy of your countenance,
Let its aims be joy and peace,
Let it bring forth thy harmony;
May it come to full fruition in thy names.
So mote it be!
Close your circle after this, saying no further words at all. In disassembling the circle, start by extinguishing the yellow votive candle.
Full Moon Ceremony
During this lunation, please incorporate the following components into your ceremony:
• The Cabalistic Cross (which you should do before Drawing Down the Moon)
• Use of Supplication Incense and Oil prior to Drawing Down the Moon
• Drawing Down the Moon
• Aspecting the Goddess, speaking her words
• Reading the Charge of the Goddess
• A meditation or practice related to the work you covered during the past several days.
16. Sir James G. Frazer, The Golden Bough: The Roots of Religion and Folklore (New York: Avenel Books, 1981), pp. 254–258.
17. Traditionally, the pentacle is for restraining the solar spirits that are aligned with pride and arrogance. In our case, we are actually looking to sidestep the “pride” and “arrogance” that build up walls, keeping us involved with habit behaviors.