As we live our everyday lives, we find ourselves engaging more and more in worship. Before it becomes action, worship is focus; it is what is called mindfulness. To some people worship means keeping an “attitude of gratitude,” and to others worship is seeing the “worth-ship” in life. It’s creating altars and making music. It’s saying, I love and cherish all forms of life because I recognize something of which I am a part, and I want to celebrate my recognition.
We can worship in a specifically demarcated holy place or we can worship just about anywhere on our planet, which is itself a holy place. We can sit or stand before our own altar and understand how an altar is a miniature earth that embodies all the earthly, earthy powers. We can worship with silent prayer, do a private ritual in our bedroom first thing in the morning, or gather and hold hands with like-minded and like-hearted people to strengthen our connections with one another and with all our kin on earth.
Since we don’t know, however, exactly how people living as far back as the Stone Age worshipped the Goddess, we who live today have to use our best guesses about the ancient forms of worship. We use our intuition, our vision, and hints and suggestions from many sources, including archaeological discoveries and evidence from books in which the old ways were described in order to anathematize them.
This makes us a very eclectic bunch, and when we worship we often make it up as we go along. That’s one reason why there are so many traditions and processes, so many ways of doing rituals (which all seem to work), and so many books that seem to contradict each other. I believe that they really complement each other. I believe that Witchery, or Wicca, is catholic in the original sense of the word: general and allinclusive. Whatever our method of worship, what we’re doing is practicing the presence of the Goddess.
As we dance with our Mother Earth to welcome the Age of Aquarius (or the New Age or the New Millennium), therefore, more and more people are wondering if the things we measure only with our minds and machines are enough to nourish our lives. We’re asking if the things we buy and sell are what we really want, after all. We’re looking for the invisible, nourishing dimension of life that hasn’t been really accessible since the Industrial Revolution lined us all up and started whirring, cranking, and belching at us. We’ve been reaching forward to new and improved technology or backwards to the phony, sitcominduced “traditional family values.” But I wonder…have we been reaching in the right direction?
What would happen if we reached inward instead? If we laid hands on the small, dark, precious seeds of creativity and love that rest deep inside us all? Instead of focusing on outward things, what would happen if we focused inward?
Whatever form our worship takes, our intention is to do what more and more people are doing: re-creating the sacred dimension in their lives, in life itself. We are renewing our personal connection to the divine.
As far as we can tell from the archaeological evidence, the Neolithic Civilization of the Goddess lived closer to the earth than we do today. They probably called her Mama back then and lived in harmony with the light and the dark, observing and celebrating the phases of the moon and the year. We who are creating the new earth-based religions — we who are their modern children — are inventing modern versions of ancient observations and celebrations.
We’re observing and celebrating the re-emergence of open worship of the Goddess. To use the current jargon, we’re seeing new patterns and changing our paradigms. We’re merging the sacred with the secular. We’re recalling our true essence, which is both immanent and transcendent. We’re engaged in life both as it is and as it can be.
Have we come back again to paradox? Yes, indeed. It’s difficult to write about the sacred dimension because words are intrinsically inadequate to the job. In writing this book, I’m using a left-brain medium to approach a right-brain process, and what comes out are paradox and extravagant language. But you’ll also find paradox and extravagant language in books on Zen and yoga and the Qabalah, in Sufi and Hassidic mysticism, in the words of the Christian and New Thought mystics, and in the Course in Miracles books.
I think this fact helps to explain why most of the books on Goddess ritual are like cookbooks: it’s easier to give a recipe than to wander around in the batter. How do we describe the indescribable? How do we visualize the unseeable, apprehend the impalpable, ponder the unthinkable?
As simply as I can say it, the practice of the presence of the Goddess is a way to get centered in your own center. Other people have other names for this center: God, Christ Consciousness, Higher Self, Nirvana, Unity With All, Reverence For Life. I call this center the Goddess.
Of the many paths that lead us to the Goddess, I believe that the following four are the most familiar and relevant.
The first path is largely intellectual. We need intellectual content — facts, history, theory, philosophy, thealogy — and intelligent discussion of that content so we don’t fall into silliness or rote repetition of practices handed down from some god or guru or would-be highest of all high priestesses. We need to think for ourselves. We need to think about what we’re doing, not do it just because someone said we should. When you adopt a mystical sensibility, therefore, do not abandon your common sense. Keep your wits about you and throw some healthy skepticism in the mix.
A Ritual of ThoughtfulnessTake a few minutes to find out what’s on your mind. What are you currently reading? What are you thinking about these days? What has been bothering you? What do you need to learn? What questions do you hear yourself asking? If you need to, sit down with a tablet and pencil and make a list. From your list, select one topic1 that seems to need resolution, or at least direction.
Set up your altar. If you have a figure of Athene, set Her in the center. You can also set anything else that signifies Deep Thought to you on your altar, but I never put books on an altar where there are lighted candles.
Holy Powers of Elemental Air, goddesses and gods of the mind,
I seek intellectual understanding,
I seek to know [name your issue].
Holy Powers of Intellectual Understanding,
Come into my life, touch my every step, bless me with your
Gifts of reason, judgment, discrimination, the fresh air of newideas.
Great and generous Powers,
I need to know,
I need to think,
I need to understand.
Now put these thorny issues out of your conscious mind. Read a mystery, watch your favorite video, go to work. At the same time, know that the deities work in mysterious ways. Remain alert for hints and leads and suggestions. Perhaps you’ll overhear a conversation that jogs your mind, perhaps someone will mention a book or magazine to you — however it happens, you will receive food for thought. Think about it.
The second path is more active. No one I know is as dedicated and selfless as MotherTeresa or Albert Schweitzer, to be sure, but we can do good works wherever we live on the planet. We can do them out of kindness and the recognition that we’re all related, and not out of that old-time fear that we won’t go to heaven if we don’t. We can be courteous to our coworkers, yield on the freeway, volunteer to feed the homeless on a national holiday, or give money to a charity. Even our smallest good works are beneficial. They’re not only mutually beneficial, but they also add that much more kindness to the aura of the planet. Believe me, kindness is even more important today than it was five or ten years ago.
A Ritual of Good WorkHomelessness and social turmoil. Floods and tornadoes. World hunger and the uncountable number of children living in poverty. It seems as if there’s no end of calls for us to do good works in the world. What issues touch your heart? What causes would inspire you to actually do something? Do you care about Tibet or seemingly insurmountable problems in African nations? Wait — let’s stay closer to home. Do you have a friend with cancer or AIDS? Do you actually notice the homeless and hungry people in your town?
Again, take some time to sit down with a tablet and pencil and find out what you would like to better understand. Perhaps you can sort through the appeals you received in the mail this week. Select a cause you really care about and are ready to do something about.
Set up your altar. Perhaps you will want to lay a photo of a philanthropist or activist you admire on it, or perhaps a figure of Aphrodite, who is not just a goddess of love but the Divine Creatrix.
Holy Powers of Elemental Earth, goddesses and gods of the manifest world,
I seek understanding of the purpose of charity, of good works,
I seek to know [name your issue].
Holy Powers of Practical Understanding,
Come into my life, touch my every step, bless me with your
Gifts of groundedness in the Goddess, of survival and prosperity.
Great and generous Powers,
I need to know,
I need to take action,
I need to understand.
Now go about your daily life. Put your yearning to do big good works aside and do the small works: weed and water your garden, clean out those overstuffed closets, sharpen and polish your tools and hang them in their proper places. Opportunities for philanthropy will come to you. Perhaps you’ll get a mail appeal that inspires you. Perhaps you’ll get a phone call from a politician who finally makes sense. Perhaps a friend will invite you to a lecture or other event that makes you stand up and stand for something. Go for it.
The third path is both active and intellectual. This is the scientific path (maybe it’s technological as well), and ritual may be its most obvious application. An experientially oriented person does enough research to create a ritual with the correct associations and actions, does the ritual according to a written plan, and makes notes on performance and outcome. On the experiential path tread ceremonial magicians and other people who manipulate realities to get results.
Some people make a big fuss, however, about “manipulative” magic, which they see as magic that makes people do what they don’t want to do. Such magic is rightly a Big No-No, but the underlying issues are control and coercion, and these are ego-magic.
There’s nothing wrong with manipulation. Any time you’re doing something, you’re being manipulative. That is, you’re operating or controlling something by the skilled use of your hands. This is true when we hold a pencil and make letters, when we cook or scrub or sew, when we cast a circle. We need to understand that all magic is manipulative, whether you’re doing it with your mind (visualization) or your hands. The word comes from the Latin, manipulus, “handful,” which comes from manus,“hand.”2 Related words are “manual” (as in “manual labor") and “manufacture.” There’s no gender issue here, either. “Man” in Latin is vir, whence comes virtue.
Because the magical scientists (also called magi) are such highly serious people most of the time, I call the path Experiential Play to remind us all to take it seriously without becoming too solemn. Mistakes and laughter are a valuable part of the process.
A Ritual to Manipulate RealityDo your rituals work? Are you having any kind of experience with the other realities? How are you getting along in your everyday reality? Do you have power issues, control issues? Do you spend too much time trying to get people to do things? What is happening in your world?
Sit down with your tablet and pencil and write about what’s going on in your life. What issues or lessons or challenges seem to be coming up again and again and again? As before, select just one topic or issue.
Build your altar. In the center, place a figure of Brigit or items that symbolize creativity to you — your computer mouse, a block of wood or stone waiting to reveal what can be carved from it, a box of crayons or fingerpaints.
Holy Powers of Elemental Fire, goddesses and gods of creativity,
I seek understanding of the nature of reality and the purpose of change,
I seek to know [name your issue].
Holy Powers of Inventive Understanding,
Come into my life, touch my every step, bless me with your
Gifts of passion, enlightenment, growth, and transformation,
Great and generous Powers,
I need to know,
I need to understand.
As you move though the world you live and work and play in, watch yourself. Watch other people. See if you can see energies, your own, theirs, the energies of groups, the energies of things most people consider inanimate. Do not take action. Simply observe. And as you move through the world, energies will arise where you least expect them, unexplained things will happen. You will become more aware. You will learn that you can change your own reality without controlling other people all the time. Pay attention.
The fourth path, like deep thought, can be passive and, like anything else, devotion can be taken to messy extremes. I see it as pure love, as an unconditional love that sees clearly and focuses on the center. Devotion needs to stay grounded, though, and sometimes it needs to be tough. It always requires a good dose of common sense.
A Ritual of DevotionWhat is love? How many of its varieties are present in your life? What do you love? How do you express your love? Are your friendships deep and stable? Are you yearning to be partnered? Are you loving and beloved by anyone besides your dog or cat?
Sit down again with your tablet and pencil and write about love and its place in your life. Select an issue centering on love that you seek to understand.
As you build your altar, do so with care. Are you merely doing a job here, or is your altar a work of your love? If you have a figure of Isis or Kuan Yin, put Her in the center. You can also put other things that symbolize love on your altar.
Holy Powers of Elemental Water, goddesses and gods of love,
I seek understanding of what love really is,
I seek to know [name your issue].
Holy Powers of Emotional Understanding,
Come into my life, touch my every step, bless me with your
Gifts of steadfastness, tenderness, empathy, and compassion.
Great and generous Powers,
I need to know,
I need to feel what love truly is,
I need to understand.
As you do what you do in your everyday life, stop worrying about finding love or a new lover. Focus on doing what you do with attention. Take off your masks and be yourself, and be open to the thoughts and feelings and actions of other people. Instead of trying to draw love to yourself, focus on giving love. As any poet or novelist will tell us, love can come in unexpected ways, and even if love does not come to you, the world is still filled with it. All you need to do is feel it.
When we practice the presence of the Goddess, we follow all four of these paths at once. Sometimes we emphasize one path or another, but the ideal is balance. We need to add feeling to our thought and think about what we’re feeling. We need to be mindful when we practice the presence of the Goddess.
What you’ve been doing after these little rituals, as you avoid focusing on your issue, is releasing the energy from your aura so the Goddess (or the universe) can work on it. Remember — we are not always in control. Sometimes, however, we need to stay focused. In a magical or meditative context, such focus is called “mindfulness.” Traditionally, mindfulness has meant focusing on a mantra, a yantra (visual symbol), or a chant or affirmation. I once had a friend, for example, who spent several months setting the alarm on her wristwatch to go off every five minutes. Every time the alarm sounded, she said a brief, silent prayer for herself and for the earth.
Let us enlarge this process: let’s turn it into rememberfulness and get rid of the alarm. How? Try this. Go about your regular day at the office or the plant or at home, and do all things you normally do. At the same time, reserve one small, side corner of your mind to remember. Anytime you come to a stopping place, pull the contents of this small, side corner forward and remember. Remember who you are — a divine child, part of the consciousness of the planet, a member of a community. Remember where you are — sheltered by the flowing blue cloak of our Mother, living on the skin of an organism named Earth, living as a child of the oldest goddess, who is Gaia. Remember to give thanks for who you are and where you are.
With a split-second wordless thought or with a full-blown ritual as you live your everyday life, practice the presence of the Goddess.
One of the best books about mindfulness could be a Zen text, but it’s really one of the best of the Christian mystical books: The Practice of the Presence of God.3 This book contains the thoughts of Brother Lawrence, a humble monk who to this day is much beloved and admired because while he was scrubbing the floors of his abbey, doing laundry, cleaning the kitchen, repairing shoes, he gave his work to his God. He didn’t argue or preach (though he did write spiritual letters), and he didn’t do anything spectacular. He just walked around in his life practicing the presence of his god, and that practice still spreads joy to all who encounter him, if only through his little book.
Try it yourself. Don’t talk about what you believe to people who really aren’t interested. Don’t show off what you can do because you believe in something. Just walk around in your life remembering who you are and who She is.
In our own ways, we can all follow the example of Brother Lawrence. Let’s keep the Goddess in mind. Let’s take Her to work with us and remember to work as effectively and creatively as we can. Let’s take Her shopping with us and buy healthful food and items with biodegradable or recyclable packaging, and — as long as people are hungry or homeless — let’s try not to buy so many luxury goodies. Let’s remember that She’s everybody’s mother when we’re stuck in traffic or those Witnesses are knocking on the door early Sunday morning. Let’s even keep Her at home with us.
Here is a to-do list of ways we can practice the presence of the Goddess in our daily lives.
Listen to music. Today there’s more Goddess music than there was a decade ago. CDs and tapes are available in both metaphysical stores and mainstream stores (usually in the New Age music section), in several Websites (including amazon.com), in catalogs, and at New Age, Renaissance, Whole Earth, and Womanspirit fairs. Musicians also advertise in our magazines and sell CDs and tapes when they perform live.
Cure your addiction to the news (“all crime, all the time”) and inane talk-radio by listening to Goddess music in your car. Start and end your day with it. I’m convinced it’s better for your mental state than listening to the news. Note that I am certainly not suggesting that you give up knowing what’s going on in the world. Such total naïveté can be hazardous to your health. What I’m suggesting is balance.
Find a healing scent you like and use it. Many herbs are associated with the Goddess, and many of them smell good. My favorite is vanilla, a feminine herb whose powers include love, lust, and mental powers. Carrying a vanilla bean is said to restore lost energy and improve the mind.4 I burn vanilla candles, use vanilla essential oil and potpourri, and wear “Vanilla Fields” cologne. All this vanilla reminds me of the sweetness of the Goddess and makes me feel good. (It makes men think someone’s been baking.)
Appreciate your friends, former friends, relations, and the animals who live with you. We’re each of us created in Her image. The Goddess myths, older by thousands of years than the Genesis myth, describe how She gave birth to the universe and everything in it. (Well, as one who lives with two cats, I do not hold Her responsible for fleas.) In 1987, geneticists presented evidence that everyone living on earth today may be descended from an African “mitochondrial Eve.” If her DNA lives in us all, it means we are truly related.5
Consider the love and support you exchange with your friends, the help and information you exchange both with coworkers and people you hardly know, the unconditional love and entertainment you receive from the animals that live with you. My cats give me stereo purring and kitty Reiki.
Consider the lessons you’ve learned from the people who are no longer in your life, and why they’re no longer in your life. Even people with whom you have had terrible quarrels taught you something, if only to get away and stay away from poisonous people.
But please don’t fall into the metaphysical trap of thinking that everything that happens to you happens because you drew it to you so you could pay a karmic debt or learn a karmic lesson (whatever that means). Behind this kind of poisonous thinking lurks a more pernicious line of thought, which goes something like this: if I drew all this to me, that means I must be really powerful and am somehow in control of the universe, but I must not be good enough to draw good stuff to me, so I punish myself by drawing bad stuff into my consciousness and life.
Phooey. Remember that you are not the center of the universe. Use common sense when you recognize your lessons. Practice that good old “attitude of gratitude.”
Redecorate your space. Put a fresh flower, a potted plant, a pretty shell, or a feather on your desk at work. Hang symbols of elemental fire, water, air, and earth on the walls at home. Set a candle in a beautiful holder and a goblet on a doily with a photo of your grandmother or a tarot card. Install a Goddess image — anyone from Isis or Athena to Miss Piggy or Barbie — in a place of honor in your home. Set up an altar and redecorate it for each major festival. Decorate your home as much as you can get away with.
Read good books and magazines.6 As a visit to your local bookstore will show, there’s a whole library of Goddess books already on the shelves and more on the way every day. Our magazines seem to come and go, but Sage Woman and Green Egg are showing longevity. I also like PanGaia, Circle Magazine, The Beltane Papers, New Moon Rising, Enchanté, The Crone Chronicles, and New Moon (a magazine for girls).
But don’t just sit there and read passively. React to what you’re reading. Talk back to the author, either in your mind, by writing notes in the margin (if you own the book), or by writing letters or email to the author. Synthesize what you learn in one book with what you learn in other books so you have a rounded vision and relatively bias-free information. If you choose to write to an author, you can send a letter to the publisher of the book, which will be forwarded, or you can communicate more directly via email. I did a small informal survey of some of the authors I know, asking them how they feel about receiving email from readers. Most of the authors I know love to receive email and reply to it. As Z. Budapest said, “Readers are cool.” We learn a lot from you.
Log on to the Internet and the World Wide Web and explore. For example, here’s how I just spent ten minutes. I went to www.pagan.com, www.witchvox.com, www.reclaiming.org, and www.cog.org and followed some of the links. At just one search engine, I found 419 sites listed when I typed “witch” and 259 when I typed “goddess.” By the time this is published, those numbers may have doubled. The major publishers have Websites, as do catalogs (I especially love www. SacredSource.com), creative people, and teachers.
Experience the labyrinth. For thousands of years the labyrinths have been a primary symbol of the Sacred Center we call the Goddess. If you live near a labyrinth, walk it as often as you can. It's a powerful walking meditation. But you can also construct a “finger labyrinth”7 that you can “walk” any time and in any weather, either ambient or emotional.
Take classes in women’s spirituality. You might want to learn mask and rattle construction, drumming or belly dancing, beginning Wicca, herbalism and aromatherapy, jewelry making, weaving, creative writing, and divination (tarot, I Ching, or runes) or other psychic sciences. Before you sign up, however, ascertain the orientation of the teacher. You might not enjoy spending time with a macho astrologer or a musician who insists that drumming was invented by and for men.
Wear Goddess jewelry. If wearing a yoni or a labrys or a pentacle might be troublesome, try a simple crescent moon, a silver flower, or a ring with a meaningful but inconspicuous design. Keep in mind that you’re not wearing this jewelry to advertise but to help you remember, and you may even prefer to wear your significant jewelry under your clothes. I wear a cowrie shell bracelet most of the time. In my ears I have an owl charm, the rune fehu, and a tiny Herkimer diamond, and I often wear my Blessed Bee8 earrings. And I have finally bought a pentacle. It hangs from an owl charm, and few people even notice it. (So much for being in or out of the broomcloset!)
Put a bumpersticker on your car or wherever you want to make a statement. What the bumpersticker says, of course, may be dictated by where you live. LOVE YOUR MOTHER is fairly inoffensive, whereas WIZARDS HAVE CRYSTAL BALLS AND HALLOW WEINIES might get you more attention than you really want. The bumpersticker on my car says BRIGHT BLESSINGS, and the one on my CPU says SUBVERT THE DOMINANT PARADIGM.
Take action. Recycle (of course) and reduce your conspicuous consumption. Smile at other drivers on the freeway and say thank you to servers and busboys and clerks.
If you feel strongly about an issue, actually do something about it. Write letters to the President and your Congressional delegation and your state and city representatives. Our Senators and Representatives have Websites; use them.
Send money to an organization whose work you feel is important, like gun control advocacy groups, so our kids won’t be able to take guns to school, and environmental protection groups, so maybe our grandchildren will still have an environment. Join a local organization or a national one. Do volunteer work or take part in a demonstration for your cause. Boycott businesses that use child labor or clearcut forests. You can find enormous amounts of information on issues Witches should care about on the Web.
Look at art. Find art that honors women and art by women. Art is everywhere — paintings, prints, posters, sculpture, fiber art, found art, calendars. As you look at a piece of art, consider the courage of the woman who made it, think about what the art means (especially if it’s feminist art, which can be beautiful and scary at the same time), and examine your own resonance with this art.
Create your own art. The act of creation is itself ritualistic because it alters your consciousness and is repetitive. The very essence of the Goddess is creation, and nothing She created is junk. Since we’re all created in Her image or, as some believe, we’re literally part of Her body because we’re living creatures, everything we create is beautiful and precious, if only to our Mother. (Does She use divine refrigerator magnets to display our efforts?)
Multi-media art, or found art, can be more expressive than drawing or painting because it helps you see things in new ways. Found art means combining things you find — rocks, feathers, twigs, dried flowers and herbs, shells, the wishbone from your baked chicken. You can add ribbons, glitter, T-shirt paint (the kind that comes in squeeze bottles), beads of all kinds, fortune cookie fortunes, and orphan earrings. You don’t need formal training or expensive tools. You can use white glue and string to hold things together, and your symbols can be traditional ones or personal ones that you thought up yourself.
A Ritual of CreativityWhen you begin a new project — perhaps you have something specific in mind, like the creation of a new magical tool or a small symbol to suspend from your rearview mirror — and lay your materials out on your table or desk, your working space becomes an ad hoc altar. Unless anything is terribly flammable, light a candle and imagine a glowing circle around the room where you’re working. Think about the work you’re beginning, how it will grow and develop, who (besides you) it might touch. State your intention for this project out loud. Then read these words or tape them beforehand and listen to them or use them as a model to make up your own words.
As She created from Herself
a work of art
and called it the universe,
So do I create from the things I find
my own work of art
and call it remembrance.
As She provided all these treasures
for our nourishment and pleasure,
So do I accept the things I find
and use them to create new worlds.
As She labored and played,
So do I play and remember Her.
When you open your eyes, let your creative mind travel into your hands and begin to idly manipulate your found objects until something clicks.
You can do something as simple as tying multi-colored ribbons around the stem of a goblet or go for a project as complex as a wallsize collage of postcards, feathers, seed pods, and pieces of jewelry. Let yourself play. Several years ago, I combined a Champion spark plug, two white marbles, and some dried rosebuds on a maroon scallop shell. (Can you picture the configuration?) Heisenberg, the Green Man, and this fine upstanding fellow are the only gods I allow in my house.
It’s said that fairies love ribbons. If you want to attract the Good Neighbors, or just hang something pretty in your room, get a smallish embroidery hoop and enough yard-long pieces of ribbon to go around the hoop, then glue one end of each piece of ribbon to the hoop. (It comes out looking like a windsock.) Use thread or more ribbon to make a hanger for the hoop. You can also add beads, bells, and feathers, and then hang it by a window to catch a breeze.
As you’re working, be rememberful. What is the significance of this feather or this acorn? Why are you using these colors of beads or ribbons or yarn? Are you working (playing) with curved or straight lines? Why? How does this process feel to you? How does this tiny ritual alter your consciousness? What are you going to do with your altered consciousness? You might want to write your answers to these questions in your journal.
Talk to yourself. Sing to yourself. We all do it all the time anyway. We’re forever programming our minds to be either user-hostile or user-friendly. We’re creating our own consciousness, and what we create in our own consciousness we also create in the consciousness of the planet. Wouldn’t it be better for all of us if we used that self-talk to re-create the presence of the Goddess?
Self-talk has other names: mindfulness, silent prayer, awareness, meditation, affirmatory repetition. But it doesn’t matter what you call it, so long as you just do it. When you’re having one of those days, it’s heartening to repeat a prayer by Dame Julian of Norwich, a medieval English mystic: ALL WILL BE WELL, AND ALL WILL BE WELL, AND ALL MANNER OFTHINGS WILL BE WELL. A few years ago I wrote a short story in which I paraphrased Dame Julian’s prayer: ALL IS WELL, ALL SHALL BE WELL, ALL CAN ONLY BE WELL. Try repeating this after a hard day. Recall Sancta Chrona and know that as you are repeating these words, all is in fact well and tomorrow is another day.
You can choose one of the familiar mantras: OM. MA. MAMA. When you chant, the sound sets up vibrations and resonances that heal and transform your mind and body. If you chant subvocally, you don’t get the quite the same transformatory effect, but, still, it clears your mind, which is useful in those times when you’re feeling picked on or ignored or are otherwise wallowing in negative emotions. Because I love the Tibetan goddess Tara, I repeat Her mantra all through the day: OM TARE TUTARE SOHA.
You can also select a Goddess name and do a few minutes of research to find out what Her attributes and associations are. Then, keeping what you’ve learned in mind, sound Her name: ATHENA. ISIS. SAULE. BRIGIT. AMATERASU. Sound slowly, drawing out all vowel sounds, extending the consonant sounds as much as possible as well. AAAAAAAAAA-THEEEEEEEEE-NAAAAAA. Sound the name as long as your breath lasts (as you do this sounding, your breath capacity will grow) and let the sounds swirl around your throat, ears, and heart. Do it aloud in your car in traffic. Sound your Goddess name every morning in the shower, as loud as you want to, and sound it under your breath whenever you’re doing anything that doesn’t require complete, leftbrain attention. (That is, sound the name of Juno Habundia before and after you balance your checkbook, but not during.)
When you’re ready, move from self-talk and sounding Goddess names to chanting and singing. There must be hundreds of chants on CD and tape, and most of them are easy to learn. Teach the songs and chants you like to your friends and sing them in unison, in parts, or as rounds.
The chant to begin with is Deena Metzger’s wonderful Goddess Chant: ISIS, ASTARTE, DIANA, HECATE, DEMETER, KALI, INANNA. I have heard two, very different, versions of this chant. One is in Charlie Murphy’s CD Catch the Fire, and the other is in the CD From the Goddess, performed by Robert Gass and On Wings of Song.
Here are a few more Goddess chants:
By Buffy Ste. Marie: THE GODDESS IS ALIVE AND MAGIC IS AFOOT.
By Starhawk: SHE CHANGES EVERYTHING SHE TOUCHES, AND EVERYTHING SHE TOUCHES, CHANGES.
Attributed to Z Budapest and based on a chant, “We all come from the God,” by Richard Quinn: WE ALL COME FROM THE GODDESS AND TO HER WE SHALL RETURN, LIKE A DROP OF RAIN FLOWING TO THE OCEAN.
From the Bloodrose Faerie Tradition: HOLY MOTHER, IN YOU WE LIVE AND MOVE AND HAVE OUR BEING.
From a group of women Starhawk once worked with: CAULDRON OF CHANGES, BLOSSOM OF BONE, ARC OF ETERNITY, HOLE IN THE STONE.
From the Requiem Mass of the Catholic Church, which many composers have set to music, BENEDICTA QUAE VENIT IN NOMINE DOMINAE. I have made it feminine. The Latin translates as “Blessed is She who comes in the name of the Lady.” You can sing this to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s powerful music.
There are also numerous Goddess songs. One of my favorites — actually a parody — was printed in the famous Great Goddess issue of Heresies.9 It’s sung to the familiar tune, “Jesus Loves Me.”
Isis loves me, this I know
Mother God has told me so.
She is strong and so are we
Fighting for equality.
Yes, Isis loves me
Yes, Isis loves me
Yes, Isis loves me
Our Lady told me so.
Speaking of parody, never hesitate to Find your own goddesses. Toward the end of one of our meetings last summer, someone in my local Covenant of the Goddess (CoG) chapter said, “Why don’t you write something for the next newsletter?”
So I did.
Craftella is the celestial model of what a modern high priestess should be. She inspires and delights our inner children with beads and bubbles and nutritious potluck dishes and imparts useful principles of organization to all who listen to Her. A priestess who is truly guided by Craftella knows which chapter officer promised to do what and where the paperwork is. She can hold a meeting together and keep track of who “volunteered” to do which ritual.
Whenever the time is ripe, Craftella calls upon our souls to rise and come unto Her, for She is the soul of nature that gives life to the universe and writes the lyrics. Let us therefore sing a Song of Craftella. I’m sure you’ll recognize the tune to Her song.
On the first night of Cogmonth,
A hive for my Blessed Bee.
On the second night of Cogmonth,
Craftella gave to me
Two beaded scarves
And a hive for my Blessed Bee.
On the third night … three green herbs
On the fourth night … four direction sigils
On the fifth night … five pentacles
On the sixth night … six wands a-waving
On the seventh night … seven knives a-pointing
On the eighth night … eight drummers drumming
On the ninth night … nine Green Men leafing
On the tenth night … ten Maidens dancing
On the eleventh night … eleven Mothers cooking
On the twelfth night … twelve Crones complaining
On the full moon night of Cogmonth,
Craftella gave to me
A coven that will not talk back.
Back in the olden days of Witchery (the early 1970s), when our new/old religion was still about half science fiction and half fantasy, we used to hear a lot about “traditions” that claimed roots on Arcturus or in Atlantis or at least in the New Forest. Back then, we yearned to be the children of traditional Witch families who had bravely preserved the Ancient Wisdom in pictures (as tarot cards) or coded books or via the sacred Oral Tradition. Back then, we needed to make such claims because they gave us increased respectability among the other neopagans. We thought we had to be at least as archaic as the Theosophists and the Spiritualists and the other mystical, magical sects that came into existence with the European Occult Revival of the late nineteenth century but which also claimed medieval, Egyptian, Chaldean, or outerspace antecedents.
I don’t always believe what I read, however. I’ve learned that you can’t always take people’s claims at face value, no matter how much you like the person or the claim. So I did some research and learned that most of the traditions are in fact younger than I am (I was born in 1941).
Here’s a list, which is by no means exhaustive, of Wiccan and pagan traditions and authors whose books you can read: Ar nDraiocht Fein (neo-Druid, Isaac Bonewits), Aglaian, Alexandrian (Stewart and Janet Ferrar), Algard, Asatru (Edred Thorssen), Bluestar, Church of Wicca (Gavin and Yvonne Frost), Circle (Selena Fox), Daoine Coire, Dianic (Z. Budapest), Demetrian (Jennifer Reif), Druid Church of the Wise, Faerie Tradition of Y Tylwyth Teg (Welsh), Feri (founded by Victor Anderson [he changed the spelling from Faerie to distinguish it from other so-called Faerie Wiccas], Francesca Dubie), Gardnerian (Gardner, Valiente, many others), Georgian, Kingstone, Lothlorien (Paul Beyerl), Myjestic, Odinist (Ed Fitch), Reclaiming (Starhawk), Re-formed Congregation of the Goddess (a branch of Dianic Wicca, Jade), Seax-Wica (Raymond Buckland), Silver Crescent, and Strega (Italian, L. L. Martello, Arnold and Patricia Crowither).
Some traditions are open, hold regular public rituals, and have Websites, whereas others are so secret their members may not speak if they happen to pass on the street. Some are much concerned with lineage (it's like Apostolic succession: their high priestess must be able to trace her initiations back to the First Initiator), whereas others will accept and initiate anyone who studies for a year and a day or takes specific classes.
What I especially like about traditions is that people are creating them all the time. My friend Vajra Ma (formerly Judith Kali Evador), for example, is an ordained Dianic priestess who began working on what she called Woman Mysteries in 1990. Four years later, she established the priestesshood for her new tradition: Woman Mysteries of the Ancient Future Sisterhood. More recently, a well-known author created something called Faerie Wicca, for which she claimed archaic antecedents. Now, please understand that I am not putting any person or any “tradition” down. I think it’s a good idea to create new traditions! Multiplicity is as natural as flowers and leaves and snowflakes.
The word “ritual,” author Judy Grahn believes, is derived from the Sanskrit r’tu, which she also sees in “arithmetic,” “rhythm,” and “root.” The most basic meaning of r’tu, she writes, “is menstrual, suggesting that rituals began as menstrual arts.”10 If you want a less bloody origin for what your circle does, we also know that “ritual” comes from the Latin ritus, “rite.”
Each tradition, coven, circle, or school has its own structure for rituals (The Right Way to Do It), although minor variations are occasionally admitted. Many groups and individuals (we who practice mostly alone are called “Solitaries”) rely on their Book of Shadows, which contains the outlines and scripts for the major sabbats (the eight festivals of the “wheel of the year”), full and new moon rituals, and special rituals like initiation, handfasting (marriage), wiccaning (dedication to the faith), and croning. A Book of Shadows also records traditional wisdom like spells (with expected results), recipes for incenses and oils, diagrams for arranging the altar for each ritual, and pertinent information on the use of the tools: salt, water, pentacle, sword or knife, wand, chalice, candles, incense, or whatever you choose.
It’s virtually impossible to do a comprehensive survey of ritual practice, however. Some groups are closed and no visitors ever attend their rituals. Some groups hold occasional open or “outer court” rituals but keep the important (“inner court”) rituals secret; we can only speculate on how their open rituals differ from their closed ones. Other groups hardly ever do the same thing twice, and sometimes a number of covens and circles will work together to stage public festivals.
Still, based on research and conversations with people who regularly do rituals, I can make a few generalizations. Seven procedural steps seem to be common:
1. Purification. Incense, saltwater, or visualization is used to purify attendees, the space itself, and the altar tools.
2. Casting the circle. The circle is cast, or closed, in sunwise (clockwise) order by calling in the powers of the four (or six) directions, the four elements, the Goddess, and (if he’s welcome) the God. This is sometimes done by the priestess and her assistant, sometimes by members of the group. When the circle has been cast, it usually means that no one is permitted to come in or go out, though I’ve been in circles where people wander back and forth at will. Although this does major damage to the energy of the circle, some people don’t seem to care.
3. Stating the intention. This is the purpose of the gathering, its will to be done. It can be a sabbat celebration, healing, working for world and personal peace, a prosperity ritual, or any other special occasion. I think this is the most important element of ritual. As long as you do it with intention, you can do your ritual just about any way you feel inspired to. High-Church Witches have disputed this point with me, and today I must admit that even my permissiveness has occasionally found limits. These days, I want at least a modicum of organization in my rituals.
4. Raising energy. The group chants, sings, or makes music by drumming and clapping, dances (spiral dance or freeform), or visualizes the rising power. The raised power, which can become volcanic, is referred to as a “cone of power.” Generally the cone of power is aimed and sent out to a specific target for a specific purpose.
5. Trance work. The leader guides a meditation that uses the power just raised for a specific purpose.
6. Grounding the energy. Excess energy is returned to the earth for recycling.
7. Opening the circle. And we have to go back to our everyday lives. The energy is unzipped in moonwise (counterclockwise) order, all invisible powers are thanked and sent back to where they came from, and the people adjourn for refreshments and a social hour.
You’re likely to find instructions on these basic steps, combined or subdivided or in a different order, in any given book on ritual. Sometimes the people “check in” first, bringing everyone else up to date on how their lives have been going and how they’re presently feeling. If guests are present or the group is full of irregular attendees, checking in can include self-introductions. Sometimes the intention is stated and energy is raised before the circle is cast. People working in the Gardnerian traditions read the Charge of the Goddess and draw down the full moon — or at least its power — into the high priestess and thence into the circle. Not every ritual includes trance work or builds a cone of power, and many groups celebrate the sabbats by staging dramatic rituals and acting out the appropriate mythological story.
Although the above describes rituals for groups, solitaries often try to follow the same outlines, doing appropriate steps by themselves at their home altars.
Let’s bring Green Spring Circle forward again and attend one of their full moon rituals. It’s a Wednesday night at the end of March, the first full moon after the spring equinox and the weather is perfect. The circle is meeting tonight in Celeste and Maddy’s back yard, which is protected by a tall ivy-covered fence and has permanent, inconspicuous altars in the four directions. Elbereth and Starling, the little girl already in her jammies, arrived first, followed shortly by Christine and R’becca, who generally carpool. Maddy has already set up a circle of lawn chairs. Now she and R’becca get out the portable altar and set it up in the middle of the circle. Although many covens place antlers on their altar to represent the Horned God, Green Spring is semi-Dianic, so there are neither antlers nor god. R’becca sets a Willendorf Mother in the center and surrounds Her with a loosely-woven wreath of early spring flowers — tulips, freesia, daffodils — and asparagus fern. She adds a bronze bell, a white pillar candle on a green clay saucer, and an abalone shell, into which she places and lights a charcoal round. Starling, who like many young children collects rocks, approaches with her newest treasure in hand. When Maddy shows her where the north is, she lays her rock at that point on the altar. Her mother adds a fist-size shell in the west, Christine lays a Ukrainian pysanky egg (which has been in her family for five generations) before the Goddess, and Celeste cuts a few herbs from her garden to lay among the flowers. She also lays a twig of dried sage beside the abalone shell.
Hazel arrives a bit later, frazzled and straight from her office. “Don’t even ask,” she growls as she fishes a cinnabar dragon out of her tote and lays it on the south side of the altar, and then goes into Celeste and Maddy’s bedroom to change from her suit and pantyhose to jeans and a sweater. They are just getting ready to purify the space when Raven scurries in, lays a beaded feather on the east side of the altar, and takes her place in the circle.
Celeste wraps her silver and green shawl around her shoulders and says, “Let’s get started now.” Noticing that Hazel is still tense and Raven fidgety, she continues, “Everybody take a deep breath. Take another breath and feel the energy rising from our blessed Mother Earth into your feet and legs. Let it rise into your wombspace. Into your chest. Down your arms. Up into your head.” She lets them breathe and feel the rising energy for a few minutes, then continues. “Now let’s connect with the sky, too. Pull the energy of the stars down into your head. Let it fall down through every part of your body. Let it unite in your heart with the energy of the earth.”
After a minute, Celeste nods to Elbereth, who picks up the bell and walks with her daughter around the circle behind the women. Stopping at each direction, the mother visualizes a pentacle of blue fire (while the child visualizes whatever a child might see) and rings the bell. They can hear Starling’s tiny voice: “Blessed be.” Right behind them, Raven carries the abalone shell and sage to each woman and cleanses their auras with the sacred smoke. After Elbereth and Starling have rung the bell to the powers above and below, they place their implements on the grass beside the altar.
“Our intention tonight,” Celeste says, “is to celebrate the spring of the year and the rebirth of light and vegetation. This month is the sixth anniversary of our circle, so let’s also work for the harmony and strength of community. The moon entered Libra last night, so this is actually a good time to focus on harmony and community.” Everyone nods. “And the larger community. Let’s cast the circle.”
Raven walks to the east side, the others turn to that direction, and they all raise their arms in the familiar chalice position. “Hail, Guardians of the Watchtowers of the East,” Raven says. “Powers of Air, the Rising Sun, and the Cleansing Winds. By the Air that is Her breath — be here now.”
Everyone murmurs, “Blessed be,” and Raven walks behind the women to the south, where Christine is standing. As she kisses Christine on the cheek, the others turn toward the south and raise their arms again. “Hail, Guardians of the Watchtowers of the South,” Christine says. “Powers of Fire, the Warmth of Noon and Cleansing Flames. By the Fire that is Her spirit — be here now.”
“Blessed be.”
Christine walks to the west, where Maddy is standing, and kisses her. “Hail, Guardians of the Watchtowers of the West,” Maddy says. “Powers of Water, Sacred Shade of Twilight, Fresh Water and Sweeping Tides. By the Waters of Her living womb — be here now.”
“Blessed be.”
As the women turn toward the north, Maddy walks behind them to Hazel and kisses her. “Hail, Guardians of the Watchtowers of the North,” Hazel says, her arms raised. “Powers of Earth, the Silence of Midnight, the Abundance of the Holy Earth. By the earth that is Her body — be here now.”
Now the women turn again toward the center. Celeste goes to the altar and lights the pillar candle. “Great Goddess of Ten Thousand Names,” she says, raising the candle. “Mother of us all, we welcome You to our circle, to our space, to our lives. It’s springtime. As You are urging Your trees and flowers, Your grains and vegetables back to life, so are we being reborn to our new lives of harmony and community. Blessed Goddess, let us live and die and be reborn in the womb of Your beautiful green planet, in the passion of Your loving heart, and in the intelligence of Your creative mind.”
She sets the candle on the altar and closes her eyes for a long moment. Then she continues, “Our circle is cast, the energy is sealed. Once again, we are in the place between the worlds that is no place, where all things meet in perfect love and perfect trust. Here birth and death, light and dark, joy and sorrow, and coming and going are as one.”
As she walks to the chair in the north, the others sit in their chairs. “This is the first full moon of the spring,” she says. “What seeds do we want to plant beneath this full moon? What do we want to grow this year?”
“Graduation,” Elbereth says immediately. “And a good job so I can get a decent car and move into my own place. Maybe try living with David again.”
“Then you also want good day care for the Munchkin,” says Maddy. Starling is already sitting in her lap, playing with a little stuffed Blessed Bee.
“Corporate survival,” says Hazel. “Productivity in my department. Peace and quiet and no more in-fighting.” She grins. “And maybe I’ll get to take my vacation this year!”
As everyone applauds, Christine opens her eyes. “Don’s retiring in September, you know. We want to drive up to Alaska and spend some time with my son. We’re also going back to St. Louis to spend time with his daughter and her family. So my seeds are for family reunion and harmony.”
When someone says, “And safety on the freeways,” everyone nods.
“Well,” says Raven, “my seeds are already growing. DevelCo is not going to build those condos in Santiago Canyon. All the protests actually worked for once —”
“— well, you realize that a little magic helped,” Maddy says.
“— Yes. And there’s more seeds I want to plant: Get those offroaders out of the canyon with their stupid bikes and SUVs. Get the equestrian center cleaned up so those horses get enough exercise. Get every dog and cat in Orange County spayed and neutered. Get every—”
“Yes,” says Celeste, knowing that Raven can go on like this for hours. “Yes, good seeds. Good. Who else?”
“A good long-term temp job,” says R’becca, “that’s easy work so I’m not too exhausted every night and can finish illustrating Elizabeth’s novel.”
“Well,” says Maddy, “my life’s just fine, my job’s just fine, my girl friend’s just fine, and I feel just fine. You know what? I want to keep it that way.”
Celeste smiles. “Blessed be,” she says as everyone grins. “My seeds?” she continues. “I’ve been giving this some thought. I want to see all the covens and circles in our CoG district get together for Midsummer and do a spectacular public ritual on the beach, with lots of attendees and no interference from the beach patrol. You remember the guy who drove over our labyrinth a couple years ago? No more of that. I want to plant seeds for harmony, cooperation, and friendship among all of us neo-pagans, no matter what path or tradition we follow.”
“So mote it be,” says Hazel, and the others echo her. “So mote it be.” “So must it be.” “So shall it be.”
“All right,” says Celeste, “let’s raise some energy to fertilize those seeds and then earth them right here so they can grow.” As she and R’becca pick up their doumbeks, Maddy notices that Starling has fallen asleep. As the drumming begins, she picks up the child, cuts a door in the circle, and takes her into the house, where she will sit with her until her mother fetches her to go home.
As the drumming begins softly, a heartbeat, the women begin the MA chant. “Mmmmmmmmmmmm.” Then, “Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.” As the chant rises and overtones and harmonies sound, the drumming quickens, and soon the women are standing, hands raised to the sky. “Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.” The women feel or see the energy moving around them. “Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.” Sound and energy rise higher and higher, there is a fury of drumbeats, and at last Celeste shouts, “Now! Let it go!” Sudden silence. But instead of sending their cone of power toward some target outside of themselves, the women pull it back into their circle, through their bodies, down into the earth.
Celeste touches her drum again, and a barely audible heartbeat touches the silence, heartbeats made palpable as each member of Green Spring Circle visualizes the working of her energy, the planting and fertilizing of her named seeds. Finally, there is silence, and they can all feel the energy draining down into the earth beneath them, grounding them and bringing them peace.
After several long minutes, arms and legs begin to stretch, mouths yawn, and eyes open, and Celeste knows their work has succeeded. When she judges that everyone is present, she lays her drum aside. “That was good,” she says, and several of them nod. “Are we ready to open the circle?”
They get to their feet and join hands as Celeste walks to the center. She raises the pillar candle and faces each direction in turn. “Guardians of the Watchtowers of the North, all Powers of Earth, we thank you for being present in our circle tonight. Return now to your realms in peace. Hail and farewell.” Using the same formula for west, south, and east, she opens the circle, concluding, “Our circle is open but never broken. May the peace and love and joy of the Goddess encircle our lives as She encircles the earth upon which we live and move and have our being. Merry meet, merry part, and merry meet again.”
The members of Green Spring Circle hug each other with genuine affection, someone extinguishes the candle, and they go into the house for their potluck. They spend another hour together catching up on gossip, plans, and hopes. By ten o’clock, they’re ready to go home.
Let’s review what Green Spring Circle did. Remember, this wasn’t a real ritual, though it could have been. One of my friends, in fact, wants to do it with her circle.
Purification. The first thing Celeste did was to tame the tensions her circle sisters brought in with them. She asked them to breathe in unison, which has an automatic calming effect. Because these women have been working together for a few years, it takes only a few silent minutes. With people who were less intimate or in a more troublesome situation, she might have begun with a longer visualization in which she guided them to see their tensions draining out through their feet and hands into the earth.
Some leaders use movement and sound to purify the space. If Green Spring were a bigger circle or they were going to do a more highly energized ritual, Celeste might have had them hold hands in the circle or dance around the altar or the perimeter. With only six, however, holding hands around the altar is too crowded and dancing around the perimeter pulls them too far apart. A wise leader looks at her group and uses common sense.
Although ceremonial magicians and covens in High-Church Witchery follow supposedly ancient formulas to purify “creatures of water and salt” with which to banish unwelcome spirits, eclectics generally find less cumbersome ways to demarcate their working space. At the Dianic Circle of Aradia, of which I’m a member, five women silently purify the space by walking in turn to each direction with elemental symbols: incense (air), a lighted candle (fire), a chalice of water, a crystal (earth), and a bell or chime (spirit). It’s quite lovely. When you purify your own space, use any technique, like ringing a sweet bell, that satisfies you.
Raven used sage to clear everyone’s aura. If anyone in the group is asthmatic or otherwise sensitive to smoke, however, you don’t have to use sage or incense. (A chronic asthmatic myself, I always make sure I sit upwind, and I’m not shy about proclaiming that to me burning sage is air pollution.) If you want to avoid smoke, pass a half-full chalice around the circle, letting each person visualize his or her mundane worries draining into the water. Pour the water on the ground, or at least down a drain, after the ritual. You can also stroke each person’s aura downward with a feather, a flower or leafy branch, a bunch of herbs, or a cotton or silk scarf. Follow the stroking with a “blessed be” or a light kiss.
Casting the Circle. The “Guardians of the Watchtowers” are also holdovers from ceremonial magic. They’re sometimes referred to as the “Lords of the Watchtowers” and frequently visualized as mighty archangels bearing their fiery swords before them — hardly a pagan image. In some traditions, the priest or priestess uses the ritual sword to draw the invoking pentacles and draw the boundary of the circle to demarcate the space. If you want a less martial effect, use flowers. Or sweep around the edge of the circle with a broom. Or have attendees kiss the next person and say something like “in perfect love and perfect trust” or “the Goddess blesses you.”
Some people invoke goddesses or gods, or both, when they are calling in the directions and elements. My preference is to invoke the elemental spirits (or energies) when casting the circle, but to invoke the Goddess or specific goddesses only at the center. I’ll discuss the directions, elements, and invocations a bit later.
Having a different person invoke each direction both gives everyone something to do and also gives them practice. There are few things as boring in a public ritual as just standing there watching someone mumble and do mysterious things at the altar.
One person can also cast the circle from the center or walk to the directions, pointing to the direction with a wand, a feather, a flower or leafy branch, or her own hands, but she needs to speak loud enough to be heard by everyone present. You can even cast the circle sitting down and without turning to face each direction. Just be aware that these variations change the circle’s energy.
“By the Air that is Her breath,” “By the Fire that is Her spirit,” “By the Waters of Her living womb,” “By the earth that is Her body,” and “We are between the worlds” show that the women in Green Spring Circle have, like everyone else, read Starhawk’s Spiral Dance.11
As far as I’ve been able to learn, the phrase “blessed be” was created by Gardner & Co. to be a Wiccan equivalent of “amen.” Although the phrase is not “traditional” in the sense that Witches have been saying it since the Middle Ages, it does have literary antecedents. Fantasizing about getting away from the hustle and bustle of eighteenth-century London, John Dryden and others wrote “Beatus ille” poems. Beatus ille is Latin: “blessed is he.” This reminds us of the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3–11), which begin “Blessed are the poor.”
Stating the Intention. Whether you’re working alone or in a group, always be sure to say out loud why you’re doing this ritual. You can’t be focused if you’re not clear about what you’re focusing on. As I said before, I think this is the most important part of the ritual (though other people might say raising and manipulating the energy are more important), for when you’re living and working with intention, you’re practicing the presence of the Goddess.
Celeste took advantage of the spring full moon to state her intention to plant metaphorical seeds of community. She also used the movement of the moon into Libra to give it extra power. Even if, like me, you don’t really speak astrologese, you can use an astrological calendar to track the celestial energies and time your own rituals to take advantage of them. Don’t be a slave to astrology, however; you can do any ritual any time. When you state your intention aloud, it lets both the universe at large and your own subconscious know what you’ve got in mind, whatever the prevailing energies may be.
Keeping in mind the inalterable fact that what you put out comes back at least threefold, you can create a ritual with any intention, from drawing health and love into your life to banishing those who develop open lands or binding a rapist or other abuser of women and children.
Banishing and binding are very controversial topics; such spells are often called “negative” and “manipulative,” and some writers say we should never, ever, ever do manipulative magic. I think that’s like surrounding a criminal with White Light, the cure-all of New Thought; it’s pretty but it doesn’t get any work done. We can banish and we can bind, and we have a choice in how we energize our working. We can summon up the energy of righteous anger, or we can do it without anger from a position of strength. Either way, we must state aloud and with absolute clarity that what we’re doing is returning negative energy to the sender. We're sending back what that abuser has himself already put out. We are, in other words, acting as a mirror, reflecting garbage rays back to their originator.
Raising Energy. There are many ways to stir up ritual energy. Alone or in a group, you can use the chants given earlier. I especially love the MA chant (“ma” being the maternal word in languages all over the world) with its rising harmonies and harmonics. When your head starts ringing, you know the chant is working. You can also chant pure vowel sounds or goddess names, and you can drum together. Repetition and rhythm are what alter your consciousness.
Dance has long been a primary means of raising energy. It is said that Shakti danced the universe into being long before anyone made a statue of Shiva as Lord of the Dance. When you’re doing a solitary ritual, improvise your movement to music on tape or CD. Or shake a rattle or clap your hands. The idea is to get your energy moving, and to do that you’ve got to get your blood flowing. I think dance and movement are easier with a group, especially if there are experienced ritual drummers present.
With experience, you’ll notice how energy changes in different kinds of rituals and with different groups. Seasonal rituals have their own energies, as do full and new moons. And while one person can raise energy that is just as strong as a group’s, its quality and flow will be different. In a large public ritual, you’ll soon see that the flow is more effective if people stand and hold hands while the circle is being cast, though I have also been to smaller rituals where we held hands and danced in circles. In one ritual on a beach, five or six of us danced shoulder to shoulder around a fire. (I’m amazed that we didn’t all end up with scorched knees.)
Containing this raised and focused energy is the reason you cast the circle and don’t let people break it. (I’ve noticed that animals and small children — and, strangely, photographers — seem to cause no interruptions in the flow of the energy, however much they may interrupt you.) It’s like you’re mixing batter for a cake. You’ve got to put the flour and the eggs and the other ingredients into a bowl, one that is big enough to contain all the energy, because if you don’t, when you put the electric mixer into it, you’ll have batter all over you, all over the counter and the cabinets, all over the walls and floor. You’ll have a mess to clean up and no cake to eat. Your ritual energy is the batter of your cosmic cake.
Celeste guided the energy with both her mind and her drum. Her mind focused and guided it, and the drum beats gave it rhythm, which set up a wave pattern. The wave pattern catches all the individual energies of the individual people and brings them into resonance, or entrainment, which magnifies the power. Listen to any chant, from “No blood for oil” (popular during the 1991 Gulf War) to “Two, four, six, eight, who do we appreciate.” There are regular beats. People clap or stomp or wave their banners to the rhythm and pretty soon everyone’s shouting in unison. It’s hard, in fact, to get out once you’re entrained. You become one with the group. When you’re drumming, you know you’re entrained when you can’t hear your own drumming anymore.
Think of the power of other rhythmic ways you raise energy. One of them results in babies.
It is useful, if you’re working alone, to consciously visualize the energy and get it moving into the pattern you want. Once you get it moving, it will keep going while you concentrate on other things. If you want to, you can check back in on it from time to time. You’ll see — it will still be spinning or circling. This is because the energy of a circle is also part of you, and when you get centered, you can sometimes see the “invisible” energy. If I look with my inner eyes, for example, I often see sparkling black waves pulsing back and forth. Sometimes the energy runs in patterns around me, and the green helix I suggested in the Ritual to Celebrate the Goddess in Women is typical (at least for me).
What we’re feeling and seeing, of course, is the activity of our auras. But the energy we experience is not entirely intrinsic to any of us. We share it. My personal electromagnetic field, and yours too, is part of the planet’s electromagnetic field. This is how I know I’m part of the Goddess, how She is immanent in me, and why I love and worship Her as I do. We’re all linked in Her consciousness and to Her dancing energy.
Focusing the energy you raise is also important. Let’s go back to Green Spring Circle. Hazel has a friend, Rachel, who is making a career change, from retail sales to customer support. For her new job, Rachel will have to use a computer, but she hasn’t kept up with the mysteries of Word and Excel and is afraid she’ll fail. So they hold a ritual for her, and because it’s specifically for her benefit, they have her sit facing the altar, upon which they place an Athena, goddess of the modern world of business. During the ritual, therefore, Athena and Rachel are looking at each other, and when the circle raises energy, they focus in on Rachel to increase her self-confidence.
Try sensing your own energy, with or without music, candles, or other props. Sit quietly, close your eyes, put your body and left brain in neutral, and wait. Pay attention to the beating of your heart and the suspiration of your lungs. Pay attention to the dance and flow inside your eyelids and around your body. That’s genuine energy. See if you can direct or manipulate it. Play with it. It’s always there. All you have to do is pay attention to it. It isn’t airy-fairy energy, either. It’s entirely practical.
Trance Work. The next step is to work with the energy. Your consciousness is altered. Your will is focused, and extraneous things are set aside for the moment. You are truly in the place between the worlds, and this is the place where things happen before they manifest in our everyday consciousness and in our ordinary lives. You can guide the energy, mold it, form it, direct it. You can assert and express your will — state your intention — remembering, of course, that what you put out will come back at least threefold.
When we do trance work, we’re in a hypnotic state. Our brain is running on alpha waves instead of the beta waves we need when we’re at work or concentrating on something. In this alpha state, the naïve, childlike subconscious that lives in our hearts behind our walls of sophistication and cynicism is now open for unfiltered communication. It believes what we show or tell it and works simply and powerfully (if also sometimes slowly and deviously).
Celeste could have asked another member of the group to lead the visualization, and it could have taken a more concrete form. They could have visualized Tellus Mater and Ceres, Roman earth and vegetation goddesses, walking hand in hand, as they are said to do, beneath the earth, talking to plants and urging them to grow. The only limit to a visualization is your fearless active imagination, and the more outrageous an image is, the more effective it is at grabbing the energy and running with it.
Occasionally, trance work leads to divination; sometimes it results in channeling; sometimes it results in trance dancing. Just go with the flow. And keep drumming.
Grounding Energy. It is vital to ground the energy you raise. If you don’t, you’ll probably toss and turn all night and perhaps be jittery the next day. One good way to ground the energy that your ritual has raised is to visualize the energy draining out of your body, flowing down through furniture and floors and buildings, and soaking into the earth, where it is absorbed and recycled.
You also need to ground yourself after you leave the ritual. I often ground myself after a ritual by washing dishes or doing some other homely chore. I can do this easily because I often work at home and do many of my rituals before noon to take advantage of the rising power of the sun. Scrubbing dishes or the toilet really brings one back to earth, and remember — that’s how Brother Lawrence practiced the presence of his God. You don’t have to wash dishes after you get home from a ritual, but you may want to read awhile before you go to bed. If you don’t ground yourself enough, you may find yourself still up in the wee hours of the morning alphabetizing your spices and CDs or rearranging the icons on your computer desktop into new and resplendent patterns.
Group hugs and refreshments — earthy foods like hummus and corn or potato chips, but not salads — and social hour also help us ground energies and prepare us to go back out into the ordinary world.
Opening the Circle. I have seen people simply “unzip” the energy and say a quick farewell to elemental spirits and other invisibles, and I’ve also seen people take as long to take the circle down as they took to put it up, dismissing every attendee, visible or invisible, by name.
Celeste used a simplified version of opening the circle. Instead of standing in the center, she could have walked to each direction again. There are all sorts of reasons for using a simpler closing, from being a bit unsteady on your feet to having to go to the bathroom now. (It happens.) Here’s a practical idea for casting your circle: make it as big as your whole home so you can go to the bathroom and the kitchen without violating the boundaries.
Please keep in mind that, unlike Dr. Faustus, we haven’t summoned the presence of the invisible powers so we can command them and put them to work for us. We’ve invited them to be present so we can all work together. (It’s that tricky issue of “power over” and “power with” again.) That means that when we open the circle, we don’t banish the invisibles. We thank them for being with us and for attending our ritual.
Always treat the invisibles with respect, whether they’re your own mental and emotional powers, elemental spirits and devas, or angels and goddesses. Even if you can’t see them, they’re real, and you never quite know what they can do and when they might do it. You don’t want to antagonize a god or a salamander (elemental fire spirit) or an archangel.
Some people like to say, “Go if you must or stay if you will.” This gives the spirit the option. Be aware, however, that it’s not safe to have elemental spirits out of control. They’re notoriously mischievous. Fire elementals can bring fires, a major threat where I live, water elementals can bring floods, air elementals can bring tornadoes, earth elementals can bring earthquakes. “Hail and farewell” may be a better valediction.
“Merry meet…” is another Gardner & Co. “traditional” saying, both benediction and promise.
You can make it a really big deal. You can do research in a dozen authoritative books. Build or buy a twelve-foot-tall Goddess. Set up and decorate four altars with pomp and ceremony, using the prescribed symbols for the four directions and properly sanctified altar implements. Light beeswax candles in the proper colors and anointed with the proper sacred oils. Burn specially prepared incense. Plan, write, and rehearse the scripted invocations, chants, and music. Hire a dozen drummers and flutists. Choreograph the casting of the circle with the proper pentacles drawn with sword or wand or broom. Coordinate your ritual with the phase of the moon, the movements of the planets, the time of day, the day of the week, and the season of the year. Create spectacular robes and costumes, masks and jewelry for all participants. Find a mind-blowing location with privacy, a spectacular view, growing trees, blooming flowers, and perhaps a mountain in the background. Invite two hundred of your closest friends.
It takes a lot of work to pull off a really great ritual that pulls in genuine power, and it’s truly worth every bit of work you do. It can change your life.
We solitaries, however, worship alone most of the time. Our rituals are more likely to be the tiny ones that we create on the spot to celebrate a private achievement or to ask for help. We light a candle, perhaps, chant or talk to a goddess, do a brief meditation, or just sit quietly for a few minutes.
The latter is what I call unencumbered ritual. It’s not big. It’s not fancy. It doesn’t necessarily follow the traditional rules and it seldom requires hardware or props. To High-Church Witches, it may not even look like a real ritual. But it works. It’s repeatable and it alters your consciousness. It’s very personal, and the emotional content is fully satisfying. The little rituals we’ve already done in this book were unencumbered rituals.
Remember — most simply defined, a ritual is a repeatable, and often repeated, working that has a specific meaning and a specific intention. The actions or the words (or both) serve to put each person participating in the ritual into an altered state of consciousness, which may be worshipful or experimental or playful. The altered state of consciousness gets us in touch with invisible powers, which may be intrinsic (our untapped imagination and unfertilized creativity) or extrinsic (goddesses, elemental spirits, or angels). It is these powers with whom we work our magic.
In its secular sense of habitual action, a ritual can be your customary morning routine and include all the little informal ceremonies you create to start and bless your day and make it work better, such as always using a special cup for your coffee or tea, arranging your workspace just so, doing little customary things before you really get to work. But it’s always good to begin our day with an acknowledgment of the sacred dimension. I have a friend who faces the sunrise and drinks an intentional glass of water every morning to honor Gaia and Her watery daughter goddesses.
With ritual intention, we can make all the ordinary parts of our lives beautiful and sacred, like setting fresh flowers on the table or desk, unpacking and washing Grandma’s dishes for Thanksgiving, or helping our children prepare for their first day of school or graduation (major rituals in themselves). The repeatability and predictability of our little unencumbered rituals add a bit of security to our ages of chaos. Our rituals can bring us comfort or inspiration. They can link us to the past and help us prepare for the future by making today more meaningful.
We can do our unencumbered rituals alone or with friends to celebrate the full and new moons, to empower a special project (as I did when I began work on this book), to beckon love or money into our lives, to celebrate a friend’s good fortune, or to bless a new home. Any occasion is an occasion for ritual.
1. For all four of these little rituals, if you have more topics on your list, do more rituals. Your rituals will be clearer if you focus on one topic per ritual.
2. See the “Toe-To-Toe” piece on this topic I wrote with Anne Niven in PanGaia #21 (Autumn 1999), pp. 20–23
3. Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection, The Practice of the Presence of God, edited and translated by John J. Delaney (New York: Doubleday Image Book, 1977).
4. Scott Cunningham, Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs (St. Paul, Minn.: Llewellyn, 1988), p. 215, and other books on herbs.
5. John Tierney et al., “The Search for Adam and Eve,” Newsweek (Jan. 11, 1988), pp. 46–52. To get more up-to-date information (including comments by Creationists), go to the Web, type “mitochondrial Eve,” follow the links, and read your eyes out. It’s fascinating.
6. See appendix B, the Goddess 101 Basic Library, for books that I think are key to understanding who we are and what we’re doing.
7. Instructions for constructing both Cretan and Chartres labyrinths are given in Melissa Gayle West, Exploring the Labyrinth: A Guide to Healing and Spiritual Growth (New York: Broadway Books, 2000). See also Lauren Artess, Walking a Sacred Path: Rediscovering the Labyrinth As a Sacred Tool (New York: Riverhead, 1995).
8. The Blessed Bees are Found power animals. There is more about Blessed Bees, including how to invoke them, at the end of this book (see page 123).
9. Toni Head, “Changing Hymns to Hers,” in The Great Goddess, Heresies, Vol. 2, No. 1, Issue 5, rev. ed., 1982, pp. 16–17.
10. See her extraordianry book, Blood, Bread, and Roses: How Menstruation Created the World (Boston: Beacon Press, 1993), p. 6.
11. See The Spiral Dance, 20th anniversary edition (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1999), chapter 4,“Creating Sacred Space.”