I believe in everything until it’s disproved.
So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons.
It all exists, even if it’s in your mind.
Who’s to say that dreams and nightmares aren’t as real as the here and now?
—john lennon
The work that is the primary force in the Faery Tradition is shamanic in nature. It relies on our ability to effectively alter our consciousness to allow for direct communication with very real spiritual beings and powers that are normally outside our awareness. This can be a dangerous practice. When we eventually touch these powers, they cause changes within us, shining a light deep within our own shadow, and then we are suddenly better able to see what lives there. Shining this light causes these long-buried demons to spring to life; they rise up into our consciousness and we can no longer pretend that they are not there. True, we could go back to sleep, but we will always feel them tugging at our awareness. They influence our decisions, preventing us from being as happy, aligned, and powerful as we could be. They keep us trapped in old patterns of fear, doubt, shame, and worse. This type of work will make you unable to ignore them anymore.
Most people would prefer not to engage the shadow. To do so is painful and can make us feel weak, but the only true weakness is in not making the attempt to transform those blocks and impurities that plague us, even if at first we are unable to see them for exactly what they are.
We must be prepared to work with those changes and not against them, thus lessening the chances of this process being a painful or even a harmful one. Before we can effectively (and more safely) travel the worlds and touch the powers of deep enchantment we must make sure that our vessel is sound. And this too is a process of molding and tempering … of heating and shaping. Like a blacksmith forging a sword, we diligently work the practice upon ourselves as both the worker and that which is being worked. We are that which we are shaping.
We must become skilled at the art of trance. And this means that we must become proficient in the language of poetry and symbolism. Certain visualizations, sigils, colors, words, phrases, and the like are used by the ritualist as keys that seek to unlock specific realms or grant access to certain spirits.
Toward this end, we must first become proficient at those basic psychic-development practices of relaxation, grounding, centering, and paying proper attention to breath and posture, as well as to maintaining a disciplined routine. For those who feel that they are “too advanced” for this type of work, you are in luck: I guarantee that you are definitely not too advanced for a foundational practice. No matter how far we progress on the path we must always make sure that we are able to maintain a skilled discipline, otherwise it is far too easy to slip into unconscious, lazy behavior, lessening our power and negatively impacting the results of our magical work.
My recommendation for a sustainable, formal practice is to perform the practices I provide a minimum of four times per week, on average. Notice that I say “formal practice.” In addition to the formal practice, you should also create an informal extension of it, which you will strive to practice daily. Perhaps even multiple times per day, depending on the exercise and the need. This informal practice will consist of doing simplified versions of the formal work while you are engaged in some other activity, such as dusting your house, taking a shower, folding laundry, walking to the bus stop, or even simply while waiting between other activities. This informal work is done internally, without the use of tools or physical actions, and is what will keep the energies raised during the formal work engaging your life on a deep level. This ensures that our entire lives become part of our spiritual practice, and not just those times that we sit in front of our altars and light our candles.
While it is certainly important to establish a discipline, it is not always necessary to completely overhaul our lives in order to make it happen. It need not happen overnight. We can take little steps to start the creation of such a routine and gradually build our spiritual practice from the ground up. We can, however, expect the results of our magic to be equal in measure to the time and effort that we have put into its practice.
One of the main skills necessary to make this happen, however, is not something that most people would consider to be magical or spiritual, and as such it rarely gets the attention it deserves: time management. When I have brought this up in classes over the years I am often met with glassy-eyed stares of disappointed disbelief, as surely the real answer to the success of establishing and maintaining a magical practice couldn’t possibly lie in something so mundane. This assumes first that the mundane offers nothing to the magical, and second that there is a substantive difference between the two, or that they are mutually exclusive, thus revealing what is often a major stumbling block for most people. This is also why most people fail at deepening their magic: assumptions make for poor guides.
We need to make a commitment to our practice and this means scheduling the time and treating that time as sacred. It is no less important than exercise, eating properly, or any of the numerous other self-investments that are all too often ignored and neglected. This casual neglect in turn diminishes a Witch’s personal power. A Witch needs to practice a fierce compassion first for ourselves, making sure that our needs are taken care of before attending to those of others. It’s just like what the flight attendant says each time we board a plane: “If the oxygen masks are released, secure yours first before assisting those around you.”
In addition to the exercises given (which are to be adopted into your formal practice and performed for the recommended minimum of four times per week) you should also be keeping a journal of your experiences. This is an essential part of the work, as it allows for the different layers of our consciousness to continue interacting with what we have experienced in the trance worlds. The act of writing helps move energies between different areas of the brain, each possessing their own drives and methodologies. Writing allows the nuances of the trance experience to further work its magic upon us in ways we might not otherwise imagine.
A Traditional Faery Altar
Your altar is where you will be focusing much (though not all) of your spiritual work. Traditionally, the altar is placed in the north, the place of magnetic power in the Northern Hemisphere. Practitioners in the Southern Hemisphere may wish to align their altars to the south to better honor the power of the land on which they actually live.
We will add to it over time (and even create other altars for specific purposes) but for now all you will need is a space where you can be undisturbed, a surface on which you can place your tools as you obtain them (wand, blade, chalice, cube, mirror, and cauldron), a black altar cloth, images of goddesses and gods with whom you have a working relationship, a bell, a bowl of salt, a bowl of water, an incense burner, an ash pot (for burnt matches, etc.), and three candles: blue, red, and a single black candle to represent the Star God/dess, the primary deity in Faery Witchcraft. To this you may wish to add whatever other objects of power and inspiration you desire. A basic central arrangement around which you may build is shown in figure 1.
Figure 1: A Faery Altar
There are some other objects that you may wish to place upon the altar. It is traditional for a coven of gay men to include an image of a gray dove upon their altars, while a lesbian coven uses the image of a gray wolf. This gives rise to their names within our tradition: a gray dove coven or a gray wolf (or gray hound) coven. These animals are totemic presences of the Divine Twins, and they can be thought of as holding that specific energetic presence in these circles. This reminds us that while we can gather together of like minds and experiences, we still share the world with others, and so we should strive to learn from these other perspectives.
A good Faery altar should be somewhat indistinguishable from an art installation; it should delight, inspire, and, above all else, be beautiful. Art is a primary tool and practice in the Faery Tradition. Faery Grandmaster Anaar, an accomplished dancer and artist in her own right, has stated that Feri is a “religion of art.” 11 Through the lens of art we seek to better understand the Goddess and her continually unfolding creative power.
The Star Goddess is black to represent the blackness of the empty Void from which all things originated. According to our custom, her candle is also supposed to be the largest that we can find, but in a pinch even just a black taper or votive candle will do. You may decide you wish to dress it with herbs and oils, but for now just the candle itself will suffice. While we will be doing meditative and energetic work leading up to it, the lighting of the Star Goddess candle is the very first act that we do in a Faery ritual working. This represents the first light that divided the primal dark, and as such each time we light her candle we are tapping into the creation of the universe itself. This makes our ritual circle a true microcosm of the universe. We are participating in the powers of universal creation and destruction each time we perform our rites.
The blue and red candles represent the Divine Twins, a central concept of our tradition. Bloodrose defined these candles as representing simply “the Goddess” and “the God” and used them to invoke a litany of deities aligned to the Old Craft as taught by Victor. But this is only one way amongst many in which to view these variable powers. Though they often manifest as opposites, they are not exclusively so, as each can fulfill the role and function of the other. In her book Fifty Years in the Feri Tradition, Grandmaster Cora Anderson speaks of how the Twins can flow together as easily as two candle flames flowing into one.
In BlueRose we first connect to these Twins in the forms of the Scarlet Serpent (a primal, embodied presence of earth and fire) and the Azure Dove (a refined, transcendent one of water and air). When these powers come together, they merge and become our beloved Blue God, who traditionally displays both avian and serpentine symbolism in his iconography. He is thus embodied transcendence, a state of being that we as Faery practitioners strive to cultivate within ourselves, in part by identifying with the Blue God, who is the brother, son, lover, and other half of the “clitoral-phallic presence of God Herself,” 12 aka the Star Goddess.
Opening the Way
The concepts and exercises given in this section comprise the beginning of what we in BlueRose call Opening the Way—the collective name given to the foundational practices upon which we will continue to build. In the group of exercises given below, three of them are parts of Opening the Way. As new exercises (and alterations to existing ones) are made available, you should augment your overall practice to include the newer material.
The beginning of the training in Faery Tradition must begin with the breath. In many cultures, the word for breath and spirit are the same. This reflects the primal importance of the breath and how we might focus it for the purposes of altering our spiritual awareness. Though many different techniques may be used to achieve the same results, one of the simplest is the four-fold breath.
This first exercise is so simple that many do not even consider it, believing that something so unassuming could not possibly be powerful. This would be a terrible mistake, as this exercise forms the energetic foundation for everything else that we will encounter in our work between the worlds. Take your time with it, especially if it feels “boring.” If you find yourself getting anxious, shift your awareness to that of observing the sense of anxiety, boredom, frustration, etc. When you can do this effectively for at least five minutes in a sitting, then you will be ready to move on to the next exercise.
Opening the Way 1: The Four-Fold Breath Exercise
Begin by sitting comfortably with your spine straight. Relax and exhale fully, feeling your muscles pushing out all of the air from your lungs. Now, breathe in deeply through your nose to the count of four and allow your breath to seemingly flow into your lower belly as you silently focus on a space about three-fingers width beneath your navel. Hold your breath for the count of four … and then exhale to the count of four, then holding again for four counts. Repeat this process for at least a few minutes. If your mind drifts during this time, simply and gently bring it back to the present moment … just observe your breath moving in and out.
Opening the Way 2: Grounding Exercise
Another beginning exercise that we often encounter is that of grounding. This is a process of energetically aligning our consciousness and of mentally and spiritually connecting our energy body to the energy body of the earth. Much like a large appliance has a grounding wire to ensure that power surges will not damage the mechanism, when we establish a grounding cord into the earth we too are better prepared to encounter surges of energy that might otherwise cause us distress or even some form of harm. While there are many different techniques available to do this, my favorite is to use the time-honored imagery of the tree, with roots deep in the earth and branches high up in the heavens.
Begin by sitting properly as in the four-fold breath exercise and engaging the four-fold breath. When you are feeling relaxed and open, softly focus your awareness on that space beneath your navel and imagine a red ball of light beginning to form there. Imagine breathing in and out of this ball, each breath giving it life force and increasing its light and substance. After several moments to a few minutes, imagine that this ball sprouts a cord of red light that stretches down through your perineum, seeking downward like the taproot of a great tree. Take your time as you imagine this cord effortlessly flowing down through the layers of the earth until it finds the iron center … the molten outer core … and then the crystalline inner core of the earth. Once there, take a few moments to simply observe how you are feeling, and then imagine that you can “breathe up” the red power of this core into your roots, breathing this light slowly, all the way up, until you feel it enter through your perineum and slowly fill your body with every breath.
Now, imagine that this light sprouts out through your shoulders and your crown in the form of branches that stretch upward into the starry heavens. Take some time to contemplate the iron in the centers of the very oldest of those stars and how this light shines down to you … an electric blue cosmic light … into your crown, as you slowly breathe. Imagine it filling you and flowing out through your roots and into the earth below. Observe how you feel in this state and maintain this awareness for a couple of minutes, at least until you have mastered the exercise, at which point maintaining awareness of this sensation for just a few moments will do.
The Origin Exercise
The Origin exercise is usually given to beginning students on our path. Its core comes to Faery Tradition by way of Arica training, a modern tradition of spiritual self-development. It is an active meditation on the earth as our original mother. It is generally done somewhat often in the beginning stages, and then less frequently as the training commences. Play with it, and see what it brings up for you.
After doing the previous exercise, imagine that with every breath you are drawing up from the earth a sense of strength and power … and every exhale sends down love and gratitude. Feel that your grounding cord is like an umbilical cord connecting you to the Mother in your deep core. With seven exhales, chant the following in a long, vibratory drone, becoming slower with every repetition:
Hail Earth! Mother of all!
Opening the Way 3: The Holy Flame Exercise
(Engaging the Star Goddess Candle)
Items needed:
A black Star Goddess candle
Matches
Now that we have established a simple inner practice, we can begin to bring ritual into the mix. Sit in front of your altar and perform the previous exercises. Once they are complete imagine that your whole body begins to vibrate and shine with a liquid, diamond light—the presence of your own divinity. Once you feel that you are brilliantly shining with this light, imagine sending a portion of it into the wick of the Star Goddess candle as you light it, your own divine presence merging with the candle flame, becoming one. Take a moment to contemplate how the flame that burns before you and the flame that burns within are one and the same … all flames are one flame. Then, open your arms before you with your palms facing upward and recite the traditional prayer:
Holy Mother!
In you we live, move, and have our being.
From you all things emerge
And unto you all things return.
On the last line cross your arms over your chest (left over right) and bow in reverence to the flame. This posture is reminiscent of the ancient Egyptian “death pose” and reflects the fact that all life returns to her. We are not bowing in the sense of subjugation, but out of respect and acknowledgment of the divine source, of which we all partake. Take some time (here in the beginning at least a few minutes, otherwise a few moments) to observe any sensations you may have.
Later, we will add here whatever more specific things we are working on, but for now, imagine calling back the power you sent into the candle flame, feeling it flow through your breath and into that space beneath your navel. Now, recite the Holy Mother prayer once more, and then snuff out the candle. Remain still and silent for the span of three breaths.
Once you have mastered the exercises (meaning, once you have memorized their forms and are able to regularly perform them satisfactorily from memory), then you may add the next technique to your spiritual toolbox.
The Personal Temple
The personal temple is an astral construct that can be used in order to provide a deepened experience during trance. By utilizing personal symbols and visualizations, we can create a space in which our own power is more fully realized, and then use this as a starting point for whatever other trance workings we are wishing to engage in.
To begin this exercise, it is important to have a general idea as to what elements should be present in the temple. For example, will it be inside a building or outdoors? If outdoors, is it in a forest or on a beach? Will it be underground or in the heavens? You are only limited to the confines of your imagination and to what feels right to you. It’s okay if it looks straight out of a fantasy novel or a science-fiction movie or even just a simple nature scene. The point is to imagine an environment in which you can see yourself performing great feats of magic. If you were the most powerful [Witch/Warlock/Wizard/fill-in-the-blank] in the world, where might you see yourself working your spells? What elements do you feel should be here for you? Certainly an altar … maybe a garden full of magical herbs? A bookshelf with an impressive collection of ancient tomes? Or consider that whatever you come up with now might change considerably in the course of your evolving practice. For now, just play with some different imagery and see how you feel in relation to it. The feeling is the most important factor here. When you are feeling powerful, then you are better able to become powerful. We will here use our imagination in order to train our energy body in the art of feeling, and thus becoming, as powerful as we can be.
I recommend performing the Summoning the Temple exercise several times while in the process of building one’s personal temple. With each successive visit you will likely find that there are changes to the environment that may result in a better experience as time goes on. After you have done this several times, you may also wish to create a visual representation of your personal temple as a sort of meditative mandala.
Summoning the Temple Exercise
Items needed:
Your black Star Goddess candle
Matches
Begin with the Four-Fold Breath and Grounding of Opening the Way. Imagine that you can feel the directions all around you—north, south, east, west, above, below—and, finally, feel yourself perfectly centered in between them all.
Breathe three deep breaths of power, and imagine that with every exhale you are breathing the power into the world around you, giving it form. Notice what form it takes. Look around you … to the north to the place of earth … to the east and the place of air … to the south and the place of fire … to the west and the place of water. Look above you and below into the places of aether. In the center of this place is an altar: your altar. Notice what objects or symbols are on it. What does it look like? How big or small is it? What is it made from? How do you feel about it? Take in every detail. This is your place to make magic! It can look like whatever you wish it to be.
In your mind’s eye continue to look around, paying attention to all the details and using all of your senses to make the experience feel more real for you. Does this place have a scent? What can you hear? If there are walls, what color are they? What does the wall texture feel like? Explore all of the objects in this place in a similar fashion until you are familiar with every little detail of this place.
Once you have done this, spend just a little more time paying attention to how you feel in this place. Are you calm? Energized? Anxious? Happy? Sad? Notice how the energy of this imagined place affects you. Spend a few moments contemplating this, and then perform the Holy Flame exercise as before, imagining that as you are lighting the candle in your physical working area that you are also lighting it in your personal temple. The two candles—and the two flames—are but one flame.
When you are able to call up this place in your mind and the details are vivid, then you know that it has begun to take on a life on the astral. Each visit will strengthen this place and make it more powerful for you. From now on, each time you light your Star Goddess candle you will simultaneously be lighting the candle in your personal temple. Eventually you won’t need to go through every step to “make it more real” for yourself, as the repeated visits will have made this place strong for you. But for now take the time to really explore your temple and see how it might change over the weeks and months to come.
By becoming proficient with these exercises and techniques you will have begun the process of strengthening your energetic foundation, your container for magical energies. Once you feel comfortable with these, you may move on to the next section in which we will begin the process of invoking the Faery fire.