Wicca for Beginners (10 page)

The following is the sample pathworking framework. For this sample, I am assuming that you will be either reading the script into a tape recorder or having someone read it to you. Note that pathworkings can be more structured than this one, with nearly every piece choreographed, or they can be much less structured, consisting of an induction, a period of time for you just to wander around and experience whatever there is to be experienced, and a return. As with everything in Wicca, you will want to experiment to see what level of detail you want to include in your pathworking script. I’ve put pauses in the script for the person reading the script. They are not meant to be read out loud. I have also noted where the induction, body, and closure begin and end so you have a frame of reference for creating your own.

Sample Pathworking

[Beginning of induction.]
Close your eyes and relax.
Pause.
Breathe deeply. Allow your body to relax more and more with each breath, until you are very relaxed, but not asleep.
Pause.
Allow yourself to slip gently into a trance state. If necessary, try square breathing until you are fully relaxed and in a trance.
Pause.

Focus on my voice and my words. Breathe. Relax.
Pause.
You are going to take a journey in your imagination, your mind’s eye. To begin, see or imagine that you are standing at the edge of a thick forest at night. You can hear the rustle of the wind in the leaves of the trees, and a full moon glows overhead. In the moonlight, you can clearly make out a path that begins right in front of you and leads off into the forest. To the right of the path, just at the beginning, is a tower of stones set one on top of the other. The tower is about three feet tall, and the stones that form it are roughly the size of cinder blocks. Sitting on top of the tower is a glowing lantern. This tower is your starting and ending point for this pathworking. Touch the tower and know that it is real.
Pause.

Begin walking down the path into the forest. Do not take the lantern with you, because you will not need it. The moon lights your path, so you have no difficulty finding your way. You can feel the soft earth beneath your feet. The trees are tall and dark, but this is not a frightening forest. It is somehow familiar, comforting. You walk on and on, toward the center of the forest.
Pause.

Soon the path gives way to a large clearing, illuminated by the moonlight. You can see the blips of fireflies in the grass along the edge. In the center of the clearing, there is a large, flat stone—large enough for you to sit on. You walk into the clearing and sit on the stone, under the moonlight. You realize that you are in a sacred place.
Pause. [Note: This is the end of the induction—the part of the pathworking that leads you into trance and into the sacred place where the work will be done.]

[Beginning of body.]
From your place on the flat rock, you see a woman emerging from the trees. As she walks across the clearing toward you, you notice that she is wearing a flowing white dress and a silver band with a crescent moon on her forehead. It is difficult to tell how old she is. As she walks slowly toward you, you are not afraid. In fact, you are filled with anticipation, knowing that this woman bears knowledge or information for you. The woman stops in front of you. Listen to what she has to tell you.
Long pause. [Leave enough time for the person doing the pathworking to hear the whole message.]

When the woman finishes speaking, you thank her. She turns and walks back across the clearing to disappear between the trees once more.
[End of body.]

[Beginning of closure/exit from the pathworking.]
When you are ready, stand and begin walking across the clearing toward the path that you took to get here. When you find the trail in the bright moonlight, begin walking back to your starting point. As you walk, remember the details of the message that the woman gave you. You walk on and on, enjoying the warm night and the beautiful forest. Pause. Ahead, you see the glow of the lantern, and you know you are almost back. You approach the edge of the forest and the glowing lantern, and touch the tower of stones. When you touch the stones, you immediately and completely return to the mundane world.
[End of closure.]

Note that in this particular framework, whatever happens in the clearing is the work of the pathworking, and the parts where you walk the path to and from the clearing are meant to bring you in and out of trance. Try this pathworking a few times, and then begin modifying it or writing your own. Consider going to the clearing and meeting whoever or whatever is there, instead of the woman. Or do a spell using the flat stone in the clearing as an altar. The only limit on the possibilities is your imagination.

You may wish to journal about the experiences you have and the messages you receive. Over time, a pattern may emerge from the messages, or they may link up to form a larger message. In addition, just as with dreams, it can be hard to remember details of a pathworking after you’ve returned, and the bits that you do remember tend to disappear over time. (This happens in ritual too. We call it “circle memory”—which is really “circle forgetfulness.”) If you write down the details immediately after your pathworking, you’re more likely to retain the information.

Now that you know something about the basic mental tools that serve as a foundation for Wiccan practice, it’s time to dig into the practice itself.

5

The Circle:

A Wiccan’s Sacred Space

Wiccan rituals and magical
workings are most often conducted in circles. The circle is sacred space, just like a church or temple, but created with energy and visualization. The circle symbolizes many things, but one of the most commonly held ideas is that it is a space “between” the material and spiritual worlds, since Wiccans walk, work, and worship in both. The circle is a place where both worlds exist and neither exists. It is a place outside of time and space.

Why Do You Need a Circle?

In addition to demarcating sacred space, the boundary of the circle works a little bit like your personal shield. When you draw the circle, you can decide what is allowed to enter it and what isn’t. It can keep out everything, or it can be like a semi-permeable membrane that only allows certain things to pass. Some Wiccans draw circles around themselves before doing visualization or meditation because they believe that the circle will filter out extraneous sounds and energies that might interfere with their work. Others believe that the circle prevents negative entities or energies from entering the sacred space; in effect, the sacred space is safe space. This idea has at least one of its roots in ceremonial magic. When they are invoking spirits, ceremonial magicians may stand inside the circle for protection from whatever they’re calling up. They may also stand outside the circle and cause the spirit to appear inside it, again for their own protection or to keep the spirit bound in one place. Most Wiccans don’t work with the kind of spirits that you’d want to contain (and some Wiccans consider containing otherworldly beings rude), so this application isn’t as relevant to us, but it’s worth knowing.

Wiccans often raise energy in ritual in order to do magic, and the circle keeps that energy in place until it is released to achieve whatever purpose it was intended for. After all, you wouldn’t want to go to all the trouble of raising energy only to have it seep out all over the place before you could use it. One thing the circle definitely retains is heat—from the bodies of the people standing in it, from any candles burned inside it, from energy, or from all of the above. If you were to reach out of the circle during a rite, you’d notice that the air outside the circle is cooler than it is inside. The edge of the circle itself has an energetic feel too. I don’t recommend reaching out of the circle, however! Crossing the boundary of a circle before the circle is “taken down” is considered bad etiquette. It disregards the sacredness of the space, breaks concentration, and it may punch a hole in the circle that lets in (or out) things that the ritualgoers didn’t intend.

It can have other wacky effects too. Once my coven was doing a guided visualization (a pathworking) in circle, and one of the members, stretching out on the floor to relax, accidentally put his feet outside the circle. In his pathworking, his feet were cold while the rest of his body was hot, and he couldn’t move because they were “stuck” to the ground. He didn’t figure out why he couldn’t move until we ended the pathworking and he realized where his feet were. This had no long-term bad effects on him except that we teased him about it a lot.

Marking the Circle

A Wiccan circle can be marked on the floor indoors with chalk, paint, or a round rug. It can be etched into the ground and/or outlined with natural things like cornmeal or stones if it is outside. Some circles are very ornate, with magical symbols drawn around or inside them. Many circles, however, have no physical outline. They are simply drawn with energy. Some Wiccan traditions have customs about how large a circle should be, but many Wiccans just draw their circles large enough to hold everyone participating in the ritual or small enough to fit in the living room or wherever the ritual will be held.

When Do You Need a Circle?

You should draw a circle whenever you are going to do a Wiccan ritual that involves worship of the gods. Again, this is because the circle is sacred space. You do not have to use a circle in magical working, although, as I already mentioned, it will help you focus your concentration and energy and keep out distractions. You also do not have to use a circle during meditation or pathworking, but many people feel safer doing trance work with that magical boundary around them. The choice is yours.

Preparing the Space

It is fairly common practice amongst Wiccans to “cleanse” the area where they are going to hold their ritual both physically and psychically before drawing the circle. Cleansing the space has several benefits. First of all, it’s more respectful to conduct religious or magical work in a physically clean space. It’s less distracting to draw a circle and focus on a rite in a space that’s psychically clean and devoid of whatever unwanted energy has accrued throughout the day from arguments, your mother-in-law’s visit, and so on. Cleansing the space beforehand also helps focus your mind on the upcoming ritual. For some people, cleansing the space becomes a trigger that gets their brains into “ritual mode” before the circle is even cast.

Begin by cleaning the physical space. If your rite is going to be outside, clear anything that might be in the way, like branches, children’s toys, or lawn tools; rake up stray leaves and twigs; and check for anything that you might trip over. If you like to do ritual barefoot, check for sticker plants too! If your ritual will be inside, move furniture if necessary and vacuum or sweep the floor. Vacuuming and sweeping not only clean the floor, but they help break up and disperse energy. Using special ritual cleaner made from clean water and specially selected herbs is a cool idea too. Mixing up the cleaner is a magical act in itself. Just don’t put essential oils in it. They can take the finish off hardwood floors.

Next, cleanse the space psychically. There are many techniques for doing this, but here are some of the easier and more common ones. Choose the one that seems most appropriate for you and your space.

•
Sweep out anything energetic that you don’t want in the space with a special ritual broom. You do not have to touch the floor with the broom, so it can work in a room with carpet or even outside. As you sweep, visualize the broom pushing out any extraneous or unwanted energy. This technique is very common.

•
Ring a special bell in each corner of the room, or in each direction if you’re outside. The sound of a good bell is great for dispelling energy. Rattles also work well.

•
“Smudge,” or purify, the area with an incense burner full of smoldering dried herbs. In the United States, we most often associate smudging with the Native American custom of using the smoke of burning desert sage to cleanse a space or a person’s aura. However, many cultures use smoke or incense to clear ritual areas. Even the Catholic Church—referred to by some of my Catholic friends as the “bells and smells” church —uses ritual purification incense. You can use any herb of your choice, but make sure to
look up all herbs before burning them
.
Some of them are toxic, and you don’t want to breathe in their smoke. (See the recommended reading list in the back of this book for titles of herb books.) If you are preparing a large outdoor ritual space and you need a lot of smoke, try making a censer out of an old coffee can. It’s not pretty, but it works! Punch several holes in the sides of the can with a screwdriver or more appropriate tool. (When we did this, we were in the middle of the Mexican desert, and a screwdriver was all we had.) Punch two holes opposite each other near the rim of the can, and thread a piece of wire or wire hanger through them to make a handle, like a child’s sand bucket. Make sure the handle is long so whoever is holding the censer doesn’t singe their hands because they’re too close to the stuff you’ll be burning in the can. Put a few hot coals in the bottom of the can, and add a handful of dried herbs. When the herbs are smoking, walk around your sacred space, swinging the can gently to spread the smoke. Add more herbs as necessary.

•
Sprinkle the area with saltwater. Salt and water are used for purification in cultures across the world. Some Wiccan rituals call for saltwater to be sprinkled inside the circle during the ritual, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use it beforehand too.

•
Sweep out the space with a paper fan. The movement of the fan breaks up stagnant energy.

•
Use visualization to clear the space. Visualize the wind pushing out any unwanted psychic residue, even if you’re inside. It’s a visualization, after all, so the laws of nature don’t have to apply. You can combine visualization with one of the other cleansing techniques too.

Casting the Circle

Casting the actual circle is a lot simpler than you might believe after all of these preparations. Before I get to the instructions, though, you should know a little bit about the athame—a Wiccan’s ritual knife—and the wand. We’ll cover these tools in more depth in chapter 8. You can draw a circle without any tools whatsoever, but many Wiccans use an athame or wand. The purpose of the tools in this case is to focus the energy you’ll be raising to a point, like a pencil, from which you draw the circle. However, I think it’s very important to learn how to cast a circle without tools before learning with tools. If you can do it without tools, you can do it anywhere, and that’s handy in an emergency or when you need to do spell or trance work on the fly. Doing it without tools also reinforces the fact that the tools are just focal points, and the real power comes from the energy you draw and your own mind.

To cast a circle:

1. Choose a place along what will be the edge of your circle to begin. Many Wiccans choose to begin in one of the cardinal directions: east, south, west, or north. We’ll talk about the directions and why you might choose one over another in more detail in the next chapter, but for learning purposes, you can choose any quarter you wish. Most Wiccans begin in the east, because it’s where the sun rises, or the north, because it’s associated with the earth, and the circle is drawn with earth power. There is no reason, however, why you can’t start anywhere along the edge of your space that you want.

2. Ground.

3. Visualize your taproot, and then visualize drawing energy up from the earth’s core through the taproot.

4. Extend the index and middle fingers of whichever hand you prefer, and visualize the energy flowing into those fingers. Although some Wiccans think you should use your dominant hand for this (assuming you have a dominant hand), either hand works just fine.

5. Begin to move clockwise around your space and visualize the energy flowing through you and forming the circle. Many people find it helpful to visualize the stream of energy in a particular color. Wiccans almost always move clockwise, or sunwise, in a circle because it mimics the path of the sun. Some Wiccans believe that moving counterclockwise, or “widdershins,” “undoes” the circle. Move slowly, and concentrate. Remember to breathe deeply. Don’t hold your breath!

6. When you have gone all the way around the circle and returned to your starting point, stop walking and solidify the circle by visualizing the entire boundary in your mind. When you can “see” it in your mind’s eye, extend the circle above your head and below the ground or floor so it is a three-dimensional bubble around you rather than a two-dimensional circle on the floor. Hold the image in your mind for a few moments to strengthen it and make it real. Remember, energy follows thought, so the visualization is very important.

You’ve just cast a simple circle. Once you have practiced this and have the hang of it, you can try casting the circle without moving or using your fingers. You can also practice drawing it with a wand or athame.