Is Wicca Dead?

Author: Helio

It seems like an odd thing to me, and I’m sure to many others, that some would claim that Wicca is dead or dying. But I have heard this from at least a few members of the Craft. Strange to think of Wicca, the fastest growing of the rapidly growing Neopagan religions, as being doomed to die in the near future. I have received different opinions for ‘why Wicca is dying’ and ‘what the fate of Wicca will be’.

More than a few Wiccan elders who have expressed this sentiment to me are just simply disheartened by what they view as a lack of progress made in and for Wicca over the past few decades. These elders, I think, believed that there would be a great unity in the Craft and that Wicca and Neopaganism would make great social progress. Many of these Wiccan elders have also seen the rise and fall of covens and friendships between witches. And so if asked the fate of Wicca, they would respond that there would be no future for Wicca. Neopaganism in general will fail as a religious movement.

I have heard from other Wiccans that Wicca is dying do to a lack of central authority. And this I have heard from Witches who are not members of any tradition! I’ve found that some of those I’ve heard this from have backgrounds in Catholicism, so perhaps they are used to the idea of the papacy as a central authority. But the whole reason why many come to the Craft is I>because of the lack of central authority. The Craft teaches self-reliance. I think some of my fellow Crafters have forgotten this.

I have also heard that Wicca has become too public. ‘No one wants to stay in the broom closet anymore like a good witch should’. Oh My! I think those who hold this sentiment may still be holding on to past life feelings of persecution. But if this is an age of religious tolerance, and Judeo-Christian beliefs are no longer supposed to operate in the secular domain, then we have no reason to hide or fear being burned at the stake. Wicca needs to be open if we are to show the world that we are not dangerous.

There are also those who see the rapid rise of solitary witchcraft and the collapse of covens as evidence of Wicca’s impending doom. I have never felt that it ‘takes a Witch to make a Witch’ but certainly there are some who could use a bit more experience before they declare themselves a Witch. I know there are plenty of solitaries who don’t really know the Craft as much as they should and that they may sometimes suffer from hubris, but it is the right of every Wiccan to explore the Craft personally and without a coven. I think covens are great, but for some people a coven just doesn’t work, and I feel there are some who use the coven structure to make themselves feel more important and powerful. We all know there is no place for tyrants in a coven structure.

Now unlike the belief that Wicca will die and cease to exist, I have found those who believe Wicca is dying but that it will develop into a new religion, or religions. I somewhat share this sentiment, but I don’t think Wiccan witchcraft will just cease to be. And if Wicca is to become something else then it is not dying, it is evolving. All religious movements evolve. There are many who would point out that modern Wicca is ‘not the Wicca of sixty years ago’, and this is because of a natural evolution in the religion.

I feel that part of the reason for this whole ‘Wicca is dead’ thing seems to be that Wicca and Neopaganism have failed in the last sixty years to supersede western society’s Judeo-Christian dominance. I know that there are many screaming at me after reading that last line. ‘The point of Wicca isn’t to supersede Christianity! All faiths lead to the same source!’ But I have not yet met the Crafter who didn’t hold some level of anti-Christian sentiment. I’ve found that much of the ‘Wicca has failed’ belief comes from those Wiccans who experienced the great social and spiritual revolutions of the late sixties and seventies. At the time it must have seemed like Neopaganism would become a powerful social force by the turn of the millennium. Its failure to become so has soured the movement for some.

It may not seem like it for many, but Wicca’s ability to suddenly go from a few dozen followers to thousands (or millions) of followers in only half a century is an amazing achievement. It is a direct parallel of early Christianity’s rise from a few dozen believers in 30 C.E. to hundreds or thousands by 150 C.E. Wicca has perhaps grown twice as fast in half the time thanks to television, the Internet, and especially, modern printing and publishing. Most new religious movements do not rise out of the underground in their first hundred years.

Is Wicca dead? Has Wicca failed in some way?

No one ever said being a Witch is easy. Some of my elders may find me youthfully naïve, but in the six years that I have been in the Craft, I have found a vast, vibrant, though mostly underground, community that is ever growing and evolving to meet the needs of its followers.

I can definitely say Wicca is very far from taking its last breaths.

White-Washed Witches

Author: BellaDonna Saberhagen

Witches are good. They were the great priests and priestesses of the “Old Religion” that everyone turned to in times of need. They were healers and seers, guides and advocates. It was only when the big bad Christians came and burned the Witches (nine million women, to be exact) that they were seen as bad, malevolent, evil things seeking to destroy all that was good and holy. Christianity maligned the good people of the earth, demonized the gods, and spread the hatred and fear of Witches that survives until this very day.

The above sounds familiar, doesn’t it? It’s what many Pagan authors believe and would like their readers to believe. The only problem is, it’s not true. It’s rewritten history. Every bit of it. If we’re to grow beyond the haphazard anthropology of Margaret Murray, we have to accept that. Many Pagans do accept that (most Pagans by now, I would hope) ; but there is one part of it that seems to be ignored: that Witches are good, and in fact MUST be good.

Historically, often the opposite is true. I’m not speaking of Celtic or even Norse tales; one can argue that since they were not written down until after Christians took over their respective regions that they may well have been changed to suit Christian morality. However, the Greeks had tales of witches that far pre-date the Christian take-over, and even these do not paint witches too kindly.

Medea was a princess well skilled in magic. In the tale of Jason and the Golden Fleece, she plays a key role. Hera takes an interest in the success of the mission and asks Aphrodite to have her son Cupid strike Medea with love for Jason so that she would be willing to help him with her “dark knowledge.” Medea’s father was King Aetes, the keeper of the Golden Fleece. After being struck with love for the enemy of her father, Medea considers killing herself with one of her deadly potions rather than betray her father or her love. However, she decides to betray Aetes and help Jason, which sets the tone for future actions. She gives him a balm that makes him invincible for a day and tells him how to win the trial her father has set before him to win the Golden Fleece. After the trial is won, she learns that her father has no intention of honoring his bargain and handing over the Fleece. She tells Jason of this and he and the Argonauts steal the Fleece and take her with them as they flee. During the pursuit, Medea is responsible for allowing the Argonauts to escape by causing her brother’s death; either by asking him to rescue her and sending him into a trap or by cutting him into pieces herself and forcing her father to stop pursuit to gather the remains of his dismembered son.

Upon arriving home, Jason finds that his father, the rightful king, was forced to suicide by the evil Pelias (the entire expedition for the Fleece was a bargain made between he and Jason, if Jason could bring the Fleece, Pelias would relinquish the kingdom back to its rightful ruler) . Jason needs to bring Pelias down and again turns to Medea. Pelias is an old man, so Medea approaches his daughters with a magical way to make the old young again. She cuts up an old ram in front of them, puts the pieces in a pot of boiling water, says a charm and out springs a lamb. That night, the daughters happily cut their own father to ribbons in their effort to make him young again. Jason becomes king. Medea bears Jason two children, but he does not marry her. Instead, he marries the princess of Corinth in order to gain that kingdom as well and forces her and her sons to leave his realms because she threatens harm to his new wife and he has seen what she can do. In exile, Medea sends a poisoned garment that kills Jason’s wife. Once Jason finds out, he threatens to sell his sons into slavery, so Medea kills them herself so that they would not be so tortured and shamed; then she escapes as Jason curses her.

While some of her magic may have been for what she saw as good, she certainly did not live by the codes modernly associated with Witches. She was a Witch, but not a good Witch. Her early magic may not seem so bad, helping Jason to win the Fleece through the trial; but she had to betray her own family to even go that far and that was certainly seen as evil in those days. Circe was a “most beautiful and dangerous witch.” She turned every man she came upon into a beast, but with a human mind so that they remained conscious of their predicament. When Odysseus sent a scouting party out to check the island, she turned them into swine, save one who got away and ran back to tell his captain. Odysseus went alone to face Circe, having been given an herb by Hermes to prevent her magic from affecting him. That he was able to resist her magic sparked Circe’s romantic interest and she freed his men and told him what he must do next on his long journey home.

In another tale, Glaucus sought a love potion from her to make the woman he desired love him. His story made Circe love him, but he was not interested. She decided it was the fault of the woman for which he longed. Circe turned this woman into a monster that destroyed all that tried to get close. Her name was Scylla; she became a monster that different sea-farers worried about in several tales. She was another Witch doing evil things, possibly in the name of love, possibly for her own selfish aims.

The concept of Witches as evil is older than Christendom. These tales prove this. In fact, the idea of Witches as good is more modern than many would prefer to believe. The book, The Wizard of Oz was banned in some places for daring to have good Witches in it. Even Leland’s Aradia has Witches doing bad things (the age of this text is up for conjecture, I date it to Leland, since his claimed source was never heard from again; others consider it to be based on a much older text) . Aradia is told by her mother: “And thou shalt teach the art of poisoning, Of poisoning those who are great lords to all; Yea, thou shalt make them die in their palaces; and thou shalt bind oppressor’s souls; and when ye find a peasant who is rich, then ye shall teach the witch, your pupil how To ruin all his crops with tempests dire (…) And when a priest shall do you injury By his benediction, ye shall do to him double harm and do it in the name of me, Diana, queen of witches all!”

I find that Leland’s Aradia states that Witches should out-right harm those who oppose them (and even those simply better off than they are) very interesting since some of his writings were clearly taken and applied to some forms of modern Wicca. The Charge of the Goddess as written by Doreen Valiente states, “Whenever ye have need of any thing, once in the month, and better it be when the moon is full, then shall ye assemble in some secret place and adore the spirit of She, who is Queen of all witches. There shall ye assemble, ye who are fain to learn all sorcery, yet have not won its deepest secrets; to these will She teach things that are yet unknown. And ye shall be free from slavery; and as a sign that ye be really free, ye shall be naked in your rites.”

From Aradia: ”Whenever ye have need of anything, Once in the month, and when the moon is full, ye shall assemble in some desert place, or in a forest all together join to adore the potent spirit of your Queen, my mother, Great Diana. She who fain would learn all sorcery has not won its deepest secrets, then my mother will teach her, in truth all things as yet unknown. And ye shall be freed from slavery, and so ye shall be free in everything; and as the sign that ye are truly free, ye shall be naked in your rites.”

I only hope Valiente gave Leland credit and did not just outright plagiarize him. This piece is clearly taken from Aradia, but the morality taught in that book (what I took as proof of Witches doing bad things was from the very same chapter as the “Charge” was “borrowed” from) was discarded and the Wiccan Rede placed in its stead. Since, by what most modern Witches would prefer to believe, all Witches follow the Rede, there are no bad Witches; and if you believe Wicca is the “Old Religion” of Europe, there never were bad Witches.

This belief creates individuals who become indignant every time pop-culture and media portray Witches as anything but good. They cry everything from “Christian persecution” to “the patriarchy gets nervous about powerful women, so they have to make them evil, cruel and sometimes insane.” While these beliefs may not be baseless, it must also be understood that Witches are not always good, just as Christians are not always good, just as your five year-old is not always good. Witches are humans and as humans, we can make mistakes, get angry, be selfish, exact revenge and wish to protect our families and property at all costs. If modern Witchcraft really wants to strive to be one with nature, then we cannot go against nature. Nature is both destructive and creative, we need to be the same or we are unbalanced. It may well be true that “The Witch that cannot hex, cannot heal.”

I see the modern good interpretations of Witches to be like old B-rate horror day-for-night shots (outdoor scenes filmed in broad day-light with a filter over the lens trying to create the illusion of darkness and usually failing) ; they give the darkness lip-service but stay within the circle of their white-light lamp. Sometimes you have to step outside your comfort zone to get in touch with reality; you might not always like the reality you see, but at least it is real and not a fantasy. The Witch as always good is just as much a fantasy as the Witch that is always bad.


Footnotes:
Mythology by Edith Hamilton
Aradia or Gospel of the Witches by Charles LeLand
The Charge of the Goddess by Doreen Valiente

Water Magick – Potions, Brews & Elixirs

Potions, Brews & Elixirs

 

Potions brews and elixirs are all essentially the same thing, with a few small differences. Potions are made from liquid ingredients or worked into a liquid base. Elixirs usually have crystals added to the liquid for extra power. Brews usually require some sort of heating process. (Soup and tea are both brews.)

Water Magick – Shell Magick

Shell Magick

 

Shells hold universal energies. They can be used for spell work in the same manner as crystals or herbs:

Abalone:  The abalone shell is often featured on the Water Witch’s altar as a focal point. It can be used to hold smaller items, to burn things, or simply to add extra power to a spell

Clam:  Clam shells are used for purification and love spells. They can  be placed in charm bags

Conch:  Conch shells work best in love spells

Coral:  Coral works well in matters of health and healing

Cowries:  Sacred to the Orisha Oya, the cowrie shell has a prestigious magickal pedigree. Due to its vulva-like appearance, this shell is frequently used upon altars as a representation of the Goddess. Cowries work well in matters involving money and prosperity

Oysters:  Oyster shells work best in matters pertaining to luck. They are said to promote good fortune. They make wonderful additions to charm bags

I Am a Witch of the Old World

I Am a Witch of the Old World

Author: Lady Abigail

I am very much a Witch of the Old World. NO, Not because I am ‘Old’ but because I have trust the Old World ways of healing and magick. Herbs are truly a gift of the Goddess. Everyday of our lives we have the opportunely to hold these gifts in our hands. Those of us called Herb Witches have also learned how to touch the Goddess. How to hold Her blessings of both healing and power within each of Her green gifts.

From the time of my Great Grandmother herbs were used for both Magickal and Medical works. My Great Grandmother was the Wise Woman, the Wise One, the Sage Woman. She was a Witch. She was Cajun, half Quapaw Indian and half French.

I would learn in secret from my Great Grandmother how to watch the signs of Nature. She taught me what herbs were best for concocting potions, teas, tonics, powders and brews. Which herbs were just right for not only healing but the magick of healing as well as for spells and with heart and love, anything was possible from the powers of the Earth and within Nature.

I learned the ways of the Old World. In the same way as my Great Grandmother had learned from her Grandmother and her Grandmother had learned from all the generations before. I learned by watching, listening and helping my Great Grandmother.

My Great Grandmother was raised in a time where it was common practice for people to go to the Wise One, the Wise Woman or Shaman, for help in healing or for help in magick. Many would come for help with problems of money, love, and harvest, as well as healing.

People would come to get the magick within her spells, pouches or brews for everything from, money, to protection. They came for mixtures of healing herbs and leaves when sick. I watched as she would work with her wonderful gifts of magick in healing and the magick of nature.

There were usually no doctors around for miles and little money to pay one. I would learn from My Great Grandmother how to call the wind in a whisper.
How to see what wasn’t seen, not by the in-worlders. Those who would or could not see the magick all around them. I would hear her speak wonderful incantations and spells. I would watch her make potions and brews to heal the sick. I would see her do magick, the kind of magick that stirs the soul.

I was brought up as a child to understand such things were never spoke of, and considered foolish by many. I wouldn’t truly appreciate all these wonderful gifts of healing and magick until much later in my life.

Even now, my Great Grandmother still influences my life with wonder. I can when quietly listening, hear her sweet voice upon the wind in whispers. As if within magick.

It was so heartbreaking that as my Grandmother passed away, and for many years, so did the magick. All her great wisdom pasted down through the generations. Her wonderful gifts would be rejected as with the old ways.

There are many facets of Magick, Herb Magick being one of the blessed ones. I believe that a Witch’s Herb cabinet is one of our most essential tools. Herbs have been used in Magick and Healing since the beginning for time. Used in Home Remedies, Make-up, Poultices, Salves, Creams, Infusions, Brews, Teas, Potions, and Elixirs. Most herbs have both a Magickal and Medical use. You must have a great respect for herbs. Whether using them Medicinally in Healing or Magickally in Spells. You need to be careful and sure of what you are using. Always make sure the herb is exactly what you think it us.

In a quick look, Queen Ann’s Lace, Angelica and Hemlock look a lot alike, but the out come will be completely different. If you are looking for a particular herb for use in either Magickal Work or Healing, and you’re not completely sure if the one you have found is that herb. Just, Don’t Use It!

You will find that in most cases the herbs and plants you need can be easily be acquired from your local grocery, herb shop, or even a florist. For some of the less common and less known herbs you may find it easer getting them from an herb shop.

When there’s a certain Herb called for in a spell and you don’t have that particular herb, check what it is being used for. Is it for power, is it for psychic power, is it for dreams, is it for the Goddess or God…?

In most cases when a spell calls for Herbs for a particular purpose, there are other Herbs out there that have the same influential powers. This is wonderful because if you’re working on a spell for psychic powers and can’t find Sumbul or Stillengia you can always use Bay Leaves, Cinnamon or Grass. All of these herbs are for strengthening psychic powers. Normally grass is pretty easy to find though I wouldn‘t use it in a tea potion or brew that was going to be drunk. Grass has a truly rank taste.

Herbs have also been used throughout history for medical healing. From poultices for bruised and blacken eyes, to healing sickness and disease. Being one of Wise One’s who carried the knowledge of healing was considered to be a great gift and this gift was not shared with everyone.

Today you will find more and more people as well as doctors who are returning to The Old Ways and a more natural way of healing. You can’t go through a department store, grocery store, or even a mall without seeing a place that sells herbs and natural remedies.

It seems so ridicules that this Old World knowledge is looked upon as some New Age miracle. It may well be a miracle or magick, but one that was given to us at the beginning of time, through the blessing of Mother Earth.

But for some reason we of this ultramodern world seem to think if we didn’t come up with an idea on our own, than it must not be a good one. So we call everything New Age. All the wonders that are of the Old World, Old Religion and Old Knowledge have somehow became New Age. No matter what you call it, New Age or Old World Knowledge, it works.

Remember those fairy tales and stories you were told as a child? Where the old Witches used Bat’s Wings and Devil‘s Eye, within their magickal brews. Get ready, you will find yourself using them as well. That’s because in the Old World, witches used many folk names for plants and herbs. Bat Wings are dried English Holly leaves, think about it, they do kind of look like Bat Wings and Devil’s Eye is just another name for Periwinkle. It may sounds strange but if there were ingredients you wanted to keep secret and not share with anyone wouldn’t this be a fabulous way to do it.

Especially, if you kept a Book of Shadows, Book of Secrets or Cookbook as my Great Grandmother Called hers, where you wrote down your Spells and Healing potions. You would use Folk names, names the In-worlders didn’t understand. (In-worlders: those who cannot or will not see all the magick before them.) Knowing it’s a lot harder for someone to find Devil’s Eye than Periwinkle.

Making your herbs into medicine that you can use to help heal and ease another’s pain is truly rewarding. It was amazing for me as a child to watch as my Great Grandmother as she would put together just the right herbs for people who would come to her for help and healing.

They would tell her all the problems they were carrying and you could see her, as she would listen to their needs of healing and of heart. It didn’t matter if someone came to her with complaints of something so insignificant as warts or complaints of great pain. She would begin to mix and brew, stir and work the wonderful magick of healing.

It is a shame that we have allowed so much of this knowledge of healing to be lost in the rush to have instant fixes for what ales us. You can go to just about any doctor and walk out with a fist full of prescriptions, for anything and everything. Many times the instant fixes and quickie trips through the doctors’ offices leave us felling more like cattle than like people with souls and spirits.

I sometimes wonder where the heart of caring and understanding has gone. So many of those in the medical professions just simply don’t have or don’t take the time for the heart that is truly needed in healing.

Don’t get me wrong there is a time and place for all kinds of healing, including doctors and pills. But I think we have become so dependent on the instant fixes that we have forgotten the ability of true healing.

True healing comes from within the body, mind and spirit. If you leave one of these uncared for this will allow the illness to return. In true healing it doesn’t matter if you are healing a disease or a hangnail be sure you look for all the answers. The answers that are found in the Heart.

There is a power we find within ourselves when crushing and blending, brewing and stewing up remedies and spells. Herbs are used in healing everything from the day-to-day aches and pains of life to the magickal answers of lost loves. Magick is not about only the spells or the healings, it is about who we are and the Old World gifts given to all the Wise Ones from a time when magick and wonders were forever possible within your heart with truth, and love.

Blessed Be….
Lady Abigail


Footnotes:
* Some excerpts were taken from “Witch of the Old World Book of Herbs”
by Lady Abigail

When Walking The Path, Wear Shoes

When Walking The Path, Wear Shoes

Author: Charmed Boy

I have often asked myself, “Are there others like me?” I am what I like to call a “non- magical” Pagan. I don’t do spell work or ritual. I am just a humble servant of the Goddess. I have tried to cast spells and perform rituals but it never seems to work. I have come to the realization that there are many different types of Pagans out there. There are those of use who cast circles and spells and perform rituals. There are also those like myself who are contented to just be of service.

I began my journey in my sophomore year of high school. I had always known there was something or someone watching over me, I just hadn’t figured what that was yet. I began studying various religions such as Buddhism and Quabalah, which I am still interested in after all these years.

One day I was at the library with my father when I came across the New Age section. I looked at some of the titles and when I found a book on Wicca, I picked it up and started reading.

A friend from high school was also into Wicca. We started wearing black clothing and pentacles. My high school had its various groups. The jocks, the preps, the goths. We were the Witches. Or so we thought. We would meet at a friend’s house and try and cast spells. There is a line from one of my favorite “witchy” movies Practical Magic that applies here: “You can’t practice Witchcraft while looking down your nose at it.” That is, in a sense, what we were doing. We were teenagers. We didn’t know any better.

Later, I discovered Gaia. I was reading a book about various Greek Gods and Goddesses and when I came to the part about Gaia something inside me clicked. For those who don’t know (and I am sure there aren’t very many) , Gaia is the Greek Goddess of Earth. She is the creator of everything that exists in nature. The birds and the winds and the oceans. That is why she is called “Mother Earth”. I felt like I had found what I had been looking for.

I had been hearing a gentle voice in my head comforting me when things went wrong. No, I wasn’t turning into Norman Bates! I had no desire to run a motel or dress in woman’s clothes and chase anyone around with sharp butcher knives. I knew this loving, caring voice could be none other than the Goddess speaking to me.

After High School, I moved from Illinois to Arkansas with my parents. I was bummed because I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know if there were any Pagans and Wiccans. I was entering part of the “Bible Belt”. To my amazement, I came across WitchVox.com. I noticed that an event called Pagan Pride Day was going on in Little Rock. I asked my dad if we could go. My father has been supportive of my choice of religion since I first talked with him about it.

On the day we went, I popped a Loreena McKennitt cd in the car’s cd player to get us in the mood. I had never been to an event like PPD and I didn’t know what to expect. The event was being held at a place called Burns Park. We didn’t know where to go, so we stopped at the visitors’ center to ask. The man behind the desk looked up at me when I asked him where the event was and said, “Are you one of them Witch people?” I laughed and said I was. He was smiling when he asked me so I knew he meant no harm.

We followed the directions until we came to a group of tents. We parked and walked across to the entrance. At this point, I was buzzing with excitement. There was the scent of patchouli in the air. We paid the entrance fee and looked around us. There were tents arranged in a circle. We walked around and looked at all the things people were selling. One woman was doing henna tattoos. My dad bought me my first pentacle. We came to a tent where two women were selling homemade perfume and body spray. This was where the patchouli scent was coming from.

I picked up a bottle and smelled it. It smelled like mint and patchouli. One of the women saw me holding the bottle and struck up a conversation with me. Little did I know she would become one of my best friends. She told me her name was Fran and she was the High Priestess of a coven. She held rituals and celebrated the holidays from the circle she had built in the back yard of her trailer. She invited me to attend the next holiday, which was Samhain. We e-mailed each other and on Samhain I went to her house with another friend. When I got there and saw the Circle she had built I was blown away. It was beautiful. The moment I took off my shoes and stepped inside the circle I felt its power and was at peace.

My friend was not Pagan and opted to observe. I had a lot of fun that night. I tasted mead for the first time. It is very good but very strong. Fran and I kept in touch through e-mail and by phone. I was able to attend the next PPD. When I got there Fran was talking with a friend of hers. She ran a tent with friends. When I went up to her to say hello, she didn’t recognize me at first. When I told her who I was she hugged me. We spent most of the day together. She made my father feel welcome. There was entertainment and belly dancing. After it was over and everyone began packing, I was walking to the car with my father when Fran called to me. She gave me a homemade besom her friend had made. A besom is a broom used to clear any negative energy from a room. I will never forget the gift she gave me as long as I live.

The last time I saw Fran was at the last PPD I went to. She was hosting a seminar on Egyptian Gods and Goddesses and history. After that, Fran and I lost touch. One day I decided to e-mail her just to see how she was. We hadn’t spoken for a while, but not because of any hostility between us; we were just busy. I received an e-mail from her husband informing me Fran had passed away. I was heartbroken.

I miss Fran a lot. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about her. She was a wonderful, courageous woman who loved to laugh and enjoyed the occasional dirty joke. I thank the Goddess every day for the privilege of having known her. One thing I took away from attending the rituals at Fran’s was the realization that spells casting and ritual isn’t for me. I am content with just serving the Goddess to the best of my abilities.

What do I hope you take from this article? Be content in your own skin. So you don’t cast spells. So you don’t do ritual. You are serving the God and or Goddess by praying and making offerings. They are spiritual Parents and They love us whether we choose to perform an elaborate ritual… or just to say a prayer and make an offering.

Also, cherish the time you have with your friends. You never know when they might not be there anymore.

Cast your eyes to the ocean. Cast your soul to the sea. When the dark night seems endless, please remember me.” — Loreena McKennitt

Bewitching

Bewitching

Author: Bob Makransky

Witchcraft is a craft. It’s something you learn. Witches usually do have supernormal powers. However, these powers are learned. There can be inborn talent, but it takes a lifetime of practice just to perfect one such power. This is why the terms “occultism”, “secret science”, “mysticism”, and so forth are silly. There is nothing secret or hidden going on here. Witchcraft is merely a matter of paying conscious attention to the things, which our society has taught us to ignore.

Witchcraft is what everyone is doing all the time, beneath the surface of everyday life. Most people just pretend they aren’t doing it or else they don’t consider what they do to be witchcraft. For example, infatuation is a species of mutual bewitching. Lovers bewitch one another and themselves. But they wouldn’t consider this witchcraft. They consider it love – at least until the bewitchment, the infatuation, wears off.

Similarly, people who cannot break free of an abusive relationship are usually bewitched by their partners. Doctors, and all healers, cure people by stimulating and encouraging the people’s own faith in getting well. Good salespeople are adept at bewitching their customers. And so on.

Everyone is manipulating everyone else on a witchcraft level all the time. Any time people command another’s attention, or manipulate their feelings in any way, they are bewitching them. Thus all art is witchcraft, and great artists are merely great witches. Artists are highly intuitive people who can tune into profound feelings in their art and take other people with them.

Witches are perhaps a bit more psychic to start with than average people. At least witches rely upon and trust in their intuition more than average people do. To most people, psychic events such as precognition, prophetic dreams, omens, telepathic communications happen now and then unbidden, but are beyond control. Such things happen to witches with somewhat more frequency because witches welcome, or intend, such things. Or better said, witches are more attentive to such things whereas average people tend to brush past them (or in many cases, reject what they just experienced because it contradicts their beliefs about what is “real” or “socially acceptable”) . With some experience and practice witches learn how to control their psychic abilities.

For example, when faced with a problem, one thing many witches do is to pray (intend) upon retiring at night for the solution to their problem to come to them. With a little practice they find that this works most of the time. They receive the answer in a dream that night, or else it comes in the next day or two. And as they see this technique work time and time again, it builds their faith, and as their faith builds the technique keeps working better and better for them.

Faith, the emotional content of belief, is the key to making witchcraft work. It can move mountains. It is the lever by which we create our own realities. The only reason our thought form world works is because we put our faith in it. If we believed in witchcraft with the same certainty that we believe turning a key in an ignition will start a car, then witchcraft would work as well for us as science and technology do.

That’s what faith is all about. There have been societies on this earth, which were based upon witchcraft, such as the Mayan Indians of Central America. These societies get witchcraft to work for them as well as materialistic science does for us, because that’s where they put their faith.

The reasons why witchcraft often doesn’t work as well as the books, and one’s own spirit guides, for that matter, say that it should, are sundry. Sometimes it just isn’t time yet. “To everything there is a season.” All the prayers and spells in the world won’t make Christmas happen before December 25th. Sometimes our prayers and spells are contingent upon the right astrological influence occurring.

Other times our prayers and spells don’t work right away because we have heavy karma in the way that has to be cleaned out first. This is often the case when what we are telling ourselves consciously that we want (love, wealth) contradicts self-esteem issues left over from our childhoods. Moreover, this karmic barrier to realizing our desires might stem from previous lifetimes, as well as this one. In my own case it took twenty years of just putting in the time and paying my dues between when I first made the decision to follow the witch’s path (after reading Carlos Castaneda’s books) , and when my spirit guides appeared in my life, which was my actual entry into the world of witchcraft. From there it was another fifteen years until I started seeing some real results from witchcraft working on my own, without spirits backing me up. However, I never lost faith, and that’s why I have succeeded so far.

The difference between witches and average people is that witches have infinite patience and a willingness to confront any danger and endure any pain necessary in order to realize their desires. Average people, on the other hand, always seem to be looking for a free ride or handout in life. Average people’s decisions don’t have enough power behind them to accomplish anything worthwhile because they back down and reverse their decisions the minute the going gets a little tough. What helped me a lot in my own quest, I see now in retrospect, was that my situation was truly desperate and miserable. I had nothing to go back to, so I had no choice but to press forward.

The Spirit always plays little games on our heads to test us in our resolve. It always makes it as difficult as possible to stand by our decisions. Things never happen the way we fantasize them or rehearse them. Average people are ready to throw in the towel and weep in self-pity at every little disappointment. Witches know that once a decision has been made, there’s no going back unless the Spirit itself grants release. The basic principles of witchcraft are to make absolutely irrevocable decisions; and to go to any extreme necessary to stand by those decisions.

Power is the same thing as luck. True power involves leaving nothing to chance. Average people, if they believe in witchcraft at all, believe that witches control chance. This isn’t correct. Witches, at least white witches, don’t dominate chance or enforce their own will on the universe. Rather, they are wholly dominated by it. They give up all personal desires of their own, cease caring whether they win or lose, or get their own way or not. In this way witches become one with chance and merge themselves with it. Then their will becomes unstoppable.

Witches will to accept the Spirit’s will as their own. They give up all their own images of what they think they desire and let the Spirit’s desires for them prevail. When witches synchronize their own desires with those of the Spirit, everything becomes possible for them. The great enemy of witchcraft is doubt.

I happen to have the power to bewitch women to fall in love with me (okay, no snickering out there, this happens to be true) . My spirits taught me how to do this to show me that witchcraft does indeed work – that it is possible to make impossible things happen merely by willing it. They also wanted to teach me to hold my attention fixed upon a single object, moment-to-moment, all day long every day. They know me pretty well: they knew that the only thing that would motivate me to put out the effort and discipline needed to do this was the promise of sex.
I’ll save the details of my experiences with bewitching women for my autobiography, except to say that the last time I tried it, it backfired on me in such a way that I’ll never do it again. Besides, although you can get sex by bewitching, you can’t get love that way, so why bother?

Psychic healing works the same way that bewitching does. The healer visualizes the patient as being well, and thus overrides the patient’s doubt and self-pity. Any form of ‘ensorcellment’ involves substituting the witch’s will for the subject’s will. This can only take place if the subject is willing, consciously or unconsciously. That is to say, no one can be bewitched, or healed, against their will.

Bewitching is really no different than Creative Visualization. Witches know to keep their Creative Visualizations within the realm of reasonable possibility. Thus they don’t try to bewitch famous movie stars to fall in love with them, or to win the lottery. These sorts of outcomes are too unlikely. In order to make witchcraft work it is necessary to overcome doubt, and wishing for something that’s way out of one’s league, or too improbable, starts off with too big a doubt debit.

When bewitching for love, for example, witches start out with someone with whom they already have desire lines in place. This means someone with whom they have already shared feelings; someone they’ve already looked directly in the eye and flashed with. That flash doesn’t necessarily have to have been one of love. The flash could have been anger, disgust, humor, or sadness as well as attraction. It doesn’t matter. If, for an instant, two people look in each other’s eyes and some emotion passes between them, then at that moment they stuck lines in each another. They bewitched one another. If there is any feeling at all between two people, whether positive or negative, then they can be bewitched through that feeling.

What passes in brief moments of direct eye contact is very powerful sexual witchcraft. It is so potent, in fact, that it scares most people. They immediately get flustered, avert their eyes, and pretend that nothing happened. Even when the emotion that is being shared is humor or gaiety, there is a polite limit to how long direct eye contact can be engaged before it becomes threatening, i.e. sexual. Even if the emotion is anger or disgust, that just means that the feeling is so sexual that it has to be hidden by its negation

Sexual feeling is the matrix of all feeling. Sexual feelings are actual lines that people shoot into one another, like arrows, whenever they flash on each other by sharing a feeling. These lines appear to people with psychic vision as fibers of living light. It’s through the light fibers, which join people that they pass emotional information, such as the psychic knowledge that the other person is hurt, or dead, or having sex with someone else. It’s also through these light fibers that bewitching takes place.*

In short, if two people have ever shared any direct feeling, then there’s already a sexual bond between them. Witches can use this bond to bewitch, or to heal. They force energy through that desire line by intense visualization of their desire coming true. This brings pressure to bear upon the interpersonal barrier. This barrier is the pretense that there’s nothing going on between the participants.

Sexual desire can exist from previous lifetimes and realities – this is usually what’s behind the phenomenon of love at first sight. If there’s an underlying sexual attraction (which can in fact be read from the natal horoscopes of the people involved – e.g. the man’s sun or Mars conjunct or opposition the woman’s moon or Venus) , then there’s fertile ground for bewitching even if the two people have not yet met face-to-face.

On the surface, the witches act cordially but disinterestedly. They keep a poker face and they do nothing on their own account. Eventually that pressure brings about a moment in time when the Spirit itself opens the floodgates and the other person’s defenses evaporate. If and when it’s time for an overt move, it comes on its own in a moment of power.

In everyday society most of the actual sticking of desire lines into other people is done in the state of dreamless sleep, although the intent is set up in waking. If you have ever had a dream war with someone, that person was trying to stick a line into you, but you successfully fought him or her off. If you hadn’t successfully fought them off, you wouldn’t have had that dream. It would have remained unconscious, on the level of dreamless sleep.

Witches, both black and white, sometimes rely upon spirit helpers to cue them on what to do and when. These messages come across as sudden ideas or inspirations. But witches don’t act unless prompted.

In other words the witches’ superficial behavior betrays nothing of what they are actually thinking or feeling. Contrast this with how most people try to make their desires come true. Most people get caught up in making obvious moves, polishing their self-presentation, trying to somehow flag other people’s, or God’s, attention: “Yoo-hoo! Here I am! Over here!”
This approach will work sometimes, but it’s really inept. This is what the dating game is all about, which is why people find it so boring and predictable. There’s no sport to it. Besides there’s no true feeling to it, much less love. It’s all phony.

When witches bewitch, all their energy is held rigidly in check. Desire is inflamed by visualization, which is why witchcraft is basically a matter of bewitching oneself. Witchcraft is hypnotizing oneself into an intense, single-pointed desire. Witches first have to bewitch themselves to be madly in love – they go first. Then they impose that feeling on the subject of their desire. Better said, they give the subject a powerful option.

No one can be forced to do anything against his or her own will by witchcraft. It’s quite possible for the person being bewitched to block the ensorcellment by detaching his or her light fibers from the witch. This is felt as closing up to them emotionally. What witches, particularly black witches, count on is that most people’s wills are so weak and confused.

Witches may use some object symbolic of their desire and pour all of their attention on it. They imagine the face of the person in it and talk with it and make love with it and cuddle with it at night. For example, in the movie Bell, Book and Candle, Kim Novak bewitched Jimmy Stewart with a cat. In the book The Witch’s Dream by Florinda Donner, the protagonist bewitched his love with a devil’s mask. The symbolic object can be charged like a charm.

Thus bewitching is like normal daydreaming or fantasizing, carried to an extreme (visualized in the here-and-now rather than projected to a future which will never come) . When bewitching for love, the witch visualizes him or herself in the physical presence of the beloved – holding hands, kissing and caressing, having fun together – as if the person were actually there. In bewitching you look the other person (the lover you desire, the boss you want a raise from, the jerk you want out of your life, whomever) directly in the eye.

In normal daydreaming and fantasizing, by contrast, you’re usually not making eye contact at all. In bewitching the focus is on the other person and how enjoyable it is to be in their company (or to be rid of them, depending upon what you are bewitching for) . In normal daydreaming the focus is on yourself. Other people serve only as mute witnesses to your own glory and vindication. This is the difference between bewitching and fanning the breeze with idle daydreaming. When you bewitch someone you’re right there in front of him or her eyeball-to-eyeball. You let them do the talking and make the moves. In daydreaming they’re fawning over you while you carry on a monologue.

This is another difference between Creative Visualization, what witches do, and fantasizing and daydreaming, which average people do. Visualization is a matter of feeling, of longing, of reaching out for the object of desire. Daydreaming is a matter of thinking, imaging, distancing oneself from the object of desire. Daydreaming is actually reaching out towards self-pity, not towards the realization of one’s true desires.

You should not daydream or have romantic or sexual fantasies about someone whom you are bewitching. They will feel this through the light fibers you have in them as a sleazy vibe, a sexual expectation, coming from you. They will raise defenses against it. Creative Visualization, true bewitching, usually doesn’t have a context of sexual or romantic excitation at all. It’s too here-and-now, too spontaneous and unpredictable. It has a light, joyous feeling to it as compared to the obsessive and directed intensity of most daydreaming. Daydreams are about control, whereas Creative Visualization is about joy.

When bewitching to get rid of someone, witches don’t visualize bad things happening to that person. Rather, they visualize themselves happy, relieved, joyous, now that said person is gone. Psychic healing is done by visualizing the person as well. The point is that the visualization has to be done as if the action is unfolding in the here and now, unlike normal daydreams, which take place in the future. One has to feel all the feelings – joy, relief, health, whatever – that would be felt if the visualization were actually true. It’s those feelings, which are being felt which attract the object of desire; which make the visualization come true.

My Mayan teachers showed me some techniques for bewitching to overcome. I really think this whole thing is childish; but since it does it indeed work; and since it has helped me out a few times (e.g. when I was subjected to a nuisance lawsuit) ; I’ll pass the information along here. If you can obtain a photograph of the person you wish to overcome; or a hair or fingernail cutting from the person – great. If not, just make a small drawing of the person by hand. Make a little cross of sticks (my Mayan teachers use jocote – flat pine sticks oozing sap and used for fire starters) . Wind a red thread around the sticks to join them into a cross. Then place the photo or artifact of the person you wish to overcome in the center of the cross. Fasten it to the cross by winding the red thread around it (my teachers said not to pierce the photo, since that would be definite black witchcraft and result in physical injury to the person being bewitched. The idea is to overcome the person – not incur bad karma, which will have to be paid in other lifetimes) .

After performing a “Scat” ritual over the cross (Choose a Saturn hour for this and follow instructions in the BOS in the Witchcraft 101 folder
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WitchcraftalAlmanac/files/How%20to%20use%20Witchcraftal%20Almanac/) , place the cross in your shoe (I wrap these crosses in duct tape first to keep them intact) ; and imagine grinding the person you wish to overcome into the dirt with every step you take (as Nancy Sinatra crooned) . As I said, it’s childish; but it does indeed work.

Conscious awareness is where all links ultimately have to be made. A witch, however, never makes links through direct intervention, by acting on his or her own accord. This is how most people blow things or trip themselves up. They fail by acting on their thought forms, by being impatient and pushy, by being unwilling or unable to trust in the Spirit to bring them what they want in the fullness of time.

This shows lack of faith. Only the Spirit can move the wheel of chance. Therefore the basic principle of witchcraft is patience. Conscious awareness can only exist if there is also unconscious awareness – something that is being hidden. The trick of witchcraft is to take in everything so that nothing is any longer hidden. Another way of saying this is, we must become aware of our own prejudices and taken-for-granted assumptions, since it is our own images and expectations which blind us to the truth.

Everybody already knows intuitively how to make witchcraft work, but they don’t do it much since if they succeeded they’d scare themselves silly. This is another difference between daydreaming and Creative Visualization. In the former the person doesn’t really want the desire to come true. He or she is just playing games, fanning the breeze with self-pity. Therefore it usually takes an intense, overwhelming desire or desperation to activate average people’s true witchcraft powers. Miracles do sometimes happen, when people are 100% clear in their intent – when they permit their higher self to surface and take command. Witches strive to make every moment a miracle.

Creative Visualization, is the same thing as prayer. Everyone intuitively understands the efficacy of prayer, but most people don’t call upon it unless they’re desperate. However, desperation isn’t the best motivation for prayer since people create their own realities. They wouldn’t be in that situation in the first place unless they created it for some reason, to learn some lesson. If that lesson happens to be learning the power of faith, that prayer does work, then their prayers will save their butts; but not necessarily otherwise.

The problem with witchcraft as a spiritual path, and bewitching people in particular, is that it hangs us up in all the same stupid games of winning and losing that average people play in normal, everyday society. Witchcraft is like capitalism – it’s really pretty slimy and distasteful, but it’s the name of the game; so if our demonic society forces us to play such games, then let’s at least play to win. Witches – like capitalists – aim to be winners… whereas average people aim to be losers – to wallow in helplessness and self-pity.

In the coming century and a half our decadent, degenerate society will collapse under the weight of human greed and stupidity, and the pressure of the earth herself turning against us. The surviving remnant of the human race (if there is one) must willy-nilly reorganize itself along the lines of what is now considered to be “witchcraft”. Or another way of saying this is, that only witches – people who have learned to rely upon their own intuition and intent instead of belief in society’s lies – will survive the coming holocaust.

Fundamentally witchcraft is as much a dead-end street for an aspirant on the spiritual path as is seeking the validation and glory of society. The only value to witchcraft, which seems baffling at first but which is learned through experience, by making lots of mistakes, is understanding the difference between when one is acting on one’s own impulse, or when one is truly being prompted to act by the Spirit. This is the crux of the matter, and the reason why learning witchcraft is worthwhile.


Footnotes:
* See the drawings of humans interacting on a light fiber level in Barbara Brennan’s book Light Emerging, Bantam NYC 1993.

Brennan, Barbara, Light Emerging, Bantam NYC 1993

On Becoming a Crone

On Becoming a Crone

Author: Belladonna SilverRayne

Why is it so hard to admit we’re growing older? Why do we fight it tooth and nail? Society and the media as a whole, wants to show aging as something to be fought against, to be put off as long as possible. Why? Look at any sit-com, news broadcast, music video…. it’s all about being young and “beautiful”. Youth is made out to be the epitome of what we all want to be. Who wants to get old, right? Wrong!

I will be 45 on my next birthday. A fact that, when said out loud at first, made me mentally cringe. “Me? 45?? That means only 5 more years till I’m 50!!” After I said it aloud several times, and really thought about it, I could say it with confidence. Yes. Me. 45 going onto 50.

And I love it! I am moving into the Crone stage of my life, and enjoying every minute of it!

I loved the Maiden stage, when I was young, supple, carefree, and self-indulgent. Who among us didn’t? Life seemed so simple, so easy to handle. And it was. My biggest worry was what outfit I’d wear out to the club to dance and make merry with friends.

I sowed my oats, looked out for number one (me, of course) and just basically did my own thing. I moved at the speed of light, never really stopping to appreciate the things around me, never really taking anything in. Just “doing”. As I got a little older, I met the person that would become my husband and the father of my kids and we began our life together.

And I grew.

Then came Mother-hood. My body showed great evidence of the birthing of my children, as did my energy levels, emotional (in) stability, and newfound patience. I now had three other human beings, put on this Earth by me, all looking TO me to provide, nourish, teach, and love. Wow! As they grew, learned, made mistakes, and matured, I did as well. I managed to learn along the way to slow down a bit, to really notice things as they happened around me. I watched and listened a little more carefully now. I loved every moment, good and not so good, watching these amazing people who were once actual, living parts of my own body, turn into individuals, all truly unique within themselves, seeing them overcome hurdle after hurdle. Such a reward in life I will never receive again. Or will I?

I divorced my husband, and watched my kids growing older, going out on their own, and beginning their lives as young adults.

And I grew.

When I first began my Pagan path, I was still in what is considered the Mother stage, my kids were still relatively young and “needed” me in a mommy way. I was still very fertile, and the idea of having another baby sometime was not out of the question. Time passed and that idea faded, along with my monthly menses. (Can’t say I miss them much!)

It took me quite awhile to realize that I was no longer in that stage once the Croning period began. I wanted to fight it, to deny it, all for vain reasons, I’m sorry to say. I wanted to cling to that youth, or at least the image of it. Or so I thought. Now, after having met, gotten to know, and come to love, many admirable women, all in the Crone cycle of life, I am fully aware that I too am at that stage. And come to find out, it’s not so bad after all!

As I move into my Croning time, I don’t look at it as an ending, but a beginning, very akin to giving birth (only this time, I don’t think I’ll need all the medications!) . I will be giving birth to my Self. I can allow my Self to now grow, learn, and experience life, as I once allowed my children to do these things.

I am eager to gain more wisdom as time goes by, as the Great Wheel turns, and as season drifts into season.

I am learning to cherish the lines on my face, as each one stands for some lesson learned, some path walked down, perhaps a hardship suffered and come through stronger because of it.

I have begun to admire my stretch marks as battle scars, won not on the field of some war, but fighting to bring life into this world, one wonderful child at a time.

I now embrace the fullness of my softened body, knowing that even though it may not bring life into this world any longer, or be as taut and supple as it was two decades ago, it can still allow for pleasures, for physical support, and for living life in a healthy, Goddess-filled way!

I am now allowing my mature mind to expand and create in ways that it could not in the past.

I enjoy the younger ones coming to me, asking for my opinion, needing a particular sort of comfort that only someone my age can offer.

I am now ready to walk towards the end of my path in this particular life, knowing that even though it comes towards me quicker than ever, there is still much to gather, much to pass on, but still much MORE to learn and take in.

In Pagan societies (as well as many others) Elders are looked to for advice, comfort, wisdom, and as examples. Who better to follow than a grand Crone or Sage, not past their prime, but fully embracing it, fully aware of themselves as human beings? I so hope to be such an example, to my children, my Pagan brothers and sisters, and non-Pagan friends, alike. I want to show what it is to age gracefully, to accept that life is a never-ending cycle of birth, growth, death, and re-birth, in so many ways. I want everyone to see that while youth has it’s merits and perks, so does growing older and wiser.

Whatever stage of life you may be in as a woman. Maiden, Mother, or Crone, realize the absolute beauty of the moment, embrace it for all it is worth, and live each cycle to the fullest. Know that you have earned all that you are made up of, inside and out. And fear not, for Crone is not the end of the line, it is the goal we, as women, all strive to attain.

Water Magick

Water Magick

The properties of water are both constant and variable at the same time. Water exists on the Earth in three forms: solid (ice), liquid, and gas (evaporated). Water magick is very versatile; it incorporates techniques that bring about changes both within and without. For water magick to occur within, one must consume the water or call upon that aspect of the self. For it to occur without, one must bathe in it, swim in it, cleanse with it, etc.

Not all liquid magick belongs in the realm of water. For instance, brews that incorporate vinegar or alcohol as the primary ingredient fall in the domain of fire.

The magickal properties of particular types of water can be used for the following purposes:

Creeks and streams:  Purification, harmony, cleansing

Dew:  General health, eyesight, beauty. Dew is said to be especially powerful if gathered at dawn on Beltane.

Fog and mists:  Creativity, balance, partnerships

Ice:  Transformations, balance, creativity

Pond or lake water:  Peace, contentment, relaxation, self-reflection.

Rain water:  Energy, protection, cleansing. The first rain that falls in the month of May is considered sacred to the Water Witch

River water:  Cleansing, moving forward, protection

Seawater:  Health, magickal power, manifestation of goals. An old Welsh belief states that a spoonful of sea-water a day will ensure a long and healthy life.

Snow:  Transformations, balance

Spring water:  Growth, holy water, cleansing, protection, prosperity

Swamp and  waste water:  Banishing, binding

Waterfalls:  Power, energy, success

Well water:  Healing, wishes, intuition

The Water Witch also has an attachment to the ares surrounding the water, which can be used for the following magickal purposes:

Beaches:  Rituals, spells, fascinations, meditations

Harbors:  To promote abundance and prosperity; to serve as an aid in banishing things

Riverbanks:  To increase personal power

In Santeria practices, water from particular environments is offered as food to specific Orishas, as follows:

Ogun and Babalu-Aye:  Pond water

Oya:  Rain water

Oshun:  River water

Yemaya:  Seawater

In addition, Santeria incorporates the use of a special cleansing water called omiero. Omiero is comprised of sacred herbs, belonging to the Orisha being petitioned, and water. It is steeped upon coals to bring out the magickal properties. The making of omiero is complicated and has a full ceremony attached to it. The resulting product is used for initiation purposes.

An Air Ritual For Calling the Wind

An Air Ritual For Calling the Wind

The first step to working with the Elements is remembering what it felt like in the past when you encountered that Element. Remember and focus on as many details as you can. What did the wind feel like on your skin? Was your hair tousled? What smell was in the air? Did the wind whistle or howl? As much as you can, relive the experience in your mind. This puts out to the Cosmos that you are ready for this experience. You are open.

Practice going through your day noticing what the wind and the air around you feel like. In the evening, try to recall as much of the experience as you can. This is like an ongoing meditation. The more you do this, the easier it will become to call up the Wind. You are focused.

The first few times you call up the Wind, do it alone. Company can distract you from your magick. Also, these things take practice and your first few attempts might not put you in the Witches’ Hall of Fame, it’s between you and the Wind.

Go to an open place outdoors. Higher ground is better. Use an athame, if you have one – or your extended arm, if you don’t – and draw a magick circle around yourself to mark you sacred space. Open to the experience of the Wind moving around you. Focus your mind and bring up images of more Wind blowing all around you.

Try to incorporate as many senses as possible when you remember wind and visualize Wind. Now reach down and pick up a handful of dust or grass. Holding your arm out to your side and slightly above eye level, slowly let your hand’s contents filter through your fingers. Watch the air between your hand and the earth catch the offering. You may want to quietly chant, “I call the wind. I call the air. I call the mother’s breath.”  Now concentrate hard on experiencing wind. Focus as hard as you can. Hold the feeling for several minutes, and then stop. Clear your mind of your wind images completely. Wait for the breeze to pick up and the wind to answer your call. Be confident.