How to Become a Witch (19 page)

We are all familiar with prayers, which are one way to communicate with Deity. At any time you may talk to Deity either as the Goddess or the God, Mother Goddess or Father God, Lady and Lord, or as a very specific aspect such as Oshun, Hermes, or Freya.

Witch customs differ from Christian prayer. Witches do not generally kneel to pray—we respect our gods without subservience. Nor do we rely only on prayer—simply asking God to put some favor in our laps feels much too passive to us. We are more likely to do a spell for something and invoke the powers of a deity or other ally as we do the work, then follow up with practical action.

Witches are always aware that we are communicating partly with Deity-within, not with a separate being who is Out There Somewhere. Thus, when you pray “to” the Chinese goddess Quan Yin, you are invoking all the compassion you have in your own heart and mind, as well as the divine compassion that permeates the universe.

It is simple courtesy to give thanks frequently, rather than just whining to heaven whenever we want something. This can be a specific expression of gratitude—thanking a particular tree for shade on a hot day—or a more general one, as in giving thanks to the Goddess for life. You might give an offering: a drop of wine as a libation, a stick of incense, a silver coin for a tree that gives wand wood, or perhaps a dance, song, poem, or ritual.

Talking to the gods, with or without words, is fine, but it’s also a great idea to be silent and listen. The divine powers don’t always speak to us as clearly and directly as we would like: “This is God. You should eat more—you’re too thin—and that cigarette can’t be good for you. By the way, the winning lottery numbers for Saturday are…”

The messages often will be both simpler and subtler—hope in the sunrise, comfort in a warm bed, or persistence from the tiny, tiny barrel cactus spotted while walking today in the high desert. Or the messages may come through the words of others, in a quiet conversation with a friend, the words in a book, or the lyrics of a song. One purpose of meditation is to teach ourselves to be still and listen, for the Goddess and the Old Gods are always speaking.

Journaling
The Mighty Pen

Journaling can be done together with dreamwork or divination, or separately as a meditation on the day ahead or the day that is closing. If done in the morning, it is a way to prepare your mind, emotions, and spirit to create the kind of day you want. If it is an evening exercise, it can be used to remember, absorb, and integrate the events of your day.

Journals do not have to be in perfect English, or even complete sentences, to be valuable. Sometimes phrases, impressions, or poetry can best express your thoughts and feelings.

Writing about your life should be a disciplined effort to record and understand it, not merely stream-of-consciousness babble. Return to your earlier journal entries from time to time, and see how your views and attitudes have evolved. Then you can consciously choose to continue your life in the same direction, accelerate, slow down, or choose another path.

Music Hath Charms
And Songs and Chants

If you already sing or play a musical instrument, then naturally you will want to include that part of your life in your spiritual practice.

But what if music is not really part of your life? What if you’ve never been part of a band or chorus, or have never learned to play anything? What if your musical talent is limited to sliding a CD into a boombox?

In his
Bill of Musical Rights
, David Darling said, “There are no ‘unmusical’ people, only those with no musical experience.” Deep inside you there is ability. Your heartbeat tells you that you could make rhythmic sounds with a drum or rattle; your breath says you could breathe into a wooden flute. You may never be an opera singer or world-famous pianist, but you can make music.

How does music fit into your daily practice? Think about it. If you meditate, why not have beautiful music playing softly in the background (here’s where that slide-in-the-CD skill is handy). Or play recorded music and dance—or breathe—to it.

But you can also make music to celebrate your life and blessings, to give thanks to Mother Earth or the Hornéd God of the Wilds. The music you make does not have to be someone else’s song, printed in proper notation and played correctly. It can be totally spontaneous and free, whatever comes out of you. Pound that drum, dance and shake those rattles, blow those pipes! There are no music critics listening. Maybe it’s just a joyful noise, and that’s fine. Maybe over time you can make something more complex and pretty to the ear, and that’s great too.

And if you are already a skilled musician, then create and play and sing as an offering to the Old Gods and just to make your spirit happy. Here are some Pagan chants you can learn, if you want. Just remember that your music never has to come out of a box or stay in one.

Chants for a Daily Practice

Unfortunately, due to increasingly strict copyright rules, we can’t give you the words to some of our favorite chants, even with attribution. However, we can list them with websites where you can get the words and the tune, so that’s what we’ll have to do. All websites were accessed on Samhain 2010. Websites change and disappear, but if you put the words of the title in quotes, you can find websites that have the lyrics and tune. All songs can be accessed at www.bornpagan.com/upca
/song_cycle, unless specified otherwise.

Circle Chant (We Are a Circle)
by Rick Hamouris, Kate West, or Unknown, depending on your source.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQQWwFnk198 (alternate tune, wonderful pictures)
  

Goddess Chant
by Deena Metzger, the chorus in “Burning Times” by Charlie Murphy on
Rumours of the Big Wave
CD, EarthBeat Records, Redway, CA, 1992, 1993.

We All Come from the Goddess
by Zsuzsanna Budapest

Elemental Chant (Air I Am)
by Andras Corbin Arthen

Air Moves Us
by the Reclaiming Collective

The River Is Flowing
by Diana Hildebrand-Hull

The Blood of the Ancients
by Charlie Murphy

Hecate, Cerridwen
by Patricia Witt

Silver Shining Wheel
by Peter Soderberg

Gardening

Many Witches have gardens that they tend with great love. This is one of the best ways to attune with nature, to see the wonders that sun, rain, and fertile soil can bring to the world. Consider planting a garden, or even a small pot of herbs, and caring for it every day.

There are as many kinds of gardens as there are unique gardeners. Some people enjoy the classic English flower garden, one that’s bound to have some faery folk playing in hidden corners. Or you may prefer to grow herbs for healing and magick; just be sure you are well trained before you use them medicinally! If your soil allows, it’s always wonderful to have a vegetable garden; you can eat something absolutely fresh and organic that you grew yourself.

A xeriscape garden is perfect for dry areas. Create beautiful groupings of drought-resistant native plants among rock formations, and support it with a water-catchment system on your roof. You can also design gardens based on the elements, the zodiac, chakra colors, certain periods in history, or other cultures. Be careful not to plant invasive species that will crowd out the locals, and of course avoid chemical pesticides and fertilizers.

Plant devas

Every plant species has a deva, which might be called the soul of the species. People who work closely with these spirits can learn about the plants from the source and become amazingly adept gardeners, farmers, or foresters. A modern example of this relationship between humanity and the plant kingdom is the Findhorn community, where the founders created lush gardens on a salty beach in northeastern Scotland. Though we certainly have no monopoly on this art, many Witches work closely with the devas in their own gardens.

Spirit in Motion

Never assume that spiritual practice has to be passive or still. Sure, you can sit and meditate—but you can also move, and isn’t that almost the very definition of being alive? Go for a walk, and just be with nature; dance, and play with mudras. Mudras?

Mudras are sacred body postures, or arm and hand positions, associated with yogic practice. However, lots of religious traditions have something similar. Christians assume a particular position to pray, Muslims bow toward Mecca and touch the earth with their foreheads, and so on.

Are there particular postures associated with Witchcraft? Yes. Most of them don’t involve kneeling or bowing, though. (Witches are generally not good at humility.) Instead, we stand in a circle. A priestess may stand with her arms out and up to her sides, forming a human chalice, in the “Drawing Down the Moon” position (see illustration, next page). Then she fills herself with the energy of the Goddess. The male equivalent is standing with feet together and arms crossed over the chest and is known as the Osiris position; it honors the god of death and resurrection.

You can also create your own special mudras to honor the spirit or deity of your choice. You can even do elements with your body: sway like a tree in the wind (air), let your hands flicker and dance like flames (fire), make hula-like side-to-side gestures like waves (water), or stand strong, feet apart, like a mountain (earth). If you have a power animal or ally, honor it by moving as it moves, or dancing its spirit: ramble like Bear, soar like Eagle, leap like Salmon.

And now we have moved into dance, one of the most ancient forms of celebration and worship. Your dance can be spontaneous and creative or elaborately choreographed and stylized. You can learn the folk dances of your ancestors or just swirl around in circles or hop up and down in one place.

No matter what the rest of your daily practice looks like, make sure your body gets in on the action.

Ritual

In a sense, any daily practice can be a ritual, a planned and purposeful activity. One thing that distinguishes a formal ritual from, say, a simple spell or a daily walk is that rituals are normally done in sacred space, intentionally created. Which is to say, you will “cast a circle,” or define sacred space, as explained in chapter 8. Many Witches like to do their daily practice within a circle, even if it’s cast in a quick and simple way.

Others feel that there is always a circle protecting their temple or altar space simply because they have created one there so often. They do not feel the need to make it official every morning or evening.

If you wish, you can do a more formal ritual each day, complete with cleansing the space, casting, calling the quarters, and invoking Deity. Of course, this takes time, and it may extend the period you need to set aside each day. There is also a risk that doing the process every day will result in mindless repetition instead of a spiritual experience. You are the only one who can decide whether formal ritual should be part of your practice—daily, occasionally, or rarely. As always, trust your intuition, your instincts, your inner bell.

Designing a daily practice can be daunting; there are so many different ways to do it, and there is no single right way. Your daily Witch thing must be tailored to what you need at this time in your life. Now, part of what you need might be stability and continuity, in which case you may pick a practice that feels right and do the same thing for weeks or years. (To avoid getting stale, you might do that thing and occasionally add something very different.)