The Modern Guide to Witchcraft (6 page)

What we call intuition is the connection between your conscious mind and the cosmic web. Intuition is a witch’s best friend. Sometimes intuition is the most important factor in spell-working. You can memorize the properties of different herbs, gemstones, or colors. You can follow all the prescribed steps in a ritual. But if you don’t trust your intuition to guide you, you’ll never develop your full potential. To connect with your intuition:

• Listen to the “voice within.”
  
• Pay attention to hunches.
  
• Pay attention to your dreams and what they’re trying to tell you.
  
• Notice “coincidences.”
  
• Write down impressions and insights that you receive, even if they don’t make sense in the moment—they may turn out to mean something more in the future.
  

As you start paying attention to your intuition, it will grow stronger and begin funneling more useful information your way. Being able to draw on your intuition will enrich your life and enhance your magickal ability in countless ways.

One of the most important connections we have in the magickal universe in which we live—and one of the most obvious—is earth’s closest neighbor: the moon. We can easily see the impact the moon has on our planet and its inhabitants. For example, the moon’s twenty-eight-day cycle influences the oceans’ tides; higher tides usually occur during the full moon. It also affects the weather, crop growth, animal and human fertility—as the
Farmers’ Almanac
has professed for two centuries—as well as the way we feel and behave. More babies come into this world during the full moon than at other times of the month. Ask police officers or hospital workers about the full moon and they’ll tell you they see more crises, more crimes, and more activity in general when the moon is full. No, the full moon won’t turn you into a werewolf, but it might bring out your wild side.

Astrologers associate the moon with emotion, intuition, and creativity—the very things that witches rely on when they do magick. So, if you want your spells to be more powerful and effective, pay attention to the moon’s cycles and learn to draw upon lunar energy.

Since ancient times, the moon has fascinated earthlings. Poets, artists, musicians, lovers, astrologers, and magicians all find the moon juicy subject matter for study and inspiration.

“Evidence of Moon worship is found in such widely varied cultures as those of the Anasazi Indians of New Mexico, the Greeks, Romans, Chinese, pre-Columbian Peruvians, Burmese, Phoenicians, and Egyptians. In the Craft, when we refer to the great god by the Hebrew names El or Elohim, we borrow terms that entered Hebrew from Arabic, where the god name ‘Ilah’ derives from a word that means ‘moon.’”

—M
ORWYN
,
S
ECRETS OF A
W
ITCH
’
S
C
OVEN

Because the moon plays such an important role in magick—and in our lives—you might want to consider getting on closer terms with our planet’s satellite. In a practice known as “drawing down the moon,” a priestess goes into a trance and invites the goddess (or Divine Feminine energy) to enter her body. While the priestess is in the trance, the goddess speaks through her. Margot Adler wrote in depth about this in her book
Drawing Down the Moon
, but beginners can connect with lunar energy in simpler ways:

• Go outside at night and observe the moon. Let its silvery light wash over you. How do you feel standing in the moonlight, under the dark bowl of the night sky? How is this different from how you feel in the daytime?
  
• Follow the moon’s passage through the heavens, from new to full and back to new again. Pay attention to how you feel during different phases of the moon. Many people feel more energized during the full moon and less vital during the last three days before the new moon.
  
• The moon moves into a different sign of the zodiac approximately every two and a half days. You might notice that your moods and feelings change every time the moon passes through a different astrological sign—you may feel more impulsive when the moon is in Aries, more sensitive when it’s in Cancer, for instance.
  

Keep notes of what you experience, so you can refer back to them later. What you learn from strengthening your connection with the moon will be useful to you when you start casting spells and doing rituals.

You’re more likely to reap the rewards you desire if you do magick during favorable phases of the moon. When casting spells, pay particular attention to the new moon, full moon, the waxing and waning phases. Each has its own unique energy that can add to the power of your spells:

• The new moon, as you might expect, encourages beginnings. Are you looking for a new job? A new romance? A new home? The best time to start anything is during the new moon. As the moon grows in light (and seemingly in size), your undertaking will grow too.
  
• The waxing moon—the two weeks after the new moon and leading up to the full moon—supports growth and expansion. Do you want to boost your income? Turn up the heat in a relationship? Get a promotion at work? Cast your spell while the moon’s light is increasing to generate growth in your worldly affairs.
  
• The full moon marks a time of culmination. It allows you to start seeing the results of whatever you began on the new moon. Want to bring a project to a successful conclusion? Receive rewards, recognition, or payments that are due to you? Do a spell while the moon is full for best results. The full moon’s bright glow can also put you in the spotlight or shed light on murky issues. If your goal is to attract attention—from a lover, boss, or the public—the full moon helps illuminate you favorably. The full moon can also shine light on secrets and deception to let you get to the truth of a shady situation.
  
• The waning moon—the two weeks after the full moon and before the new moon—encourages decrease. Do you want to lose weight? End a bad relationship? Cut your expenses? Cast your spell while the moon is diminishing in light (and size) to diminish the impact of something in your life.
  

When two new moons occur in the same month, the second one is called the black moon. It is considerably more powerful than a regular new moon, so any seeding spells you do under a black moon might manifest more quickly. When two full moons occur in the same month, the second is dubbed a blue moon. During the blue moon, you may find you get bigger or better results than on an ordinary full moon, or that you experience a lot more activity or vitality.

You’re familiar with the four compass directions: north, south, east, and west. In magick, the four directions are more than mere geographical designations. They have special meanings and associations. Hindu mandalas, Native American medicine wheels, and Celtic stone circles all depict the four directions. Later on, when you learn to cast a circle before performing spells and rituals, you’ll work with the four directions in greater depth. For now, let’s just look at the directions in a way you’ve probably never considered them before.

Perhaps you’ve heard of four archangels known as Michael, Raphael, Gabriel, and Uriel. According to some schools of magickal thought, these archangels (an order of divine beings above angels) guard the four directions:

• Raphael guards the east.
  
• Michael watches over the south.
  
• Gabriel presides over the west.
  
• Uriel governs the north.
  

You can call upon these guardians and ask them to lend their assistance to your rituals and rites. Connecting with them and drawing upon their powers can greatly enhance the effectiveness of your magickal work.

When magicians speak of the elements, they’re not referring to the periodic table you learned about in school. They mean the four elements: air, fire, water, and earth. These elements are the energetic building blocks that make up our world. We’ll go into more detail and depth about the elements later on, but for now let’s just note their relationships with the four directions:

• Air relates to the east.
  
• Fire is associated with the south.
  
• Water corresponds to the west.
  
• Earth is linked with the north.
  

Each has its own connections with the zodiac signs, the suits of the tarot, spirits and angels, the tools a magician uses, and lots of other things. The more you get into magick, the more you’ll find yourself working with the elements.

Each of the four directions resonates with a certain color. Magickal art, including tarot cards, often depicts these color connections. You might also choose to incorporate them into spells. (Note, however, that Native American medicine wheels do not use these same color correspondences.)

• Yellow relates to the east.
  
• Red is associated with the south.
  
• Blue corresponds to the west.
  
• Green is linked with the north.
  

Learning to sense the four directions will give you a better understanding of your place in the cosmos. Working with these energies will strengthen your connection to both the earth and to the magickal universe around you.

In addition to the four compass points, you’ll want to consider three other directions when you do magick. The first of these,
Above
, refers to the heavenly realm and all the beings that live there: God, Goddess, angels, spirit guides, ancestors, and so on. The second,
Below
, corresponds to Mother Earth, the foundation of physical existence.
Within
means your own inner self. It’s important to align yourself with all seven of these directions and to balance their energies when you’re doing magick. They are all sources of power, and they all influence outcomes.

You’re going to work with the four directions and their correspondences a lot as your magickal practice expands. Before you actually start using these energies in spells and rituals, practice sensing what the energies feel like. If possible, try doing these exercises outside as well as inside your home. Many witches prefer to do magick while surrounded by nature whenever they can.

1. Stand facing east and close your eyes. Take a few deep breaths to quiet your thoughts. Keep an open mind as you try to sense the energy at this compass point. This is the energy of dawn, birth, and beginnings. It might take a few minutes, so give yourself time to receive the universe’s vibrations. You might feel a slight tingling, warmth or coolness, a subtle emotional shift, or something else.
   
2. Turn to face south and, again, try to sense the energy flowing toward you. This is the energy of fullness and maturity. Does it seem any different from what you felt when you faced the east?
   
3. Turn to face west and, again, try to sense the energy flowing toward you. This is the energy of winding down and letting go. How does it seem to you?
   
4. Turn to face north and, again, try to sense the energy flowing toward you. This is the energy of turning inward, silence, and endings. What do you feel?
   

If at first you don’t succeed in sensing these energies, remember the advice: Try, try again. With practice, you’ll learn to pick up on the different resonances and attune yourself to them. Be sure to write down what you experience in your grimoire.

As you continue strengthening your magickal muscles, you’ll come to a keen awareness of how intertwined you are with everything else in the cosmos. You’ll realize that you can create your own reality by aligning yourself with the dynamic, magickal forces that exist all around you. And you’ll notice that possibilities you never imagined before now open up for you.

Wiccans, green witches, shamans, and many other magicians believe that all things in nature—animals, plants, rocks, streams, hills— possess a type of consciousness. The term
animism
refers to this belief. The consciousness within even seemingly inanimate objects enables witches to use them in spellworking. The term
pantheism
is sometimes used to describe Neopagan paths. Often the term is misunderstood as meaning the worship of nature, but it actually means to recognize the Divine in all places, or to identify the Divine with the universe. The root word
pan
means “everywhere,” and earth-honoring people believe that their deities are accessible in all places, at all times.

This doesn’t mean that witches worship trees, rivers, and stones, any more than astrologers worship the sun, moon, and planets. It means they believe that the entire world, material and nonmaterial, possesses sacred energy, and that each of us holds a spark of divine energy within us.

In the
previous chapter
, we talked briefly about the four elements. Now let’s examine the elements more fully, because earth, air, fire, and water are the four primary substances of creation—not only in nature and the material world, but magickally as well.

Planet Earth is the home of humans and other creatures, as well as a school for learning all kinds of spiritual lessons. When witches speak of the earth element, however, they don’t mean simply the physical ground on which we stand. “Earth” in a magickal sense is also an energetic property.

In early agrarian cultures, farmers gave offerings of bread or mead to the soil to ensure a good crop. Soil also served as a component in many old spells. People buried symbolic items in the ground to banish something or to encourage growth. For example, to remove sickness, one healing spell instructs a sick person to spit in the soil and then cover that spot and walk away without looking back. To speed recovery from illness, patients were encouraged to grow health-promoting plants in the soil from their footprints. If you wanted to make sure your lover didn’t cheat on you, you’d gather a little soil from beneath your foot and place it in a white cloth bag.