Wicca (13 page)
If so, good—you’ve felt energy. After you’ve accomplished this, try sensing the energies of stones and crystals.
†
Place a quartz crystal, say, on a table and pass your receptive hand over the crystal. Stretch out with your feelings and become aware of the nonvisible but viable energies that pulsate within the crystal.
All natural objects, remember, are manifestations of divine energy. With practice we can feel the power that resides within them.
If you have difficulty feeling these powers, rub your palms lightly together to sensitize them and try again.
This energy is the same power we’re filled with when we’re angry, nervous, terrified, joyous, or sexually aroused. It’s the energy used in magic, whether we pull it from ourselves or channel it from the Goddess and God, plants, stones, and other objects. It is the stuff of creation that we utilize in magic.
Now that you’ve felt the power, use visualization to move it around. You needn’t rub your palms together to raise energy—you can do this simply by concentrating on doing so. One of the easiest methods is to tighten up the muscles—tense your body. This raises energy, which is why we must relax in meditation. Meditation lowers our energy and allows us to drift from this world.
When you feel yourself bursting with power, hold out your right (projective) hand and direct energy from your body, through your arm, and out your fingers.Use your visualization. Really see and feel it streaming out.
For practice, stand in your home. Build the power within you. Direct it into each room, visualizing it sinking into the cracks and walls and around doors and windows.You’re not creating a psychic burglar alarm but a magical protectant, so visualize the energy forming an impenetrable barrier across which no negativity or intruders can cross.
After “sealing” the house, halt the flow of energy. You can do this by visualizing it stopping and by shaking your hand. Sense your protective-powered energy resting within the walls. A secure, safe feeling should flood through you as you stand within your now guarded home.
Yes, you’ve done this with your mind, but also with power. Energy is real, and your ability to manipulate energy determines the effectiveness of your circles and rituals.
Work with feeling and directing the power daily.Make this a sort of magical play until you reach the point where you won’t have to stop and think, “Can I do it? Can I raise the power?”You’ll know you can.
*
Remember the science fiction and fantasy movies you’ve seen wherein a magician sends power from his or her hands? Remember what it looked like in cinematic form? If you wish, use a similar image to visualize personal power streaming from your palms. Though that was just special effects, this, of course, is real, and we can use the picture to actually send out that power.
†
For an indepth exercise in sensing stone energies see
Cunningham’s Encyclopedia
of Crystal, Gem & Metal Magic
(Llewellyn, 1988 and 2002).
IF YOU WISH
to walk the Wiccan path, you may desire to dedicate yourself to the Goddess and God. This self-dedication is simply a formal ritual marking your conscious decision to embark on a new way of life—for that is the essence of Wicca.
At first I hesitated including a ritual of this sort here, feeling that the best dedicatory rituals were self-created. I’ve read and heard numerous stories of women and men who, drawn to Wicca but lacking access of covens or books, lit a candle, drank a little wine, and told the Gods of their intentions. That is perhaps the best sort of self-dedication ritual: simple and from the heart.
Many people feel more comfortable with formal rituals, however, so I’m including one at the end of this chapter. It is far different from most other such rites that have appeared in print, for it is an outdoor ritual that concentrates on contacting the energies of the Goddess and God.
This ritual is open to all who wish to use it. Before even considering dedicating yourself to the deities, however, be certain of your intentions for doing so, and that you have studied Wicca to the point where you know it is indeed the right way for you.
This means continued study. Read every book you can find on Wicca—the good ones as well as the bad. Subscribe to Wiccan and pagan publications. Familiarize yourself with Wicca as far as you can. Though some authors feel that their tradition is the only true one, don’t let this stop you from reading their works. Similarly, don’t accept everything you read simply because it appears in print.
In addition to reading, study nature. As you walk along the street, watch the birds flitting overhead, or bend down to gaze at an antcolony the way a mystic gazes into a crystal sphere. Celebrate the seasons and the phases of the moon with ritual.
You may also wish to fill your soul with music. If so, order by mail some of the Wiccan music tapes now available. (See appendix II, “Occult Suppliers.”) If this is impossible, spend time each day listening to the music of nature—go to a place where wind blows through leaves or around tree trunks. Listen to water bubbling over stones or pounding a rocky coastline. Pinpoint your hearing to the meow of a lonely cat heralding the dawn. Create your own music too, if you are so talented.
Let your emotions be touched; whether by flute, recorder, and drum, or bird, river, and wind. Your decision to enter Wicca shouldn’t be based solely on either your intellect or emotions; it should be a smooth product of both.
This done, stay up late a few nights or rise with the dawn. Alone, write down (even in the most broken sentences) what you hope to gain from Wicca. This may include spiritual fulfillment, deeper relationships with the Goddess and God, insight into your place in the world, the power to bring order into your existence, the ability to attune with the seasons and the earth, and so on.
Be specific, be ruthless, be complete. If you’re not satisfied with this list, if it doesn’t feel truthful, start over again. No one need ever see it. Copy down the final list in your mirror book, burn all other drafts, and be done with it.
Once this list has been fashioned, spend the next evening or morning creating a new one. On this, record what you feel you can give to Wicca.
This may surprise you, but every religion is the sum of its adherents. Unlike most orthodox religions,Wicca doesn’t want your money, so don’t write down “10 percent of my monthly income.” This isn’t because Wicca views money as debased or nonspiritual, but because money has been so abused and misused by most established religions. Wiccans don’t live off Wicca.
Since Wicca doesn’t condone proselytizing, has no leading figure, temples or central organizations, you may begin to wonder what you can do for Wicca. There is much you can give. Not only your time, energy, devotion, and so on, but also more concrete things. Here are some suggestions:
Join a national Wiccan or pagan group, such as the Pagan Spirit Alliance (through Circle—see appendix I). This helps you socialize with others of like mind, even if only through the mail or on the phone.Attend one of the public Wiccan or pagan gatherings held each year in various parts of the country.
Donate to an ecological organization, one striving to save our planet. Every day we poison the earth, as if we could spoil our camp and move elsewhere. If we don’t take action now, there won’t be anywhere to move. Financial contributions to responsible organizations dedicated to fighting pollution, saving endangered species, and bringing mindless development under control are examples of things you can give to Wicca.
The same goes for groups fighting to feed the hungry. Remember one fundamental idea—that which sustains life is sacred.
You may wish to start recycling. For many years, I’ve saved old newspapers, glass bottles, and aluminum cans from my trash. Since I live in a large city, there are numerous recycling centers nearby. Some centers pay, but the greatest rewards are not financial. They rest in the knowledge that we’re helping to save the earth’s natural resources.
If there are no recycling centers near you, be more conscious of your trash. Avoid purchasing products in plastic containers. Favor white paper products over colored ones—the dyes add to the pollution in our streams and rivers. Restrict or eliminate the use of plastic bags, food wrap, and other plastic products of the “use once, throw away” variety. These plastics don’t break down (i.e., aren’t biodegradable), are expensive, and may retain their same basic shapes for twenty-thousand years or more.
If you’re reading this and asking yourself what this has to do with Wicca, set this book down, and put it away. Or, re-read it.
Wicca consists—in part—of
reverence for nature
as a manifestation of the Goddess and God. One way to reverence the earth is to care for her.
Following these suggestions, discover other ways to show your devotion to Wicca. A hint: anything you do for the earth, or for our fellow creatures on it, you do for Wicca.
The following self-dedication rite isn’t designed to make you a Wicca—that comes with time and devotion (and not through initiation ceremonies). It is, in a mystical sense, a step toward linking your personal energies with those of the Goddess and God. It is a truly magical act which, if properly done, can change your life forever.
If you’re hesitant, read this book again. You’ll know when you’re ready.
A Self-Dedication Rite
Prepare yourself by drawing a bath of warm water. Add a tablespoon or so of salt and a few drops of a scented oil such as sandalwood.
If you have no bath, use a shower. Fill a washcloth with salt, add a few drops of essential oil, and rub your body. If you’re performing this ritual at the sea or a river, bathe there if you so desire.
As you bathe, prepare for the coming rite. Open your consciousness to higher levels of awareness. Deep breathe. Cleanse your mind as well as your body.
After bathing, dry and dress for the journey. Go to a place in the wild where you feel safe. It should be a comfortable spot where you won’t be disturbed by others, an area where the powers of the earth and the elements are evident. It may be a mountain top, a desert canyon or cave, perhaps a dense forest, a rocky outcropping over the sea, a quiet island in the center of a lake. Even a lonely part of a park or garden can be used. Draw on your imagination to find the place.
You need take nothing with you but a vial of richly scented oil. Sandalwood, frankincense, cinnamon, or any other scent is fine. When you arrive at the place of dedication, remove your shoes and sit quietly for a few moments. Calm your heart if you’ve exerted yourself during your travel. Breathe deeply to return to normal, and keep your mind free of cluttered thoughts. Open yourself to the natural energies around you.
When you’re calm, rise and pivot slowly on one foot, surveying the land around you. You’re seeking the ideal spot. Don’t try to find it; open your awareness to the place. When you’ve discovered it (and you’ll know when), sit, kneel, or lie flat on your back. Place the oil on the earth beside you. Don’t stand—contact the earth.
Continue deep breathing. Feel the energies around you. Call the Goddess and God in any words you like, or use the following invocation. Memorize these words before the rite so that they’ll spill effortlessly from you, or improvise:
O Mother Goddess,
O Father God,
answers to all mysteries and yet mysteries unanswered;
in this place of power I open myself to your essence.
In this place and in this time I am changed;
from henceforth I walk the Wiccan path.
I dedicate myself to you,Mother Goddess and Father God.
(rest for moment, silent, still. Then continue:)
I breathe your energies into my body,
commingling, blending, mixing them with mine,
that I may see the divine in nature, nature in the divine,
and divinity within myself and all else.
O great Goddess, O great God,
make me one with your essence,
make me one with your essence,
make me one with your essence.
You may feel bursting with power and energy, or calm and at peace. Your mind might be in a whirl. The earth beneath you may throb and undulate with energy. Wild animals, attracted by the psychic occurrence, might grace you with their presence.
Whatever occurs,
know
that you have opened yourself and that the Goddess and God have heard you. You should feel different inside, at peace or simply powerful.
Goddess and God symbols
After the invocation, wet a finger with the oil and mark these two symbols somewhere on your body (see above). It doesn’t matter where; you can do this on your chest, forehead, arms, legs, anywhere. As you anoint, visualize these symbols sinking into your flesh, glowing as they enter your body, and then dispersing into millions of tiny points of light.
The formal self-dedication is ended. Thank the Goddess and God for their attention. Sit and meditate before leaving the place of dedication.