Marian Green - A Witch Alone - Thirteen Moons To Master Natural Magic

The circle cast by the ceremonial magician or swept by the old wise woman’s broom on her earthy floor represents a kind of spaceship, a time traveller’s craft whose occupants may be transported to other times or other places. Its use is ancient, its power is unfailing.

It can be protective, calming, healing, invigorating. It may be as small as the span of your arms or stretch, like the great Earth Zodiacs, across many miles of countryside. It may be created by your will to bring you inner peace for a few moments of meditation, or built of mighty stones and earthen banks over hundreds of years, enduring for thousands, as at Avebury, Callanish or Stonehenge.

Students have asked me if it is always necessary to have a magical circle set up in order to perform any kind of magical work, and like so much of the Old Arts, the answer is a paradox, being ‘yes and no!’ The greatest skill every witch, magician, druid or healer needs to develop is that of intuition.

Literally ‘inner teaching’, it is that sense of ‘rightness’ about any action, thought or esoteric activity. When you have had some practical experience in the magical arts you will know, intuitively, if this is the moment to cast a circle or not. Only you can know that for yourself, no book can tell you, no teacher or school of thought can dictate it. You have to decide this minor point, as with many others as you go through your training in the coming years.

Mentally and physically, setting up a magical circle will probably be the first ritual act you will need to attempt. It can be a very simple procedure, taking a moment or two of thought, a few minutes of action. In other circumstances, or in the company of friends or companions on the path, it might take half an hour or even longer. It will be for you to experiment, explore your likes and dislikes, your personal situation and the location of your working. To begin with, it really is worth the bother of doing this small ritual carefully and completely; as you become more experienced the process may be shortened, simplified or even internalised, so that it is done in your head, instead of inside your house or garden or favourite wooded grove.

Like other paradoxical matters in magic, ritual circles are square! Acknowledgement is always given

to the four points of the compass, ‘the quarters’, perhaps by offering a symbol of the Elements commonly associated with each, or by the welcoming of a protective being, archangel, totem animal or elemental force. There may be a setting out of a sacred object, the lighting of a candle or the invocation of a goddess or god name to help with the ritual. One group of modern witches uses the names of the four winds, and though the names they use are the Greek ones, the old folk of Britain sometimes called upon, ‘A pale wind and a purple wind, a black wind and a white …’ to sweep away interference from their sacred place, protect it from harm and empower their spells.

The first consideration is space. If you are working indoors you will be limited both in the amount of room you have to make sacred, and how wild your activities within that space may be, because dancing, singing, waving a wand or even lying full length to receive divine inspiration are all possible aspects of the work. It does rather sadden me that some modern witches are keen to be sky-clad (naked) and free, but as a consequence take off their clothes and have to wear a house! Surely it is better in the eyes of the Earth Mother to wear comfortable clothes but be out of doors, in the wind and moonlight? A light robe, a warm cloak or even a special coat kept just for such encounters with Nature will not stop the channelling of power which can move the stars in their courses. Out there, the voices of the wild can answer your summons, give reply to your request or, as omens, fulfil your prayers.

Again, you will have to choose, but if you are new to these arts it may be easier and feel safer to be indoors, in familiar surroundings, where you can find items to use for the marking out of the square circle. The simplest set of symbols of the Elements of Earth, Water, Fire and Air are earth from the garden, water from the tap, a lighted candle and something scented. You can use a rock, pebble or slab of wood, which grows in the ground, for Earth.

You may, if you are going to drink it, use spring water, fruit juice or wine for Water. Fire really does have to be something alight, although a smouldering joss stick could be used to represent both Fire and Air. For Air you could use some kind of incense, burned on proper charcoal, or a sweetly scented flower, pot-pourri, even a fan or a feather. Out of doors in a natural place, you may be surprised at what you can easily discover to represent the Elements - from tiny acorn cups of Water, to aromatic shrubs for Air, a red or yellow flower or leaf for Fire, and any kind of soil, stone, wood or sand for Earth.

These traditional four Elements represent the spokes of a wheel, which give it both balance and power. By calling upon these traditional Elements you create a kind of vortex which spins the energy you are drawing up from the Earth herself and mixes it with the power that is flowing down from the sky, making a potent source of magical force by which your spells will be made to work. You cause this power to move because in your ritual or in your mind you will be walking, dancing or sweeping around the circle, like a spoon in a teacup, stirring these balanced lines of energy into a cord of light which, rather like a twisted electric cable, can direct the energy where it is needed. As your psychic vision improves you will actually be able to see the Elemental power as different colours, or as flows of rainbow light, or sense them as heat or coolness.

You will need to write little poems or invocations to welcome or recognise these forces. ‘Earth beneath and Sky above, Bless me ever with your love. Power of Nature, strength of Earth, Help me to

find my own true worth. Flow of Water, rain in spring, Grant my heart the joy to sing. Fire of summer, light of flame, Guide me to my lifelong aim. Wind of autumn, breath of Air, show me peace beyond compare. Circle round and Light within, Guard me now, your human kin.’ As you say each of these short invocations (or ones you have made up which are better poetry or more appropriate to your own symbolism) face up for Sky, look down for Earth, point to North for Elemental Earth, West for Water, South for Fire, East for Air. (You will either need to recognise where the points of the compass are from seeing stars or the sun in the sky, or buy yourself a reliable magnetic compass from a hiking or Scout shop.)

Ideally you will need to walk around the circle to each of these points in turn. If you do it just like that you will find you are going anti-clockwise, or widdershins as they say in Scotland. Now many modern witches do not like the idea of going anti-clockwise, not realising that that is the actual direction the Earth herself turns, so it is up to you. At the beginning of your work you may well be clearing things away, be it furniture or old ideas.

Anyway, to get over this problem you can form a vortex clockwise by walking from North round three-quarters of a circle until you get to the West, where Water should be. Say the words, then do three-quarters of a clockwise circle to Fire in the South, and finally three-quarters of a circle to East where the symbol of Air will be. Face the centre and imagine a great circle of white-gold light sweeping round you and at the very centre, inside your own heart, a tiny diamond-bright point of silver fire.

Just try this very basic exercise, when you have cleared a physical space and cleaned it as well as you can. Place the four symbols of the Elements in their respective places; learn which is in which direction so that you will be able to look West from North, or South from East and so on without hesitation. Learn also to turn to your right for clockwise (deosil) or to your left for anti-clockwise (widdershins). When you have set out the Elements and walked the three whole circles it takes to do as above (or the single circle if you don’t mind going widdershins), sit in the centre, relax and close your eyes. Feel the circle around you, as if it were a circular magical carpet which is tilting and building up energy, ready to lift you off and take you to the Place of Witchdom, the Old Land, where the Goddess and her Love are ready to meet you.