The Sabbats
We can now begin to learn about the way of life. It is important to know the wheel of the year and the cycles of time as you go forth in your magical en devours. Sabbats depending on how traditional you wish to be are important, but if you do not intend to celebrate or honor any Gods that's up to you. However, I will include these and why they are important to us as Wiccans, because they represent and mean different things. In total there are 8 events over the course of the year, these are;
Yule = Yule occurs during on the winter sol tics on December 21st. This Sabbath is for celebrating rebirth. (Date: on the winter solstice): This is the Sabbath for celebrating rebirth. Imbolc = Imbolc falls on February 2nd and welcomes in the return of spring. This is a time for cleaning, cleansing and beginning a new.
Ostara = Occurs on the vernal equinox, is a time of fertility and the middle of spring.
Beltane = This Sabbath comes on the first of May and focuses on fertility. Many Pagans choose to conceive children at this time.
Litha = Occurs during the summer solstice and is a Sabbath for celebrating the longest day of the year.
Lughnasadh = Happens August 1st. This is the first of the three harvesting Sabbats.
Mabon = Occurs during the autumn equinox. This is the second of the three harvesting Sabbats.
Samhain = Occurs on October 3st. This is the last of the three harvesting Sabbats and the festival of the dead. It is said that at this time of year the veil between the spirit world and ours is at its weakest.
There is also an underlying theme to do with the Holly King and Oak king tales which are very much tied into these, but I will let you investigate those further. If you are new to this site, never fear about missing these are many of us here celebrate and post in the forums during these times. You can also put these on your calender to remind you, but the important thing is to study these Sabbats and know as much as you can. Knowing about these will also help to incorperate them into your spell work. There are also what are called esabbats associated with the moon, but again I will let you investigate these further if you so wish.
The Moon
The moon cycles about every 31 days from full to new, I won't go into the full technicalities here but instead give you a brief overview of what phases of the moon will have what effects on your magic. The moon is a living celestial satellite that is used by millions of Witches all over the world, but it knows when to use the moon in your working that will be the most beneficial. Depending on what kind of magic you are doing, you must know what effects the moon will be having upon them.
The moon is divided into two aspects depending on what phase it is in, 'waxing' and 'wanning' carry different energy currents which will affect what happens to your spell. If you are doing magick for increasing energy, success spells, or bringing things towards you the waxing phase is where you would do these. If however you are doing magick to dispel, repel or push away from you, you would use the wanning phase. When the moon is full however is when the moon's energy is at its highest, and therefore can be a very effective medium in your magical workings. I will be covering in detail different aspects of this post in later posts, but that is a very basic understanding of the moon's energy rhythms. Enough at least to guide you safely.
Magical Items
Magical items in your work are not essential, not everyone can afford these however the site shop has some very good prices to offer as well as a wide variety of magical merchandise for sale. You can therefore improvise using your hands as well as other items to represent the magical tools you will be working with. It is important however that the materials you use are as natural as possible, the items need to be able to represent the surroundings you are working with. There are many items that you can use, here I will be only covering four of the most basic. These are;
-The pentacle
-The wand
-The atheme
-The chalice
The pentacle is a symbol consisting of a five pointed pentagram to represent the 5 elements of, air, water, earth, fire and spirit. With the 5th being representative of you and the greater divinity of the universe as a whole. This is what we use as a focus on our altar to bless other tools and is primarily the space you will be doing most of your spell work on. The pentacle place itself represents earth, which I know sounds contradictory to what I stated before. However, each magical items in of itself is representative of each element as well as the pentagram depicting them.
The Wand The wand is a very gentle and beautiful item, this is what we used to invite energies in as well as casting them out. It is a brilliant tool for spell crafting as you will be putting these gentle energies into it. This item is representative of the element fire and it is associated with the direction of south. Wands can come in many forms, they can be plain or extravagant, but it is important to pick the wand that calls you in the most. Many think when they start that they are choosing the items, but it is in fact the items that choose us.
I have often walked into a store thinking I was going to buy one I had on my mind for a while and then walking out with someone entirely different. The Atheme The magical knife is male in aspects and represents air and the direction of East. It is a much harsher energy than the wand itself, it is far more demanding and is a stronger energy and therefore needs a certain element of caution. But is the most effective and is a great protector. We do not use the atheme as a weapon or to cut physical matter, but more over to cut through spiritual energies as well as through our circle once we are finished.
The atheme in my view is one of the most important magical items we can have at our disposal, even more so than the wand. The Chalice The chalice represents water and is associated with the western quarter of your circle. It is a very feminine item, the chalice itself represents the feminine divine of your altar. It is used for putting wine or juice into it for offering and dedicating to the Gods as well as in your circle working and the concentration of that.
When you are first starting out as I said before these items are not essential as they merely act as a focus, however having them can also help you increase that focus should you need it. As you move on through your craft over the years, you will begin to accumulate various magical items that you will want for your workings, so don't feel any rush to get hold of things quickly, these will come as time goes on. It is important to realize that while it is lovely having these things, but what is most important is your intent in this. Your tools do not matter not nearly as much as your intent and intentions towards them. Therefore, make sure you have this in check before selecting items for your altar.
Alter set up
Where you put your altar is very important before you go about setting it up. Firstly you need to be sure that the place you are working in feels safe to you, while a lot of covens activity is held outdoors. It is not advisable to go out alone unless with a trusted friend or someone who owns private land. You don't want to be interrupted or in a place with many distractions which could hinder you in your practice. When you set up your altar space, remember this is a place you will be inviting and working with the Gods and Goddesses so it needs an element of attractiveness as a sign of respect. You can also put flowers on your alter to suit particular seasons or items to help celebrate the sabbats. If you choose to work with the Gods and Goddesses have an image or statue of some sort to represent them. The Goddess goes to the left and the God sits on the right, left represents the feminine and intuition and right represents the masculine and strength.
Alter candle sticks will be needed or some form of dim light as you will be mainly working at night. Now there are many ways to set up your altar, you can choose to follow the Gardinarian or Alexandrian traditions if you like as they have a specific way of setting the alter up, but for the more electic types we can work more intuitively. However, take into account the items that you now have as they will need to be placed in accordance with the way you will be working. As a basic outline I will show you how I started out, bearing in mind that we have the male to the right and the female to the left for the reasons that I illustrated earlier. The pentagram is always one of the most important items, as you will be using this to consecrate your items and bless them. I would advise therefore to put this in the very center of your altar.
Next up is the Chalice, can you guess by its attributes where on the alter this would go? How about the wand and the Atheme? Each have male and female aspects and should therefore go in the places that best represent these. I will stress however that it is really up to you and your own intentions as to how you go about this, as long as you have a system in place that works for you is what will work best for future workings.
Item consecration
Before the items can be used in any magical workings, it is important to consecrate them of any negative energies. You can either do this before you cast your circle or after, but my view is that it is better to do this before the circle is cast so that you not bringing any residual negative energies into your circle before you start your workings. There are a number of ways to purify your items, but make sure you focus on each one, slowly one at a time. Incense can be burned, or salt can be applied. Herbs and spices burned or even the item passed through a candle flame. For this exercise you will need the following items.
-A water bowl (typically sits at the center of your altar on the pentacle
-Salt (this is a purifying element which you can use in your circle casting)
If you are working with any Gods you can ask them to purify them and bless them with you, thus strengthening the consecration excsersise as a whole. As you are blessing each item, imagine pure white light leaving your body and flowing into the item you are consecrating. The more that you visualize the more the energy coming out of you will transform to purify them. Once you have done this you will also need to do the same with your sacred space, when you do this walk in the clockwise direction calling each element to its corresponding direction. You may use the words you wish but you can also say...
Purifying the salt
"I purify and cleanse this salt representing earth"
Purifying the water
"I purify and cleanse this water, earth with water united in strength and protection"
(At this point mix the salt with the water, and stand up to prepare to walk around the circle saying)
"I purify and I cleanse this sacred space with earth and water, to the direction of the North, to the direction of the south, to the direction of the east and to the direction of the west. To the great God and Goddess please bless this sacred place."
It is important to keep doing this, it is not something to only be done once. At various stages in your craft you will need to purify your items and space, especially if something goes wrong in your spell work. Think of it like having a medical check up but for your altar space, this will help to keep your working pure and free of unwanted energies.
Casting the circle
Once you have your items consecrated you can begin to cast your circle, some items that can help with this are;
-An incense burner or bowl
-Your wand
Before I talked about the elements in relation to circle casting, I will now go expand on how this is. Each of the elements in relation to the circle has its designated quarter, Earth is in the north which is usually where we base our alter. But this is not essential as we can have it in any of the four directions or directly in the center of our circle. East is air, where we call in the elementals of air (otherwise known as silths), next is south for the element of fire. Water is located in the west. When we are casting our circle, visualize the elements and invite them in to protect you.
As each element will guard the direction associated with it and protect you in your magical working. Just like the consecration exercise before, apply this to your circle cast by calling to the four directions. To cast your circle firstly go around the circle with your lit incense, again the words you use are up to you. After this you can now use your wand and point in dorsal (clockwise) and call out to each element. Call these elements to guard your circle and welcome them in. Make sure you present yourself before them in a respectful and humble manner. The circle is the place where your cone of magick will be used, we call this a cone as it is the focal point where our magic will be taking place, so being inside a safe energy circle is important to deflect away from negative energies. As well as it putting ourselves in a mindset where this space in particular has special qualities where our magic can take place.
Initial dedication to the Gods
There are many things you can do in reverence to the Gods, the important thing here to make a commitment if you do. This is an important event in your life as it is your first promise and vow to dedicate yourself to your craft. Just as a painter gets up in the morning to work on a canvas, so too is the same for us in perfecting our spiritual canvas. If you do not follow any Gods in particular you can always make the promise to yourself, just as long as you are affirming what it is you are setting out to do, and being prepared to live for it. You can prepare food and music and really just as you would a friend, invite the Gods into your home. Of course you will need to make sure your home is clean and tidy before you invite them over, you don't want to be offending the very beings helping you in your daily life!
Closing the circle
Closing the circle is very much the same as casting one, except what you are doing is reversing the process and using the opposing attributed item to close it with, in this instance you will be using the atheme to close the circle with. This time anti-clockwise you will be going around and calling back to each direction and the element it corresponds to. Again be humble and respectful, and this time be in a state of thanks.
Gratitude is a powerful motivator in spell work, and can produce results very quickly. But it is important just like you would anyone else, thank them for their help. The only real difference here is that instead of just pointing like you would do with the wand, you cut through the air at each corner. This will release the gaurds that were originally in place. You can also set up one entry point and exit with which to cut through, but it is better to avoid confusion and use the directions instead. Once you have given thanks and applied the atheme, your circle has fully closed.
You will feel an energy decrease at this point, but remember the circle is also very much a part of you, so your relationship to it will grow over time and if you don't notice it at first, you will later as you go on. Once you have closed the circle, whether indoors or out, you must clear it away and not leave a mess. Any of your tools that you have been using must be put away safely. Usually wrapped in a black cloth, which is a protective colour. And stored in a designated place that is only known to yourself. As these are not every day mundane items, they must be treat with great care and not mixed with others.
Further Exploration
Iv'e tried to be as general as I can without being too overwhelming, this post really deals with the bare essentials. There is a great deal more yet to discover, however the more advanced basics are the things that you will inevitably move onto next. These again can be many things, but I will include some of them here below, these are.
Mediation techniques
Visualization techniques
Spell crafting and casting
Different types of magick and their applications
Further Reading
If you don't have money for books, the site is a great place to find further reading on many topics. Always look out for articles with high ratings, the mods are always on the look out for credible articles so those are the ones you will want to undoubtedly read. However, for those that wish to buy books, I will include the list as shown on my profile.
Practical Thinking - Edward De Bono
Practical Magic - Alice Hoffman
Basic Sigil Magic - Phillip Cooper
Slow Time - Waverly Fitzgerald
The Secret of the Soul: Using Out-of-Body Experiences to Understand Our True Nature By William Buhlman
Two of these books (Practical thinking & Slow time) I would highly recommend to people starting out, as one deals very much with logical processes and applying them in daily life. And the other shows us how we can use time to greatly enrich our lives. Not in the sense that we somehow magically meddle with time, its more how our perspective relates to it and how we can change it to help us experience time in a way that makes our lives more meaningful. Eading is a very helpful practice to your study and I would strongly recommend reading as much as you can, as often as you can. Doing this will greatly improve your knowledge on subject matters, as well as aiding you in your chosen path.
