The Spiral Dance Part 11

Use a square of royal purple cloth, filled with bay leaf, Dragon's Blood, elder flowers, High John the Conqueror Root, rosemary, vervain, oak leaf, holly leaf or berries, and mistletoe. Tie with blue thread, and embroider or draw on your own personal symbol.

TO CHARGE AN HERBAL CHARM.

a.s.semble all your materials on your altar.

Cast a circle.

Light a CANDLE of an appropriate color. If you wish, burn INCENSE.

Raise energy.

In MORTAR and PESTLE, grind together all the herbs for your charm. Visualize the image or emotion you desire, and project it into the herbs as you grind them together. Draw or create any other symbols you may wish.

Gather together the herbs and other objects into the cloth. Twist the top around them and tie it once with thread.

Breathe on the charm and charge it with air.

Pa.s.s it through the candle flame, and charge it with fire.

Spinkle a few drops of WATER on it, and charge it with water.

Dip it into SALT, or touch it to your PENTACLE, and charge it with earth.

FOR ELOQUENCE.

Use a circe of yellow or iridescent cloth. Fill it with fennel, hazel, mandrake, and valerian. Add a silver coin, and tie with orange and violet thread.

TO WIN IN COURT.

Use a square of blue cloth, filled with bay laurel, High John the Conqueror Root, St. John's Wort, and vervain. If you are being persecuted by an enemy, add a pine nut or part of a cone, some tobacco, and some mustard seed.

Put in a small picture of an open eye, so that justice will look favorably on you. Tie with purple thread.

Feel free to improvise on these charms to add symbols of your own or to try other combinations of herbs. What feels best to you will work best.

Hold it in your hands, breathe on it, and charge it fully with all the energy you. raise, concentrating on your visualization.

Drop to the ground, relax, and earth the power. Bind the spell, tying it as you do so.

Open the circle.

HEALING IMAGE SPELL.

Create your poppet (a wax or cloth doll) to represent the person you wish to help already completely healed and whole. Do not represent the problem; rather, create the image of the so ution. Concentrate as you make the poppet.

Cast a circle.

Light a BLUE CANDLE.

Sprinkle your POPPET with SALT WATER. Say, "Blessed be, thou creature made by art. By art made, by art changed. Thou art not wax (cloth, wood, etc.) but flesh and blood, I name thee ________ (name the person you wish to heal). Thou art s(he), between the worlds, in all the worlds. Blessed be."

Hold the poppet in your hands. Breathe on it, and charge it with energy. Visualize your friend completely healed, completely well. Charge particular parts of the doll especially strongly to correspond with the parts of your friend that are hurt or diseased.

Visualize your friend completely charged with white light, well, happy, and filled with energy.

Bind the spell. Earth the power. Open the circe.

Keep the poppet on your altar unti your friend is healed. Then, cast another circle, again take the poppet, sprinkle it with water, and say, "Blessed be, child of light. By art changed, by art unmade. I take from thee thy name ________ (your friend's name) and name thee poppet, creature of wax (or cloth, or whatever). Between the worlds, in all the worlds, so mote it be. The link is broken. Blessed be."

Open the circle. If the poppet contains physical links, burn it in an open fire. If not, dispose of it any way you wish, or give it to your friend as a keepsake.

Hold the poppet in your "hands. Visualize a silver net falling over it, and binding the person it represents.

Take RED RIBBON and wrap it around the poppet, tying it firmly, and binding all parts of the body that could conceivably harm others. Charge the binding with power.

Say, By air and earth, By water and fire, So be you bound, As I desire.

By three and nine, Your power I bind.

By moon and sun, My will be done.

Sky and sea Keep harm from me.

Cord go round, Power be bound, Light revealed, Now be sealed.

Earth the power. Open the circle. Bury the poppet during a waning moon, far from your house, under a heavy rock.

TO BIND AN ENEMY.

Cast a circle.

Light a BLACK CANDLE. Burn INCENSE of Saturn.

Sprinkle your POPPET with SALT WATER. Say, "Blessed be, thou creature made by art. By art made, by art changed. Thou art not wax (cloth, etc.) but flesh and blood. I name thee_______ (the person you are binding), Thou art s(he), between the worlds, in all the worlds, So mote it be."

CHAPTER 8. Energy: The Cone of Power.

Between the Worlds.

The chant begins as a low crooning, a deep vibration barely heard. One by one, voices take it up: "Aaaaaaaah. ..."

"Oooooooooh. ..."

"Eeeeeeeeee. ..."

It rises, an eerie nonharmony. The air seems to thicken, to dance with ekctric sparks that begin to fly, circle, spin, careen madly in the center of the circle.

"Eeeeeeeoooooooh. ..."

The air glows, a luminous cloud that pulsates, burning with a black heat. The chant opens, full-throated, a ringing chord...

The light begins to spin, a shining wheel of breath, turning and turning. Voices rise higher. The light spirals upward, faster, faster, as it narrows toward the top. The sound is indescribabk; the voices are the shrieking wind, the howling of wolves, the high cries of tropical birds, the swarming of bees, the sigh of receding waves. The cone builds and builds a pulsing spiral, a unicorn's horn, rare and marvelous. Its tip cannot be seen. It is flooded with color: red, blue, green, sunlight, moonlight. It rises - "Now!" A voice cries out. A final shriek. The cone flies off, an arrow loosed to do its work, sucking the air clean. The coven collapses, timp dolls, sprawled on the floor.

They smile, deliciously relaxed.

"Four laws of ecology: (1) everything is connected to everything else, (2) everything must go somewhere, (3) nature knows best, and (4) there is no such thing as a free lunch." (Barry Commoner) The primary principle of magic is connection. The universe is a fluid, ever-changing energy pattern, not a collection of fixed and separate things. What affects one thing affects, in some way, all things: All is interwoven into the continuous fabric of being. Its warp and weft are energy, which is the essence of magic.

Energy is ecstasy. When we drop the barriers and let power pour through, it floods the body, pulsing through every nerve, arousing every artery, coursing like a river that cleanses as it moves. In the eye of the storm, we rise on the winds that roar through mind and body, throbbing a liquid note as the voice pours out shimmering honey in waves of golden light, that as they pa.s.s, leave peace. No drug can take us so high, no thrill pierce us so deep because we have felt the essence of all delight, the heart of joy, the end of desire. Energy is love, and love is magic.

Of all the disciplines of magic, the art of moving energy is the simplest and most natural. It comes as easily as breathing, as making sound. Picture the power in motion, and it moves. Feel it flowing, and it flows, cleansing, healing, renewing, and revitalizing as it pa.s.ses.

Witches conceive of the subtle energies as being, to a trained awareness, tangible, visible, and malleable. They are, as Dion Fortune says, "more tangible than emotion-less tangible than protoplasm." We can learn to sense them and mold them into form.

The laws of ecology are the laws of energy. Everything is interconnected; every action, every movement of forces, changes the universe. "You must not change one thing, one pebble, one grain of sand, until you know what good and evil will follow on that act. The world is in balance, in Equilibrium. A Wizard's power of changing and summoning can shake the balance of the world. It is dangerous, that power. It is most perilous. It must follow knowledge and serve need. To light a candle is to cast a shadow."

Yet the equilibrium of the universe is not static, but dynamic. Energy is constantly in motion. It cannot be stopped. Again, using water as our metaphor, when we block its flow it becomes stagnant and foul. When it flows freely, it cleanses and purifies. The rituals, spells, and meditations of the Craft center on aiding energy to flow.

Energy flows in spirals. Its motion is always circular, cyclical, wavelike. The spiral motion is revealed in the shape of galaxies, sh.e.l.ls, whirlpools, DNA. Sound, light, and radiation travel in waves-which themselves are spirals viewed in a flat plane. The moon waxes and wanes, as do the tides, the economy, and our own vitality.

The implications of the spiral model are many. Essentially, it means that no form of energy can be exerted indefinitely in one direction only. Always, it will reach a peak, a point of climax, and then turn. In personal terms, activity is balanced by pa.s.sivity. Exertion must be followed by rest; creativity by quiescence. Men cannot live entirely in the active mode, nor women in the pa.s.sive-as patriarchal culture expects-and be whole. No one can be constantly creative, constantly s.e.xual, constantly angry-or constantly anything that requires energy.

Recognizing this alternation can help us sustain a dynamic, healthy balance.

Socially and politically, movement toward greater freedom is usually followed by movement toward greater security. Expansion is followed by contraction. The wise can learn to take advantage of this alternation, instead of being buffeted by it and forfeiting gains during every period of reaction. Freedom and security are not mutually exclusive goals.

Political actions could be more effective if they were consciously understood to be energy workings. Power can move through a group as it does through an individual, renewing and revitalizing group energy. An important aspect of this movement is grounding the energy after it is raised, consciously recognizing its fall as well as its peak, and returning it to the earth, its elemental source. When energy is not grounded, the group remains "charged"-like a room full of static electricity, with what soon becomes felt as tension and anxiety. Instead of generating a useful current, such groups short-circuit themselves, and their members "burn out."

Rallies, meetings, conferences, and demonstrations raise power-but rarely do organizers think about grounding it afterward. Grounding does not have to be elaborate-simply remembering to formally end each working session will help earth the power. Group members might simply take hands in a circle and sit quietly for a moment.

Recently, there has been a growing tendency in the feminist movement to incorporate ritual into conferences and demonstrations, for the express purpose of grounding and channeling the power raised. The following is an account of a ritual several women4 and I created in November 1978, as part of a conference on violence and p.o.r.nography, with the theme "Take Back the Night!" The climax of the weekend was a march through the North Beach section of San Francisco, the heart of the topless-bottomless and ma.s.sage parlor scene. The ritual took place in Washington Square Park, at the end of the march.

The women pour in from the street. It takes so much longer than we expected. I had no conception of three thousand women in a ma.s.s...

Witches, at the front of the march, aspurge North Beach with salt water. They chant Laurel's couplet: Wipe the slate clean, Dream a new dream!

At Broadway and Columbus, the artists create a mini-ritual around their float. In the front, it is a giant, candle-lit Madonna; behind, slabs of dead meat and p.o.r.nographic magazines. A strong symbol of images that squeeze women into narrow, hurtful roles. They bring out the float, chant, tear the p.o.r.nography into confetti. Holly Near sings.

We wait at the park, too nervous to leave and risk not getting back in time. The Witches arrive at the entrance to the park, form a double line, a birth ca.n.a.l. They hold lighted candles and incense and sprinkle the women with salt water as they enter: From a woman you were born into this world, By women you are born into this circle.

We are onstage (the back of Anne's truck). Our backdrop is the lit facade of the church: an irony. Lennie Schwendinger of Lighten Up has created beautiful lighting for us-it is the first time I have done a ritual so theatrical, where the bright lights cut us off from the crowd, who become "audience." Our pool of light seems the only world-and I'm not sure I like it. Behind us, in the trees, a woman's acrobatic troupe, Fly By Night, perform a slow, aerial dance.

Nina leads the chant: We're taking back the night, The night is ours!

The women are not dancing, as we had hoped. The audience-performer image is too strong-they are watching us.

I feel awkward, unsure of what to do. The chant dies away-still, crowds are flowing into the park. .. .

Toni Marcus begins to play her violin. The sound carries over the park, electric, magical.

We can put off starting no longer. I take the microphone, and say that we should turn for a moment and look at each other, at how beautiful we are, how real we are. ...

I say, "We have been taught that women's bodies are unclean, that our s.e.xuality degrades us, that we must be either Virgins or wh.o.r.es. But we accept neither image! Instead we raise the banner of the naked G.o.ddess, whose body is truth, who is within us, in the human spirit.

"We say that our bodies are sacred, because they bring forth life, because they are life, because they give us pleasure, because with them we make, build, think, laugh, create, and do."

Lee and I lead the responsive chant: Our bodies are sacred, Our b.r.e.a.s.t.s are sacred, Our wombs are sacred, Our hands are sacred...

It builds and builds.

Our voices are sacred, Our voices carry power!

The power to create!

The power to change the world!

Let go-let them become sound - Chant without words-let them be heard!

The voices roar into the night! Not a cone-it is too strong, too amorphous-a tidal wave sweeping out of the park.

It stops. Quietly, I lead a soft, low chant. A humming-the buzz of two thousand bees, a deep throb...

Over it, Hallie leads the meditation: "Softly, softly now begin to feel the earth's energy beneath your feet as She dances with us ...

"Close your eyes . . . feel your strength sparkling through your body and women around you. This is the power generated by our marching, our chanting, our dancing, our destruction of the symbols of violence.... Know that each of us, and all of us together, have the power to change the world. Feel the effects of your action rippling out into the world ... reflect on how your life will be different....

"Open your eyes and look around you ... see our strength in one another's face . . . know that we are strong.

Know what the women of old knew . . . that the night must belong to us. Know that we are women who take back the night. Know that the night is ours!"

Cheers, laughter, screams, kisses. Some of us touch the earth. The women follow. The ritual is done.

Nature knows best. Magic is part of nature; it does not controvert natural laws. It is through study and observation of nature, of the visible, physical reality, that we can learn to understand the workings of the underlying reality.

Magic teaches us to tap sources of energy that are unlimited, infinite. Nevertheless, there is no "free lunch." To raise energy, we must expend energy. We cannot get without giving. In working magic, we expend our own physical and emotional energy and must take care to replenish it. Magic is an art and a discipline, that demands work, practice, and effort before it can be perfected. Every change brings consequences; some seen and some unforeseen.

In coven rituals, energy raised is most often molded into the form of a cone, the Cone of Power. The base of the cone is the circle of coveners; its apex can focus on an individual, an object, or a collectively visualized image.

At times, the cone is allowed to rise and fall naturally, as in the power chant described in Chapter Three. It may also be sent off in a burst of force, directed by one person, who may be part of the circle, or may stand at its center. When a group is familiar with the exercises given in Chapter Three, the following will prepare members for more advanced energy workings: EXERCISE 45: THE CONE OF POWER.

All ground and center. Standing or sitting in a circle, take hands. Begin with a Group Breath, and gradually build a wordless Power Chant.

As the energy builds, visualize it swirling clockwise around the circle. See it as a blue-white light. It spirals up into a cone form-an upright sh.e.l.l, a cornucopia. Hold the visualization until it glows.