Creating Circles and Ceremonies: Rituals for All ... - reading...

28 Creating Circles & Ceremonies
sunrise for East; an erupting volcano, lightning, or the Sun for South; a seascape or underwater
scene for West; and mountains, crystals, or a snowy Winter landscape for North. I have even
designed a whole set of directional wall plaques which many people use just for this purpose: a
Bird Goddess for East, a Sun God for South, a Sea Goddess for West, and a Green Man for
North. And I added a plaque of Psyche for Spirit, in the Center.
Your Temple should also have a space where you can lay out a Magick Circle. Traditionally,
these are marked on the floor with a piece of chalk, then cleaned up afterwards with a
damp cloth or sponge An easy way to measure and draw such a circle is with a cord, such as
a cingulum, which has knots tied at measured intervals. By anchoring the first knot at the
center of the space, and holding the chalk at one of the other knots, you can draw the circle
around like a compass. You can also make a big circle of string.
If you expect to be doing rituals with three or more people, however, you will want to
create a larger ritual space. Circles should be odd-numbered feet in diameter. The traditional
Witches’ Circle, for instance, has a diameter of nine feet to provide room for a full coven of 13
Witches. But smaller groups can certainly get by with smaller Circles, such as seven or five feet.
Some people actually paint a ritual Circle on the floor of their Temples, often inscribing
a pentagram within it and marking areas and points in different colors. This can be as simple
as a plain circle with the four directions indicated, or as elaborate as the Magick Circle
Mandala in Chapter 1. Such a painted Circle may be covered with a rug when not in use, or
a round rug may serve to mark the Circle.
A way to make a permanent Magick Circle for your Temple without painting on the
floor is to use a large piece of cloth (black is recommended, so it will seem as if you are
standing in outer space). A top sheet for a California King-size bed should be just about the
right size (8-foot square). Find the exact center of the sheet by folding it carefully into
quarters diagonally from corner to corner, and iron it. Put a dot of white chalk at the center,
and then spread the whole sheet out on a flat wooden deck or floor that it won’t matter
sticking thumbtacks or nails into (this may be a bit of a quest!).
Tack or tape down the four corners of the sheet with just enough tension to get rid of the
wrinkles. Then insert a thin finishing nail through the knot at the end of your Cingulum. Hammer
this into the center of the sheet, but not so far that you can’t easily pull it out again. Then hold a
piece of chalk at the first knot and draw the circle round. This will be 7 feet in diameter. Draw over
the chalk lines with a white fabric marker, and where the ironed creases extend beyond the circle
to the corners of the sheet, use the marker to draw symbols of the four Directions.
When setting up an indoor ritual area, be sure to check on the alignment of the Cardinal
Directions! (For this reason I think every Wizard should consider a Compass to be a basic
magickal tool.) Symbols of the Elements should be placed at the four Quarters. These may be as
simple as colored jar candles (E=yellow, S=red, W=blue, N=green), or as fancy as full-scale,
semi-permanent Quarter Altars. Determine which walls or corners of your Temple most nearly
align to those directions, and then decorate them accordingly. Use your imagination.
Outdoor Circles
Nature magick is meant to be performed in the open air, in forests and meadows, under
starry skies, and around an open fire. The HOME Tradition evolved out in the country
during the eight years when our core people were living together in a homesteading community
in the Mendonesian Mountains of NorCalifia. There was a bunch of us, and we didn’t
have any large indoor space in which to hold rituals—our biggest homes were 20-foot
diameter round yurts. So we held almost all of our group rituals outdoors, even in the middle
of Winter. We started with the primal Circle—just a fire pit, with space to sit around it. This is
the original and most ancient form of ritual Circle, and where our ancestors first became
human. Gathering around the magick fire, keeping our bodies warm through the cold nights,
seeing each other’s faces illumined by the dancing flames, telling our stories, singing our