Merry Meet.
Today we will be discussing Circle Casting,
. Now, first we need to understand what the
purpose of casting a circle is about.
The reason we have a circle is not only to
contain the energy that we’re raising for
our magickal workings but it also acts as
a filter.
This is like when we use a water filter in
our sink.
The filter will clean out the chemicals and
minerals that will make us sick while letting
through the good water.
The circle we raise around our magickal space
does something similar, it keeps out the negative
energy and all the other energies that we
don’t really need for our ritual or magickal
intent and allows for the energy we do want
to come through, that would be the energy
that is beneficial to our magickal workings.
Another way to look at this would be like
when you use eye protection when you’re
using power tools or wood working to make
sure that you don’t get sawdust in your
face while you’re creating something.
Or even a seat belt in a car, it’s always
better to be safe than to find yourself in
a situation when you actually needed it but
didn’t use protection, so where a lot of
people wonder why do we even need to bother
using a magickal circle, it’s always better
to be safe than sorry.
The next thing that we need to understand
is the type of magick that we’re doing,
are we doing positive magick or is it negative
magick?
Is the purpose that the ritual that we’re
doing drawing in a specific energy or is it
removing a specific energy.
This is how we decide how the circle is going
to be wound or how we’re going to raise
the circle or open the circle or however way
you want to say it but the first thing that
we do need to know is our directions.
Regardless of what hemisphere you’re in
a magickal circle in most rituals will start
in the East, not the North, the East.
Now the reason for this is because when we
think of the East it represents dawn, that’s
the way the sun rises, a new day, a fresh
start, new beginnings, the Spring, the East
is representative of the element of Air and
life always begins with your first breath.
Magick is the same way, you start in the East
because that’s where things begin, this
is when we’re working positive magick.
Now how you choose to work with East is up
to the practitioner, there are two ways; there
is the Natural East and there is the symbolic
East.
Now natural East means you’re going to need
another tool which is a compass, and a good
sense of direction.
Now, if you see here on the picture I have
up on my altar I have an altar cloth and the
colours are set up for the different elements
and directions, this is for the Northern Hemisphere,
so if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere
you’re gonna have to swap the North and
South there and I’ll explain more in a minute
but I have yellow for East, red for South,
blue for West and green for North, where I
have my altar set up in my house in my room
where I do magick and I use my compass because
of the way that the room sits you’ll see
that North is to the right so if I want to
do this with natural East, natural East will
be at the bottom of my altar and West will
be at the top of the altar, again, I live
in the Northern hemisphere so North for me
represents Earth and I’ll get to the Southern
Hemisphere here shortly.
Now, here you’ll see symbolic East and this
is how a number of people do this, this is
actually how I usually set up my altar rather
than doing natural East I’ll do a symbolic
East, they simply have East to the right,
West to the left and depending if you’re
in the Northern or Southern Hemisphere the
North and South will be there at the top or
bottom and this is perfectly fine to do, it
doesn’t have to be the physical, natural
East set up unless that’s the way you really
want to do it, so either way is a perfectly
valid way of setting up your altar and setting
up your decision of where East is going to
be.
Now when we’re casting a circle another
important aspect is what part of the world
you live in, the Northern Hemisphere or the
Southern Hemisphere and this is why in the
Entrance Exam class you’re asked, which
Hemisphere do you live in North or South because
that actually has a very big impact on how
you not only cast the circle but how you call
the elements when you’re in ritual.
Now, the Northern Hemisphere traditionally
we go clockwise and again the Hemisphere is
separated by the invisible line known as the
Equator which cuts the globe in half cross-wise,
the Northern Hemisphere traditionally we go
clockwise when creating a circle for positive
purposes, we start with the East which is
Air, the South which is Fire, the West which
is Water and the North which is Earth, and
in the Southern Hemisphere it again starts
in the East with Air then it goes North for
Fire, West for Water and South for Earth,
now the reason for this has to do with the
Equator, when you’re in the Northern Hemisphere
you move South to get to the Equator which
is the warmer climates where the heat is and
when you move North you get to the North Pole,
where there’s a lot more hills, a lot more
ice, where it’s colder, where it’s a lot
darker so when we look at East as Air, dawn,
springtime and fresh starts, South noon, Fire
and summer, West, water where things are a
little bit cooler and it means autumn and
dusk and then North is Earth where we have
midnight, winter.
Now in the Southern Hemisphere, North and
South are reversed because when you move North
when you’re in the Southern Hemisphere you’re
getting closer to the Equator so that would
be noon, that would be Fire, that’s the
warmer and you move South to get to the South
Pole which is Earth, midnight and winter.
So that’s why we do that.
So if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere
you’d start in the East and walk clockwise
around the Circle ending back at the East
spot which would be for positive energy, pulling
in a specific energy.
Now, if you’re wanting to push out, you’re
doing a banishing you would start in the North
and move back around counter-clockwise back
to North but we’ll get back into that here
in a little bit.
And if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere
you would start in the East and walk counter-clockwise
and wind up back in the East spot, so if you’re
calling in the energy and you’re in the
Northern Hemisphere you go clockwise or, if
you’re in the Southern Hemisphere you go
counter-clockwise.
So what I like to look it as is you’re creating
a circuit and a circle like a circuit all
the energy needs to go all the way around
to make a light bulb work if the circuit doesn’t
go all the way around properly and doesn’t
complete itself then the light’s not going
to work and that’s how we have to look at
it with doing magick, you’re needing to
create that complete circuit to raise the
energy that you’re needing and you need
to be specific about what the energy is when
you’re creating your circle.
Ok, so now we’ve talked about why we create
a circle and the directions we need to go
but how is the circle created?
So, there are many, many, many, different
ways to create a circle both physically and
symbolically, pretty much as many ways as
your imagination can think up so I’m going
to cover a few ideas to give you a kind of
starting point to get your mind working on
the ways you possibly could create your own
magickal circle for when you’re doing your
own magickal workings.
For the most part when you cast the circle
you’re going to be saying something as you
do it, you’ll be creating a chant or an
incantation or trying to get your mind into
the mind-set of what it is you are preparing
to do, your circle needs to somehow represent
the magick you’re pulling in, you can create
a very generic circle but the more specific
you are in what you say and what you use to
create it and what you do, the more in tune
the circle is going to be and the more conducive
it’s going to be to the magickal working.
Like I said before, it’s like a filter it’s
going to filter in the energy you need and
remove the energy and keep out the energy
you don’t want, however if you don’t tell
it what you want to bring in and what you
want to keep out then it’s not going to
know so it helps if you’re being very specific
in what you’re doing so you can filter through
the proper energy that you need.
Sometimes people don’t use an incantation
or a chant and they use creative visualization,
simply just the act of creating the circle
itself is helpful in helping you focus your
energy on what it is that you’re doing but
usually there’s going to be a chant or a
statement that will be made in your ritual
or magickal workings that you’re doing.
Traditionally a circle is cast three times
around as we know, the number three is found
a lot in magickal workings three represents
the triple God and the triple Goddess, so
we use three times around a lot, so it’s
all up to what it is that we’re doing and
what your personal path is because maybe you
don’t use the number three in your personal
path, that’s totally up to you but this
is traditionally what is done when you create
a circle.
The first way that I’m going to describe
is great for an outdoor ritual, it’s very
easy to make a physical circle using a staff
or a walking stick or a big stick or a rake
as this picture shows simply walking the circumference
of the circle you stand in the centre and
taking the tool that you are using to create
it and you dig it into the dirt and the soil
to create a physical circle is wonderful and
this is great to create a temporary circle,
you’re marking your space physically and
for your three times around you can simply
continue to walk in that circle three times
over usually making a statement either as
you’re walking or before you start your
turn around or when you complete a circuit
however you want to do that, it just makes
the hole a little bit deeper as you do it.
Of course, you could always make a permanent
one if you have the space and ability to do
so, I would love to set something like this,
with the fire pit in the center, up in my
back yard if I had the space, this way if
you do your ritual outdoors you could simply
use one of the other methods I’m going to
be mentioning on how to cast your circle you’d
have the physical space already marked out
which is great, other ways are if you have
a huge expanse of land you could plant trees
in a circle so that your circle is already
built, you just need to walk it.
Another way to physically create a circle
which could be done say, if you have a concrete
slab, or doing it on your patio, or if you’re
doing it in the basement or on a hardwood
floor (though I would check first before you
attempt this on a hardwood floor just so that
you don’t ruin the floor), you could use
chalk to create a temporary circle, for the
three times around you could use one colour
three times around or you could use three
different colours such as white, red and,
black which are the traditional colours of
the Maiden, Mother and Crone or three other
colours which would be specific to the needs
of the ritual that you’re doing.
Big thing, know your correspondences, this
is why we have such a huge series on creating
correspondences because this way you’ll
know what matches up and what you should be
using colour wise or otherwise.
Now, here we have a very dramatic way of creating
a physical circle, we see this done in a lot
of movies and TV representations of what we
would just do is this a practical way of circle
casting?
Not really.
Using candles to create your circle is a wonderful
thing if you can do it but it isn’t the
smartest of ideas, first of all it’s a huge
fire hazard, if you‘re outside and you have
the Tiki torches around, that’s great, but
indoors, don’t recommend it.
I also don’t recommend it if you’re choosing
to use flowy robes, yeah, they’ll catch
fire quick and that’s really not helpful
when you’re trying to do a ritual.
So there’s lots of hazards if you have a
lot of open flames, now, alternatively, using
the battery operated candles, I know a lot
of people are kind of touchy on using those,
I think they’re great, personally especially
if you do a lot of traveling or whatnot or
you are a student in a dorm and you’re not
allowed to use open-flame candles, the battery-operated
candles are marvelous.
That would be really great but open flame
candles I don’t recommend using as a circle
creating tool, I just added this because a
lot of people think, ‘oh, I’ll just light
a bunch of candles around me’ and, that’s
not a great idea.
Now, if you have a group that you’re casting
a circle with and if we ever, I’ve been
wanting to do a weekend retreat sometime to
bring all the students in from all over the
country and world who are members of the school,
I would love if we ever get a chance to do
that, this is how I plan on doing it.
It’s the holding hands method, you start
with the person in the East, the leader of
whomever doing the ritual and they start it
by taking the hand of the person next to them,
going around clockwise and the next person
takes a hand, and the next person takes a
hand, usually there’s a chant that’s said,
and the second time around you raise your
hands and squeeze the hands of the person
next to you and then the third time ‘as
above’ and then you put your hands down,
squeeze the hand back around the circle ‘as
below’ and it’s a really great way of
connecting, not only with the other participants
in the ritual but to connect to the energy
that you’re raising too, because you’re
getting that physical thing and again, great
if you have a group.
Most students at the school are solitary practitioners,
so this would be great for those who are choosing
to create a coven or work with other people
and create a group.
It’s such a neat, neat way of starting out
a ritual.
Now you can also physically drop items around
your space, this is something that we’ve
done for school rituals before, physically
taking items that you can drop, for instance
here in this image I’m showing is a circle
of rose petals which would be lovely for a
romantic or love ritual or a handfasting even,
using different coloured flower petals is
great for any of the spring festivals that
we do, anything that you can easily place
down and pick back up or swept up later is
great, the big thing is that it is connected
and purposeful to the ritual that you’re
doing so, again, knowing your correspondences,
knowing the energy that you want to raise,
so this is great, you also use yarn or string
to raise a physical circle so there’s plenty
of ideas that can be used here.
Okay, so now we’re going to get into more
figurative circle casting, this is more common
and our circles aren’t physically there,
they are envisioned, rather than set in stone.
As you saw in my picture, my altar is set
up against a wall and I can’t physically
move past that wall when I’m casting a circle,
but my circle can pass through walls, it’s
energy, so you can move energy through walls,
energy is not confined by space and time,
it can move beyond your physical space.
So a very common way of casting a circle is
using the elemental method, using a combination
of fire and air and a combination of water
and earth, so first we would cast in incense
which represents both air the incense smoke,
and fire, the flame that causes the spark
for the incense to burn, you light the incense
and allow the smoke to permeate the area,
you can walk the circle but in instances like
mine, I can’t walk past the wall so you
can wave the smoke in the direction that you’re
going and go around your circle that way.
Then, with the second part, you would take
a mixture of water and salt to represent water
and earth elements and sprinkle that around
using your fingers or you could use a small
bundle of herbs or flowers (like lavender)
or whatever you want to use, whatever is specific
for your ritual and this is called aspurging
your space and the third time around you would
send out your energy in the direction of the
circle, either by pointing your finger in
the direction or using an athame or wand to
direct that energy.
Now, an athame is a dagger which is used for
directing energy in magick, it’s not used
for cutting anything you can, some people
use it to carve their candles but I don’t
usually recommend that, there are other tools
that are better suited for that, but it’s
main use is to direct energy.
A wand is a tool that is usually made out
of wood with a gemstone point or sometimes
they’re made purely out of gemstones using
crystal, that’s also used to direct energy.
The athame and the wand are also used a lot
to represent the male aspect, depending on
what your path is, can also depend on if you
use the athame or a wand and what element
they represent.
There’s always a lot of controversy on which
represents fire and which represents air,
to me, and my personal path and this is what
makes sense to me, the wand represents air
and the athame represents fire and the reason
that this makes sense to me, because I know
a lot of people who think “well, the athame,
when you swish it through the air, sounds
like air” well, a wand does the same thing,
but to me the reason why the wand represents
air is because, when I think of magickal wands
I think that you usually have to have wisdom
because you have to understand the wood and
the stone that you’re using and you have
to have that pure understanding and wisdom
and Air is connected to wisdom.
For the athame I see fire, because, not only
is the blade forged in a fire but athame is
a dagger and when you think of daggers you
usually think of aggression so that’s how
I connect it.
That’s just me, so whichever tool you’re
using, you hold this tool in your power hand
(that’s the hand you write with), now if
you’re ambidextrous, congratulations, you
can use whichever hand you’re most comfortable
using.
You simply focus your energy out, through
your tool and project it out pointing the
tool around the border of your circle, please
note this WILL NOT cause lasers to shoot out
of your tool that you’re using, it’s not
like in the movies, a ball of light will not
shoot from your magickal wand, lightening
will not come from your athame, unless you
have a laser pointer attached to it or you’ve
chosen to re-purpose a laser pointer to use
as a wand, then you’ll have a laser shootin’
out of it but for the most part, nah, it doesn’t
work that way.
Now, another way is to simply use creative
visualization, we do this a lot, you can visualize
whatever you want surrounding your area, it
can be blooming flowers, butterflies, like
I have pictured here, it can be pulsating
light, books (like we’ve done before), mushrooms,
we’ve done fairies, anything that you can
imagine surrounding you, again, really important
to make sure that your visualization has something
to do with the ritual that you’re doing,
so again, correspondences, very, very, important.
So the list goes on and on and on with all
the many, many things you can do to create
a circle, when you dissolve a circle, you
can do whatever you did in reverse so when
you’re dissolving a circle if it was a positive
magickal thing you were doing so you walked
clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere or counter-clockwise
in the Southern Hemisphere then you would
walk 
in the reverse direction, again starting in
the North and walking counter clockwise ending
in the North, in the Northern Hemisphere and
starting and ending in the South in the Southern
Hemisphere.
Or you can, however you choose to dissolve
the circle you can take a broom to sweep the
energy out, you can use the wand, athame or
finger to pull the energy back into you, you
can pick up the items that you dropped or
erase the circle that you created, however
you choose to do that.
Merry Part.
