This ritual creates a spell pouch whose purpose is to awaken your connection to the vast source of power that is the Universe already flowing within you. You then carry the pouch as you continue your explorations in Magick. From the outside, it may look like a few simple affirmations with wishes made on bits of stone and leaf, but the end result is the acceptance of your own phenomenal powers.
The important distinction to be made by this ritual, is that “magick with a K” is more than just a set of superstitious actions that can be read out of a book by any joe-schmo. It is more than a slumber party foray into the forbidden among teens. It is more even than the most auspicious of ceremonies held in a sacred temple by adepts of the highest order.
The end-game of the pursuit of magick, is to discover that it is a continuous state of being–the most simple and natural state of being. You play the music of the Uni-verse (One Song) and realize that every consciousness within it is a fellow musician playing their part.
Eventually, the trappings and “stuff” of spellcraft become optional, even calling it “Witchcraft” seems… frivolous… and one is so finely tuned to that harmonic, that the “illusion of separateness” just makes you snicker to yourself. The music is everything…it is ALL sacred, it is ALL “God.” There is no mundane, no profane…some requiem and dissonance, some vivace and resonance, but they are all just movements that sing the largest story.
Your flesh, your actions, your words, your passions become the instruments of this magick. Your thoughts and Will are both the player and the conductor of this symphony…and they become autonomic, like breathing, or the beating of your heart. Above and below, within and without, implicate to explicate, magick ceases to be that fancy thing you dust off on special occasions, and becomes the IS-ness. It just IS your natural state of being.
The magus usually does not simply stroll into the ISness…there are many gates of awareness and ability to unlock before arriving at this place of easy magick. Just like musical training, you start with your scales, and fingerings, breath control and reading the symbolic languages. There is a vocabulary to learn and must practice, practice, practice…
You study the masters and their compositions. You play the great works until their secrets become your muscle memory. First you learn the rules, so that you know how to break the rules and become the composer of your own ground-breaking symphonies. Your life becomes the music that effects change in the world around you. That which previously seemed so concrete, so supernatural, and outside of your affect, becomes the orchestra that responds instinctively to each flick of your baton.
“I am the Magick” Spell Working
So where do you begin? This is an esbat ritual I hold with my students at the midpoint of their Year and a Day of training with me, and as the opening rite to our study of folk magick. It is inspired by a visualization called “the consciousness in all things” in Paganism: An Introduction to Earth-Centered Religions by Joyce and River Higginbotham. (Llewellyn, 2002) This is one of the required texts that we read prior to any instruction in spell-craft. I highly recommend that you pick up a copy of this book and read it cover to cover; I think it is just that important.
Timing and Allies
Timing of this spell is most effective when a Thursday, the day of Jupiter, falls in a waxing moon phase, close to its peak. We are working our way through the seven areas of consciousness as represented by the seven chakras, but also my Pentacle Approach to the five bodies as aligned with the elements. However, you will notice there are 9 ingredients inside this pouch, 3 x 3. I usually work in threes and nines with spell work of this nature. I also try to include allies from the realms of plant and animal, metal and mineral, as suits the intention.
I usually introduce the element of Fire through striking a match. For me, the match is what brings the other individual ingredients “to life” as this new entity. Like Dr. Frankenstein assembling parts of his creation, when he throws that switch of electricity, that is when his creation comes to life with its own Sovereignty. I thank Orion Foxwood for first introducing me to this Southern Conjure technique.
Altar
Set your altar in whatever way is customary for your spell workings. For my go-to altar layout and consecration ritual, click here. At the very least, have a candle lit that is dedicated to the Greatness of Spirit. Awaken and light the consecration elements of salted water and burning incense.
Materials needed:
Be mindful to select small enough materials such that they will all fit in the bag you choose. It doesn’t take much – the stones can be raw or tumbled, and you can always substitute as you need to, by choosing different allies within that layer of consciousness, chakra, element, etc. For more information, see witchipedia.
- A small, lightweight leather pouch or bag to hold all your ingredients, with a draw-string top, that can be easily worn with you daily.
- Clear Quartz Point – Crown, Spiritual Body, Ether, mineral
- Amethyst – Third eye and Crown, Mental Body, Air, mineral
- Lapis Lazuli – Third-eye, Mental Body, Psychic Body, Air, mineral
- Blue Lace Agate – Throat, Air, mineral
- Green Aventurine – Heart, Emotional Body, Water, mineral
- Bay Laurel Leaf – Solar Plexis, Body of Will, Fire, plant
- Copper Penny – Sacral, Physical Body, Earth, Divine Love, Metal
- Red Jasper – Root, Physical Body, Earth, mineral
- Wooden Match Stick – Spirit, Fire, Plant
Ground, Center, Connect
Connect to the energies above and below. Here is an excerpt from my consecration ritual.
- Face the altar, stand in Goddess position with hands raised up to the sky, remember that you are like a tree who’s branches reach up through the atmosphere, touching air and the fires of the sun, and tap into Father Sky and the heavens above.
- Draw down that power, crossing your arms over your chest in Osiris God position, feeling how that power flows through you reaching all the way through the soles of your feet.
- Remember that like the tree, your roots reach deep below into the earth and water, to Mother Earth and all the underworld below.
- Kneel, touch the ground. Draw up the earth energy to cross arms over your chest again in Osiris God position.
- Feel the flows from above and below meeting and anchoring at your heart chakra–you are a vessel of The Two Who Move as One in Divine Love, an open channel of their creation flows through you.
- Stand, power flowing through your heart and down through your hands.
Erect your Temple
Create sacred space, casting a circle and inviting to be present your guides, ancestors, and Spirit/Deity in that special way that you do. Open the elemental gates and invite air, fire, water and earth to aid in your engagement with the Universal powers via the material realm.
Visualization
Do the “consciousness in all things” visualization by Joyce and River Higginbotham, p. 150
Statement of Intent:
I come to these sacred cross-roads to work magick in accordance with my Highest Divine Will, harming none. I align my consciousnesses with the interconnection of the Universe and set my feet upon the path of magickal study. I claim this sovereign power within me! (This may be written as a petition spell on a small piece of paper, rolled and also added to the pouch.)
Pluck a strand of your own hair and add it to the bag. This taglocks the working to you.
Ritual body:
At each step, hold up the material and connect to it. Repeat the affirmations in sets of three. Build a cadence and power in the voice. Sing them if that feels right. When the connection feels good and made, end with “I Am the Magick!” stated with authority, then drop the item into the pouch.
Connect to the Clear Quartz and say:
“My Spirit is connected to the magick of the Universe. (X3) I am the magick.”
Connect to the Amethyst and say:
“My mind is receptive to the magick of the universe. (X3) I am the magick.”
Connect to the Lapis Lazuli and say:
“My intuition is open to the magick of the Universe. (X3) I am the magick”
Connect to the Blue lace Agate and say:
“My voice resonates with the magick of the universe. (X3) I am the magick.”
Connect to the Green Aventurine and say:
“My emotions flow with the magick of the universe. (X3) I am the magick.”
Connect to the Bay Leaf and say:
“My Will is aligned with the magick of the Universe. (X3) I am the magick.”
Connect to the Copper Penny and say:
“My passion is ignited with the magick of the universe. (X3) I am the magick”
Connect to the Red Jasper and say:
“My senses are awakened to the magick of the universe. (X3) I am the magick.”
Carefully hold your pouch open with your thumb and pointer finger in a ring around its top, but do not grasp the bag with your remaining fingers, or you could get burned in this tricky next part…
Connect to the wooden match, and say:
“My life is empowered by the magick of the universe. (X3)”
Lighting it by your Spirit Candle, as it flares into light, say with authority: “I AM THE MAGICK!”
Quickly jam the match entirely into the bag, and pinch the top of the bag shut to snuff it out. (This is part of why I prefer leather spell bags…less flammable.) Leave the matchstick in the bag.
Draw the strings closed, holding the mouth of the bag near your own lips, blowing your breath into the bag, chant: “I am the magick” Repeating many times as a power-raising mantra, until you feel it is completely done, and all the powers are soaked into the pouch. I do this with volume of my voice…whisper, to loudly, back to whisper again.
Knot the bag’s draw string closed with nine knots, each time chanting:
“As I so Will, So mote it be.”
Tuck the pouch near your heart… Putting it on a long cord so that it is worn around the neck is my preferred way to carry such things.
Conclude with any offerings, the simple feast, divination and prayers for guidance.
Release your temple and spiritual allies as you normally do, clean up and know it is done. Release all expectation of the outcome, while remaining open to infinite possibility. Now, get to crackin’! You have much yet to learn, do and enjoy.
May your magickal practice bring you fulfillment on all levels, for the highest good of all involved, harming none. Blessèd be!
~Heron
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