THE ELEMENTS OF MAGIC – A course outline prepared by Rose May Dance, September 1992

The following material is lifted from and embellished upon an existing outline for a workbook for Reclaiming classes. This material was originally prepared by Rose May Dance with the assistance and oversight of Diane Baker and cannot be published without their permission. ©

Classes: For 13 years, Reclaiming has been teaching classes on ritual, magic, and witchcraft. Among other courses, we teach a standard Elements class which is a beginning level course. Often taught in 6 three and a half hour classes, it has been adapted for one-day, weekend, and week-long workshops. Our classes are experiential, and a student who passes through our Elements course becomes prepared to create ritual on her/his own, by her/himself and in a group. Each class, although containing some lecture material, is a ritual in itself. The classes are organized as Air, Fire, Water, Earth, Center, and the final session is a ritual created entirely by the students. At each class, sacred space is created, the basic exercises essential to Witchcraft ritual are practiced, and the Element which is featured for the session is thoroughly explored through theory, exercises, introduction to the appropriate tool, and group discussion.

Sometime during the elements course the following subjects should be thoroughly addressed: feminist process, what is ritual, tools, symbols, elementals, history of the craft, the Craft today, the Goddess and her world view, immanent deity, nature worship and fertility of all kinds, the wheel of the year, the God, Sex, Justice, secrecy, honor, power-from-within, material work, the Law of Three and the Witch’s Reed, the three selves, and the co-mingling of spirit and politics, especially ecopolitics. I usually assign reading of the first six chapters of the Spiral Dance as prerequisite.

AIR - the East

Overview. In the past, since it is the first night, the Air class has been more talkative and theoretical than other classes. Not only must we introduce ourselves and each other, explain the course, and talk a bit about Witchcraft, the Goddess and God, and Reclaiming, but also do the particular work appropriate to Air.

What is Air: Thought, Communication, Breath, Voice, Poetry, Inspiration, Boundaries, Separation, Choice, Song, Vision and Visualization, Fragrance, Beginnings, The Wind and Clouds and Fog, the Dawn, Spring, Birth, the Winged Creatures, the Fairies of the Air and the Sylphs.

Theory: the importance of breath, visualization, imagination.

Tools of Air: The Athame, Incense

Skills and Class Structure:

The Weather Report: sharing in group and weaving our magic from our lives.

Introduction by the teachers: history of Craft, ethics, Goddess, feminist process, Reclaiming Tradition, Reclaiming philosophy of empowerment, structure of ritual (et cetera, as stated previously).

Tree of life Meditation, emphasis on Breath and Visualization; Salt Water Visualization, emphasis on breath, drawing the Circle – emphasis on using tool and visualization; invocations of elements, which teach about these elements, stimulate visualization, and teach how to invoke; invocation of Goddess and God, which teach about them, stimulate visualization, and raise power through singing and chanting and rhythm and movement.

Exercises – In the past, Womb breathing and the Apple Meditation, both found in the Spiral Dance, have been used. The Womb Breath is nice because it gets students breathing, connects them to each other, and teaches to raise power through sounding. Or a group goal could be perceived and visualized and a cone of power raised for it.

Introduction to Feast and Libation – how to make the blessing; discussion of Reclaiming’s policy on alcohol and drugs. After general feasting, there may be time for questions, feedback, additional theory, and mention of other airy realms.

Before a student is done with an elements course, she/he should be able to protect self with a magical circle. Visualization of such a circle could be homework.

Before class ends, the circle should be properly opened, and students should understand the importance of creating and releasing magical boundaries, and how to create gates, etc.

FIRE – the South

What is FIRE: Energy, Spirit, Heat, Sap, the Will, Healing and Destroying, Purification, The Sun, Pele and Vesta, Noon, Passion, the Summer, Change, Courage and Daring, Desire, Focus, Transformation, Growth, the Lion and the Salamander and the Dragon.

Overview: The body of the evening’s work would teach the skills of sensing and projecting and dampening energy, and raising energy in a cone and grounding it. (Mention can be made later of how to raise and ground energy when working solo.)

Discussion and theory: Energy, and how it moves; Energy as it relates to breath; Healing – when the Work you do brings on a healing crisis; Transformation, Magical Will, psychic non-violence.

The Tools: the Wand and how to use it. Pendulum.

Skills and Class Structure:

Preparation of the Room –Smudging.

Weather Report Emphasis – how is your energy tonight, how has it been, why

Suggestion: How to “Run Energy” – a Western mystical tradition meditation method designed to ground and link the meditator between Earth and Sky – a basic healing exercise.

Tree of Life with emphasis on running energy, linking energy with those in the circle, sensing the changes involved, and expressing the energy with sound.

Salt Water Purification with emphasis on charging the saltwater for healing, drawing unwanted, stagnant, unbalanced, or unhealthy energies out of body and using sound and breath to project these energies into the salt water, visualizing and sensing the change the salt water makes on the energy, and drawing transformed, healing energy into the body.

Drawing the Circle: drawing blue Faerie Fire up from the center of the Earth into the body, into the tool, and projecting the blue line of light out to draw the circle.

Invocations: Sensing the different qualities of the Elements as they come into the circle.

Exercises – Meditation on Fire, using a fire or a cauldron fire; Exercises in the Spiral Dance – The Aura, the Pendulum, damping and projecting energy, charging a tool. Explanation of why and how these exercises work. Pendulum work can lead into healing exercises for self and others. Or there could be a guided meditation exploring the seven charkas – how to balance and cleanse the aura, color work. Students can be told how to cleanse and claim a space.

Feast: meditation on fire in relation to food as a blessing over the feast.

Opening the circle: noting the changes in the room after the Powers have been dismissed. Smoothing each other’s auras as leave-taking.

Homework: candle gazing

Additional suggestions: working with wand., shielding and self-defense, magical Burning of objects, wish birds, dousing and scrying with a pendulum; discussion of problems about feeling drained and gaining replenishment, prevention of feeling drained more healing work.

WATER – the West

Overview: trance theory and practice, trance levels and trance geography. Students should experience a guided trance in this class, and be given instructions on how to trance alone. Furthermore, suggestions and guidance should be made about using trance techniques and suggestion (self-hypnosis) in the student’s private practice in order to achieve goals and gain clarity and relaxation. Divination should be explored, at least in theory. Students should be encouraged to keep journals which include their dreams and trances, as well as other personal magical exploration.

What is Water: emotions, sexuality, feelings, intuition, dreaming and entrancement, the flow, the rapids, the swelling, sorrow, laughter, tears, joy, the wormb, the unconscious, source of all life, the Isle of the Dead, divination, the twilight, the autumn, the creatures of the water, tiamat, the kelpies, mermaids, and naiads, undines, sea birds

Tools: the Cup and how to use it; the bath; the living body of water

Weather report: emphasis on emotions

Grounding: emphasis on emotional flow

Salt Water Purification: emphasis on the qualities of water to change, purify, generate, and on letting the emotions flow into the water

Invocations: emphasis on involving emotions in calling Elements, Goddess, God

Suggestion: review of materials in Spiral Dance (trance chapter), Cautions, Rainbow Induction, Place of Power, Gazing at the 4 directions at the beginning and end of each trance, Rainbow Return

Suggestion: Reclaiming barrier Trance: a trance journey to the individual’s place of power where she/he encounters a barrier on his/her path, must contend with it and pass through, using the help of her/his tools and perhaps power animals or spirit guides, and can proceed on to the Well of Healing for 3 visions and a gift. Coming back the same way.

Feast and Libation: emphasis on blessing the Waters of Life. Group Discussion of the Trance, reminders about the importance of grounding after trance, group Discussion on Dreams and Dream Journals; Opening the Circle.

Homework: trance alone and journal.

Additional Exercises: Exploring the quarters of the Circle – a trance; meeting the Guardian; the Animal Helper; receiving a Tool; Mirror Work; Divination EARTH – the North

Overview: On this night the student learns how to work with materials. Ethics of spell work and theory of moving with the natural tides of sun, moon, earth, stars and other forces are covered. Reference is given to good tables of correspondence, but students are encouraged to intuitively find the materials with which to work. Visualization is emphasized, as is touch and smell. In addition to spell work, students are encouraged to think about their bodies and the earth as material and sacred. Mention should be made of the ethics of healing work.

What is Earth: Body, Sensation, Growth, Nature, Fruiting, Food, Knowledge, Darkness, Secrecy, The Treasures of the Earth, Money, Abundance, Grove, Field, Rocks, Making Love, Reproduction, The Cave, Metals, Crystals and Salt, the Winter, Midnight, Death, Sleep, the Ground of an Electrical circuit, the Third Planet from the Sun, Ice, the Drum, the Animals, the Shelter and the Home, the Ivy, the Stag, the Bear, the Gnomes, Elves, Dwarves, and Brownies

Discussion: the Body, the Earth; What is Grounding? What does it do for us? What different ways do we achieve it? Abundance and Connection, some ethical questions, Food

Spell craft: Ethics of Spell craft; Law of Return and the witches’ Rede; Whether or not to do a working about something which is bothering you concerning someone else – (wait for 13 hours, days, weeks, months, years) and talk it over with your circle or with other practitioners before you act. Success stories and horror stories about spells we’ve done. Typical blocks – Love and Money. Sorcerer’s Apprentice Syndrome.

Also, the following things are usually discussed or touched on – some briefly before students begin spell work, but most often during the making of the spells. Intuition and Kinesthetics – How to select materials for spells; doctrine of signatures; Focusing with Symbols – how and why; Numbers, knots, colors, planets; working with herbs and fragrance; spontaneity and confidence: you already know how to do this; “to keep silent”; how, when and why to use secrecy.

Tools: The Pentacle; physical pentacles

Material from Spiral Dance: pentacle of Iron, pentacle of Pearl, pentacle of Life.

Weather Report: Emphasis on the physical and on sensation

Grounding: emphasis on physical sensing

Suggestion: meditation on place: the physical characteristics of your place on the map and how to merge with a place.

Purification: meditation on the nature of salt and its effect on the water; object of the purification is physical change, sensual change, relaxation

Drawing the Circle – suggestion: physically marking the boundaries by movement and/or by actually drawing with meal, flour, flowers, objects

Invocations: using concrete images, using movement, rhythm; emphasizing the sensual

Heart of the work: making spells. The spell work will vary according to the phase of the moon during the session. Binding the spell; Charging the spells together; often candles are dressed and charged as well at this time; Cone of power with singing, dancing, drumming to charge.

Feast: elaborate blessing meditation over the food.

Discussion (as we eat) about food magic; why do we feast inside the circle?

Opening the Circle

Additional: Magical objects – How to cleanse a newly acquired object for use; whether or not to let people see or handle your tools, jewelry, spells; how amulets work; making and/or working with dolls and poppets; break the block; long-term spells – renewing and re-charging your spells; disposing of or recycling spells and charms; candle magic; altar building; mundane magic – housework, physical exercise or sport, handiwork, and daily bread work, gardening and art; using our commonplace activities as magical workings

Rose’s extra: Grail Moon Meditation

CENTER and Circumference – Spirit and Ether

Overview: Students should experience as smooth a ritual as possible (as opposed to the stop and start energy of exercises and explanations used in the other classes). This ritual often involves cauldron work. It is short. Then the elements of good ritual are discussed and the students plan a ritual for the following week. Sometimes thy also discuss forming a group.

What is the Center and Circumference, ether, spirit? We are the center; the blend of the four elements, the circle, empowerment, balance, above and below together, essence, the place between the worlds, throughout and about, the place beyond time, the sphinx

Tools and attributes of the Center: The Cauldron

Skills and class structure:

Weather report: How are your spirits? What centered you during the week? What threw you off balance and how did you regain it.

Theory and discussion: How to make ritual: how to put the elements of ritual together to make a working.

The emphasis tonight is on putting together the elements of ritual we have learned: how to create sacred space. Our aim is to work on transitions and timing, so that this ritual tonight does not seem like a class, but is an actual working, where all the parts fit together and everyone in the circle takes responsibility for moving energy and making transitions. Students decide who will perform each part in the creation of sacred space, and then the body of the ritual is discussed, so that everyone is aware of what is to take place. Care is taken to imagine what might happen during the ritual and how to plan for the moving of energy. Flexibility and intention emphasized.

Grounding: emphasizing the connection of the elements in the world and in the body.

Purification: emphasizing the regaining of center

Casting the circle: visualizing and marking the circumference – suggestion; boundary meditation

Invocations: emphasis on group work; how the group helps the invoking priestesses bring in the Powers

Body of the ritual: about 1/3 of class time is given to group exercise which might include one of the following: 1. Cauldron Work – Banishing, Fertility, other work; 2. Phases of the moon trance; 3. Trance to the center of the Earth; 4. Trance to the center of the Self to create personal place of power.

Feasting: when time is short: only a ritual sip is taken by each person before the circle is opened. (Feast is actually consumed during the discussion which follows.)

Opening the Circle

Planning a group ritual for the following week. Teachers insert themselves as little as possible.

LAST CLASS

Overview: this class gives students the opportunity to perform the ritual they planned, and then to critique it. They also may want to talk about what comes next.

Suggested topics (the ones we’ve seen come up, really): Discussion of circle forming, group work; rituals for your established group; rituals for a wider group; public rituals – lunar, seasonal, political, aspects of life and transitions, ecumenical rituals. Forming groups and making them work. How much room do you take up in the circle? Perfect love and perfect t trust: safety in the group – what it is and what it’s not. Shared leadership – passing the wand.

Further bonding Activities; Stone Soup; talk-story; telling our histories (rhythm); group study, reading; pussy prints, support around moving, redecorating, etc., outings, etc.