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On altar: Pentacle with salt, chalice with water, incense, matches, candle, athamé. At each quarter is a candle.
Extinguish lights. The High Priest says:
Stretch out your hands. (1)
The whole world is moving onward. (1)
Let us pray! (1)
Let us pray! (1)
Listen to the words of my tongue: (2)
In the center of the darkness
lies a seedstar.
And it is from this seedstar reacting with the darkness
that manifestation proceeds.
The High Priest lights a candle when he says “lies a seedstar.” Then he lights the incense. The High Priest and High Priestess consecrate the salt and water and mix. The High Priestess goes around the circle clockwise with the athamé, saying:
We are set apart from the world of men,
leaving the profane world behind.
She repeats this with the incense, the athamé, the salt water, and the athamé. They sit in the center facing north. The High Priest says:
With air and fire
With water and earth
With the bright flame of the athamés blade,
We are set apart from the world of men:
We have left the profane world behind.
After a pause, the High Priest says:
We have banished the profane
and now we invokedthe sacred.
This is how the sacred world is planned.
Both rise and face east. The High Priest lights the candle there. The High Priestess says:
To the east there is air,
the realm of thoughts, the world of words.
From the east blows the wind of reason.
They face south. The High Priest lights the candle. The High Priestess says:
To the south there is fire,
the realm of passion, the world of will.
From the south comes the fire of action.
They face west. The High Priest lights the candle. The High Priestess says:
To the west there is water,
the realm of emotions, the world of intuition.
From the west comes the rain of fruition.
They face north. The High Priest lights the candle. The High Priestess says:
To the north there is earth,
the realm of form, the world of manifestation.
From the north comes the power of being.
They stand in the center and pause. Then the High Priest says:
Here we are
on the plane of the world.
But we are here
between the sky and the ground.
And so we call upon the sky
which lifts above our heads.
We rise high
and bring back the power of the male.
They kneel. The High Priestess says:
And so we call upon the ground
which lies beneath our feet.
We sink deep
and bring back the power of the female.
The High Priest says:
And so we are here
in the midst of the sacred world
within the sphere
of Air
of Fire
of Water
of Earth
of Sky
of Ground.
And so here we are
in the center
in the Spirit
placed according to the sacred plan
connected with the All.
1. Kiowa-Apache rite Bureau of American Ethnography, Annual Report 22.
2. Tolkien, J. R. R. The Fellowship of the Ring. New York: Ballantine Boks, 1965, 400.
Circling with athamé, salt water, and incense: Incense is fire and air, and salt water is water and earth. There are five circling total (for the elements plus spirit) with three for the athamé (for the traditional thricebound circle).
Quarters invocations: a slightly different emphasis than the usual form. Here the intent is not to call the elements up so much as to recognize them, to acknowledge that the sacred universe is with us always.
Sky and ground: These complete the sphere that the magic circle actually is. You could also use “world above, world below” or “zenith, nadir.” This also completes the planes of expansion: the horizontal is invoked by the elements, the vertical by the sky-self-ground pillar.
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