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(This is a script for a youtube video found here ).
I stated out intending simply to write a stripped-down ritual that could easily be used while travelling. Along the way it morphed into something that was still good for travelers, but was a lot more.
I’ve noticed from my reading and from watching youtube videos that there was something important that was missing from many Wiccan rituals, something that was a normal part of training in practice in the early days of Wicca but seems to have slipped through the cracks for many people.
What I am seeing is lots of rituals to get something by magic, or celebrate the seasons, or cast circles, or honor the God and the Goddess. These are all good reasons to practice ritual, but there is much more that can be done. What I’m not seeing are many rituals deliberately intended to bring about self-transformation.
Rituals of self-transformation can be an end in themselves, to make someone a better person. But it’s also a requirement if we are to conduct other kinds of rituals most effectively.
Wicca has traditionally done this through balancing the four classical elements in oneself – air, fire, water, and earth, often with the addition of the spirit that combines and enlivens them, and by means of which they manifest themselves. They are intended to represent all the ways that something can be, so by balancing them a Wiccan becomes balanced in all ways. First you have to know what they are, so the goals of the ritual are to understand them in their essence, to understand how they relate to and balance with each other, and to internalize this understanding, that is, to make the nature and balance of the elements part of your own nature.
This is a very basic ritual, then, but not one that you can finish with. Continued work with it will result in a deepening of your understanding. If you’re just starting out in Wicca, I recommend doing it for a while, maybe for several months or more, to build a strong foundation before going on to more advanced work. If you’re impatient to get on with more exciting stuff, bear in mind that this will actually save you time in the long run.
Even if you’re experienced, you can profit by doing this ritual regularly. Everyone can benefit by going back to the basics from time to time.
Once you’ve mastered this ritual, you can go on to the others of the trio. They will be based on this one, but go beyond them to worship the God and Goddess, and to experience their great Mystery. You should have a firm understanding of this ritual and success in achieving its goals before going on to them, however, or you won’t get much out of them.
When I say that this ritual involves the “essence” of the elements, I mean the elements in their purest forms, those which are beyond and before any manifestations. That’s why I’ve used the traditional elemental symbols rather than more physical forms. For instance, people often use a shell as a symbol for the element Water. But a shell is much more than pure Water; it contains a large amount of Earth in its firmness and the minerals it is composed of. Using the traditional symbols makes it possible to experience the elements just as they are, with only a pure and abstract symbol between you and them.
I’ve painted these symbols on wooden disks that I bought in a craft shop. Making them all the same shape and size and of the same material further prevents extraneous factors from interfering with your experience of them in their purest form. I had to paint them in some color, of course, so I used one of the traditional color schemes -- blue for air, red for fire, green for water, and yellow for earth. Color is still fairly abstract, so it won’t get in the way of the purity of your experience.
Putting them on these disks has the practical benefit of making them easy to carry around. Not only is this an advantage for travelling, it also means you can carry them with you during the day even when you’re not. This keeps you aware of them, and increases their working in you. You can be put into a bag or a small tin, and slip them into your pocket or purse.
For the spirit symbol I’ve used a circle with a dot in it in the traditional purple. This is to symbolize the spirit as within and without. Other possible symbols are a pentagram, which stands for the four elements tied together, and a circle with a cross in them, again to show them united.
After the pufication you will be putting the tokens into a small circle, as close to each other as you can, with the spirit token in the center and the others about it. You will therefore need to practice placing them so that they will fit well.
The elements are described in a way you may not be familiar with, as combination of cold/warm, dry/wet. This is the classical way of defining them. As your practice the ritual each time, meditate a moment on what each combination means. One thing I hope you will learn from the ritual is that all four are necessary to life, and in what way. Another thing that may surprise you is that the element earth is neither the planet nor the ground; it is not fertile without the other elements. It is instead the crystalline. So work with the ritual and work with the elements and learn how they interrelate.
Start by facing east.
Dump the tokens out of their bag, not putting them into order yet, so that when you do so you’ll be forming order out of disorder.
Starting with the air token, put them down in a line, going from left to right, and clicking them down to give an auditory symbol of the beginning of the ritual. With each one say:
By [element] I am made pure,
to perform the sacred.
Touch the spirit token and say:
Now purified, I may call on the pure.
Touch the air token and then pick it up and put it in place:
May air be here,
the warm and the wet,
pure and unmixed:
may I be in its presence
and under its influence.
May fire be here,
the warm and the dry,
pure and unmixed:
may I be in its presence
and under its influence.
May water be here,
the cold and the wet,
pure and unmixed:
may I be in its presence
and under its influence.
May earth be here,
the cold and the dry,
pure and unmixed:
may I be in its presence
and under its influence.
Spirit girds me about,
the protecting circle,
of air, and fire, and water, and earth.
Spirit dwells within me,
the eternal center,
of air, and fire, and water, and earth.
Enclosed and enclosing,
the perfect mixing of the unmixed four.
Still touching the spirit token, take a few slow breaths, envisioning in turn the characteristics of each of the elements.
When you have done this for a while, and either succeeded or decided that you will try again some other time, end the meditation by increasing your pressure on the spirit token, and then touching the elemental tokens in turn, ending up again with the spirit token, saying as you do:
Through the mediation of the spirit,
may I be balanced through the four,
through air, and fire, and water, and earth.
Through spirit may this be done.
Pause a moment, concentrating on what you have accomplished. Then you unwind the ritual. Touch each elemental token in turn, pick it up and put it in the bag. Do this in reverse order, except for Spirit, as you unwind the ritual.
May the power of [earth, water, fire, air]
continue to work in me throughout this day
and all of my days
and all of my life.
You pick up the spirit token last, because it is that which you most want to continue to work in you.
May the power of spirit
enclose and infill me
throughout this day
and all of my days
and all of my life.
Hold the bag to your heart:
It is done, it is done, it is well done;
the work is well done in me
and will continue to work throughout this day
and all of my days
and all of my life.
You can end with a form of “So be it,” like the traditional Wiccan “So mote it be,” if you are used to doing that.
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