Ritual Tools, part 2

Then come the two oddball Elements, Darkness and Light. I was first inspired to include them when I started working with the Brian Froud Faery Oracle; in the accompanying book, five Faery Elements are described, those being the traditional four plus Moonlight. The idea struck me, and percolated in my mind for quite a while before I considered working with it in Circle.

Darkness and Light aren’t really Elements so much as they are energies, or aspects; each Element could be seen as having a Dark manifestation and a Light one, and each of my deities also have both. Everything in the universe is made up of the energies of the four primary Elements, but everything also contains within it a balance—or imbalance, in most cases—of Dark and Light. The two don’t really have a list of correspondences the way the other four do, and I don’t use their energy in magic the way I do the four Elements, but I felt that my Circles were missing something until I started working with the two.

Over the years I have played around with various forms of Circle casting, and in most of the traditional Wiccan variations I felt a bit of a void. We called upon North, South, East, and West, and while I could quite easily draw those energies together into a sphere, I still felt the urge to also connect the four directions with two more, Above and Below. When I began to incorporate Darkness and Light into my rituals I found they fit in perfectly—Light is Above, Dark is Below. Put all the six together and you have a seamless Circle.

The symbols for the two are not hard-and-fast; I have found a way that seems to work, but I will be quite happy to change things if I find a way that flows better. As of now, on my altar Light is represented with a candle, and Darkness is symbolized by the chalice.

“But…but…Fire and Water!” I hear you protesting, and you are right; both of these tools would be equally appropriate for those two standard Elements.

However, on my altar, I have several candles—two are strictly for illumination and beauty, and the third is front and center, positioned at the feet of my Goddess statue to represent Light. I don’t have candles on my altar for heat, I have them there so I can see. Other candles I use, such as those for spellwork, are symbolic of an intention, not an Element.

The chalice represents potential, and to me that is what Darkness is—endless potential for everything. Darkness could be easily linked to the Divine feminine: it is receptive, intuitive, and offers the comfort of dreams and healing sleep. Light, on the other hand, has a masculine feel: it is active, focused like the Sun, reveals the truth of things.

I do not simply consider Above and Below to be God and Goddess, because to me God and Goddess include all six Elements combined; They are the center and circumference of the Circle.

Aside from my regular working tools, I also have a couple of other items, both traditional and non-, that I consider important, such as:

An Offering Pouch – I carry a small zippered pouch of nuts and seeds with me so that if I find myself meditating or doing something else mystical outdoors, I can leave an offering to the land when I am finished. A note: if you do the same, be sure that whatever is in your pouch will not sprout and disturb the ecosystem or poison the wildlife. If you include nuts, have them roasted and chopped up; if you include seeds, make sure they are native to your area. I typically include chopped peanuts or almonds for the squirrels, sunflower seeds, and the leafy parts of herbs like rosemary and sage.

The Year Box – Part of my Wheel of the Year practice is that the period between Samhain and Yule is designated as goal-setting time. At Yule I write down things I want to accomplish or begin in the coming year and place them inside a special box on my altar; at Samhain I take them out, read them, meditate on the year gone by, then burn the goals to wipe the slate clean.

A Cauldron – I hate to say it, but I don’t really have big spiritual attachments to the cauldron. Mine is used to burn things in, pure and simple. I keep my cauldron underneath my altar, which unfortunately means that it ends up catching a lot of dust, bits of herbs and incense, and butt ends of candles until I can properly dispose of them.

Book of Shadows – All right, so I don’t really use mine. But it’s really pretty! I’ve had about twelve incarnations of a BoS over the years and for the moment have given up on a new one; by the time I finish one everything in it is outdated. My BoS is a handmade book with handwritten content, all embellished and illustrated. I also keep a binder of incense and oil recipes, ritual ideas, and so forth that is far less Witchy looking but far more practical. To be honest, though, I don’t use it much either; after twelve years I don’t really need everything spelled out for me. (Oh, bad pun.)

Divinatory Tools – Divination is a vital part of my practice. I’ve talked about the Runes before, so I won’t go into it now, but they and my Faery Oracle are my constant companions.

Talula – Possibly my least traditional tool, Talula—my iPod—serves a very important purpose. Music is absolutely fundamental to my tradition, and having headphones pump Loreena McKennit or whoever into my ears helps me transcend the fact that I’m sitting in my bedroom, and gets me into trance almost immediately. It also drowns out my cat. I’ve been known to make playlists just for specific rituals. I do the same thing with CDs for group work. I am the Ritual Soundtrack Maven.

Comments

[Squish]

Hi,

I love this article, and its good to hear how you stray from the "norm". As I am so oft to want to do. I work with five elements, as I like to create a pentacle in most things i do. Including in the circle, the fifth point being above, and representing the divine self. I have always thought of this point as Energy/Magick or the invisibles that work in the world.

[Sylvan]

Squish:

That's interesting; odd as it may sound, up until you said that, I never gave any thought to how six-element system would work with the pentacle symbol. I guess it doesn't, really. Truth be told the only time I ever use a pentacle is when I wear one, and it's more of a badge of office than anything else. On the rare occasion that I do Big Formal Rituals I have been known to inscribe pentacles in the air during Circle casting--maybe I should start using a hexagram (hexacle?) instead, or a different symbol altogether. A spiral would probably be more in keeping with my tradition.

Thanks for the food for thought. :)

[Squish]

I guess it doesn't, really Do you mean to say it doesn't work? And if so, in a general sense, why would that be?

I tend to use the pentacle allot, partially due to my reading on the Feri tradition, the the their practices of using the pentacle as a meditation tool. (five points to the body to correspond with two hands, two feet and a head, each point centering on something to be worked on or increased.)

[Squish]

PS... sorry for the really bad grammer. Not sure how that happened.

[Sylvan]

I mean that having a six-Element system, the five-pointed symbol doesn't really match up. Of course, before that, I had a four-Element system and didn't like the "plus Spirit" idea either, so I guess the pentacle has never really had a lot of meaning for me spiritually.

[Wren]

I don't know if ya'll were aware...

>>DaVinci Hexagram<<

(They're pretty easy to find without the stone as well. This was just the easiest to link to, without pulling up a page full of unrelated pentacles for you to sort through)

+

I've always been drawn more towards the Faerie seven-pointed star than the traditional pentacle, and I've never been able to figure out exactly why, since I'm not drawn so much to the Faerie realm itself. So I've been reluctant to get one (for me or for my altar) until it actually symbolized something to me. Reading your article was an "Ah ha!" moment for me: Incorporating both dark and light into my circle makes so much more sense, adds so much more depth to the ritual or devotion, and it makes it easier for me to visualize the cast circle as a whole sphere. (Not to mention finally seeing the Goddess and God as integral part of the ritual, and not just benevolant overseers!)

I'm not inclined to leave the Spirit aspect out, though, because it has always represented to me what I bring to the table in any magikal endeavour.

So the septagram seems to fit me perfectly now.

Anyway, thanks for the post. :D

[Jonah]

Well this is near and dear to my heart.

I'm a big outside-the-boxer myself, for much the same reason Sylvan is: if it doesn't make sense, why do it?

I work with the six directions as well, plus center which is the focal point. Generally I call on the Guardians (or Guides) above and the Ancestors below, rather than Light and Dark, but I have entertained that idea and some combination.

Okay, on to the point, Jonah. Sylvan, what caught me was when you said "I never gave any thought to how six-element system would work with the pentacle symbol." Having studied a little in the way of Ceremonial traditions like Thelema and the Golden Dawn, I've come to see the pentagram as representing our connection to the energies of "the earthly plane," and the hexagram as representing our connection to "the heavenly plane." As such, I modified the Feri circle casting a bit and I tend to draw pentagrams in the quarters and hexagrams above and below.

For me it has less to do with the points on the star lining up with the number of elements as what the star itself represents regarding the energies it connects to.

BTW, the DaVinci Hexagram shown in the last post is also the unicrusal hexagram of Thelema. I've never heard of it called the DaVinci Hexagram before. They use it in Thelema so that they can draw a hexagram in one continuous movement, rather than the two it takes to draw a normal hexagram.

[Eelsalad]

Late to the party, but couldn't resist commenting: in Feri, we work with six directional guardians, plus the center (making seven, like on the seven-pointed fey star). Hearing you mention Darkness and Light resonated for me with that - the guardian above is bright and the one below is dark. Very interesting!

[Eelsalad]

Late to the party, but couldn't resist commenting: in Feri, we work with six directional guardians, plus the center (making seven, like on the seven-pointed fey star). Hearing you mention Darkness and Light resonated for me with that - the guardian above is bright and the one below is dark. Very interesting!

[Stardust]

I realize it's been a long time since the applicable posts, but my question is why anyone feels it necessary to attribute the points of the pentacle to directions or elements, in the first place.

I use the pentacle, but I don't make those attributions. I do use a 4 directions and 4 element system, but do not feel compelled to add "spirit" to make it fit the pentacle. There is no numeric relationship there.

We use the pentacle as a focal point for the powers with which we work. Like others have mentioned, we use it to charge items, but it has other uses, as well.

Thanks to all for sharing!