by Неизвестный
Once you are done, say a prayer that you may walk, speak, live, breathe, and dream
your truth. Take a breath and exhale from the soles of your feet to the crown of your head.
Now draw in another breath and breath out through whatever place most holds your truth today. It might be your sex or belly. It might be your crown or heart. Wherever your truth lies, send a breath to strengthen it. Next,..find the center that feels weakest or most in need of
your truth today. Take a big breath of life force in and exhale it out through that center, to
begin its activation.
Do this work for the next week and try to sense any changes within. Notice if you walk
or stand differently. Notice if it seems easier for you to speak. Notice if you need extra
cleansings or longer times of meditation. Do whatever you need to do to strengthen your
ability to walk your truth.
INTEG RATIO N AND MoviNG FoRWARD
Integration expands our ability to remain conscious and strengthens our
effectiveness in all of our work. Where are you in your life and work, right
now? Are you coping well, are you barely standing, or are you thriving? Has
your capacity to hold and share power, truth, and compassion grown? Are
you working at full capacity?
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Whenever I am coming upon a time of increasing growth or increased
responsibility, I strengthen myself by adding on to my spiritual practices.
I sit with my Sacred Dove, listening for longer periods and I do more
cleansings, especially using the Rite of Unbinding. I take extra care with
my work on staying present in any given situation, using my posture and
Keys to Remembrance as aids to this. I align my Triple Soul as often as
possible. All of these lead me fUrther into my own integration. Intention
requires consciousness and I can only remain conscious when aided by actual, physical time spent doing my practices.
Integrity requires an awareness of all our parts. For example, if I am
unconscious of my habits, I cannot act with integrity no matter how much
I want to, because I hold no integration between my thoughts, emotions,
and actions. I often find that misunderstandings about integrity crop up in
our language, within phrases like "His intentions were good" or "She
meant well;' when actually he and she intended and meant nothing, because
they were not conscious of their words or actions. What people probably
mean is "They intended no harm:' That is correct. They had no intention
whatsoever.
Consciousness, intention, and integration are available to anyone and
can help us to live more fUlly and truthfUlly. We just have to be willing to
do the work. We have to seek out support and begin to move past the fears
that keep us small, trapped in habitual behavior patterns.
Ask Quakoralina and Melek Taus (Peacock God) to help you open to your own consciousness and integration. Call upon them whenever you need extra love or strength in order to deepen your spiritual practices. In the place of Center, you can both deepen and expand upward. Take a deep breath and stand tall in the world.
There is often discomfort before the breakthrough, darkness before the dawn. Remrmbrr
who you are and why you are working. When you integratl your practices and opm to your
central truths, your work opens up to include the whole world.
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CIRCLES TO LovE
This is similar to the exercise in Chapter 4, Circles of Power. It can be
done alone or with a small group. If done in a group, the final circle, the
circle of love, is one that everyone steps into at once. It is a circle that is
meant to be shared. Step into the center of your heart.
Make sure you have enough room in front of you to take Jour big steps. Take a deep
breath. Feel yourself grounded and centered. Do the Prayer for Alignment to align your
Triple Soul. Feel yourself as you are, where you are. Are you tifraid, overconfident, sad? Just
notice. Breathe into any feelings you may have. Stand there in them. Stand as you are. Now,
think, what would it take for you to live more freely, more honestly, and with greater access
to your sexual energy? What would it take for you to grow in strength and compassion? Say
a prayer for what you need.
When you are ready, step forward. You are stepping into the circle of courage. Let
courage fill you. This will help you in all of your work. It will help you to keep opening to
change, to risk, to the Black Heart of Innocence. Feel the courage as it surrounds you and
fills your body. Breathe it in.
When you are ready, take a deep breath. Step forward. You are stepping into the circle of
acceptance. Feel acceptance surround you. Acceptance of your dreams, your fears, your mistakes, your body, your mind, your secrets, your hopes. Acceptance of yourself. Feel it. Breathe it in. Accept your journey. Accept that you can move forward. Breathe it in.
When you are ready, take another breath. Step forward. You are stepping into a circlt of
hope. Let hope fill and surround you. Breathe it in. Hope keeps you going. This is the hope
of seeing a flower gently opening to spring sunshine. This is the hope you nurture for yourself that you may sometimes feel tifraid to admit to anyone, or even to yourself.
Take another breath. Prepare to enter the last circlt. Step forward. You are stepping into
the circle of love. Feel yourself surrounded by love. Let love fill you. Let it tingle around you.
Stand in it. Breathe it in. Let it open your heart a little more. Breathe. Feel love moving
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through your whole body, through every part of you, through your Triple Soul, through your
shadows, through your strength and fragility. Breathe love in.
Ij you are in a group, standing in this circle together, put your arms around one another. Feel the circle of love. Now, one by one, step into the very center. Let the circle enclose you. Everyone begins to tone love at you. Feel what it is to be surrounded by love. Take a
breath. Receive it. Step back into the circle of arms and warm bodies. Let the next person
step in. Let love fill you. Release it in a tone toward the person standing in the center. Feel
what it is to share love with the world. Breathe it in. Love goes on and on.
Magic requires reciprocity. Energy must go out and come back in. If
you are constantly giving and never receiving, you will soon run dry. Conversely, if you are constantly taking, the earth won't be able to hold you for long. Magic is a circuit requiring currents that flow both ways. Breathe that
in. Make that thought a part of your practice. Let us be open to one another. Let us care for each other and receive care. Let us give back to the earth as we receive the gifts of the earth. So may it be.
I O
sacred sphere:
closin� the sphere,
openin� the world
You are entering the space you already occupy. Your life is your own. You
walk with the Gods, in concert with Nature. You are alive, fey and wonderful, human and divine. You are stepping into paradox where the world is both the same and new. Breathe deeply of this sacred air. It has surrounded you all along. How does it feel to truly be yourself? Celebrate your place in this new world.
() ur lives are a continuous spiral. We move on, sometimes up and
sometimes down, revisiting the same faces, voices, and patterns, all
slightly changed. We gain the perspective
of faithful practitioners, spiritual
seekers who have found footing on a path that can no longer be denied.
Once we have set upon it, it continues for as long as we give and takC'
breath-and beyond.
In this chapter, we will listen for our deep names, look upon our wholC'
selves, and ask ourselves what evolution might look like. Then, we will stq,
forward into our divinity, into our work. And the story continues.
This chaptC'r doses the hook and opens us to tht· possibility that our
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lives can include integrated practices that will carry us further within ourselves and simultaneously out into the world. One day at breakfast, in the midst of a spiritual discussion, I asked a friend, "What is your practice right
now?'' He answered, "Drinking water," then placed his glass on the table
with a thunk. The possibility of continuous practice is available to us all. In
The Jtay if the Pi�rim, the Russian peasant walks all across the country searching for someone to teach him how to pray without ceasing. 1 May our lives become such a practice, such a search, such a prayer. May we know ourselves, in all our parts.
who Afe You Ricsht Now ?
How do you feel now, in this arm of your spiraling journey? How do you
define yourself: Witch, artist, parent, writer, warrior, magician, activist, or
priestess? Are you a dancer in the cosmos or a caretaker of the earth? Look
at all of your talents and the responsibilities inherent in them. Are you up
for the task of being fully yourself and continuing your sacred work in the
world?
To become Sons and Daughters of the Art we must honor our commitments to be ourselves and to continue on our spiritual paths. We must also commit to others, for we cannot evolve alone. Sitting on top of the
mountain can be helpful for a time, but we put our work to the test when
we come down the mountain and engage, actively, in the world. Teaching
children. Planting trees. Making magic. Speaking out for justice. Loving
the world, as it is and as it could be.
1There are various editions of this classic Orthodox Christian text available. The one I use is translated by Helen Bacovcin (Image Books, I 985). I first read about this book written by a nineteenthcentury peasant in J. D. Salinger's Franny and Zoory (Little Brown and Co., I 99 I).
sacred sphere: closin'5 the sphere, openin'5 the world
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Listenin
Some people get spiritual names during formal initiations, others in a
blinding flash. Some use their names for years, and some only for a short
time, until the lesson sinks in. Some have secret names. All these names are
useful to our magic. My public name came during my Reclaiming initiation. I lay in the bathtub arguing: "Goddess, can't I be called something else?" The answer was no. The name that kept being repeated to me, over
and over, was Thorn. When the priestess came to take me to the next gate,
she asked if I had my name and I replied, "Yes, but I don't like it!"
Nonetheless, I was smart enough to realize there was a lesson there that I
would only learn over time and with repetition.
So I decided to make Thorn my use name, and my legal name, so I
would hear it every day. (My Feri Tradition name is private, and only spoken between the worlds.) Whether your own spiritual name is to be used publically or privately is up to you.
Take a walk in a wild place or draw a sacred bath and allow yourself time alone to listen. Call on the Guardians and any of the Gods you need, or call on your Faery Guide to be with you. Let yourself relax into their presences, and into your own presence--your
heart beating, your lungs filling and expelling air, your muscles moving. Let thoughts of your
life drift through your bead. Where have you come from, where are you going? What does
your work feel like right now? After a while, let those thoughts quiet. Begin to listen. Ask the
Gods for a deep name, a true name, a name that will be your key magically, and a name
that describes your essence or will help you to grow. Relax. Drift. Listen. It will come.
You may have to repeat this process more than once. Your name may
come to you a week after you have done your listening, while you are hiking in the woods or it may be called after you on the street by a stranger,
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some misheard thing resounding in your ears. Open to it and learn from
it. Names are powerful. Open to this new power.
Bn�u�in� Your whole self
Keats said that the world is a vale of soul making.2 All things in our lives
can change and form us, strengthening our spirits and our life's purpose.
But we must choose, every moment ?f every day, to heed the lessons life gives
us. This is the ultimate in integration and the next step toward evolution-cultivating the ability to drink in each breath, each phone call, each second standing in line, each conversation with a coworker-of choosing
awareness and waking, instead of habit and comfort.
With the foundational tools in this book, you can use the world as a settingjor your own
development. The joys and irritations ?f life are invitations to grow and change, to develop
something substantial and immortal. What is your challenge to yourself right now? By
bringing your whole person to the task, worlds will change.
Evolution and communitv
My challenge is to maintain spiritual practice among others: coworkers,
family members, or spiritual communities. Part of the work of Evolutionary Witchcraft is changing how we relate to one another. In doing our personal work, we must not lose sight of the health and well being of the world at large: of issues of economic justice or environmental protection.
What is harder for many of us, however, is dealing with our brothers and
2From a letter to George and Georgiana Keats which can be found in Compltu PomJS and Srltcttd f.tttm of john Krats (The Modern Library, Random House, 2001 ).
sacred sphefe: closin'S the sphefe, openin'S the wodd
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sisters-in coven, ritual planning group, activist group, PTA, familywith compassion, patience, and honesty. This is hard work, and constant work, and the tools in this book are available to help.
If I grow impatient, I can ground and center, getting back in touch
with my breathing. I can use the aura work and my Triple Soul alignment
to help me communicate more effectively. If I am ready to enter into mudslinging, I can look in the mirror first, and speak there. If I want to engage in gossip, I can practice my truth telling face-to-face first.
The more we practice, the more we can grow together, becoming open
to listening and talking and building a healthy and sustainable community.
Our dominant culture does not teach us these skills. We have to learn
them, practice them, and, in love, begin to teach one another.
How do you Junction in community? How do your communities junction? Are there
practices you engage in that facilitate communication? How does your vision for your own
life connect with your hopes for community?
Fin dines u Teuchef
If you are serious about continuing your work, I recommend seeking out
a teacher you can spend some physical time with. Most traditions are best
passed on person to person because they require energetic contact. Power
cannot be passed through a page, though words on the page can spur our
own work and expand our understanding. If the specific tradition itself is
not important to you, seek out a martial arts or dance teacher, or study
meditation, yoga, or any deep Pagan path that is accessible to you. Anything that will engage body, mind, and spirit all together will further your integration.
Should you decide to continue on with your work in Fcri (or another
tradition) you may wish to do tiH· rite t hat fi>llows. h·ri Tradit ion docs not
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have a self-initiation ritual, in fact, there is only one Feri initiation-a
marriage to the Feri Gods and a taking on of great responsibility to the
tradition itself--passed on by one already initiated into the tradition. In
other words, Feri initiation is not what everyone wants or needs. The rite
below, however, should help you strengthen your commitment to your
spiritual path.
RITE OF INTENTION AND DEDICATION
This ritual will both express your intention to dedicate to your path and
to further your work and training. It can also help you find the right
teacher to help you when the time comes. I recommend making an amulet
or choosing a stone, necklace, or charm to mark this rite and carry as a reminder of your work, wish, and intention.
Cleanse your working space. Build an altar; gather candles and offerings for the Fey and the Gods. If you are seeking a teacher, and not just dedicating your path, choose a special candle to represent that wish. I recommend beeswax, for purity of purpose, sweetness of scent, and connection to bees, carriers of life and information.
Bathe yourself, do the Rite of Unbinding, and align your Triple Soul.
Now set up your space to work ritual.
Ground and center and stry, "Holy Mother, in whom we live, move, and have our being,jrom you all things emerge and unto you all things return." Cast the sacred sphere. Ask for the presence of the Guardians, the Fey, and whatever Gods you wish to be present for this
rite. Thank them, and make your offerings.
Standing in your sacred sphere, say "I, (your name), call upon my will and state my
intention to dedicate my life to the wifolding of mystery and to gaining knowledge of myself In the presence of these Gods and Guardians, and my Fey allies, I dedicate myself to
sacred sphere : closin'S the sp here, openin'S the world