Now, as each of you breathe again, inhaling the sacred scents, you prepare to walk forward into the world. You carry sacred space everywhere you go, and all you need is to remember: your body is sacred. Your breath is sacred. Your bones and blood and sweat and tears are sacred. Your laughter is sacred, your voice is sacred, and your skin is sacred. All together, state aloud and claim this mantra:
This temple is mine.
Turn your focus inward, close your eyes, breathe, and relax. Allow yourself to slowly come back to the world you inhabit, the room you are sitting in, and your daily life. As you open your eyes, give yourself a hug, remembering that even as you reenter the world, your body remains a sacred temple of creation and empowerment.
• Releasing of quarters and entities (optional).
• Opening of circle (optional).
• Banishing (optional).
[contents]
ritual seven
Goddess in the Mirror
(Completion)
Note: This ritual requires two Priestesses. Only the Priestesses should read this entire outline. The element of surprise is important. The other participants should read only the “What All Participants Will Need” section. Also, be prepared for some surprises, and place your trust in the process of initiation. This ritual will likely be longer than any of the others you have performed in the course of working Sexy Witch. Give it the time. I promise it’ll be worth it.
Here are some things to discuss as a group before planning this initiation:
• Are people in the group comfortable with the idea of taking their vows “skyclad” (otherwise known as nekkid)?
• Will witnesses, other than the core group, be invited?
• What do you think of planning a more inclusive party for the evening, once your ritual is complete, to honor your new path?
My Comments on Nudity in Ritual
The nudity question may seem out of the blue, but what more empowering experience is there than to be naked in front of our sisters in magick? After all, much of the work that has been done in these chapters is about claiming our bodies as sacred space, and there is a profound sense of liberation possible when sharing nudity with others. You get to see the real thing: other women’s actual bodies. Not airbrushed, false representations of the “perfect body,” but actual, innate, perfectly imperfect, dimpled, asymmetrical, natural beauty. And you get to sit in your own skin, proud and accepting, nervous and bold, with nothing to hide.
In many cultures and since time began, nudity has been a common element in taking vows of initiation. There are a lot of symbolic reasons that nudity is a positive component of initiation. A concept to work with is the idea of coming before the Divine as a newborn does, naked as a babe being born to her new life. Another concept to work with is the idea of exposing all that you are in your willingness to make a clean start.
Obviously, nudity is not required for the ritual, but it is an opportunity to create a whole new relationship with your body. The opportunity to do so will be made clear in the course of the ritual. In my experience, it has been an amazing breakthrough point for women to bare their bodies in the company of others, and especially to do so in ritual space. It may be so for you and your crew to get courageous enough to bare your bodies in front of each other. Remember, this body of yours is an amazing and wondrous temple, dedicated to you and to the work you are doing.
To be or not to be nude is your choice to make as a group. I strongly encourage going for it, but it’s your ritual. Perform it as you wish. Be comfortable in your choice, but remember that risk taking may lead to watershed moments and astounding, instantaneous growth. Risk taking is also a nearly universal component of initiation.
The Question of Witnesses
Your group must decide collectively if you want to invite additional witnesses for this final initiation. After working with an exclusive group for this long, it may feel strange to introduce new people into the mix, but it may be important for some of the people in your lives to witness this moment on your path of initiation.
One reason to invite witnesses is to allow people who are close to you, and ideally who will be in your life for a long time, to witness your transition. Another reason is to have people in your daily life who will understand the vows you have made, and will support you in holding to those vows.
If you decide as a group to invite witnesses to attend, remember that these must be people you trust, people you love, and ideally people who will be in your life for a long, long time. In the future, these witnesses will have the responsibility of reminding you of your vows. During the ritual, they will play a part in your initiation. They will have the opportunity to see you honor the healing work you have done, and to offer their testimony to your unfolding.
If you have a partner, this will be an amazing opportunity to create a new level of trust and depth in your relationship. Perhaps you have a mentor you’d like to have as witness, or maybe your best girlfriend or boyfriend.
If you have decided to have nudity be an element of this ritual, will these witnesses be comfortable with your nudity and the nudity of the others in your group? Will you all be comfortable with the witnesses witnessing your nudity? As I have already stated, nudity is not required, but it can be a powerful element of this ritual.
Planning A Sexy Witch Soirée
Plan for a whole afternoon and evening, and have a celebration after the ritual! It’ll be like a début. No really, do have a party after the ritual! Then you can invite as many of your peeps to honor your transition as you’d like, without having to share this very intimate ritual with all of them.
Your group can be as overt or as covert as you’d like about your cause for celebration. If you don’t want to share all the wondrous details of your process with your buddies, just say you are having an mutual “unbirthday” party, or that you just wanted to take some time to celebrate your wonderful selves and your amazing circle of friends. If you want to open up the discussion about what’s been putting that pretty grin on your face for the past few days, put out your altar and start answering questions once someone gets brave enough to ask them.
This is the end of an amazing process, and the beginning of the rest of your lives. Cherish this time at this threshold.
Where to from Here?
Each of you must now choose one direction for where your path is leading (or where you want it to be leading), and one direction for the current/future home of your growth.
In my personal cosmology, the west has a lot of correspondences that allow for female sexual empowerment, and many of the Goddesses I look to for inspiration in this arena are associated with the west. However, the south is also profoundly powerful and transformative. All the quarters have associations that make sense for either of the designations. What are your associations? For me, where the west represents nurturance, sensuality, and the womb, and often has a more gentle form of transformation to offer, the south is overtly sexual, creative, and powerful, and offers fundamental and complete transformation, as in fire burning wood to ash. The north represents grounding and solid nurturance, motherhood and stability. The east offers new beginnings and inspiration.
These are my associations. But this ritual is about you, not me. So, what are your associations? What direction are you heading toward? What element are you inviting to influence your life now? Air? Fire? Water? Earth? Where do you want the coming phase of your growth to take place? Rely on your intuition here, and find the directions that make the most sense to you. Choose your future path with intention.
Once you have made your choices, tell the Priestesses of this final rite the directions you have chosen. They will need to know in advance of the ritual.
Now, on to your final Sexy Witch initiation!
Ritual Seven
★ Suggestions:
• Treat this event as you would any momentous occasion. D
o whatever makes you feel prepared to take your vows. Whether it’s getting a pedicure or spending the morning in meditation, do what works to create a day that you will remember fondly for the rest of your life.
What All Participants Will Need
• Your devotion oil. See Appendix I for the recipe.
• Your empowerment contract. See “Magickal Act: Empowerment Contract” in chapter seven.
• Your vows of initiation. See “Spell Working: Vows of Initiation” in chapter seven.
• Your initiation talisman(s). See “Spell Working: Creating an Initiation Talisman” in chapter seven.
• Give your devotion oil, empowerment contract, vows of initiation, and initiation talisman to one of the Priestesses before the ritual. Make sure it is wrapped up in a tidy bundle, and recognizably yours so you don’t take someone else’s vows!
• Your bead pouch.
• A pen.
• Your copy of Sexy Witch.
• Your journal. Choose one piece of writing from this week that you will share with the group.
• Your witness(es), if your group has decided to invite others to attend.
• Up for group discussion: Consider performing a Foot Bath Ceremony in ritual space. See Appendix I.
ONLY THE PRIESTESSES FOR THIS RITUAL READ PAST THIS POINT!!!
What the Facilitators/Priestesses Will Need
• Beads for all the participants. This week’s bead should represent a doorway, a threshold, or a Witches’ broom.
• Something for everyone to string their beads on (jeweler’s wire, yarn, hemp rope). Make sure it is long enough to fashion a necklace or bracelet out of. You may want to purchase fastenings/hooks, too, so these talismans can be easily removed in the future.
• A platter of treats.
• Wine, or champagne, if desired. See “Wines” in Appendix I.
Additional Items for This Ritual
• A full-length mirror that is freestanding or can be stood up against a wall.
• A cloth to use as a shroud (cover) for the mirror.
• Blindfolds for all the practitioners.
• Ideally, a Witches’ besom (broom), but the plain old kitchen variety of broom works, too. (The broom, when held parallel to the floor, becomes a symbol of the threshold. As practitioners step over the broom, they step through the doorway into their new lives. It also represents a “clean sweep,” and new beginnings.) Note: In my mirror-working rituals, I have always placed the mirror in the west. For me the west has a lot of correspondences that allow for female sexual empowerment, and many of the Goddesses I look to for inspiration in this arena are associated with the west. However, there are reasons that the south would work as well, or any of the quarters. Where the west represents nurturance, sensuality, and the womb, and often has a more gentle form of transformation to offer, the south is overtly sexual, creative, and powerful, and offers fundamental and complete transformation, as in fire burning wood to ash. Again, rely on your intuition here, and place the mirror accordingly. You may want to pose this question to the group, without mentioning the mirror.
How-To
For simplicity’s sake, choose one of the two of you to be Priestess 1 (P1) and the other to be Priestess 2 (P2). In the following outline you will understand the need for this. Together, do the following:
• DON’T FORGET: Make sure everyone in your group can tolerate scents and smoke. Incense can be intense, and can alter your senses in a good way, as long as it’s not triggering an asthma attack or allergies.
• Create the altar with the items listed here and on the main altar list on page 205. The altar should be pleasing to the senses, and functional. For this ritual, the altar should not be placed in the center of the circle. There will be more movement than usual. Place the altar on a table, to the side of the mirror.
• Make sure the charcoal is lit. It takes a few minutes for the charcoal to be ready for the incense.
• Have everyone gather items (personal candles/holders, journals, copy of Sexy Witch, bead pouch, works of art, comfort items) to bring to circle.
• Choose a person to bless the treats/water/wine, or one of the Priestesses can do this.
Place the mirror before the initiates gather. They should not see the mirror before it is revealed in the course of the ritual. Wherever the mirror is set, it should be covered with a shroud, so participants will not see what it is until faced with it.
Also, participants will step over the broom (a symbol of the threshold) at whichever quarter they choose. Stepping over the broom is a symbol of beginning on the path of the initiate, of crossing the threshold into a new phase of life. Be sure that everyone has chosen their directions.
Outline
• Banishing (optional).
• Circle casting (optional).
• Calling of quarters and spirit entities (optional).
• Setting space.
Note: Priestess 1 and Priestess 2 should read through the outline, and decide which Priestess will perform which parts of the ritual. You may note “P1” or “P2” in the margin accordingly, or on a copy of the outline.
Once the attendees gather, P1 or P2 sprinkles a pinch of incense on the charcoal. She instructs everyone to focus on breathing, deeply into their bellies. She says:
Breathe deeply, allowing your breath to expand your chest, and then even more deeply, letting it expand your belly, your lower abdomen.
As everyone breathes together, the Priestess may want to walk around the space once, thinking of the qualities that this blend of resins will bring to the space: love, purification, safety, healing, and connection with spirit. Then she sits with the other participants in a circle. Breathe together as a group for a few minutes, letting the scent of the incense permeate your bodies, inside and out, allowing your cells to absorb the positive qualities of the incense. The Priestess says:
Allow the smoke of this special blend of incense to enter your body and infuse each cell with blessing. Let this magickal and sacred blend of scents fill you with love, purification, safety, healing, and connection with spirit. As you breathe, allow your body to become the sacred temple where you worship.
Once everyone is fully present in their bodies, the Priestess instructs everyone to open their eyes, and come present in the space. As a group, you may want to take a moment and hold hands, feeling the shared energy you have already created by centering here in this sacred space. All participants may say together:
We are in sacred space.
The Priestess lights the mother candle so that everyone will be able to light their individual candles from the source. As she lights the mother candle, the Priestess says:
Lighting this flame, I invoke gratitude for the journey we have taken together in the past seven weeks. I invoke sweet anticipation for the journey that continues on the other side of this threshold. I invoke self-dedication, self-adoration, and self-respect. I invoke the vows of the initiate: To know, to will, to dare, and to be silent. We have shared deep mysteries, and found new ways. We will continue to deepen. We have revealed deep mysteries within ourselves, and found new ways. Each of us will continue to deepen as we walk the paths before us.
As each participant lights her personal flame, you will all drop deeper into that space where you know your body as a sacred, wonderful temple. A space sacred and powerful. A space where you know the truth of your own being. You will find that space inside where you have achieved true self-devotion, where you know that each act of self-love, self-adoration, and self-definition is a sacred act. The place where you alone define the boundaries of your temple: the sacred temple that is each of us.
As you drop deeper into that space that allows for healing, you know again that each act that creates self-awareness and self-knowledge is a sacred act. With this awareness, we alone define the New World we are creating.
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Each participant may state a prayer, a wish, or an intention as she lights her candle.
Lighting of Personal Candles
Each person in the group now approaches the altar and lights her candle from the source candle. P1 or P2 says:
One by one, as you feel moved, approach the altar and light your candle, and place it at the perimeter of the altar cloth. With this light we create a sacred circle that allows honor and devotion to grow, and we become a beacon in the darkness that allows each seeker to find her own way home.
Sharing of Writing and Art
Once the candles are lighted, it is time to start sharing the items created during the week. Ideally, each participant (including the Priestesses) will share one piece of artwork and one piece of writing (or more, if you have made that agreement as a group) in ritual space. P1 or P2 says:
Now is the time to share the works you created this week. Reading your writing out loud in ritual space and talking about your artifacts, with all of us as witnesses, adds to their power. Who would like to start?
You all may choose to conduct this sharing in a clockwise (deosil) flow, though only if it feels necessary to your group.
Consecration of Writing and Art
Once everyone has had a chance to share, it’s time for the consecration. Each participant will lay whatever items she wants to consecrate out in front of herself, or around the altar. All together, say:
I consecrate these works to the unfolding of self-awareness. May this act serve me, and may it serve all beings through the revelation of awareness. May my increasing awareness and presence serve to bring awareness of presence to all beings everywhere throughout space and time. So it is.
Take time to witness, honor, and cherish each item being consecrated. The participants may want to pass the items through the smoke from the incense, or do some other act of purification and consecration.
In adding to your personal/home altar, you will use one or more of the items you have consecrated. What item(s) from this week’s exploration would like to live on your altar for the duration of your initiation cycle?
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