'Merlin, give me the strength to carry on.'

I found this prayer not in some medieval book or carved on the wall of an ancient castle but written in ballpoint pen on a page torn from a diary and left - along with scores of similar pleas - on an ancient pile of stones in the Forest of Broceliande in Brittany.

Archaeologists say that this is the grave of a Neolithic hunter, but local tradition says that in this forest dwelled Vivien, the Lady of the Lake of Arthurian legend, and that here, having seduced Merlin in order to learn his secrets, she ensnared him with his own spells. The stone pile is known as Merlin's tomb, and each year hundreds visit the site to thank the wizard or to ask for his aid. When I visited the tomb, prayers - written on scraps of paper or card - were squeezed into gaps in the stones or pinned to the tree that shelters the tomb.

Whatever the origins of the tomb, it has been transformed into a source of power. For this badly signposted spot, a short walk up a muddy track from a cramped, rough car park, had a tranquil, spiritual air that you might expect at a great cathedral or far more impressive stone circles. Such spots unleash the magick inside us. But even if you never visit Brittany or Stonehenge at sunrise on Midsummer's Day, you can still make use of your own magick.

This is a book about white magick and witchcraft as sources of wisdom, healing and positivity. Like Native American spirituality, to which true witchcraft is akin (some say both were carried by the people of Atlantis), the practice of white magick is based on the belief that that all life is sacred and interconnected in an unbroken circle. For example, every fully grown birch tree - defined in magick as a tree of new beginnings and regeneration - breathes out enough oxygen for a family of four and absorbs the carbon dioxide that we exhale, transforming it again to life-giving oxygen. And this sacred spark of a common source of divinity is contained not only by trees, but also the stones, the animals, the people and everything else on the Earth and in the waters and the sky.

Our higher selves, our souls, are influenced by the cycles of the Sun, the Moon, the stars and the natural world on a deep spiritual level. We can draw down their energies into ourselves to amplify and replenish our own, like tapping into a cosmic energy supply rather than having to recharge our powers from our own, separate dynamos. Through them and through us courses the universal life force, known as ch'i to the Chinese, and prana in Hindu philosophy. It is a source upon which we can draw not only nor primarily for specific needs, but also for energy, harmony and connection with others, the world and the cosmos. It is an energy that can permeate every aspect of our being.

A Very Special Spirituality

Witchcraft and Wicca (one of the major forms of witchcraft) both derive their names from the Anglo-Saxon words for wisdom; 'witch' is from the old English word wita, meaning 'wise' and the Wicca were the wise ones. Witchcraft is said to be the oldest religion in the world. It is the indigenous shamanistic religion of Europe that has, in spite of ferocious persecution from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries, survived in the folk tradition of many lands and through families who kept alive the old beliefs and worship of the Earth and the Moon Mother.

Not so many centuries ago, our ancestors burned yule logs at Christmas as a symbolic gesture to bring light and warmth back to the world on the mid-winter solstice at the darkest time. They danced around the maypole on May morning, the beginning of the old Celtic summer, to stir into life the Earth energies in a sacred spiral pattern. These rituals go back into the mists of time and appear in similar forms in many different cultures and ages. Today, however, too many modern societies have lost the sacred connection and scorn such gestures as superstition, treating the skies, the Earth and the seas merely as a larder, fuel store and garbage can. Once, things were very different, as Black Elk, the Sioux shaman, explained:

'In the old days when we were a strong and happy people, all our power came from the sacred hoop of the nation and, so long as the hoop was unbroken, the people flourished. The flowering tree was the living centre of the hoop and the circle of the four quarters nourished it. The East gave peace and light, the South gave warmth; in the West, thunder beings gave rain and the North with its cold and mighty wind gave strength and endurance.'

And so the Earth was respected as the sacred mother, giver of life and crops, to whose womb the dead returned. It is no accident that the Sioux Medicine Wheel and the Celtic Wheel of the Year are so similar in formation and purpose, linking all life to the cycles of nature. So if we are to use magick in a positive way, we must remember that it brings responsibility along with benefits.

Magick And Knowledge

White witchcraft is essentially the process of drawing on ancient wisdom and powers via the collective mind that we as individuals can spontaneously but unconsciously access in our dreams and visions. In magick, we can use rituals and altered states of consciousness to access this cosmic memory bank at will and in doing so, some believe, draw on the accumulated powers of many generations, especially in healing magick.

This cosmic consciousness - or Great Mind or akashic record, as theosophists call it - is perhaps what made it possible for pyramids to be built at almost the same time in lands as far apart as Egypt and South America, and for shamanism to follow similar patterns in unconnected continents. By accessing this source of power, we may create a ritual or use certain crystals without consciously knowing their significance, only to find out that our invented spell closely resembles one from another time or culture; we know how to heal without being taught.

Gaining such knowledge has been described as 'inner-plane' teaching and if you can trust your own deep intuitions, you need very little formal teaching about magick. If you scry at the full moon or during one of the ancient festivals, by looking into water and letting images form, this deep wisdom will offer solutions to seemingly impossible dilemmas.

The practice of witchcraft demands great responsibility, for you are handling very potent material when you deal with magick. The benefit is that by focusing and directing your own inner powers and natural energies you can give form to your thoughts and needs and desires and bring them into actuality. The more positive and altruistic these focuses are, the more abundance, joy and harmony will be reflected in your own world.

Magick And Giving

It is said that if you smile in London in the morning, the smile will have reached Tokyo by evening. This principle, which lies behind all white magick, has been named morphic resonance, and has been investigated for several years by the Cambridge biologist Dr Rupert Sheldrake, author of a number of excellent books based on his extensive research into psychic phenomena. Dr Sheldrake suggests that as animals of a given species learn a new pattern of behaviour, other similar animals will subsequently tend to learn the same thing more readily all over the world; the more that learn it, the easier it should become for others.

So if we carry out positive magick and spread goodwill, then we really can increase the benign energies of the Earth and cosmos. Even banishing or binding magick can have a creative focus, diverting or transforming redundant or negative energy, for example by burying a symbol of the negativity or casting herbs to the four winds.

Magick And Responsibility

True magick is not like a cake in which everybody must vie for a slice or be left with none: it is more akin to a never-emptying pot. Like the legendary Cauldron of Undry in Celtic myth, the more goodness that is put in, the more the mixture increases in richness and quantity. The Cauldron of Undry, one of the four main Celtic treasures, provided an endless supply of nourishment, had great healing powers and could restore the dead to life, in either their former existence or a new life form.

Located on the Isle of Arran, it could be accessed by magical means or through spiritual quests, and many scholars believe it was the inspiration for the Holy Grail. But when using magick, you should take only as much as you need and perhaps a little more; you should not demand riches, perfect love, eternal beauty, youth, a fabulous job and a lottery win or two.

So, magick does not provide a help-yourself time in the sweetshop. The results could be like eating three times more chocolate than you really want and then feeling very sick. You cannot give the gods or goddesses your shopping list and then sit back and wait for Christmas: the divinity is within you to be kindled, and so you need to demand of yourself far higher standards than someone who believes in the forgiveness of sins.

If you do wrong, you cannot just say sorry to the godhead and carry on without putting right the mistakes or at least learning from them. Confession may be good for the soul, but magick demands more than that: you've got to live with the consequences of your deeds, words and thoughts because the power of a blessing or curse may be even greater on the sender than on the intended recipient. You must also ensure that you cannot harm anyone in the process of getting what you want. If you do spells for revenge, then the effects will rebound on you threefold.

Effort And Will-Power

Magick is not like the magic a conjuror uses to bring a rabbit out of a hat: that kind of magic is just a trick, which relies merely on the art of illusion. White magick is much more than that. It is intensely exciting because it means that we can extend the boundaries of possibility, recalling the psychic powers of childhood when we could span dimensions as easily as jumping across a puddle. We can increase our personal magnetism to attract love and luck and regenerate the innate healing abilities both of the human body and the planet.

What magick does not do is provide quick fixes with a twinkling of Stardust. It does not produce a faerie godmother, who turns up with a shimmering frock and a platinum credit card to pay the taxi fare home if the handsome prince is short of money and the faerie coach has crumpled into a pumpkin.

After the candles and incense have burned through and we sit, exhausted but exhilarated after sending our wishes to the cosmos through dancing or chanting, we then have to use every effort, every talent at our disposal, to make those wishes come true on the earthly plane. The psychic kick-start provided by the magick must be used to translate the magical thoughts into actuality. So we must work overtime with new enthusiasm and inspiration to get that project finished, send off to the publisher that typescript that has been gathering dust, do whatever it takes to help ourselves to get the results we desire.

My late mother would always say if I asked for extra funds, 'Money doesn't grow on trees'; and this holds true even in the magical world. Money, success and opportunities have to be generated and earned. We need to add our own will-power to the power we have drawn on.

What is more, under the cosmic profit-and-loss scheme, if we ask for a psychic overdraft, we must give back, if not immediately, then at a later date. So when your finances are better or your immediate troubles are passed, you should make a small donation or give time to a worthwhile cause connected with the area of the spell. This balances up the account whose cosmic energies you tapped into.

Many shamans or witches demand some sort of payment for services, and this is not from avarice, but because all too often if something is not paid for, it is not valued. So be sure that you pay the shaman -especially the cosmic one. This is grass roots magick, but it works.

Magick For Your Needs

'Enough for my needs and a little more' is another of the maxims of this incredibly moral craft, as I mentioned earlier. You would be amazed the number of times I am asked: 'Okay, if you are a witch, how come you can't predict the lottery numbers?' The answer is that it all comes down to need: and do I need a million pounds? True, like any mother of five children I lurch from one financial crisis to the next and when things get really dire, perhaps I could magically bring forward an anticipated payment or attract an unexpected windfall from abroad. But I don't really need a million pounds. And what about the negative effects? If I became incredibly rich, I would almost certainly lose the incentive to write. Credit card bills are a powerful focus for creativity. And, of course, my kids would never get out of their satin-sheeted beds.

Lotteries are generated by human hands primarily for the purpose of making money for their creators. They really are random affairs and so it often happens that it is the wealthy people who win even more money - although that does not necessarily bring happiness.

Casting your needs into the cosmos and trusting they will be met does work, but not if you are expecting magick to compensate for an unnecessary shopping binge. Nor, after a period of overeating and no exercise, can you expect a miracle diet to work so that you shed a stone in two days while still eating chocolate. Spells tend to work best when there is a genuine need, generated by real emotion and linked to determination on a practical level.

The Rules Of Magick

Magick is not beyond or above life, but a natural though special part of your world. It is about not leaving fate, your fate, to any guru or deity, but shaping it with your own innate power, the power that emanates from some higher being, goddess or god, energy source, what you will - the divine spark within us all. There are no absolutes in magick, there is only what works for you and enhances your innate wisdom and spirituality. You should use this book as you would any other DIY guide and adapt its suggestions to suit what is right for you. Choose whatever you feel are the most appropriate herbs, crystals or even entire rituals for your specific purpose.

There are provisos, however. You must always remember that the form, the words and even ultimately the associations of particular oils, incenses and planetary hours are not what really matters. The truly important thing is that you should keep to the basic rules of witchcraft that are quite as strict and twice as hard as any conventional religion. These are rooted in wisdom, compassion, honesty, honour and common sense and are summed up in one short phrase: 'An ye harm none, do what ye will'. Put in modern-day language, this means, quite simply:

'Do whatever you like as long as you don't hurt anyone.'

Simple, did I say? It is in practice incredibly hard to harm none, especially if you are seeking promotion, fighting against an injustice or struggling to survive. But it may help you if you remember the other equally vital law of witchcraft, the Threefold Law. This states that everything you do to others, both good and bad, will be sent back to act on you with three times its intensity and strength. So, if you act always and only with positive intent to help and heal, you will automatically receive all manner of good things and you should become truly wise and happy.

According to the rules of magick, as I said earlier, you cannot be angry, mean or cruel and then expect to say sorry to a deity and have the slate wiped clean. Magick is about taking responsibility for your own actions all the time and that is incredibly onerous. But, on the positive side, the results are equally potent, and if you can learn to tap into the source of light and life and joy, you will amaze yourself and others by what is possible. Thus will your psychic powers also spontaneously unfold and guide you in your everyday world, increasing your spiritual power and wisdom.

The magick is within you, so let it flow and make the world a better place.

A History Of Witchcraft

Witchcraft probably originated about 25,000 years ago in the Palaeolithic era. At that time, humankind and nature were seen as inextricably linked. People acknowledged every rock, tree and stream as deities in the life force, and the Earth as mother, offering both womb and tomb.

Prehistoric Witchcraft

Early man used sympathetic, or attracting, magick - in the form of dances, chants and cave paintings of animals - to attract the herds of animals that provided for the needs of the group, and to bring fertility to humans and animals alike. Hunters would re-enact the successful outcome of a hunt and would carry these energies into the everyday world. Offerings were made to the Mistress of the Herds and later to the Horned God, who was depicted wearing horns or antlers to display his sovereignty over the herds. Animal bones would be buried so that they, like humankind, would enjoy rebirth from the Earth Mother's womb.

Where hunter-gatherers today continue the unbroken tradition that stretches back thousands of years - for example, among the Lapps in the far North of Scandinavia and the Inuits - these rites continue, led by a shaman, or magick man, who negotiates with the Mistress of the Herds or Fish in a trance for the release of the animals.

One of the earliest recorded examples of shamanism is the Dancing Sorcerer. Painted in black on the cave walls of Les Trois Freres in the French Pyrenees, this shamanic figure, which portrays a man in animal skins, dates from about 14000 BC and stands high above the animals that are depicted on the lower walls. Only his feet are human and he possesses the large, round eyes of an owl, the antlers and ears of a stag, the front paws of a lion or bear, the genitals of a wild cat and the tail of a horse or wolf.

By the Neolithic period, which began around 7500 BC and lasted until about 5500 BC, the hunter-gatherer culture had given way to the development of agriculture, and the god evolved into the son-consort of the Earth Mother. He was the god of vegetation, corn, winter and death, who offered himself as a sacrifice each year with the cutting down of the corn, and was reborn at the mid-winter solstice, as the Sun God.

The Neolithic period also saw the development of shrines to the Triple Goddess who became associated with the three phases of the Moon: waxing, full and waning. The Moon provided one of the earliest ways by which people calculated time. Since its cycles coincided with the female menstrual cycle, which ceased for nine moons if a women was pregnant, the Moon became linked with the mysteries first of birth, then of death as it waned, and finally with new life on the crescent. Because the Moon was reborn each month or, as it was thought, gave birth to her daughter each month, it was assumed that human existence followed the same pattern and that the full moon mirrored the mother with her womb full with child.

The full moon was also associated in later ages with romance and passion, originally because this coincided with peak female fertility. Moon magick for the increase of love and fertility is still practised under the auspices of the waxing moon. It was not until about 3,000 years ago that the male role in conception was fully understood in the West, and only then were the Sky Father deities able to usurp the mysteries of the Divine Mother.

A trinity of huge, carved stone goddesses, representing the three main cycles of the Moon, and dating from between 13000 and 11000 BC, was found in France in a cave at the Abri du Roc aux Sorciers at Angles-sur-l'Anglin. This motif continued right through to the Triple Goddess of the Celts, reflecting the lunar cycles as maiden, mother and crone, an image that also appeared throughout the classical world.

Witchcraft And The Early Christians

After the formation of the Christian church, the worship of the old deities and the old ways were banned and the nature festivals supplanted by Christian ones. The Christians were pragmatic, however, and Pope Gregory, who sent St Augustine to England in AD 597, acknowledged that it was simpler to graft the Christian festivals on to the existing festivals of the solstices and equinoxes. So, Easter, for example, was celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox, which is where it remains today.

In the same way, the crosses on the hot cross buns that we eat on Good Friday were originally the ancient astrological signs for the Earth, and were eaten to absorb the power and fertility of Mother Earth. Hot cross buns were still thought to retain their magical qualities until the early decades of the nineteenth century and were said to offer protection against drowning. For this reason, hot cross buns were hung from the roofs of coastal churches where their remains can still be seen. The old ways did not die quickly, however, and so for centuries the two religions co-existed as people gradually transferred their allegiance from the Earth Mother, or Mother Goddess, to the Virgin Mary and the female saints.

The Persecution Of Witches

But in medieval times, two largely political issues brought about the persecution of witches, especially women. The religious emphasis on the sin of Eve and the belief in the inferiority of women had existed since the time of St Paul, but with the rise of an organised male medical profession, women healers who had acted as herbalists and midwives became a threat. This was not least because their skills ensured less painful childbirth, which was considered contrary to the curse of God that the daughters of Eve should bear children in sorrow. So midwives were a prime target for the new persecutions and were often accused of sacrificing babies to the Devil. Given the high rate of infant mortality, this allegation was hard to refute, and a grieving mother might easily blame the midwife for the death of her infant.

At a time of appropriation of common land and the enclosure of smallholdings, especially in Europe, such accusations were a popular way of removing peasants, particularly elderly widows or spinsters, reluctant to give up their land rights, since being found guilty of witchcraft carried the penalty of the seizure of land.

Some researchers have suggested that as late as 1693 in Salem, Massachusetts, the desire to appropriate land was behind at least some of the mass accusations of witchcraft made at the time. One landowner, Giles Corey, was apparently an innocent witness at the trials at first. However, he himself was accused of witchcraft and was pressed to death - a torture in which heavy stones were placed on the victim's chest and which took three days to kill them - rather than confess, for if he had, his property would have been taken from his descendants.

High-ranking practitioners of magick who attempted to conjure demons were usually male, and included both popes and royalty. They generally escaped censure, however. The folk religion of the countryside was an easier target.

In December 1484, the Bull of Pope Innocent VII was published, appointing Heinrich Kramer and Jakob Sprenger as inquisitors against witchcraft and heresy. These two clerics wrote the Malleus Maleficarum, the notorious Hammer of the Witches, which described in lurid detail the tortures that could be used to obtain confessions from suspected witches. In it, they adopted the policy that it was better to kill an innocent person who would be rewarded in heaven by God than to allow a guilty person to remain unpunished.

This book became the best-seller of its time and was quoted to justify the atrocities practised against witches in mainland Europe and Scandinavia. Although torture to obtain a confession was not permitted in England except by royal assent, many inquisitors were very cruel even to young victims, who would eventually confess in the hope of having their interrogation brought to an end.

No one really knows how many people have been put to death for witchcraft. The worst period for witch burnings and hangings in Europe was between the mid-fifteenth and late seventeenth centuries, when the number judicially executed as witches during this period is generally accepted to be about a quarter of a million people. In addition, many more were lynched or hanged unofficially by mobs eager to find a scapegoat to blame for bad harvests or dying cattle. This unhappy era came to be known as the Burning Times.

Matthew Hopkins, who died in 1647, brought about the executions of at least 236 accused witches. He styled himself as Witchfinder General and, with four hired assistants, instigated a reign of torture and terror especially in the eastern counties of England, amassing a huge fortune for himself in the process.

In the colonies of America, the most notorious trials were those at Salem, held between 1692 and 1693. During this period of mass hysteria, 141 people from the town and immediate area were arrested, and 19 were hanged. Even a dog was hanged. Dorcas Good, a four-year-old child, was the youngest victim to be accused of witchcraft and imprisoned. She was released on bail after her mother was hanged, but her younger sibling died in prison. Dorcas was driven insane by her experience.

About three-quarters of all those killed as witches in Europe and Scandinavia were women, mainly lower-class older women, female healers, village herbalists, wise women and midwives. With the death of so many experienced healers and wise women, much knowledge was inevitably lost, and for a time infant mortality increased as male physicians took over the roles of the deposed midwives. But anyone who was different in any way - eccentric, senile or physically deformed - could be accused. Any old woman living alone might be blamed for the deaths of animals, the failure of crops and outbreaks of disease that were in reality caused by poor hygiene and diet, bad weather, human neglect or simply blind Fate.

Of course, this occurred to some extent before the Burning Times. The difference was that now the Church and State were legalising and even encouraging this persecution. Even faeries became associated with witchcraft. The Bean-Tighe, a faerie housekeeper, popular in the mythology of Ireland and Scotland, was said to reside with the village wise woman and assist her with chores; in the worst of the wave of hysteria over witchcraft, if an old women had an immaculate house, it was claimed she had faerie help - and so by implication was consorting with the Devil.

Under torture, even the innocent would admit to the vile deeds suggested by their inquisitors. Many of the confessions now appear to be remarkably uniform and come straight from the pages of the works on demonology, with which the members of the Inquisition would be familiar. Simple village circle dances performed at the time of the full moon and the old rituals performed to bring fertility to both fields and people - with a figure dressed as the Horned God and couples making love in the fields or leaping over a bonfire - became all too easily translatable into evidence of satanic covens. Although the last person executed for witchcraft in England was Alice Molland at Exeter in 1712, it was not until 1951 that the Witchcraft Act of 1736 was repealed and replaced with the Fraudulent Mediums Act.

Those who continued to practise the 'old ways' were usually families who could be trusted not to betray the secrets, although the fires of the Lughnassadh (the first corn harvest) continued in remote areas until well into the late nineteenth century and are being revived by pagans as community celebrations, especially in the USA. The secret family covens would pass the traditions down through the matriarchal line, usually by word of mouth. Those who could write, recorded their spells and rituals in 'Books of Shadows' - so-called partly because of the secrecy required to write and protect them. These were usually buried or burned with the witch on her death, or on rare occasions were handed on to the eldest daughter.

Witchcraft In Modern Times

By the late twentieth century in the USA, witchcraft had been recognised as a valid religion by the American Supreme Court and accepted by the American army, but other countries, including the UK, are not so tolerant. What is more, in many lands, especially among smaller communities, misunderstanding and prejudice still persist. In the UK, for example, Wiccans who practise openly and have children are sometimes regarded with suspicion by some health professionals.

My dear friend Lilian, a white witch and healer, recalls how one woman passing her home would always cross herself and walk on the other side of the street. I myself once volunteered to read the runes at the local school fete to raise much-needed funds. I was told in no uncertain terms by a member of the Parents' Committee that the chairman of the school governors would not have any truck with the occult. I was asked to bake Easter rabbit biscuits instead, but since my domestic skills are far behind my divinatory ones, I declined.

My Own Witchery

People started calling me a witch long before I adopted the title, which I did as a result of a book I wrote in 1996 called Every Woman a Witch (though it must be said that men as well as women can harness what are entirely natural powers).

When the book was published, some people in the media joked about my childhood in England's industrial Midlands - not considered a place where magick or spirituality can flourish. It seemed that they could not accept the fact that my spells focused on the mundane issues of how people might obtain the money to mend a leaking roof or find their own inner harmony amidst the clutter and noise of a family, rather than on more ethereal rituals celebrated by fey maidens wafting around in flower-filled gardens.

But, in fact, if I were to make any claim at all to authenticity (not that authenticity matters as much as sincerity of purpose), it would be through those Midland roots, which are connected to what is said to be the most ancient order of witches known. At the turn of the twentieth century, my father's family were canal people and my father grew up at a time when the boats were still a major form of transport for coal and iron. Some of these Midland canal people were known as 'water witches' because they practised a religion based on the sacredness of Water and Earth. Their symbol was the six-spoked Sun wheel, painted on their boats. This sign was once thought to be a ship's wheel, but this is improbable, since canal boats have large rudders.

Unlike the Romany gypsies, the Midland water witches were descended from the Friesian seafarers of the Netherlands and 1876 a book entitled Oer Linda was published, named after the family who had been custodians of the wisdom since the sixth century BC. Some insist the manuscript is a forgery and that the existing version dates only from the thirteenth century. But the authentic water gypsies knew their lore by inheritance rather than from a book, and the similarities are remarkable. Ritual was practised by the canal people within a triple magical square, each square joined by four lines and constructed from wood known as 'the mill'.

Only the women entered the sacred area, under the leadership of a senior female water witch, though the chief male, known as the Master, summoned the entity to assist in the ritual. If you would like to read more about this, you will find some recommended books listed in Further Reading, page 301.

Certainly, I can recall two terrifyingly swarthy aunts who commanded the family, and my father recounted many superstitions and much canal lore when I was young. This included the tale of a terrifying character called Kit Crewbucket, whose ghostly form would appear on a boat or be seen in the water before it went through a dark tunnel. Canal life has a whole mythology, much now lost as the old working boats have been replaced by weekend leisure traffic. You will find more on the details of these old superstitions in my book Ghost Encounters (Blandford, 1998).

Wicca

Wicca, as it is performed today, is not modern witchcraft per se, but a contemporary neo-pagan religion. It is, however, one of the major forms of witchcraft. It began in its modern form with the teachings of Gerald Gardner after the repeal of the Witchcraft Act in 1951, though its descent can be traced to the ancient nature religions. This traditional method of Wicca is quite formal, with covens using ritual tools and learned invocations emphasising the Goddess and her representative, the High Priestess, as their head. The Goddess is the archetype or source energy of the ultimate feminine power or principle. All the named goddesses represent aspects of particular qualities of the Goddess in different cultures. Her consort is the Horned God and his representative in the coven is the High Priest. Though each coven is autonomous, formal Wicca follows a system of degrees of learning and does not permit self-initiation. The High Priest initiates the female members and the High Priestess the male. They celebrate eight sabbats, or seasonal celebrations.

There are, however, numerous forms of Wicca and of witchcraft, many of which draw on ancient traditions. For example, the feminist Dianic Wicca, founded in the 1970s, is spiritually descended from the nature religion of the Italian witches who worshipped Diana as the Triple Goddess of the Moon from about 500 BC.

Since the 1970s, less formal practices and covens have evolved, which may or may not have a structured learning system, and these create their own spells and ceremonies, rather than using an existing system, such as that recorded in Gardner's own Book of Shadows, revised by his High Priestess Doreen Valiente. These individual ceremonies are recorded in books created to reflect the evolving rituals of each coven and its own emphases. This method is much more conducive to solitary practitioners who can incorporate magick into their domestic and working lives.

Wiccan Rituals And Ethics

Wiccans believe in polarity rather than a single godhead, both in magick and in life. Evil is therefore not a separate demonic force to be eradicated, and the darker aspects of life emanate as a result of alienation from the natural order of things. However, even those things that are bad can act as catalysts for change; death and endings are as much part of the cycle of life as are birth and beginnings. Dark and light, night and day, positive and negative, destruction and creation are two sides of the same coin, a principle that finds expression in Eastern Taoism and underpins the ancient Chinese / Ching (The Book of Changes), often used for divination. Negativity can be transformed into healing energies through positive ritual.

The Goddess is the source of all creation, from whom, in the original virgin birth, her son-consort, the Horned God, came. The Horned God and the Goddess are the creative male and female principles that act and react, not in opposition to each other, but as complementary and necessary parts of a whole. There are variations on this idea within the teachings of Wicca. Some traditions consider the Goddess to be of greater significance than her male counterpart.

Others regard them as equal, assuming different aspects according to the season and ritual: she as the Earth or Moon deity, ruler of the summer months, he as the Sun or Corn God, ruler of winter and Lord of the Underworld after his death.

Along with other nature deities, the Horned God became demonised with the advent of Christianity, and the Goddess was either depicted as a wicked witch or downgraded to the status of a faerie. Thus the Celtic warrior goddess Maeve became the faerie Mab, described thus by Mercutio in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet:

She is the fairy's midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
On the fore-finger of an alderman.

Contrary to popular belief, Wiccans do not 'hex' (cast curses) or seek revenge, although some Dutch and Pennsylvanian witches consider that it is justifiable to 'bind' those who harm children or animals or actively promote evil or corruption. Wiccans prefer to rely on the principles of natural justice that under karmic principles will redress the balance, either in this lifetime or the next.

The chief moral codes are the Wiccan Rede and the Threefold Law. The Wiccan Rede states simply: 'An it harm none, do what you will'. This deceptively straightforward statement refers to the self as well as others. I have already mentioned the Threefold Law whereby magical intent - and, many believe, actions and thoughts - return to the sender with three times the intensity.

Because people are responsible for their own actions, everyone -witch and non-witch alike - can choose to do good or evil. Many witches and Wiccans believe that they are reincarnated in some form and also that the results of past deeds can follow a person from one life to the next.

You can compare this to the concept of karma found in Hinduism and Buddhism, which says that the thoughts and deeds we accumulate in our lifetime may either progress us towards spiritual perfection - if good - or indicate, if bad, that we need to learn lessons in subsequent lives to right our mistakes or attitudes. Other witches say there is an afterlife, spent on another plane of existence. Known as Summerland, Avalon or Valhalla, and akin to Tir na n'Og, the Celtic Otherworld of eternal youth, it is a place where joy and light are experienced.

Reincarnation, on the other hand, is a form of bodily transformation. Some may choose to be reborn in another body, perhaps as an animal or bird, sometimes to teach or to complete unfinished work. For example, Merlin, the magician, was believed to have been incarnated in several lifetimes and to have entered willing bodies, including the sixth-century bard Taliesin.

Wiccan rituals are held at esbats and sabbats. An esbat is a monthly coven meeting, traditionally held 13 times a year during each full moon. The eight sabbats are described in the chapter Seasons and Festivals (see page 245), and celebrate the eight major divisions of the Celtic year on the solstices, the equinoxes and the old Fire festivals. These festivals mark the coming of early spring, the start of the Celtic summer, the first corn harvest and the start of the Celtic winter.

There are also many lovely ceremonies to mark the transitions in the life cycle, such as handfastings, or weddings, and rites of passage to welcome recently deceased Wiccans to the familiar circle whenever they wish to draw near.

Solitary Witchcraft

There are many reasons for performing witchcraft alone: your personal circumstances or the location of your home may mean that you cannot travel to a group, or you may live in an area where there are few others who share your interests. Many witches like myself choose to practise alone, drawing in my family and close friends to celebrate with me on the festival days. Most solitary witches initiate themselves, though some traditions, such as the Saxon Seat Wicca founded by Raymond Buckland in the USA, do admit solitary witches.

Indeed, solitary practitioners are said by some to have been witches in seven previous lifetimes and to possess within them all they need to know about the Craft. Truth or myth, no one should underestimate the number of private practitioners who do work alone, some coming together occasionally in small, informal groups.

Solitary witches can use ceremonial magick very successfully, but many do follow the less formal folk magick, linked to the land and the seasons, that was practised by our ancestors in their homes. For this reason, some call themselves hedge-witches, from the times when a hedge, often of hawthorn, bounded the witch's home, and it is sometimes said that they are walking on the hedge between two worlds. Such a witch may be in the tradition of the village wise women who knew about herbs and about the cycles of nature and used the implements of their kitchens rather than ceremonial tools.

She may also be gifted in divination, in spell-casting and in astral projection. Usually a woman, but occasionally a man, the solitary witch practises eclectic magick drawn from a variety of traditions. In the Further Reading section on page 301, you will find some suggested books in which you can read about some of these different traditions.

Those expert in brews and potions are also called kitchen witches. Indeed, many of our grandmothers and great-grandmothers who possessed a remarkable intuition, read the tea leaves and made herbal concoctions, were jokingly called witches by their own families - and were just that!

All the rituals in this book can be carried out by a lone witch. You have your choice of groves, stone circles, the ocean shore, your garden or balcony, where you can connect with the powers of nature and work unobtrusively. Whether you are working alone, or in a group, or coven, you will share the same aims and will need much the same equipment.

Tools And Treasures

You will need to collect some basic tools for your spells and rituals. If you are working in a group, these can be kept either by different members or in a safe place and brought out at meetings. They need not be at all expensive. Magick was traditionally carried out with the equipment of the home: the broom for sweeping the magical circle was the besom used for sweeping dirt (and negativity) out of the door and was stored with its bristles upwards to protect the home.

The cauldron was the iron cooking pot on the black kitchen range that served to heat the home as well as for cooking. Items often can be gathered from around your home: for example, a silver bell, a crystal bowl or a large wine glass. Attractive scarves or throws make ideal altar cloths. Car boot sales are an excellent source of magical equipment. Keep your magical tools separate from your everyday household equipment in a large box or chest, so that you can keep them charged with positive energies for magical and healing work.

Some items, such as the pentacle (see page 189), you can make from clay, and herbs can be grown in pots or in gardens and chopped in a mortar and pestle. Fresh herbs have more immediate energies than dried, though the latter are better in sachets and poppets.

Always bear in mind that the magick is in you, not in your tools, and a wand cut from a fallen hazel or willow branch in the right hands can be more magical that the most elaborate crystal-tipped one purchased from a New Age store.

Spell Casting

Spell casting is part of some, but by no means all, Wiccan activities. Most spells are carried out with the purpose of changing someone's life for the better or sending healing energies to others. For example, love magick could, if you wish to bring love into your life, be focused on increasing the love in the world, thereby attracting love in its many forms, and not just romance. More specifically, you may wish to attract one special person, to deepen an existing relationship or bring back a straying partner. For this, however, you would need to build into the ritual a proviso that this happening should be right for that person as well as for yourself.

Modern witchcraft is all too aware of the need not to infringe on the free will of others. As I have mentioned, binding or banishing spells work by lessening a negative influence or by protecting potential victims, rather than by attacking a person, however destructive they may be.

A Book of Shadows

Whether you are working alone or in a coven, you might like to start a Book of Shadows, a record of rituals that have worked well, names of those who need healing and herbal brews and incenses that are especially evocative. In time, this will become a source not only of reference but also of inspiration to you. Books of Shadows are so-called because early witches kept them secret for fear of persecution. They were often burned or buried with witches who died.

You may decide to have two Books of Shadows, one as a permanent record, traditionally copied out by hand, and the other an ongoing working almanac in which you note moon phases for the month. If you are working in a group that includes someone with a mathematical bent, they can calculate and note here the times of the day at which particular planets and angels hold sway (see the tables on pages 235 and 239 for methods of calculation). You can also note the phases of the Moon. I find a diary section of a Filofax serves well, but if this information is kept on computer, then copies can be printed out if required for other members.

Some covens keep a single main Book of Shadows in a safe place. From this, members - especially new ones - can copy rituals and magical lore in their own smaller Books of Shadows, which can then be handed down in future times to any member of their family who shows an interest in such matters as they reach adulthood.

Apart from the suggestions I have made for possible rituals and books you can read, there are countless Books of Shadows on the Internet that can act as inspiration. There are no rules set in stone; rituals carried out in love and even laughter, perhaps when a candle will not light, are far more effective than the most elaborate ceremony in which everyone is so focused on getting it right.

If the ritual rather than the intent is all, the power becomes dissipated and anxiety blocks the innate magick we all experienced as children. Magick works best when we can leave behind our innate demands for precision and order. The more formal and lengthy rituals may act as a powerful aid to focus, but they may, equally, ignore the importance of learning through experience and the heart.

Witchcraft Within Covens

A coven is a group of members of a unit of witchcraft and, in fact, can number anything from two to 13, or even more. The number 13 is traditionally designated by the 13 moon cycles that make up one year, and 13 is the number of the Goddess (hence it became unlucky under Christian influence). Gardenerian covens generally number 13. Some covens are affiliated formally or informally to specific traditions, but they increasingly unite for organisational as well as legal and political strength, particularly in Australia and parts of the USA. On-line covens are also springing up and they are an excellent way for solitary practitioners to gain support and information. Reliable, bona fide covens will offer the same safeguards as any ordinary coven (see page 306), but of course the normal restraints you should show on contacting any Internet site will apply.

The beginning of the path to learning about Wicca within a formal coven is usually marked by a dedication. Initiation, after a year and a day, or a similar recognised magical period, will confer formal entry. Further different levels of knowledge and responsibility may also be involved, for example elevation to a second or third degree, so that eventually initiates can begin their own covens if they wish.

Starting Your Own Coven

You can start a coven without subscribing to any particular form of Wicca or witchcraft. Some of the most spiritual covens are those that do not have anyone in the role of High Priestess or Priest, but instead take it in turns to organise the meetings and rituals and take responsibility for any events. However, if you do want to follow a particular tradition.

Have a preliminary meeting in which you can plan for about six meetings ahead, deciding on the topics, the different venues and equipment you will need to buy. Using a good almanac and Moon diary, you can arrange to meet on the crescent moon some months to light candles and make wishes as well as on the full moon and on the major festivals. You may arrange a special evening also for healing work, especially if this is an area that you would like to develop collectively.

You can hold separate meetings for planning, but if you wish to make practical decisions at a meeting before an esbat, always carry out a ritual to strengthen harmony after such discussions as Earthly issues can intrude on even the most spiritual gathering. Another good time is afterwards when you are eating and drinking and so are relaxed and full of good feelings. Even then, have a short collective rite before you separate.

You can decide what equipment you need to buy at these planning meetings and one person can act as co-ordinator. Set up a joint fund for candles, crystals, incense, etc., and appoint one person to check and replenish supplies. Large supermarkets have an amazing array of candles, incenses and oils, as do gift shops and herbal pharmacies, while on the Internet there are a vast number of New Age mail-order outlets. I have also listed some in the back of this book.
Appoint one person to organise a specific festival and to act as High Priest or Priestess for that occasion. Hierarchies rarely work in less formal groups of friends. Remember, too, that sometimes the most reticent member may prove the most dynamic at singing chants and raising energies.

You may discover that particular members have special gifts -perhaps for leading the dancing or creating spontaneous rituals - but it is important that the most forward members do not take all the leading parts, leaving others to polish the chalice and sweep up the incense.

When you admit new members, you may decide to allow an initial time before the person decides to commit themselves -sometimes even the nicest people can bring personality mismatches that can make harmony difficult, even when dealing with rituals and with goodwill on all sides. You may also find that one personality automatically assumes leadership and if this does not prove beneficial, it needs to be tackled with humour and sensitivity if you are not to have a quasi-deity in your midst.

You may wish to choose a particularly wise member to look after newcomers, explain basic rituals and suggest reading material and meditations and visualisations that can be done at home. Other members may undertake to research aspects of the Craft that interest them, or collect information about deities and then run informal teachings sessions perhaps on a special evening. One person may undertake to update the Book of Shadows regularly.

Joining A Coven

Before joining a coven, consider what you are looking for. Some covens emphasise set ritual and ceremony and a learning path that can take years rather than months, along which you progress in an orderly fashion, gradually building up a great store of wisdom and experience and allowing your psychic powers to unfold slowly - is that what you want? It is important also to establish what you may be able to give to the coven. Can you devote the necessary evenings for the coven, or do you have a packed schedule and many commitments, which prevent you from setting aside a regular time?

Perhaps you may want to explore magick more informally with like-minded people where the emphasis is on spontaneity. It is important that you choose a coven that operates in a manner with which you feel comfortable.

Some modern covens do practise sky-clad, or naked, but I would advise you to avoid this, as this can make some people feel very self-conscious and needs very strong parameters to prevent ceremony from spilling into everyday relationships. It can also detract from the spirituality of the ritual. If sexual attraction or spontaneous sexual fantasies are allowed to arise between members of a group, this can make ritualistic contact very difficult, especially where members are in relationships with people outside the coven.

The Sacred Marriage, which involves ritual sex between God and Goddess, is an important part of seasonal celebrations. However, modern covens often celebrate the ritual coupling of Earth and Sky by plunging a knife into a chalice of water, or by the use of physical sex carried out in private, by an established couple, out of sight of the coven. In this way, any very human complications may be prevented from creeping into the ritual.

It is also possible to come across well-meaning but totally inexperienced groups who attempt to practise the kind of work that a medium, white witch or healer would take years even to approach. Unfortunately, it is all too common for lovers of occult movies to set themselves up as gurus and wreak unintended havoc on the psychological and psychic well-being of others.

You should be sure, when you choose a coven, that its members are kind and gentle and do not indulge in spirit summoning or spirit possession, even for trance purposes, unless under the supervision of an expert leader who has benefited from a very long training. If these warnings sound a little dire, it is because witchcraft involves very personal and spiritual experiences; it is also, by nature, a very hidden practice, and this means that it may be hard to tell the genuine from the charlatans.

Beware also of strangers or acquaintances who regale you with supposed Wiccan practices or offer to do spells for you, usually for money. True Wiccans are among the most tolerant of people and would never seek to impose their beliefs on others and are usually incredibly reticent with people they do not know.

In the meantime, it is wise to follow an indirect route to find your coven, perhaps through 'green' organisations and reputable New Age stores, or by attending workshops and celebrations arranged by pagan federations and healing organisations, and talking to people there. You can also visit healing festivals and buy established pagan magazines. Take your time until everything feels right and you have answered all the questions you need to ask.

No reputable coven will be in a hurry to sign you up - the reverse is usually the case. You certainly do not want to find yourself signing in blood, being initiated by having sex with the High Priest or Priestess or promising to fall on a sword should you leave the coven or betray their secrets. Nor should you pay huge sums of money in advance for training; for membership of an established pagan organisation, yes, but these tend to ask for remarkably little. Even a full Druidic or Goddess training, for example, costs no more than a few hundred pounds over several years. Most covens and healing groups expect you only to pay for your expenses.

I hope that, one day, joining a coven will be totally open, like joining any other organisation, and then the nasty elements who hide behind the name of magick will be exposed for the frauds they are.

Children And Wicca

Many people are suspicious of witches and all the more so if the practitioner has young children. They seem to fear that witches will exert some kind of evil influence on innocent minds. In my experience, nothing could be further from the truth. Children of Wiccans are almost invariably kind to animals and aware of environmental issues.

Some groups have family celebrations and no responsible parent would introduce their children to any experiences before they were ready, least of all Wiccans to whom life is sacred and children the blessing of the Goddess.

Lisa, a Wiccan from Berkshire, describes how her daughter has grown up:

'Becoming a mother has touched me more deeply than I could ever have imagined. I am sure that every mother, pagan or otherwise, has felt and appreciated the magical connection between mother and child: eyes and hearts locked together during a breast feed; waking to silence in the middle of the night, only to hear the baby wake and cry out moments later; being able to recognise one's own child's cry in a room full of noisy babies.

'Being a pagan has brought all of these experiences into a spiritual focus that has brought me closer to the Goddess in a way that I don't think could have happened if I hadn't chosen to become a parent. It has allowed me to experience the Mother aspect first-hand; it gave new meaning to the moon cycles of a woman, it allowed me to become the microcosm of the great Earth Mother as I watched my own body grow and give birth to a new life. It gave me the protective instinct of Sekhmet [the lion-headed Egyptian goddess of fertility], when I realised that I would fight to the death to protect my child. It showed me the true and profound power of the female body; to create and sustain life within the body, to bring forth that life and nurture it with a perfect food made by the body.

All of these are precious gifts to me as they are all a reflection of my deepest spiritual belief and faith. When my daughter Skye is older, I will share with her what I have learned. For now, we just walk in the forest or along the river and my partner Jim and I give her the opportunity to explore her environment. She already has an image of faeries, elves and other magical beings and we try to encourage her to see the spirit in the tree or in the running water. We collect stones and leaves just to look at and admire their colour or shape. Some we take home, but most we leave where we find them. Skye loves these adventures and I am so happy to be part of her experience.

'On the sabbats, we and our friends celebrate with seasonal games, activities, myths and feasts, and the children in our lives are always eager and excited to join in. Skye is still a bit young for much of it, but even a two-year-old can dance around a maypole, pick berries, plant seeds and help bake bread or biscuits. It's exciting to think that the Wheel of the Year will have deep significance to her; that Samhain and Beltain will hold the same excitement that Christmas held for me as a child.

'I don't know if Skye will ultimately choose Wicca as her spiritual path, but I feel that growing up in a pagan home will give her the best tools for making choices in her life. She will learn to be aware of her environment and will feel a part of it, not above or outside it. Hopefully, this will inspire her to care for it and for others around her, and to encourage others to do the same. Wicca is self-governing, and I hope that Skye will have integrity and confidence in herself.

'Having a goddess as well as a god in her life will certainly give her a better spiritual balance than either Jim or I had as children. I wish for her to be strong and sure of her self, and not to be afraid to challenge or be challenged. Paganism certainly provides a framework for this, and regardless of the spiritual path she chooses, I believe that growing up with these values will help her immeasurably in her life.

'She is a perfect child of the gods: unspoiled and innocent of the limitations humankind have created for themselves. I believe that my greatest gift to her would be to teach her to stand with one foot in each world, the magical and the mundane, so that she will live her life fully and in true happiness, and perhaps inspire others towards the Craft.'

I have said that magick comes from within the individual, as a spontaneous expression of a higher force. This is not to suggest that it is entirely haphazard, however. In this chapter we shall look briefly at some general aspects of its theory and practice. At the end, I have included a simple ritual to illustrate some of these points.

Folk Magick And Ritual Magick

Whether you are casting a simple spell, using items from your kitchen cupboard, or performing a complicated group ceremony, the source of the power behind it is the same. Every spell or ritual involves channelling the life force that runs through all forms of existence and transforming it into higher spiritual energies. These spiritual powers include our own evolved self, which some say is formed through many lifetimes, and the higher divine cosmic energies, such as a supreme god or goddess, or, more abstractly, some sort of divine light, spirit and goodness.

Magick for healing, it must be said, is not so far removed from the prayers of conventional religions, whose positive influence is well documented. The same effect can be created whatever the focus or faith, and I know from personal experience that positive results can be achieved when a Wiccan coven sends healing light to a sick member or a friend.

For hundreds of years, angels have been invoked in magick, just as in religion, both for protection and to act as vehicles for healing or positive energies. Practitioners of white magick may focus on particular aspects of a god or goddess figure, or benign power, personified through different deities from many age and cultures.

When I began practising magick ten years ago, I found it very artificial to invoke a goddess who belonged to another time and culture. However, I have since found that such symbols do hold a great deal of power and therefore can concentrate specific energies. I have listed in Chapter 4 a number of deities that seem to be especially potent in ritual or as a focus for meditation. But if you do not find them helpful, there is no need to use them.

Most rituals are related to the basic human needs for health, love, fertility and prosperity. In Chapter 13, Seasons and Festivals, I describe the major solar, lunar and agricultural festivals that formed a focus for attracting abundance and increase to the land, animals, crops and people, tapping into the life force that connected them all.

In past time, the well-being of the planet was considered to be the responsibility of peasant as well as king through paying tributes and enacting age-old ceremonies to invoke the necessary energies for the Wheel of the Year to turn. So individual prosperity or fertility was attained both through private spells and charms and by sending positive energies to the Earth and the cosmos and, in a sense, receiving bounty as those beams were amplified and returned to the sender.

Folk or domestic magick was an important part of people's everyday lives right up until the nineteenth century. In rural areas, the implements used in and around the home and garden could be easily adapted for use in magick; and for town-dwellers, flowers and herbs could be gathered on a day in the country or grown on allotments or in urban back gardens.
In the days before central heating systems, the focus of the home was the family hearth. Focus is Latin for 'hearth' and from Ancient Rome to China, the household deities have always had their place, being offered morsels of food, nectar and flowers and consulted on family happenings.

It was believed that the ancestors as well as the living gathered around the family hearth, and so it became a natural focus for magick. The witches' cauldron started off as the iron cooking pot that hung over the fire (such pots are still used in country regions of Europe - I saw one for sale quite recently in the market in Rouen in France).

Herbal brews were not only created to cure coughs and colds but also, with magical words spoken over them, transformed into potions to bring a desired lover, employment or an unexpected helping hand in times of sorrow. A grandmother would put any small coins she could spare into a money pot and warm it near the fire to 'incubate' the money into sufficient to mend the roof or buy new coats for the winter.

A young wife eager to be pregnant would secretly prick a fertilised hen's egg with a needle on the night of the full moon immediately before making love. Such actions were quite a normal part of life, a way of tapping into the same energies that made the cattle fertile and the corn set seed.

Farmers would leave milk for the faeries that they might bring good fortune, young girls recited love charms while planting herbs in soil embedded with a would-be lover's footprint. On Hallowe'en, housewives opened their windows and placed garlic on the window ledge so that only the good family dead might enter and take shelter from the cold.

This simple folk magick, rather than ceremonial magick, forms the basis for the majority of spells. As above, so below', the words of the semi-divine father of magick, Hermes Trismegistos, may originally have evolved from popular magick that is practised in many different cultures around the world to this day. They are certainly as applicable today as they ever were.

Whatever the aim of your magick may be, if you look around your home, garden, workshop or even office, you have the necessary tools for the spells you require. What is more, rooted as they are in domesticity and the daily world, these implements could not be safer: fruit, vegetables, salt, sand, seeds, flowers, coins, pots and jars, together with your crystals, candles, incense and oils, and perhaps a few coloured scarves or ribbons to tie knots. Whether your spell is small and personal, or vast and universal, whether you are working to attract love, harmony in the home, prosperity or fertility for yourself or loved ones, for people in the wider environment or the planet, these are all you need.

Thoroughly Modern Magick

Not everything you use for magick must be of ancient origin, however. Even your computer can be a magical tool, used to draw magick circles. You can draw figures to represent lovers, estranged family members or yourself and a baby you hope to conceive and draw them closer with your mouse until they join. You can draw a square on the screen and enclose in it anything you wish to bind from harming you, perhaps the name of a destructive habit or a malicious person, and send it to the recycle bin where the energies will be transformed.

Alternatively, you can reduce the size of a word or image symbolising something you wish to rid yourself of, and as you make it disappear from your computer screen, create sympathetic banishing magick to remove it from your life. You can attract objects or people by filling your screen with them, then print out the images on the screen and burn the paper in a candle flame to get the energies moving. You can even e-mail empowerments to yourself!

Different Kinds Of Magick

What is certain is that whether folk customs or more formal ceremonies are used, the underlying principles of all types of white magick are the same throughout the world, and can be categorised under the following headings.

Sympathetic Magick

This involves performing a ritual that imitates what you would desire in the outer world, so bringing on to the material plane a desire or need or wish from the inner or thought plane. This is done using appropriate tools and symbols. So in a spell for the gradual increase of money, for example, you might grow a pot of basil seedlings (a herb of prosperity) and light a green candle.

Contagious Magick

This involves transferring and absorbing power directly from a creature or an object, such as an animal, a bird, a crystal, a metal, the wax of an empowered candle or even the Earth itself. This principle is central to the potency of talismans and amulets; for example, traditionally, hunters might wear the pelt of a lion to bring them the beast's courage and ferocity. So, by the same token, if you wished to become pregnant, you might make love in a newly ripening cornfield (near the edge so as not to damage the crops); alternatively, you might try one of the ancient power sites of Earth, close to the phallus of the chalk Cerne Abbas fertility giant that is carved in the hillside at Cerne in Dorset.

Attracting Magick

This type of magick embraces both sympathetic and contagious magick to bring you something you desire. For example, you could scatter pins across a map between the places you and a lover live and with a magnet collect them, while reciting:

Come love, come to me, love to me come, if it is right to be.

You would then place your pins in a silk, heart-shaped pincushion or a piece of pink silk, also in the shape of a heart, and leave it on the window ledge on the night of the full moon, surrounded by a circle of rose petals.

Banishing And Protective Magick

This involves driving away negative feelings, fears and influences by casting away or burying a focus of the negativity. For example, you might scratch on a stone a word or symbol representing some bad memories you wished to shed, and cast the stone into fast-flowing water. Alternatively, you could bury it, together with quick-growing seeds or seedlings to transform the redundant into new life.

Binding Magick

Binding magick has two functions, one to bind a person in love or fidelity and the other to bind another from doing harm. This may be done in various ways, using knots in a symbolic thread, or by creating an image of the object or person and wrapping it tightly. But all binding can be problematic in terms of white magick, for whatever method you use, you are very definitely interfering with the person's karma, or path of fate.

However, it is tempting to think that if someone is hurting animals, children, the sick or elderly, you may be justified in binding them. And what if your partner has deserted you on the whim of passion, taking all the money and leaving you and your children penniless? These are very real dilemmas; in dealing with them, I have always performed such rituals adding the proviso"... if it is right to do so.'

I believe that it is essential to include that phrase in all binding magic rituals.

My friend Lilian, a white witch and healer, used to wrap the perpetrators of crimes in a mantle of pink and visualise them in a sea of tranquillity so that they might be diverted from a destructive course of action. However, I usually cast a protective barrier around the victims and I think this is the best answer to a very difficult problem. We must harm none, not even the evil, hard though it is, and we should leave the punishment to natural justice.

In my own experience, few who find happiness at the expense of others achieve more than temporary, superficial pleasure, and in time they do seem to end badly. We should never use magick in order to act as judge and jury. After all, some who do act badly do so only out of unhappiness or ignorance.

What Are Spells?

There is a clear difference between spells and rituals. 'Spell' tends to be the term used for the less formal folk magick that, unlike ceremonial magick, is not so rigid about such things as circle casting and the use of specific tools, though it may be based in forms and use words that date back hundreds of years. Our kitchen witch ancestors swept clean their magical areas and danced in circles under the Moon or round sacred fires on one of the old festivals to bring fertility to land and people, but most of their magick was done by firelight or the light of smoking tallow candles in a cramped living room or in muddy fields.

It is a serious mistake to regard informal spells as inferior to the kind of magick in which the appropriate planetary hour is carefully chosen, incense is burned, the tools laid out in the correct position and the names of all the archangels recited without a mistake. Both have a place and even if there were an actual deity watching the minutiae of the ritual, he or she would be less interested in whether a correct elemental pentagram was drawn than if the intent and the heart were pure and the need was genuine.

The Purposes Of White Magick

There are three distinct and yet related types of magick, all of which can be used informally, in spells, or formally, in ceremonial rituals.

Personal Magick

As I have already said, it is quite permissible to use magick to empower your personal needs, though this does not bring lottery wins or the object of your romantic fantasies delivered gift-wrapped to your door. Magick has traditionally encompassed material needs, and spirituality is very difficult to achieve at a time when there is a crisis of physical need or emotional shortfall in your life. For example, in days when having sufficient food and heating was an ongoing concern, abundance for the coming winter months was a prime focus of Mabon, the harvest festival at the autumn equinox. Many kitchen witches would carry out private spells using the equinox energies, to empower talismans and cast spells to ensure their own family would survive the inhospitable months of winter.

In the modern world, concerns are different, but no less urgent, and for many of us still centre on the home, family and employment. We need money to fulfil obligations, help for a child who is studying for exams or perhaps suffering bullying, a partner to share joys and sorrows, better health for ourselves and our loved ones. There are subjects for spells for yourself, your partner or lover, your children, close relatives and friends. They are usually the strongest in terms of emotion and so can be very simply carried out at home, in the garden or on the balcony, often with everyday items.

Magick For Others

You may, however, wish to carry out rituals for people or groups with whom you are less intimately involved, who are vulnerable or to whom you relate in a caring, social or a professional capacity. These might include the people in your workplace, a sick neighbour, or a colleague you know is unhappy or worried; or perhaps it could be an animal park or environmental project that is under threat or needs help financially, legally or practically or even a local disaster.

As you send out loving or healing energies, so you will receive them in return, often in unexpected ways or perhaps at some future time when you yourself are vulnerable. This is part of the cosmic banking system and in practice there is considerable overlap between this and personal spells.

Magick To Increase Positivity

These are the least focused kind of spells. They are used to send out energies to whoever needs them, for example of love, happiness, health or abundance. They may be for an endangered species, a war-torn land, a country in need of water or the planet itself. If a large number of people do send positive energies either to a large-scale project or into the cosmos, followed where possible by practical help or support, then this can really make a difference. Again, by sending out healing you will receive in return threefold healing in indirect but powerful ways.

The Four Stages Of Magick

Although there are many different kinds of magick, in practice all spells and more formal magical rituals tend to follow four stages, though informal spells may combine one or more steps.

The Focus

This defines the purpose of the ritual or spell and is generally represented either by a symbol or a declaration of intent. These could take the form of a candle etched with the name or zodiacal glyph of a desired lover, a little silver key charm or an actual key in a spell to find a new home, a picture of an ideal holiday location, and so on.

In a sense, this part of the spell begins before the actual rite and involves verbalising the purpose. As you define it in a few words or a symbol, you may realise that what you are really seeking lies beyond the immediate external purpose. Spending time at this stage is quite vital as it is said we tend to get what we ask for, so we should take care to ask for what would truly fulfil our potential, rather than what we think we need immediately.

If you are working alone, hold the symbol while speaking words that summarise the purpose of the magick. You may be surprised to discover that it is your wise psyche speaking, guiding the intention towards what you truly need or desire - and afterwards you realise it could have been no other way.

If you are working in a group, a declaration of intent, created by the group collectively before the ritual, is a good way of focusing the energies. After the initial circle is cast, the symbol can be handed round while the person leading the ritual speaks the intention. Alternatively, each person can add his or her special interpretation while holding the symbol and so the declaration is worked as part of the ritual. As others are holding the symbol, visualise it within your own hands; this provides the transition to the next stage of the ritual.

Concentration is the key to this first stage.

The Action

This is the stage where you use actions to endow the symbol with magical energies. This is part of the continuous process of translating your magical thoughts and words from the first stage, the inner plan, to manifestation as the impetus for success or fulfilment in the everyday world. These energies amplify your own. For example, passing incense, representing the Air element, over the symbol activates the innate power of rushing winds that cut through inertia and bring welcome change, harnessing the energies of wide skies in which there are no limits, soaring like eagles, carrying your wishes to the Sun. You can unite other elemental forces by using the appropriate tools and substances.

Similarly, you might begin a chant, a medley of goddess names or a mantra of power linked with the theme, or a slow spiral dance around the circle. You could try drumming or tying knots either on individual cords or in a group, creating a pattern with the longer cords of fellow witches, perhaps looped around a tree.

The action of the magick is limited only by the environment and your imagination. You may find that improvisation enters quite spontaneously as the energies unfold and spiral.

Movement is the key to this stage.

Raising The Power

This is the most powerful part of the magick, as the magical energies are amplified and the power of the ritual carries you along joyously. Ecstasy forms a major part of shamanic ceremony and the old mystery religions; it is akin to the exhilaration you experience riding on a carousel or running barefoot along a sandy shore with the wind lifting your hair.

You might repeat a chant of power, dance faster, drum with greater intensity, bind your cords in ever more intricate patterns or add more knots if working alone, visualising a cone of spiralling, coloured light, rising and increasing in size and intensity as this stage progresses.

Stretch your arms and hands vertically as high as possible to absorb power from the cosmos. If you are in a group and have been linking hands, as the power increases to a great intensity, this is the time to loose them.

As the power builds, you will create what is known as a cone of power. The cone-shaped hats traditionally associated with witches and bishops' mitres reflect the concentration of spiritual potency. The purpose of the cone, like the sacred pyramid, is to concentrate energy in a narrowing shape so that it reaches a pinnacle of power, which can then be released at the end of the ritual to carry your wishes or desires into the cosmos. In order to create a cone of power in magick, you can visualise these energies as coloured light or as gold.

Alternatively, you can visualise different rainbow colours to create a cone of every colour that merges to brilliant white at the apex. In healing work, some people see this as silver blue light that becomes brilliant.

Whether working alone or in a group, as you build up the power, breathe in pure white light and exhale and project your chosen colour, seeing it become ever more vibrant and faster-moving as the intensity increases. After you have been practising magick for a while, you will notice that the cone of colour builds up quite spontaneously, with no apparent effort. It has also been described as a cloud of energy. At the point when the climax is reached, comes the release of power.

Note that for some people the cone concept interferes with their own natural magical abilities - some of the most skilled witches and healers see circles of light, shimmering golden beams or rainbows with their psychic eye. Some see nothing at all, but instead feel power pushing their feet almost off the ground.

Growth is the key to this stage.

Release Of Power

When you release the power in the final stage, you may see the cone exploding and cascading as coloured stars or light beams, which surge away into the cosmos and break into brilliant rainbow colours.

If you wish, you can direct the energy after the final release of power by pointing with your hands, or a wand or knife, so that the energies cascade horizontally and downwards, for example into herbs on the altar that you are empowering to make into herb sachets. Or you can direct the cascading energies in a specific direction, perhaps towards a person who is ill or in need of magical strength.

Release is the key at this stage.

This release may take the form of a final shout, a leap, or words. As you extinguish your candle of need, you may shout:

It is free, the power is mine!

Or, at the point of release, you may throw your extended hands wide in an arc above your head. If the ceremony is formal and you are using an athame, you can at this moment bring it in front of you to mark the invisible cutting of the knot holding the power. Pull your visualised or actual knots tight, cut them, leap into the air, shouting:

The Power is free! or It is done! Sometimes there is just a sudden stillness, as the power leaves.

Afterwards, you need to ground the energies by sitting or lying on the ground and letting excess energies fade away into the Earth as you press down with your hands and feet.

The Four Elements

I have mentioned the use of the elements in rituals. In magick, there are four elements - Earth, Air, Fire and Water. They all contain symbolic qualities and powers that together form the energies used in rituals. Each element controls a quadrant in the magical circle.

Earth, in the North, represents the stability, security and strength of old stone circles, mighty castle walls, tall craggy rocks and mountain peaks. It is also associated with the time of midnight and winter. Salt is often used to represent Earth in spells and rituals.

Air, in the East, is action, freshness and power for change, the winds blowing across plains, vast, cloudless skies stretching endlessly, storms and whirlwinds stirring stagnation but also bringing destruction of the old. Air is also associated with the dawn and spring. Incense is often used to represent Air in spells and rituals.

Fire, in the South, is the quicksilver, inspirational energy and clear light of the Sun, the lightning flash. It is the hearth fire that warms, the ritual fire that cleanses, the forest fire that sweeps all away. It represents the full power of the Sun and light at noon and in summer. Candles are used to represent Fire.

Finally, in the West is Water, that falls as refreshing rain, tides that ebb and flow, watercourses always finding a way, moving ever onwards, never backwards. Water is associated with autumn and sunset. It represents the changing responsive, human emotions of life cycles, and personal ebbs and flows of energies. Water is used to represent its own element.

Magick In The Southern Hemisphere

In magick, time and direction have an important place and it is necessary to understand that there may be differences according to which hemisphere of the globe you are working in. In the northern hemisphere, magical circles are cast clockwise, or 'deosil', which means 'in the direction of the Sun'. In the southern hemisphere, however, practitioners casting their circles deosil should normally cast them anti-clockwise, because that is the direction of the Sun in that hemisphere.

For this reason, I have used the term 'deosil' (and its opposite, 'widdershins') throughout this book when referring to the direction of circles. These terms are clearer than clockwise and anticlockwise, because as long as you think in terms of the direction of the Sun, the terms can be applied wherever you are standing on the globe.

Practitioners in the southern hemisphere will also need to alter the dates I have given. For them, for example, the mid-winter solstice is celebrated on or around 21 June and the summer solstice, when the Sun is at it most powerful, is around 21 December.

In the same way, the two annual equinoxes, when there is equal day and equal night, move round so that the spring equinox falls around 21 September and the autumn equinox around 21 March. It is perhaps better to think in terms of the Wheel of the Year, rather than our modern-day calendar, for what matters is not the date but what is happening with the cycle of growth and fruition. So the autumn equinox is the time of harvest, whenever that may be in your part of the globe.

Things are a little more complicated, however, when it comes to the use of the quadrants of your magical circle and the directions, North, South, etc. I explained on page 41 that North is the direction of Earth and winter. However, in the southern hemisphere since the equator, the area of maximum heat, is to the North, this direction will more naturally be regarded as Fire. To face the colder direction of winter, you must turn away from the equator, towards the Antarctic - the South.

This means that when following the instructions in this book practitioners in the southern hemisphere should substitute the opposite for each direction. So, for example, where I have said you should set up your altar in the North, and enter your circles from the East, you would set up your altar in the South, and enter from the West.

If you find this too complicated, don't worry. Some practitioners in the southern hemisphere follow the northern traditions, especially if they have ancestors from colder climes. It really is a matter of preference and all this diversity actually has a very positive effect, because it means that you can weave the natural forces into your personal creation of magick. The only important thing is that you are consistent in your attitude.

A Ritual Using Light And Cosmic Power

The following ritual can be carried out anywhere at all, as direction is not important. It is most powerful when performed standing beneath a tree that perhaps has stood for hundreds of years. If sunlight is filtering through the leaves, so much the better. You can work alone, with a group of friends, or in a more formal coven. You may want to decide in advance on a focus for the power, for example healing a particular place or a person you know. Alternatively, you can let the energies find their own target as they cascade though the cosmos, increasing the positivity of the universe.

* Stand with your feet apart and your arms outstretched above your head like the branches of a tree. Through your feet, draw up rich, golden light from the Earth and let it flow upwards, becoming lighter and more golden as it rises to your fingertips. Feel the light from above flowing downwards to merge with it.

* If you are working alone, then, holding a long, silk scarf in either hand, move around the tree with your hands rising and falling in a spiral path to create swirls of energies, the most ancient of the Mother Goddess sacred geometric forms, while chanting and dancing. If you are with friends, join hands around the tree and pass the light and energy between you from hand to hand, deosil, until you can feel the circle of light (you may even see luminous energy transferring from hand to hand).

* Begin to circle the tree deosil, reciting faster and faster:

Tree power, Earth power, Sun shower and light,
Encircle me, enfold me, Goddess radiance bright.

If you do not want to use the Goddess as a focus for your magick, you can substitute the word 'god' or say 'golden radiance bright'. You can also create your own chant, if you prefer, that may change from line to line, or use a simple mantra, such as:

Touch me,
enfold me,
enclose me.

* When you feel the power reaching a climax, cast the scarves high into the air and hug the tree, pressing your feet down hard to ground your energy and receive healing light from the trunk. If you are working alone, you may feel that in a sense you are not alone but are joining with the tree spirits and Devas, the higher forces of nature who will dance with you as you spiral. You may even see their luminous outlines.

* If you are working in a group, when you feel the power has reached a climax, unclasp your hands and with a final call,

Above!

raise them straight above your head and allow the energies to spiral through the cosmos.

* Then sink down so that your hands and feet are pressing the ground and let any excess golden radiance and power return to the Earth. (If you do not do this, you will be buzzing all day and night as though you had been drinking too much coffee.)

You can create magick in all kinds of ways and you can use it for an almost infinite variety of purposes. Your magick can be solitary or group-based, self-centred or entirely altruistic. It can be personal and informal, or it may be framed in rigid ceremony. But whatever kind of magick you wish to practise, you will need to create a special place to work in, a personal area at home for your private healing and personal development work.

A Magical Place

When you were a child, you probably had a special place, perhaps a tree house, a den under a table with a curtain draped over, or a corner of the garden hidden by bushes that only you and chosen friends visited; in this place you wove your dreams and played with your treasures. The magical place I am describing in this section is just such a special place, an extension of and, in a sense, a return to that time of enchantment, for you are once again making an area separate from the everyday world, where you can set up your special artifacts.

But it will also be very different from your childhood place, because as an adult you can learn to control and direct the energies that then ran free and unstructured. Your imaginings can be refined as visualisations, your daydreams as altered states of consciousness; you can make wishes and dreams come true, not just in faerieland but in the here and now.

If you have sufficient space, you may set aside a room, perhaps a conservatory, attic or basement, or a sheltered spot in the garden for your special magical place. Alternatively, you may need to use a corner of your bedroom or draw a velvet curtain across an area of a room where you can be quiet and private. In the summer, I like to work out of doors at my caravan and go down the winding track to the beach for my sea rituals (and puff and pant up again). In winter, I work either round the hearth that is the focus of the small, dark family room where I write, or high in the attic bedroom of my narrow house overlooking the hills.

Altars

Your special place will need to contain an altar. To many people, the word 'altar' summons up images of vast churches with golden crosses or B-movies with dark-robed figures sacrificing damsels on a stone slab in the middle of a deserted moorland. But in magical terms an altar is simply the term for a sacred work space on which you place your tools, candles, incense and symbols for rituals.

In practice, many people use their altar every day, as a focus for quiet meditative moments, perhaps at the end of a busy day or early in the morning. Such use does not make it any less special. Indeed, by becoming a part of your daily world, it becomes charged with your own essential magical qualities, and provides a repository of magical and healing energies, even if you only spend a few moments each evening in personal, informal work.

It is your place and the rituals you hold there are limited only by your own desires and ingenuity.

Setting Up Your Altar

You will need a large, flat surface for your altar; a table or a cupboard will do - you can use the drawers for storage and cover it with a cloth. It does not really matter what shape the surface is - circles and squares are both sacred shapes and easy to divide into quadrants for the four elements, Earth, Air, Fire and Water, that are central to traditional magic and play a part even in informal rituals. A round altar, the shape of the sacred circle, works especially well.

If you do not have a suitable piece of furniture, a piece of uncut stone or unpolished wood, such as hazel, ash, rowan or oak supported on stones or bricks will do. Ensure that it is high enough, so that you are not constantly stooping.

In good weather, if you have a sheltered private place in your garden or back yard, you can adapt a tree stump or tall, flat rock as your work space. But perhaps the best altars of all are those impromptu ones you make - such as the top of a standing stone with a circle of your favourite crystals, or a rock on the beach with a circle of seaweed and shells to mark the directions.

The altar need not be large but you will need to have room to move all the way round it. Many rituals demand that you move in a circle with the altar in the centre, although some place the altar in the North of the circle and you stand to the South, facing North.

The central position of the altar/circle represents the realm of Spirit, or Akasha. Akasha is the name given to the fifth element formed by the combination of the four ancient elements of Earth, Fire, Air and Water that were considered in classical times to be the components of all life and matter. It is greater than the other four.

In formal magic, artefacts and lighted candles are kept on an altar but this is not vital. It is quite possible, even if you are using a communal room in an apartment or house, to leave your altar partly prepared, although items such as salt and water are best added immediately before a ritual so they will be fresh. A garden altar can be set with an outdoor candle or torch and stone figurines, perhaps shaded by bushes.

Keep pot pound or living plants on your indoor altar when it is not in use to keep the energies fresh and moving. If it feels stagnant, sprinkle an infusion of lemon or peppermint widdershins, to remove negativity that has come in from the activities of the day, and then deosil, to charge it with power. You can also cleanse it with incense, creating a protective circle of pine or myrrh, again widdershins and then deosil.

Each night, or whenever you have time, you can explore your inner psychic powers at your altar. For example, you can gaze into a candle or scry into a bowl of water on the surface of which you have dripped coloured inks. Try holding the different crystals that you place on your altar and allow impressions to pass through your fingertips, manifest as images, sounds or feelings. This psychic art is called psychometry and is one that will emerge spontaneously.

You may, however, have a more specific aim in mind. For example, to improve your finances, place a pot of basil herbs, surrounded by golden coloured coins and light a green or golden prosperity candle while visualising golden coins showering upon you. If you have a friend who is sick, and wish to send healing thoughts to them, place a photograph of them on the altar, and surround it with pink flowers, pink rose quartz crystals and a circle of tiny pink candles. Send your message of healing or visualised golden light, then blow out the candles deosil, sending the energies to where they are needed.

When you are not carrying out formal magick, keep on the altar any crystals that are of personal significance to you (see page 153). You might wish to have a clear crystal quartz for pure energy, a blue lapis lazuli flecked with gold for wisdom, a purple amethyst and rose quartz for healing and harmony, or a gleaming, golden-brown tiger's eye for grounding. You can also keep different herbs there according to your current focus.

Empowering Your Altar

You can further empower your special place as a reflection of the positive aspects of your changing life by placing on it other small items that carry happy memories for you. These might include stones or shells found on an enjoyable outing, presents from friends or family, a letter or even a printed e-mail written in love, pictures or photographs of places and people that are endowed with emotional significance. Holding these can restore the pleasure of the moment and fill you with confidence, so they are magical objects because they are endowed with the power of good feeling.

Some practitioners keep a book, for example a book of poetry, a copy of the psalms, the works of Shakespeare or the I Ching. Whenever you lack inspiration, close your eyes and open your book - the page will be chosen apparently at random but in fact your deep unconscious mind has chosen the most appropriate answer by a process akin to psychokinesis.

Occasionally, gently energise these personal artefacts by burning a candle scented with chamomile or lavender. The domestic altars of many lands were originally the family hearth and an unused hearth will serve well as an altar. They depended for their power on herbs and flowers gathered from the wayside in the days before petrol fumes. Many witches who have a hearth do still keep it well swept and fresh with flowers or seasonal greenery.

Between your altar candles you may like to place statues, a god and goddess figure from either your own spiritual background or from a culture that seems significant to you; this will balance the yang, or male, energies with the yin, or female. The god figure may be represented by a horn, and the goddess by a large conch shell.

There are a great variety of deity figures in museum shops as well as New Age shops and those selling goods from particular areas of the world. You may, however, feel more comfortable with a ceramic animal, bird or reptile for which you feel an affinity: a tiger for courage, an eagle for vision, a cat for mystery and independence, a snake for regeneration. This is what Native Americans call our personal totem or power creature. You may find some of these are, in some cultures, the symbols of divinities. There is, for example, Bast, the cat-headed Egyptian goddess who protected women - especially in pregnancy and childbirth - the home, pleasure and joy. Bast was originally a lion goddess who symbolised the fertilising rays of the Sun.

Casting A Circle

All spells and rituals, however formal or informal, are based on a magical circle. This may be large enough for an entire group of practitioners to stand in, or it may be small enough to fit on your personal altar. I have known practitioners who have only a small area create a circle on a table-top and sit facing North, physically outside it but spiritually within, manipulating the symbols within it. I have also known modern witches who will create an instant circle on paper or even on a computer screen.

If you have the space, you can keep a magick circle marked out with stones in a corner of your garden or painted on the floor of a room covered with a large rug. Attics are especially good since you are nearer the sky. If you are able to keep a special area for your circle, scatter dried lavender or pot pourri on it before each use, and sweep it in circles widdershins to remove any negativity.

Whatever the form or size of your circle, mark the four main compass directions within it. In the marker positions, you can use stones, lines on the floor, four crystals hanging on cords on the four walls or candles in the appropriate elemental colours.

Once you know your directions, you can mark out your circle, beginning in the North (although some practitioners begin in the East), and working deosil. Draw your circle in one sweeping movement. You may wish to chant as you go.

If you are working in a group, or if this is a circle for a more formal ritual, you may wish to add god/goddess-power forms as an interspersed chant, with the voices of the group ebbing and rising in waves. You may wish to welcome the Archangels, or Guardians of the Four Watchtowers at the four compass points as you cast your circle. (The Archangels represent the celestial beings that feature in the cosmologies of the three main religions of the Western world -Christianity, Judaism and Islam. For more information, see pages 200 and 236). Alternatively, you may wish to call upon powerful goddess forms:

Isis, Ishtar, Cerridwen, Innana, Shakti, Yoruba, Danu, Kali and Aine, protect, empower and inspire this magical endeavour.

You can embellish the casting ceremony as much as you like, perhaps drawing pentagrams in the air at the four main compass points, and combining this with lighting the four elemental candles.

Some practitioners like to cast a circle and then welcome other members of the group to enter, sealing the circle with a diagonal up-and-down slashing movement of their power hand (the one they write with), or a wand or an athame. (An athame is a double-edged knife used in formal rituals. It represents Air and is placed in the East of the circle.

As well as drawing circles, it may be used to conduct magical energies into a symbol.) But I think it is more powerful if one person actually walks around the outside of a circle of people, enclosing them in light. In this way, the circle is created in human dimensions and is as large or small as is required by the actual formation. The circle made to fit the group is far better magically than the group made to fit the circle, for the group is the circle.

If you want to visualise a circle, use a clear, pointed quartz crystal, or wand, or the forefinger of your power hand, and draw an outline, in the air at chest level or on the ground. The circle extends wherever you draw it from the ground upwards to above your head like a wall of gold. Again, begin in the North, and continue in an unbroken, circular movement.

Remember, the circle is created with your own power, amplified if you wish by the sacred Guardians or powers you may invoke. For this reason, creating a light body and thus drawing energy from the ground (see page 124), before casting the circle, is a powerful preliminary. Some practitioners, having drawn the light, extend then-hands upwards so that light from the cosmos can also enter. Do this before joining hands if you are creating the circle as a group.

In a conventional coven, the High Priestess casts and uncasts the circle, but you may prefer to allow the person leading the ritual to cast the magical boundaries.

Casting A Dual Circle

You can create a dual circle if you wish.

* First consecrate the salt symbolising the Earth element in the North of the altar by stirring it three times with an athame, wand or crystal, and visualise radiance pouring into it.

* Stir the water, also three times deosil with the athame, wand or pointed crystal, asking the light and the Goddess to enter it.

* Add a few grains of salt to the water and stir it, saying:

May power thus be doubled,
thus increased,
as life joins life
to create a greater force
even than these.

* Stand either just within or beyond the first circle perimeter.

* Walk deosil round the circle, sprinkling the circle line, physical or envisaged, with your salt water.

In formal rituals, the High Priestess consecrates the salt and the High Priest the water and they mingle them. The High Priestess then creates the first circle and the High Priest the second.

Casting A Triple Circle

Three is a sacred number in magick and for special ceremonies you can create a triple circle of both power and protection. The number three represents the three aspects of the god figure in many religions: the Holy Trinity, the Triple Goddess, the three aspects of the Moon -maiden, mother and wise woman or crone - the trefoil or triple god of the Celts, and the even older Egyptian trinity of Isis, Osiris and Horus, the young Sky God. This triplicity is still celebrated when we turn our money over and bow three times to the Moon for good luck.

* Create your first two circles of light and salt water.

* Return to the place where you began.

* Place the bowl on the altar and light your incense; you can either light a stick in a secure holder or sprinkle incense on a charcoal block burning within the censer.

* Make your final circle with incense, just beyond the lines of salt and water.

There are other variations of this, including creating your outer circle of light by walking with your candle in a broad-based holder, followed by the salt water and the incense.

Uncasting The Circle

When you have completed your spells or rituals, you should close the circle. This is done by simply reversing the casting process.

* Thank the Guardians and send the light of the elemental candles to whoever needs it.

* Extinguish the elemental candles in reverse order of lighting. Visualise the light fading and say, together with any present:

Let the circle be uncast but remain unbroken. Merry meet and merry part and merry meet again.

* Leave the altar candles to burn down.

Preparing Your Mind For Magick

As well as preparing the physical area for magick, you also need to prepare your mental state.

It is universally agreed that we have two hemispheres of the brain -the left, logical, and the right, intuitive, side - and that generally in the everyday world the left brain predominates. This may be no bad thing; after all, buying golden sunflowers and oils pressed from fragrant herbs may lift the spirits, but they will do little for us if we are so disorganised that we fail to remember the cereal and cat food -and the yowls of hungry children and cats ringing through the early morning air are not conducive to relaxation.

These demarcations within the mind have not always been so clear. Julian Jaynes, in his book The Origin of the Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicarmel Mind, suggests that self-awareness in humans has existed for only about 3,000 years. In stating this, he was defining self-awareness as the awareness of our own separateness and our private thoughts.

This state of mind, normal in adults, is very different from the more primitive state of mind of small children, who keep up a running commentary on their actions. But young children are also incredibly skilled at mind-hopping and reading the thoughts of others. This is precisely because they do not have the adult's strong sense of the individual and private self.

In so-called primitive societies, the individual does not have the same importance: it is the collective responsibility that matters. So the rituals that are carried out to ensure the fertility of the crops and animals and the community are performed in a group.

In a sense, magick is about using the bicarmel mind, placing the brain's right hemisphere in the driving seat, taking concentration, focus and determination from the more logical side as fuel and a map, and reconnecting our unified self with the undifferentiated universe.

You can carry out magick absolutely anywhere as long as you are in a positive frame of mind. But many practitioners believe that by entering an altered state of consciousness, you remove all the conscious blocks and allow the intuitive brain free access to the unconscious mind and with it the repository of human and cosmic wisdom. This brings about a state of mind in which energies can flow between the dimensions.

You are in your most relaxed state when your brain is generating alpha waves. They oscillate about ten times per second (the range is eight to 13 cycles per second) and are less common in our modern stressful lives. But they are naturally generated, for example, when you daydream, or sit by a fountain and let the rushing water fill your mind, or gaze into a candle flame, or have a lavender- or rose-scented bath. Compare these with the traditional routine preparations of fasting and ritual bathing of practitioners of the craft and you begin to see why these are important.

Invoking your protective angels to stand at the four corners of your magical circle, performing the rituals of preparing your magical tools and, in more formal magick, casting a circle - these are all ways of marking the limits of the everyday world and the entry into this magical space in which all the normal laws are suspended. There are many ways of reaching this state, techniques to still inner turmoil and outer demands that block the easy access to the deeper psychic states.

At times when you feel unhappy, tense or anxious, you may need tranquillity; alternatively, there may be times when you need an infusion of power to meet a challenge, restore confidence or gain energy when all you feel like doing is sleeping.

Breathing in light and colours is a method of creating a cone or vortex of power, that can be released as magical energy or healing power in the cosmos. In addition, by absorbing the light of the Moon or Sun you may take in either tranquillity or energies for those moments when you are particularly in need. Perhaps you will find yourself in an artificially lit building, crammed on a commuter train or rushing to get the children to school and go to work. At such times you may feel like one of the hags from Macbeth, ready to turn the entire carriage of commuters into toads - that's when good magick is what you need.

A Moon Magick Ritual For Calm

* Wait until the Moon is moving towards full, and is quite bright in the sky.

* Find somewhere as dark as possible so the light is undiluted and slowly 'inhale' the light through your nose, looking at the Moon and drawing its light towards you.

* Hold your Moon breath for a count of 'One and two and three'. Remember to say the 'ands' to stop yourself rushing - this is relaxing, not a race.

* Close your eyes and exhale the darkness of your panic, frustration or unhappiness.

* Continue alternately inhaling with your eyes open and exhaling with your eyes closed until you feel that you are filled with silver light.

* Now gently exhale a little of that light in a single breath, this time with your eyes open, directing it in your vision towards someone you know who is also feeling stressed or anxious.

* Inhale more moonlight and continue to exhale, still with your eyes open, continuing to direct the healing light.

* Let the Moon shine into a silver or crystal bowl of water. Before bedtime, tip the water into your bath so you can absorb the Moon energies through your pores.

Whenever you feel stressed, visualise the Moon, close your eyes and gently inhale; peace will come to you because you gave it out to others.

You will find more detail on Moon magick in the chapter on Moon energies.

A Sun Magick Ritual For Energy

Because it can be dangerous to look directly at the Sun, catch your sunlight close to noon in a large crystal or in water in a brass dish.

* As before, 'inhale' the sunlight via the crystal or water with your eyes open. Hold the Sun breath, counting 'One and two and three', then close your eyes and exhale the darkness of your doubt, anger or lack of confidence. With practice, this will become a single movement.

* Continue until you are filled with light and energy, then exhale a Sun breath, directing it to someone who is exhausted, frightened or ill.

* Inhale the Sun and again exhale it towards a person or people in need.

* Rinse your face in the Sun water, then tip the rest into the ground to energise a plant.

Whenever you feel tired, recall the Sun and inhale its light in your mind's vision.

Repeat both these intakes of power once every month. If you have a particularly stressful or challenging time, hold a moonstone for your Moon energies in your power hand. Hold a sparkling crystal quartz for the Sun in the other (receptive) hand to boost the flow as you visualise the natural sources. In this way, you can balance the energies in both spheres of the brain for integrated mind and soul flow.

The Mechanics Of Witchcraft

Magick takes place at what TS Eliot in The Four Quartets called the 'still point of the turning world', that moment of timelessness that enables thought to be turned into reality on the material plane.

It operates on the principle As above, so below'. This phrase comes from the beginning of The Emerald Tablet, attributed to Hermes Trismesgistos (thrice-blessed Hermes), thought to be a powerful first-century Egyptian sorcerer who became worshipped as a god after his death.

This tablet is said to contain all magical knowledge as well as the principles of alchemy, and states that human action and events reflect what occurs in the heavens. And so by releasing magical intentions into the cosmos, as I said earlier, they will be reflected back as actuality.

Since time immemorial, humans have called upon the power of higher beings to help them, whether it be to deliver them from enemies, to bring rain for their crops or to cure their children's illnesses. Every religion and every culture believes in a divinity of some sort, whether it be god, goddess or spirit, good or evil.

Evocations were performed by medieval practitioners of magick to summon up angels (and sometimes demons) and bind them to perform tasks, rather like the Middle Eastern djinn, or genie, who, in faerie tales, would appear from a magick lamp or corked bottle and grant wishes. Incense would be used to give substance to the etheric form of the angel or demon concerned. (Modem magick tends to be a little wary of calling up spirits, however, whose malevolent energies may cause harm.)

In contrast, invocations were used to endow the practitioner with the power to carry out magical purposes through a form of possession, with the angel or god acting directly from within the practitioner's body.

Elementals have also been associated for hundreds of years with more formal magical traditions. Elementals, rather than having a permanent form themselves, are the forces or energies that give shape to living things. They also bring thoughts and desires into actuality, invoked by symbols.

Thus medieval occultists sought mastery over the elemental beings that they fashioned by their incantations. Sometimes, if practitioners used the elemental forces for negative purposes, they would create a tulpa, or thought form, that became an elemental demon. This was hard to banish, even though the magicians worked within a square enclosed by two magick circles -hence the origins of warnings about magical effects coming back threefold.

The Goddess And The Horned God In Wicca

Neither evocation nor invocation is part of modern witchcraft, however, and white witches do not recognise any demonic figures in their religion. When we refer to the Goddess and her son-consort, the Horned God of Wicca, we are referring to the archetype or source energies of the feminine and masculine aspects of ultimate power. They are the creative female and male principles, acting not in opposition to each other but as complementary and necessary parts of a whole. All the named goddesses and gods in witchcraft represent the different qualities of these supreme forms, for example the goddesses of the hunt, or specific forms in different cultures.

There are, of course, variations within Wicca; some traditions emphasise the importance of the Goddess, while others regard the Horned God as her equal, with each assuming different aspects according to the season and ritual. For example, the Goddess may appear as the Earth or Moon deity, and her male counterpart as the Corn God or the Sun.

Reaching Gods And Goddesses In Trance

Modern Wiccans call into themselves the energies of the Goddess to amplify their own innate divine spark and at times may work in a deep trance, uttering words of prophecy or profound teaching. This is said to increase the power entering the body, like turning up the current from a power source. But until you have practised magick for many years, I would advocate working only in light trance and then only in the controlled situation of a very spiritual group. You can think of this as opening a channel between your own higher energies and the Goddess or powers of light.

I said just now that the power of a trance can be compared to an electric current. The analogy can be taken further: just as sending a sudden surge of electricity can cause a power failure, deliberately inducing a deep trance can be dangerous. Those who use drugs to induce such experiences are, in my opinion, playing with fire and may in fact be blocking their innate wisdom in return for an artificial mind-bending experience.

Most people quite rightly shy away from the idea of possession by a force, however benign, preferring to work with the energies indirectly - and this is what I believe is safest and most effective. For even if you are working with an experienced group in healing magick and do want to allow power of light or the Goddess to manifest in you directly, it is pretty heady stuff. So go cautiously, work only in the most positive of minds for the good of all, and for trance work have other experienced witches or mediums to guide you and help you to centre.

The gods themselves can offer protection when you are performing rituals. In formal magick, the Guardians, or Devic Lords of the Watchtower, are invited to guard the four directions of a magical circle. The term deva in Sanskrit means 'shining one', and the Devas represent the higher forms, akin to angels, who watch and direct the natural world.

They communicate with people by psychic 'chanelling' and rule over the beings associated with the four elements, Fire, Air, Water and Earth. In less formal practices, either archangels or pillars of light may be visualised in the corners of the room to offer protection at a time when a person is opening then-psyche to the cosmos, to keep out all negativity, earthly or otherwise. But the greatest protection is a pure heart and pure intent, much harder to attain than learning any complex ritual.

The Goddess as Focus

Many beliefs emphasise the polarity of the female/male, Goddess/god and anima/animus energies. The bringing together of these two powers, the Sacred Marriage that is celebrated symbolically in the Great Rite of the union of Earth and Sky, is a ritual that permeates all cultures.

In Egyptian mythology, Isis, the sister-wife of Osiris, sought and reassembled his body after his murder and dismemberment by his brother Seth. In this connection, she took on the role of the goddess of rebirth, the Bone Goddess, and restored him in a more evolved form. The annual celebrations of this event coincided with the rising of the dog star, Sirius, which heralded the flooding of the Nile and the restoration of fertility to the land and symbolically to the people.

As the Sky Gods gained supremacy, they married the Earth Goddesses who slowly evolved into patronesses of women, marriage and childbirth. So, for example, Odin the Norse All-Father married Frigg, goddess of women, marriage and motherhood.

But in witchcraft, though the Sky Fathers and their wives are used for the focus of specific rites, the Goddess retains the earlier form as the creative principle. As the Triple Goddess - maiden, mother and wise woman or crone - she is frequently central to coven work.

Generally in magick the Goddess is recognised as the prime mover of existence, bringing forth from herself in the first virgin birth the animus, or male, principle. For this reason, it is often the High Priestess who casts the circle, though in some covens the Goddess rules over the spring and summer and the Horned God over the autumn and winter.

Other Gods And Goddesses

There is a vast selection of gods and goddesses from many different cultures that you may choose to form a focus for particular energies in rituals. I have given a list of these later in this chapter, but I have not given much detailed description, as it is important we create our own deity images. There are many excellent sites on the Internet, illustrated with paintings and statues of the deities, where you can read their mythical stories.

Because the deities come from so many cultures and times, it is important to invoke only the positive qualities you need and to remember that some did reflect dark as well as benign aspects of divinity. For example, Diana, the goddess of the Moon and the hunt, is thought by most to be a sympathetic soul; but you might be surprised to learn that she would, according to myth, have her rejected lovers torn apart by her hounds. So, when setting up your icons, read about them first, and decide which are the attributes that will assist your magical workings. Some deities fit into more than one category, so I have listed them under their most significant one.

Deities Of Love And Passion

Aphrodite

Aphrodite is the Cretan and Greek goddess of love and beauty. Her name means 'born from the foam'. She can be invoked for the gentle attraction of new love as well as for sexuality and passion (hence the term 'aphrodisiac'). Aphrodite is especially potent in candle and mirror spells, romance and for love rituals involving the sea.

Artemis

Artemis is the twin sister of Apollo, the young Greek Sun God, and is goddess of chastity, virginity, the hunt, the Moon and nature. Although a virgin goddess, she also presides over childbirth. Because of her connection with the hunt, she is altogether a more active goddess than Aphrodite if you are seeking love or, perhaps, trying to encourage a reluctant lover of either sex or win love under difficult circumstances. She is perfect for outdoor love spells and for casting your love net wide to attract an as yet unknown lover.

Freyja

Freyja is the Viking goddess of love and sexuality and can be invoked for rituals to increase confidence in inner beauty and worth, for the increase of passion and for fertility in every aspect. A witch goddess, she is potent for all magick, especially astral projection and crystal and gem magick.

Venus

Venus, the goddess of love, is the Roman form of Aphrodite and by her liaison with Mercury gave birth to Cupid. Although she had many lovers, she was the goddess of chastity in women and is a joy-bringer, and so represents not only sexual pleasure, but also innocent love and especially love in the springtime. Her planetary associations mean she is the focus in all kinds of love rituals. As the evening star, Venus takes on a warrior aspect and so can be invoked in fighting for one's lover or tough love in relationships.

Deities For Power

These deities may be invoked for strength, success, energy, inspiration and increase.

Apollo

Apollo, the Greek Sun God, was twin brother of Artemis, the Moon Goddess. As god of the solar light, Apollo made the fruits of the Earth ripen, and at Delos and Delphi where he slew Python, the first crops were dedicated to him.
(Python, the great lightning serpent, was the son-consort of the Mother Goddess in her form of Delphyne, the Womb of Creation, fertilised by Python. Python in this sense predated all other gods and was later called the Dark Sun, Apollo's alter ego. The Ancient Greeks rededicated his shrine to Apollo.)

Apollo was god of prophecy as well as music, poetry, archery, healing and divination. He is very strongly animus and is good for all rituals of power, ambition and inspiration, as well as those areas under his patronage. Men tend to work better with him than women.

Aine

Aine is daughter of Manananann, Celtic Sea God and ruler of the Isle of Man and goddess of the cycles of the solar and lunar year. Even during the twentieth century, she was remembered on the Hill of Aine in Ireland, by torchlight processions and burning straw at midsummer and also at the old corn harvest, Lughnassadh, at the beginning of August. She is also linked with love, fertility and healing.

Ama-terasu Omikami

Ama-terasu Omikami is the Ancient Japanese Sun Goddess. Her name means 'Great August Spirit Shining in Heaven' but she is also called Shinmet, 'Divine Radiance' and O-hiru-me-no-muchi, 'Great Female Possessor of Noon'.

She is good for female-focused Sun rituals and for ceremonial magick.

Helios

The Greek god Helios, known to the Romans as Sol, was regarded as the Sun itself. He ascended the heavens in a chariot drawn by winged snow-white horses to give light and in the evening descended into the ocean. Homer wrote:

'Drawn in his swift chariot, he sheds light on gods and men alike; the formidable flash of his eyes pierces his golden helmet, sparkling rays glint from his breast and his brilliant helmet gives forth a dazzling splendour. His body is draped in shining gauze, whipped by the wind.'

He is especially associated with the life force and renewing health and energy.

Horus

Horus was the Ancient Egyptian Sky God, represented as a falcon or a falcon-headed man. His eyes were the Sun and Moon and his wings could extend across the entire heavens. He was frequently associated with the morning aspect of Ra, the Sun God, and worshipped as Re-Harakhte. The son of Isis and Osiris, he is often depicted as an infant on his mother's lap and together the parents and child form a trinity.

Horus brings clarity of mind and purpose and the ability to seize upon an opportunity, and is effective for uncovering secrets, deception and illusion.

Lugh

Lugh, the Celtic 'shining one', who gives his name to Lughnassadh, Celtic festival of the first harvest, was the young solar deity who replaced the Dagda, father of the gods, as supreme king. He was associated with sacrifice, as the Sun King who was reborn each year at either the mid-winter solstice or the spring equinox.

Legend has it that when Lugh arrived to join the Tuatha de Danaan, he went to the palace of Tara and asked for a position in the court. (The Tuatha de Danaan were the ancient Irish gods and goddesses, literally 'the tribe of Danu', who was the creatrix goddess.) He said he was a carpenter, but was told that the company of gods already had one.

Lugh then declared he was a smith but again was told that the deities possessed such a craftsman. He then announced that he was a poet, then in turn a warrior, historian, hero and sorcerer. Each position was filled. Lugh then demanded whether any one person could perform all these tasks as he could. As a result, he was admitted to the Tuatha de Danaan and eventually became their leader.

You can invoke Lugh especially at the time of Lughnassadh, for the reaping of benefits sown earlier in the year, but also at any time for adaptability, versatility, innovation and originality.

Deities Of The Moon

Invoke these for gentle increase, power and banishing energies, fertility, intuition, magick and dreams.

Arianrhod

Arianrhod is a Welsh goddess of the full moon and also of time, karma and destiny. She ruled over the realm of the Celtic Otherworld, called Caer Feddwidd, the Fort of Carousa. Here a mystical fountain of wine offered eternal health and youth for those who chose to spend their immortality in the Otherworld. She brings inspiration, renewal, health and rejuvenation, and is a focus for all magick, as she is a witch goddess.

Diana

Diana is the Roman counterpart of Artemis, and because of her strong association with the Moon in all its phases, is a goddess of fertility as well as love. Like Artemis, she is goddess of the hunt and a virgin goddess, but can be invoked in her role as an Earth goddess and as protector of women in childbirth. Her beauty and hunting skills make her a perfect focus for the pursuit of love, especially from afar.

Myesyats

Like the lunar goddesses, Myesyats, the Slavic Moon God, represented the three stages of the life cycle. He was first worshipped as a young man until he reached maturity at the full moon. With the waning phase, Myesyats passed through old age and died with the old moon, being reborn three days later. As he was the restorer of life and health, parents would pray to him to take away their children's illnesses and family sorrows. Other sources have a female version, Myesytsa, a lovely Moon maiden who was the consort of Dazhbog the Sun God, and became mother of the stars.

Myesyats brings healing and family harmony.

Selene

Selene is the Greek goddess specially associated with the full moon, sometimes forming a triplicity with Diana and Hecate, the twin sister of Helios the Sun God. Selene rises from the sea in her chariot drawn by white horses at night and rides high in the sky in her full moon.

At the time of the full moon, she is invoked by women for fertility and by all who seek the power of intuition and inspiration.

Mother Goddesses

Mother Goddesses are for fertility, abundance of all kinds, female power and all rituals for women.

Astarte

Astarte is the supreme female divinity of the Phoenicians, goddess of love and fertility, associated with the Moon and all nature.

Invoke her for power and wisdom, seduction and passion as well as fertility.

Cerridwen

Cerridwen is the Welsh Mother Goddess, the keeper of the cauldron and goddess of inspiration, knowledge and wisdom. She is a natural focus for rituals involving all creative ventures and for increased spiritual and psychic awareness. Invoke her for divination and especially scrying and for all rituals of increase.

Ceres

Ceres is the Roman goddess of the grain and all food plants. Her daughter Proserpina was taken into the Underworld for three months of the year by Pluto, causing Ceres to mourn and the crops to die. This was the origin of winter.

Through this, she is seen as goddess of fertility and abundance, as well as a deity of the natural cycles of the year. She represents loss and is a focus for rites concerning grief and mourning, with the hope of new joy ahead for women and especially for mothers. Her Greek counterpart is Demeter.

Demeter

Demeter, the Greek Corn Goddess or Barley Mother, was the archetypal symbol of the fertility of the land. Demeter is often pictured as rosy-cheeked, carrying a hoe or sickle and surrounded by baskets of apples, sheaves of corn, garlands of flowers and grapes.

Like Ceres, she mourns for her lost daughter Persephone for three months of the year and so is another icon for those who are feeling sorrow or loss and for maternal sacrifice. But she can be invoked for all matters of abundance, for reaping the benefits of earlier work or effort, for all mothering rituals and as a protectress of animals.

Innana

Innana was a Sumerian goddess, known as the Queen of Heaven, who evolved into the Babylonian goddess Ishtar. Innana was goddess of beauty, abundance, fertility and passion, famed for her loveliness and her lapis lazuli necklaces. She was the first goddess of the morning and evening stars, a legacy that has passed to Aphrodite and Venus.

Like many of the Mother Goddess icons, she descended into the Underworld annually to face and overcome many trials, to bring back to life her shepherd god consort Dumuzi.

Ishtar

Ishtar, the Babylonian version of Innana, also descended into the Underworld each year to restore her consort Tammuz to life. She was a fierce goddess of weapons and war. In Ancient Babylon, a sacred marriage took place each year between Tammuz and Ishtar. This was celebrated at the festival of Akitu, or Zag-Mug, which marked the rising of the waters of the Tigris and the Euphrates and the coming of the spring rains, to bring fertility, at the spring equinox.

Like Innana, she is a goddess of fertility, restoration, renewal, birth and the life cycles; she also represents power with responsibility and necessary sacrifice for future gain, but above all transformation.

Isis

The Egyptian goddess Isis is the most powerful and frequently invoked goddess in formal magick. She is mother, healer and the faithful wife who annually restored her consort Osiris to life, thus magically causing the Nile to flood and fertility to return to the land. She is the patroness of magick and spell-casting, having tricked Ra the Sun God into giving her his secrets. Some accounts say she was taught by Thoth, god of wisdom and learning.

Her cult spread throughout the Roman Empire and she remained in Mediterranean lands in her guise as the Black Madonna, holding her infant son Horus, until the Middle Ages. She is sometimes represented as a vulture, in which form she appears on amulets (protective charms) with an ankh, the symbol for life, engraved on each talon. Isis demonstrated the power of maternal protection when she hid Horus in the marshes from his evil uncle who would have destroyed him.

Deities Of Marriage

These deities can be invoked in rituals concerning the family and the home.

Frigg

Frigg was the Viking Mother Goddess whose jewelled spinning wheel formed Orion's belt; as patroness of marriage, women, mothers and families, she can be invoked for all rituals concerned with families and domestic happiness. She invited devoted husbands and wives to her hall after death so that they might never be parted again and so is goddess of fidelity.

As Ostara, goddess of spring, she was known among the Anglo-Saxons and is remembered in the festival of Easter as a fertility goddess and bringer of new beginnings.

In her role as Valfreya, the Lady of the Battlefield, Frigg recalls the Northern tradition of warrior goddesses and offers courage to women.

Hera

Hera, the wife-sister of Zeus, is a the supreme Greek goddess of protection, marriage and childbirth whose sacred bird is the peacock. She is a powerful deity of fidelity and is called upon by women seeking revenge upon unfaithful partners.

Hestia

Hestia is the Greek goddess of the hearth and home, all family matters and peace within the home. She is a benign, gentle goddess and so can be invoked for matters involving children and pets.

Juno

Juno, the wife-sister of Jupiter, is the Roman queen of the gods, the protectress of women, marriage and childbirth and also wise counsellor.

Together with Jupiter and Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, she made up the triumvirate of deities who made decisions about humankind and especially Roman affairs. Her month, June, is most fortunate for marriage and, like Hera, her Greek equivalent, her sacred creature is the peacock. She is invoked in sex magick as well as for all matters concerning marriage, children, fidelity and wise counsel.

Parvati

Parvati is the benign and gentle Hindu Mother Goddess, consort of the god Shiva and the goddess daughter of the Himalayas. Her name means 'mountain' and she is associated with all mountains. She and Shiva are often pictured as a family in the Himalayas with their sons Ganesh, god of wisdom and learning, and six-headed Skanda, the warrior god. She is invoked for all family matters and those concerning children and by women in distress.

Vesta

Vesta is the Roman goddess of domesticity and of the sacred hearth at which dead and living were welcomed. The Vestal Virgins of Rome kept alight the sacred flame in Vesta's temple and this was rekindled at the New Year, as were household flames. Vesta can be invoked in rituals centred around the element Fire.

Father Gods

The Father Gods represent authority, channelled power, benevolence and altruism, nobility of purpose, expansion and limitless potential.

Dagda

Dagda, the Father God in the Celtic tradition, was also called Eochaid Ollathair (Father of All) and Ruadh Rofessa (the Red One of Knowledge). He was the first King of the Tuatha de Danaan, the Irish gods, and it was believed that he performed miracles and saw to the weather and the harvest.

Dagda was lord of life and death and the primary god of fertility. With his huge club, he made the bones of his people's enemies 'fall like hail beneath the horses'. With one end of the club, it was said, he could kill nine men with a single blow and with the other could instantly restore them to life.

His great cauldron was handed on to his daughter Brighid (Cerridwen in the Welsh tradition). In some legends, Dagda is associated with Balor, the Sun deity of the Formoiri, enemies of the gods, who was slain by Lugh, the young solar god, at the Battle of Moytura, thus representing the ascent of the new Sun.

The death of the old order, as a necessary requirement for the new, is a central motif in spirituality and so Dagda can offer a focus for rites of passage where change is necessary, but not necessarily welcomed.

Odin

Odin is the Viking Father God, known as the All-Father, god of inspiration, wisdom and poetry as well as war. Odin was desperate to acquire the wisdom and knowledge of the older order of giants. He traded one of his eyes for wisdom and obtained the knowledge of the runes, the ancient symbols of spiritual knowledge, by sacrificing himself on the World Tree.

Odin can be invoked for magic and divination, especially for casting runes, for inspiration with words and oratory, for expansion of horizons and for male power magic. If Frigg is also invoked, the energies are more balanced.

Deities Of Change

These deities may be invoked in rituals involving not only change but also good fortune.

Oya

Oya is the African goddess, also known as Yoruba, who rules the winds and so controls the winds of change. She oversees trading and the marketplace, and brings good fortune to all honest traders and those who work with finance. She is very powerful, described as an Amazonian warrior and life-giver with dominion over the storms. She can be invoked at times of change and for all matters of employment, commerce good fortune and taking control of one's destiny.
A Practical Guide to Witchcraft and Magick Spells.

Lakshmi

Lakshmi is the Hindu goddess of wealth, beauty, joy, pleasure and good fortune.

At Divali, the Hindu autumn festival of light, lamps and candles are placed in windows so that Lakshmi will look in and endow prosperity upon the family. Rangolis, or coloured patterns, are painted on floors and walls to attract her. Rituals to invoke her usually involve candles and use gold or jewellery as a focus for her benevolence.

Deities Of Power

These gods and goddesses bring psychic self-defence, protection, righteous anger against injustice, also change, regeneration and survival.

These deities are very powerful and should only be invoked in their most positive aspects for the purpose of defending the weak and never for revenge or personal anger. Experienced witches call on them only rarely and with the purest intent under the law of threefold return. The exception is Bellona, who is a benevolent and effective focus for female power and courage.

Bellona

Bellona is the Roman goddess of war, the female counterpart of Mars whose chariot she drove into battle. She is especially good for women's assertiveness and self-confidence rituals. She carries a sword and wears a helmet.

Kali

Kali, the dark side of the Hindu Mother Goddess, came into being when Shiva, the husband of the Mother Goddess Shakti, taunted her for her dark skin. In fury she carried out rituals until her skin became golden inside. Shakti then shed her black outer skin like a snake and it formed the avenging destroying persona of Kali. Kali is depicted with her four arms holding weapons and the heads of her victims, her tongue lolling out, and covered in blood, signifying her power over life and death. She is often pictured dancing on Shiva whose body she trampled on, destroyed and then danced on once more to restore him to life.

Kali is invoked to remove fear and, it is said, to bring bliss to her devotees, and so she brings protection and regeneration after sorrow.

Persephone

Persephone is the Greek maiden goddess of transformation, daughter of Demeter and goddess of spring and flowers. She was abducted by Hades, God of the Underworld, and became Queen of the Underworld for the winter months, returning to the Earth as the light-bringer in spring and so representing the cycle of death and rebirth. She is especially powerful in rituals by or for young women, especially those who have suffered loss or abuse, and also for mother-daughter relationships. She is sometimes regarded as a symbol of grain.

Proserpina, daughter of Ceres, is the Roman form of Persephone.

Sekhmet

Sekhmet is the Ancient Egyptian solar and lion goddess created from the eye of Ra. She is sometimes pictured as a woman with a lion's head and so is a good to evoke for courage, righteous anger, protection of the vulnerable, psychic protection and the correction of injustice. As an avenging goddess, she should be used only as a focus for positive rituals, for, like fire, her innate power can blaze out of control.

Shiva

Shiva, or Siva, is the Hindu god of both creation and destruction, good and evil, fertility and abstinence. With Vishnu and Brahma, he forms the trinity of the modern Hindu gods. He is the Lord of the Dance who, it is said, will one day bring about the destruction of the world.

His symbol is the phallus, representing creative power, and many Hindus regard his benevolent, creative aspect as predominant. Shiva has three eyes, represented by the Sun, the Moon and Fire. His third eye allows him to see inwards and also to destroy whatever it looks on. He was not one of the original Vedic deities but became one of the supreme gods, according to legend, at the time when the universe consisted only of water.

Vishnu and Brahma were arguing about who was the greatest god when a great pillar of flame appeared between them. Shiva appeared from within the flaming pillar, which was symbol of his masculine power, and the other gods bowed before him.

Invoke Shiva for animus power, potency, survival and male rituals.

Shakti

Shakti, or Matahdevi, is the female energy or power of Shiva. Her name is also used for the wife of any Hindu god. She is the Mother Goddess and, like Shiva, creator and destroyer in her different aspects.

Shakti provides the energy that activates Shiva's male divine power, and her life-giving force animates other gods in difficult tasks. Although there are several other Hindu female goddesses, they all form aspects of Shakti and often their identities merge. One of Shakti's forms is as Parvati, the gentle mother. Shakti is potent for all rituals of women's power, especially when they must take the initiative, and she is easier to work with than Kali.

Triple Goddesses

The Triple Goddesses are for lunar magic and moving from one stage to another in the life cycle.

Brighid

Brighid, the Celtic Triple Goddess, is patroness of smiths, poets and healers and has the longest enduring cult in Ireland, which merged into that of the Christian St Bridget of Kildare. Her name means 'high one' and she is sometimes seen as three sisters, daughters of the god Dagda, the Divine Father, or as the triple-aspected maiden, mother and crone. She is invoked in fertility and healing magick and also for creativity, especially involving the written word. There are a number of sacred wells throughout England, Wales and Ireland dedicated to her or her Christian counterpart.

Deities Of The Environment

Invoke these deities for rituals involving all aspects of the environment and for healing the planet.

Gaia

Gaia is the all-embracing and all-nourishing goddess of the Earth. It is said that she supplies in her bounty all the necessary plants to cure any disease and, in spite of human pollution, she constantly heals and renews the planet. She is also a goddess of marriage.

She is the natural focus for all green rituals.

Tellus Mater

Tellus Mater was the Earth Mother of the Romans, the alter ego of Ceres, the grain mother, and guardian of the fertility of people, animals and crops. However, Tellus Mater is also the mother who receives the dead in her womb to comfort and restore and so, like Gaia, she is a excellent goddess for all green magick and rituals for healing pollution or deforestation.

Wophe

Wophe, or White Buffalo Calf Woman, is the sacred creator woman of the Lakotas and other peoples of the American Plains. Legend says she fell from a meteor and as she began her Earth walk, she was discovered by two young Lakota scouts who were hunting for buffalo.

She wore a pure white buckskin dress, her long hair flowing behind her like a sea of corn. She sang into the souls of the men that each should act on his thoughts. Eagerly the first, not recognising her sacred nature, hurried towards her and a white mist covered them. The sound of rattlesnakes was heard and when the cloud lifted, there were only the bones of the young man. She told the other to inform the elders of the tribe that she would come to them next morning with a great gift for the people.

A huge ornate ceremonial tepee was erected and in the morning she entered, carrying a special bundle on her back and singing a holy song. The men kept their eyes lowered when she entered, as she had instructed. She unfastened the bundle and took from it the buffalo calf pipe, which is still the most sacred religious object of the Lakota today.

The woman instructed the men in how to smoke the pipe, which in its smoke symbolised the visible Spirit, in the bowl Mother Earth and in the stem Father Sky, so that it might be used for prayer offerings to her and for bringing peace to divided nations. On her visits she also taught sacred ceremonies for restoring balance and healing to both Earth and people. She then set off to leave the camp, walking towards the West.

When she reached the outskirts, she rolled over on the ground and was transformed into a buffalo, changing colours several times. Finally, she changed into a white buffalo calf, rarest of the species, promising that when she was seen again she would restore harmony to a troubled world. The people followed her teachings, the corn grew, the seasons continued to flow in succession and they were hungry no more, as buffalo became plentiful.

By the end of the nineteenth century, however, there were in reality fewer than 200 buffalo left, where only years earlier it was estimated there had been several million. In the summer of 1994, a white buffalo calf was born in Jamesville, Wisconsin. As the prophecy had told, the white buffalo has changed its colours since birth, going from white to black to red to yellow and back to white. Since each colour represents one of the four directions, the buffalo is seen by many Native Americans as a symbol of the rebirth of hope. One visionary interpreted the birth of the white buffalo calf as signifying that the human race will be united, in spite of differences in creed and colour, and join together in peace.

Wophe is therefore an important symbol not only of the revival of the Native American wisdom, but also of healing and reconciliation of all people and of the land and all its creatures.

Deities Of The Male Principle

These deities are for the hunt, instincts, willing sacrifice and ecstasy.

Cernunnos

Cernunnos, meaning 'horned one', was a generic term for the various Horned Gods of the Celtic tradition. The god dates back to the shamanic figures portrayed on cave walls. Cernunnos was lord of winter, the hunt, animals, death, male fertility and the Underworld, and was sometime portrayed as a triple or trefoil god, an image later assimilated by St Patrick with his emblematic shamrock.

Other forms of the Horned God include Herne the Hunter, the Greek Pan, god of the woodlands, and Dionysus, Greek god of vegetation and the vine, whose ecstatic mystery cult involved ritual dismemberment and resurrection.

Cerunnos' importance has been in his continuing presence as the Horned God, the male principle in witchcraft through the ages, in modern Wicca and other neo-pagan faiths. He is also invoked for prosperity, fertility, instinctive power and knowledge of when it is necessary to hunt, whether to find employment or a home, and as protection against predators of all kinds.

Dionysus

Dionysus, sometimes depicted as a Horned God, was a god of the grain, who died and was reborn every year as a child in a basket, representing the seed corn. He was the Greek god of fertility, ecstasy and wildness, who bestowed great abundance on his followers; his cult performed savage rites at Eleusius where human flesh was eaten as the bread of life. Not an easy deity to use, without great experience and restraint, as the excesses carried out under his name need to be kept in check while invoking the free spirit and the renewal of life. He is potent for breaking away from destructive situations or, ironically, bad habits such as alcohol.

Osiris

Osiris became one of the most important and popular gods in Ancient Egypt, mainly because he promised non-royal believers that resurrection and salvation from death were for everyone, poor as well as rich. Originally he was identified with each dead pharaoh, and his son Horus was identified with the reigning successor.

Osiris married his sister Isis, and his brother Seth married Isis's sister Nephthys. According to legend, Osiris was at first made an earthly king by his father Geb, the Earth God. Osiris ruled wisely, teaching his people about agriculture and the arts. But Osiris's brother Seth was jealous and vowed to kill him. Seth invited Osiris to a feast and showed the guests a fine coffer, promising that whoever fitted inside would be the owner. Osiris stepped inside the coffer and it fitted perfectly. Seth slammed the lid tight and he and his followers threw the chest into the Nile.

Isis searched for her husband and at last discovered the chest at Byblos on the Phoenician coast. She brought Osiris' body back to Egypt and conceived a son by her dead husband, hiding herself in the rushes of the marshes of the delta while awaiting the birth.

Seth discovered the body of Osiris, hacked it into pieces and scattered them throughout Egypt so that he could never be restored to life. But Isis searched once more and, assisted by Nephthys, remodelled the bones into Osiris' form and restored her husband to life once more.

When their son Horus, the Sky God, became a youth, he fought to avenge his father against Seth. The divine judges, including Thoth, god of wisdom, met in the Great Hall of Judgment and decided that Osiris should become not a living king once more, but eternal King and Judge of the Underworld.

Osiris was also god of vegetation, the fertile, flooding Nile and the corn, and so represented the annual dying of the land and rebirth with the flood. He is normally pictured as a man, bound in mummy wrappings.

Osiris is an important icon of the annual cycle of sacrifice and resurrection but, as with all the sacrifice gods, it is the female power that causes the resurrection. Like other sacrificed and restored gods, Osiris thereby represents the integration of animus and anima and sacred sex magick. He can be used in rituals for the balance of male/female energies or where the female in the High Priestess role takes the lead. He is also good for any magick that relies on a cycle of regeneration following a natural ending.

Deities of fire

Agni

Agni, the Hindu god of fire, is said to be manifest as the vital spark in mankind, birds, animals, plants and life itself. He appeared in lightning, in celestial sun flares, in the sacred blaze rising from the altar and in household fires.

Agni was the divine priest and acted as messenger to the gods, interceding with them on behalf of mankind. The priest would chant:

'Agni, the divine ministrant of the sacrifice,
the great bestower of treasure.
May one obtain through Agni,
wealth and welfare.'

Agni is still important as the god of domestic and ritual fire and for spells for the increase of wealth, material goods, creativity and domestic protection.

Hephaestus

Hephaestus, Greek god of fire and metal-work, was thrown from Mount Olympus by his father Zeus because he took the part of his mother Hera in a quarrel; as a result of the fall, he became lame. He created armour, weapons and jewels for the gods in his workshop beneath the volcanic Mount Etna, in Sicily, and as a reward was given Aphrodite as his unwilling bride. He was among the least charismatic of the gods, but his Roman counterpart, Vulcan, fashioned Jupiter's thunderbolts.

Hephaestus is patron of metal-workers in much of the Western world and in the Middle East from where his cult originated. He is effective in all rituals for craftsmanship, for the acquisition of wealth and treasures, for the development of skills and precision and for controlled power for a particular purpose.

Deities Of Healing

Aesculapius

Aesculapius was a healer, son of Apollo and the mortal Corona, who lived during the eleventh century BC, and became a god after Zeus killed him with a thunderbolt for raising the dead.

The first shrine dedicated to Aesculapius was built in Athens in the fifth century BC by Sophocles. Other shrines followed in rapid succession, the most famous at Epidaurus, which became a major healing centre. Many were sited at sacred wells and springs. These shrines were dedicated to healing and dreams, and were the principle vehicle for obtaining relief or cure of illness of all kinds.

When Aesculapius appeared to the dreamers, he would tell them the medicine they should use and any treatment that should be followed. He can be invoked for healing and meaningful dreams, for good health and for divination.

Ganga

Ganga is the Hindu water goddess who is manifest as the sacred river Ganges, daughter of the mountain Himalaya. She is a natural focus for healing rituals, as well as for happiness, fertility and prosperity, and for Water magick.

Iduna

Iduna is the Viking goddess of eternal youthfulness, health and long life. As goddess of spring, she possessed a store of golden apples that endowed immortality, fertility and healing and so she can form a focus for healing rituals, and for spells for beauty, health and the granting of wishes, especially those using apples as a symbol.

Panacea

Panacea is the Roman goddess of healing, who takes away pain. Daughter of Aesculapius, she and her sister Hygeia assisted in healing the sick in their dreams at the dream temples.

She is good for healing rituals for women, children and especially teenage girls.

Sulis

Sulis, or Sulevia, is the Celtic goddess of healing and especially of healing waters. Her name is derived from the Celtic word for the Sun and her most famous site is the hot mineral springs that have for at least 10,000 years poured from the ground in Bath, in south-west England. From Celtic times, perhaps even earlier, the springs became a formal centre of healing.

Sulis became Sulis Minerva under the Roman occupation and she maintained her role as a healing deity. The significance of the sacred springs continued and Edgar, the first king of England, was crowned there in AD 973. In medieval times, the springs were still a focus for healing pilgrimages and in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Bath became a fashionable resort where the wealthy would come to socialise and take the waters.

Sulis is potent for all healing water rituals. Because curse tablets as well as offerings have been retrieved from the waters, she is also associated with justice through karma and the banishing of sorrows.

Deities of wisdom

As well as wisdom, these gods and goddesses are for knowledge, truth and justice.

Athena

Athena, or Athene, daughter of Zeus, is goddess of wise counsel, both in peace and war, of intelligence, reason, negotiation and all forms of the arts and literature. The owl is her sacred bird and the olive her symbol representing peace, healing and nourishment.

Hathor

Hathor is the Ancient Egyptian goddess of truth, wisdom, joy, love, music, art and dance and protectress of women. She is said to bring husbands or wives to those who call on her and she is also a powerful fertility goddess. Also worshipped as a Sky Goddess, Hathor is frequently shown wearing a Sun disc held between the horns of a cow as a crown.

She was once entrusted with the sacred eye of Ra, the Sun God and her consort, through which she could see all things. She carried a shield that could reflect back all things in their true light. From her shield she fashioned the first magical mirror. One side was endowed with the power of Ra's eye to see everything, no matter how distant in miles or how far into the future. The other side showed the gazer in his or her true light and only a brave person could look at it without flinching.

Hathor can be invoked for all forms of mirror magic and is also associated with gold and turquoise and so jewellery made of these can be a focus for her powers. In the modern world she is guardian of businesswomen. Fiercely protective in defence of her own, she is especially potent against physical and psychic attack.

Ma'at

Ma'at, the Ancient Egyptian goddess of truth and justice, was responsible for maintaining the correct balance and order in the universe. She was daughter of Ra who created her to establish unity and order in the world. Ma'at is pictured as a woman wearing a single ostrich feather as a headdress.

She was all-powerful, even over the king, who had to rule with truth and justice to attain eternal life. After death, a person's heart was weighed on the scales of justice against the feather from her headdress to see if it was free from sin. She can be invoked for all rituals of justice, uncovering secrets, truth and trustworthiness.

Hermes

Hermes is the Greek messenger god who travelled between dimensions. He is associated with the wise Ancient Egyptian god Thoth and the later Roman Mercury. He is credited with great knowledge, healing powers and medical knowledge.

The double entwined snake of Hermes' and Mercury's caduceus, or wand, which is often a living growing staff, is a symbol both of healing and of powerful communication. The snake forms two circles, the interlinked cycles of good and evil, life and death, light and darkness. The wings on the caduceus are for wisdom, guarding against gossip and malicious words as well as illness.

Among Hermes' many patronages were moneylenders and thieves and so he can protect against poverty and trickery, as well as helping you to speak the truth that is in your heart.
Hermes can also be invoked for all medical and commercial matters, for good fortune of all kinds and for peaceful sleep.

Minerva

Minerva is the Roman goddess of wisdom, who ruled with Jupiter and Juno as the triumvirate of justice and wise power. She also controlled commerce and all crafts and is credited with the invention of music. She is often depicted in armour.

Minerva, whose creature is the owl, can be invoked in employment rituals and for the development of skills, retraining and musical ability as well as for truth and justice. Unlike Bellona (see page 70) and the warlike gods, both Athena and Minerva are used in rituals for using legal means or oratory and persuasion, rather than direct action, to overcome injustice.

Thoth

Thoth was the Ancient Egyptian god of the Moon, wisdom and learning. He was also god of time, languages, law and mathematical calculations, who invented the calendar and hieroglyphic writing. He is often depicted with the head of an ibis although he was worshipped as a baboon in Hermopolis.

Appeal to him for all matters of magical wisdom, learning, intellectual pursuits, examinations and better time management.

Wise Woman Deities

These goddesses are for transformation rituals, for endings that become beginnings and for accepting what cannot be changed.

Cailleach

Cailleach, meaning' the Veiled One', is the Celtic name for a number of hag goddesses. These are powerful crone goddesses, who have retained their early associations with the winter. For example, the Scottish Cailleac Bhuer, the Blue Hag, manifested herself as an old woman wearing black or dark blue rags with a crow on her left shoulder and a holly staff that could kill a mortal with a touch.

She roamed the Highlands by night during winter when her power was at its greatest. Cailleac Bhuer is credited with creating the mountains by flying through the sky dropping stones, and so is said by some folklorists to be the origin of megaliths and stone circles and the nursery rhyme, There was an old woman tossed up in a basket'.

Hags are expert shapeshifters and as well as appearing as old women, they may assume the form of lovely maidens, hares, cats, stones and even trees.

Hecate

As well as being a crone goddess, Hecate is a goddess of good fortune, especially but not only of sailors and hunters. As goddess of the crossroads, where offerings were traditionally left to call up her blessings, she is regarded as the supreme goddess of witches and witchcraft and is akin to the Bone Goddess who transforms death into new more perfect life. She can be invoked for all waning moon magic and for rituals for banishing sorrows and bad habits.

Charges

Charges are declarations of the powers of the gods or godesses involved in the ritual, and are in themselves empowering and a way of linking the practitioner's own divine spark with that represented by the Divinity. They are similar to creeds in a Christian religious service.

The Charge of the Goddess

The Charge of the Goddess is a powerful way of focusing on cosmic energies. The Goddess is considered to be both 'transcendent', or above and beyond the created universe (like the traditional idea of God on a cloud, looking down and judging creation!), and also 'immanent', or manifest within every natural object, be it flower, stone, animal or person. The two concepts are complementary rather than contradictory.

Some practitioners feel that charges are an attempt to formalise energies that are beyond definition within a more conventional spiritual framework and that they are therefore artificial and restricting. If you have not used them before, I suggest you try working through the meditation given later in this chapter, to see if it is right for you.
The first and most popular version of the Charge of the Goddess was created by Gerald Gardener's High Priestess Doreen Valiente, herself one of the most influential people in formal magical traditions. Her version of the statement of the unifying principles of the Goddess is widely quoted and often memorised and sometimes adopted as a focus for trance work. (See page 300 for books describing her work.)

However, some practitioners, both solitary and those in less formal groups, create their own charges and may alter them as their confidence and experience of magick increase. You can create your own charge at the beginning of some rituals, or use an existing one, even if you do not acknowledge the Goddess as central to your personal spirituality.

You may view the divine force as a more abstract source of light and wisdom, but even so it can be helpful to personify it as a female (anima) and at the same time male (animus) form. Though the Valiente charge includes names of deities of both male and female forms, unless these mean something to you, you may want to exclude them or use names to which you personally relate.

You can refer back to the beginning of this chapter, where I listed a number of god and goddess forms, common to magick and drawn from different cultures, that emphasise specific strengths or qualities of the Divinity. However, your own list, drawn from mythology or perhaps your own background, may work better for you. The following is a version I have developed using three goddess forms from the Celtic tradition, my own favourite, which I have adapted for the three phases of the Goddess.

So spoke the Great Mother who has been known in many forms and by many names in countless ages, but is and always will be one and the same. As the Maiden, she is the Celtic Brighid who in early spring softens the Earth with her white wand of fire and so awakens the spring and restores fertility to land and people. As Mother, she is Cerridwen whose magical cauldron of wisdom and inspiration overflows to all who seek and call in need; finally she is Cailleach, the Veiled One, wise woman, healer and bringer of dreams, who in the winter of life transforms the old and outworn into new life to be born with the Maiden in the spring.

'When the Moon is full, you can call on me, goddess, mother, sister, friend, daughter and grandmother of all ages and all places, in joy, for I bring love and plenty. You may also bring me your hopes with the waxing moon and your sorrows on the wane, for I am with you in all states and stages, when you call and when you are silent, when you turn to me as an eager child and when you weep solitary tears in your pillow when your dreams have dissolved into ashes.

'I hold the key to the mysteries of existence and the universe, but these I will share with all who come with willing heart and open mind. For they are not hidden from you, but are all round you in every season. I am in the Moon as she passes through the sky, in the fertile Earth and the mighty waters, for I am them as I am part of you, and you of me, and you too are of the same divine fabric as the Moon and the fertile Earth and the waters, the stars, the sunshine and the life-giving rain.

'I do not ask sacrifice or worship, for I come to you in love as a gentle mother, with compassion, understanding and forgiveness of those things in your heart that you fear to look on in yourself. I am fierce, defending my young and my green places and creatures from all who would do them harm, but I would rather teach than avenge, restore and regenerate.

'I am the great healer of sorrow, pain, loss and doubt. Through me and through my herbs, oils, crystals and sacred waters, you can spread my healing wisdom.

As I give life, so in death all return to me to be transformed, renewed and born again. I was with you in the beginning and will be with you in the end.

'If you work with honour, love, humility and for the highest good, then you may realise your own divinity and spread light and fertility throughout the Earth. For what you give, will I restore to you threefold and more, time without time and for evermore.'

We are of the circle and we are the circle. May the circle be uncast but never broken.

If you are working in a group, you can each recite different parts of the charge, but best of all, through meditation, alone or as a group, you can work to create your own. If you are a solitary practitioner, you can read or recite your charge into a candle flame or in a wild, open place, and feel the energies resounding beyond and within you. You can also use it before divination or as an introduction to a ceremony for healing or greater understanding.

Meditation can last from five minutes to half an hour or more. In these initial stages, allow your own psyche to guide you as to when the experience is done. If other members of the group are still working, this is not a sign that their experience was more profound. Sit quietly or lie down, enjoying the silence and allowing the images of your meditation to develop quite spontaneously.

If you are working with a group, remain in the circle and pass round a bowl or chalice of pure water. If you are working indoors with candlelight, arrange the candles so they reflect on the water. As each person gazes into the water, they can contribute a series of images about what the Goddess represents to them, which will be stimulated by the meditation. You do not need to use a bowl of water, but it is a way of directing inner images externally to find expression. Some people prefer to pass round a crystal ball or a large piece of uncut crystal. A crystal is helpful if you find it difficult to retrieve images from meditation or if you find meditation unproductive, as the living energies provide a direct route to your unconscious wisdom.

After your meditation, if you are working alone, surround a clear bowl of water with white candles and, looking into it, begin to speak. You may like to record your words on cassette to make them easier to recall. If you do not consciously try to formulate poetic expressions, profound poetry and rich images will emerge almost from another place. This is the deep pool of collective wisdom speaking.

If you are in a group, the images can be set down by your scribe as a collective charge that can be changed over the months. Working on your charge can be a fruitful activity every six weeks or so as it reflects and stimulates the group consciousness.

Copy a version of your charge into your Book of Shadows. It is good to read if you feel afraid or alone at any time when you are not doing magical work.

The Charge Of The God

For some practitioners, this charge is less important, but I believe that the male polarity or energies are an integral part not only of the seasonal Wheel of the Year, but also of human experience, whether you are working alone or as part of a coven. It is one I have found helpful, but you can create your own through a god meditation by visualising a god form that seems relevant to you. Again I have used Celtic god forms:

These are the words of the Father, who is son and consort of the Great Mother, born in the beginning of She who created the universe from her own body, from her smiles and tears and ever-fertile womb.

'I am He, the wild untamed power of the hunt, the horned beasts and the woodland, that offers food, shelter and protection to people of all races, clans and creeds. I am Cernunnos, horned Lord of Winter; as Master of the Animals and Lord of the Corn, I offer willing sacrifice for the land and people; as King of the Dark Places beneath the soil, in the nurturing womb of the Mother, like all creatures who have entered the gentle Earth, I grow strong again, resting but never slumbering, until I hear the call at the darkest and coldest hour to be reborn as Lugh, radiant son; at that hour I bring the promise that the Sun will not die, but as the wheel turns bring lighter days and the promise of spring as the mid-winter yoke is conquered once more.

'I bring power, strength, courage and nobility to defend the weak and the vulnerable, and to give of my life blood to maintain what is of worth and just and lovely. Mine is not the path of ease, but of ecstasy in the wild wood where the untamed instincts bow only to natural law and natural justice; as the fruit of the sacred vine, Lord of the Dance, the young stag who masters the old; as the Barley King, I dance and laugh and sing of the spirit that never can be broken, of the potency of the life force coursing through my loins to bring increase and abundance, as fields and the animals and humankind are made fertile by the sacred coupling beneath the may bowers and blossoming trees.

'Birth follows death, plenty follows dearth, creation follows necessary destruction, and so renewed, I dedicate myself to the sanctity of all life ruled by the highest of intent and in humility in the hour of my greatest triumph.'

A Goddess Meditation

You can use this to create your personal or group Charge of the Goddess.

Find a quiet, safe place for meditation where you will not be disturbed and can fall asleep without coming to any harm, if you naturally drift from a meditative to a sleep state. Choose a time when you are not too tired and before you begin, have a bath to which a few drops of sandalwood or ylang ylang oil are added for heightened psychic awareness.

For the meditation, use a focus, for example a bubbling fountain or water feature, fragrant herbs or flowers, such as lavender or roses, or a scented candle of jasmine, apple blossom, lilac or neroli. (You can easily make a water feature by setting up a very small electric pump in a deep container in which you place crystals, greenery, perhaps a tiny statue and some plants.) You can work either alone or as a group, sitting in a circle round the focus, so that you can see it without moving your neck or head. Experiment until you get the height of the table and the distances right. For group work, you can light a circle of candles.

If you are working indoors, and there is no natural harmonious sound, such as the water, you may like to play softly a CD of rainforest or ocean sounds, birdsong or dolphin calls.

* Light incense sticks of frankincense or myrrh.

* Sit either cross-legged on the floor on a rug or blanket with your hands supporting your knees, in the lotus position if you are skilled in yoga, or on a chair with both feet flat on the floor. If you wish, support your back with a pillow and have arm rests on the chair for your elbows. Relax your arms and hands, with palms uppermost. It is important to be comfortable and not to be distracted by worrying about keeping in a particular 'approved' position.

* Visualise yourself surrounded by a circle of warm, protective light or, if you are using a candle, gaze into the flame.

* Take a slow, deep breath through your nose, inhaling the light. Hold it for a count of 'One and two and three' and slowly exhale darkness through your mouth.

* Let the circle of light expand and enfold you so that you are bathed in the light. You may find it easier at this point to close your eyes and to see the light with your inner vision.

* Within the sphere of light, allow the goddess form to build up quite naturally. It may be a familiar figure or a composite of many different female power icons of beauty, wisdom and grace. She may be old, young, wise or challenging, according to the qualities you are attracting to meet your as yet, perhaps, unformulated needs. In different meditations you may see different goddesses and so adapt the charge accordingly to emphasise particular strengths and qualities they evoke.

* Let words flow about the Goddess and her relationship with the world, nature and the cosmos.

* Do not attempt to hold or recall them, but allow them to ebb, form again and disperse, like waves or ripples on a pond.

* You may experience colours, lights and fragrances unconnected with the stimuli: sounds of wild animals or the wind through the trees, a sensation of warmth or coolness.

* When you are aware of the sounds of the world beginning to return and the light fading, gradually move away from the goddess form, letting the image fade.

* Reconnect with your breathing and allow gentle pink or purple light to radiate within you, leaving you calm and in a deep pool of inner silence. If you have closed your eyes, open them slowly, blinking and stretching slowly, like a cat uncurling after sleep.

I said earlier in the book that you would require tools for your magick. That is not quite true: in fact, you could practise magick with nothing but a candle. A candle is a self-contained magical system, for although it represents the Fire element, it also containing the other three basic elements of magick: Earth is represented by the unburned wax of the candle, Air is the smoke, Fire the flame and Water the melted wax. Thus is created Akasha, or Spirit.

For most spells, however, you should have one or two altar candles in white, cream or natural beeswax. A single central candle can be good for times of quiet meditation, but for more focused rituals you may prefer to light one candle to represent the Goddess on the right and another for the god polarity, on the left of the altar.

Any tools and elemental substances that you wish to use, such as salt - which represents Earth in the North -can be set at the four main compass points around them and any symbols set between and in front of them.

These will be the first candles lit in any ritual, either before or immediately after casting a circle. I prefer to light them first, to mark a beginning and an empowerment to the magick and to avoid casting an empty circle, but there are no hard and fast rules.

There is debate over whether you should blow or pinch out candles that you do not wish to burn completely away. The act of blowing out a candle is itself a magical release of power, for, rather than holding the light in a snuffer, you can send it towards all who need it. This is an excellent way of releasing and directing power at the end of a rite.

If you buy candles with two or three wicks, a new one can be lit each day in a three-day ritual. Larger candles can have up to seven wicks and if you need a lot of power, you can light all the wicks during a single ritual. Candles vary considerably in their burning times - the better-quality ones may state the number of hours, but with practice if you always use the same type of candles, you will be able to assess how long they will last.

Then you can choose one to match the occasion - either one that will have burned through by the end of an evening in a dusk ritual or one that will last for up to 12 hours for an all-night vigil candle, for example on one of the solstices.

Practitioners of strict ceremonial magick say that you should never use a candle that has been lit for another ritual or purpose and should not use these afterwards for household illumination. However, since candles are so expensive and since you will only be performing positive magick, there is no reason why ritual candles should not be adapted for everyday use. Candles from harmony and healing spells may be used in quiet areas of the home, and candles for energy and success in work or study areas.

On the other hand, candles for banishing magick should be left to burn down and any remaining wax buried, or the unused candle be disposed of in an environmentally friendly manner. You can, if you wish, place your banishing candle on a metal tray etched with a symbol of what you wish to remove from your life and bury that.

Both for ritual magick and for your informal candle spells and meditations, you will need a supply of candles in a variety of colours. I will list here astrological significances, the magical colour meanings and the elemental correspondences, so that even if you are new to magick you can begin work at once. If you are an experienced practitioner, some of the ideas may suggest new directions for your personal and coven work.

The Elemental Candle Colours

Each of the four elements - Air, Fire, Water and Earth - is represented by a single candle colour - yellow, red, blue and green. A coloured candle representing each of the elements can be placed at the four main compass points around the circle to mark the quarters - East, South, West and North. You can place the elemental candles either on the edge of the circle in sturdy floor-standing holders, or on small tables or plinths at the compass points. Though each element is represented by a single candle, you can use a second to increase a particular element in its own quadrant of the circle or use the elemental colour in all four quadrants. So, for example, if you were carrying out a Fire spell, you could use four red (or gold or orange) candles and begin the ritual facing South.

Some practitioners invoke Fire to conquer floods and Water to conquer drought but I believe that each element can most effectively counter excesses of itself.

Light elemental candles after the altar candles, after you have cast the circles but before lighting any wish or astrological candle. Begin in the North, with a green candle.

Green

Green is for Earth and the North, midnight and winter. A green candle is placed at what would be the 12 o'clock position on a clock, aligned with magnetic or a symbolic North.

Earth is the element of order, both in nature and institutions such as the law, politics, finance, health and education. It also represents yin, the female, nurturing goddess aspect, Mother Earth, the home and family, as well as money and security, and is a good element to invoke when you have matters of property or money that need attention. It is also a focus for all rituals against famine, deforestation and land pollution and devastation through unwise industrialisation or building, and for caring for animals and their natural habitats.

Surround your green Earth candle with grains, berries, fruits, coins or pot pourri. Brown candles may also be used as Earth candles.

Yellow

Yellow is for Air and the East, dawn and spring. A yellow candle is placed at the three o'clock position.

Air represents life itself, logic, the mind, communication, health, new beginnings, travel, learning, yang and the male god in the form of Sky deities. It is a good element to invoke if you are seeking change or when communication is proving difficult with either an individual or an organisation, and to clear stagnation of thoughts.

It is also a focus for spells against air pollution, technological devastation and storms, and for the protection of birds, butterflies and insects.

Surround your Air candles with feathers, thistledown, tiny helium balloons, model planes and ceramic or wooden birds.

Red

Red is for Fire and the South, noon and summer. Place your red candle in the six o'clock position.

Fire represents light, the Sun, lightning, fertility, power, joy, ambition, inspiration and achievement and also destruction of what is now no longer needed.

Like Air, Fire represents the yang, male god in the form of the Sun deities. Fire rituals are good when you need power or you have an important issue that needs energy. They are effective against drought, global warming, all pollution caused by burning fuels or chemicals, forest fires and the 'slash and burn' policy in rainforests.

Surround your Fire candle with golden sunflowers or chrysanthemums, tiny mirrors that reflect the light and clear crystal quartz, which is called in the Orient 'the essence of the dragon'.

Blue

Blue is for Water and the West, dusk and autumn. A blue candle is placed in the nine o'clock position.

Water represents love, relationships, sympathy, intuition, reconciliation, harmony, healing and the cycle of birth, death and rebirth, natural cyclical evolutions from one stage to another as opposed to changes made consciously under the auspices of Air. It is also potent for fighting floods, cleansing seas, lakes and rivers of pollution, in campaigns to provide fresh water in arid places, in all initiatives towards world health and the care of whales, dolphins, seals and endangered sea creatures.

Like Earth, Water represents the yin, female goddess in the form of the Moon Goddesses.

Surround your Water candles with silver objects, sea shells and pieces of coral or, for the lunar goddesses, mother of pearl and moonstones that grow brighter as the Moon waxes.

Zodiacal Candles

Candles etched with zodiacal signs may be used to represent people born during a particular Sun period. They may then be burnt in rituals for different purposes. For instance, you can burn your own zodiacal candle at a time when you need confidence or to assert your identity. Alternatively, you may burn any astrological candles whose strengths you need at a particular time, perhaps the courage of Aries before a confrontation or travelling to an unfamiliar location. You might also use them in a love ritual.

Note also the influence of particular groups of signs of the zodiac. The cardinal signs - Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn - are so-called because when the Sun moved into these signs, it marked the beginning of a new season - spring, summer, autumn and winter. People born under a cardinal sign manifest this as a desire to initiate and to take command of people and situations. The fixed signs - Leo, Taurus, Aquarius and Scorpio - are signs entered by the Sun in the middle of a season. People born under them exhibit stability and a tendency to continue in a predetermined path. The mutable signs -Sagittarius, Gemini, Virgo and Pisces - mark the time when the seasons are about to change. Those born under them are correspondingly versatile and ready to compromise.

Zodiacal Colours And Associations

Aries, the Ram: 21 March to 20 April. Colour: red. A cardinal Fire sign, for all matters of the self and of identity, for rituals of innovation, courage assertiveness and action. Ruled by Mars.

Taurus, the Bull: 21 April to 21 May. Colour: pink. A fixed Earth sign, for rituals concerning all kinds of material matters and security, also for patience and caution if the way ahead seems hazardous. Ruled by Venus.

Gemini, the Heavenly Twins: 22 May to 21 June. Colour: yellow or pale grey. A mutable Air sign, for spells concerning communication, learning, choices, adaptability and short-distance travel. Ruled by Mercury.

Cancer, the Crab: 22 June to 22 July. Colour: silver. A cardinal Water sign, for spells concerning the home and family, especially for protection and for gentle love and friendship. Ruled by the Moon.

Leo, the Lion: 23 July to 23 August. Colour: gold. A fixed Fire sign, for rituals for courage and leadership, sensual pleasures and love affairs. Ruled by the Sun.

Virgo, the Maiden: 24 August to 22 September. Colour: green or pale blue. A mutable Earth sign, for spells to increase efficiency, for bringing order to a chaotic situation, for self-improvement and for healing. Ruled by Mercury.

Libra, the Scales: 23 September to 23 October. Colour: blue or violet. A cardinal Air sign for rituals concerning justice and the law, for balancing options and priorities relationships, harmony and reconciliation. Ruled by Venus.

Scorpio, the Scorpion: 24 October to 22 November. Colour: burgundy or red. A fixed Water sign, for increasing second sight, for passion and sex, secrets, inheritance and for claiming what is rightfully yours in any area of life. Ruled by Mars in the ancient system, now by Pluto.

Sagittarius, the Archer: 23 November to 21 December. Colour: orange or yellow. A mutable Fire sign, for optimism, fresh perspectives, long-distance travel and house moves, creative ventures and expanding horizons. Ruled by Jupiter.

Capricorn, the Goat: 22 December to 20 January. Colour: brown or black. A cardinal Earth sign, for ambitions, perseverance, matters concerning officialdom, loyalty and for the acquisition of money. Ruled by Saturn.

Aquarius, the Water Carrier: 21 January to 18 February. Colour: indigo or dark blue. A fixed Air sign, for independence, friendship, creativity and for detachment from emotional blackmail. Ruled by Saturn in the ancient system, now by Uranus.

Pisces, the Fish: 19 February to 20 March. Colour: white or mauve. A mutable Water sign, for spells to develop spiritual awareness and intuition, and for divination, especially involving water and the fulfilment of hidden dreams. Ruled by Jupiter in the ancient system, now by Neptune.

In magick, it tends to be the old rulerships that are used in spells (see Planets and Angels).

Colour Correspondences

Colour is of great significance, both in healing and magick, and colour symbolism is used frequently with candles, and also with crystals, flowers, foods and coloured water, as a way of focusing on and activating the different qualities inherent in the colours.

White

In magic, white represents light, the life force and clear vision and so is helpful where a new beginning or a sudden burst of energy and enthusiasm is needed. White is a good colour for work involving rites of passage, especially for birth, marriage and welcoming new family members by marriage or adoption.

Use white also for protective magick, for replacing darkness with light, in meditation, for Goddess-focused rituals, for increasing spiritual awareness and contact with spirit guides, angels and the higher self.

White contains both solar and lunar energies and is often used for altar candles. You can substitute white for any other colour.

White candles can be used on any day of the week, though they are associated with Monday in the Goddess aspect and Sunday and the Sun for life force magick.

Red

Red, the colour of Mars, the planet and god of war, represents action, power, determination, physical energy and health, courage and determination, sexual passion and potency, survival and change, for careers where danger is involved and the armed forces. It is used as a focus for rituals calling on the power of the gods and for stimulating righteous anger against injustice and inertia.

Because it is a very powerful candle colour, red should be lit for worthy aims only and when you are in a positive frame of mind.

Red candles are most effective when used on a Tuesday.

Orange

Orange is the colour of the Sun, of fertility - both physical and mental - and of creativity with words. Growth, self-esteem, confidence and abundance of all kinds are related to orange, as are independence and asserting your identity if it is under threat or being eroded by the demands or unfair criticism of others. Orange also relates to careers involving people and the arts.

Above all, orange is the colour of joy and also the successful integration of all aspects of the personality into a harmonious whole.

Orange candles are best used on a Sunday.

Yellow

Yellow is the colour associated with Mercury, the winged messenger of the Roman gods. Through his skill and dexterity, he came to rule over commerce and medicine and also became patron of tricksters and thieves.

Yellow candles therefore encourage clear communication and activity of all kinds, improving memory, concentration and learning, and are good for overcoming mental stagnation and blocks in ideas or assimilation of facts.

Use them in rituals when you wish to gain another person's confidence and approval or to win someone round in business or intellectual matters; to sharpen logic; for succeeding in examinations and tests; also for good luck, for short journeys or to initiate a house move within the same area. Yellow is also a healing colour, especially for conditions needing surgery or concerning the mind.

Yellow is good for careers in business, medicine, technology, communication or the media and also for job changes.

Yellow candles are best used on a Wednesday.

Green

Green is the colour of Venus, goddess of love, and so is good for all love and relationship matters, especially partnerships and romance; it is also potent for rites involving the natural world, herbs, gardening and tree magick, for healing the planet and especially the forests and the land.

Green is for peace and harmony, especially within the self. When green candles are used in rituals for wealth, they tend to encourage a gradual increase in profits or resources. As the faerie colour, green is also potent for spells for good luck and increasing magical abilities.

Green candles are best used on Friday.

Turquoise

Turquoise is the colour of Hathor, Egyptian goddess of wisdom, music and dance, whose magical mirror reflected back the true person of all who looked in it (scary stuff if you were just checking your hair).

Turquoise rituals are for integration of heart and mind, feelings and thoughts and the synthesis of wisdom and experience. Turquoise is used for successfully combining different aspects of life or two different career strands; for compassion and altruism; for increasing healing abilities; for maintaining impartiality when making difficult decisions and judgements; and for seeing other dimensions. It is the colour of artists, sculptors, dancers, writers and poets, and can bring inspiration and originality increasing artistic ability.

Turquoise candles can be used effectively on Thursday or Friday.

Blue

Blue is the colour of the Father God and other Sky deities in their external roles as wise judges and rulers and so can be used for this aspect of the god and as a protective colour.

In magick, blue can expand the boundaries of possibility and bring success, confidence and power mingled with altruism, nobility and idealism. Blue is also used for prosperity rituals where this involves advancement or for maximising opportunities, for promotion and expansion of business.

Blue is the colour of long-distance travel and house moves, legal matters and dealing with officialdom. It is also for careers involving justice and leadership. Above all, blue brings calm and the ability to solve problems in the midst of crisis.

Blue candles are best used on Thursday.

Purple

Purple is the colour of Jupiter in his role of wise teacher and keeper of hidden knowledge, and of Osiris, the Ancient Egyptian Father God and Lord of the Underworld, who died each year and was resurrected by his wife Isis. It represents unconscious wisdom and is used for all things of a psychic and spiritual nature and for divination. Purple provides a link with higher dimensions and can bring happiness for all who yearn for something beyond the material plane.

Purple candles aid meditation, work with past lives, scrying with candles and mirrors, and astral travel. They are good for psychic protection and preventing nightmares. Purple can also be used for all rituals where the facts are not clear, for clearing secrecy, for healing the spirit and for banishing what lies in the past, especially failure, and for remembering departed loved ones. Below, I have given sub-divisions for different shades of purple, but in practice they are interchangeable.

Indigo

Indigo is for spiritual healing, for psychic awareness and knowledge of past lives and worlds; it is the colour of the seer.

Lavender

Lavender is for dreams and connections with others, on a telepathic level, for awareness of Devas and other higher nature spirits and for herb wisdom.

Violet

Violet is for clairvoyance, mediumship, spirituality and contact with the evolved self, angelic guides, mysticism and peak experiences.

Purple candles are best used on Thursday.

Pink

Pink is the colour of Venus in her gentler aspects, for family relationships, affection, friendship matters, children and for the growth of new love and trust, especially after betrayal or a setback. Pink rituals are excellent for restoring self-esteem and healing wounded emotions, for letting go of past hurts involving family or childhood, for quiet sleep and for the mending of quarrels.

Pink candles are best burned on Friday.

Magenta

Magenta represents the path of service to others, especially for older women and men in the role of wise counsellor. It can help all in the caring professions and will help anyone transform experiences, both positive and negative, into wisdom that can be offered to guide others.

Magenta candles are best used on Friday.

Brown

Brown is a colour of Saturn, the Roman form of Cronus, god of time. Deposed by his son Jupiter, he was sent to Italy where he taught the farmers, agriculture and engineering and there established a golden age of peace and plenty.

Brown is good for protection, for magick concerning animals and especially household pets, for locating lost objects, learning new skills, for the home, property, practical matters, security and having enough resources for one's needs. It is also the colour of all who work with their hands.

Brown is also the colour of Mother Earth and the Earth spirits and so is good for environmental matters and conservation, especially as an impetus for practical conservation projects. Brown is good for grounding rituals.

Brown candles are best used on Saturday.

Grey

Grey is ruled by Saturn and by Mercury, some say, when he becomes invisible in the sky.

Grey is used primarily for neutralising or erasing negative energies or feelings. It is the shade of compromise and adaptability, of lowering one's profile in times of danger, and offers protection against both physical and psychic attack. It is a colour for keeping secrets and for smoothing down potential conflict and keeping one's counsel when to do otherwise would be unwise.

Grey candles are best used on Wednesday when Mercury cannot be seen and on Saturday.

Black

Another colour of Saturn and also the kings of the Underworld - the Roman Pluto, the bestower of the hidden wealth that lay within the Earth, and the Greek Hades, who abducted Persephone (Proserpine), thus causing winter.

Black is the colour not only of death, but also of regeneration. This belief goes back to Ancient Egypt when the annual flooding of the Nile carried with it black silt, which brought new life to the land each year.

In magick, black is the colour of endings that carry within them seeds of new beginnings. It can be used for banishing negativity, for leaving behind old sorrows and redundant relationships; for acknowledging grief, for rituals of partings, for breaking hexes and for psychic protection. Some people do not like using black candles because of their associations with black magick. If you feel that these associations are too strong for you, substitute dark blue, dark purple or brown candles in rituals.

In a positive sense, black, like brown, is a colour of acceptance, whether of a restriction or of the frailties of self and others, and so it is a candle colour of forgiveness.

Black candles are best used on Saturday.

Silver

Silver is the colour of the Moon and all lunar goddesses such as Diana, the Roman counterpart of Artemis, who, because of her strong association with the Moon in all its phases, was a goddess of fertility as well as love.

It is also used on some altars to represent the Goddess, with a gold candle for the Horned God. Silver is potent in all forms of divination, but especially for candle divination, for awakening clairvoyant powers, telepathic and psychometric abilities, astral projection, for rituals to invoke anima (female) power, for intuition and mysticism. It represents dreams, visions and a desire for fulfilment beyond the material world.

In times of stress and sorrow, silver candles can remove negativity, promote inner stability and bring to the fore your hidden potential. Silver candles are excellent for scrying, especially by the full moon, and for all magick involving the female life and for female fertility.

Silver candles are best used on a Monday.

Gold

Gold is the colour of the Sun and is associated with the solar deities, for example, the Egyptian Ra. In Ancient Greece, Helios, the Sun God, was worshipped each dawn as he emerged in the East and drove his chariot of winged horses around the Sky before plunging into the ocean in the West at sunset.

Gold is potent for worldly achievement, wealth and recognition, for long life, ambitious schemes and money-making rituals that require an instant or substantial return. The colour of male potency and fertility, it represents animus (male) power, energy and change and all rituals with noble or altruistic purpose.

Gold is best used on a Sunday.

Using Colour In Rituals

You can also use coloured candles as a focus for wishes in a particular area of experience represented by the colour. So you might write a wish for a better memory on yellow paper and burn it in a yellow candle, the colour of Mercury. You could then collect the ash in a heatproof ceramic pot or metal bowl beneath the candle and scatter it to the four winds. For banishing an injustice, you might write about the event on dark blue paper, burn it in the blue candle of Jupiter and bury the ashes.

Around the home, different coloured candles can be burned for different purposes. Scented candles can also amplify the colour energies. See pages 128 and 139 for the meanings of different perfumes.

A Black And White Candle Ritual

This is a ritual for a new beginning after sorrow or loss. You can carry out this ritual for yourself or someone you know who is grieving or unhappy after a betrayal. It is especially healing if you are feeling angry over unjust or cruel treatment, because it can stop any guilt, blame or pain turning inwards and slowing the healing process. You may need to repeat the experience many times. This is an essentially private ritual, but if you are doing it on behalf of someone else, then you might like to invite them to share the experience.

The best time to use this magick is towards the end of the waning moon cycle, late in the evening before the Moon has risen.

* Take a small black candle and a large white one and place them side by side in your cauldron, on a metal tray or in a sand-filled, heatproof bowl.

* On the black candle, etch a symbol or word to represent your sorrow or anger about a third of the way down the candle. As you do so, send all the negative feelings into the wax.

* Light the candle and say:

Burn, burn,
sorrow turn,
melt away,
do not stay.

Go in peace,
trouble cease.

* Burn pieces of black wool, cut from a large ball with a knife, not scissors, naming each aspect of your grief and watching it bum away, piece by piece.

* When you have finished naming the sorrows, sit quietly in the candlelight, seeing the negativity flowing away in the stream of black wax. Make positive plans for the future and write a list of daily actions or short breaks from work that will make you happy. Even if these are of necessity very small, the cumulative effects of a number of minor pleasures can change the balance of your life for the better once a moon cycle has passed.

* Once the symbol has melted away, use a taper to carry the flame from the black candle to the white one. This is important, for new beginnings do not come out of nothing, but from the transformation of endings into positive energies.

* Once the white candle is alight, blow out the black candle and dispose of it in an environmentally friendly way.

* Sit for a few moments, looking into the flame of your white candle, letting thoughts and images appear within either the flame or your mind's vision.

* Carry the candle carefully into the bathroom and add to your bath water a few drops of essential oil of rose or lavender for self-love and let the light make pools in the water. Lie in the bath until you feel rested.

* When you feel completely relaxed, get out of the bath and swirl the water as it rushes down the plug hole, saying:

Flow far,
flow free,
flow in peace and harmony.

* Spend the rest of the evening in quiet but pleasurable activity, until your white candle is burned down.

* Finally, etch in the wax a new symbol of hope and keep it in your special place until it crumbles, by which time it will hopefully no longer be needed.

If the problem is really deep-seated, you can repeat the ritual monthly, each time using a smaller black candle and a larger white one until there are no black energies left.

A Candle Ritual For Love

* Scratch the zodiacal glyphs for yourself and a lover on candles of the appropriate colour (see page 94), then light the candles.

* Move them closer to each other over a period of three days while speaking words of love and desire to increase the love energies.

* For the first two days, blow out the candles, sending the light to wherever your lover is. On the third day, leave the candles to burn down, allowing the wax from the two candles to merge.

* In the melded wax, cut the shape of a heart and on this scratch your entwined zodiacal glyphs. Wrap the symbol in white silk and leave it on a window ledge from the waxing to the full moon.

A Candle Ritual To Heal The Polluted Seas And Other Bodies Of Water

This is a ritual to be carried out after dusk. It also has the effect of clearing old hurts and regrets that can hold us back from experiencing joy. A wonderful selection of garden torches and candles are now available, that can be placed in the ground for working out of doors. As you are taking away pollution, work at the time of the waning moon. Blue is the elemental colour of water.

* Place four blue candles at the four main compass points in a room or any outdoor area. The four blue compass candles can act as sentinels of light, protecting the four quarters of the circle.

* In the centre, place a cauldron or pot. (A three-legged iron pot or any ceramic pot will do. These can often be found in antique shops, at car boot sales or garden centres, as well as in New Age shops. It need not be very large.)

* Fill the cauldron with water and float blue candles on the surface.

* Light a large blue candle to the West of the cauldron; light the candles in the cauldron from this candle, using a taper.

* Surround the cauldron with symbols of the sea, shells and white stones. Prepare a bowl of moonstones, small blue lace agate stones or blue glass nuggets to cast in the water.

* Set a tall jar holding wax tapers at each compass point.

If you are working alone, you may need to keep the size of the circle and cauldron quite small, but you can use as much space as you wish. If you are working in a group, four people can light the candles in the four quarters and the scale of the whole ritual can be much larger.

The group can sit or stand in a circle around the cauldron, just inside the four direction candles; traditionally, a magical area extends to a circle about nine feet (three metres) in diameter. However, this can be larger or smaller, according to the size of the group. Circles are usually measured in an odd, rather than even, number of feet, but unless you are casting the most ceremonial of circles, you can estimate the space you will need to work or dance and cast your circle accordingly. (Deities in the cosmos with measuring tapes are remarkably rare.)

* Using a taper lit from the candle you placed to the West of the cauldron, light the candle in the West of the circle. If working in a group, this should be done by the person standing by the West candle. As you light the candle of the West say:

I call upon the guardians of
the mighty oceans,
the inland seas, the straits and
the channels between land
to protect my/our undertakings
and to create this circle of light.

May the circle be unbroken
to keep all within from harm.

* Re-light the taper if necessary from the West candle. Carry the taper of light to the candle in the North, creating an arc of light. Light the candle in the North. (If working in a group, the taper is given to the person sitting nearest the North candle, who comes forward as the first person returns to sit in the circle.) As the candle in the North is lit, say:

I call upon the guardians of
the rushing rivers,
the watercourses and
the canals to protect my/our
undertakings and to create this circle of light.

May the circle be unbroken
to keep all within from harm.

* Re-light the taper if necessary and carry it in an unbroken arc to the East (pass it to the next person, if working in a group) and light the East candle, saying:

I call upon the guardians of
the lakes,
the still pools,
ponds and marshes
to protect my/our undertakings
and to create this circle of light.

May the circle be unbroken
to keep all within from harm.

* Re-light the taper once again and in the same way make an arc of light to the South, and light the final candle, saying:

I call upon the guardians of
the water that flows through or near our homes,
the sacred wells and streams,
the ditches and the watercourses
to protect my/our undertakings and
to create this circle of light.

May the circle be unbroken
that I now make complete.

* Carry the final taper to complete the circle in the West and join it to the burning West candle, saying:

Fire to fire,
water to water,
so does power increase.

* Take a crystal from the dish and cast it into the cauldron, saying:

So ripples the power to cleanse,
to heal and to restore life
to the waters of the planet,
from whence it has departed.

* Say a few words of healing, perhaps naming special waters you know and care about, and areas where there is no clean drinking water. If working in a group, each person can take it in turns to cast a crystal and add a few words of their own.

* Blow out the four elemental candles in the reverse order in which they were lit, saying:

May the circle be uncast
but remain unbroken.

The floating blue candle and the one next to the cauldron can be left to burn down.

Afterwards, have a simple meal and drink. If you are working in a group, this may be a good time to plan a campaign for furthering your efforts for clean waters in the daily world.

There is a long tradition of using herbs for healing, but they have many other uses. As well as healing rituals, you can place dishes of charged herbs near a bedside in a sickroom or on your healing altar next to a symbol, photograph or the name of the person to be healed. However, they are also excellent for emotional support and spiritual empowerment. For example, if you get stressed on a regular car journey through heavy traffic or on motorways, you may well benefit from a healing or protective herbal sachet in the glove compartment of your car. In fact, herbs may be used to add their strength to almost any kind of ritual and spell.

As they have such a wide variety of uses in magick, you will probably need quite a large supply. Fortunately, herbs are, for the most part, very easy to grow - and very ornamental. If you have a garden you can set aside a small area specifically for cultivating herbs. Alternatively, you can create an indoor garden of herbs grown in pots, so that you have a ready supply of growing energy. Once picked, all your herbs can be used either fresh, for example on your altar, or dried, in healing sachets and poppets.

Each herb has its own natural properties and strengths and they also have the benefit of offering dual purposes. If, for example, you use allspice for a person with digestive or throat troubles, as a bonus both you and the person you heal may experience a gradual upturn in fortune, one of its magical meanings. Though most of the traditional uses of herbs apply to physical and emotional ills and so are most commonly applied to people - and animals, of course - you can also use them for spells concerning places; for example, herbs for soothing wounds, such as lavender, are equally potent in rituals for healing the Earth or reversing the effects of pollution.

Empowering Herbs

In addition to their natural properties, you can further empower the herbs, defining their purpose, and adding to the strength they display spontaneously. Empowering herbs can be done in one of two ways. The first method is to use an empowerment ritual, such as the one described on page 109; this is good for herbs to be used in poppets and healing herbal sachets (see below). Alternatively, you can use the method described on page 172 for charging colour-infused water. This is particularly effective for adding extra healing power to a pot of herbs to be placed on your healing altar, as a focus for the need of a particular person.

Herbal Poppets And Sachets

Traditionally, empowered herbs were used to fill either sachets or featureless dolls called poppets. They were made for love, protection, prosperity, fertility, healing and success and could contain either a single herb or a mixture, depending on the purpose.

Poppets, which are used mainly in love or healing or occasionally in protective magick, are generally kept in a safe place, such as a drawer, rather than carried around. So, for a love spell, two poppets would be tied together and placed in a drawer in a bedroom or left out on the window ledge in the moonlight, especially around the time of the full moon. For fertility, a miniature poppet might be placed in a tiny woven cradle on the window ledge from the new to the full moon. It would then be wrapped in silk until the end of the moon cycle and kept in an enclosed space, for example, a large painted egg made of pottery or wood. The would-be father would make the cradle and the mother would sew and fill the doll.

Some practitioners attach hair from the person to be healed or the object of the love spell to the poppet, but I consider that this is an intrusion of privacy. Instead, I would suggest that if you wish to add extra power, you make your featureless dolls in an appropriate colour.

Herbal sachets are particularly versatile; small ones can be carried around in a bag, pocket or pinned to undergarments, and large ones can be hung over a bed or near the door or in a drawer at work. Traditionally, sachets of empowered herbs were tied with three, six or nine knots of ribbon or twine, these being magical numbers. If you do this, choose ribbon of a colour appropriate to the need - or more than one colour if you wish to add a secondary colour meaning. The number of knots depends on the intensity of the need as knots are a powerful way of concentrating energies. You can, of course, buy ready-made drawstring purses in different colours, which make instant excellent herb pouches, but making herbal sachets is very straightforward.

Rather than giving you set formulae for herb poppets and sachets, I have listed a wide range of herbs so that you can mix and match them to your own special needs. I have also given the planetary associations, so that you can, for example, make a Venus sachet by using all her herbs, excellent for healing a broken heart, encouraging the growth of trust, increasing loving energies around you and at the same time strengthening the heart, chest and lungs. Practitioners tend to mingle two or three different herbs to increase the strength of the sachet and you can add a few drops of essential oil for extra fragrance and power.

The key is to experiment and be inventive. Keep a note in your healing journal or Book of Shadows of combinations that are especially effective, together with the rough proportions you used. For example, if you were creating a sachet for someone who had suffered a loss in love or a bereavement, you would make a love sachet that emphasised gentleness, using two parts Chamomile flowers to one part rosemary. The Chamomile is for gentle love, affection and tolerance, and the rosemary would encourage fond and happy memories. Note that some books give other planetary associations, as these do vary under different systems.

The associations for healing and magick are the same whether you use incense, essential oil or the herbal form of a substance. These are just different ways of releasing the energies. Incense, for example, is the best choice if you want an instant response; oil gives a slower but more enduring fragrance; and if your healing spell needs to take effect over days or weeks, then herbs in a sachet would be best. The sachet would act as amulet of protection, but because it was empowered it would also be a talisman, attracting health, abundance or love, according to its composition.

The divisions between healing work and other magical purposes are very slight since every positive ritual automatically releases healing energies. For this reason, I have listed the emotional and psychic as well as the physical healing properties of each herb.

Making Coloured Sachets For Rituals

Making sachets is very simple. If you are good at sewing, fold a rectangle of cloth and stitch the sides together, using a running stitch. Alternatively, just place the herbs in the centre of a square piece of cloth, gather the corners together and tie with three, six or nine knots. The colour of the cloth should be appropriate to the healing need. For a sachet to carry with you, your square of fabric should be about 10 cm by 25 cm (4 in by 10 in).

Make it larger if you want to hang it at home or keep it in a drawer. Use a natural fabric, such as felt, wool or cotton. Experiment with different sizes - you can make really tiny sachets to hide in a corner of your bag or in your undergarments or in the lining of a coat, and the size of the sachet has nothing to do with the potency. Even a teaspoon of mixed herbs can be endowed with positive intent to protect, heal and give hope.

Fill your sachet with herbs that have been empowered. For extra power, add a small crystal of the same colour as the cloth. If you do not add essential oil in the empowerment, you may wish to add a drop or two of an appropriate fragrance before tying the sachet. You may want to include a herb of protection in sachets made for other purposes, although most herbs do have a protective property along with their main magical use.

Carry sachets until they lose their fragrance. If the sachet represents a long-term objective, replace the herbs regularly. Open the sachet, scatter some of the old herbs to the four winds, burn a few, bury some and dissolve the rest in water.

A sachet for a pet can be hung above its bed. If you are healing absent people, animals or places, then you can wrap the herb sachet with a picture or symbol in white silk and keep it in a high place or put it in a small wooden box on your healing table. Replace the herbs regularly, empowering new ones as before.

You can make herbal sleep pillows containing lavender, hops and aniseed and if you charge the herbs you can drive away bad dreams.

Making Poppets

Poppets are a little more complicated to make. Take a piece of white cloth, preferably silk or cotton, and draw the outlines of two doll figures as shown opposite. They should be about 15 cm (6 in) high -any smaller and they become difficult to fill with herbs.

Cut out the two shapes and sew them together using thread of a colour appropriate to the purpose of the spell. Leave a gap at the top of the head so that you can fill the poppet. If the poppet is being used in a group ritual, you may wish to share the sewing, with each member adding a few stitches before passing it on.

Fill the poppet with the herbs, adding a few drops of an essential oil if you wish, and complete the last few stitches to close the gap.

Make a health-giving sachet or doll, empowered with love and good wishes, as a personalised present for a bride or new baby.

A Ritual For Empowering Herbs For Healing

All healing herbs must first be empowered. You can use ready-dried and powdered herbs or chop your own and grind them in a mortar and pestle. This method is particularly suitable for herbs to be placed in a healing sachet.

* Place your chosen herbs in a small ceramic or glass bowl and run them through your fingers into a ceramic or wooden bowl, repeating an appropriate imprecation, for example,

'Fennel, fennel,
give my infant
peaceful sleep ',

until you can feel the power rising. (Fennel is excellent magically and medicinally for curing babies' colic and a sachet of fennel and Chamomile hung above the cradle is a great soother.)

* Add a chant for each herb in the sachet as you put it in the bowl. The chant will become longer until you are naming all the ingredients:

'Fennel, fennel,
give my infant quiet sleep,
Chamomile, Chamomile,
bring her sweet dreams...'.

* If you wish, add at this stage any essential oil you are using, naming it as part of the cumulative chant.

* Place about a tablespoon of the herb or herbs in your ready-stitched sachet, or in the centre of the cloth to be tied. Use more for a larger sachet, but remember that it is best to under- rather than over-fill. As you add the herbs, repeat your chant about the energies you are invoking in the herbs.

* Close the sachet or tie the material in three, six or nine consecutive knots of a natural twine or ribbon, seeing your energy and healing bound in the knots. As you tie your bag, visualise yourself - or the person, animal or place that the sachet is intended to heal - fully restored, as you chant:

Three knots I bind,
three knots I wind,
love, health and tranquillity.
Three more I tie,
to Earth, Sea, Sky,
for days and nights of harmony,
Three knots to heal,
these herbs I seal.
In power and joy,
so let it be.

(Adapt the chant to the number of knots you are using.)

Herbs For Emotional And Spiritual Empowerment And Healing

Agrimony

Agrimony is good for the digestive system, cuts, bruises and throat problems.

It is also effective for psychic protection, to return negative energies to the sender and for peaceful sleep. Use in protective sachets and as part of a sleep pillow for times when you are totally exhausted but cannot rest.

Ruled by Jupiter.

Allspice

Allspice is a herb of healing for all aspects of life, but it is particularly used for the digestive organs, rheumatism and neuralgia.

It is frequently burned as incense to promote good luck and to attract money.

Ruled by Mars.

Aloe vera

Aloe vera soothes wounds and burns, and is effective in treating lack of appetite, bowel and menstrual problems.

As a protective plant, it is popular in the house, since traditionally it brings luck and prosperity.

Ruled by the Moon.

Angelica

Angelica is so-named since it is said to have been revealed by an archangel to relieve plague during the Middle Ages. It is a natural energiser and is good for respiratory and liver problems and for improving circulation.

It is protective, especially for children, when worn as an amulet, and can be grown in the garden to protect both garden and home. It is also believed to give long life and protection against illness.

Ruled by the Sun.

Anise (aniseed)

Anise calms the nervous system and relieves coughs and lung problems. It is a very gentle herb, excellent for skin problems.

It protects against all negative influences, especially in the home, including external hostility, bad dreams. A sachet on the bedpost keeps the sleeper young.

Ruled by Jupiter.

Apple

Apple is good for fevers and nausea. It has all-over powers of rejuvenation and fertility and so is especially used for healing babies and children.

It will also heal relationships, restore youthful optimism and the increase of hope. It increases inner beauty and helps self-esteem, especially if a person is worried or being teased about their appearance. It enhances all forms of new growth and so will restore fertility to gardens and areas of land that have been made barren or urbanised.

Ruled by Venus.

Ash

Ash was a sacred tree to the Celts (as late as the nineteenth century, in Killura in Ireland, a descendant of the original sacred ash of Creevna was used as a charm against drowning). It was used to cure rickets, hernias or wounds that would not heal and toothache (a folklore remedy for toothache was to rub your gum with a new nail until it bled, then to hammer the nail into an ash or oak tree which would take away the pain). The leaves and powdered bark are very effective for all healing and for endowing lasting good health.

It is also effective for protection at sea, while sailing or swimming. Ruled by the Sun.

Aspen

The aspen was known as the shiver-tree, because the leaves shook even when apparently there was no breeze; by sympathetic magick it was believed that 'like cures like' and so the aspen was said to have the power to cure fevers, agues and illnesses involving shivering or extremities of cold. It is also good for eloquence.

As a protective herb, it can be used in anti-theft and burglary sachets hidden in houses or cars.

Ruled by Saturn, in his most positive aspects.

Basil

Basil reduces stress and clears the mind. It can be used for menstruation problems and stomach disorders including ulcers. It also removes toxins, so is good for anti-pollution rituals. Basil also repels harmful insects and encourages peaceful sleep.

It is a herb of love and fidelity and also attracts abundance and prosperity. As a protective herb, it is good for overcoming fear of flying.

Ruled by Mars.

Bay

Bay can be used for all digestive disorders, for stress and psychosomatic illness.

It offers psychic protection and will heal sorrow. It purifies all forms of pollution and negativity, endows strength and endurance and encourages fidelity.

Ruled by the Sun.

Bistort

Bistort is potent in relieving wounds of all kinds, emotional as well as physical, also throat, mouth and tongue problems, especially when mixed with echinacea, myrrh and goldenseal. It aids fertility, so can be carried by women who wish to become pregnant.

It will repels those who come to a home with malice or ill intent. Bistort also increases abundance and prosperity and psychic awareness.

Ruled by Saturn.

Black Cohosh

This herb is particularly associated with older women. For this reason, it is good for problems associated with the menopause.

As a protective herb, it brings courage and love, especially in late-flowering relationships, and the power to make positive change.

Ruled by the Moon.

Borage

Borage is good for lung problems, for lowering temperatures, for relieving problems with the adrenal glands and for speeding recovery after any illness. It was used in Roman times, infused in wine, to relieve depression and on its own to help rheumatism and weak hearts and to purify blood.

It is a herb of courage and protection that can be used in sachets, especially out of doors, or in potentially hazardous places.

Ruled by Mars.

Burdock

Burdock relieves chronic skin conditions and rheumatism and restores balance to bodily energies and organs; it supports the liver and kidneys, especially when mixed with dandelion.

Burdock deters negativity when used in protective amulets and offers protection against negativity; it enhances passion and sexuality and heals loss or betrayal in love.

Ruled by the Moon.

Caraway

Caraway relieves menstrual problems and nourishes nursing mothers. It is effective for all digestive disorders, coughs and bruises, and helps to improve memory.

It is protective against all sources of negativity, especially against theft and vandalism (hide a tiny sachet with valuable items). It is also an aphrodisiac that can kindle or rekindle passion.

Ruled by Mercury.

Catnip

Catnip will help influenza, prolonged fevers, viruses and respiratory problems, especially when mixed in sachets or poppets with elder and yarrow. It is very effective for children (and cats, with whom it forges telepathic links).

It makes a potent love sachet when mixed with rose petals. Around or near a home, catnip attracts good fortune and benign forces. It also enhances inner beauty and domestic joy.

Ruled by Venus.

Chamomile

The most gentle and soothing of herbs, Chamomile was beloved of Peter Rabbit in Beatrix Potter's tales. It has many uses, including soothing anxiety, relieving insomnia, and calming hyperactivity in children. It is excellent for all digestive problems, especially in the young (no nursery should be without its Chamomile, fennel and lavender sachet as a gift for a new infant), and relieves eye problems in adults and children.

Chamomile is used in charms to attract abundance and prosperity; it is good for meditation and for attracting new love, family happiness and the growth of trust after betrayal and loss, and it is protective and deters those who would do harm.

Ruled by the Sun.

Cloves

Cloves are excellent for relieving tooth pains, circulation problems, back and lung problems and nausea in pregnancy.

As part of an amulet or sachet, cloves will prevent gossip, malice and envy against the wearer and help the user to learn new skills. Cloves are a natural aphrodisiac that both attracts love and awakens sexual feelings. For those who have suffered loss, cloves offer comfort.

Ruled by Jupiter.

Coltsfoot

This is perhaps the best herbal remedy for respiratory problems, especially persistent dry coughs, also bronchitis, asthma, and even emphysema. It also soothes the stomach and combats fluid retention.

It is traditionally used in love rituals and sachets, and to induce peace of mind. It also offers protection to all who travel, and to horses.

Ruled by Venus.

Comfrey

Comfrey relieves burns, cuts, coughs and asthma and speeds healing.

It offers protection while travelling and if placed in a suitcase will guard your belongings from loss or theft. It is a natural bringer of luck and money, and so can be added to abundance sachets if a person has suffered financial or material loss.

Ruled by Saturn.

Dandelion

Dandelion helps to clear obstructions and so is good for the liver, spleen, gall bladder and kidneys. It relieves fluid retention and premenstrual tension, detoxifies the system and encourages circulation.

It promotes psychic awareness, carrying thoughts between lovers. It is commonly used in country love divination to answer questions concerning a lover's fidelity and intentions.

Ruled by Jupiter.

Dill

This is a herb for the well-being of infants and nursing mothers, bringing ease and quiet sleep to colicky, fretful babies and assisting lactation.

It is a herb of love and passion and can also be used in love and protection sachets, especially for homes. It will repel intruders and malice from the home so is a sachet to keep near entrances. Add it to nursery sachets.

Ruled by Mercury.

Echinacea (purple cornflower)

Echinacea is a natural antibiotic that also triggers the immune system. It increases the production of white blood cells, and aids the effective functioning of the lymph glands and so is effective for building up resistance in a person who has been ill or is physically vulnerable. It also heals wounds, mouth sores and gum disorders.

Echinacea is a herb of spiritual growth and awareness; it is used where altruism and idealism are to the fore. It also promotes spiritual dreams.

Ruled by Jupiter.

Elder

Elder is beloved of the Romany gypsies as a basis for many different remedies. It is effective as an antiseptic and can be used to treat sprains, wounds, rheumatism, influenza, respiratory complaints, hay fever and sinusitis. It prevents insomnia and brings peaceful sleep.

Elder offers protection from hostility to the user, and to the home from storm damage and other extremes of weather. It brings health, wealth and happiness, and especially marital joy to a new bride or groom.

Ruled by Venus.

Elecampane (elfwort)

Elecampane is effective for all coughs and respiratory complaints, especially in children; it helps asthma and bronchitic asthma, loss of appetite and general failure to thrive.

As its name suggests, it is associated with elves and faeries and is a natural love charm, potent in love sachets, amulets and rituals for attraction. It is protective against all forms of hostility and increases psychic awareness.

Ruled by Venus.

Fennel

From Roman times, this herb has been renowned for its effects on courage, stamina and renewed strength and energy. It is good for improving a sluggish metabolic rate, for reducing all swelling, especially fluid retention, for premenstrual tension, for aiding breastfeeding and for easing an infant's colic and restlessness. It also helps sore eyes and coughs and improves mental alertness.

Fennel brings protection from unwanted visitors and all forms of external hostility.

Ruled by Mercury.

Ginger

Much prized in the East, ginger is still used in China to aid potency and ensure long life. It warms the body, removing pain, especially rheumatism, and it strengthens and heals the respiratory system, as well as boosting the immune system. It is good for throat complaints, and for all sickness and nausea, especially in pregnancy and while travelling, so should be added to travel sachets.

Ginger is also often carried powdered in a tiny sachet in a pocket or purse to attract money, success and also love. It acts as a physical and emotional energiser.

Ruled by Mars.

Holy Thistle

Holy thistle is effective for treating all liver, gall-bladder and spleen problems, even helping livers damaged by alcohol or hepatitis. It counters appetite loss and relieves menopausal symptoms.

It is, however, mainly a protective herb, used to keep away all negativity. It is an aid to any spiritual work or contact with the higher self and angels or spirit guides. It encourages altruism.

Ruled by Mars.

Hops

A gentle, safe but powerful sedative, hops are also used in treating insomnia and nervous tension, and internal spasms triggered by stress. Hops will calm the entire nervous system and so can be used to treat coughs, bladder and liver problems aggravated by stress, bowel disorders with an anxiety component, for example irritable bowel syndrome, and skin problems with an emotional cause.

As a protective herb, hops will drive away dark thoughts, doubts and fears.

Ruled by the Sun.

Hyssop

Derived from the Hebrew esob, hyssop is mentioned many times in the Bible for its ability to cleanse the body of illness. It relieves coughs, bronchitis, painful throats and viruses, tension and stress-related conditions, burns, and ear pains and problems, especially in children.

It is primarily a herb of purification and will help to banish sad thoughts, despair and doubts, and leave a positive approach. Hyssop removes negativity from the home and from objects that have unwelcoming or sorrowful vibrations.

Ruled by Jupiter.

Juniper

Juniper is a natural antiseptic. It relieves digestive and gastrointestinal inflammations, arthritis and rheumatism, joint and muscle pain and inflammation. It also increases male potency.

Juniper naturally purifies the home from past negative influences and future misfortune - use it especially at New Year. It also acts as an amulet against accidents, theft and illness.

Ruled by the Sun.

Knotweed

Knotweed is a natural antiseptic that helps to heal infected wounds; it will calm nerves and prevent anxiety developing. It relieves tendon problems and is good for general health and improvement of conditions that cause immobility.

A herb to increase emotional commitment and encourage fidelity, it can be used for ensuring promises are kept and for all rituals involving knots.

Ruled by the Moon.

Lavender

Add lavender to any healing sachet, for it has calming and restorative properties and promises a gradual and gentle improvement in health. It is an anti-depressant, a natural sedative and a pain-reliever, especially for tension-related headaches and muscle or joint pains. It also helps digestion. A pillow filled with dried lavender flowers induces peaceful sleep. In a room, it will encourage gentle, positive interactions and reduce hyperactivity in children.

Lavender is a herb of love; it attracts gentle and kind lovers, especially for women. It is good for wish magick.

Ruled by Mercury.

Marigold

Marigold is a good, all-purpose ingredient for healing sachets, especially for all skin complaints and infections. It is effective in the treatment of bleeding, burns, headaches, eye and gall-bladder problems and stomach ulcers. It protects against internal and external infections.

Marigold increases positivity in the home, makes a lover more affectionate, promotes fidelity and helps in all legal problems.

Ruled by the Sun.

Mullein

Mullein is effective for the relief of any respiratory condition, such as bronchitis, hoarseness, asthma and harsh coughs. It can also be used for acidity, skin inflammation and pains of all kinds. It acts as a sedative and a cure for insomnia, guarding against nightmares.

It brings courage and prevents accidents, so is good in travel or workplace protection; it is also very protective against any negative forces.

Ruled by Saturn.

Myrrh

A powerful antiseptic, with anti-fungal and astringent properties, myrrh is good for all mouth and throat problems and for wounds.

It is one of the oldest protective and purification herbs, associated with all healing of mind and spirit as well as body. Myrrh is a good herb to burn as incense for protection and for healing; it promotes higher states of consciousness and so is good for all spiritual work.

Ruled by the Moon.

Parsley

parsley can be used for enriching the blood and helping all skin conditions such as eczema and acne. It is also good for anaemia and relieves premenstrual tension, kidney, bladder and urinary tract infections, gout, jaundice, and menstrual and menopausal disorders.

A divinatory herb, parsley is said to encourage fertility, love and passion. It is also protective - a poppet or sachet filled with parsley is a gentle but powerful defence against psychological or psychic attack. Plant it on Good Friday.

Ruled by Mercury.

Peppermint

One of the best remedies for travel sickness and all forms of nausea, peppermint is therefore a good herb for anyone who travels regularly. Add it to car sachets for children (make one in the shape of a bear or favourite toy and hang it over a car seat). It is also excellent for all digestive disorders, especially ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. It can be helpful in relieving coughs, head and throat pains. Mix with Chamomile for insomnia; in larger quantities, it acts as an energiser.

Peppermint can be used for healing and purifying, at home or in sickrooms, to drive away all negativity and illness.

Ruled by Venus.

Rose

An essential ingredient in healing sachets, rose is potent in fighting infections and viruses of all kinds, relieving physical and emotional exhaustion, skin problems, menstrual disorders and hyperactivity.

Use it in love rituals, to attract love and to give meaningful and prophetic dreams. Rose is also a symbol of courage, especially the blood red rose.

Ruled by Venus.

Rosemary (elf leaf)

Rosemary relieves headaches, depression, liver and gall-bladder problems, sciatica and muscular pain. It aids digestion, improves circulation, helps with hair and scalp disorders, improves memory, focuses thoughts and increases energy levels. Put a small handful, chopped, in a muslin bag and add to a bath - this is a medieval prescription for energy and clarity of thought.

A herb of protection, rosemary can drive away bad dreams. Use in love sachets to attract lovers and bring healing to destructive or confrontational relationships. Rosemary is also a herb of remembrance, especially of love, and can bring about reconciliation.

Ruled by the Sun.

Sage

Sage is a popular culinary herb with many medical applications and healing powers; according to tradition, it prolongs life and health. In medieval times it was said: 'Why should a man who has sage in his garden ever die?'. Sage was called herba sacra ('the holy herb') by the Romans and was used by the Ancient Egyptians to cure male infertility and by the Chinese to stimulate both yang and yin energies.

It is especially good for strengthening the lungs and it boosts the immune system, helping to build up resistance to illness and to speed recovery in cases of debilitating or chronic conditions. Sage eases mental exhaustion and increases the ability to concentrate, so is ideal in sachets for people under pressure from examinations or at work, especially with rosemary. It lifts depression and soothes anxieties.

Sage increases psychic awareness and allows glimpses of past and future; it attracts good health, money and offers protection for the home and family.

Ruled by Jupiter.

St John's wort (hypericum)

St John's wort relieves depression, anxiety, neuralgia, headaches and irritability during the menopause. It is good for relief from pain, helping with fibrositis, sciatica and rheumatism. It is an anti-inflammatory, and so speeds the healing of burns and wounds.

St John's wort is the golden herb of midsummer and symbol of the longest day, the summer solstice and the full power of the Sun. It offers fertility and powers to attract love, especially if picked on the Eve of St John, 23 June, at midnight. Traditionally, it was worn in battle for courage, and it can also bring decisiveness. Use it for protection, especially if combined with dill and vervain.

Ruled by the Sun.

Tarragon

A mild stimulant, tarragon helps the nervous system to overcome restless exhaustion that can stand in the way of relaxation, while also soothing anxieties so sleep comes easily. It is also good for stimulating the kidneys and is a traditional remedy for toothache and digestive problems.

Once associated with dragons and serpent goddesses and the ability to cure snake-bites, tarragon has now become associated with rituals and decisions involving shedding what is redundant, as a snake sheds its skin. It is good for regeneration and helps the user to focus on new targets.

Ruled by Mercury.

Thyme

Thyme brings good health, improves memory and mental abilities and has powerful antiseptic properties.

It is said to aid recall of the past and allow glimpses into the future and to give courage and strength. In a sleep pillow, it keeps away bad dreams and may bring happy, prophetic ones.

Ruled by Venus.

Valerian

Valerian is a relaxant; it reduces tension, anxiety, all stress-related conditions and insomnia, and offers effective pain relief for tension-related conditions including migraines.

A herb of reconciliation, it can be placed in poppets, which are then tied together to bring harmony to a relationship or reunite those parted by anger or circumstance. It was used by the Ancient Greeks to keep away all harm and is still primarily regarded as a herb of protection and peace.

Ruled by Venus.

Vervain

Vervain is a natural strengthener of the nervous system, reducing tension and the effects of stress. It eases depression, especially after illness.

It also offers protection against all negativity; a sachet hung above an infant's bed drives away nightmares, and brings both happiness and intelligence to the very young. A sprig can be exchanged with a friend or lover as a promise of truth at all times.

Ruled by Venus.

Yarrow

Yarrow lowers blood pressure, slows the heartbeat, speeds the healing of wounds and reduces fevers.

A herb of love, yarrow is said to keep a couple together for at least seven years, and so should be given to newly-weds and used in love charms. Married couples keep the herb in a special sachet and replace it just before seven years is over, continuing to do so throughout married life. This can be made into a ceremony of renewal. It also repels hostility and banishes fear.

Ruled by Venus.

Herbal Infusions

As well as magical sachets, you can make herbs into infusions. Add one level teaspoon (5 ml) of coarsely chopped dried herbs or two level teaspoons (10 ml) of freshly chopped leaves or flowers to a cup of boiling water; leave it for five minutes and strain. Once the liquid has cooled, you can sprinkle it round rooms, furniture and personal property or add it to a bucket of water for washing floors.

The roots and bark of some plants can be used to make a decoction. Crush and powder two tablespoons (30 ml) of the herb and add to one pint (500 ml) of cold water. Simmer the mixture until the quantity of water is reduced by half and then strain the mixture.

Fresh herbs or flowers can be added to your bath in the following way: place them in a net or a piece of muslin - you could even use an old pair of tights - and hang them under the hot tap while you run a bath. Alternatively, allow the bag of herbs to float in the bath for 10 minutes or add a strained infusion to the water.

Of course, you can always drink herbs as tea or burn herbal incenses or oils. All these are valid ways of getting the medicinal as well as magical properties from herbs, though you should still charge them magically. However you use them, always bear in mind that herbs are very potent so before you begin you should seek the advice of a trained herbalist or homeopath or read carefully a reliable herbal book (see page 299 for a list of those I would recommend). Pay particular attention to any quantities and medical contraindications that are given.

Cautions

It is inadvisable for anyone to use any herb in large quantities or over prolonged periods without first taking medical advice to ensure that it is safe. This applies particularly if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, when I would recommend that you avoid the following in any form, including baths, inhalation and teas:

Aloe vera, angelica, anise, autumn crocus, barberry, basil, bay, black cohosh, caraway, cayenne, elder, fennel, feverfew, golden seal, hyssop, juniper, male fern, mandrake, parsley, penny royal, poke rosemary, root, rue, sage, southernwood, tansy, tarragon, thuja, thyme, wintergreen, wormwood, yarrow.

This is not comprehensive list and during pregnancy you should check with a trained herbalist or pharmacist before taking any herbal preparation - as you should with any medical preparation at all. It is advisable to avoid all herbs during the first three months of pregnancy.

There are many medical conditions that preclude the use of certain herbs. These include asthma, diabetes, high blood pressure, epilepsy and heart disease. Generally, of course, it should be safe to use your herbs in sachets or poppets, but you must avoid inhaling the herbs. Mild herbs, such as rose, lavender and Chamomile or hops, are safe options for use in sleep pillows. However, in all cases, you should consult a qualified medical practitioner before using herbs in any form.

A Healing Ritual For An Absent Person

This simple healing ritual is for someone who has a virus or other debilitating condition. The virus may be affecting the whole body and not responding to treatment. The ritual incorporates the four main stages of a spell described on page 40 and can work equally well for a solitary practitioner or a group of witches. As the ritual is intended to stimulate the body's immune system, it is best done on the gentle early waxing moon energies (see page 235 for the best hours and day of the week).

Through magick, a concentrated dosage of healing power is offered, based on a particular healing herb charged with the energies of the sender, but without any absorption of the actual substance. So, rather than making a tea or tincture, you use empowered herbs. This is a way of sending herb power to any person or creature without the need to worry about medical exclusions and correct quantities.

Place some echinacea in the centre of your altar in a mortar and pestle. Echinacea, or purple cornflower, is a herb that is taken medicinally to relieve viral conditions. You will also need a ready-cut-out doll shape in white material and a needle and pink thread.

* Place on the altar symbols of health: fruit, flowers, seeds and nuts are all full of prana, or life force.

* Light two white candles, the god candle on the left, then the Goddess candle on other side. If you are working as a group, the person leading the ritual can light the candles.

* Call on the person who is being healed, wherever they are, to visualise themselves in a cone of blue light at the time you will be carrying out the ritual.

* With feet apart, draw up light through your feet, let it spread through your legs, up your body, your arms and though the crown of your hand (this process is sometimes referred to as raising a light body).

* Then cast the circle. Join hands if you are in a group and, beginning with the person in the North of the group, pass the power deosil from hand to hand, chanting:

May the circle be unbroken.

* If you are working alone, walk around the outside of a visualised circle of light about five feet in diameter, pointing towards the ground with your power finger (the index finger of the hand you write with) or a wand made of willow, hazel or rowan or ash sharpened at one end. Chant:

Circle of light,
circle of healing,
protect me within
and aid this my working.

* Empower the dried herbs by mixing them in a mortar and pestle with a few drops of laurel or eucalyptus essential oil - these are also good for viral infections. As you mix, chant a mantra, such as:

Heal and restore,
strength once more.

If you are working as a group, one person should mix the herbs on the altar while the others chant the names of healing deities (see page 77) in ever-rising intensity and pitch, for example:

Brighid, Ganga, Hermes, Thoth, Hygeia, Panacea, Sulis, Iduna!

As you do so, you raise a cone of healing energies over the mortar and pestle, breathing in life from the living fruits and flowers and projecting it as blue healing light that may be mingled with the green of the herbs.

You can adapt the chant if you do not wish to use specific names, for example:

Goddess, Mother, healer, restorer, hear our plea.

* Now that you have raised the cone of blue power, it can be directed towards the person to be healed by pointing in the direction of their home, with either your power finger or a wand, and uttering a final cry:

Heal and bless.

Rather than now grounding the remaining power, you can use it to fashion a slower, but equally potent, talisman that will continue the work.

* Sit quietly in front of the altar, facing north, and sew a doll-shaped bag, to be filled with herbs (see the template on page 109). If you are working in a group, pass the doll, or poppet, and a needle and thread around the group. Each person can make a few very rough stitches, endowing each with a spoken hope or prayer for the sick person and visualising the stitches filled with light. When only the head is open, the person who made the last stitch should take it to the altar and fill the poppet with the charged herbs, speaking more healing words, and then sew up the head.

* Place the poppet between the altar candles where the light can shine on it.

* Now uncast the circle widdershins, either from hand to hand or with your power finger or wand, seeing the light returning to the ground and repeating:

May the circle be uncast
but remain unbroken.

Any remaining energy can be grounded by sitting on the ground and pressing downwards or standing and returning the power with a stamp of your feet.

* Leave the altar candles burning and eat the fruit and seeds and nuts to absorb the magical life force.

* Blow out the altar candles (in a group, this should be done by the person leading the ritual) and send the light to the sick person. The person receiving the healing may notice an intensity of blue light when the cone is released.

As soon as possible, give the poppet, wrapped in white silk, to the person to be healed, for them to keep close to their bed.

Oils and incenses, like herbs, are very versatile. The easiest way of attracting all the good things you want not only for yourself but also for those you love and for those in need, is to burn oils and to release the appropriate fragrances and let them work in their own way.You can choose the appropriate oil for health, happiness, love, success, prosperity, confidence and protection, to name but a few.

Oil Magick

You can use oils as part of a ritual. In traditional magick, oils are placed in the West of the altar for the Water element, or the East, if lit, to symbolise the fragrance rising on the Air. But they can equally form the focus of any spell, each oil being charged with its particular purpose before use.

There are many ways you can use oils magically as well as therapeutically: for example, you can burn them in special holders (these are available everywhere from pharmacies, hardware shops and supermarkets); you can sprinkle a few drops on an open fire or on cotton wool; you can pour a little into a saucer and place it above a radiator; you can dispense them in sprays or in any of the variety of condensers and diffusers that are available; or you can dilute them and use them as floor washes.

Cautions

Oils are very potent and should only ever be used in accordance with instructions inside the box from the manufacturer. There are also a number of good books on the market and I have listed a few at the back of this book that will advise on correct dosage.

Generally, oils such as lavender, Chamomile, rose, rosewood and geranium are so mild that for an adult you can use up to ten drops quite safely in a bath full of water. However, do not add more than three drops of peppermint, lemon or Cedarwood, and no more than four or five drops of other astringent or potent oils such as orange, pine, rosemary, tea tree and thyme to a bathful of water and follow instructions carefully. You can also put a drop or two of the milder oils on a handkerchief or inhale from the bottle, but again follow instructions to the letter.

For children, use no more than four drops of mild oil (lavender, Chamomile, rose, rosewood or geranium) in total in a bath; for small children, do not use more than two drops and use only gentler fragrances such as lavender or Chamomile (this is excellent for calming children).

Some conditions preclude the use of certain oils; this applies for use in baths, and for inhalations and massage. As with herbs, I recommend that you should always check with your doctor before using any oils.

Epilepsy: Avoid sweet fennel, hyssop, sage, and rosemary.

High blood pressure: Avoid cypress, hyssop, rosemary, sage and thyme.

Pregnancy: It is best to avoid the following oils during any stage of pregnancy.

Angelica, basil, bitter almond, Cedarwood, clary sage, clove, fennel, hyssop, juniper, marjoram, myrrh, peppermint, rosemary, sage, tarragon, thyme, wintergreen, yarrow.

Photo-Toxic Oils

Certain oils, particularly citrus oils, can irritate the skin if they are exposed to the light, and about half of the normal amount of other oils should be used in baths and massage. Avoid direct sunlight for six hours after use. They include:

Angelica, bergamot, ginger, lemon, lime, mandarin and orange. However, they are ideal for burning and are all energising.

Skin Irritants

Some can be an irritant to the skin and so should be used sparingly and well-diluted. They include:

Allspice, basil, cinnamon, clove, fennel, frankincense, lemon, lemongrass and peppermint.

Oils should never be taken internally and except for pure rose and lavender should not be applied undiluted to the skin.

Using Oils

Oils and Incenses in Magick

To avoid repetition, I have only given a brief reference for those oils whose properties I described in the previous chapter, for the qualities of a substance are the same in any form.

Benzoin: Benzoin reduces tension, stress, and melts away tension, anger, resentment, emotional pain and frustrations. Positively, benzoin increases self-confidence and attracts prosperity, both material and spiritual.

It mixes well with rose, pine and lavender.

Bergamot: Bergamot soothes irritability and lifts depression or apathy, encouraging gentle but honest communication and the manifestation of a person's true potential and inner self.

A citrus oil, bergamot mixes well with frankincense and ylang-ylang.

Cedarwood: Cedarwood is a symbol of both spiritual and sexual awakening or reawakening perhaps after a period of loss or stagnation; excellent in meditation, it is an oil of youthfulness and a long and happy life.

It mixes especially well with cypress, juniper and rosemary.

Chamomile: Known as the children's oil and the oil of kindness, Chamomile is effective for every childhood problem, including hyperactivity, general restlessness and sleeplessness - it is also good for adults with similar problems.

It mixes well with ylang-ylang, geranium, lavender and lemon.

Citronella: Citronella is an oil of identity and independence, establishing the boundaries of the unique self and repelling those who would dominate or intrude on privacy, whether personally or professionally; it also creates invisible boundaries around the home. Citronella improves mental alertness and dispels exhaustion and inertia. It mixes well with lavender and jasmine.

Clary sage: Clary sage calms and drives away fears and bad dreams in adults and children. It is also an oil of inspiration and positivity and, when problems loom large, replaces doubts with unconsidered options and with an assurance that all will be well.

It mixes well with ylang-ylang, rosemary and lavender.

Cypress: Cypress is an oil of consolation after sorrow or loss, bringing acceptance, healing and the power to move forward. It promotes understanding and compassion towards distress of self and others.

It mixes well with lemon, juniper and geranium.

Eucalyptus: This is an oil of purification of mind, body and soul, driving out negativity and anger, as well as repelling deliberate psychological and psychic attack. Eucalyptus will provide the impetus for action and decisions, especially when people and projects have reached an impasse. The oil also offers clear focus and increased concentration.

It mixes well with Cedarwood, clary sage and peppermint. Fennel: Fennel is the oil of strength, courage and perseverance. It mixes well with Chamomile and eucalyptus.

Frankincense: Frankincense is regarded as the most noble of oils, used in ceremonies and formal celebrations throughout the ages and considered in many cultures to be a gift from the deities, bringing healing and power.

It offers confidence to aim high, attracting abundance of all kinds, money and success, but also granting access to higher dimensions and contact with angels and spirit guides.

It mixes well with cypress, sandalwood and myrrh.

Geranium: Geranium is a harmonising oil, restoring peace and wellbeing to the home or workplace, encouraging positive, non-confrontational interactions, reconciling quarrels and melting away emotional coldness and indifference in encounters. It relieves tension, depression doubts and despair, replacing them with gentle optimism.

It mixes well with lavender, rose, ylang-ylang, Cedarwood and Chamomile and indeed most other oils.

Ginger: Ginger is an enhancer of love, passion and money and encourages adventure and innovation.

It mixes well with bergamot, Cedarwood and jasmine.

Jasmine: Jasmine is an uplifting oil, boosting both physical and mental potency and increasing love and passion. It deflects potential hostility, transforming it into friendliness and a willingness to compromise.

It mixes with most other oils, especially rose and ylang-ylang.

Juniper: Juniper is a purifying and cleansing oil, protecting against hostility and removing what is redundant.

It mixes well with rosemary, frankincense and cypress.

Lavender: Lavender is a harmoniser and brings love, kindness and reconciliation to any person or place.

It mixes well with almost every oil, but especially geranium, Chamomile, marjoram and ylang-ylang.

Lemon: Lemon is the breath of life, bringing energy, clarity, logic and integrity. It is a light-bringer, cutting through secrecy, doubt and dishonesty, and cleansing atmospheres and attitudes.

A citrus oil, it mixes well with Chamomile, eucalyptus, lavender and myrrh.

Lemongrass: Lemongrass will clear away negative emotions among family, friends and colleagues, and past resentment and feuds from the past that no longer serve any purpose. It removes also painful memories and helps to leave behind destructive relationships; lemongrass also enhances psychic awareness.

It mixes well with frankincense and geranium.

Lime: Lime brings health and well-being to self and to family and home. It generates enthusiasm and triggers self-healing and regeneration in body and mind. It is protective against psychological and psychic attack and has natural restorative powers.

A citrus oil, it mixes well with eucalyptus and lavender.

Mandarin: Mandarin oil restores confidence self-love and self-esteem, offering protection against the barbs of unfair criticism, spite and gossip. It enhances inner beauty and radiance.

A citrus oil, it mixes well with Cedarwood, geranium, and ylang-ylang.

Marjoram: Marjoram is an oil that relieves loneliness and a sense of isolation and alienation, awaking empathy with others. It is an oil of enduring love and fidelity.

It mixes well with lavender and rosemary.

Mimosa: Mimosa is an oil of the night, for secrets and secret love, bringing love and friendship, especially for older people.

It calms anxiety and over-sensitivity to criticism and brings harmony and happiness, melting away opposition and hostility.

It mixes well with bergamot and Chamomile.

Myrrh: This is a sacred ceremonial oil, like frankincense, and is burned in healing and purification rituals.

It mixes well with mandarin, pine and patchouli.

Neroli: This is orange-blossom oil, symbol of marriage, committed relationships and fidelity, fertility, sensuality and self-esteem. It prevents moods swings, crises of confidence and panic attacks.

It mixes well with geranium and jasmine.

Orange: Orange is the oil of abundance, joy and fertility, attracting happiness, giving confidence and individuality, and calming anxiety and restlessness in children and adults.

A citrus oil, it mixes well with lavender and ylang-ylang.

Patchouli: Patchouli is the oil of prosperity and is used in money rituals, to bring employment and increase business opportunities. It is also frequently used in ceremonies to heal the planet, as it is a natural restorer of balance.

It mixes well with geranium, myrrh and pine.

Peppermint: Peppermint offers protection against illness, accident, hostility and theft or damage to the home and also attracts money.

It mixes well with eucalyptus.

Pine: Pine is a purifier of all forms of negativity, hostile atmospheres and dishonesty, protecting particularly against emotional blackmail. It is an oil of courage and perseverance under difficulty, of integrity and clear focus.

It mixes well with juniper, lemon and marjoram.

Rose: This is an oil of fidelity, happiness, partnerships and gentle healing, love and especially self-love.

It mixes well with almost every other oil.

Rosemary: Rosemary is an oil for enhanced memory, concentration, justice, career and success.

It mixes well with Cedarwood, frankincense and geranium.

Rosewood: Rosewood calms mind, body and soul, creating a setting conducive to peace at home or work, especially if there are difficult negotiations, or potentially hostile visitors or phone calls; it will also clear away existing conflict. Rosewood soothes hyperactive or restless children, and in adults brings acceptance of life as it is and the frailties of others. It is good for energising all forms of natural magick.

Rosewood mixes well with jasmine, neroli and geranium.

Sandalwood: Sandalwood is an oil of passion and sensuality; it also heightens meditative abilities and increases spiritual awareness, offering a path to make contact with the higher self and angelic or spirit guides.

It mixes well with many other oils, especially Chamomile, lemon, patchouli and rosemary.

Tea tree: Tea tree is an oil of healing, especially absent healing; it will remove blockages in energy, and banish negativity, replacing it with optimism and channelling restlessness into positive aspects of life.

It mixes with sandalwood, but is usually best used alone.

Ylang-ylang: The oil of poets, ylang-ylang is associated with inspiration and love, especially self-esteem. It counteracts a sense of frustration when things cannot be changed or achieved, and increases confidence and pleasure in possibilities that can be realised within the limitations of the present circumstance.

It mixes well with clary sage, geranium, lemon and Chamomile.

An Oil Ritual To Increase Prosperity

As I have said before, magick is part of life and there is nothing wrong with carrying out rituals for your personal needs and a little more. However, you must make an effort, when you are financially more secure, to share your good fortune with those who are genuinely in need. As long as you bear in mind the cosmic 'balance sheet', this will ensure that there are sufficient energies to go round. You can, of course, pay in kindnesses and help, as well as in monetary terms.

It is unlikely that you will receive an unexpected cheque in the post the morning after this spell (though I am getting rather good at bewitching one of my financial directors at a firm I work for). Instead, you may suddenly find that you are given the opportunity to earn money through extra unexpected work. Or you will hear of someone who wishes to sell a reliable car or a serviceable computer in a hurry - just at the time when you need one. 

It would be churlish to demand a computer with a built-in DVD player from the cosmos, but under the psychic exchange system, all manner of good things that are no longer needed by one person can be directed to someone whose old model has just crashed. It goes without saying that you should also remember to redistribute items that are surplus to your requirements to keep the process moving.

Rituals for personal prosperity tend to be practised alone, as group prosperity rituals tend to work better with a more global focus.

First, you need to define the purpose of the ritual. In this case that will probably not be difficult if you have been lying awake at night, panicking that you can't pay for a school trip for your child or new tyres for the car.

Oils and Incenses in Magick

Once you have established what you require for your needs, find the right oils, using the list above, together with the list of herbs starting on page 110 and the incenses that you may also find in oil form.

The ritual is to be carried out over three consecutive nights. Work on the two days before the full moon and the night of the full moon if you can, as this is the best time for energies of increase. It is also a traditional planting time for herbs and vegetables that grow above the ground.

However, if you need money urgently you cannot sit around waiting for the moon to be right, so burn silver lunar candles on each of the three evenings and picture the lovely ripening Moon we see at this period in the sky, if the weather is clear.

You can carry out the ritual at any time of day, but you should try to choose a time that is quiet. If you can only work during daylight hours, allow the natural light to add to the candle energies or draw the blinds.

You will need:

* An oil burner, the kind with a small nightlight underneath.

* Three prosperity oils. Good examples are patchouli, peppermint, ginger and sage. If you are pregnant, use frankincense, orange and lavender. (Note that lavender is an all-purpose herb that can be substituted for any other.)

* Symbols of prosperity, such as jewellery (golden-coloured for the Sun, and silver for the Moon), and some copper-coloured coins for Venus, planet of growth, to add to your money jar.

(Keep a collection of foreign currency left over from holidays for such prosperity spells. You can often also buy from garage sales or museum shops old or reproduction coins in the traditional metals - such as the US silver dollar - and these tend to have more of the pure metal. Failing this, even metal discs will do.)

* Three candles, beeswax, gold or rich blue.

* A small pottery jar with a lid to 'incubate' your money. (It is a good idea to collect a selection of jars, small wooden boxes, glass bottles and pots as many spells require a container.)

* A small, flat tray or open dish in a silver or gold colour. (Again these are often found amongst unwanted memorabilia. Alternatively, cover an ordinary one with gold or silver foil.)

* A crystal pendulum or any crystal pendant that will swing freely.

When you are ready to start the spell on the first night, have a bath, with a few drop of frankincense or sandalwood added, to open your psychic channels. Now prepare yourself for the spell.

* Sit in the South of your circle, facing North, the direction of magick and mystery.

* Let your body fill with light from your feet right through to your head.

* Breathe in the gold and silver colours of the items you have assembled and exhale darkness.

If you are in a hurry, just set up your spell and sit for a few moments drawing up power light and energy through your feet. Extend your hands over your head in an arch, stretching your fingers up so that the powers of the cosmos also enter, as you breathe slowly and deeply.

* Place your oil burner in the centre of your altar or on any flat surface, together with your three chosen oils (or you can work with a single fragrance if you prefer).

* To the South of it, set your money pot with the lid open and your coins.

* Place your symbols of abundance on the tray to the North of the dish.

* Arrange your gold, blue or beeswax candles in a triangle (this sacred shape represents the Triple Goddess, the Holy Trinity and the Egyptian Isis, Osiris and Horus). The candle at the apex of the triangle should be in the North, with the other two forming the base to the South, so that the triangle creates a protective enclosure. If you have room, set your candles in holders on the floor or in candlesticks on small tables or chairs at each of the points and have the altar in the centre. This is my preferred method and means that you are within the triangle and can move all round.

* On the first night, walk three times in circles around the outside of the altar (or the floor candles if you are using them), moving outwards, and pointing the index finger of your power hand behind you almost horizontally. Visualise a stream of light emanating from your finger. As you circle, chant:

Circle one I cast for the light of the Earth
and her store of rich minerals,
gold, silver, copper smelted in forges of volcanic fire.

Circle two I cast for the moonlit seas,
for silver dolphins, seals and
cascading rainbow fish.

Circle three I cast for the sunlit skies,
the clouds pure gold
and the gilt-tipped eagle soaring high.

* Light the candle in the North.

* Choose one of your three oils and, holding it in your receptive hand (the one you do not write with), circle over it nine times deosil the crystal pendulum or pendant.

* Say three times, faster and faster:

Star, Moon, Sun and candle bright,
charge this oil with radiant light,
power of ginger [or name of oil] prosper me,
enter golden energy.

* After the third chant, let your pendulum swing freely on its chain so it spirals round, catching the candlelight and, perhaps, the moonlight.

* Add the oil to the burner with a little water and light the nightlight under it.

* Take three of the coins from the dish - if possible these should be one gold, one silver and one copper. Place them in the money pot and hold this briefly in the fragrance emanating from the burner, saying:

Venus, Morn and Evening Star,
Sun and Moon that shine afar.
I ask in love and not in greed,
grant me only what I need.

* Place the lid on the pot and leave it in front of the burner, sitting quietly and visualising money coming to you. At this point you may become aware of money-making possibilities you had not considered.

* When you are ready, blow out the nightlight, then the candle, sending the light into the cosmos that it may return as money-making energies.

* Walk round the circle three times widdershins, beginning with the outer circle of light, drawing the circles back like a thread into your fingers, saying softly:

May the circle be uncast
but remain unbroken.

* Leave everything in place except for the pot, which you should put in a warm place to 'incubate', traditionally on a kitchen shelf.

On the second night, return the money pot to the south of the burner and remove the lid.

* Cast the triple circle as before, then light the candle in the North and also the one at the bottom left-hand corner of the triangle.

* Take the second oil and charge it as before. This time you have dual candlelight to reflect in your pendulum.

* Add your second oil and then the first one to the burner with a few drops of water. Light the burner.

* Take six coins from the dish and add to the pot; if possible there should be two golden-coloured, two silver and two copper. Repeat the chant from the previous night.

* Place the lid on the pot, then sit and visualise the money coming towards you and develop your plans to increase your prosperity.

* Blow out the candles and nightlight in reverse order of lighting, sending the energies into the cosmos.

* Uncast the circles as before and return the pot to its warm place.

* On the third night, repeat the ritual, but this time light all three candles and charge the third oil, adding a few drops of each to the burner for the cumulative energies. Add nine coins to the pot, again three of each kind of metal if you have them.

* Uncast the circle, but do not blow out the candles. Leave them and the oil to burn through, and only then put the lid back on the pot and return it to the warm place.

* Add a coin to the pot every day if you can. To empower the spell even further, you could also place a pot of basil, a herb of wealth, to the East of the burner during the ritual and after the three days, place the charged herbs on a window ledge to attract money.

Do something positive to help a person, animal or place on the day after the third ritual. It need not involve money. You can re-light the oils at any time if energies seem sluggish and repeat the whole ritual a moon cycle later for as long as is necessary. There may be a lot of negative vibes swimming the other way, so persevere and be patient.

Incense Magick

Incense has formed a central part of religious and magical ceremonies for thousands of years in lands as far apart as India and North America. It has been used for purification purposes, to invoke angels and to bind or repel demons by medieval magicians. It is said to release specific energies contained in its fragrance and to carry prayers and petitions to the god or goddess figure being invoked.

Since the 1960s, incense sticks, cones and burners have increased in popularity for home use, to create an atmosphere of calm, to induce love and cleanse negativity. Many people use them for meditation as well as for rituals for confidence, health, love, prosperity, psychic protection and success.

Incense is now on sale in floral fragrances as well as the more traditional ones, such as frankincense and myrrh, and these are lovely both for home use and folk spells. Our ancestors would have burned flowers and leaves to create the same effect.

Like herbs and oils, incense can be empowered for specific purposes and can itself form a focus for a spell, as I describe later in this section. In formal magick, incense represents the Air element and is placed in the East of the altar. It is perhaps the easiest and most accessible magical substance and yet it can be a very potent form of magick. Incense burning differs from lighting essential oils, in that the fragrance is transmitted almost instantly on the smoke and so tends to be more concentrated and powerful than the slower-burning oils. It is therefore very effective for rituals requiring immediate action or the same intensity of effort from start to finish, rather than a gradual increase, perhaps of love or prosperity.

There are two kinds of incense. The first is non-combustible incense that is burned by smouldering it on charcoal blocks. This is made from powdered herbs, leaves bark or even pine needles mixed with a gum resin such as dragon's blood and has the advantage of producing clouds of smoke, brilliant for purification or for the climax of a spell. You can buy this type of incense prepared as loose powder, wood chips, granules or special paste, to burn on charcoal blocks or discs.

Traditional practitioners often make their own non-combustible incense, which can be very empowering, but it does take time and can be messy. On page 300 I have suggested an excellent book by Scott Cunningham that describes the process step by step and there are many Internet sites giving recipes and instructions.

To use this incense, place the smouldering charcoal block in a censer or thurible. Until you are experienced you may find it easier and safer to place it inside the censer first, and then light it. (A censer is simply a container for the charcoal. It may be a simple ceramic pot or a much more ornate vessel made of gold or silver. I would not recommend that you use the kind of incense censers on chains used in church services as the incense tends to go everywhere and can be quite dangerous.)

Add your incense gradually, about half a teaspoon at a time, once the charcoal block in the censer is glowing but not releasing sparks. With practice, you will learn to add the right quantity to ensure a steady but not choking stream of smoke as part of the ritual. Many practitioners prefer to light it beforehand and just add a teaspoon of incense as part of the ceremony or spell when they need a billow of fragrance. Incenses with a greater proportion of resin and gum will last longer - hence the popularity of frankincense in religious ceremonies. When working in a group, you can ask one person to top up the censer if necessary during a long rite. If you are alone, make this part of your increasing power actions in a private ritual.

Practise using non-combustible incense before rituals and in time it will become as natural as lighting a candle.

The second type of incense, which many practitioners, myself included, prefer to use, is combustible incense, lit directly in sticks and cones. These are very difficult to make at home but the commercially produced versions are quick and easy to use and the fragrance of the sticks does not alter when burned. Some home-made incenses made from apparently pleasantly scented flowers can smell foul when they are lit!

Sticks and cones are very safe to use: just light the tip, and once it is glowing, gently blow out the flame. This means there is no danger to children or pets who may be around.

Incense is also sold as dhoops, pure incense in cylinders attached to long sticky ropes; these come from India and can be burned in a flat dish.

Long, broad incense sticks can be carried when alight if you are careful. There are also many kinds of incense holders available. If you have a holder that collects the ash, you can scatter this to the four winds to carry your wishes on their way.

Whatever type of incense you use, treat it as you would any other substance that is ignited: read the instructions carefully before use and take normal precautions.

Below I have listed some of the most common forms of incense. Some you have met before in herbal or oil form and so I have kept the associations brief to avoid repetition. You may also find a number of these fragrances, especially fruit and floral ones, are available as scented candles. You can use these in your spells to focus on a particular need or quality you wish to attract.

Incenses For Magick

Allspice

Allspice is used in spells for money, strength and action.

Apple Blossom

Use apple blossom for love, fertility, optimism, inner beauty and youthfulness. It is particularly good in rituals concerning babies and children.

Avocado

Use avocado incense for desire, increase of beauty in oneself or the environment.

Basil

Basil is used in rituals for fidelity and prosperity.

Bay

Use bay for healing, prosperity, protection and marriage.

Benzoin

Benzoin is used in rituals for money; it increases mental powers and concentration.

Bluebell

Bluebell is used for faithfulness in love and betrothals.

Carnation

Carnation is used for strength, healing and family devotion.

Cedar/cedarwood

Cedar and Cedarwood are best for healing and cleansing redundant influences and negative thoughts.

Chamomile

Like its herbal counterpart, Chamomile incense brings money, quiet sleep and affection, and is used in spells to do with all matters of the family.

Cinnamon

Cinnamon is for spirituality, success, healing, psychic powers, money, love and passion.

Cherry

Cherry brings new love and divinatory abilities.

Cloves

Cloves are used in spells for love and money; they repel hostility and improve memory.

Copal

Use copal for protection and purification; it is especially good for cleansing crystals.

Cypress

Cypress is for times of transition to a new phase, letting go of sorrow.

Dragon's blood

Dragon's blood is used for love and protection, passion and male potency.

Fern

An initiator of change, travel and fertility, fern will also bring hidden wealth, maybe in terms of potential.

Fig

Use fig for wisdom, creativity and creation, fertility, harmony and balance.

Frankincense

Use frankincense for courage, joy, strength and success.

Freesia

Freesia increases trust, especially after loss or betrayal; it also brings belief in a better tomorrow.

Gum arabic (acacia)

Use gum arabic in rituals for dreams, meditation, psychic protection and development.

Heather

Heather is used for passion, fidelity in love and good fortune; it maximises opportunities and is particularly effective in weather magick, especially rain-making.

Honeysuckle

Honeysuckle is used for money, psychic powers and protection.

Hyacinth

Hyacinth assists in overcoming opposition in love; it brings happiness and desire for reconciliation.

Hyssop

Hyssop is used for making a love commitment, for healing and all forms of protection, especially from psychic attack.

Ivy

Ivy is effective for fidelity, married love, permanent relationships and constancy.

Jasmine

Jasmine is used in Moon magick and prophetic dreams. It brings sensuality, money and passion.

Juniper

Use juniper for protection from psychic attacks and physical theft; for cleansing, healing and house moves.

Lavender

Lavender is particularly good for love and reconciliation,

Lemon/lemongrass

Both repel spite, protect against malice and gossip; they bring passion and increase psychic awareness and are good for those who travel.

Lemon verbena

Lemon verbena will break a run of bad luck; it brings love and protection against negativity.

Lilac

Use lilac for all domestic matters, acceptance of the frailty of self and others, and to ease nostalgia; lilac cleanses negativity.

Lily

Lily is for purity and breaking negative influences in love; it is frequently used in Mother Goddess magick.

Lily of the valley

Lily of the valley increases mental abilities, brings happiness and restores joy.

Marigold

Marigold is used for dreams and guarding against infidelity. It is effective in rituals concerning legal matters, luck and money.

Mimosa

Use mimosa for protection, love, prophetic dreams and purification.

Mistletoe

Known to the Druids as the all-healer, mistletoe is for healing sorrows, overcoming injustice and finding what is lost. It is also good for male potency.

Moss

Moss is used for good fortune, prosperity, money and permanence, whether in work or relationships. It frequently appears in water magick and divination (use with candles on water).

Myrrh

Myrrh is good for healing, peace, protection and inner harmony.

Myrtle

Sometimes mixed with other fragrances, myrtle is used in spells concerning fidelity in love, marriage and mature love. It may also be used in matters of property and security.

Nutmeg

Use nutmeg for fertility and healing, especially of the environment; it will also bring a gradual increase of wealth.

Orange Blossom

Beneficial for marriage and permanent relationships, use orange blossom also for restoring trust and increasing confidence and hope.

Pine

Use pine for healing, fertility, purification, protection and money; it also returns hostility to the sender.

Poppy/opium

Poppy may be used for divination, fertility and making oneself less visible in danger; it also brings luck and sleep.

Rose

Rose is for gentle love, attraction, dreams of love and reconciliation. Rosemary

Rosemary is used for love and happy memories; it also improves memory and concentration.

Sage

Use sage in rituals for health, enhanced mental powers and wisdom.

Sandalwood

Sandalwood is effective for spiritual and psychic awareness and healing; use it also in matters of sexuality.

Strawberry

Use strawberry for innocent love, friendship and happiness.

Tamarind

Tamarind is for love, especially new love, and the rebuilding of trust.

Thyme

Thyme is used in rituals for courage, divination, health, love, money and purification.

Vanilla

Vanilla brings passion and enduring love; it also increases mental powers.

Vetivert

Use vetivert for love. It can also break a run of bad luck and bring money. It is protective against theft and all kinds of negativity.

Violet

Use violet for secrecy, modesty and uncovering hidden talents.

Combining Incenses In Rituals

As well as the single fragrances, there are many commercial products that combine several basic fragrances to evoke a particular mood, for example morning dew, raindrops and emerald. You can experiment with these and find those that seem right for your life or, if you make your own non-combustible incenses, you can combine a number of single fragrances to your own personal recipes.

But it is quite possible by using a number of individual fragrance sticks in the same ritual to combine their energies and, more importantly, create exactly the proportions of specific energies you need for a ritual. For example, you might burn a rose incense for love with a cinnamon incense to add passion and energy to that special, loving relationship. The amount of incense used for each quality determines your priorities, so, in this case, if loving energies were the prime focus, you would burn two rose incense sticks or cones and one cinnamon. You can also do this with your oil mixes.

A Six-Incense Ritual For Love

Six is the number of Venus in her morning star aspect of love. You can use this ritual for attracting love, for deepening a relationship, consummating it or strengthening it during a difficult period, perhaps when everything appears to have got into a rut. You can alter the focus of the ritual by varying the number and type of each fragrance you use, for example whether your primary concern is to increase trust, passion or encourage fidelity (use the incense list on page 139).

This ritual is best carried out early in the moon cycle, any time from when you can see the crescent in the sky.

In the ritual, I refer to a pentagram, a magical symbol that can be used for attracting energies or closing them down in ritual magick. Its uses can be varied according to the way it is drawn. However, in this ritual, it is the shape that is important, so just imagine the shape as illustrated overleaf, with its single point at the top. Arrange five of your incense sticks as though on the points of this invisible pentagram and put the sixth in the centre as the combination and synthesis of the different powers.

First, gather together the tools you will need.

* A candle of the appropriate colour for the type of love you wish to focus on: pink for new love, green for increasing commitment and faithful love, or red for passion and the consummation of love.

* A gold or silver ring or, if you prefer, one made of copper, Venus's own metal.

* A small white cushion or piece of white cloth.

* Six incense sticks of appropriate fragrances and separate holders to catch the ash.

* Ivy or any green fronds; if you cannot obtain any, green ribbon will do. (Ivy is a plant associated with fidelity and permanent relationships.)

Now begin your ritual.

* Place your ring in the centre of your altar, on the white cloth or cushion.

* To the left of it (towards the West, the direction of love and emotions), place and light the candle.

* Take your incense sticks one by one, and light each in the candle, reciting:

Incense of love, incense of power, thus do I charge thee,
now at this hour.

Incense of faithfulness,
incense of truth, bring love
that will last, in age and in youth.
In sickness and sorrow, in health and in joy,
in wealth and in dearth, may nothing destroy.

* Beginning at the single (top) point of your invisible pentagram, light your first incense, saying:

I light this incense
to bring love into my life
and the one who is right for me.

* Moving deosil, light and place the second incense on the next point of the invisible pentagram, saying:

I light this incense that I may give love where it will bring joy and bear fruit.

* Continuing deosil, light and place the third incense at the next invisible point, saying:

I light this incense for the increase of that love and for mutual fidelity and respect.

* Light and place the fourth incense, saying:

I light this incense for the marriages of mind and soul as well as body, in a union that is beyond any legal bonds.

* Light and place the fifth incense, saying:

I light this incense that love will always be willingly given and received and never become possessive or manipulative.

* Light and place your final incense to the East of the ring, saying:

I light this incense that love will be compassionate, ever supportive, accepting of frailties and based on love of the real person, not worshipping the ideal of loving, nor demanding the perfect lover.

You can adapt the pledges according to the focus you give the ritual and even rewrite them entirely to express your purpose.

* Take the ring and pass it through the six incenses in turn, saying for each ring of faith:

Love I pledge, truth I offer, care and kindliness. Ring of promise, love I ask, truth I seek, into eternity if right may it be.

* Return the ring to the centre, and bind it with six loose knots of ivy or ribbon, saying:

Do not bind,
join heart and mind,
Hold safe we two,
till life is through,
Love without end,
my dearest friend.

I call you - [name the person, or say 'love unknown'].

Again you can adapt the words. A pledge of fidelity is actually a very potent way of attracting a new lover - perhaps someone who works close to you whom you have not thought of in a romantic way.

* Let the candle and incense burn through and then collect the incense ash in a pot or jar with a lid.

* Sleep with the ring and ivy next to your bed on the cushion and in the daytime surround it with white flowers.

* When you have time, take the ash to the top of a hill or any windy place and scatter it to the four winds, saying:

Go Free In Love And Return In Joy.

You can carry out the spell on a larger scale by placing the ring, the candle and one large incense stick on your altar in the centre of the invisible pentagram. Place the other large incense sticks on small tables, chairs or blocks at the other points and work within the pentagram. You could even use garden incense and carry out the ritual in a sheltered spot out of doors, maybe even picking your ivy and white flowers during the ritual.

A Ritual For Harmony

This ritual can be used when, for example, a colleague, family member or friend is intruding in your life, but you do not want to hurt their feelings. It can be very successful if you have received one too many phone calls or visits at inconvenient moments from a friend or neighbour. It may help to ward off constant interference in your projects by your boss or a colleague at work, or possessiveness that is not malicious but comes from loneliness in a close relative, a child or even your partner. You can carry it out before going to work or when you anticipate the arrival of the person. It is much kinder than a traditional binding spell as it preserves the positive aspects of the relationship.

* Light deosil a circle of lavender and rose incense sticks for love and kindness.

* Fill a pot or a small cauldron, or any heatproof dish, with sand and in it stand a single orange candle for independence.

* Take a long piece of red thread and tie nine loose knots around the base of the cauldron to represent the tangled emotions, saying as you tie the knots:

Bind and wind nine times through, bonds that stifle, tangle, twine, bind unwilling me to you.

* Cut through the knots one at a time, using a knife (not scissors), saying:

Ties so binding,
Cut right through,
Guilt unwinding,
Freedom finding,
Loving you,
Not what you do.

* Light your candle, saying:

Light of self, burning true, I am me and you are you. Light of friendship, light so kind, free in heart and soul and mind.

* Now burn each of the knots in the orange candle so they drop into the sand, saying:

Free to live in harmony
Caring still,
but separately.

This is also a good ritual if you are separating or divorcing from a partner but need to maintain friendly contact, perhaps because you work together or have joint family or financial responsibilities.