A Witch's World of Magick (26 page)

Another adventure in magickal mimicry you might want to try is choreographing your own ritual dance or Mystery play. Challenge yourself to come up with your own special dance or drama in honor of your essence; tell the story of your life through your movements and expressions. Tell also your future story, your goals, dreams, and intentions that you wish to weave into the fibers of your history. Consider tradition when choreographing your dance or play. What imitative motions might you include? At what points will the dance or drama build in power? Would it be helpful to wear a special costume while performing your story? How will the intention of the dance or drama be expressed, and how will the energy of that intention be released to the wider world to do your bidding? Once you’ve decided on some basics and have practiced a bit, note those places of rising power that can be utilized as optimal send-off points for your magickal intentions and tweak your performance to take advantage of these natural peaks. If you feel comfortable, make a video of your practice sessions for later review. In this way, you can continue to hone your mimetic dance or drama as your skills in mystical self-expression further unfold.

Points to Ponder

• Thinking back to when you played make-believe as a child, do you see any parallels between imaginative play and mimetic magick? Can you remember any childhood games that might provide inspiration for spellwork involving mimicry, imitative gestures, or costumes?
  
• Do you think that wearing special clothing or masks when performing a ritual has an effect on the practitioner’s mental or spiritual state?
  
• Do you ever feel that your mood or mental state are affected by what you’re wearing? If so, how might you play up this effect to your advantage?
  
• Consider how magicians past and present have used magickal masks to frighten away threats, enhance personal power, and connect to the deities. What other applications of magickal masks can you think of?
  
• How might a mask made to represent one of your most unpleasant anxieties or characteristics be employed to help you diminish or alter these limitations?
  
• How might a mask made to resemble and embody a deity to whom you’re dedicated help you forge a connection with this god? Might you feel more empowered to work powerful magick when dressing the part of the divine?
  
• This chapter discussed specifically the use of masquerade and mimicry in the magickal arts. Might it be argued, however, that nearly
  all
  magick is mimetic? Why or why not? Can you identify any major points of difference in magick that could be classified as mimetic, or imitative, and magick that doesn’t fall into this category? What are the differences?
  

[contents]

122.
Erna Fergusson
, Dancing Gods: Indian Ceremonials of New Mexico and Arizona
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1931), 131, accessed March 23, 2013, http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/sw/dg/dg07.htm.

123.
Erna Fergusson
, Dancing Gods: Indian Ceremonials of New Mexico and Arizona
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1931), 131–132, accessed March 23, 2013, http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/sw/dg/dg07.htm.

124.
Elisabeth Melitta Cutright-Smith, “Modeling Ancestral Hopi Agricultural Landscapes,” Thesis, Dept. of Anthropology, University of Arizona (Ann Arbor, MI: ProQuest Information and Learning Company, 2007), 84.

125.
Erna Fergusson
, Dancing Gods: Indian Ceremonials of New Mexico and Arizona
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1931), 122, accessed March 23, 2013, http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/sw/dg/dg06.htm.

126.
“I?’dos” was rendered as “ I’´dos” in the original text; here, the question mark denotes a full glottal stop between syllables, with stress on the first syllable. See Arthur C. Parker,
The Code of Handsome Lake, the Seneca Prophet
(Albany, NY: University of the State of New York, 1913), 129, “Key to Phonetic System,” http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/iro/parker/cohl166.htm.

127.
Arthur C. Parker
, The Code of Handsome Lake, the Seneca Prophet
(Albany, NY: University of the State of New York, 1913), 122–123, “Society of Mystic Animals,” accessed March 23, 2013, http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/iro/parker/cohl154.htm.

128.
Ibid.
, 124–125.

129.
Roel Sterckx
, The Animal and the Daemon in Early China
(Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2002), 188.

130.
Jean-Loup Rousselot, “Yupik and Inupiaq Masks (Alaska),” in
Shamanism: An Encyclopedia of World Beliefs, Practices, and Culture, Volume I,
edited by Mariko Namba Walter, Eva Jane Neumann Fridman (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO Inc., 2004), 360–361.

131.
Ibid
., 361.

132.
Christoval De Molina, “The Fables and Rites of the Yncas,” in
Narratives of the Rites and Laws of the Yncas,
edited and translated by Clements R. Markham (London: Hakluyt Society, 1873), “July,” accessed March 23, 2013, http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/inca/rly/rly1.htm.

133.
Elena Phipps
, Cochineal Red: The Art History of a Color
(New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2010), 24.

134.
De Molina,
op. cit.
, “August.”

135.
Peter David Joralemon, “The Olmec,” in
The Face of Ancient America: The Wally and Brenda Zollman Collection of Precolumbian Art,
edited by Lee A. Parsons, John B. Carlson, and Peter David Joralemon (Indianapolis, IN: Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1988), 36.

136.
Ibid
., 38.

137.
Peter David Joralemon,
op. cit.
, 36.

138.
Christopher A. Pool,
Olmec Archaeology and Early Mesoamerica
(Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 173–174.

139.
Marion Oettinger, Jr.,
Folk Treasure of Mexico: The Nelson A. Rockefeller Collection
(Houston, TX: Arte Publico Press, 2012), 35.

140.
Deborah Bell,
Mask Makers and their Craft: An Illustrated Worldwide Study
(Jefferson, MO: McFarland and Co., 2010), 98–99.

141.
Dorothy Gladys Spicer
, Festivals of Western Europe
(New York: H.W. Wilson Company, 1958), Section 12, “Festivals of Switzerland,” accessed March 23, 2013, http://www.sacred-texts.com/etc/fwe/fwe14.htm.

142.
Official Website of Switzerland Tourism, MySwitzerland.com, “Fastnacht in Basel (BS),” accessed March 23, 2013, http://www.myswitzerland.com/en/fasnacht-in-basel-bs.html.

143.
Harold R. Willoughby
, Pagan Regeneration: A Study of Mystery Initiations in the Graeco-Roman World
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1929), Chapter II, accessed March 23, 2013, http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/pr/pr04.htm.

Ten

Group Magick

S
ince ancient times, people have practiced magick in groups. From ancient Greek Mystery schools to modern covens in America, our magickal practice builds community. We come to feel close to our covenmates; in sharing a simple ritual, a lifetime of friendship is often forged. For the solitary practitioner who has never or seldom before cast magick in a group setting, the benefits of doing so can seem a little vague or questionable. For the experienced group practitioner, the challenges of cooperative magick are just as familiar and apparent as are the potential benefits. After all, there’s a fine line between healthy, functioning group and malignant, dysfunctional, might-as-well-be-a-church. While state-sponsored public rituals and magick rites have indeed traditionally offered government leaders a handy way to guide, direct, motivate, and manage their populations, working magick in groups need not be in the form of a flock of sheep following the leader. Group magick can in fact be far more liberating and rewarding than the outward structure of hierarchy, rules, and restrictions might imply.

Group magick and community-wide ritual workings indeed provide a host of real benefits to the group as well as to the individual. Even solitaries find benefit in working magick with others from time to time; in sharing our magick, we share the work, as well. It makes sense that magick worked with other witches is generally more powerful than magick cast alone—we add our own personal power to the spells we cast, and with more people involved, there’s naturally more power available. More people to summon helpful and necessary energies, more people to solidify the intention, more people to code the energy, more people to magnify the power, and more people to release the spell typically equates to more effective magick with half the work as would usually be required for a solitary casting. Multiple-
person spellwork also allows for specialization—with lots of friends to help, each person can focus on their own particular abilities and aptitudes, making it possible to have an expert to handle each part of the magick.

There’s also the advantage of having more third eyes available to seek out hidden options and identify potential problems. When we’re personally invested in our spells (as we should be), it’s very easy to overlook the obvious, and having more people involved in the magick means you have some buddies on hand who can hopefully catch any mistakes before they’re made. Having a magickal think tank behind you makes spellcrafting easier, as there are more minds to brainstorm ways to craft a spell that’s truly a magickal masterpiece, just right for the situation at hand.

Working magick in groups is not only practical for magickal reasons; it’s a practice that also appeals to and satisfies our need for socialization. Group magick provides opportunities for communication, interaction, and camaraderie. It can literally craft a community, creating a set of common goals and common worldviews that guide our everyday dealings with the people around us. In an essay included in
Handbook of the Sociology of Emotions
, Erika Summers-Effler explains the importance of group ritual in shaping our social interactions, cultures, and day-to-day lives:

Rituals generate group emotions that are linked to symbols, forming the basis for beliefs, thinking, morality, and culture. People use the capacity for thought, beliefs, and strategy to create emotion-generating interactions in the future.
This cycle, interaction—emotions—symbols—interaction, forms patterns of interaction over time. These patterns are the most basic structural force that organizes society.
¹⁴⁴

Sharing ritual with others creates both a shared mentality and a shared emotional experience—in effect, a collective group consciousness. When we participate in a ritual together, we talk in the symbolic language of magick, creating new common patterns of ideas and beliefs with which to base our understanding of ourselves, our communities, and our world. Just as group magick enhances our individual understanding of society as a whole, so too are our one-on-one interactions with each other strengthened and enriched through the experience of working magick together.

If you sometimes feel a little lost or lonely in your spiritual practice, or if you ever wish you could have just a little extra power and help with a magickal working, you might want to consider giving group magick a try. Community and friendship are not wants, after all, but needs, not to mention the fact that group magick can be a very powerful and transformative process for the individuals participating. In sharing magick and ritual with others, friendships are born and strong feelings of interconnection and trust emerge. As Skott Holck, leader of a small Wiccan coven in Denver, Colorado, puts it, “A coven should be a bond like a family, but so much more. Working magick is all about improving yourself, and having a support structure around you as you grow is a great benefit. When we need something, we can turn to our coven mates and know support will be given. Also, during some vulnerable moments in Circle, it is nice to know that people who care about you are there.”