Wicca for Beginners (15 page)

The Surface

There are no rules about how big, small, fancy, or simple a Wiccan altar has to be, so you can create one out of whatever suits you and speaks to you. I have seen altars made on end tables, coffee tables, shelves, file cabinets, sewing tables, dresser and desktops, milk boxes, boards, flat rocks, small mounds of soil, garden stepping stones, TV trays, fireplace mantels, old trunks, cedar chests, plate rails, refrigerator tops, wall nooks, and even an old tombstone. (The tombstone had a typo in it, so it had never been used to mark a grave.) If you are creating a devotional altar, it’s best if you can find a small table or use the top of a bookcase, but if you don’t have the cash or space for these, that’s okay. You can use any flat surface if you need to, assuming it’s easy to clean and meditate in front of. If you do have a few extra dollars, consider scrounging around thrift stores for an old end table. These tend to be reasonably inexpensive. If the one you find is ugly (and they often are, or they wouldn’t have been relegated to the store), you can paint it or cover it with an inexpensive cloth. If you have pets and you are creating a devotional altar, you will also want to consider what we call the “cat factor.” Cats (and some dogs and most parrots) are irresistibly drawn to unsteady surfaces full of fragile knickknacks. If you have a curious feline or canine in the house, consider building your devotional altar either up high or on a very stable surface, preferably both. (The TV tray is not recommended for this situation!)

If you are creating a ritual altar, you will want something that can be taken down and stowed or put aside when it’s not in use. I’ve found that trunks and chests are great for this because you can store your ritual tools inside and use the surface for the altar during ritual. It’s also perfectly okay to use an everyday table or surface in ritual. I know plenty of Wiccans who move their coffee tables into their circle space for ritual and put them back in the living room when they’re done. Stability is important for a ritual altar too, especially if you will be moving around it or you will have burning candles on it.

Covering and Paraphernalia

Once you have found a surface, decide if you would like to cover it. Most Wiccan altars have altar cloths of some kind, but I’ve also seen altars that have been painted with magical symbols, stars and moons, or spirals. If you want to use a cloth, you can buy a new tablecloth, find used ones at thrift stores or garage sales (or in your own drawers), use extra pieces of fabric left over from sewing projects or bought new, or use scarves or sarongs. You could even use your grandmother’s lace doilies, as long as you’re not building an altar to a deity like Thor or Aries. Whether you’re creating a devotional or ritual altar, you can change the cloths to reflect the current season or sabbat, using different colors and textures for each time of year.

So now that you have this great surface, what do you put on it? Again, there are no hard and fast rules, but Wiccan altars often have candles, statues, flowers, stones, feathers, shells, incense and incense burners, and/or the Wiccan’s ritual tools on them. Sometimes they include foods or beverages associated with a particular sabbat or deity. Remember to change these periodically if they’re not in some sort of packaging, lest they increase the cat factor, bug factor, or slimy-mold factor.

As I mentioned in chapter 7, if you’re building a devotional altar to a specific deity, you’ll want to find items that correspond to him or her. For example, I have an altar for the Morrigan, a Celtic warrior goddess. The surface is covered with a red cloth, and on it are a candle in a red, cauldron-shaped holder; a statue of the Morrigan; the skull, feathers, and feet of a crow; a raven figurine; a coin with a wolf on it; my raven bracelet; and my cherry-amber ritual necklace. Wolves, crows, and ravens are the Morrigan’s animals, and since she’s a battle goddess, I figure she likes red. I didn’t include any flowers because the Morrigan isn’t a flowery kind of girl.

Ritual altars often have decorative items on them, such as Indian corn at the Fall Equinox, but it’s more important that they contain the tools and materials necessary for the ritual itself. Often, these items are put on the altar in symbolic places, for example, the censer at the south edge of the altar because of its association with fire. However, sometimes it’s much more important to have the items laid out so they’re easy to grab and use than it is to have them in special places. There is no right or wrong way to set up a ritual altar. The diagram here shows a sample altar setup. Feel free to use it as is, adapt it in whatever way suits you, or throw it out entirely.

In this altar design, the altar is facing north. This is common in Wicca, although altars sometimes face one of the other directions. I put the athame on the right because I am right-handed and it’s easier to grab there, and since the athame is used a lot in circle, I want it handy. The utility knife is on the left to balance the athame. The censer is in the middle so it’s less likely to be tipped over. The god candle and statue are on the right because the God is the active principle and, as I mentioned earlier, the right hand is considered by some to be the active hand. The goddess statue and candle are on the left because the Goddess is the receptive principle. The water and salt are in the west and east purely for aesthetic balance. Water is west, but salt (earth) isn’t east (it’s north). I put the chalice by the goddess statue and candle because it symbolizes her; likewise for the wand and the god statue and candle. The broom doesn’t go on the altar.

Sample Altar Setup

Remember, you don’t need all of this stuff to do effective ritual! Also, if you are a minimalist who abhors clutter, you don’t have to put every tool on the altar. Most people don’t use every tool in every ritual anyway.

Consecrating Tools

Most Wiccans consecrate each of their tools before they use them in ritual. “Consecrate” means to make something sacred or devote it to a deity or to spiritual use. When you consecrate your tools, you are saying, more or less, “I’m dedicating these tools to my gods, my spiritual path, and working my will.” If you choose to consecrate your tools, you only need to consecrate everything once—not for every circle. The following is an example of a tool-consecration ritual. As with all of the exercises and rituals in this book, modify it to suit your needs.

You will need:

•
A bowl of salt and one of water. There should be only about a tablespoon of salt, but the water bowl should be about half full. Do not overfill it.

•
Your censer and incense, unlit, plus matches or a lighter.

•
Athame.

•
All of your other ritual tools. Don’t worry if you don’t have all of them yet. You don’t have to consecrate them all at once. It makes for a very long ritual if you do.

•
A clean, dry rag or towel.

Ritual Instructions

1. Place your altar in the center of your circle space. Put the water, salt, and all of your tools either alongside or under it. You may wish to have one burning candle on the altar for light.

2. Ground.

3. Clear the space through visualization rather than by using the broom.

4. Draw the circle using your fingers and not the athame or wand.

5. Call the quarters, again using your fingers and not the athame or wand.

6. Call the God and Goddess.

7. Stand or sit in front of your altar. Put both hands on the surface and draw up some earth energy through your taproot. Say something like:

I bless and consecrate this altar in the names of the Goddess and God and in the presence of the powers of the four elements. May it aid me in honoring my gods and working my will.
Blessed be.

8. As you say this, visualize the earth energy flowing from your hands and filling the altar, infusing it with power and pushing out any unwanted or negative energy that might be in it. Tables don’t tend to harbor negative energy (why would it hang out in a table?), but it doesn’t hurt to push out the vibes of its previous owner, if it had one.

9. Next, place the bowls of salt and water on the altar. Place your index and middle fingers in the water and say something like:

I bless and consecrate this water and bowl in the names of the Goddess and God and in the presence of the powers of the four elements. May it aid me in honoring my gods and working my will. Blessed be.

10. As you are saying this, raise earth energy through your taproot and infuse and energize the water and bowl with it.

11. Repeat the same procedure with the salt, then pour the salt into the water and stir with your two fingers.

12. Next, place the censer and incense on the altar, and repeat the blessing on each one. Then put some incense in the censer and light it.

13. It is traditional when consecrating tools to expose them to all four elements. The four elements are represented in the incense and saltwater. Sprinkle the altar and censer lightly with the saltwater (don’t put out the incense!), then pick up the censer (if it’s heat-proof and safe) and fan the smoke over the altar and bowls. Now everything on the altar has been blessed by the elements.

14. Next, pick up your athame. Raise earth energy from your taproot and say something like:

I bless and consecrate this athame in the names of the Goddess and God and in the presence of the powers of the four elements. May it aid me
in honoring my gods and working my will. Blessed be.

15. Sprinkle the athame with the saltwater and hold it in the incense smoke for a moment.
Then wipe the saltwater off of your blade with the rag.
You will not wipe it off of anything else except the utility knife, but you don’t want saltwater sitting on your athame or you’ll end up with rust or pits in the blade. You’ll also want to polish the blade later with Metal Glo or some similar product. Real Wiccans know how to take care of their blades! The athame is your most personal tool, so treat it with extra respect.

16. Repeat this procedure with your other tools, but instead of holding the tool or pointing at it with your fingers, direct the earth energy through your athame toward the tool. Sprinkle and cense each tool. You do not have to consecrate every candle or batch of incense you use unless you want to, but it’s a good idea to do the candle holders.

17. When you have finished, thank the God and Goddess for attending your ritual.

18. Dismiss the quarters.

19. Take up the circle.

20. Ground.

21. Store your newly consecrated tools in a safe, special place.

9

Wiccan Holidays and the Wheel of the Year

Wiccans celebrate holidays
(called
sabbats) and the full moons. Since Wicca is a nature-oriented religion, it places great emphasis on the changing cycle of the seasons, which Wiccans refer to as the “wheel of the year.” The Wiccan wheel has eight “spokes” on it, each representing a sabbat and marking an important point in the turning of the year and the movement of the earth around the sun. The sabbats fall about six weeks apart. Four of them occur at the solstice and equinox points. The other four, sometimes referred to as the “cross quarters,” fall midway between the solstices and equinoxes.

In addition to marking the seasons, the Wiccan sabbats tell the stories of the God and Goddess and celebrate Wiccans’ connections to the spiritual world. As I mentioned in the early chapters of this book, Wiccans are concerned with both the spiritual world and the “here and now.” In their sabbats, they often reenact what is happening in nature in order to engage fully with the world around them and participate in the turning of the wheel. They also use these times to connect and identify with their gods.

Many Wiccans refer to full moon rituals as “esbats.” At the full moon, the moon (the Goddess) is opposite the sun (the God) in the heavens, with the earth in between like a child in the embrace of its parents. Astrology tells us that the full moon is the time of culmination. This has long been believed to be a time of great magical power, when the Goddess is in her full glory, and so Wiccans will often, but not always, honor the Goddess over the God at the full moon. Don’t worry, though—the God gets his due at the sabbats, and just because others focus on the Goddess doesn’t mean you have to. Because the full moon is so powerful, Wiccans will often do magic during their esbats in addition to honoring the gods. Some Wiccans use the same ritual for every full moon, and others write new ones. There is no consistent, agreed-on way to celebrate the full moons or symbol set for each one. Wiccans mark those days however the moon moves them to. This does not mean that the full moons aren’t important. In fact, in some traditions they are considered more core to Wiccan practice than the sabbats.

Each sabbat does have its own set of symbols, images, and myths. There is no one right way to celebrate each sabbat, and different Wiccans interpret the meanings differently, so I am going to give you some background information on each that you can use as a starting point to create your own meaningful seasonal rituals.

February 2: Imbolc, Oimelc, Candlemas

Imbolc celebrates the first stirrings of life under the blanket of winter. The light begins to grow noticeably. The land is becoming fertile and ripe for new growth, and like it, we are getting ready for the coming spring and our spiritual rebirth after the inner work of winter. The Goddess gave birth to the God at the Winter Solstice, and as his strength grows at Imbolc, she prepares for the cycle of life, death, and rebirth to begin all over again.

Some themes for Imbolc are fertility, fire, purification, and initiation or spiritual rebirth. If you live in the north, the idea that this is a fertility festival may be a bit of a reach for you, but if you live in a moderate climate, the buds on the trees this time of year might serve as a reminder. Perhaps it is better to think of it as the potential for fertility; the moment when the earth ceases to be lifeless and begins to awaken.

Fire, of course, symbolizes the warming of the earth, the spark of life, and the coming of the light. Many sabbats feature fire in one way or another, but at Imbolc, Wiccans speak of the “fire within” rather than literal fire. Wiccan Imbolc ceremonies tend to include lots of candles to encourage the light and warmth to grow. The Irish goddess/saint Brid, whose feast day is February 2, is often associated with fire. She is a goddess of the forge, so this is no surprise. She is also a goddess of inspiration, poetry, and fertility, so she embodies several Imbolc themes. Many Wiccans honor Brid at Imbolc.

This is also a time of purification, in the sense of sloughing off the darkness of winter and getting rid of extraneous stuff that keeps you from your spiritual potential. The connection between fertility, purification, and spiritual rebirth is echoed in the name “February.” In ancient Rome, the people sacrificed a goat in honor of Juno, mother of the gods; cut the goat skin into strips called
februa
, which meant “instruments of purification” (and which comes from the same root as “February”); and ceremonially smacked the strips across the backside of each woman, simultaneously honoring the mother goddess and ensuring their fertility. Remnants of this ritual, which was associated with the festival of Lupercalia, still exist today.

Perhaps because of the season’s association with spiritual rebirth, many Wiccans do dedications or initiations at this time of year. Dedications are simple ceremonies, either public or private, where a person declares his or her intent to study Wicca and/or honor the gods. An initiation ceremony is when a person is “made” a Wiccan—he or she ceases to be a dedicant and is now truly walking the Wiccan path. Initiation often includes joining a Wiccan group or tradition, although many Wiccans work alone. Initiation is considered a birth or rebirth, and, like in an Imbolc circle, the underlying feelings in an initiation ceremony are often anticipation and newness.

When you are studying a sabbat, it is important also to study the sabbat opposite it on the wheel of the year and the relationship between the two holidays. Opposite sabbats form yet another Wiccan polarity. Imbolc is opposite Lammas, August 1. Decorations for a seasonal Imbolc altar might include bulbs and seeds and lots of candles.

March 21: Spring Equinox, Ostara

At the Spring Equinox, Wiccans celebrate, well—spring! The potential of Imbolc is beginning to become reality as tulips and daffodils pop up, people sow first seeds, and darkness turns toward light. Daytime and nighttime are equal, so balance is emphasized. There is a sexual spark in the air too and new life busting out everywhere.

In some ways, the Wiccan Spring Equinox is like Easter. On the secular side of Easter, people celebrate with colored eggs and chocolate rabbits. There are few things you can have on the table in mixed company that symbolize fertility (sex) and new life more than eggs and those rather prolific rabbits, and as if that wasn’t good enough, Easter also comes with a rabbit that delivers eggs. On the religious side, Christians celebrate Easter as the day when Jesus conquers death and rises from the tomb. In the Northern Hemisphere, the Spring Equinox is when the sun rises over the horizon, and light vanquishes darkness. The Wiccan God is rising and coming into his power too.

It is common to have lots of flowers at a Wiccan Spring Equinox circle. This is partly because they’re beautiful and available and everything is blooming around us, but, as any Georgia O’Keefe fan will tell you, flowers, like those eggs and rabbits, are symbols of sex and fertility, so there is more than one reason they’re included.

The balance of light and darkness is important at the Spring and Fall Equinoxes. At these times, Wiccans are keenly aware of the polarity of darkness and light and the importance of one to the other. Lots of spiritual people, both Wiccan and non-Wiccan, see religion as a way to seek balance in their lives. Balance between work and play, ego and humility, compassion and strength, heaven and earth. However, the two equinoxes also point out to us how abnormal balance is. We pay balance a lot of lip service as one of the goals of our life quest. We may see a therapist, take a retreat, use drugs and alcohol, join a support group, and do endless other things to try to achieve it. Yet, the equinoxes remind us, day and night are only balanced two days a year. The state of balance, although desirable, is not common. Naturally, the two days when the world seems to be in balance are days of great power. And although the Spring Equinox sits at the point of balance, we can feel the energy turning toward the light.

There is a playfulness to the Spring Equinox. Some Wiccans see the Wiccan Goddess as a maiden and the God as a growing adolescent at this sabbat. The hard work of the winter is done, and the harvest is yet to come, so it’s time to relax and enjoy the beautiful world blooming all around us.

As you have probably guessed, the sabbat opposite the Spring Equinox is the Fall Equinox, September 21. Decorations for a seasonal Spring Equinox altar might include flowers, eggs, seeds, and images of rabbits.

May 1: Beltane

At Beltane, many Wiccans celebrate the sexual union of the God and Goddess and what it will yield: fertile fields, the harvest, sustenance for another year, and a new cycle of life. On Beltane in parts of Europe in centuries past, young women would go “a-Maying” all night in the woods with their lovers, and many would come back pregnant. They might also “bless” the tilled fields by making love in the furrows. There is nothing subtle about Beltane; despite its trappings of fun and games, it’s not a G-rated holiday.

Perhaps the best-known symbol of Beltane, or May Day, is the Maypole. The top of the Maypole pierces a garland of flowers, from which fall colored ribbons. Men and women, divided by gender into two concentric circles, dance around the pole in opposite directions while holding the ends of the ribbons, weaving in and out between each other until the pole is completely bound. The symbolism is obvious.

The fairy court is said to move twice a year, and some Wiccans believe that Beltane is one of those times. Wiccans who work with the fey might leave out libations such as cake or a saucer of milk to honor the “fair folk” and appease them so they don’t play tricks.

At Beltane, the God is often portrayed as the Green Man —a man completely dressed or covered in foliage. The Green Man is lord of the forest and growing things—the essence of plant life. There is a wild, feral, unpredictable side to him, but he has a gentle side too. If you feel like wandering in the woods under the moon at Beltane, you might be in tune with the Green Man. Just be careful, because even the Green Man can trip over a root or conk his head on a low branch in the dark.

Where the atmosphere of the Spring Equinox is playful, Beltane is joyous. The God and the Goddess are mature, strong, and in love. There is often a lot of feasting at Beltane celebrations, and some Wiccans include beer because it is made of John Barleycorn, the grain, associated with the Green Man. Wiccan Beltane rites, like Spring Equinox ones, are full of flowers and greenery, and women and sometimes men will wear garlands on their heads. Like Imbolc, Beltane is a fire festival, and outdoor Wiccan ceremonies will often include a bonfire. Couples take hands and jump over the fire together to increase their fertility. If you do this, keep a fire extinguisher handy, build a small bonfire, don’t wear anything that will drag in the flames, and be careful! The rites may also contain symbolic sex rituals, and it is not uncommon for established couples to sneak off and go a-Maying after the circle is over. It goes without saying that magic to conceive a child is often done at Beltane.

The sabbat opposite Beltane is Samhain or Halloween, October 31. Decorations for a seasonal Beltane altar might include flowers, greenery, ribbons, and phallic symbols.

June 21: Summer Solstice, Midsummer, Litha

The Summer Solstice is the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, and the sun is at its full power. At the Summer Solstice, some Wiccans believe the God is in his full glory and the Goddess is pregnant both with child and with the harvest. Other Wiccans celebrate the Summer Solstice as the day when the dark half of the year conquers the light half. This is sometimes symbolized as a battle between two kings: the Oak King and the Holly King.

The Oak King/Holly King idea may have been pieced together from fragments of old European tradition. The Summer Solstice was a fire festival in much of old Europe—the last hurrah before the days began to shorten again. One custom was to light barrels and roll them down hills to represent the sun. In French ceremonies, men chosen as “kings” gave up their crowns and pretended to die, representing the light giving way to darkness and the turning of the year. Legend has it that King Louis XIV—called the “Sun King” because of his riches and because he self-identified with the Greek sun god Apollo—was the last real French king to participate in this rite. According to Sir James Frazer in
The Golden Bough
: