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by Christopher Penczak, edited by Tina Whittle

Two key teachings for a student of the occult are not often explicitly taught, but are inherent in the techniques and traditions. The first is the principle “as if.” Behave “as if” something is true to make it a reality. It is particularly powerful in spellcasting and manifestation to act unworried about the outcome and act “as if” the outcome is happening all along or has already happened on some level.

To embody this teaching, one simply behaves “as if” the conditions are objective and real, even if they are really subjective and we are doubting. The “as if” principle requires, at least in ritual, to suspend disbelief. “As if” activates one of our most important magickal skills, our imagination.

Behave “as if” the deity inhabits the statue when you address the deity in circle, even if you are uncertain that it does. Embracing animist tendencies, behave “as if” all things are animated and conscious, even if you have no solid evidence of such a thing… yet. Speak to things “as if” they are alive and will know your intention and might answer you at some point. Behave “as if” the correct astrological moment will really strengthen your ritual, even if haven’t had a lot of experience yet with astrology.

There is a power to acting in ritual “as if” you are an experienced and powerful Witch, rather than wondering in ritual if it will really work and worrying if the spell will fail. Assume the role of a competent Witch, and soon you will be. The true power of “as if” is that it opens you to possibilities you would otherwise not be able to envision, and therefore reach, without a suspension of disbelief in the current circumstances.

It’s a quite powerful technique, particularly in ritual setting, but it can come crashing against the next principle, “as is.” You must be able to see the world “as is” if you ever seek to change it, otherwise how will you know it is changing? You must see people as they are, not as you wish or hope them to be, or you quite possibly would be harmed by them, or at the very least disappointed. The world and all in it is holy, just as it is. Everything is unfolding perfectly just as it is.

They embody the dual states of magick, action and non-action, or change and acceptance. A key teaching for any magician is knowing the proper balance of doing and not doing, and in what moment to act, and in what moment to be still.

It helps us with another magickal axiom well known to the occult student, whether formally or in experience alone: Make haste slowly. How can one make haste slowly? Haste is moving fast. Slowly is not moving fast. One embraces the dichotomy of the evolutionary drive to move forward, while the disciplined practitioner must be thorough and precise. The experience of our path can be both lightning fast and excruciating slow to change, in turns and simultaneously.

“As if” requires us to still maintain a healthy open mind outside of a ritual setting, and to not fall into mystical delusion in our day-to-day life and engage in unhealthy behavior. It works best in ritual, and in the background of our day-to-day, aspiring us to the highest ideals and intentions we have.

“As is” requires us to perceive and accept, but not lose hope for the chance to change, for change is life, and change is magick. Things can be perfect as they are in the moment, and ever changing, and you, by virtue of being alive and participating in life, are both part of the process of changing, and a part of that which is being changed.

In these struggling times of profound change and chaos, of harm and of simple joys, our desire for a vision of a more just and equitable world can be hard to hold, and it can be hard to behave as if that is the world we live in. If we can’t live by those principles, we can’t convince others to create this world with us. I think it is the essence of what my other metaphysical friends mean when they say—using different language often with a more naive world view, in my opinion—we must “hold the vibration of the New Earth” or “I live in the Fifth Dimension, 5D.” We must behave in the world we wish to see.

On a personal level, Raven Grimassi often talked to me about some of the magickal pretenders in his youth who would either end in self-destruction, or as if casting a spell upon themselves, become the very thing they pretended to be, eventually growing in both magickal power and wisdom. This is akin to that, but on a national and global scale.

When we stare into the face of “what is” it can be easy to lose that hope and then exist in the world that is. Higher ideals are often failing us, but in the embracing of the world as it is, and behaving as such, we can lose the possibility, close ourselves off to the imagination. Imagination is the key to our current life circumstances. Creativity is key. Imagination is the bridge between the worlds, and an essence of magick. The alchemical healer Paracelsus wrote:

“Imagination and faith can cause and remove diseases. Confidence in the virtue of amulets is the whole secret of their efficacy. It is from faith that imagination draws its power. Anyone who believes in the secret resources of Nature receives from Nature according to his own faith; let the object of your faith be real or imaginary, you will in an equal degree obtain the same results.”

Imagination lets us see the world as it is, and ourselves as we are, but also opens a gateway to what else we, and the world, can be. While I’m not a big believer the traditional definitions of faith in a religious context—often describing myself as a faithless priest as I believe in what I experience—to experience what I now believe I had to suspend disbelief for a time, and embrace imagination and the secret resource of nature to obtain my own results. So perhaps I have some faith, along with my will and imagination.

I find the paradox of the two manifesting in a curious way for me these days. The world of 2025 is in far worse shape than it was in 2017+, yet I find myself holding greater joy and happiness day-to-day than I did. I’m reading the news, writing my reps, and attending protests. I’m focusing intent on all levels towards minimizing harm and creating good. The reality would have been of anger and sadness and with good cause. And I certainly am at times. Yet without denying the state of the world “as is” I’m choosing, at least for now, to interact “as if” another way is possible and even probable with our individual and collective action. Could that be for generations after me, a metaphorical sunrise I’ll never see? Maybe. But being miserable in the meantime doesn’t serve a greater good. If my circumstances have room for some joy I should embrace it. That joy allows the use of imagination, of vision, and of putting energy into that vision. That is the act of magick with all the rituals and meditations and journeys. That is my magickal living, when there are no rituals or visions, but simply being present.

It is in the intersection of two things that seemingly cannot be true at the same time—acting “as if” and accepting “as is”—that we find paradox, and the mystery. In this paradox is the true magick, and while embracing if and is, we can make haste slowly together in this world.

Through the Eyes of a Broom Closet Witch: Litha

Cloaks and capes. Shawls and scarves. Just witchy accoutrements? I think not. For me, definitely not. Welcome back, Broom Closet Witches, and Blessed Litha! Claire de Lune here, a High Priestess in the Temple of Witchcraft tradition, with the 26th article in our “For Broom Closet Witches” series. So, what do cloaks, etc. have to do with Litha? Well, as this year’s Wheel of the Year articles are about seeing through the eyes of this Broom Closet Witch, let’s see…

As Litha is, in part, a celebration of the Summer Solstice, a time of bright light and sunshine, I thought it might be pertinent to talk about meditation and visualization – (my experience with them) – as learning how to “contend” with light has been a big part of my practice from Day One.

Like others, I would imagine, meditation and visualization were new skills for me to learn after enrolling in Witchcraft I with the Temple of Witchcraft. I found the existence of the “Screen of My Mind” during waking hours very intriguing, as I had only experienced it at night, in dreams. I was very excited to begin! I found it challenging, at first, though, and my challenges had a lot to do with light.

The rays of the Sun at this time of year give rise to the need for protecting one’s skin and eyes if exposure is going to be lengthy. So, “covering up” or “shielding” oneself from the sunlight (with seasonally appropriate clothing items) is not a bad idea. And as going inward in our Wheel of the Year Sabbats takes center stage in our “For Broom Closet Witches” articles this year, it naturally made me think about my meditation practice.

By “covering up” my eyes with the hood of my cloak or cape pulled down or by using a shawl or scarf pulled down over my eyes in meditation, I am, essentially, going “inward” by becoming the “in”, with the covering then becoming the “out”. A bit of a stretch? Maybe. I find it most useful, though – no – essential, in my case, to not only have that physical barrier by putting my cloak over my head, but also by turning off the lights, drawing the curtains, and putting on one of those “sleep masks” that cover the eyes, otherwise I won’t be able to “see” anything.

When I “close my eyes”, I don’t completely close my eyes. They are still a wee bit open even when they are “closed”. This is why I must sleep in a completely dark room at night and simulate the dark during the daytime when I meditate if I want to have any success at visualization. Any light that gets through the “barriers” I set up makes it harder for me to “see” when I meditate and try to visualize. The “Screen of My Mind” must be completely black, or I can’t “see”. And squeezing my eyes shut for any extended period is just plain uncomfortable. So, I cover my eyes and make the room I’m in as dark as possible. I suppose I could wait until nightfall, but then I am more apt to just fall asleep.

I don’t know if anyone else has a similar situation, but the cloak/cape/shawl/scarf thing might be worth a try if one is having difficulty “seeing”.

Disclaimer: Please, do make sure to leave a big enough gap in whatever type of covering you choose so that you are able to breathe freely! Also, please don’t do this around any little “witchlets” who might get ideas and try to cover up their own heads … Yikes!

And finally, please don’t cover up so much that you overheat and dehydrate. Just please cover up responsibly if you choose to try this!!! There. I think that’s got it covered.

Oh, and that “dome thingy” on top of the Broom Closet in the picture was supposed to be a big sun umbrella, but it turned out looking more like a blue and pink mushroom, in my opinion. We can pretend it is some sort of futuristic portable fan/air purifier/sun shield/umbrella. Or not.

I hope this article has been helpful, and until next time –

Merry Meet, Merry Part, and Merry Meet again!

Litha Blessings,
Claire de Lune

Have you ever had a path that you seemed certain of? Perhaps it’s your career or marriage or dream house or the number of pets or children you are going to nurture. Maybe it’s a path of friendship? Or affection? Or a co-mingling of several.

I find myself this week where once I thought there was a sure and steady winding path, a marathon path, suddenly and without warning vanished. At least I want to say “suddenly and without warning”. That’s rarely true when it comes to interpersonal relationships. At least, that is what I am discovering. That in the hindsight of perspective there were a myriad of little signs that I chose to ignore. To willfully not see.

There was that night in October last when I was walking at dusk around a small town square, despondent. Suddenly, seated was a dashing young poet set up with a small table and a 1950s typewriter. He would write you a poem on a topic of your choosing for a donation in any amount. So, I did. He asked me for my topic and then a few brief questions for clarity. The topic was the path. Even then, my mind knew what my heart could not yet admit. That something dear and precious to me had run its course. I wasn’t ready to accept that truth. So I hoped this debonair poet would prove my mind wrong and side with my heart. Tell me that my gut was just overreacting. That I was being hypersensitive to the nuances of the path walked.

The poet spoke the truth. Gently.

In a manner that would give me what I needed: a crack in the shield of my defenses against pain. A gentle tap of truth that with time could allow the grace of gratitude to seep into the crack and expand. Over the months, I can see now, that gratitude seeped into more cracks, till the shield finally dissolved and I could take a halting breath, a soft huff, and sorrowfully, but willingly, let go.
“To be grateful to have shared a path at all” was the last line of his poem.

To have experienced that level of camaraderie.

To have the grace of self worth to not cling to someone or something that chooses to go a different direction, through no fault of either party. There was a lovely brief journey along a path.

I am glad of it.

Indeed.

Of course.

As you wish.

The butter and salt and water of all good things.

Well and good then.

So, I have been processing and filling page after page in my journal. Finally, blessedly, I stopped. Stopped striving. Stopped trying to figure it out. Fix it. Keep it going. Supporting it. Instead, I sat down in the dirt and dug out a garden. Three in fact, niches and corners from abandoned patches of earth. One for vegetables and edible flowers, one for corn and beans, and one for the bees. I then took handfuls of seeds and scattered them along the rocky bank of the drainage ditch behind Casita, my new little apartment home. Seeds to spread beauty, seeds to feed the birds and the moths and, yes, even the bunnies and deer. I poured sweat and tears and song into the earth as I dug. My youngest son, planter of bay trees, helped with the brunt of the hacking at one of the flower beds. I talked to the neighborhood children and asked what they wanted to grow…and made certain to include those things. I talked broken Spanglish to the Hispanic neighbors to ask what they wished for and planted those things also. I brought the watermelon seeds harvested from the melon plant last summer… hour after hour… barefoot, in a short sundress, I worked the earth with my hands and simple tools. For myself? I planted bush string beans. Both In a pot and also in the ground.

As a young child, one of my earliest memories was out in my parents’ garden, singing to the bean plant while I picked beans. Brown and white paneled sundress barely covering my backside. The warmth of the earth heating me in such an intimate, comforting way. I was utterly content and happy in that space with the beans and the dirt and my little charmed songs. I plant string beans to honor that four year little girl part of me. To offer to her, who holds a long string bean in her hand, the joyful gladness of growing and harvesting tasty food from our Mother Earth.

This patchwork garden is a curiosity for the neighbors. They are excited to see what grows. Surprised to learn that it is for all of us, not just me and my son. Happy smiles that I planted things they asked for. One youngster asked if the veggies would be ready to eat in three days? I chuckled and replied, more like 60 days… good things take a little time, but it should be fun to watch the cycle of seed to sprout to plant to fruit and back to seed again.

Yesterday, at the laundromat, there was a field of clover that called to me, “You hooo! Over here, please!” Between loads, I walked over and admired the millions of red clover blooms, common vetch, and evening primrose in full bloom over an acre of an abandoned industrial lot. Whispering and talking to the blooms, I stood in awe of the ones closest to me. That swath of clover that had been mown down by the landscapers. Despite the lopping, they persisted and had shot up more flowers… a second set of blooms. Their sisters did not suffer so. They had grown heavy and their flowers expansive and beginning to fade. Not these shorn ones! The leaves of their blooms had been desiccated, half eaten and nibbled by bunnies, yet still they held their stalks erect, a full six inches above their shearing. They were vibrant, deep blood red blossoms. Slender, victorious late bloomers. Defiant and glorious. I picked a small bouquet and wrapped them entwined with Ivy and long grass.
What do the flowers say and what do they sing? I smelled them deeply and thought of happy moments in my childhood laying on my belly playing and singing to the flowers as I built little fairy mounds of the grass clippings from my mother’s recent mowing. I wandered back inside and left the little nosegay on one of the folding tables… a gift for all the toiling women and their children to enjoy there at the washroom… bright, vivid, joy-filled with song and hope.

Erica Sittler is a Witch practicing her craft in Mississippi where she is an active member of the Temple of Witchcraft. Her magick is in the mundane and in bringing honor and attention to those small things that build a sustainable and adventurous life. She is a Temple Mystery School student under the instruction of High Priestess Sellena Dear.

“You just fold it in.”

by Christopher Penczak, edited by Tina Whittle

“I blow cinnamon through my front door the first of every month, but nothing happens. I don’t have any more money. This magic stuff is bullshit.”

This statement was shared with me by a client struggling with prosperity who sees online videos as the best resource for magickal education. And I’ll admit there are some fun and even good things online, but they often neglect the bigger picture. With context, the TikTok advice could be helpful. Without it, not so much.

The act of blowing cinnamon won’t bring prosperity despite cinnamon’s correspondence with Jupiter, the planet of prosperity and good fortune. Blowing cinnamon with the intention is a bit better. Some teach intention is everything, and while it certainly is a key ingredient, every recipe needs more than a key ingredient. If you make chicken soup with chicken, the key ingredient, but don’t have water or anything else, it’s not going to be chicken soup no matter how much chicken you have or how strong your intention is.

If you follow a recipe that is detailed enough, you might just get it. And if you follow a spell precisely you’ll often get it to work too. A good spell will have all the parts built into it. It will have clear intention or a place for you to clarify your personal intention. It will have the means in which to raise and direct energy even if it’s subtle. Most spells will connect you to the web of correspondences. Some will inherently connect you to a divine power and wisdom or open you to sacred space and contraction. Not all spells do all these things

Many will omit things in the same way that some recipes will share less-than-precise details, assuming you know the basics. Lack of knowledge of techniques or terminology can make a mess of things. I remember the line in the show Schitt’s Creek where the characters David and Moira Rose, both inept in the kitchen, follow a recipe with the instruction to “fold in the cheese” and neither understanding. Many would not know that “folding in” means to gently sweep from the bottom repeatedly as you add a little bit of cheese in each motion, done in delicate mixtures to get a certain texture.

In magick, if enough people do something successfully, like blessing a home with prosperity by blowing cinnamon, you might be able to tap into that, but you might not. Often something specific is needed, like the same prayer, so you can get synched with the momentum of the past. Without it, you are just sprinkling spices with no effect. A misunderstanding of this makes magick seem much more haphazard than it is and contributes to the idea that it’s simply superstition.

Then there is learning to cook. Through practice you gain skill. Someone can follow a recipe to a T, but without experience and skill, the success rate is not the same as a person with experience and deeper understanding. A person with that experience can then improvise, adapt, and create new things. Magick is like that but today many people start at the adapting-and-improvising stage before ever learning to cook, and then teach others to do the same, often perpetuating some glaring misinformation.

In magick, the practice of regularly deeply connecting with yourself, your inner powers, and the land and your otherworldly allies; cultivating stillness and intuition; and immersing yourself in seasonal and stellar rhythms bring magick into everything you do.

Soon everything you do has magickal effect. I remember a mentor telling me that a regular person moving a rock from the left side of a path to the right had no effect, but a person who is magickally trained, following inner guidance can shift all the world by moving that rock, as they are pulling on the strands of connections interweaving all things. That rock becomes like the shuttle of the loom of fate in that place and time. Your effect might not be visible to yourself, but your action has affected the energy and spirits of that place for times to come. You realize you learn magick, you do magick, and you become magick, all of your life a spell devoted to your soul’s purpose. Then when you are called to blow cinnamon through a doorway, you invoke the full force of prosperity and good fortune in that place.

Photo by Anna Shvets via Pexels

by Christopher Penczak, edited by Tina Whittle

Recently I read a critique of modern Paganism, one I’ve seen many times before, a lament that we have enough books of correspondences and rituals and need a tradition to tell us how to live and how to be. That is what is missing.

I disagree. We live in a world with plenty of religions and groups telling us how to live and be, and while I understand the cultural longing for a new way of life clearly modeled for us, any religion that does this will only lead back to dogma.

It is in experiencing the mystery that we learn how to live and be. Occult training—including the many lists of correspondences, rituals, and meditations—gives us endless opportunities to break the collective societal programming, the collective materialistic worldview, as each ritual provides an opportunity for mystery. We can tell people that the world is alive and full of gods and spirits and to behave accordingly, but until we experience it, we don’t believe. We can teach that thoughts are things, but until we experience it, we won’t believe. We can cast a spell in a moment of need, and when the herb or stone speaks back to us, we realize that those lists of correspondences led us to it. We feel a subtle force flow. A veil of perception lifts… these are all in the experiences. To make them into a living tradition, we must then integrate them into our worldview. It’s a subtle process.

I remember someone online talking about how an indigenous worldview is out of reach for most modern people, as they have been conditioned to see all the teachings as symbolic, while the indigenous person takes them literally. It’s the difference in the acknowledgement of a tree’s personhood as you know all life is sacred versus the tree actually talking to you and telling you something objectively true that you had no prior knowledge of. One is a mental romanticism, and the other is living in an enchanted world and realizing that enchantment is the natural default state of everything. Disenchantment is a purely modern human problem. A Paganism that teaches the personhood of a tree without the experience of it directly will fail us. Yet we have to be curious enough to be present with an unfolding process and ask ourselves the bigger questions as we go. It’s true a lot of spellcraft. Neopaganism often focuses on self, in manifestation and prosperity, and many never leave that stage, but it’s purposeful if it provides a foundational level of needs met, giving us the space to ask the bigger questions with a larger, enchanted framework and actual techniques to seek the answers.

Breaking the idea that everything is symbolic (which is still better than the mainstream mechanistic material views of reality) often requires a radical reorientation of your reality. This can be a shattering experience or an initiatory magick. Sometimes it’s both. Magickal training provides a philosophical framework to establish a new paradigm and function in this radical reorientation. It also provides a community of peers and elders who were not raised in this paradigm but likewise had a reorienting initiatory experience. This is the reason why even though Paganism can be taught to our children, we still don’t see Witchcraft growing rapidly through families. Converts mostly come through a quest of disquiet and discontentment with the world. A religion of priesthood is different from a religion for the masses. Navigating that will be one of our growing community challenges.

Some think of Paganism as logic and reason, quoting the classical philosophers, but the reason of ancient Pagan philosophy and the logic of secular science today can leave a wide gap. Speaking with gods, ancestors, trees, mountains, and the organs of your body—and getting answers back—is seen as far outside accepted convention in our current society. Without some acknowledgement of that, often with some self-deprecating humor referencing the symbolic and not literal nature of such communication, you’ll end up having a 24-hour psychiatric evaluation. We have even classified “magical thinking” as a psychological symptom of disorder in our modern society.

When leaders seek to teach us how to live and be, they will speak of “living in harmony with nature” and some form of “doing what is right.” How does one do these things without the complete dismantling of modern culture? And if you have a plan of dismantling that causes no harm to the most disaffected in society, please share it. Until then, we have to all figure out what those look like in the context of our current lives. Individuals model it, and groups can do more and more to model the changes, but I fear religious mandates from Pagan leaders. Part of magickal training is in the discovery and then implementation of your own magickal will, not someone else’s. We work cooperatively, but one answer will not fit all. Teaching can help us discover answers for ourselves rather than have them dictated. Any mandates need to be social and legal contracts, not religious ones, in a secular society; otherwise we risk trying to merge our own church with the state, repeating Christian mistakes. We are past the point of being any one Pagan culture, and the old ways of tribal law, while romantic, would be regressive for secular society. Witchcraft, indigenous cultures, religion, and philosophy can inform the greater conversations, but they can only inform.

Many looking solely for religion are looking for answers, not a process in which to find answers or techniques that are “right” rather than techniques that are useful. I remember fairly early in my teaching career when I lost a student who demanded I provide her a food blessing from the tradition. We didn’t have an official food blessing for the tradition, but I felt I gave more than sufficient training for her to write her own. That was not good enough; she needed the food blessing that we were all using. Of course there are times in rituals where the words do not change, and the esoteric reason is to build power for a specific technique and marker point on the path of initiation. As important as recognizing and blessing your food it, it does not require the same words to be used by everyone all the time. She required that level of not just like-mindedness, but same-mindedness to feel confident that what she was doing was correct. I was bewildered. Eventually, she found a Witchcraft tradition that gave her a specific prayer for not only food blessings but for starting the day, ending the day, and all manner of life experiences. For myself I need a system that allows for the art of flexibility, creativity, and a sincere uprising of my own thoughts, feelings, and words.

How to live in a multicultural, multi-religious, cosmopolitan society is a complex and ultimately very personal question to answer. A lot of Pagans are looking for a replacement religion to their birth religion without dismantling their past belief systems. I often say people like to file off the serial numbers to Jesus, Mary, and Yahweh and paint in the names of the deities from their current polytheistic pantheon. This is particularly true for those who are seeking an occult training or mystery tradition and are the first to critique the manuals of the past. They are often mad at their birth religion and feel indigenous traditions will solve all their problems, so they thereby reject association with the Western mystery traditions that acknowledge the influence of things like Qabalah and alchemy upon occult philosophy. They often reject occult philosophy itself while simultaneously practicing it without full awareness. I remember serving as minister for a predominantly Heathen group in a prison. They were adamant in not “doing Wicca” despite my background and my being the only non-Christian/Buddhist religious volunteer. After crafting something definitively non-Wiccan, they didn’t like it and cited all the things missing they wanted from a ritual, all which were very Wiccan.

While I understand the desire for something pure, clear, and bereft of monotheism, we live in an interconnected world where all things touch and influence us, even if the influence is in our opposition. The desire for purity is dangerous as it is the road to fundamentalism and dogma. For me, always learning that Witchcraft is an art, science, and religion becomes the focus. The art and science give us balance, flexibility, and the power to adapt. The art and science are as much a part of the answer on how to live and be as the religion. It’s through the integration of our experiences—asking the bigger questions of ourselves and each other and making room for how we will all have different answers yet still function in community—that we craft a living Paganism, a truly living Witchcraft.

“It’s sovereignty. You won’t be sovereign until you aren’t fixated on someone else’s demise.”

I frowned. Every other friend was saying the opposite of what this one was, but this one is the one whose counsel I value most.

Instead of fanning the flames of my justifiable fury, this one chunked a bucked of ice water in my face that left sputtering and squirming like some bratty child bent on revenge via text and voicemail.

I didn’t understand what my friend was saying, but I wanted to. I want sovereignty, true sovereignty. To be no longer the victim. No longer in the pattern of abusive and toxic behaviors. Blathering all my reasons why I could keep doing what I was doing did not make it right.  I was being unkind. Ungracious. Not upholding my personal honor code. My friend knew that, even though it was going to take me many more hours to figure all of that out.

It took more than 10 hours actually to settle myself down enough to do more that skim-the-surface kind of thinking. To actually sit with myself with naked honesty and earnestly try to understand what my friend was equally earnestly trying to tell me. A course correct was obviously needed, but was it just the vengeance part? The blood lust for revenge? I suspected it went deeper than that. I was going to have to go all the way down however deep that was and seek it out, facing whatever monsters showed up along the way.

So I did.

I lit a candle and asked my guides and allies to help me gain insight. Called them by name. Then taking out my tarot cards, I did a three card pull. The very standard “past”, “present” “future” spread. Past for the behaviors/patterns up till this moment, present is this moment and the direction forward, future for the results of “what will happen” if I follow the “present” card.

Now y’all know by now that I think the divine, the cosmos, god/dess will use any tool that we work with as a way to communicate with us if we will but use the tools and listen and treat the messages with respect… and heed them. I have found in my limited experience that interpreting the cards gets easier with use and allowing oneself the time and quiet space needed to be allowed to ponder and contemplate versus just trying to get a mag rag answer off the cuff. This query needed far more than a quickie solution. It required the depth to honor the seriousness of it as it related to all three aspects of my life: past, present, and future.

It was a crossroads moment.

A “Harken unto me and hear my words” momentous kind of moment.

I laid out the cards trusting them that they too understood the seriousness of the query:

Give me insight to know the meaning of “I won’t be sovereign until I am not fixated on someone else’s demise.”

They answered:

• Past: The Wheel (X) reversed
• Present: The Ace of Swords
• Future: The Devil (XV) reversed

Well, shit.

I joke and tease that I am a gal who needs to be spoken to plainly. Folks that’s about as bald-assed plain as cards can get! Pointing at them: why, honeys, there is even a golden crown with a sword right there in purple crayon on the card representing “present”. What says “sovereign” more clearly that! Laughing, the cards apparently wanted to really make sure that they conveyed that they certainly understood the query…and now I could too.

I dove into the deep water of understanding, writing page after page of insight both on myself and also on the symbols, nuances, and the very personal touches the cards had laid out like the Griffin (my friend) standing over the full moon on the Wheel card pointing to the present card and then the Devil’s sashaying dance. Plunging myself deeper and deeper I wrote and wrote. Paused and parsed. Chewed on the end of my pen while I reflected and stared off into the corners of my mind and memories. When I surfaced hours later, I understood what my friend was saying. Above all, I was refreshed and profoundly grateful.

Grateful, for I had gained clarity and a refocus on the long goal which was not just a sovereign present, but also a sovereign future.

It was after 1 am.

I slept and dreamed the strangest, most vivid dream. I woke and knew intuitively what I needed to do to complete the shift from past to present.

So I did.

Starting with apologizing to everyone that I had sent the earlier text and voicemail to.

Then making effigies of my past abusers: my father, my first husband turned wife, and my second, current husband. I put items that had been gifts from those abusers into their specific effigy. Colored symbolic glitter, stones, mud, shells, sticks… I breathed and hallowed them and breathed the breath of life in them… I sculpted the chains they had made for me and broke them and gave them back to them. I spoke words to them as I formed them, placing a watermelon seed inside from the melon that had sprung up last August so they would literally have mybtruth in their mouths and… I released them…

…took them out of the cages of my mind and heart where I had bound them for all the wrongs they had done me… deservedly bound and caged… except I was also bound and caged with them. They still had power they could draw from me from these cages. Control they could exert upon my emotions and actions… and I could not, would not be able to know true freedom, true sovereignty, or true peace until I had emptied and destroyed their cages so that they could never come back and take roost again.

I knew now that releasing did not equal forgiving.

Releasing did not equal forgetting. It meant letting them truly go… fly over the horizon of my mind and heart scapes… no longer holding my fixed attention. So simple.

Not.

But the fullness of time had come.

A turning of the wheel.

Now, in the dark and secret place, I was ready to walk into my present truth and step fully out of my past.

The second intuition was to take my son and myself to a Rage Room in town where we could put all those feelings of wrath and rage and destruction out of our hearts and minds theough physical action. Action mixed song and loud music that we had chosen. Music that didn’t sound like rage. Music that rather sounded like healing. For that is who I am. Who my son is also. Healers. Nurturers. Creators of good in the world.  Our songs included those undercurrents to support us as we wrecked havoc inside that safe container of chaos and violence.

For me it included also dance.

The calling of energy before and after the destruction.

An experience which also Involved singing my truth in the midst of everything around me being a shattered disaster… my life like a careening, frantic, out-of-control bus turned into a graceful figure skating creature that glided across life’s floor with grace and elegance and beauty (part of the dream).

Later, after a hearty dinner of potato soup, I took the tray of effigies and in the fading twilight and walked through the arboretum behind my former home to the dock that overlooks the swamp. The bullfrogs were cranking up their bellows and the last songs of the birds were quieting down as they nestled down for their evening rest. I took out the three large magnolia leaves that looked like elegant green boats and did my last little bit of witch bottle magick to them… then carefully placed each effigy on its little barque. Held each one up without malice and spoke “I release you” as I let each one take sail. I turned and walked back.

A random piece of moss with tiny ferns growing out of it was resting on the newly constructed handrail. How it got there, I know not. I put it on the small silver tray that was filmed with mud remnants. Gathered fallen azaleas from the trail. Once home, I added a small piece of broken blue glass from my son’s rage session, a segment of video tape and a keyboard “Q” from mine and set the tray gently on my main altar to rest a few days as a visual reminder of what had been done.

Focus on what matters, Beloved.

Examine what you are fixated on and what is required to find freedom.

Because it turns out that sovereignty can only be found when one is truly free.

Erica Sittler is a Witch practicing her craft in Mississippi where she is an active member of the Temple of Witchcraft. Her magick is in the mundane and in bringing honor and attention to those small things that build a sustainable and adventurous life. She is a Temple Mystery School student under the instruction of High Priestess Sellena Dear.

Through the Eyes of a Broom Closet Witch: Beltane

Fire and Passion. These are two themes running through the celebrations at Beltane. So, what lights your fire? What kindles your passions? Beltane Blessings, and Welcome Back! Claire de Lune here, a High Priestess in the Temple of Witchcraft tradition, with the 25th article in our “For Broom Closet Witches” series.

While the above questions may sound a bit racy, they don’t necessarily have to be. And although they are entirely appropriate for Beltane under appropriate circumstances, as Beltane is the Wheel of the Year Sabbat that celebrates intimate relations, mirroring the divine and earthly happenings at this time of year, there must always be a consensual understanding among participants. The Element of Fire in all its (hopefully) harmless and controlled manifestations is also part of the overall celebration of Beltane.

But what are Broom Closet Witches to do for Beltane? Especially single ones? While I wouldn’t recommend any wanton “frolicking”, what I might recommend is turning the above questions into something a little bit different. And as this column has taken a turn inward for this year’s Wheel of the Year, it is entirely possible to do just that – by asking the same questions, but with a different slant.

So, I will ask again. What lights your fire? What kindles your passions? In other words, what are you passionate about? Think of these questions in terms of things like music, sports, art, cooking, etc. What excites you, in terms of outdoor activities, arts and crafts projects, reading, cooking, baking, playing a favorite sport, or playing a musical instrument? What along the artistic, culinary, literary, musical, athletic, (or something completely different), lines would you like to do this Beltane to experience inward pleasure?

We can celebrate Beltane inwardly by doing things we are passionate about and love to do or would like to try – just as long as it is For the Good of All, Harming None. We, as Broom Closet Witches, can celebrate Beltane inwardly by doing things outwardly – even things that may not be considered “witchy”. And only we need to know that what we are doing is celebrating Beltane!

So, what am I passionate about? Well, even though I said it before in Article #12, (Mabon: “A” is for Abundance – of Altars, Altars, Altars!), I will say it again – I love to create altars and decorate small spaces! As examples, I have included three different photos of other altars I have created. The first one is an Elemental/Ancestral Altar that I have reworked on a smaller space than the one in Article #12. The second is one featuring crystal balls. The third is one using mostly crystal and glass to represent the Four Directions. I hope you like them!

An Elemental/Ancestral Altar:

A Crystal Ball Altar:

A Glass Altar:

I hope this article has been helpful, and until next time –

Merry Meet, Merry Part, and Merry Meet again!

Beltane Blessings,
Claire de Lune

• Sixth Key: Congress
• Sabbatic Process: Orgy of the Sabbat and the Great Rite
• Chakra: Brow
• Alchemy: Conjunction
• Planet: Jupiter
• Astrological Aspect: Conjunction
• Witchdom Teaching: Witch Eye
• Incense: Cedar, Sage or Cinnamon
• Sacramental Medicine: Lemon Balm, Dandelion Root, Cinnamon, or Sage Tea or Tincture

Invocation:

By All Acts of Pleasure
That are our worship and way
By the weavings of spirit
And the Flesh of Day
All lamps are extinguished
All candles are snuffed
With the dark call for union
And the blessings of lust
Lust for the mystery
Lust for the divine
Lust for the flow
Lust for the secrets to separate and to combine
Perfection in self
Perfection in the other
All is one
And All is the Lover
So mote it be.

Ritual

• On the evening of April 29, cleanse and prepare yourself and your space.
• Prepare your sacramental drink in your ritual cup if desired.
• Light your candle for the sabbat.
• Ignite any incense if desired.
• Enter into a trance state using whatever method you prefer such as countdown, breath work, or music.
• Recite the opening to the Sabbat of our Mighty Dead:

By Stone and Stang and Cauldron Well
By the darkest of Earths
By the deepest of Hells
By the light of the Watcher Stars
Who shine through the night
By Law and by Love
By Life and by Light
By the truths found between the Horns
By the Child who is never born
By the Skull and Crown
By the Root and Cord
By the Web of the Lady
By the Song of the Lord
We call you to come and be with us still
By the Sovereignty of the Stone
The Compassion of the Cup
The Sword of Truth
And the Wand of Will
Come one, come many, come one, come all
Come by the Stone and Stang and the Cauldron call.
Hail and welcome.

• Feel the presence of the Mighty Dead in the other world, the members of the Timeless Tradition of the Witch’s Sabbat, awaiting you where you left off on the previous night.
• Recite the Invocation of the Sixth Key:

By All Acts of Pleasure
That are our worship and way
By the weavings of spirit
And the Flesh of Day
All lamps are extinguished
All candles are snuffed
With the dark call for union
And the blessings of lust
Lust for the mystery
Lust for the divine
Lust for the flow
Lust for the secrets to separate and to combine
Perfection in self
Perfection in the other
All is one
And All is the Lover
So mote it be.

• Contemplate conflict and battle as part of the spiritual experience. When you hold strong to your beliefs and virtues, you will necessarily come up against forces that do not share your beliefs and virtues. What do you do? Is conflict spiritual?
• Contemplate the act of union, starting with sexual union. Sex traditionally holds an important place in the Witchcraft traditions.
• We often start with images of creation between Goddess and God that results in creation on all levels, cosmic, nature, and human.
• We explore non heteronormative images of sexuality, often with androgynous images of the divine, as all acts of love and pleasure are sacred rituals.
• When we think of congress as union of all things, the image might be of the sabbatic orgy, or all things uniting and dividing in rhythm with all others, and in the orgy, see the same mystery reflected in the battle and the feast.
• The exploration of sexuality, particularly in societies where there are strong cultural roles and expectations, or aspects of sexuality that are taboo helps the Witch transgress from what is expected, and find a new level of power by embracing that which his outside of the traditional. The breaking of norms brings with it a breaking of other bindings, self imposed or culturally imposed.
• The eye, while not overtly sexual, is often a mandala of sexual union. The pupil and iris like the lingam and yoni, the center and circumference. Though sexual union and tantrik mysteries, we transcend the polarity of two eyes, and open the third beyond duality, polarity and gender.
• Close your eyes and return to the mound. From the battle you have stepped away from, come now to the sabbatic congress, the great rite or orgy.
• With whom do you find union?
• Who is seeking union with you?
• What have you rejected at this point? Why?
• Who and what have you accepted, and why?
• Experience the sacred union of the sabbat.
• Once you have experienced the sacred union to your fill, step out of his stage of the sabbat. Withdraw from the vision, returning to this point with the invocation of the seventh key.
• Drink the sacrament if you have prepared one.
• Recite the closing passage:

In this house of the ancestors
I call forth the light of life
Spirits of the Congress
We hold open the gate
Regenerating the world
And we dispel sickness and strife.

May there be peace among us
And peace between us all
Blessings be upon us
As we pass through these hallowed halls.

Blessed be.

• Fifth Key: Battle
• Sabbatic Process: Night Battles and Wild Hunt
• Chakra: Throat
• Alchemy: Distillation
• Planet: Mars
• Astrological Aspect: Opposition
• Witchdom Teaching: Witch Voice
• Incense: Dragons Blood, Coriander or Tobacco
• Sacramental Medicine: Nettle, Basil or Turmeric Tea or Tincture

Invocation:

By the Ember Day
Between the Light and the Dark
By the Call of the Horn
And the drum’s holy marks
Armies of Heaven
Armies of Hel
Armies of Spirits
By those who survive
And those who have fell
By the call of the Master
By the call of the Huntsman Wild
To defend the tribe of art
To return the light of the child
Green spirits, Red Spirits
Black Spirits, White
in the Night Battles
Where we all fight
Victory is mine
Success in the War
The Magick of the True
The Magick of the Warrior
The Magick in the Core.
This circle I draw
The boundary is cast
By the Will of the Good Walkers
This Boundary will last.
May blessings be upon us
Blessings upon us all
May all thrive and heal
Before we wither and fall.
By the Ember days
Between the Light and the Dark
When the Battle of the Night
Leaves its holy mark.
So Mote It Be!

Ritual

• On the evening of April 28, cleanse and prepare yourself and your space.
• Prepare your sacramental drink in your ritual cup if desired.
• Light your candle for the sabbat.
• Ignite any incense if desired.
• Enter into a trance state using whatever method you prefer such as countdown, breath work, or music.
• Recite the opening to the Sabbat of our Mighty Dead:

By Stone and Stang and Cauldron Well
By the darkest of Earths
By the deepest of Hells
By the light of the Watcher Stars
Who shine through the night
By Law and by Love
By Life and by Light
By the truths found between the Horns
By the Child who is never born
By the Skull and Crown
By the Root and Cord
By the Web of the Lady
By the Song of the Lord
We call you to come and be with us still
By the Sovereignty of the Stone
The Compassion of the Cup
The Sword of Truth
And the Wand of Will
Come one, come many, come one, come all
Come by the Stone and Stang and the Cauldron call.
Hail and welcome.

• Feel the presence of the Mighty Dead in the other world, the members of the Timeless Tradition of the Witch’s Sabbat, awaiting you where you left off on the previous night.
• Recite the Invocation of the Fifth Key:

By the Ember Day
Between the Light and the Dark
By the Call of the Horn
And the drum’s holy marks
Armies of Heaven
Armies of Hel
Armies of Spirits
By those who survive
And those who have fell
By the call of the Master
By the call of the Huntsman Wild
To defend the tribe of art
To return the light of the child
Green spirits, Red Spirits
Black Spirits, White
in the Night Battles
Where we all fight
Victory is mine
Success in the War
The Magick of the True
The Magick of the Warrior
The Magick in the Core.
This circle I draw
The boundary is cast
By the Will of the Good Walkers
This Boundary will last.
May blessings be upon us
Blessings upon us all
May all thrive and heal
Before we wither and fall.
By the Ember days
Between the Light and the Dark
When the Battle of the Night
Leaves its holy mark.
So Mote It Be!

• Contemplate conflict and battle as part of the spiritual experience. When you hold strong to your beliefs and virtues, you will necessarily come up against forces that do not share your beliefs and virtues. What do you do? Is conflict spiritual?
• Reflect upon your past conflicts and battles, and who was a worthy adversary, a teacher, unintentional on your part, but part of the outer world’s expression to face your inner world demons and devils. We always see ourselves as the heroes, the good walkers, to our enemies bad walkers, which can be true, but is not necessarily. Everyone sees themselves as the hero of their story, even villains.
• Think of the mythologies where the battleground is a part of the sacred story. Think about the tales of the night battles invoked in the heavens and the hunts of the evil doer.
• What are your greatest weapons? For many, including the Witch, its the voice. Speaking truth to power, the Ma’at Kheru, or True Voice. The Witch and seer and prophet is said to have the “Tongue that cannot lie” for truth is one of our holy virtues, and we train ourselves in holding to truth so when we speak, the world responds to our truth.
• What is honorable battle? When is battle dishonorable?
• From the relative peace of the feast, close your eyes and seek a place within the holy mound that embodies the battle, the conflict, or the hunt.
• What do you battle?
• What battles you?
• How do you battle?
• Once you have experienced the holy conflict, step back from this stage of the sabbat. Withdraw from the vision, returning to this point with the invocation of the sixth key.
• Drink the sacrament if you have prepared one.
• Recite the closing passage:

In this house of the ancestors
I call forth the light of life
Spirits of the Battle
We hold open the gate
Regenerating the world
And we dispel sickness and strife.

May there be peace among us
And peace between us all
Blessings be upon us
As we pass through these hallowed halls.

Blessed be.