http://pagans.org/~jezebele
[email protected]
March 13, 2001e.v.
Playing with Energy:
Working with energy you can either work with a focus or just work on building energy within you in general to extend out of yourself and manifest itself at its symbolic peak.
Energy in a Ritual with Intent:
Refer to the original focus in your ritual when working with energy. It's like boiling water, the energy added to the pot and water will change the water and create a boiling pot. That's how energy builds it slowly changes grows and builds to the point where it boils over or peaks. The change happens when you create with focus and motivation. Keep on task and focus on the energy and intent throughout your ritual.
Energy in Groups:
The Priest or Priestess will usually direct the energy in the working. It's usually a good idea to go through a ritual over view when doing a working in a group setting. That way everyone knows what the focus is. The community participates in the change that is about to happen.
Knowledge + Imagination = Manifestation:
(This is a general formula to create from inner self and it manifesting extraverted from the body)
Building Energy:
Feel yourself and your environment. Building energy is visualization changing the space with personal power. Some people use breathing, music, mantras, sex, movement and stillness to create building energy that flows. It starts slowly and then it moves more rapidly until it peaks.
Maintaining Energy:
Maintaining Energy is essential in ritual. Stay on task and on target. Don't let the outer world come into your spiritual world when raising energy. The energy can be redirected and you might not have the positive results you were hoping to create. Maintaining your focus will help you create manifestation.
The Cone of Power:
The energy builds to a point where it radiates at a tight pin pointed peak. The energy is brought through visualization to stream upwards bringing down with it the energy of the moon or sun to radiate and sprinkle its energy down into the working, talisman, or ritual space. The cone of power is like a cone /\ it starts big and works its way to a small focused peak. This is where the energy is directed to the focal point of your ritual climaxing up wards to the moon and either it peaks or its dropped back into the working (i.e. talismans, spells, healing) itself.
Sending Energy:
Imagination plays a key in sending energy. The mind visualizes the energy and what its going end up doing at its peak. The right hand is symbolically the sending hand in working with energy. There are energy exercises on the net that you can work with alone or in-groups. I will provide that information at the end of this article. Keep this energy flowing from your right hand when you are working on raising energy.
Receiving Energy:
Receptivity is a key to receiving energy. With your left hand, visualize having energy magnify into you and through you. Keep this energy flowing into yourself and streaming out of your sending hand. It allows you to have the energy radiate through you in a balanced flow, which should not over exert your body in the process.
Grounding Energy:
Being a medium for energy flow. Sometimes people forget to ground and they are powered by the "Ritual High" that can be very draining. Its traditional to ground the energy in a wiccan ritual so that the energy recycles itself back to the sources it came. From You, from the Mysterious, and from the Goddess. Some groups use chants to ground their energy while in visualization. "Back to where all things begin to the Earth my Mother and lifelong friend." To visualize grounding think of what the ground is all about. Its stable, receptive, whole, it recycles itself. The energy you have moving through you can ground by visualization. Think of your body processing it and let it flow from you by touching the earth and letting the power flow through you back to the Earth. When you feel you have grounded you may stop and proceed with whatever you have in mind.
Ethics in Working with Energy:
All of the things I have spoken about energy is up to your own interpretation. I just use my own experiences as a guideline in the topic of working with energy. Build your own opinions and ethics of how you want to work with energy in ritual. Do what feels is appropriate for you.
Sensing Others in Ritual:
The Priestess' or Priests role in many rituals is to guide the energy and disperse the energy appropriate to the working, the group, the energy and the ritual itself. She directs the energy and the group follows from her example. The model from the Priestess or Priest in charge will guide the working so that the participants can focus on the working and its purpose. Sometimes sensing people in ritual may include bringing people from a low energy focal point towards creating a magical bounty of power.
Document Progress:
Keep a magical journal. Write down the things you are accomplishing. Write down your progress. Write about how you felt during and after the working. You can also write the lunar and solar phases and chart your magical activity via the wheel of the year as well. Write future workings and things you discover in your adventure to defining your own path. There is no dogma in witchcraft to me there is only guidelines.
Suggested Reading:
Drawing down the Moon by Margo Adler, Beacon Press
Suggested Online Resources:
Sacred
Circles Page The
Dance by Janus: