The Wiccan Temple Archives

For those of you who have expressed an interest in reading some of the many articles which previously appeared on the original Avalonia Community website, as well as some of those which David and I wrote for community magazines here in the UK over the years there is some good news.

Around 70 articles, including extracts from books authored by David and I on subjects related to the Wiccan tradition is now available (free) at the Wiccan Temple Archives.  We hope to be adding further content in the coming months and welcome suggestions and comments on what is already available there.

Go and see for yourself – http://wicca.avalonia.co.uk

“the youth of Lacedaemon in Sparta made due sacrifice” (all about flogging really!)

This is the second in a series of blogs in which I am providing detailed analysis of the CHARGE OF THE GODDESS.    What follows is an extract from Chapter 11 “Adore the Spirit of Me” in the book “Wicca Magickal Beginnings” which I co-authored with David Rankine and which includes a full analysis of the entire text, together with research on the origins of all the various component parts found in Wicca.

The line which is the subject of this blog is the first line spoken by the High Priestess of the Charge during the ceremony.  It is sometimes omitted by practitioners who have long realised that the line is obviously incorrect, or in some instances adapted to something which at least makes sense.  As this is a discussion on the historical origins, we stuck to the original for the sake of the discussion as it is still being reproduced and still being used by some.

By understanding the context of the words we speak in ritual and its origins, we can gain a deeper understanding of the rites we perform.  If you have something you wish to add to this discussion, your own ideas, experiences or maybe something we missed – feel free to add your views to the original blog which is at http://www.sorita.co.uk/?p=914 (all posts drawing from the analysis of the Charge of the Goddess in Wicca Magickal Beginnings will be tagged as “Charge Analysis” which should make it easier for you to find)

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“High Priestess: At mine Altars the youth of Lacedaemon in Sparta made due sacrifice.”

Interestingly here, we find that Gardner wrote in Witchcraft Today “At mine altars the youth in Lacedaemon made due sacrifice”. However, it is noteworthy that in Gardner’s rendition of it there, he at least omitted a rather obtuse error in this first line of this version of the Charge, but of course we don’t know whether this was an accidental mistake or a deliberate omission in an effort to not reveal too much of the prose.

So what is wrong with this statement?  Put simply the geography is all wrong.  Sparta was a city in Lacedaemon, not the other way around, this statement is like saying England is in London or America is in New York!  Then there is an apparent contradiction with the line “Nor do I demand aught in sacrifice….” which is found later in the same version of this Charge. So, whilst the goddess seems to be saying that sacrifice was made, she is also saying that she demands no sacrifice now!  This is probably a side effect of the use of literature from a number of sources and the conflation of the myths of a variety of goddesses to represent the words spoken by one, or it could indicate a change of position on the part of the goddess, or her worshippers!

The reference to the ‘youth of Sparta,’ is to the ritual flogging which took place at the altars of the goddess Artemis Orthia (“Artemis of the steep”) during the Roman period.  As part of the rites, young boys would be scourged on Artemis’ altar until it was smeared with their blood, being both their ritual purification and their sacrifice to this virgin huntress.

The origins of this rather grim ceremony are believed to have come from the discovery of an image of Artemis Orthia which had been lost from a temple for some time before being rediscovered.  Two Spartan warriors, Astrabakos and Alopekos, discovered it and upon doing so immediately went completely insane.  Following this a temple was erected around the rediscovered statue in honour of Artemis and through doing so the goddess was temporarily propitiated.  However, during a sacrifice taking place on the altar, rival groups of Limnatians, Kynosourians and Mesoans got themselves into a brawl and as a result many of them were killed on and around the altar.  Artemis, not known for forgiveness, decided to kill the rest of those involved through disease as a punishment for defiling her temple.

The Spartan people made desperate appeals to an oracle for advice on what to do and were told that the only way to stop the disease was to stain the altar with human blood as an offering to Artemis.  For many years they offered human sacrifices at the altar (the sacrifice being chosen by lot) until this practice was eventually substituted with that of the whipping of young prepubescent boys.  The boys were scourged until enough blood had been produced to stain the altar anew and thus ensured another period of peace with the goddess. During the scourging a priestess would hold a light wooden image of the goddess with which she would be able to tell if the men who were doing the scourging were slacking on the amount or the severity of the blows given to the boys based on beauty or rank.  If the statue grew heavy it was due to the men slacking and the priestess would chastise those doing the whipping to ensure that Artemis’ offerings were made correctly and appropriately.

As an interesting aside, flogging is a theme which recurs in the worship of the goddess Artemis.  It also played a part in the cheese-stealing rituals recorded by Xenophon in Lakedaimonion Politeia in the fifth/fourth century BCE.  Here two groups of young men would contest a piece of cheese which was placed on the altar of Artemis.  The first group defended the cheese with whips, whilst the other group had to try and steal it.  Though there is no direct connection here with sacrifice, which is clearly indicated in the example of Artemis Orthia, it may be that this was another variation of a similar rite as those being scourged would undoubtedly bleed onto the altar, making a blood sacrifice as part of the ceremonial goings on.

The use of the scourge in an ancient ceremony was well exemplified by the frequently quoted Roman festival of Lupercalia, where young men clad in skins would rush around beating people with strips of goatskin, which was believed to promote fertility and easy childbirth.  However this does not really bear much resemblance to the use of the scourge in the Wiccan tradition.  In medieval times the scourge was described as being used frequently for punishment of witches.  One such example is seen in Murray’s The God of the Witches:

“The accused escaped with her life, but her sentence was, ‘To be scourged from the end of said town to the other.  And thereafter to be banished from the country’.”

Another common suggestion is the claim that the Knights Templar used scourging, a reference Gardner himself makes in his works.  Whether they did or not, there is certainly a well-documented history of self-flagellation within the Christian church as a means of ’purification’, so this is a much more likely source of the magickal beginnings of using the scourge to be “properly prepared”.

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If you want to read more, see the book Wicca Magickal Beginnings (ISBN  978-1-905297-15-3)  by Sorita d’Este and David Rankine.  See   http://avaloniabooks.co.uk/catalogue/titles/wicca_mb.htm for more information.

If you would like to add your comments, opinions or additional ideas to this article please do so on my website, where it will be available for others to read in future:  http://www.sorita.co.uk/?p=895

(c) 2010 Sorita d’Este.  This blog was written by Sorita d’Este for www.sorita.co.uk, allrights reserved.

Order a signed copy of Wicca Magickal Beginnings for £14.99 (with free P&P worldwide)

“Wica” or “Wicca” or … whatever!

Following my blog on ritual nudity there have been a lot of emails arriving in my inbox from people who have questions about the practices of Wicca ~ in particularly those found in the esoteric / initiatory traditions which in turn influenced so many other traditions of post 1950′s ceremonial, neo-Pagan, witchcraft and Goddess traditions.   There has also been a surge in interest in the book Wicca Magickal Beginnings which I co-authored with my partner David Rankine and which examines the origins of the practices in a great deal of detail, showing clearly how much was ‘borrowed’ (of course really the term is plagariased!) from the work of Aleister Crowley (but never mind, Crowley also ‘borrowed’ without attributing his sources more often than not!).   The research we present in the book also shows how many of the practices were indeed well established by the time Gerald Gardner came along and it supports the idea that instead of “making it all up” Gardner was most probably telling the truth about how it all started, although he in his inexperience and through lack of understanding and access to materials, misunderstood a great deal of it.  His misunderstandings were then passed on and became “tradition” along with the bits which were correct.

One of the questions which are raised quite often in recent years is that of Gardner’s use of the term ‘Wica’ (with one ‘c’) rather than the conventional spelling with two, ie. Wicca.  Furthermore, there is a tendency amongst many Pagans and even Wiccans, to attribute the invention of the use of the term ‘Wicca’ as a term to describe the practices used in the tradition to Gerald Gardner.  This assumption is made based on the misunderstanding that the term had in fact fallen out of use centuries before, something which is simply not the case.  What follows is a generous extract from the chapter “Baptism” in our book Wicca Magickal Beginnings, which I hope will help open up the debate on the use of the term and give a bit more support to the idea that a) Gerald Gardner simply misspelled the word and there is nothing more “special” about spelling it ‘Wica’ than ‘Wicca’ other than copying an error; and b) that the term was not invented, or reintroduced into the English language by Gardner and his colleagues, but was in use and would have been known to most people with more than a passing interest in folklore or the English language.

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Our exploration begins with Gardner himself who used the term ‘Wica’ to refer to the tradition, as can be seen in the example below, found in his book The Meaning of Witchcraft:

“I realised that I had stumbled upon something interesting; but I was half-initiated before the word, ‘Wica’ which they used hit me like a thunderbolt, and I knew where I was, and that the Old Religion still existed.”

Much has been made by some modern practitioners of the difference in spelling between ‘Wica’ and ‘Wicca’, with some adopting ‘Wica’ to distinguish themselves from the masses using the term ‘Wicca’ for practices which often seem to have little in common with the initiatory traditions.  However, this spelling of the word does not seem to have any historical significance, beyond having been used by Gardner and it is very likely that it was a deliberate variation of the spelling.  Unless of course Gardner meant ‘wiça’ which is the word used by the Dakota people of North America for ‘man’ or in some instances ‘raccoon’ – though that is probably a little bit farfetched!  However, we thought this little quirky coincidence was an interesting aside nonetheless and worth including.

Looking at Gardner’s writings, we see he consistently used the spelling ‘Wica’ in his books, and also in his dealings with the media.  The term ‘Wicca’ only occurs in his last book The Meaning of Witchcraft in 1959, and then only in a discussion of the etymology of the word from Anglo-Saxon times.  Even in the biography Gerald Gardner: Witch, the term used is ‘Wica’.  From this it is clear that Gardner did not invent the use of the term ‘Wicca’, as we will now further demonstrate.

We will start with a use contemporary to Gardner’s and which is unlikely to have influenced him, where the term was found in an early draft of J.R.R. Tolkien’s book The Two Towers.^[1] Christopher Tolkien, the son of J.R.R. Tolkien, recorded the way in which his father worked in a twelve volume set. In volume seven The Treason of Isengard, he mentions that J.R.R. used the term Wicca in reference to the characters of Gandalf and Saruman.  These two characters would both be referred to as wizards and as part of the Wise throughout the rest of the trilogy.  In addition to being one of the best known and loved fantasy fiction writers of the twentieth century, having penned works such as The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings; J.R.R. Tolkien was of course also a scholar of Old English and his (unpublished) application of this term took place in 1942, only a few years before it was used by Gerald Gardner.  This clearly shows a use of the term contemporary with, yet completely unrelated to its usage by Gardner, illustrating that the word was not forgotten as some would have us believe.

More than twenty years prior to Tolkien, Lewis Spence made a few passing references to the term ‘Wicca’ in his book An Encyclopædia of Occultism published in 1920, saying (amongst other things):

“The Anglo-Saxon system of magic was of course Teutonic.  Their pretenders to witchcraft were called wicca…”

In the book Gypsy Sorcery, published in 1889 by Leland, author of Aradia, we find a yet earlier reference to the term ‘Wicca’ where he used it in a footnote as part of a definition for the word Witch:

“Witch.  Medieval English wicche, both masculine and feminine, a wizard, a witch.  Anglo-Saxon wicca, masculine, wicce, feminine.  Wicca is a corruption of witga, commonly used as a short form of witega, a prophet, seer, magician, or sorcerer.”

Again this shows a use of the term, this time by an author, whose work, as we will see later in this volume, had and continues to have, a huge impact on the Wiccan tradition.  Also we must comment that Gardner himself referred to the book Gypsy Sorcery in his work The Meaning of Witchcraft.  This illustrates that even more than fifty years before Gardner would use the term, it had not fallen into complete disuse, and that Gardner was probably aware of earlier uses.  In fact, Leland seemed to think that it was “commonly used”, and indeed he seems to have been right.  We have found dozens of references spanning the entire nineteenth century which refer to the term, too many to list here and besides, many are repetitive and quite basic.  We will however include a couple just for those readers who are curious to see examples of its usage.

In 1856 we find the term mentioned in The History of the Anglo-Saxons by Thomas Miller:

“Scarcely an obscure English province is without its wise-man, or cunning fortune-teller, those lingering remains of the Wicca of the Saxons…”

In 1854 the term moreover appeared in Hereward of Brunne, a short story, published in Ainsworth’s Magazine, as a term used for a wise-woman healer who is considered to be witch:

“At the sound of his voice the creature slowly rose, and the young man drew back aghast, while the word ‘Wicca’ escaped from his lips. ‘Wicca! – ay, Wicca!’ sneered the hag. ‘Start ye wat my winsome face?  Is your purpose less ugly than I am?  Come ye for a witch’s med’cine – ratsbane is the best! Come ye for her blessing – better have another’s curse.”

Some have suggested that the term ‘Wicca’ might be a corruption of the Saxon witega, which in turn means ‘prophet’ or ‘seer’.  This is now widely disputed and some scholars are suggesting that it might come from the Indo-European root-word ’wek’ which means ‘voice’.  This idea would then define a witch as someone who invokes or summons supernatural power through the use of their voice.

J.A. Picton in his work Hall, Wych, and Salt Works in Notes and Queries, 1874, suggested a different meaning for the word ‘wicca’ based on the Low German rather than the Anglo-Saxon.

“He derives the term wich from Low German wijck or wicca, sacred, devoted, alleging that the Northern nations attached great sanctity to salt springs from their healing qualities.”

There are many examples of the term Wiccan being used throughout Old English Christian texts, usually to describe practitioners of witchcraft, in most instances specifically female and in a non-complimentary manner.  In other words the Wiccan was usually viewed as someone who was involved in diabolic and necromantic magick.  One such example can be found in the tenth century writings of Ælfric of Eynsham (955-1010CE):

“Gyt farað wiccan to wega gelæton and to hæþenum byrgelsum mid heora gedwimore and clipiað to ðam deofle, and he cymð hym to on þas mannes gelicnysse þe þæ lið bebyrged swylce he of deaðe arise, ac heo ne mæg pæt don pæt se deada arise hire drycræft.”

“Witches still travel to where roads meet and to heathen graves with their illusory skill and call out to the devil and he comes to them in the guise of the person who lies buried there, as if he would arise from the dead – but she cannot really make it happen, that the dead man should arise through her wizardry.”^[2]

Here we need to take note that the wiccans are working their necromancy at the crossroads, a place where the bodies of those who committed suicide or who, in some other manner were considered to be unclean were buried.  Ælfric evidently did not believe in their ability to raise the dead either, instead he believed it to be some form of illusion or that the wiccan herself was being tricked by the devil into believing that she was raising a dead man.  It is worth noting that although necromancy does not form a part of the Wiccan Tradition today, a variation of its practices are as popular as ever in the form of modern spiritualism, though graveyards play a far lesser role.

The term wiccan also makes an appearance in texts such as The Sermon of the Wolf to the English which was composed by Wulfstan II, the Archbishop of York and Bishop of Worcester around 1014 CE.  He wrote it under the penname Lupus, meaning ‘wolf’.  In it he named wiccans alongside other unpleasant characters such as plunderers, thieves, pledge-breakers, perjurers and murderers, to name but a few.  Once again this indicates the use of the term to describe people who are not considered to be of an agreeable character.

Thus it is clear that the term ‘Wiccan’ has historical precedence, and is not a modern invention, even though it would seem that it was not in use by practitioners in the 1950’s.  However, in 1958 the term ‘Wiccen’ was introduced into the modern public arena, through an article entitled The Craft of the Wiccens, by Charles Cardell, published in Light magazine.  Cardell was initially friendly with Gardner, but the two men fell out in 1958.  Cardell subsequently published much of the Gardnerian Book of Shadows as an exposé in his book Witch in 1964, and also republished Leland’s Aradia in the early 1960s.  Beyond a derogatory use by Robert Cochrane in an article in Pentagram magazine no.2 in 1964 when he referred to “the illusionary world of Ye Olde English Wiccen”, this term was never widely used.

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[1] Volume 2 of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, J.R.R. Tolkien, 1954

[2] Leechcraft, Stephen Pollington, 2000

If you want to read more, see the book Wicca Magickal Beginnings (ISBN  978-1-905297-15-3)  by Sorita d’Este and David Rankine.  See   http://avaloniabooks.co.uk/catalogue/titles/wicca_mb.htm for more information.

If you would like to add your comments, opinions or additional ideas to this article please do so on my website, where it will be available for others to read in future:  http://www.sorita.co.uk/?p=895

(c) 2010 Sorita d’Este.  This blog was written by Sorita d’Este for www.sorita.co.uk, allrights reserved.

Order a signed copy of Wicca Magickal Beginnings for £14.99 (with free P&P worldwide)

The Wiccan “Book of Shadows”

With a recent surge in emails I have been getting about various aspects of the esoteric initiatory practices of Wicca, I have decided to post a few extracts from books on the subject of Wicca which I co-authored with David Rankine some years ago.  In this blog I am including a large extract from the book Wicca Magickal Beginnings in which David and I explore the origins of the practices found in the tradition.  In the extract which follows the term “Book of Shadows” is explored from a historical perspective, together with some antecedents for the practices associated with the Book of Shadows in Wicca.  As with many other practices found in the tradition it is clearly a continuation of the practices found in the Grimoire Tradition, though in this instance the use of the term “Book of Shadows” seems to be the new name given to what might have been called something a bit less evocative previously.

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Extract from Chapter 3 “The Book of Shadows” in the book Wicca Magickal Beginnings (2008 edition, 2nd edition) :

The term ‘Book of Shadows’ (often abbreviated to BOS) is a very evocative one, but what does it mean and where does it come from?  The Book of Shadows is the core document of the Wiccan tradition.  It contains the key liturgy of the tradition including the ceremonies of initiation and that of the seasonal festivals, as well as information on other significant practices.  Each initiate copies their initiator’s Book of Shadows by hand and is oathbound not to share it outside the tradition.

In this way the core rituals and techniques are preserved and perpetuated down the initiatory line.  Additionally, each initiate may add and evolve the material within their Book of Shadows as they progress in knowledge, experience and understanding.  The result of this is that different initiatory lines may possess slightly different Books of Shadows with an identical core and unique variations.  This principle is elucidated by the author and witch Frederic Lamond in his book Fifty Years of Wicca, when he recounts being told by Gerald Gardner that:

“The Book of Shadows is not a Bible or Quran.  It is a personal cookbook of spells that have worked for the owner.”

This practice of preserving a tradition through hand copying the material has parallels in earlier magickal traditions.  One of the earliest books of the grimoire tradition, the thirteenth/fourteenth century Liber Juratus or The Sworn Book of Honorius, gave instructions in its prologue for the preservation of its knowledge through copying its contents:

“and therefore we being somewhat moved, made this oath among ourselves: First, that this book should be delivered to no man until such time as the master of the art were in jeopardy of death, and
that it should be copied but to three at the most.”

Liber Juratus was essentially the first Liber Spirituum (‘Book of Spirits’) of the grimoire tradition, being a magickal book of practice.  Many of the subsequent grimoires in the following centuries would give details of how to make and consecrate a Liber Spirituum.  The Key of Solomon went so far as to detail the nature of its contents, these being “the prayers for all the operations, the Names of the Angels in the form of Litanies, their seals and Characters”.

Many centuries earlier in ancient Egypt there were books of spells and ceremonies which were jealously guarded by the priesthood.  These books, such as The Book of the Heavenly Cow, were never shown to anyone outside the priesthood, lest the uninitiated should profane the magick within and render it ineffective. However the first reference specifically to a ‘witch’s book’ may be seen in the writings of the Roman poet Horace, recorded in his Epodes in 30 BCE from his dialogue with the witch Canidia:

“And by the inflexible divinity of Diana, and by the books of incantations able to call down the stars displaced from the firmament”

The Greek geographer Pausanias also recorded the use of a magickal book in his second century Guide to Greece. He referred to a magickian making dry wood catch fire after he, “in his native language had sung hymns, and pronounced certain barbarous words, out of a book which he held in his hand.”

The origin of the name ‘Book of Shadows’ seems to be contemporary with Gardner’s novel High Magic’s Aid. A copy of the magazine The Occult Observer from 1949 contained the term ’Book of Shadows’ in an article by the palmist Mir Bashir about an ancient Sanskrit divination manual of the same name.  Significantly, The Occult Observer was published by Michael Houghton, the then proprietor of the Atlantis Bookshop in Bloomsbury, London, which also published High Magic’s Aid by Gerald Gardner in the same year under its publishing imprint of Neptune Press.

Earlier uses of the phrase do occur, though the only esoteric occurrences are in Christian works which are clearly unrelated to the Wiccan tradition, such as this reference from a few years earlier in 1942:

“According to Charles Wesley, the Old Testament is a book of shadows, of which Jesus is the substance.”[1]

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[1] The Evangelical Doctrines of Charles Wesley’s Hymns, Rattenbury, 1942

If you want to read more, see the book Wicca Magickal Beginnings (ISBN  978-1-905297-15-3)  by Sorita d’Este and David Rankine.  See   http://avaloniabooks.co.uk/catalogue/titles/wicca_mb.htm for more information.
If you would like to add your comments, opinions or additional ideas to this article please do so on my website, where it will be available for others to read in future:  http://www.sorita.co.uk/?p=895

(c) 2010 Sorita d’Este.  This blog was written by Sorita d’Este for www.sorita.co.uk, allrights reserved.

Order a signed copy of Wicca Magickal Beginnings for £14.99 (with free P&P worldwide)

Nudity, Magic and Wicca

In a conversation with a dear friend this week the subject of “nudity” and magic raised its head.   I have noticed over the years that opinions on the subject seems to be rather divided, there are those who do – and those who don’t.  Those who don’t often have strong views about their reasons – just like those who do often cite reasons of tradition and the “flow of power” as the reason for being naked in their rites.

I have my own fixed ideas on the matter too.  I love the human body, the way it functions and the way it moves, and I also believe that being naked allows you to feel closer to the elements and that it also help foster a greater appreciation and awareness of our own bodies.  However, I also believe that there is something sacred and private about our bodies, which holds a power of its own.  A mystery perhaps, which should only be shared in circumstances which are appropriate to the act.  I don’t think of nudity and sexuality as being linked in an absolute way, and I believe that both sexuality and nakedness have the ability to awaken strong and powerful magical and spiritual energies – but only when it is applied in an intentionally sacred manner.

Mircea Eliade’s views, in some ways, reflect my own: - “The importance of ceremonial nudity and ritual intercourse must not be interpreted as merely lustful inclinations.  The recent sexual revolution has made obsolete such types of pretence and masquerade.  Rather, the purpose of ritual nudity and orgiastic practices is to recapture the sacramental value of sexuality.”[1]

If you want to read more, see the book Wicca Magickal Beginnings (ISBN  978-1-905297-15-3)  by Sorita d’Este and David Rankine.  See   http://avaloniabooks.co.uk/catalogue/titles/wicca_mb.htm for more information.

If you would like to add your comments, opinions or additional ideas to this article please do so on my website, where it will be available for others to read in future:  http://www.sorita.co.uk/?p=895

(c) 2010 Sorita d’Este.  This blog was written by Sorita d’Este for www.sorita.co.uk, allrights reserved.

Order a signed copy of Wicca Magickal Beginnings for £14.99 (with free P&P worldwide)

The Rite of Her Sacred Fires – Ritual Text

What follows is the text of the Rite of Her Sacred Fires, which thousands of people all over the world will be performing in honour of the Goddess Hekate on the 27th of May 2010, as an act of devotion, sacrament and celebration!

I am making it available here in this format for those who are having difficulty reading, or downloading the PDF’s with the entire rite as given below from the official www.sacredfires.co.uk website of the Hekate Her Sacred Fires project.  (direct link http://sacredfires.co.uk/?page_id=64 )

For further information on the words which are non-english, search for “ephesian letters” on this website using the search function in the menu.

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The Rite of the Her Sacred Fires

Written by Sorita d’Este (www.sorita.co.uk) for the celebration of the completion of the anthology

‘Hekate Her Sacred Fires’ (www.sacredfires.co.uk) and as an act of devotion and gratitude to the Goddess Hekate.

This rite is intended for use on the Full Moon, Thursday 27^th of May 2010 by all those who wish to honour the Goddess Hekate and dedicate themselves towards a greater understanding of Her Mysteries .  It can be performed by itself, or as part of a longer ceremony, with or without a “formal” ritual space – that is up to individual choice.  It is preferable (though not obligatory) that the wording and actions of the ceremony as presented below should be kept the same and remain unaltered, though if for spiritual, magical or personal reasons you need or wish to change some of it, you are hereby given permission to do so with the proviso that you do not alter in any way the purpose of the ceremony.

Preparation:

Find a quiet place where you will be able to perform the rite undisturbed. You will need a candle (or another form of devotional fire, such as a lamp or hearth fire) and something with which to light it.  You may wish to consecrate the candle, or other materials you will be using in keeping with your usual tradition of working, otherwise please simply ensure that it is clean.

Prelude:

Make yourself comfortable, breathe deeply and find your point of balance, a balance of mind and soul and body, which will present you proud and beautiful to the world.  Breathe deeply and find your voice, the voice with which you will speak words of true and pure intent.  Breathe deeply and call upon the freedom within your heart so that you will be able to express yourself with purity of intent and with strength of desire.

Place both your hands on your heart (three heartbeats),  your forefinger and middle finger of your dominant hand to your lips (three heartbeats),  and then to your brow (three heartbeats).  Now enclose your thumbs within both your hands (in fists) and raise both your arms to the heavens.

Open your hands and with palm upwards in your left hand, bring your right arm to your side palm facing downwards and invoke the Goddess.
Invocation:
I invoke thee, Great Mistress of the Heaven, Earth and Sea,
By your mysteries of Night and Day,

By the Light of the Moon and the Shadow of the Sun

I invoke thee, Mistress of life, death and rebirth
Emerge now from the shadow realm to feed my soul and enlighten my mind,
Triple-formed Mistress of the three ways

I entreat thee, Key-bearing Mistress of the Nightwandering Souls

To bring forth your wisdom from amongst the stars

To bring down your starfire from the darkness between,

Creatrix of Light!

Goddess of the Shadow Realms! Light-bearing queen!

Whisper now your secrets!

Fire-bringer! Earthly-one! Queen of Heaven!

[Raise both hands with palms facing upwards to the heavens (three heartbeats) and then touch the ground palms downwards]

[Sit before the candle and prepare to light it]

[Take three deep breaths and allow your senses to awaken]

Say:

Hekate, companion and guide to the mysteries

I light this sacred fire in your honour,  [light fire]

Its light uniting the stars and stones, the heavens and the earth,

With this fire I express my desire for a greater understanding of your mysteries

Askei Kataskei Er?n Ore?n I?r Mega Samny?r Baui (3 times) Phobantia Semn?,
Great Hekate, who spins the web of the stars and governs the spiral of life

Guide me through towards pathways of understanding,

From Crossroad to Crossroad,

The Torchbearers and the Keybearers of your mysteries,

will always find one another,
[Now sit and watch the flame flicker and dance, allow yourself to focus on the different colours in the flame, the yellows and reds, the blues and whites, and the black.  If you wish you may decide to spend some time meditating on the flame, skrying for visions or omens.  Likewise, you may wish to extinguish it and keep the candle let your true self radiate brightly its beautiful mysteries from this
day on forth, the flame of the fires of Hekate burns on in your heart!]

I banish now the shadows of doubt from my mind,

Infused by the silence and warmth of our union

I feel your golden radiance within my heart

And the glory of knowledge on my brow,

I am a student of your mysteries.

Extinguish the flame, then place both your hands on your heart (three heartbeats),  your forefinger and middle finger of your dominant hand to your lips (three heartbeats),  and then to your brow (three heartbeats).

Open your palms reaching towards the heaven, then reach down and touch the Earth.

The Rite of Her Sacred Fires

Written by Sorita d’Este for the  Hekate Her Sacred Fires – www.sacredfires.co.uk

This ceremony is provided for FREE non-commercial distribution. You can pass it on, reproduce it, print it, publish it and perform it in public or private without permission from the author, providing that this text is reproduced with it.

Resources

More information about this Rite and the Hekate Her Sacred Fires project can be found at www.sacredfires.co.uk and on our facebook page www.facebook.com/hekatefires and examples of the rite can be found on our youtube channel www.youtube.com/hersacredfires (including a guide to pronunciation together with other useful resources related to the Goddess Hekate).

NB. Those who wish to perform the rite and film themselves doing do not need permission to do so, however, we ask that you please do not do so before the date of the ritual 27^th of May 2010 unless you have express permission to do so.  The purpose of this ritual is to unite all those who honour the Goddess Hekate on the Full Moon of the 27^th of May 2010 in a unique ceremony in which during that day hundreds, maybe thousands of flames will be lit for Her all over the world !  If you wish to put your name on one of the lists for the event, please do so through the events on our facebook page – www.facebook.com/hekatefires , or alternatively on the MySpace page http://events.myspace.com/Event/3979730/THE-RITE-OF-HER-SACRED-FIRES – both can be used to invite and help others become aware of this unique day for Hekate!

DISCLAIMER: The Editor and Publisher will in no way be held accountable for the results obtained by those who decide to participate in this ceremony.  Participation in The Rite of Her Sacred Fires, or any other act of spiritual or magical devotion, is one of personal choice and responsibility, therefore you do so entirely at your own risk.  Likewise, remember that Fire, beautiful as it is, can also be dangerous – so act with care and responsibility at all times.

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This rite, including version of it in other languages, can be downloaded as a PDF from the Hekate Her Sacred Fires project website http://sacredfires.co.uk/?page_id=64