''I thank Reya for conversations that furthered my chinking on chis subject.
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think of the hedge. Hedges are very good boundary makers, broad and
lovely, firm enough to keep big things out yet porous enough to allow passage to smaller things. The cattle remain within the fence, yet the birds and foxes come and go.
WAND LISTENING
Go into a wooded area or a park. Feel the trees around you. Imagine you
can feel the sap running through them, or lying cold inside, depending on
the season. Take a deep breath. Listen to the trees. What do they have to
tell you?
Learn the names if five trees in your neighborhood, your local park, or a nearby wooded
area. Bring them some water. 1J you find a hawthorn tree, with its strong thorns and bright
red berries in winter, pour a little cream there, or leave nuts out for the animals,jor this tree
is said to be a gateway into Faery.
After listening to the trees, come to some if your own associations for the wand and the
East, the element if air.
Here are some if mine:
Trees reach up into the sky. A hollow wand becomes a flute. Trees give oxygen that helps
us breathe. Trees dance in the wind, rustling and whispering. They are home to the creatures
if air.
CHARGING AND CoNSECRATING YouR WAND
For this ritual, you will need to gather anything you wish to charge your
wand with. You might want to rub oil into it, to keep the wood supple. I
do this periodically. Or you may want ribbons to tie on the ends. This may
. also be thl' time when, if yours is to be a crystal-tipped wand, you hollow
Ba.st: openincs the senses
8 5
the end, melt the wax, and wind the wire to keep it firmly in place. Take a
bath or shower, gather all of your tools, and get ready to cast your circle.
'
Some people consecrate their tools over time. You can take your wand out-
side with you to soak up sun and wind before doing the formal consecration within your circle. If you are lucky enough to have a private place outside to do this ritual, all the better!
Ground and center and align your Triple Soul. Cast the sacred sphere and say the
Guardian names. Ask for the particular help cj Star Finder in this working. Light a yellow candle. !f there is a type cj incense you like, you may burn that, too. Pass your wand over the candle and through the smoke cj the incense, saying, "I cleanse you with fire and with
air, may you be open to receive my intention." Then oil your wand, all the while thinking cj
the work you want the wand to help you with--so that it may teach you about air, discernment, and true speaking. Next, raise energy by drumming, singing, or dancing, or by breathing in life force as you would for the Prayer for Alignment. Once you feeljull cj energy, breathe it into the wand, charging it with your breath and intent. "In the presence cj Star Finder and all the Guardians cj Feri, may you carry my intention, so that I learn
readily, speak truly, and guide well. May my voice be carried in the world and may you
represent all things that grow good within me." As you breathe, know that your power is
transferred into the wand, consecrating and charging it.
Another important aspect of consecrating Feri tools is charging them
with the life force in the potent form of sex. You may continue on and do
this next part now, or open the sacred sphere and do it another time. 10
Anoint yourself with some cj the oil you used for your wand. Bringyourse!f to orgasm,
and, at the peak cj its power, imagine the energy shootingfrom you and into your wand. See
it glowing in your mind's eye with pure force, clean and powerful. Then anoint your wand
10For further notes on sexual consecration and the use of sex energy in ritual, sec Chapter 4.
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with some cif your sexual juices, further tying it to your work, your energy, and your intention in the world.
Thank the Guardians, extinguish your candles, and send the blue Feri fire back into the
earth, opening your sacred sphere. Blessed be.
Now that your wand is consecrated to magical work, treat it well. Clean
and oil it periodically. See how it wants to rest on your altar. I sometimes
rest mine on top of my chalice, when my communication needs to come
more from a heart space. Other times, I will lean it so it is standing upright, running energy clearly and cleanly, as I want my breath to run through my body. Your tools will speak to you over time, if you make an
effort to listen.
WALKING AS A WAN D
When I first started working with the Feri tools, I would imagine them in
my body, and I would walk around as the wand or the blade. I would feel
the energy of the branch, the tree, inside of me, just as we did with the sun
and moon. Doing this gives me the "feel" of the tool inside my body and
gives me a better feel for the tool when I pick it up and begin to run energy through it. It gives me a clearer sense of the tool and how to use it properly. If you were a wand, what would you do?
Take a breath. Imagine that you are a wand, you are wood or crystal, supple and strong,
with a specific purpose. Walk outside, feel the air flowing around you and notice how you, a
wand, respond to the air. Walk, flow, dance in the breeze. How do the trees feel to you? Are
you drawn to them? Do they tell you things that they would not tell you in your human form?
Back in your human form, hold your wand in your hand. What does the wand want?
Will it tell you its secret name?
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8 7
RuNNING WAND ENERGY
As we did with the blue fire and the blade in Chapter I , we will practice
running the energy through our wands.
Hold your wand in your dominant hand. Ground and center yourself and draw up
some energy through the soles of your feet. Call in a golden, yellow-white energy. Feel that
flow into your body. Let it flow through your heart and down into your wand arm. Let it
pour through your hand, out of your wand, and into the earth. Practice starting and stopping the energy. Key it to your breath at first, and then just imagine the energy flowing on its own, directed by your intention. Once you are through, let most of the energy sink into
the earth as an offering and imagine the remainder of the energy pulling itself back, to rest
inside your wand.
If you feel yourself full of excess energy, you can breathe it up to your Sacred Dove to
align yourself. You can also send a breath out to feed the world.
Though this exercise asks you to run golden-white energy through your
wand, experiment with this and with the blue fire, sensing which feels best
suited to your tool.
AsKING FOR WHAT You WANT
We have seen how the East holds the powers of air, the powers of speech.
Now that you have a wand, you can use it to ask for what you want.
When you ask yourself what you want, what is the first thought that leaps into your
mind? Hold your wand in your hand and draw an invoking pentacle with it, top point to
bottom left to upper right, across, down to bottom right, and back up to the top point. Then
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draw a clockwise circle around the star. As you draw, say, "I invoke
into my
life. This is my wish, on this my star."
It is very usefUl to ask yourself what you wan
t from your life, especially
your spiritual work. Some people want to evolve, some are committed to
self-awareness and discovery, some want community, some want a way to
feel more empowered, some want to feel closer to the earth. Clarifying
what you want from your spiritual work will help that work immeasurably.
Not only is this a good piece of self-knowledge, it reveals your path. You
will encounter fewer frustrations and dead-ends if you can assess your
wishes early on. You should reexamine this every few years or so. As you
change, your answer to the questions will change as well.
Sit quietly, with your wand resting in the palms of your hands. Let your breath sink to
your belly. Relax. Align your Triple Soul, breathing easily and fully. Once you feel centered,
raise your wand to an upright position and ask yourself, "What do I want from my spiritual path?" Listen for an answer from your God Soul. You may not get your answer right away. Once it appears, again draw an invoking pentacle, letting your energy flow out
through the wand, forming the star clearly in front of you, flaming blue in the aether. Say,
"I vow to
" or "I call
to me."
LISTENING, VISIONING, STEPPING
Once you have done the preliminary work of asking for what you want,
you can do some fUrther work of deep listening for who you wish to be
and what life you want to step into. We will transform our listening into
vision and then step forward into that vision, allowing it to enter our bodies and begin to work its changes there. We won't wait for fate to give us life's allotment; rather, we will listen deeply and step into our own destiny.
I likr to do this exercise with a witne-ss, as too often what we want for
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89
ourselves feels embarrassing to us, as though we don't have a right to our
true potential. Even if you do not speak the words aloud (though I recommend doing so), a witness helps to confirm the process and lend support. If you cannot find a human witness, ask the Star Goddess and your own divine nature to bear witness.
Cleanse yourself by breathing in through your root, the base if your spine, and out
through your sex. Then breathe in through your sex and out through your belly, your place
if will. Breathe in through your will and out through your heart. In through your heart and
out through your throat. In through your throat and out through your third eye. Then breathe
in through your third eye and out through the crown if your head. Now take a full body
breath. Drop into your belly and your heart. Begin to listen to what your soul wants for
you. Who do you wish to become? Once an answer begins to rise in you, even if it is only
a feeling, let it form into a vision you have for yourself. Again, this might be a sense if self,
if posture and moving in the world, or it might be very specific iriformation. Take your
wand and this vision and draw a body-sized invoking pentacle in the air in front if you.
Say what you are invoking. (For example: "Artist, Teacher, and Healer.") Then, step forward
into that pentacle, stretching your arms out to meet the points. Feel the energy as you and it
interpenetrate. Say, "I accept this into my life. Blessed be."
GLOBAL MAGIC
At various times, I have used my wand to send spells off long distances.
Most recently, after my class had done the above exercises we went outside
and faced each other, standing in a circle. Drawing energy into our wands,
with the intention to cast it out, across the circle and around the globe, we
shouted, "I invoke Compassion and Clear Sight!" Then we sent the energy
out, shooting in great arcs to encompass the earth. I only do this practice
with things I am willing to also invoke within myself.
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widenin� YOUf AWUfeness
Perceive first, believe later. -VIcTOR ANDERSON
I don't need faith. I have experience. -JosEPH CAMPBELL
The exercises in this chapter all attempt to expand our awareness and develop seeker's mind. Doing these practices will give us a greater capacity to hold all things human-intellect, heart, awareness, pain, pleasure, empathy, and satisfaction-and help us to enter nonordinary, or magical, conscwusness.
Magical consciousness is an expansion of our regular senses. It is an entryway into the sacred, which exists all around us, but can get covered up by our busyness, self-centeredness, depression, self-importance, or simple
lack of awareness. Entering the nonordinary enables us to employ attention, rather than focus.
Focus can be narrow-a tunnel vision that encourages myopia-while
you to take in information from the back of your arms, from your neck,
your feet, the top of your head, with your peripheral vision and your energy bodies as well as through your nose, ears, and eyes. Attentive capacity can make you more effective, with a greater ability to process information
and communicate beyond the surface levels.
The following exercise is similar to Deep, Expansive Attention in
Chapter 2, but is simpler and quicker. I find it helpful to practice this
while walking or sitting in meetings, as that gets me used to doing this often, wherever I am, which helps me see that I can access these larger senses at any time.
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91
ExPANDING You R ATTENTIVE CAPACITY
Though I have written this as a walking exercise, you can alter the following to suit your own physical needs. The important thing is to breathe and open yourself to the world around you. This way, you become more effective in the ordinary world and more powerful in the nonordinary.
Take a deep breath. Begin walking. Let your eyes soften. Feel your spine straighten and
lift as you breathe. Feel your feet pressing down into the ground and simultaneously feel
lifted from the top of your head. Notice the angle at which you are walking. Notice your center of gravity and try breathing into that spot,Jeeling the low swing of your hips and your belly riding above them. The more you press down, the taller you stand. Notice your shoulders and the swing of your arms.
Keep breathing, softly and deeply, imagining that your breath fills your whole body. As
you breathe, sense the back of your skull. Let your awareness--your vision-expand to
include the back of your head. Let it expand to your shoulders in back and your breastbone
in front. Continue to feel your feet pressing into the ground and the top of your head opening to the sky above. Keep breathing, aware of the world you are moving through, sensing it three hundred and sixty degrees. Let your peripheral vision widen. Now let texture enter,
and scent and sound. Try not to focus too hard on any one thing. Rather, let the iriformation enter into your whole awareness. You are moving, aware, expanding your capacity to engage the world.
Once you begin to have a facility for moving into and out of nonordinary states of consciousness, you will find that even your ordinary state will expand and your horizons will widen. Making love will open out into
even more ecstatic sharing and your effectiveness in the workplace will increase, for you will become a better "listener;' more able to read what is needed in every situation. You may find yourself taking on the role of me-
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diator because you can sense what is happening with less emotional static.
The longer you engage and breathe with this practice, the less closed in
up
on yourself you will be become. You will be more open to abundance,
more centered and sure, and more aware of the world and its gifts.
You have probably noticed that all the work we've done so far begins with
the breath. In ordinary life, without the help of expanded awareness, sitting, or posture work, breath is often constricted and taken for granted until it is almost gone. I'd like you to begin to cultivate the worldview that all magic begins with the breath. Know that you can change almost any situation just by changing your breathing. That is magic.
We have already begun to experiment with our breath patterns, noticing how breath runs through our bodies and where it is blocked. The following exercises show other ways to become aware of your breath, and to learn to engage it with attention, rather than spending it profligately.
THE PowER O F SPEECH
Words are the ambassadors of our intentions. -SusAN HARROW
Speech is an important power of air and the East. While the Expanding
Your Attentive Capacity exercise helped you begin to listen to the world
around you, now I'd like you to begin to listen to yourself. What are your
patterns of speech, how do they affect your thought patterns, and vice
versa? What do you think other people hear when they listen to you?
What, or who, is talking underneath the words? Let us find out.
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93
Begin to ask yourself, "What do I want to grow with my words?" This question holds
the power of the East, the power of the wand. How do you use speech? Do you throw your
words away without thinking about them? Do you hoard them, swallowing them even when
speaking would be a sharing of your power? Do you tear others down with your words,
spending all of your energy being concerned with the actions of others? Do you not share information when it is needed, or conversely, do you share an overabundance of iriformation, talking more than is necessary?
Begin to look at your words and your speech habits. Notice your patterns, your tone of
voice. Do you speak sarcastically or always with a questioning tone? How do you speak
with intent? Next time, bifore you speak, practice taking a conscious inhalation, notice your