around those closest to you. You may feel as though you don't want these
changes exposed to those who know you best. Be patient with yourself and
others. Big changes are coming, but that doesn't always mean the breakup
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Bvolutiona.ry witchua.ft
of old relationships. In fact, Feri tools can open us to greater intimacy and
trust. The more you learn about yourself and the pathways of these powers, the more likely it is that relationships founded upon falsehood or addiction will begin to fall apart. Conversely, relationships based on respect and trust can strengthen in proportion to your own strengthening.
Below is a helpful exercise that addresses the above concerns:2
Every time someone is irritating you, every time you want to say something harsh to
someone, whether it is because the energies feel uncomfortable, or you just know you are
right, look in the mirror first. Say everything you want to say to the other person into the
mirror. You might be surprised at the look on your face, or your posture. What is running
through you when you say those words?
Sometimes you need to really say these things to yourself, sometimes
speaking the words is enough to diffuse the energy. If you still feel the
need to speak to the other person, this mirror exercise can enable you to
speak more clearly and with greater kindness. Before speaking, connect
with the earth. Breathe. Practice.
.
.
LOVIncs YOUf HUffiO.lllt)J
In contemporary society, we often feel cut off from our humanity. We disconnect from our deeper natures, our animal instincts, and pollute our environment beyond recognition. When we attempt to live only in our heads, our bodies suffer, our emotions become stunted, and our other senses retreat from the assault of physical toxins developed by an intellectual ingenuity divorced from that body. We become less and less human, and more and more like machines.
!R,·rlaimin)l prit•slt•ss Hilary Valrnrinr rrmindrd 111<' of this •·xrrcis<·.
The sa.cfed sp hefe: ca.stincs with Fefi Fife
J'J
I once asked Victor what the Fey wanted from me and he replied: "For
you to become more yourself. To become more human:' Feri tools hdp us
to engage in the world, to act and to become more human. In working
through this book, we will learn to access the power of our Triple Soul, to
cultivate the Black Heart of Innocence, and delve into the Iron Pentacle.
These all recover our humanity, making us strong and compassionate. As
humans, we can live a political and magical life, no longer divorced from
each other, the divine, and the earth. We can cultivate relationships with
the realms seen and unseen. Each succeeding chapter will show us how.
It is my hope that this book will enable you to become familiar with
these concepts, tools, and energies and begin to work with them in ways
which will become sustainable and which will change your life, your cellular structure, and the way you carry your power. I hope you have a desire to enter your life and emotions fUlly, and to expand your interaction with
the world around you and with the Gods, Nature spirits, and the Fey.
SELF-LOVE CLEANSING
As you use these tools, old wounds may open up--fear, anger, or shame.
You may feel pain in your belly or heart, tightness in your throat. The mirror exercise was to enable you to deal more kindly with others, and this being a lifetime process, you may need to look in that mirror many times. As we excavate the layers of our personal archaeology we need to care for ourselves, too, again and again. I just used this exercise today.
Take a shower, letting all that is bothering you run down the drain. Using your favorite
soap, Epsom or bath salts, scrub off everything that is bothering you, be it people, events, or
feelings. Name them, and watch them go down the drain. Then, run your hands over yourself while saying, "Gods and Goddesses, hold witness, I am complete unto myself." Rinse yourself thoroughly, then, turn off the water and stand, breathing, cleansed.
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Bvolutionufv witchuuft
As you begin to breathe more deeply, let your aura begin to pulsate with light, becoming
pure, blinding brightness to clean out any last irritants lurking in the crevices. You can then
begin to chant your name, over and over, until your aura is full if the sound if your voice,
running through your body. Tingle with it. You are full. You are whole.
PREPARING TO CAST THE SPHERE
The Self-Love Cleansing can also be used before ritual work. Cleansing
might keep us from being present in this moment, right now. There are
many ways to cleanse, through breath work, looking at one's habits, and
through the saltwater purification below, which is common to many
branches of the Craft.
Fill a bowl with clear water. Say, "Blessed be, creature if water." Breathe across the surface, watching your breath make ripples, connecting you to this element. Pour a small amount if salt into your hand. Breathe across it, saying, "Blessed be, creature if salt." Pour
this into the bowl if water, stirring and stirring, counterclockwise, the direction if banishing
energy, and say, "May I be cleansed." Now breathe out all that keeps you from your work.
Or speak it into the bowl, shake it off your body, dance it, cough it out, whatever feels needed.
Once you feel clear enough to do your work, begin to stir the water clockwise, the direction if invocation. "Inner and outer, may all be traniformed." Breathe across the water again, and anoint yourself with some. Pour the rest out to cleanse the sidewalk in front if
your home, or pour it into a sink to clean your drains.
BECOMING PRESENT AND EMBODIED
OrKl' clt·ansrd, there is another important step to becoming more present.
This is grounding and cmtrring, a tl·chniqur to bring us fully into our
The sucred sphefe: custin'5 with fefi fife
21
bodies, cahn our minds, and open our hearts to the work at hand. Grounding and centering connects us to the earth beneath our feet and helps us remember that the center of the earth is always directly below us. This
technique also helps us stay embodied, no matter what it is we are doing,
and is good preparation for ritual and for life.
I have practiced this technique for so many years that it is now second
nature, entering the realm of instinct: my body and energy are trained so
well that I no longer have to think about centering. This works to great effect in calming me and making me a more effective and stable person. I use the following when I need to do a nonviolent intervention, really listen to
someone, or just walk through a stressful day as well balanced as possible.
Over time, this practice has also expanded my ability to be more compassionate toward myself and others.
There are many ways to ground and center; one is to imagine a cord of
energy moving from the base of your spine and dropping to touch the center of the earth. The following is my own technique, which centers me in my body and lets my energy expand up and down, connecting me to earth
and sky.
Feel your feet beneath you. Take a breath. Feel the soles of your feet open up, stretching
to stand more firmly. Feel yourself stable on the earth. Feel your center of gravity resting between your navel and your pelvis. Remember that you are connected to both earth and sky.
Take in one full inhalation,jeelingfirst your belly and lower back muscles expand. Then let
the breath flow up to expand your ribs. Take another breath, imagining that breath filling
you from the soles of your feet to the crown of your head. Breathe in again. As you exhale,
breathe simultaneously down and up, ((pushing" the breath and energy through your feet
and the crown of your head, about one foot above and below your physical body. As you do
so, let your spine lengthen and straighten, your chest lift, and your head align with your
spine. This can occur in one instance. On your next breath, feel the energy and breath expand out around you, filling your aura, the egg of energy that surrounds you. You are fully in your physical body and your energy body. You are ready to do whatever work is needed.
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Evolutionu£V witchuuft
Students sometimes tell me that they have no time for a daily practice,
that they have small children who demand all of their attention and free
time, or that they work full-time and go to school. But when I ask, "Do
you take a shower every day?" they most often say yes, so I recommend that
they ground in the shower. It doesn't have to take much time, and generally
the five or ten minutes you are standing under the water is time when no
one will bother you. Once you are used to grounding, you can do it
quickly throughout the day.
Busy people who start doing daily practices often find they are able to
carve more time out of their day to do spiritual work because it makes
such a big difference in their energy level, their effectiveness, and their ability to be consciously present throughout their days. It certainly has that effect on me. Even people with small children now tell me how helpful they find daily practice. They have found ways to make practice work, and in
turn, it works in their lives.
CREATING KEYS FOR REMEMBRANCE
There are other practices you can do throughout the day to remind yourself to ground, center, and bring yourself fully into the moment at hand.
My favorite is to create "keys" for mysel( These keys are attention tricks
that remind me of my spiritual life and my reasons for attempting to work
on my sel( My most effective key is to pause and really notice every time I
am about to put my hand on a doorknob. I will take a breath, look at the
knob, feel my body, and let a calm space open up inside as I reach for and
turn the knob. This can be done in about five seconds. Another key I use
is to notice my butt and thighs in the chair as I am sitting at my computer.
This reminds me to stay in my body, anchored to my breath, and not let
my mind spin off in disconnected fantasies that eat my energy .
. You can key your reminders to turning on lights or opening the refrig-
The sacred sphere: custin<s with feri Fire
23
erator or drinking a glass of water. A key should be something simple, yet
something you do often enough that it will serve you well as a reminding
factor. You are connected. You are not just living in a world created inside
your head, but in a breathing, living, functioning multiverse. This exercise
is not only a way to remind yourself of your spiritual practice, but a way
to notice that you have a place in the larger world. What is your function?
Take one day to try working with the key below. As you do so, you may
want to note other keys that might be better attuned to your life. In that
case, pick one of those to work with instead.
You are approaching the door to your home. Notice the doorknob. Stand in front of it
and take a breath,Jeeling the air enter your body. Reach out. Touch the knob. Feel it beneath
your fingers. Feel your connection. Open the door and walk through.
The above exercise probably took between one and ten seconds, yet it
brought you back to your life. I consider that time well spent.
Students often struggle with this exercise, telling me that they can't do
it, that they keep forgetting their key, or that they remember it only long
after the moment has passed. I tell them that this response is fine and that
it provides information about how little we are generally present in our
lives. Using keys to remembrance shows us that most of the time we are
not conscious at all. We live in a dream state, unconnected to the earth and
to life around us, fed only by the fantasies we spin. If you keep working
with keys over time, you will better come to understand what drives your
thoughts and emotions.3 It is all information, and information can only
help you.
JFor more information on the theory of living while "asleep" or as an automaton, read the works
of G. I. Gurdjieff or his students. P. D. Ouspensky's In Search of the Miracul�ms (Harvest Books, 2001)
is a good introduction to this subject.
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Evolutionurv witchcruft
step pines Toward the Feri Fire
Now that we are fully present, we can enter the next phase of our work, the
casting of the sacred Feri sphere. This is a much larger and more holistic
activity than simply delimiting a space for ritual. It represents our ability
to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary. Casting distills into one
moment what we do every time we notice the world-by really paying
attention-causing it to become alive and sacred in our eyes.
We will cast the sacred sphere by drawing energy into ourselves and
creating a space where the nonordinary can enter. This creates a virtual
temple-joining realms seen with realms unseen-and it prepares us to
enter life itself as a sacred process. We integrate magic with life by stepping through the blue flame and into the work of Feri.
Feri Tradition practices seek the heart, the heat, the core. They raise
questions: What is the center of your life? What is the core of your work,
your relationships, your spiritual life, and your activism? As Feri practice
raises these questions, the tools of Feri can also help you to answer them.
At the heart of Feri is the blue fire, the "shining flame of beauty;' which is
the center of the flame, the base of all the other colors-yellow, orange,
and red. It is the space where the fuel meets the fire, creating something in
between.
You can gaze at any candle and see the blue fire that kisses the wick. In
Feri, we take this image and use it to shape energy, create portals, and bend
time. Feri spaces, and Faery spaces, are often in-between spaces or spaces
that skirt the edges. A flip of perspective moves the edge into the center,
creating a new sense of the world and opening our awareness to the possibilities that were hidden beyond that edge.
This is the beginning of Feri paradox: the unusual lies in the heart of
the ordinary.
The suued sphere: custin<s with Feri Fire
25
You can practice this consciousness by noticing something that hovers on the edge cif your
vision and turning your head until that thing is in the center. How does this change your
view? What would happen if you trained your attention on something you've been keeping
at the edges cif your life? What might you see then?
The blue flame is the basis for red and yellow. The "cold" blue color
dancing in the center is actually the hottest point of the flame, anoth,er
paradox. The paradox of the blue flame becomes a metaphor for a life
of creativity and magical awa
reness, a fey life. The following exercises :are
basic to Feri ritual and will begin to ease you into the Feri view of the
world.
MEDITATION ON THE BLUE FLAME
This exercise helps to strengthen your attention. It cultivates the discipline, commitment, and spiritual stamina which are essential to further work. Spirituality is not just about having a flash of insight or epiphany; it
is about building a foundation that will change you inside and out.
Light a candle for your focus, settle yourself comfortably and begin to
notice your breath, rising and falling within you.
Sit in front cif a candle and take a deep breath. Focus on the flame, gazing into its colors. Notice that at the heart cif the flame-the hottest point, the center, the rye-the flame
[,urns blue. The blue flame is Feri fire, the fire cif other worlds, the hottest, most tranifortnational point cif fire. It is with this blue flame that we will cast the sphere cif working, entering into nonordinary consciousness, what some Witches call being "between the warlds."
l.rt the flame fill your whole vision until it is all that you see.
When you are done, fill yourself with breath from the soles cif your feet to the crown cif
wur head. Thank the blue flame and snuff the candle.
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"Evolutionary witchcraft
CASTING INTO THE ExTRAORDINARY
Witches often call their castings a creation of sacred space. In a religion
where the holy is in everything, what does this mean? To make sacred is
to set aside as special. For me, creating sacred space is an attempt to set
aside my ordinary, habitual behavior and thought forms and prepare to enter the extraordinary, more fully myself and more firmly engaged with my own will.
Casting a sphere is a delimiting of space, another way to help us draw
our energy and attention together. By the end of the book, we will open
the sphere to include the whole world, but for now, we begin with this
exercise by building sacred space one small room at a time. For this you
will need a blade, or you can use two fingers of your dominant arm to create a blade-like form. Witches use a knife called an athame for this exercise because blades are good at cutting and separating out one thing from another.
You can use the blue Feri fire to cast your sphere for magical workings.