Conjuring the Quarters

Silver asked that we write down our quarter call for at least one direction.

"Hail to the Guardians of the Watchtowers of the North, rulers of strength and wisdom, I call you from your ancient Hearth to witness and to guard me in my art. By name I implore, Gnomes! Lend your might tonight!"

I don't use the same call for each circumstance, that is the call I would use if I performed a circle cast tonight. The next assignment as I use Watchtowers is to find or draw what they look like to me. Introduce myself to them in meditation then practice my new quarter call.

To me the Watchtower is a physical structure, like the rook in chess, or a medieval looking lighthouse. It is staffed by an individual spirit, the Guardian of the Watchtower is a spirit mentor or guardian that I have worked with in meditation and named to the task. This Guardian lights the Watch-fire and summons the actual elemental on my behalf. Which is why I have candles in the Quarters of my circle.

When each Watch-fire is lit, a wall travels to the next forming a wall along the outside of the circle.

Two for One

The last thing that Silver said to do was try using my salutes during my daily devotionals, which I already do, so I am skipping ahead. Selecting a Patron or Matron Deity was discussed in my last book post, and I hosted a shrouded supper last Samhain with plans to do the same this year.

So we come to setting goals. 10 for the next 6 months. This is hard for me, as there is a lot that I want to accomplish. And a lot of that I need help with, and not all my goals are spiritual.

10 GOALS

1. Get the squatter out of my Dads house.
2. Clean up the house and property
3. Fix any damage to the house
4. Set up a Temple
5. Finish my Spirit House project
6. Make Libation Wine for a year of Sabbats and Esbats
7. Clean and package the Salt from the last trip to the flats
8. Make Smudge Sticks
9. Prepare Sabbat specific incenses
10. Make Beesom

Patrons

I will admit that in the last couple months of missed posts, I decided to skip some of Silver's activities, performing specific salutes everyday for a month, performing a shrouded supper. All things that I have done, and as the supper is something we do at Samhain, I consider that to just be a suspended exercise.

But she did talk about Patron deity work. Which is to say the least, fascinating. I find that everyone has a different perception of the job performed by a Patron, or the result of a Patron relationship.

On my personal altar I like to keep the figures un-named and generic.

It allows me to keep my altar dressed at all times. But I feel then when I talk to the Lady she knows who I am communicating with. Each Sabbat has a different Patron deity, Silver mentioned that she selected a different God and Goddess for each initiation that she underwent, alluding to the belief that we have a different patron/matron for each stage of our lives. She also stated that the fountains and springs in her yard had yet different gods attached to them.

So I would like to  purport that the gods as we know them are a lot like the Catholic Saints, which is what made it so easy for the church to amalgamate pagan beliefs.

"A patron saint or a patron hallow is a saint who in Roman Catholicism is regarded as the tutelary spirit or heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family or person. Supposedly, patron saints, having already transcended to the metaphysical, are able to intercede effectively for the needs of their special charges."

If you lay claim to a God or Goddess and declare yourself to them, they should be at the core of most of your magick. This is a decision that you should take seriously, work your way up to a personal patron, choose one for your property, one for your home, one for your family and then one for you. This isn't the sort of  relationship that you should walk into blindly, so do your research.

If I had the space I would have a different altar (set up and least) for each branch of my practice, my family traditional path, the Celtic Path and Faery Craft. But I don't, so what I have done is collect a series of artifacts and sorted them into smaller boxes, that I call spirit houses so that depending on my working I can dress my altar appropriately.

Triggers

I have to say that in retrospect I am gaining a lot more from Silver while I review her work with mature eyes. I will argue with some of her exercises, I personally would not teach the same way. When she wrote out her Triggers assignment as one of physical gestures, this to me is a salute.

I have always stylized my movements and gestures after the etiquette of a knight. Not very feminine of me, when I visualize my motions I am usually holding an athame or a staff. To think of simple motions for empty hands. Its hard to describe as most of the actions and energy through visualization. And I'll be the first to admit that I am much more graceful in my own mind than in reality.

My gestures in reality my hand is tilted to the side, like a blade. The motion is dependent on my goals. More of a salute than a trigger.

From the Heart

Silver wants me to write or memorize a ritual soliloquy that I can use faithfully in rituals. This is hard, most Pagan poems are simply too long for me to feel comfortable reciting them, and invariably I end up tripping over my words. Its easier to recite Shakespeare when I'm out with friends. So writing something like that, that I can memorize became my best option.

But I took time to come over Pinterest. I searched Google and Bing, and I pawed through my books. In the end it was already there. Words that I spoke during my dedication:

"I am the Breath of Life.
I am the Whisper of Death.
I am the Light in the Darkness.
I am a Child of the Old Gods...."

Triggers and Salutes

Silver asked that I write a full ritual featuring my favorite comedian, honestly I don't have a favorite comedian. This lesson was to help you learn how to relax when things don't go perfectly. For my best friends 15th birthday, her mom got a bunch of us together performed what by now is probably a famous ritual. The Chocolate Ritual was hilariously fun, and I would recommend it for just the purpose Silver had in mind.

This is a Gif of the Circle Cast spell, Time of Legend. It gives me +25% to all attack spells.

I Blade myself and its the Athame.

I can summon Minions in lieu of the elements, or trap my opponents.

A friend and I once recited an entire ritual while running a dungeon.

Ancestral Sacred Space

Moving on in our little adventure Stirring that Magick Cauldron at long last. Having constructed my own space I feel charged for the discussion of the people of the past who constructed the sacred space that we so admire now. If the work we put into our much smaller endeavors deserves respect, the great sites of those who came before us deserve everything that we have to give. 

While Silver discusses leaving offerings and meditations, which are great. These things all depend on you knowing where these sacred places can be found. Some places are well documented by historians and archaeologists like Stonehenge or New Grange. Places well known because they were baptized in blood like Little Big Horn, The Alamo, Gettysburg, and Auschwitz. Then you have places that are documented but not well known, sacred sites that have been used going back almost forever. My example is Danger Cave in Utah, I have lived in Utah for a grand total of almost 15 years, the first time I heard of Danger Cave was two weeks ago; if you look it up you will find that there is archaeological evidence that Danger Cave has been used as a gathering place by early man for thousands of years. Danger Cave is considered by natives to be a place of power. Now if I were a cartographer I would take a stab at mapping my lay lines, but I'm not.

Following my reading of this section, I had a few memories from documentaries, where coins left at Bath and Stonehenge were lodged into rocks, these offerings were placed with little respect, and the historians credit them with causing some serious damage and aiding erosion at these sacred sites. So I ask you my friends, when coming and going from these sites please be respectful, kick up a little dirt and bury your offering, toss it in a well or stream, hang it from a tree branch.

It is a personal practice of mine to fill a small travel cosmetics container with dirt from these sites and leave my offerings in place of the dirt. The dirt that I take stays in the small container and after my pilgrimage is completed it comes home to my altar.

Meditating at these sites is an uncommon luxury. So I prepare for the trip, usually weaving a friendship bracelet, witches ladder or selecting an item to bring with me. I do my meditations before I go so that I don't spend half my trip looking for a cooperative corner.