Purification
Rituals
Purification is important to do on a daily basis, for
witches and Pagans alike. Witchcraft is
really not different from Pagan religion in general; it is just a special
discipline within that religion, like the ancient mysteries.
It is, first of all, a more efficient use of energy. Our energy tends to manifest in cycles, and
during each cycle we will experience one or more peaks and troughs of available
energy. We have different cycles for
different types of energy, but their number is fixed by habit and they tend to
operate unobserved by us; we just know when we are ‘up’ or ‘feeling down’. Witches observe their energy cycles by
noting when they have trouble keeping to a regular schedule of exercise, or
meditation, or ritual, or anything requiring self-discipline. They get to know the sequence of their peaks
and troughs of available energy by becoming sensitive to the energy
itself.
When our energy becomes old and stale it is called ‘miasma’
in witchcraft, especially when it is connected with a certain place or
object. Miasmic energy is very
unpleasant and fastens on us. In the
effort to get free from it, we resort to mechanical patterns of behavior that
expend a lot of nervous energy and so send us into a trough. At last, through some habitual means, we
manage to ‘bottom out’ of our trough; by dumping most of our available energy,
we get rid of the miasma as well.
The means employed to bottom out varies from person to
person: we’ll have a temper tantrum, or
take a drink or a drug, or overeat, or go to bed and sleep for hours, or engage
in some self-destructive behavior, anything to rid ourselves of the deadly
embrace of miasma. Once free again, we
slowly recuperate, building up our energy towards the next peak. In this way we can imagine we are making
progress for years and really just be turning in a circle.
Witches dare to escape from all habitual prisons, and they
escape from this one by renewing their energy through daily rites of
self-purification. It’s good to use a
number of these so they do not become mechanical habits themselves. The witch purifies herself [1]
with the four elements of earth, air, fire and water, and must do so in a state
of focused attention, because aether or spirit, the fifth element, manifests as
attention and the four elements must come into contact with the fifth if they
are to serve spirit, as symbolized in the upright pentagram.
Self-purification is also the first step in preparation for
spellwork. First the witch purifies her
person, then her other tools. Once
purified, a tool (whether wand or athame or the witch herself) can be
consecrated and charged. These
operations correspond to the three visible phases of the Moon, waxing, full and
waning; and also to the eastern, southern and western quarters of the
Circle. After a spell is released, it
is put out of mind, and this corresponds to the fourth phase, the dark of the
Moon, and to the northern quarter of silence.
Here, then, are a number of purification rituals that can be
performed at different times of the day or night. It’s good when starting out to perform one in
the morning, but as you become more sensitive to the quality of your energy you
may choose to self-purify whenever you feel your energy getting old and stale.
(1) For earth and water, dissolve salt in water in a special
bowl and anoint your forehead, lips, and heart, saying “With the power of the
sea that washes the shores, I am purified.”
[2]
For air and fire,
light incense or sage, wave the sacred smoke on the head and chest, then pass
it around the body deosil three times, saying “May I be pure; may all my
impurities be burned away, carried away on the incense smoke.” If you have difficulty passing the smudge
around your body, a simple expedient would be to place it in a burner close by
between you and a fan, then simply turn round three times widdershins (this
will send the smoke deosil around your body).
This is an example of the right use of technology.
(2) This is a traditional purification before prayer. Pour water from an offering bowl over your
hands, holding the bowl first in your power hand and pouring it over your palm,
then the back of your hand; then switch the bowl to the other hand and repeat. As you pour the water, say “May I be pure,
fit to approach the Gods.” [3] Dry the hands with a clean ritual towel, used
only for that purpose.
(3) After performing (2), you can don a headband and a
ceremonial robe. The Greeks wore a ribbon headband while praying. [4] While tying the headband, say “I am
encircled with the sacred, girded about, encompassed, that my actions here
today might be within the sacred way.”
While donning the robe, say “The sacred covers me, I am surrounded by
the pure.” [5]
(4) In the same way, praying while donning amulets or other
sacred items helps to purify our energy.
While donning an image of Cernunnos, you can say the following: “My lord Cernunnos, I offer you my worship. Watch over me today as I go about my affairs:
keep me safe, keep me happy, keep me healthy.” [6]
Donning a pentagram or pentacle (encircled pentagram), you
could say something like the following:
“The elements are joined with the power of spirit. May I be blessed by the four. May I be blessed by spirit. May I be blessed by the five.” [7]
(5) The ritual bath.
This has been described before, but it is not out of place here. Light a candle in the bathroom and turn off
the electric light. Light some incense,
not necessarily in the bathroom but somewhere close by so you can smell it
burning. Begin filling the tub and cast
salt into it three times with your power hand, holding it over your heart
first. With the first cast, say “I
purify by the Maiden.” With the second,
say “I consecrate by the Mother to - ” and name the quality you wish to take
into yourself, such as ‘balance’. With
the third cast, say “I charge by the Crone.”
You can also add a fourth cast for the dark phase, saying nothing. Take the bath by candlelight, staying quiet
and aware. When you are finished, thank
the elements and the Lady.
(6) Proto-Indo-European self-purification: This rite comes from unpublished material
sent to the author by Ceisiwr Serith, with written permission to make use of it
in ceremony. It is based on the earliest
Indo-European sources available, as supplemented by information from
archaeology and anthropology, and attempts to reconstruct religious ritual of
the Indo-Europeans before that people separated in their migrations into
Hindus, Iranians, Hittites, etc.
“Purification is an act of sacralization. It removes anything that does not belong to
the object being purified, or to the purpose to which that object will be
put. It thus separates the object from
the world. It also simplifies the
object. A purified bowl is just a
bowl. Everything extraneous has been
removed. It therefore perfectly
expresses its part of the artos. [8] It comes close to godhood.
“Before any ritual each celebrant purifies himself by
pouring a small amount of water into his hands.
He allows this to run through his fingers to the ground (or a bowl if
indoors). He pours more, and splashes
this against his face. He pours again,
and rinses his mouth. This is all done
in silence, while thinking with each washing “Puros esyem [9]
[May I be pure].”
“Each celebrant then robes himself.” [10]
The Threshold
The sacred household in antiquity
corresponded to the human body, and the household familiars corresponded to the
internal spirits that accompanied each human soul through life. The house, therefore, was like a temple and
contained elements reflecting both male and female bodies. As such, it served as an interface between
the human body (the temple of the soul and internal spirits) and our local
cosmos (that is, the solar system as seen from the Earth). The solar system is too large for the
individual to contact directly, so the sacred household was used as an
interface between the two, an instrument amplifying outgoing human energies and
de-amplifying incoming cosmic energies from the Earth, Moon, Sun and planets. In this way the sacred household, like the
solar system itself, acts like an electrical transformer; its physical features
transform incoming and outgoing energies for the bodies of the residents, while
the familiar spirits inhabiting those features do the same for the souls and
internal spirits of the residents.
The threshold of a house
corresponds to the body’s sense-organs and the organs of breath and
speech. These are our main interfaces
with the outer world as we go through the day, and the doors and windows of a
house are magically connected to them.
This is especially true of the front door, and Pagans always kept a
little shrine there to the threshold guardian.
For the Romans, this was the God Janus, who had two faces, one looking
outward and the other inward. If you
hang a God-face close to your front door, you can imagine His head imbedded in
the outer wall, with His other face looking outward on the outside world. Janus is the God of endings and beginnings,
and his festival was held on January 9th, in between the ending/beginning of the solar year (coinciding with the
new moon or Kalends of January) and the ending/beginning of the sacral year
(1st of March). From that vantage, he is looking at them both. He was also honored at the Kalends, celebrated
at the new moon of each month, as well as at the beginning of every important
new undertaking.
As Jews came to inherit the
position of mercantile carriers held in earlier times by the Phoenicians, the
empire adopted their seven-day weekly cycle.
As we still follow this custom today, it seems appropriate to celebrate
Janus at the beginning of each week as well as at the monthly calends. Another reason for honoring Janus on the day
of the Sun is that the Sun is also a threshold guardian who looks down on us
protectively but also looks outward, into the stellar world, keeping vigilant
watch against the wild spirits of the outer spaces.
Every God has something to teach,
and Janus teaches us to direct our attention outward and inward at the same time,
so we can guard the thresholds of our own personal temple and its indwelling
spirits. When we honor our threshold
guardian on Sunday or at the beginning of a month, year, or new undertaking, we
should ask for his help in learning how to develop the double-face so we can be
effective household guardians of our own inner temple. Looking out and in at the same time means
while we watch the outer world we monitor our inner reactions to it, and while
we are immersed in our moods and thoughts we keep part of our attention on the
outer world. If we do the former we will
prevent spirits of negativity from entering, and if we do the latter it will
serve to eject negative spirits who are already inside.
When entering or leaving our
homes, we should touch the doorframe while thinking of the threshold guardian,
as a way of acknowledging his presence and of asking him to keep everything
safe. The ancient Hebrews followed this
custom when they were Pagans, and later changed it into touching the mezuzah.
My own invocation to the
threshold guardian goes like this:
“Honor and thanks to
you, Janus,
For guarding the
threshold of my home.
May only harmonious
beings enter here,
And may the
discordant depart !
Open this week
[month, etc.] for me on blessings,
And teach me to look
out and in as you do,
That I may guard the
door to my inner home,
For I too am a
threshold guardian.”
The Hearth
As I mentioned in Part 1, ‘sacra privata’ is the term used
by the ancient Romans for their household religion; it means ‘the sacred
private things’ (as in Greek, there is no word for
‘things’, so literally
it means ‘the sacred privates’).
While the threshold is
where the home interacts with the outer world, the hearth is the center of the
home and corresponds to the human heart, which was regarded as the seat of
memory. It is therefore the place where the ancestors
are contacted, the door down to theUnderworld or Summerland, and the
dwelling-place of an important familiar called the Lar familiaris by the
Romans.
In the Italian
witchcraft tradition, the lar is the primal ancestor and is responsible for
keeping the family together, on occasions when the dead visit the living as
well as when loved ones are ready to reincarnate, returning to Earth in the
family or clan line. The stregha
therefore prayed to the lar to reunite them with loved ones in future lives so
they could meet, know each other, and love again.
The easiest way to understand the concept of a primal
ancestor is to think of him or her as
an Adam or Eve for your
particular family. Pagan peoples like
the Greeks did not believe that all of mankind was descended from a single
human couple. The Athenians, for
instance, believed their first ancestors to have sprung from the soil of Attica ; thus, they had always dwelt where they
lived. Many a Latin and Greek noble or
royal family traced its descent from a hero and a nymph, themselves children of
one or another God or Goddess. The
primal ancestors had great influence over their descendants and long ago
evolved into daimones (the rough Celtic equivalent would be the sidhe).
In ancient Roman
religion, on the other hand, the genius of the pater familias (the father-
head of the household)
became the lar familiaris after the latter’s death, or possibly he was absorbed
into a composite of the genii of all preceding heads of the family. But whether we think of the lar familiaris as
an original ancestor or comprising one or more genii of deceased forefathers,
he watches over the vitality of the family line, which includes its virility,
fertility and ‘heart’. Similarly, each
man’s genius, assigned at birth, performs the same service for him, as does
every woman’s Juno.
As the household seat
of memory, the hearth was the place where families gathered on
special occasions to
tell tales of the ancestors and the old days, meetings called ‘treguendas’ in
the stregheria tradition. The sacred
hearthfire itself was the hearth guardian, and was traditionally tended by the
lady of the house, who officiated as her priestess. This fire Goddess guarded the seat of memory
(for without remembrance there is no family and no home) and, as sacred fire,
communicated the family’s prayers to the Earth deities. In the Baltic tradition her name was Gabija,
which means ‘the covered one.’ The Celtic
equivalent of Gabija would be Brigid, who was also the blacksmith’s fire and
presided over crafts. In Rome she was known as
Vesta, and in Greece ,
Hestia.
I honor the hearth
guardian, along with my lar, on Friday, the day commonly used to worship the
Earth Goddesses. When I have a stove but
no fireplace, I place her shrine close to the stove and light a candle whenever
I am cooking, with the words, “I cook with Brigid’s fire”. On Fridays I burn a candle and incense to her
and offer salt, bread and pure water.
With fireplaces, a more
complete cult of the sacred hearthfire can be performed, taken from the Baltic
rites of Gabija:
- While the fire is being built, all present maintain
a respectful silence and face towards the hearth.
- While the fire is going, a large bowl of water is
set out by the fire so Gabija can bathe and refresh herself, with the
words “Fiery one, bathe, refresh yourself!”
- While cooking, the mistress of the household from
time to time throws scraps of food into the fire as offerings to Gabija,
saying “Gabija, be satisfied.”
- At night when it is time to retire, the fire on the
hearth is banked; that is, more fuel is added and then it is covered with
ashes so it will not throw off sparks.
This practice was the reason the hearth Goddess was called ‘the
covered one’. The mistress was
naturally concerned to bank the fire correctly so Gabija would not get
angry and ‘take a walk’ in the night, burning down the house! So, while banking the fire, she would
pray to the Goddess like this:
Holy Lady,
I loose you
skillfully,
lest you be
angry !
Holy Gabija,
be peaceful in
this place !
Live with us
peacefully,
Holy Gabija !
5.
The
only respectful way to put the hearthfire out is with pure water.
These rituals could, I
believe, be easily adapted to the Celtic tradition, substituting the name of
Brigid (‘Breed’) for that of Gabija.
Holding a Dumb Supper
I recently held my first dumb supper for ancestors for the
season. Following Norse and Baltic
traditions, I hold a number of these between Mabon and Samhain, culminating
with the great dumb supper on Samhain or Hallowe’en, October 31st.
Throughout most of the year I keep my photographs of
parents, grandparents and other dear dead in a walk-in closet shrine. The reason I do this is so the photos will
stay fresh for me instead of becoming invisible like most of the pictures on
the walls of my living room. When it’s
time to hold the first dumb supper, I bring the photos out and arrange them in
a semicircle on the hearth (my apartment is blessed with a small fireplace,
with a brick hearth in front of it). Next to them is a tall candle holder with
a red candle in it, and a statue of my primal ancestor. This is a somewhat crudely carved shepherd,
ithyphallic, pouring wine from a wineskin into a chalice. [11]
As it gets close to sunset, I begin preparing the meal. For my first dumb supper I chose red foods;
that is, they were all red to start with, though only some of them were red
after being cooked!
I began by turning off the kitchen light and lighting the
candle in front of my hearth guardian, the Goddess Brighid, who is the spirit
of the household fire. As I lit the
candle, I said “Honor to fire, honor to Brighid, honor to the hearth.”
I then put two red potatoes on to boil, sliced and diced two
salad tomatoes, and opened a can of red kidney beans. I took out two lamb blade chops and dusted
one side of them with oregano, cloves, pepper and a little garlic powder.
As the light waned, I lit another candle from the hearth
guardian’s candle and placed it on the windowsill to serve as a beacon guiding
the dead to my home.
After the potatoes had boiled a while, I put the lamb chops
in the top of the oven and turned on the overhead broiler to 375 to briefly
brown the tops. I set the kidney beans
boiling and prepared the skillet for the diced tomatoes, melting some margarine
in it.
These preparations done, I went into the living room and lit
the candle on the fireplace hearth, saying the following to the photos:
“Shades of the dead, who still remember this house, honored
ancestors, grandfather, grandmother, father, mother [naming them], who are
worthy of eternal remembrance, and all your relatives and children whom death
has taken from us, I invite you to this annual feast. May it be as pleasant for you as our memories
of you are sweet to us!”
Lighting some aromatic herbs, I said:
“Let us [12]
remember those who perished by fire and those who have drowned. We remember those who have had to die far
from their homes, and those who have perished without a trace.”
I now returned to the kitchen and finished preparing the
meal, switching the oven dial to baking and turning the heat down to around
325. When all was ready, I brought the
plates into the living room, setting the ancestors’ down inside the curve of
the semicircle of photos, and my own on a small table nearby. According to tradition, no silverware is set
out for the ancestors. I brought in two
glasses of cranberry juice (red again) and set one for them and one for
myself. Then I said:
“Shades of the dead, honored ancestors, sit, eat and drink
as the Gods allow!”
I sat down myself and ate in silence, looking at the photos
of the dead and occasionally raising my glass to one of them. As I toasted them in turn, I remembered
something about each of them, some brief, cherished memory, and I longed for
those old times when we were together in the flesh.
For dessert we had bowls of raspberry sherbet. Afterwards I lingered a little in their
company. When a polite length of time
had passed, I rose and said:
“Shades of the dead, honored ancestors, this dumb supper is
over. Go your ways now where your
destiny leads you, and remember to do no harm to anything in the streets or
fields.”
Then I extinguished the candle and said
“There is, there is not even a spirit here.”
Finally, I took away the dead’s food and disposed of
it. It cannot be eaten but must be
returned somehow to the land. I poured
out the cranberry juice into the earth, saying “return to the elements whence
you came.” I let the sherbet melt down
the sink drain, which leads to the sea.
As for the solid fare, I would have liked to dig a hole and bury it, but
my apartment managers might not understand, so I was forced to simply throw it
away. This was the only part of the dumb
supper that I regretted.
Back inside once again, I extinguished the candle in the
window, saying (as ever) “honor to fire,” and then the hearth guardian’s candle
by the stove, saying “honor to the hearth, honor to Brighid, honor to
fire.”
The dumb supper was over.
The prayers and basic ritual are derived from Pagan
Lithuanian practice, with the name of the Celtic hearth Goddess Brighid
substituted for the Baltic Gabija. Lithuania was
the last Pagan country in Europe , and only
began to be (forcibly) Christianized at the beginning of the 15th
century. Consequently, much that has
been lost in the pre-Christian traditions of other countries can still be found
there, and in the land of their neighbors to the north, Latvia . For more information check out their website
at www.romuva.lt.
[1] I use
‘her’ for ‘him or her’, etc., in this article.
[2] Serith,
p. 31. See bibliography.
[3] Ibid, p.
32.
[4] For an
illustration, see the Magician card in the standard Tarot deck.
[5] Serith,
p.32.
[6] Ibid, p.
33.
[7] Ibid.
[8] The
‘artos’ is the pattern of the universe; the wyrd or rta.
[9]
Pronounced PUR-os es-YEM.
[10] Serith,
unpublished material. See bibliography.
[11] This is
a marvelous scholarly word meaning his penis is erect.
[12] The
ancestors and myself.
