Pocket Guide To Witchcraft

Chapter Five; Cast a Circle

You need a safe place to practice Witchcraft, which is cleaned and free of bad energies, so cast a circle. There are different possibilities to do so;

Some do it in front of an altar in a space which is sacred to them anyway. Some do it in nature, outside to feel connected to mother earth. I'm going to explain two different methods here, one with a little more material than the other. In my opinion they both work perfectly fine, but since I myself am travelling a lot, I don't have many ingredients or a full altar with me.

All in all this always works in the same matter: cleanse yourself, cast a circle, perform the spell or ritual and last but not least, close the circle.

For the first one; you'll start by invoking the elements after you grounded yourself. If you want you can use correspondences for the elements, such as water for water, salt for earth, a candle for fire and a feather for air. If not, imagine the elements your mind such as the ocean or a bonfire. If you decide to use materials; place the elements according to the directions; Air in the eastern quarter, Fire in the south, water in the west and in the northern direction earth. So, for example; a feather at east, a candle at south, water at west and salt in the north. To open the circle, you'll go over the elements clockwise and to close it, anticlockwise.

Air of knowledge and creativity,

Please be present here with me.

Fire of health and vitality,

Please be present here with me.

Water of life and purity,

Please be present here with me.

Earth of strength and security,

Please be present here with me.

You have now invoked the elements and opened a circle. It is now safe to perform a ritual or spell.

Afterwards, you'll need to close the circle. (anticlockwise!)

Air of knowledge and creativity,

Many thanks and blessed be.

Fire of health and vitality,

Many thanks and blessed be.

Water of life and purity,

Many thanks and blessed be.

Earth of strength and security,

Many thanks and blessed be.

You can end it with a prayer of thanking such as:

The Circle is open but never broken

Merry meet, merry part and merry meet again.

If you believe in God and Goddess or deities, you can thank them as well.

The second technique works similar to the first one, to open clockwise and to close anticlockwise. It is a Wiccan spell, but it worked for me. However, I don't use the elements here, so this one is a little quicker.

Now I cast the sacred circle.

The circle is closed, so that only love may enter or leave its field.

As I will, so mote it be.

And to open:

The circle is open but remains unbroken.

Everything comes back to what it was before.

May this space and those who inhabit it, stay protected forever.

Merry meet, merry part and merry meet again.