A Witch’s Circle of Art: Compass and Crossroads

Round about the cauldron go;
In the poison’d entrails throw.

– Macbeth, Macbeth, Act IV, Scene I (Shakespeare, 1564 – 1616)

You may go into the Miles Moss,
Between twelve hours and one;
Take holy water in your hand,
And cast a compass round.

– Tam Lin, Child’s Ballads, traditional Scottish ballad (earliest version, 16th century)

compass (n.)
c. 1300, “space, area, extent, circumference,” from Old French compas “circle, radius; size, extent; pair of compasses” (12c.), from compasser “to go around, measure (with a compass); divide equally,” from Vulgar Latin *compassare “to pace out,” from Latin com “with, together” (see com-) + passus “a step” (from PIE root *pete- “to spread”).

– etymonline.com

The (A) Witch’s Circle of Art is, for me, one of the most profound enactments of cosmology, magical process, and spirit-work that I have ever encountered. When I fully immerse in the process of the Compass – and I use Compass and Circle of Art synonymously – I become the Point of Power by which the magic may be effected, to which the Spirits come, and through whom the Crossroads opens. There are multiple ways to form the Circle of Art, to become the Compass, and to open the Crossroads, and I will give one possible ritual-form below.

In my training as a ritualist and in the techniques of witchery through various houses and traditions, I have encountered various ways of setting aside space to work magic within or of (with respect to the land) anchoring into the landscape and orienting to the spirits and powers within the Place. Both can be incorporated into one process, although whether one or the other is emphasised over the other (perhaps even negating the other) tells me a lot about the internal thinking and “theology” of the tradition. For several years I was a part of a potent tradition that does not cast ritual circles, nor does it evoke or acknowledge the Classical elements that many forms of modern witchcraft do. In fact, almost the entirety of the ritual would be conducted in silence, with non-verbal sound welcome at certain parts. In another tradition I am involved in we may decide that the technology or form of a ritual circle is necessary to the focussing of the group-mind converged to work magic, but at another time and place we might simply fall into a silence, align our souls, breathe-ground-centre, light a candle and begin. In Reclaiming witchcraft circles are very much a part of the ritual process. This is an influence both from 1970s Feri witchcraft which had begun to adopt some language from British Wicca (Rosemary and Raymond Buckland brought Gardner’s witchcraft to the East Coast in 1964) and from published Wiccan materials at the time. The ways in which Reclaiming circles are formed however tend to fall into the Feri-style sphere/six-directions casting or into free-form, spur of the moment methods. I wish to focus more on the Compass and Crossroads – the Witch’s Circle of Art – as I know and practise it on my own, with Wildwood witches of the Sophian thread or branch, and with other witches of traditional leaning.

It has been said by practitioners of witchcraft of a variety of backgrounds that the Witch’s Circle is not cast or formed in order to keep malevolent spirits at bay, but to keep the power raised within; to create a container and a focus for the work. This is especially true of Gerald Gardner and the witches he initiated. Some also speak of it as a stepping between the worlds. Different people have different poetry on this. What I understand to happen – what I experience to happen – is that the Circle or the Compass forms a boundary, an edge, a Hedge, and that in my stepping into the space I am leaving behind the human-to-human world and entering the world of spirits. I am transgressing. And so, depending on the why’s I might turn to the left – what northern hemisphere folk call widdershins – regardless of the apparent arc movement of the sun because to turn to the left is a cultural taboo and a ritual action that joins me with the Faerie People, helping me also to sink into the Earth as this is the way the planet spins on hir axis. If I am drawing the Circle around me to bless the working and those within, to protect and guard us, and to build power, I will travel with the arc of the sun. So in the northern hemisphere I will go clockwise, and below the equator I will go anti-clockwise. It all depends on what I am seeking to do.

Here is how I would usually go about this.

I would take my knife, my wand, offerings and libations, incense, and a white or black candle to a place I will be undisturbed.

1. I begin to notice my breathing; I fall into my breath and allow myself to be breathed by the Land. I become grounded and centred and I acknowledge the spirits of the place and the Traditional People of the Lands I am working in. I might pour a libation here if appropriate, or light incense.

2. I then align my three souls, within my three cauldrons, honour the three worlds of Land, Sky, and Sea, and bless the Three Ancestors of Blood, Land, and the Art.

3. I light the candle and as I do I sense and invite the Power in the Land to move up through the candle and become expressed by the Flame alight upon the wick. I bow reverently, and in that silence, honour the Mystery. I might call Her Grandmother. The Cauldron is traditional for this moment in many traditions. To light a black candle within a cauldron, this embodies the Weaver’s womb of creation and destruction, the light born from Her centre is the Star of Promise and the Sign of the Mastery of Art to which we aspire. The quickening of our potential.

4. If there are other candles at other shrines around that cauldron, shrines of your own familiars and spirits, or the Godds of your Tradition, or at the cardinal points, light those from the central flame.

5. Take the Knife and carefully, from the direction where the sun does not pass and back to that place (North or South), gently (barely) graze the soil or the grass, imagining and feeling you are sending your own witch-fire into the Earth. This is alerting the spirits to the work and what is about to come, and marrying yourself to the Land. If you are doing this correctly you will notice (in whichever way(s) you notice) a pressure, a tension, a magnetism, a change in temperature, flame. Sometimes a physical moat is formed around the space and into it are poured certain liquids, that moat then becomes the great River that encircles the World. It could be the Red River of Blood and this could be a Working with the Beloved Dead.

6. Once this is complete it is time to open the Crossroads from the crucible and centre of this Compass and Circle. Do this by looking into the East where the sun rises and where we might adore the Son of the Art, the Prince of Paradise, the Master of Witches. Feel yourself opening into the East and open your heart to the Powers there. Make some sound, a sound that wants to come out of you. You could then bang a drum three times, or ring a bell three times. Both sounds will scare of unwanted attention from intrusive spirits and cleanse and clear the air. These sounds will also attract the spirits you wish to attend the workings.

Now sense the Eastern road open before you, which I often imagine as a road or serpent diving into my guts AS MUCH AS I, through my witch’s will and ignited awareness, fly out into the edgeless edge of the direction. When you feel this anchored, hold your left hand out to the north and do the same, then hold your right hand out to the south, then open to the west behind you. Then above, then below.

Open to perceive who is there, and take time to notice… pay attention, and observe. Over time this particular part of the ritual may become fast, sharp, and easeful, but not without potency. As we begin with this practice it is good to be a little slower, immersing in it and allowing time to meet and commune. Every now and then, I take more time with this. This particular opening of the Crossroads can also be its own rite of opening without the need to form the Witch’s Circle of Art, or to carve or set a compass. In fact, it is generally something I do right after I align my souls if I have work to do or wish to orient to my own web of relationships.

7. Now that the Crossroads is opened and anchored within you as the centre of the crucible, of the circle, of the compass, bind the Ring. I use the following words, because I work with the Four Kin, the Four Great Families of Spirit that witches have long been known to be covenanted with. Some traditions will see the Red in the East where the sun rises, the sign of life; the White in the South (or the North) where the sun is at its peak; the Green/Grey/Blue (Welsh, Glas referring to the green-blue colour of the sea) with the West where the sun sets; and the Black with the North (or the South) where the sun does not pass.

Black Spirits and White
Red Spirits and Green
Gather, gather, gather to be Seen!
Throughout and about
around and around
this compass be drawn
this circle be bound!”

(An adaptation on an incantation Doreen Valiente based on words appearing in a play called The Witch by Thomas Middleton)

To be concise and simplified… the Red are the Living Kin of the Iron Blood; the White are the Seraphic, Angelic, Upperworldly Powers radiating celestial light; the Green/Grey/Blue are the Hidden People, Good Neighbours, People of Peace; the Black are the Dead, the Underworldly Powers, those covered in the soot of the forge. These are also Spirits and Mysteries that arise out of where these colours mix, merge, and mingle.

I may chant this several times over until I really feel the binding of the Ring. This could feel like a gathering in of tension, like tying a knot, like something that tightens and concentres in your guts or in your sex in a way that usually feels pleasurable.

Throughout this process particular spirits may be welcomed or conjured. This will depend on your Tradition or working. There are other words that might bind the Ring as well, you might have particular Folk to welcome at the directions, which could flesh out the opening of the Crossroads.

8. At the culmination of the work we give offerings to the spirits and pour libations to them, then we release the charge of the space back into the Land, and the Stars, and the Mystery, from whence it all came.

If there are spirits that need to be verbally and formally farewelled, this now happens. I often don’t farewell anything… I might bow silently or offer more incense with love and deep respect in my hands and heart. With this simple act I acknowledge how I am related, covenanted with these beings, and I simply relax into the embrace of those connections. I do not seek to banish or farewell them. The Compass helps me sink into the Land and forms a well through which the powers of the Land rise up to pool, collect, concentrate, and meet me (if I am fortunate). Other traditions will have other teachings, hopefully soundly based on or deriving from their actual mythology and cosmology. Otherwise – wtf?!

In the Wildwood, some of us chant Peace, Praise, and Power to the Spirits.

Here is an adapted version of a blessing some Wildwood witches say at the end of our rites.

To all the spirits we have called and conjured in
to the Ancient Witches and to the Winds
to the Grandmother of All Fate
and the Guardian Old
to the Lady of Love
and the Son of Art, bold:
to the Keepers of Knowledge
and the Mysteries of Place
to the Land, the Sky, and the Sea,
and the Hag’s own face,
to the ancestors of blood
and the ancestors of land
to those who came before us,
the People of our Clan.
Peace, Praise, and Power upon you all.”

So you see this is not a farewelling of “Get out, we’re done”, or even “We’re leaving, so we’re gonna say goodbye for now”. This connects into and arises from other understandings… that in fact we don’t command this or that, yes we can conjure and invoke, and yes They might come, but in the end the Compass is not there holding these powers in until we release them. We have become the Secret Heart of all the Worlds that dwells within the Initiate, we are glad in this. So we say, Peace, Praise, and Power!

I might then chant the following,

This Circle is released and unbound, into Sea, into Sky, into Sovereign Ground.

I usually chant this three times and as I do so I feel the wound-up (literally) charge of the space loosening, unravelling, releasing, and returning. I use the words I am chanting, gesture, breath, vision, and sometimes non-verbal sound to help direct and facilitate that flow.

Blessings upon your Journey~

P.S. If things feel eerie and still charged even after all of the above, and this is not your own physical circle, then repeat the following with meaning and intention,

And may the rivers know their flow, as from this place we witches go. Then turn, do not look back, and walk away.

#Circle of Art #Compass #Reclaiming #Spirit-work #traditional witchcraft #Wildwood #Witchery