Letters to Moonchild

Moonchild is a visitor who signed my guestbook and we have struck up an on-line correspondence (apprenticeship) solitary to solitary that has proved very enjoyable to the both of us. She asks good questions and the answers are to be found here.

July 3 1998 Firesilk, Thank you for responding to me on the subject of Wicca. I would be more than happy to have an "online" teacher. Now I have been studying and learning Wicca for a year and a half. Though I'm a solitary, I still need some advice and help. There's a bunch of wanna-be's in my town(found out through talking with them on subject of Wicca and they didn't know what they were talking about). I haven't self-initiated myself because first off, I know I'm not ready even though I want too(but then I could be ready but just don't know it) and second, the self-initiations that I've looked at are a little confusing(one's long, other short...). Also, even if you are devoted to the faith, don't the gods initiate you into the faith even if you haven't self-initiate or a coven initiation? What are your thoughts on self-initiation? As you can tell, I only have books to teach me. They may be helpful and all, but a teacher is nice to work with as well. Thank you for your time and patience with me. May the gods be with you. Artemisia the Moonchild Bright blessings Moonchild, About initiation, in all rituals it is most important that you understand the significance and the underlaying nature of a symbol, a phrase, a chant whatever component you use. There is no right or wrong way to do a ritual if you know these. If you do not, you can perform the entire Bornless Ritual (a very long and complicated invocation designed by Aleister Crowley to invoke a rather obscure Chaos Deity) word perfect and achieve nothing. The key to rituals and spells is WILL. Having a purity of motive towards a specific goal. It is like baking a cake, you can use the cake mix ( a ritual memorized from a book) and most of the time you will come up with a reasonably good cake (if the cake mix was a good one)( a lot of books are second-hand tripe not worth the paper they are written on). But if the store has no chocolate cake mixes, and what you really need is a chocolate cake, then you are at a loss, unless you know WHAT is necessary to make a good cake from scratch. So in short form, here are the keys to building a successful ritual. Purpose: what are you trying to achieve? All design elements of a ritual, Candles, chants, robes, timing, whatever, should enhance and purify your WILL to achieve that purpose. Invocation: who do you want to help you achieve that purpose? If you want to make peace with your neighbors it does no good invoking Mars, for the God's will is not aligned with your purpose. Concentration: You must be able to keep the purpose first and foremost, if the Ritual itself distracts you from the purpose then it is a bad ritual. Follow-through: You must do all that you can to achieve the purpose with non- Magickal ends. It is absolutely no good to do a Ritual to win the lottery and then never purchase a lottery ticket. (A side note on Rituals to win the Lottery: they rarely work, everyone who purchases a lottery ticket has performed a ritual either consciously or unconsciously to win and with so many Wills tugging on the outcome, it all evens out :)). Initiation is then a Ritual that dedicates you to a specific course, a dedication to the Goddess and God. It can be as elaborate and formal as you want, or just as simple a prayer as " I love You and I want to follow You." If all the components are there both will be equally as successful. The main thing going for a big elaborate ceremony is that it tends to engrave itself on your subconscious as a landmark, the atmosphere tends to heighten your sense of "holiness" and makes it easier to enter that state of altered consciousness ( trance , dreamquest, psychic openess, religious ecstasy, whatever you want to call it) that allows you to enact your Will. A note on calling up this altered state: It is fairly easy to do, in fact humans do it all the time. Pentecostals do it when they dance and cry and shout praises at a Revival. Sports fans do it when they become so immersed in a sports event that they act in unison (the wave and other wild fan activity) . Devout Catholics do it when they say the Rosary. Artists do it when they lose themselves in a painting or sculpture. It is a level where each thing around you assumes total clarity, and you are totally involved in the moment without thought for past or future, for what's going on somewhere else. Buddhist monks do it through chants and meditation. And Wiccans can do it by Drawing down the Moon, chanting to the Goddess, drumming, singing, dancing, concentrating on a crystal or crystal ball, or picturing the tree of life in their heads (that's how I do it). Laurie Cabot (one of the first "open Wiccans") does it by picturing a red 7 then counting down to 1 while shifting through the colors of the rainbow (orange 6, yellow 5, green 4, blue 3, indigo 2, violet 1). This works real well too. Isis guard and guide you, Firesilk

This page last modified 9/10/98