Your Temple: Weekly Lesson 6

Your Temple
Although many Witches meet, and work, outdoors perhaps in the corner of a field or in a clearing in the wood-it is not always possible for everyone to do that. Many live in cities and towns and are unable to get out into direct contact with the Earth. This does not mean they cannot function. Your temple can be an outdoor one or an indoor one. Let us look at indoor possibilities.
The area you need in which to perform your rituals and work your magick could be a whole building, a single room, or a small section of a room. Whatever its shape or size, this is your temple. A complete ritual room-perhaps in the basement or attic of a house-is the ideal. If you have such a room that can be turned into your temple and kept solely as that, you are very fortunate. Let us look at such a possibility first and then work along to those who can only use a small part of their regular living quarters.
First of all, take a compass and establish the alignment of the room. Mark the north, east, south, and west. Your altar is going to be placed in the center of the room and it is preferable that it be set up so that when standing before it you are facing east. You can keep an altar candle and your representations of the deities on the altar at all times, more on that later. On the floor around the altar you will be marking a circle, the exact dimensions and construction of which you will be taught in the next lesson.
When entering and leaving the Circle, before after a ritual, you will do so from the east, so if your room is rectangular rather than square, you might wish to leave extra room on that side. Closets, for the storing of your craft supplies, might also be placed in this larger area.
Unless you live alone, or share your beliefs with everyone in your home, you will need closets that can be locked. You will be storing candles, incense, charcoal, wine and, most importantly, your working tools and book. Of course, if you can lock the room itself, then it is possible to leave your altar permanently set up and have your supplies open shelves. Actually, this is the better arrangement.
Decoration of the temple room is a matter for individual taste. It can vary from all walls being done in a neutral color, to vivid realistic murals being painted. There are temples varying from those that look like prehistoric caves-complete with reproductions of the early cave paintings-to those that look like a clearing in a forest, with trees all around and stars on the ceiling above. Others (usually those oriented exactly north-south, east-west) follow the magickal symbolic colors, with the north wall painted green, the east yellow, the south red, and the west blue.
Obviously, before any decoration or use of the room, it should be thoroughly cleaned. The floor, walls, and ceiling should be scrubbed, with sea salt added to the water and cleaning agent. It is not necessary to do any elaborate cleansing ceremony at this point, since the Circle will be consecrated before each and every ritual you perform in it. Once any decoration of your room is finished, however (other than the actual marking of the Circle itself), you should do an initial purification, as follows:

This should be done on the night of the New Moon.

Fill a dish (a saucer will do) with water and, kneeling, place it on the floor in front of you. Place your right forefinger (left, if you are left-handed) into the water. Imagine a bright white light streaming down from above, into the crown of your head. Feel it surge through your entire body and then direct it down your arm. Concentrate all your energies to send it down your arm, down the finger, and into the water. It may help to close your eyes. When you feel you have directed all the power you can manage into the water, keep your finger there and say:

\"Here do I direct my power,
through the agencies of the
God and the Goddess,
into this water, that it might be
pure and clean
as is my love
for the Lord and the Lady.”
Now take a teaspoonful of sea salt and pour it
into the water. Stir it nine times, clockwise, with
your finger and three times say:
\"Salt is life. Here is life,
Sacred and new; without strife.\"
Take the dish of salted water and sprinkle it (use
your fingers to sprinkle) in each and every corner
of the temple room. If the room is irregular in
shape, with alcoves and closets, sprinkle every corner
of every alcove and closet also. As you sprinkle,
say one of the below (or make up something of
your own, along these lines):
\"Ever as I pass through the ways
do I feel the presence of the Gods.
I know that in aught I do
they are with me!
They abide in me
and I in them,
forever.
No evil shall be entertained,
for purity is the dweller
within me and about me.
For good do I strive
and for good do I live.
Love unto all things.
So be it, forever.\"
-Seax -Wica Psalm-
or
\"Soft is the rain, it gently falls
upon the fields beneath.
It lulls the heart, it stills the wind,
gives solitude I seek.
It patters down, so gentle yet
it ne'er does bend a leaf,
And yet the water that is there
will wash away all grief.
For smoothness follows in the wake,
and quiet and peace and love
are all around in freshness new,
come down from clouds above.
All evil go, flow out from here
and leave all fresh and plain.
Let negativity not come
into this room again.
For love I now find all around,
so soft, so still, so sure;
I can perform my rituals
as peace and quiet endure.\"

-There are some magickal traditions that equate different colors with the four quarters, but these are the generally used ones.-

Now light some incense. Stick incense or cones will do but you will find that, for ritual and magickal work, it is better to burn powdered incense on a charcoal briquette in a hanging censer (more on this below). Go again about the room, this time swinging the censer in each and every corner. Again say the lines you said when you sprinkled the water.

But what if you do not have a whole room to dedicate as a temple? That is all right. You can take the corner of any room-living room, bedroom, or kitchen, and make that your temple. Again, let us look at the ideal first.
An area at least five feet square is needed. You might like to arrange rails and curtains so that the area can be curtained off from the rest of the room, though this is not a necessity. You may paint this section of the wall differently from the rest of the room to suit your desires. If you can choose an area in the east, it is preferable. Keep your working tools and supplies locked away in any convenient place, but, here in your temple area, keep your altar. You may keep it pushed up against the wall when not in use, if you wish. On the altar always keep an altar candle (generally white but, as we progress, you will learn of other colors and their times for use) and your representations of the deities. These can be either statuettes or pictures, as outlined below. This temple area should be cleaned, sprinkled, and censed in the same way as the full room temple detailed above.
The last consideration is for the person who, perhaps, has a very small apartment or who shares a room with someone not necessarily sympathetic to the Craft. Again there should be no real problem. The main thing is to have somewhere to lock away your working tools. If you can have an altar and leave it set up with candle and deity figures, you can put it anywhere convenient in the room. Again the east is preferable. Try to keep your roommate(s) from using it as a coffee table/catchall, if you can. If it is not possible to have a regular altar-specially made or adapted and kept for ritual use-then you can get by using a coffee table or similar furniture. In this case, keep your deity figures wherever convenient. . . on a table, shelf, or sideboard. They should be respected by your roommate(s) in the same way that you would respect their, or anyone else's, crucifix or Virgin Mary figure, or whatever, should they have such. When you are able to do your rituals (presumably alone) all you need do is clear enough floor space anywhere convenient and set up your Circle, altar, etc. Afterward, you will have to clear everything away again.
There are many full covens who meet regularly in one-room apartments. A little light furniture moving and a Circle can be cast and a ritual enjoyed. So, you see, there is nothing to prevent you from having a temple. One final word: as mentioned earlier, some Witches/covens hold their rituals outdoors. In fact, the majority certainly prefer this, though it is not always possible due to (1) lack of a site, or (2) unsuitable weather. If you are lucky enough to have access to a small clearing in the woods, or any piece of ground where you can be private, then do not hesitate to use it. There will be no need for the cleansing ritual detailed above; you will proceed as will be shown in a later lesson \"Circles of Power and Protection”

Your Altar and Its Furniture
You can use virtually anything as an altar. If you are holding your Circle outside, then a large rock or a tree stump is ideal. If you are indoors, then you can use a small coffee table, a wooden box, or even some boards resting on bricks.
It is better to have an altar that does not contain any steel, so a ready-made table is not really the best (unless glued or pegged together). If there has to be metal in the table, brass is acceptable. Why is this? It has to do with conductivity. The Witch's knife and sword (and wand, if used) are the only tools that are used for storing and directing energies. They, then, can be of a conductive metal-iron or steel. All other items should be nonconductive-silver, gold, brass, stone, wood-since they are not used in that fashion.
But why not have a little aestheticism with your altar? Why not do things properly? You are working in a circle, so why not a circular altar? To me, a rectangular altar in a circle always looks somewhat incongruous. This is one of the reasons a tree stump is so ideal. In fact a beautiful altar can be made by putting legs on a section of tree-trunk. The legs should be glued on. One such altar I have seen was made truly beautiful by the maker-a craftsman in both senses-carving figures of the God and the Goddess into the legs.
The \"altar furniture\" consists of a candle, or candles; incense burner (known variously as a \"censer\" or \"thurible\"); two dishes, one for salt and one for water; libation dish; goblet(s); and figures to represent the deities. Of course, this is not a hard-and fast list. Feel free to add or subtract according to your needs (it is understood, also, that individual traditions dictate certain items, e.g., Gardnerian has cords and a scourge).
Most Witches \"do their thing\" in the evenings
(not a necessity, of course) and so illuminate with
candles around the Circle and on the altar. A candle
on the altar is also helpful so that you can read from
the book of rituals. Whether you have one candle
or two is up to you.
An incense burner is pretty much a necessity. Incense has been used in religious rites for thousands of years. The old belief was that the smoke of the incense carried your prayers up to the gods. Certainly it adds immeasurably to the atmosphere of the ritual. Since there is frequent need to move the incense burner about the Circle (e.g., to cleanse, or \"cense\" the Circle itself during the consecration part of a ritual), a simple dish to hold a cone or stick of incense is not ideal. It is far better to have a hanging (swinging) censer. These can be bought or can be made. A special charcoal briquette is then placed in the censer and lit, then powdered incense is sprinkled on the charcoal. This is much more economical than burning cones or sticks and one briquette will burn for two hours or more. Both briquettes and powdered incense can be bought at most church supply stores. There is nothing against cones or sticks, of course, if you prefer them. Choose an incense that you enjoy; nothing too sweet and sickly. If you feel you must have a specific incense for a particular ritual, fine, but generally I find it does not make any difference which ones you use. I personally enjoy a good sandalwood or frankincense or one of the better \"high altar\" mixtures of the Christian Church. Incidentally, if you have nothing else, you can burn incense in any saucer like vessel. If you are using charcoal briquettes and are afraid of the vessel cracking, simply fill it with sand and that will absorb the heat.
Salt and water dishes are found on most Witch altars. Salted water represents life (salt itself symbolizes semen, as is detailed in an interesting essay by Ernest Jones, titled The Symbolic Significance of Salt). Baptismal water, or \"holy water;' is nothing more than salt and water. The dishes you use can be of any type. Some people even use seashells as containers.
During rituals it is usual to drink some wine (or fruit juice, if alcohol is not possible). To toast the gods, a libation is always poured first. When meeting outdoors, this can simply be poured on the ground. But when indoors, the best and usual way is to pour the offering into a dish; the libation dish. Later-after the ceremony-the dish can be taken outside and the wine poured out on the ground. Like the salt and water dishes, the libation dish can be of any type.
The wine goblets of the priest and priestess stand on the altar; those of the other celebrants are placed on the ground at their feet. Again, the goblet can be to suit yourself. It could be simply a glass or it could be a decorative drinking horn. The latter can be made from cow horns (obtainable from handicraft stores) with stands either separate or attached, made from bent silver, or copper wire, or from wood. Some Witches refer to their goblet as a \"chalice\" but, to my mind, this smacks of the eucharistic cup of Christianity so I tend to avoid it.
Some Witches do not care to have deity figures on their altar. The majority, however, do. You can seek out actual statues, though good ones are not easy to come by (copies of Boticelli's Birth of Venus-irreverently known as \"Venus on a Half- Shell\"!-are ideal for the Goddess). Many Witches search for years to find a statuette that exactly fits the mental image they have of the deity. Antique stores and flea markets/swap meets seem to be the best places to look. Some Wiccans use symbols, such as a seashell for the Goddess and an antler for the God. I have seen candles used, also various chess pieces, rocks, plants, etc. One possibility is pictures. I have seen beautiful deity representations made by decoupaging appropriate colored pictures to attractive pieces of wood. If you have the talent, of course, there is no reason why you should not sculpt or draw your own figures.

Magick-An Introduction
Magick will be dealt with in detail later. There you will learn all the many and varied
forms of magick and their workings. Here, however, I would like to take a quick look at some of the rudiments of magick; the basics.
First among these is timing. You may know that the Moon is frequently associated with Witchcraft, but you may not know why. One of the reasons is that the phases of the Moon are important to the proper working of magick. The two main phases are as follows: the time from the New Moon, through the First Quarter, to the Full Moon is known as the Waxing Moon. From the Full, through the Last Quarter, to the New is known as the Waning Moon. When the Moon is growing in size, it is waxing; when it is decreasing in size, it is waning.
Basically, constructive magick (for growth) is done during the waxing cycle and magick for destruction is done during the waning cycle. Constructive magick would include such things as love, success, protection, health, fertility. Destructive magick would include such things as binding spells, separation, elimination, extermination. There is a certain element of sympathetic magick just in this time of working. For example, as the Moon grows, so grows the opportunity (or whatever) for which you are working. Or, as the Moon dwindles, so declines the bad habit you are trying to overcome, or the wart you are trying to remove.
The second basic of magick is feeling. You must want whatever you are working at to really happen. You must want it with all your being. You must put every infinite particle of power into that desire, that urge for the act to come to pass. For this reason it is usually far more effective to do magick for yourself than to do it on someone else's behalf. It is seldom that another person can feel as intensely about something as the one directly concerned. This strong \"feeling\" is, in effect, the raised \"power\" used in magick. As an aid, a booster, to your power there can be used a number of amplifiers. One of these is chant and another is rhyme. The rhythmic chanting of a spell, with a solid, regular beat can do much to intensify your feeling and, thereby, increase your power. Similarly, dancing can raise the power, and so can a number of other treatments, including sex, all of which will be discussed in detail in a later lesson.
One other aspect might be mentioned here. When performing magick it is advisable to have a clean body. This means cleansed externally and internally. Bathe the body with a spoonful of sea salt added to the water. (This can be bought at most supermarkets or, failing that, at health-food stores.) Also prepare the inner body by the removal of toxins. This is done by fasting for twenty-four hours before working magick. No alcohol, no nicotine, and no sexual activity.
Whenever doing magick, always consider the Wiccan Rede. Will your action harm anyone? If the answer is \"Yes… ;' do not do it. More later.

Sometimes it's also good to perform a divination before you cast a spell to see if the time is right, Tarot cards, runes or the I Ching, what ever floats your boat.

Great stuff, Maser Dobin, will continue to read