Casting a circle

When meditating or performing magickal work, it is wise to set a boundary on your space so that you are not disturbed by external forces. Casting a circle is one way to do this and is prevalent amongst modern pagan traditions such as Wicca but has a far more ancient origin. You may wish to use a tool such as a wand or athame (black-handled knife used purely for such purposes) but you could even use your finger to direct energies. If you are confident enough, just visualising a circle in your head may be enough.

Start in the East corner of the space that you are creating and face that direction. Call upon the elemental force to be present and to lend its energies to your endeavour.

A sample calling is: “I call upon the Watchtowers of the East, element of air, the wind that blows in the trees and the clarity of breeze in the mind. I bid you welcome to my circle - lend your energies to my working.”

Move clockwise (the direction of power) to the South and repeat the procedure, adjusting the name and nature of element appropriately. Repeat with the West and then the North.

Return to the East and visualise a beam of protective, gold energy emanating from your finger/wand/athame and directed at the floor. Walk clockwise around your circle, drawing a protective circular boundary with this beam of energy until it closes the loop back in the East.

When uncasting the circle start again in the East but move anti-clockwise, visualising the energy of the protective circle being sucked back up into your finger/wand/athame. Then bid farewell and thanks to the North, West, South and East elements in turn.

The elements ascribed to these directions follow the Celtic tradition. Others may select different cardinal directions for each element.

XMortis has posted an interesting variation on this technique in the following post:
http://templeofthejediorder.org/component/option,com_kunena/Itemid,94/func,view/catid,54/id,32820/

An alternative to casting a circle would be to set wards. See the post here for more info:
http://templeofthejediorder.org/component/option,com_kunena/Itemid,96/func,view/catid,54/id,32832/

that's a bit different from how i do meditation...usually i visualize a circle around sternum height that expands outward as far as i'd like(usually not more then 6-10 feet in diameter unless i have alot of energy to expend). it then explodes into a sphere in which i can see and feel everything around me even with my eyes closed. on a good day this sphere continues to expand on its own once established.

Merry meet

My good lady is Wicca ,I have looked through her books and have found that my own beliefs are not to far from hers . Mine tend to lean towards Zen .

I like the idea of creating a circle. I tend to do this when practicing my arts . the circle is my universe,my safe zone ,as long as I can keep it clear I am safe.
The elements are very much part of how I see Budo ,I guess we all all walk different paths but our overall goal appears to be very similar

Yours in Budo and blessings to you

Mike

I visualize a circle when I am meditating after a short while my circle become a sphere which in turn becomes hazy and I find a state of complete total calm and relaxation the energy inside of my sphere is electric and I can only describe it as like a protective outer layer.

Visualized spheres are something I've done for a long time as well. I originally used them as protective shields around loved ones when I was a young kid. Having an affinity with maps, science and space I would take a orbital view of the country and expand the spheres to several hundred kilometers in size until they overlapped and sometimes enveloped the entire planet!! I've actually never considered those spheres to be related to magikal casted circles so thats interesting. It would introduce some interesting geometry if the casted cicrle was part of a sphere. I always thought cast cauldron circles originated as a fire safety measure but then became more useful for intoxicated practioners to fixate their position to the cauldron under hallucination and/or obscured vision due to excess smoke. Also more of relevance to the intent is I think the importance of fixating the practise cardinally because knowledge of the planets and stars reinforces my belief that magik is a method to interact with the living force and connecting to all matter in the galaxy might be part of reaching a higher connection.

"knowledge of the planets and stars reinforces my belief that magik is a method to interact with the living force and connecting to all matter in the galaxy might be part of reaching a higher connection," Adder said

I agree with your statement here. I believe the stars play a roll in human life in the conscious world and the unconscious. Part of the roll they play in our awake state is that Abrahamic holidays are determined by earths position around the sun. Christmas falls around winter solstice and while Easter and All Saint's Day (which is called Halloween) are equivalent in position with the spring and fall equinoxes.

our unconscious minds and our meditation are affected by the cosmos. our bodies pick up on the frequency of each star each constellation because even though we don't notice these frequencies, these outer objects in space which are made with the same building blocks as we are, are vibrating a frequency in all directions this causes a "cosmic connection" in our brains astronauts feel a similar feeling when in space a higher realization of an enlighten state is brought on by the cosmos to the brain


oh and i use a circle in my meditations Sumerians used circles in there magic practices

i didn't mean (if i did) to offend any of my Abrahamic brothers sorry if i have done so

Just a couple of minor corrections:

1) the Christian holiday of All Saint's Day is on the day AFTER Halloween (Halloween means All Hallows Eve, or All Saints Eve)

2) Even then, Halloween (or to give it its pagan/Celtic name: Samhein) is held within a week of the 31st October. Fall (Autumn) Equinox is around September 21st and is a completely different festival.

Apart from that....

Easter is certainly inspired by the ancient festivals of the goddess Eostre that were normally held in April (including the associations with bunnies) and that is probably where the name came from. The Spring Equinox is often called Ostara as a result even though it is around March 21st and Easter is usually a couple of weeks after that.

As you hint, this (along with Christmas/Yule/Winter Solstice) is another example of Christian festivals that were set up at times of pagan celebrations in order to convert people to their cause. It's similar to the fact that pagan temples were destroyed and churches built in their place. Since pagan sites were almost always built on areas with concentrations of energy, you can roughly work out the "ley lines" in Europe by getting a map and drawing lines between old churches.

Interesting that you mention Sumerian practices since the goddess Eostre is also associated with the Sumerian goddess Ishtar, who was resurrected in mythology and therefore probably helped to inspire the Easter story of resurrection, along with the theme of the renewal of life that features in Spring Equinox celebrations.

It's generally the case that Christian holidays occur at fixed dates in the year and are therefore NOT determined by any astrological means. Mind you, a lot of pagans prefer to celebrate the sabbats (equinoxes, solstices, Beltane, Samhein, etc) at conveniently fixed dates although many still use the correct astrological dates. For example, Beltane is usually celebrated on May 1st although the correct date would be when the Sun enters 15degrees Taurus (which this year is on May 5th).

Easter is a strange one as the date seems to be based on a combination of lunar and solar festivals (esbats and sabbats) but there are also alterations to this arrangement. To quote from Wikipedia:
"The First Council of Nicaea (325) established the date of Easter as the first Sunday after the full moon (the Paschal Full Moon) following the northern hemisphere's vernal equinox.[3] Ecclesiastically, the equinox is reckoned to be on March 21 (even though the equinox occurs, astronomically speaking, on March 20 in most years), and the "Full Moon" is not necessarily the astronomically correct date. The date of Easter therefore varies between March 22 and April 25. Eastern Christianity bases its calculations on the Julian Calendar whose March 21 corresponds, during the 21st century, to the 3rd of April in the Gregorian Calendar, in which calendar their celebration of Easter therefore varies between April 4 and May 8."

Very confusing indeed!