2. Treat this event as you would any momentous occasion. Do whatever makes you feel prepared to take your vows. Whether it’s getting a pedicure or spending the morning in meditation, do what works to create a day that you will remember fondly for the rest of your life.
3. Make sure your witnesses can tolerate scents and smoke.
4. Allow one of your witnesses to prepare your treat platter.
5. Plan a more inclusive party for the evening, once your ritual is complete, to honor your new path.
What You Will Need
• Your witnesses!
• Comfy spaces for you and your witnesses to sit near the altar.
• Incense. See “Incenses” and incense recipes in Appendix I.
• A bead. This week’s bead should represent a doorway, a threshold, or a Witches’ broom.
• Something to string your beads on (jeweler’s wire, yarn, hemp rope). Make sure it is long enough to fashion a necklace or bracelet out of. You may want to purchase fastings/hooks, too, so you can remove and put on the talisman easily in the future.
• Wine, or champagne, if desired. See “Wines” in Appendix I.
• A platter of cookies with a Witches’ broom, a doorway, or a gateway on each of them. A platter of other treats as well. (Other treats are optional.)
• Your devotion oil. See Appendix I for the recipe.
• Your empowerment contract. See “Magickal Act: Empowerment Contract” in chapter seven.
• Your vows of initiation. See “Spell Working: Vows of Initiation” in chapter seven.
• Your initiation talisman(s). See “Spell Working: Creating an Initiation Talisman” in chapter seven.
• Any works of art you created over the duration of your initiation cycle that you want to share with your witnesses.
• A pen.
Note: You must choose one direction for where your path is leading now (or where you want it to be leading), and one direction for the current/future home of your growth. (Tell your witnesses the directions you have chosen once you choose. They will need to know in advance of the ritual.)
In my personal cosmology, the west has a lot of correspondences that allow for female sexual empowerment, and many of the Goddesses I look to for inspiration in this arena are associated with the west. However, the south is also profoundly powerful and transformative. All the quarters have associations that make sense for either of the designations. What are your associations? For me, where the west represents nurturance, sensuality, and the womb, and often has a more gentle form of transformation to offer, the south is overtly sexual, creative, and powerful, and offers fundamental and complete transformation, as in fire burning wood to ash. The north represents grounding and solid nurturance, motherhood and stability. The east offers new beginnings and inspiration.
These are my associations. But this ritual is about you, not me. So, what are your associations? What direction are you heading toward? What element are you inviting to influence your life now? Air? Fire? Water? Earth? Where do you want the coming phase of your growth to take place? Rely on your intuition here, and find the directions that make the most sense to you. Choose your future path with intention.
How-To
• Build the altar with the items listed here and on the main altar list on page 140, or integrate any items not already present into your existing altar. For comfort and ease in ritual space, place everything you need near where you will be seated.
• Make sure the charcoal is lit.
• Give your devotion oil, empowerment contract, vows of initiation, and initiation talisman(s) to one of your witnesses before the ritual.
Outline
• Banishing (optional).
• Circle casting (optional).
• Calling of quarters and spirit entities (optional).
• Setting space.
Sprinkle a pinch of incense on the charcoal.
Focus on breathing deeply into your belly. As you breathe you may want to walk around the space once, thinking of the qualities that this blend of resins will bring to the space: love, purification, safety, healing, and connection with spirit. Then sit before your altar. Breathe consciously for a few minutes, letting the scent of the incense permeate your body, inside and out, and allowing your cells to absorb the positive qualities of the incense. Perform this step until you feel present in your body, and in ritual space.
Record the following script in advance, or read it in ritual space:
Breathe deeply, allowing your breath to expand your chest, and then even more deeply, letting your breath expand your belly, your lower abdomen. As you breathe, allow the smoke of this special blend of incense to enter your body and infuse each cell with blessing. Let this magickal and sacred blend of scents fill you with love, purification, safety, healing, and connection with spirit. As you breathe, allow your body to become the sacred temple where you worship.
Once you are fully present in your body, open your eyes, and come present in the space. Take a moment to feel the energy you have already created by centering here in this sacred space. Say:
I am in sacred space.
(If you wish, all participants may say together: We are in sacred space.)
As you light the mother candle, say:
Lighting this candle, I invoke gratitude for the journey I have taken in the past seven weeks. I invoke sweet anticipation for the journey that continues on the other side of this threshold. I invoke self-dedication, self-adoration, and self-respect. I invoke the vows of the initiate: To know, to will, to dare, and to be silent. I have revealed deep mysteries within me, and found new ways. I will continue to deepen as I walk the path before me.
From the source candle, light your personal candle. As you light this candle, say:
As I light my flame, I drop deeper into the ME that I am becoming, and I know my body as a sacred, wonderful temple. A space sacred and powerful. A space where I know the truth of my own being. I drop deeper into that space inside where I have true self-devotion, where I know that each act of self-definition, self-love, and self-adoration is a sacred act. The place where I alone define the boundaries of my temple; this sacred temple that is me. From this awareness, I create the new worlds I am building.
(Witnesses may light personal candles as well. If so, instruct them by saying: You may now light your own candles, and make a prayer of whatever sort feels right to you.)
Consecration of Writing, Art, and Altar
Once your candle is placed on the altar, it is time to consecrate the items you created during the week. Lay whatever items you want to consecrate in front of the altar. You may compose your own words of consecration, or you can use the ones I offer here. Say:
I consecrate these works to the unfolding of self-awareness. May this act serve me, and may it serve all beings through the revelation of awareness. May my increasing awareness and presence serve to bring awareness of presence to all beings everywhere throughout space and time. So it is.
Take time to witness, honor, and cherish each item you are consecrating. Read your writing out loud if it feels comfortable (voicing words may add to their power). You may also want to pass the items through the smoke from the incense, or do some other act of purification and consecration.
If you feel inclined to add to your altar, this is the time to do it. What item from this week’s exploration would like to live on your altar for the duration of your initiation cycle?
Bead Consecration
After you have consecrated your artifacts, consecrate this week’s bead. Say:
I consecrate this bead in the journey of body-love. May it serve as a reminder to me that my body is a sacred space.
Now, take the stringing you have chosen, and string the beads. As you string them, you may speak aloud or just focus internally on what each bead represents. Once finished, hand th
is talisman of initiation to one of your witnesses.
WITNESSES ONLY READ OUTLINE PAST THIS POINT!!!
NOTE: WITNESSES, READ THIS WHOLE SECTION IN ADVANCE OF THE RITUAL DATE! It will be helpful to read the whole section titled “Ritual Seven: Goddess in the Mirror (Completion),” if you are willing, and if you are interested, you may also read chapter seven, “The Seventh Initiation: The Mirror and the Path.”
As witness to this initiation rite, your most important and abiding job is to stand as witness for this initiation. As witness to the initiate’s vows, it will be your responsibility in the future to support the initiate in striving to achieve and maintain her vows.
Your other job is become witness/Priest(ess) for the following section of this rite. You will allow the initiate the experience of entering her unknown future, and being born again into her own empowerment. The initiate has been instructed to expect surprises and to surrender to the process of her initiation.
The initiate will choose two directions—one for her gateway to her new future, and one for the home of her new path. In the gateway quarter, you will guide the initiate, blindfolded, to step over the broom. Stepping over the broom is a symbol of beginning on the path of the initiate, of crossing the threshold into a new phase of life.
During the Mirror Ceremony later in the ritual, all witnesses will have an opportunity to speak to their experience of the initiate’s unfolding over the course of her initiation. It is not necessary for witnesses to write a testimony or statement in advance, but you may do so if you prefer having something prepared. Otherwise, each witness can just speak from his or her heart. Each should speak to their experience of the initiate’s recent growth as she stands before the mirror, in addition to witnessing her vows of initiation.
What the Witness(es) Will Need
• A blindfold for the initiate. This doesn’t need to be fancy, just functional. You can use a sleeping/relaxation mask (available for a few bucks at most drugstores and superstores, and at some beauty-supply boutiques), a strip of cloth, a bandana, or a silk scarf. Try the blindfold on yourself to make sure it will block sight.
• You will need to know the directions (north, east, south, and west) in the space where the ritual will be held.
• Ideally, a Witches’ besom (broom), but the plain old kitchen variety of broom works, too. (The broom, when held parallel to the floor, becomes a symbol of the threshold. As practitioners step over the broom, they step through the doorway into their new lives. It also represents a “clean sweep,” and new beginnings.) If you want to get really fancy, you can gift your loved one (the initiate) with a Witches’ broom that’s a real keeper. You may want to decorate a sweet little broom with herbs, dried flowers, and ribbon. This could become a treasured keepsake for the initiate that will remind her of this day for years to come.
• A full-length mirror that is freestanding or can be leaned against a wall. This mirror should be set up before the ritual, and covered with an opaque cloth so the initiate doesn’t expect to confront it.
How-To
• Read through this outline in advance, and make a copy for each of you to have on hand during the section of the ritual you will be performing.
• Find out what directions the initiate has chosen for her path to take, and as her home. Place the broom in the path direction, and the mirror in the home direction, in advance of the ritual, according to the initiate’s desired directions.
• The initiate will have given one of her witnesses some items: her vows, empowerment contract, initiation talisman, and devotion oil. These items should all be placed near the mirror. One of her talismans—a string of beads—will be created in the flow of the ritual. This should be placed with the other items listed here.
Preparation for Trust Walk and Mirror Ceremony
After the initiate performs her consecration of artifacts and altar, instruct her to sit in silence, close her eyes, and focus on the work she has done. One witness says:
Close your eyes, and allow yourself to remember all the wonderful, challenging, amazing, fun, revelatory work you have done in the past weeks. Feel who you are now, and how you have changed. Recall the moments of challenge, and the moments of insight. Let the new ways that you have found settle into your body, and make room for further growth. Allow yourself to look into the future, and notice how these changes will keep rippling through your life as you walk upon your path, more clear now than it has ever been, even as it is still shrouded in the mystery of the unknown.
As one witness speaks, another witness blindfolds the initiate. The initiate has not been told this will happen, but has been told to expect some surprises and to trust in the process.
Trust Walk, Leap of Faith
Note: This section and the next are good ones for the initiate to perform naked. If she is comfortable with this, please ask her to disrobe while still blindfolded.
Two witnesses walk up to the initiate, and ask the direction she has chosen for her path to take. (Remember, the witnesses will need to know where the north, east, south, and west are in the space the ritual is being held in, and should already know what the initiate’s answer will be. Place the broom and mirror in advance. Still ask the question in ritual space, and allow the initiate to answer.)
Walk the initiate to the direction, still blindfolded. At the appropriate “gate” (direction), both witnesses kneel down and hold the broom, symbolizing the threshold, and instruct the initiate to step, alone and blindfolded, into the unknown. Guide her if need be, but allow her step over the threshold unaided, if possible.
Goddess in the Mirror
Next, the witnesses guide the initiate to the mirror, and before removing her blindfold, they remove the mirror’s cover. One witness removes the initiate’s blindfold. Once the blindfold has been removed, instruct the initiate to behold herself in the mirror. One witness says:
Behold, the initiate. This woman has worked to claim her voice, has cried tears of purification and gratitude, has laughed, and has learned to love herself in all her imperfect perfection. She has chosen her path, and that path has lead her home to her own being.
As the initiate looks in the mirror, another witness (preferably the one most intimate with the initiate) anoints the initiate. Use the devotion oil for all the anointings if the initiate is unclothed. If she is clothed, use water on all the parts clothed, using the oil only on the unclothed parts.
Anointing
1. Wet finger and anoint the feet. Say:
Blessed are your feet, which walk the Sacred Path.
2. Wet finger and anoint the knees. Say:
Blessed are your knees, which touch the earth in humility and gratitude.
3. Wet finger and anoint the pubis, or the genitals if you are intimate enough with the initiate. Say:
Blessed is your sex, which brings the gifts of pleasure and creation.
4. Wet finger and anoint the womb. Say:
Blessed is your womb, the seat of life.
5. Wet finger and anoint the solar plexus (stomach region). Say:
Blessed are your power and presence.
6. Wet finger and anoint the heart chakra (sternum). Say:
Blessed is your heart, which loves with strength and beauty.
7. Wet finger and anoint the throat. Say:
Blessed is your voice, which says what must be heard.
8. Wet finger and anoint the lips. Say:
Blessed are your lips, which speak the words of power.
9. Wet finger and anoint the third eye (center of forehead, just above the brow line). Say:
Blessed be your vision, which sees the way things are, and the way things may become.
10. Wet finger and anoint the crown (top of the head). Say:
Blessed be your crown, where you and all of creation are one.
11. Step back and say:
/> Blessed are you, and blessed is your presence on the earth. Blessed is your body, your soul, and your spirit. Blessed is the world that you create, and blessed is your path in that world.
Vows
A witness hands the initiate her vows. Then, all witnesses flank the mirror. A witness says:
Do you have vows?
The initiate responds in the affirmative.
The witness says:
We are here to witness these vows, but these are vows you make to yourself. As you take these vows, look into the mirror and commit your vows to the person you are becoming.
The initiate reads her vows, looking at herself in the mirror.
Empowerment Contract
Once the initiate finishes reading her vows, the witness holding her empowerment contract hands the initiate her contract and a pen (which should be retrieved from the altar). The initiate signs her empowerment contract.
Talisman(s) of Initiation
Once the initiate finishes signing her contract, the witness holding her talisman(s) hands it/them to the initiate, and instructs her to put it/them on.
Honoring of Initiate
As the initiate continues facing the mirror, the witnesses honor her with blessings, compliments, and gratitude for her work, her growth, and her self-commitment. The initiate may look at the witnesses as they speak, but her attention should primarily be on watching herself be adored by those she loves and respects. Before beginning the honoring, a witness should say:
Allow us to honor you. As we speak, watch the image in the mirror. You are a woman worthy of worship, and we are here to worship you. We are here to honor your growth, your commitment to your growth, and your beautiful unfolding.
Once the witnesses are done with the Honoring, a witness offers the initiate the chalice of wine, with this blessing:
To know, to will, to dare, to be silent.
Another witness offers cake/cookie/scrumptious morsel, and says:
Blessed is the fruit of thy womb.
Blessing of Treats, Water, and Wine
The witnesses should ask the initiate in advance of the ritual if she would like to bless the food, water, and wine. (If she doesn’t, one of the witnesses will.) This section may be conducted in silence or near silence, aside from the blessing, or you may continue to honor the initiate as you eat and drink. The initiate may also be prompted to share some of her experiences after the blessing, while all participants eat and drink. A witness or the initiate says:
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