The first step towards working with the weather lies in understanding it. To do this it is helpful to observe it carefully. Not just whether it is raining or not, but by looking at the direction and strength of the wind, and the shapes of the clouds. Use your other senses too; quite often you will find that there is a smell similar to moist earth just before rain comes, or that the air tastes different before snow, and so on. Personally, I also find that my nose becomes very cold when rain is on the way! Look, too, at other indicators: quite often animals and small children behave in different ways before a change of weather. If you live in the country you will probably be aware that livestock tend to lie down before rain, and huddle together when it is going to get colder. Certainly, children become more excitable and restless before the wind picks up, as any observant parent or teacher can tell you. Practise looking at the sky and the signs regularly and you may save yourself getting caught out by sudden changes in weather.
Once you are attuned to the weather and the seasons then you can consider working magic to make change when you truly need to.
Weather Workings
Most people are familiar with the children’s chant ‘Rain, rain, go away, come again another day.’ Or its variant, ‘Rain, rain, go away, come again by night not day.’ Both of these can be worked as spells, so long as they are performed with balance, focus and intent.
To perform them effectively, as with all spells, invoke the Elements and call upon the Goddess and the God. Say either of the spells three times, whilst actually being outdoors in the rain. Remember to dismiss the Elements and thank the Goddess and the God afterwards, and expect results to be soon but not necessarily immediate.
A similar spell goes, ‘The clouds are sheep, the wind their shepherd. Shepherd, take your sheep away.’ This is intended to remove both clouds and rain.
To raise a wind, perhaps to dry washing, stand with your back to whatever air movement there is, and blow three times whilst focusing on a gentle increase in wind.
‘Delayed magic’ can also be worked. It used to be common, but is now much less so, for sailors to ‘buy the wind’ from a Witch. The Witch would tie three knots in a cord, which the sailor could untie at need. The first is for a breeze, the second for a wind and the third for a strong wind. In this case, the Witch would have used magic to visualize and tie each form of wind into the cord, so that it could be later released.
Every Coven I know of has its own weather worker, usually the person who shows most natural skill at this kind of magic. It is their task to try to ensure that conditions are as good as possible when outdoor rituals are intended. This form of ‘in advance’ magic is worked keeping in mind the seasonal norm, for instance, if it is winter then the spell is worked to make the Ritual site a little warmer and drier than might be expected. The worker will visit the site in good weather, then when they need to work the magic they will use all their experiences of that visit to create a spell which comes as close as possible to the preferred weather. This is not to say that Witches avoid the cold or wet, for we are nature based, but some places can be unsafe if it is particularly inclement. Likewise, there are some events which can be nearly intolerable if it is too hot; I have tried to do a dance and chant workshop in brilliant sunshine, but I’d rather not!
However, knowledge and understanding of the Elements is simply the first step towards working effective magic, so I’d like to move on to some of the other steps.
CREATING THE POWER TO MAKE MAGIC
Magic doesn’t just happen because you say the ‘right’ words or go through the ‘right’ movements. Nor is it cookery; simply putting the ‘ingredients’ together to get a result. There is more to the practice of effective magic than simply assembling the ‘right’ tools, equipment, candles and crystals and saying the ‘right’ words. For spells and magic to work they have to have energy, which is also needed to focus and send the magic to its intended destination. Much of this energy comes from the person working the magic, which is why magical working is usually quite tiring. Indeed, if you are not tired after working magic, then you are probably not putting enough of yourself into it.
The energy used in magical working comes from outside as well as from within. It is in part the energy of the Elements, which we discussed in the first chapter. But it is also that of the Goddess and the God who we call upon when we create the Sacred Space. But most of all, it is our own personal energy which can be harnessed and directed. This is often referred to as magical power, and the techniques to access it are called raising power. However, it is important to realize that we are not talking about power, or control, over others, but control of ourselves to create power for use in magical working.
We all have magical power within us, but it is usually dormant until we learn to access it. For many people it is also suppressed in our younger years, as demonstrating any ‘unusual’ ability has been, for a long time, considered not ‘nice’. It is thought by some that it is the combination of this suppression and the hormonal changes of adolescence which gives rise to poltergeist activity. For some people, their first experience of magical power can be when they find themselves in extreme circumstances, much in the same way that some people exhibit ‘superhuman’ strength when a loved one is endangered. However, this is not an effective way of dealing with the day-to-day magic which we want to practise. Moreover, it is usually harder to maintain the focus and control needed when in the grip of extreme emotion. So we need to learn how to harness this energy when we wish.
WAYS OF RAISING ENERGY
Whilst magical power is inherent in everyone, some people find it easier to harness than others. Because of this there are a number of techniques which are often recommended. Since the time of Gerald Gardner these have sometimes been grouped together and called the Eight-fold Path, although that actually encompasses more than eight different methods. Some of these are more appropriate for achieving a state of altered consciousness than for actually raising energy for magical working. Here I will give the Eight-fold Path as it is usually depicted, but will discuss its components separately. All of them are intended to create a state of altered consciousness, but it is important that this is controlled, otherwise the practitioner will not be able to focus and control the power.
1 Meditation or concentration
In meditation, the mind is focused solely on a single objective, to the exclusion of all other thoughts. For some people this comes very easily, for others it can take months of regular practice to be able to achieve it. Unless you have a very strongly developed will, or in exceptional cases a very strong feeling attached to your magic, then meditation and concentration are rarely enough to raise power for magical work. However, as meditation and visualization are both crucial to the working of effective magic, and not just to raise power, chapters four and five deal with them in some detail.
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