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Sacred Space and the Circle
If you enter the heart of the teachings of witchcraft, at the core you will find the power
of sacred space. When I started, "sacred space" was just words in a ritual. No one really
explained the true meaning of that term to me. "Sacred space" was just a buzzword.
But as I kept saying it as a part of the rituals, I learned. Eventually, the layers of the mystery
were revealed to me. I finally understood what sacred space was all about.
Looking back on it, it seems so obvious, but the teachings I initially received didn't
emphasize the sacred aspects of the craft. Everyone around me was so afraid of using
the word "religion" or "spirituality"; so much was kept to the technical and philosophical.
And at the time, that's what I needed. My emphasis wasn't on the sacred. Now, in
my own teachings, I have a hard time divorcing myself from talking about the spiritual
path of witchcraft, because it is all part of what led me to my spiritual path. At the moment,
if you are like I was, you might not appreciate this. In fact, I can describe it at
length and with my own personal stories and meanings, but until you seek spirituality
out and start to experience it yourself, my words are meaningless.
I've contemplated not sharing these things, but letting my students figure it out for
themselves, as I did. I decided not to for one simple reason. For many people, the craft
of the witch becomes so focused on spellwork or memorizing rituals that even the
concept of the greater meanings and mysteries never cross their minds. The possibility
is not contemplated and explored because, for so many, it is unknown. Students will
still have to figure it out on their own, truly, because it must experienced.
All I hope to do is plant a small seed of awareness, and give you the means to be
your own gardener, the means to care for and nurture that seed. You can always
choose to grow something else. You can save the seed of truly understanding sacred
space for a later time, like I did. Or, you can grow it and make it flourish right now.
The choice is up to you.
Perfect Love and Perfect Trust
Sacred space is simply honoring the sacredness, the divinity, found in all things everywhere.
Through the ritual of the witch's circle, we mark a territory, a circle that can be
out in nature or in our bedroom, and recognize its sacredness. We acknowledge that
this space exists not only in the physical, but also in all worlds, and opens the doorway
between the worlds, to be in conscious communion with the sacredness on all levels of
reality. Our temple is said to stand not in any one world, but between the worlds, and
in all worlds. In our sacred space, there is no separation. Through it we partner with all
that is seen and unseen, through perfect love and perfect trust.
"Perfect love and perfect trust" were other buzzwords I heard in circle. Some traditions
used them. Others didn't. But no one really explained to me what these important
words meant, other than saying "sacred space" or "love and trust." I knew the
"perfect" was a big key to this mystery, but at the time, I was focused on the Moon,
and picking the right time to do my spells, rather than really understanding what I was
saying. I was told to say "perfect love and perfect trust," so I did, but didn't know why
and didn't really dwell on it.
Only once I ventured out of my safe world of Wicca did I really come to understand
these five important words. I developed a very eclectic view of the witch, looking
to all traditions, not just Celtic. I studied shamanism, energy healing, Kabalah,
yoga, reiki, flower essences, and herbs, purposely looking outside the pagan view.
Witchcraft became a vast umbrella for all these disciplines, since its philosophies gave
me a great grounding that I noticed many in the "New Age" world didn't have. As the
craft of the wise, I saw all these disciplines as part of witchcraft, though I soon found
out many did not.
Through this exploration of new techniques and philosophies, I found a common
thread: unconditional love. I wasn't big on the word "love." I thought it misused. So
many people say the word "love" but never really back it up with any meaning or intent.
As a songwriter, I thought of all the trite songs using the word "love," and how it
has lost its value. So I avoided the word in my creative work. Even in my Witchcraft I
class experience, I thought of self-love as self-confidence, assurance, and esteem. But
here the word "love" kept on popping up. I thought these New Age practices a holdover
from the 1960s, with vague concepts of free love and spiritual love, and started to question
if I was learning anything of real value. Then I felt the love.
Through various meditation workshops, one in particular about awakening the
heart chakra to unconditional love, I really felt it. I really awakened it. Like all things, I
entered a skeptic, but from the first moment, I felt heaviness in my chest. As the day
went on, it melted away and I left the weekend course dazzling, light, and with an
open heart. Not only did I feel this nebulous unconditional love coursing through me,
I had a sense that I am the love, too. Everyone is.
While reflecting on that experience in my Book of Shadows journal, I skimmed
through my notes and realized that the first time I felt this type of love was in the
witch's circle. It wasn't the same because I was not taught to really focus on it as a
witch. In the workshop, that was the purpose of the entire weekend. But it was present
in the first magickal circle, even if I had my eyes closed to it. I traced the teaching
of this unconditional love back, and the start of my personal thread was in witchcraft
classes, through perfect love and perfect trust.
Slowly on the intellectual level, I began to distinguish the difference between what
my society had been calling love, what I would later call personal love, and what the
mystics call unconditional love. Witches call it perfect love. Unconditional love is just
that: perfect, unattached, without limits and restraints. This love simply is, and to me
it is the binding force of the universe. In the ITOW, we covered the Hermetic principle
called the Principle of Mentalism, stating "We are all thoughts in the divine mind,"
meaning we are all part of a greater whole. I wish there was another principle stating
we are all pulses within the divine heart, because it is through this heart we truly feel
the unity, even though the mind can intellectually know it. With unconditional love,
you are loved simply because you exist. You are love.
With personal love, that is our relationship love, be it familial, romantic, or friendship.
There are often conditions to it and it sometimes seems to come with a struggle.
The dichotomy between unconditional love and personal love, what mainstream society
simply refers to both as love, pushed me to avoid the concept altogether. Unfortunately,
English often lacks the subtleties of other languages, particularly on the spiritual
concepts. Many other languages have separate words for differing kinds of love.
Perfect trust is a divine sense of knowing and security with the creative spirit, the
Goddess and God. We work actively to partner with the divine ones, through our magick
and meditations, realizing that we are all part of that divine mind. But when things
seem confusing, when our guidance isn't clear, when our magick isn't working as we
planned, and when we are suffering tragedy, we have a trust in the divine through our
knowing of being unconditionally loved. It isn't logical or rational, but when we truly
experience and know it, no personal challenge will ever be viewed the same way again.
Perfect trust runs both ways. As we have it through this unconditional love for the
divine, we know the Goddess and God have it for us. They trust us to fulfill our parts
of the pattern. We have infinite choices and freedom as to how we serve the large pattern
and fulfill our parts, but we trust that all actions can serve the greater spiraling
pattern of the universe.
Through practicing the rituals of perfect love and perfect trust, through creating
sacred space, we grow in our sense of connection and love. Even if we don't initially
feel it, it is there, growing and expanding in our awareness, until we are ready. We best
manifest our desires, our magick, through truly feeling our connection to the Goddess,
the God, and all the universe. We connect and create sacred space through the perfect
love and perfect trust the divine has for us, and we have for them. If everything is sacred,
all the time, and we simply do our rituals to open the door to a partnership with
the sacred, everything is therefore filled with this unconditional love, this perfect love
and perfect trust. All we have to do is open our eyes to it, in and out of our rituals.
The challenge we have, as those walking the spiritual path of witchcraft, is to inject
more and more perfect love and perfect trust, or sacredness, to all thoughts and actions
in our life, bringing it to every relationship and exchange. No small feat to accomplish,
but this is the path of enlightenment, taken one step at a time. As overused as the say-
ing may be, it truly is the journey, and not the destination, when walking the witch's
road.
The most important lesson I've learned in applying perfect love and perfect trust to
the world is that unconditional lov...
