Creative Circle Casting

[Aidron]

I have never really discussed this with any other pagan so I'm naturally curious now that it has come to mind.

Not everyone has the luxury of having a sacred space they can physically walk around.

How do most of you combat that with your circle casting since almost every book on the market recommends you walk the circle?

I myself will often visualize the circle being erected without any movement or tool, or even my finger.

Other times I will simply spin clockwise (slowly, of course) and draw it with a finger or ritual tool.

[SylverStar]

When I cast a circle I do it all in my mind with visualization. No candles, movement, tools, ect.
But then again I like keepin things simple and I have strong visualization skills.

[Tess]

Depending on the nature of the ritual I'll either use a combination of movement (athame or wand), sound and visualisation, or I will simply use visualisation and no movement, sometimes with sound and sometimes without.
In some situations I have found that creating the circle as a whole, almost like an extending of the aura in one great explosion of light, can be just as effective as drawing a true circle. It is best for regular meditation and fixation work though, rather than full rituals which I feel need a formal drawing of the circle.

Tess

[TYRRHENUS]

Other times I will simply spin clockwise (slowly, of course) and draw it with a finger or ritual tool.

That is what i do.

[FeatherGoblinglimmer]

I visualize a circle of light all around me. I too sometimes spin round on the spot using my right hand to draw light around me. I have something i want to try out though next time i use one. Will post that if i feel it work:)s

[indigo rain]

this is off my website:

my concept of casting a circle is perhaps a little different from most. i see it as inviting all the powers of creation in order to harness these powers and create as the gods do. this, to me, is it's main purpose, not protection, though it does have protective properties. what kind of big nasty's going to mess with you when you're in a sacred space surrounded by the gods? being a follower of the kemetic gods, i wanted to fit them into the circle, correspond them with the elements. there are several ways the ancient egyptians assigned their gods to the directions, the four sons of Horus each having a direction, and the major goddesses being assigned to the directions. but as these correspondences were mostly geographical in nature, and i don't live in ancient Egypt, i decided to come up with my own. i don't think this is offensive to the ancient religion at all. in fact, the ancient egyptians were very accepting of new dieties and ideas, and if there religion had survived to today's society in larger numbers, think about how different it would be and how much it would have evolved? that said, what's the point of trying to perfectly reconstruct it? not to mention the impossibility of doing that very thing simply due to lack of accurate historical information. i love to take the ancient ideas and try to adapt them to the modern world as they would be if the ancient society had itself survived to today.

I use the deities of the ogdoad of hermopolis. they were said to reside in the waters of chaos called Nun in the beginning before the creation of Ra. they were four frog gods and four snake goddesses paired, male and female, and since they were the source of all creation, it made perfect sense to correspond them with the creative powers of wiccan belief, the elements. In the east i call Amen and Amaunet, the dieties of invisibility, which i identify with thought and inspiration and the element of air. Heh and Hauhet, the dieties of infinity, which i see as endless potential and energy without form, are called in the south with the element of fire. In the west i call Nun and Naunet, the dieties of water. i identify water with emotion and movement, and of course, elemental water. And last, for earth in the north quarter, i call Kek and Kauket, the dieties of darkness, which i identified with transformation and the underworld. I then call Nun, the name of the waters of chaos, for the fifth element, spirit to the center. this creates a sort of primordial soup mix for creation, very conducive to magick.

In addition to calling the elements, i call father sky and mother earth, not personifying them. this forms a sphere instead of a circle, enclosing me completely, the top half above the ground, the lower half below.

as for the actual ritual of casting the circle, it's fairly simple. i purify the area with incense, frankincense is my favorite, then i visualize the circle's boundaries. some people trace it with an athame or wand, but i prefer to do ritual without tools. then i invite the elementals and the gods as described above. i like using three steps to create the circle, as it brings the symbolism of creation into play once again. it represents the god, the goddess, and their union, which brings about creation.

in addition to the creation symbolism, the purpose of the circle is also to hold the raised energies in a manageable area to be manipulated and worked with. it is then either released into the cosmos for worship or widespread effect or, an idea evidently original to me, contracted into an object or talisman in order to charge it. i say this idea is original to me as i have not read it anywhere else, but it's something i personally find effective.

[Cobalt Cobra]

I don't use a circle at all - I use a four sided pyramid!

Some ancient peoples believed that the pyramid shape focused energy and helped to amass great amounts of it.

I generally start by lighting my incense, candles, whathave you, then I shift conciousness to astral and create my pyramid there, in my own sacred space.

Then I kind of.. hrm.. go into both physical and astral (not a very good description, I know), and draw up energy in the physical in the same shape and size as the pyramid on the astral.

Then I call in the elements and ask for guidance and assistance from my guides and teachers.


I don't 'walk the lines' of the pyramid, I just raise up enough energy and construct the pyramid from the center of it. I let the energy radiate from all sides of me. This exercise also helps with energy awareness, I've found.

Also, the first few times I did the pyramid form instead of the circle, my cat FREAKED out and ran around the room a whole bunch then jumped onto the bed, to watch from a discreet distance. hehe.

[bluglass]

sometimes I envision myself standing with my arms down at my sides. I bring them straight out in front of me and imagine scribing a circle around me from front to back. Oh, I don't visualize my arms meeting in back of me but let the circle continue out of my finger tips when I have reached back as far as I can. Then I lower my arms to my sides. So now I have a cylinder around me. To get a totally closed sphere I imagine the circle of energy as a point under my feet extending to my finger tips and with straight arms I raise them over my head to close the circle.

Sometimes I just imagine I am reaching down to get hold of the energy point right under my feet and imagine I am bringing up two halves of a translucent, glowing sphere and close them overhead.

I usually think about the six directions as I raisd the circle somtimes inclining or turning my head to each direction and I meditate right to what I call the great spirit which I think of rather as the source of all energy, the totality of combined spirit both god and goddess but not in the form of a person. I try and maintain a rather kabbalisting concept of sof, ein sof and ein sof or.

I really have only done this when the kids or my husband and I are sick or if I am home alone or with the kids and get the feeling that there is bad energy around or if the kids cry out in their sleep. I usually raise a circle at night with the intention to lower or dissapate at sunrise since I haven't mastered how do lower the circle while I'm asleep. When the kids are sick or having a bad night usually they will seem calmer if I raise a circle around them so I have just left it up. I guess you could said I raise a circle to promote healing or ease sleep. I've never done so for any other reason that I consciously remember.

Denise

[TheeHeks]

When I cast a circle, I have the luxury to have a small table in my livingroom. This I use for my rituals. I am able to walk around it while erecting the circle, and while closing it.

Henny

[SylverStar]

C.C. I really like the pyramid idea. Four has always been a key number in most of my workings. Thanks for sharing