Lesson Eight: Discovering Sacred Space
Basics of Witchcraft
by Jeffrey Pierce
We're almost there, a single step away from spreading our wings, catching the wind, and soaring into the sky. You may be excited about the progress you're making. You may be discouraged as the exercise are taking longer for you to complete than you thought they would. You may feel like, if you have to record one more thing in your notes, you're going to go absolutely insane. But let's look for a moment at what you've accomplished so far.
You've learned the elements of ritual. You now have a complete personal guide to creating any ritual, from a simple rite to the most complex ceremony imaginable, at your fingertips. You have developed the ability to visualize and connect to specific types of energy, regardless of whether it's from the sun, the moon, a memory, or an elemental concept. You can create altars, both to represent your growth on this path as well as for use in your rituals. And you have recorded every step along your way.
Witches often keep a book, half magickal journal, half reference manual, which is commonly referred to as a Book of Shadows. You may hear it referred to as a Grimoire in some circles and I refer to my personal version as a Book of Lore. As you begin looking around the pagan community, you'll find that most are filled with things copied from other sources; a poem here, a table of correspondences there. What you have done, by recording each step along your way, is begin the process of writing your own. By the end of this guide, you will have an in-depth book that covers each and every topic you will approach in the normal course of your practice. This is something that you can continue to add to, that will continue to grow as you do. When you begin to work with students of your own, you will find this reference invaluable as you seek to relive the steps you took along your own path. Your notes may take a little reorganizing to put them in the format you want, but all of the information will be there.
This leaves us with one final step, one final component to add before we move into more advanced applications. We have all the tools we need at this point to create a personal practice. We understand ritual and symbolism and we understand how to apply it. The only thing we require now is a physical location to use as sacred space.
It is absolutely necessary that you apply portions of this guide outdoors. It doesn't have to be deep in the wilderness as I have done. It can be on a favorite stretch of beach, in a park near your home, in a field you played in as a child, in your backyard, or in your garden. At the very least, you should develop an indoor location around a window you can open and fill the surrounding area with plants, a portion of which have a natural lifecycle that sees them die yearly in your environment. But even if you are forced to stay indoors (for instance, if you live in an unsafe, urban environment), I would encourage you to travel somewhere extremely rural at least every other month, in all seasons.
The word pagan comes from the Latin "paganus" which literally means "country people." Paganism is a process of reconnecting with nature, growing to understand the cycles of life and the world around us. We cannot reconnect if we don't venture out and immerse ourselves in this energy.
Nature can be found anywhere. I lived in downtown Baltimore, Maryland for almost three years, surrounded by paved streets and tall buildings, not trees and open spaces. The cycles of nature and the seasons are present even in the heart of an urban center. But you will be limited without an outdoor area to work with and you will have to skip over certain areas of this guide which will become obvious to you.
Exercise Seven: Discovering Sacred Space
The most powerful aspect of the path I teach is adopting and working with an outdoor sacred site. A sacred site is an area where natural energy is attracted, where it pools into a deep reservoir that you can draw from. To work with such an area requires that you think of it, not as a tool you can use, but as holy ground, similar to how a Christian would perceive a cathedral or other holy site.
Before you begin to seek out such a place, begin to think of the things you need from the location. It must be semi-private as you will be using it both for meditation as well as for the rituals you create. It must be somewhere that you feel comfortable; a park known for its high crime rate is just as hazardous as forest during hunting season.
If you do choose to seek a place in the wilderness, there are additional things you must keep in mind. You will have to practice fire safety should you use candles or build a campfire. If you live in an area with large predators, you will have to take appropriate precautions. It may even be advisable to avoid certain areas during specific times of the year. In all things, take care of your own needs first and always see to your own safety.
If there isn't anywhere rural that you can go in your immediate area, look for State or National Parks within driving distance of where you live. If you feel uncomfortable working alone in a wild place or don't have a car to get there, ask your local metaphysical bookstore if they have a bulletin board where you can post a request to work through the outdoor portion of this guide with another person. If there isn't such a store in your local area, try an on-line resource. If you don't have a computer, many public libraries are now hosting computers with Internet access. Go together, but I encourage you to work alone, even if it is only a short distance from each other. You can discuss the results on the drive home and begin to do ritual work together outside of this guide, but the lessons presented here will have the most impact if you work them on your own.
Once you have a potential area, it's actually a simple matter to find a site. There are a thousand clues that point out pooling natural energy. For instance, it can be a place that animals are attracted to. In the wild, you can look for a location where numerous deer or elk trails intersect; in an urban area, like your backyard, look for a place that cats, birds, and other urban animals seem to be attracted to. It can be a place where plant life is unusually lush and long-lived. A place where children are naturally drawn to run and play. Or you can use the most difficult method to locate the site.
You can trust your own instincts.
Go to the place and wander. Let your feet simply carry you. See if you are led in a certain direction and follow that subtle urging. When you stop, look around. Are you in a place where you would be comfortable working? Does it appeal to you? Does it present what you feel you need? Or do you feel drawn a little farther? If you seem to be drawn on, make note of the original place you've stopped. Sometimes our sense of adventure can pull us onward once we let it out and give it the chance to explore and you may find yourself needing to backtrack to the original site. When you've arrived in the correct location, you'll know. It might be a corner of your garden or the top of a mountain. Wherever it is, it will be uniquely suited to your needs.
Once you've found the place you're drawn to, it's appropriate to ask that you be allowed to use the site for your work. This requires two steps. First, introduce yourself and tell the energy of the site what you intend to be doing. You are going to be entering a partnership with the natural world and this will only work if both sides of the relationship are willing to participate. Once you've introduced yourself and explained what you're intending to use the site for, leave a small offering of food, about a teaspoon of birdseed or a similar sized piece of bread broken into smaller portions. Explain that this is your gift to the energy of the place and, if the site is willing to have you work with it, to signify this by accepting your offering. Once you've completed these two steps, leave. Don't return until after the next dawn, but within 48 hours of your offering. If the offering is untouched, you must move on and continue looking for a site. If it's gone or a noticeable portion of it has been eaten, you've been welcomed into the site and may feel free to work with it.
There are numerous reasons why your presence may not be accepted. It could be as simple as your presence would unbalance a fragile natural cycle or impact the local ecosystem in a negative way. Whatever the reason, don't be discouraged if your request isn't welcomed. The perfect site is out there waiting for you. It's just a matter of finding it.
We will work more with this sacred site in Phase Two of this course. We will heal it from any detrimental impact mankind may have had on it. We will consecrate it as holy ground. And we will learn to observe its natural cycles, learn from them, and use them to discover parallels in our own personal lives and practices. But for now, it's simply important that you find it, that you ask to work with it, and that you are accepted. Time may pass as your daily life intrudes. You may find weeks or months have gone by until you can return to the site. Don't worry that your acceptance has faded away. Nature turns with the rhythm of the earth. Our physical lives are merely the briefest instant to the natural world. The site will not forget you, your acceptance will not be withdrawn. The site will be waiting for you when you return to work with it.
The remainder of this guide will be divided between work we do at home (the hearth) and work we do outdoors at our sacred site (the Wild). Both have a number of important lessons to teach us as both represent different facets of our lives. There are countless parallels between our personal lives and the cycles of the world around us. It's a simple matter to tap into these resources and learn to use them to grow, both with this course as a guide, and later, when you've completed the lessons I've presented here and moved on to study on your own.