Not only in Wicca but in many pagan and magical traditions, a circle is used—it may be visualized, traced physically, or even marked with chalk or rope. According to the ritualistic tradition followed, this circle serves either as a protective boundary against external spiritual threats or as a way to accumulate the power of those within. All this is well-known; however, in the spirit of delving deeper, let us examine the rites of ancient religions in a more general sense.
Marking a circle with an altar candle, athame, water, salt, and incense are the initial steps to erecting a temporary temple—a sacred space where we honor our gods and commune with them. Drawing from concepts in The Myth of the Eternal Return (1951, 2013 reprint) by Mircea Eliade, I shall take the liberty to adopt a few ideas from this work that I have personally practiced and found strikingly similar to Eliade’s insights.
One of the main concepts is the non-temporal, non-earthly nature of a temple. In The Myth of the Eternal Return, Eliade writes:
“Let us keep in mind just one fact: every territory occupied for the purpose of habitation or use as ‘vital space’ is first transformed from chaos to cosmos; in other words, through ritual, it is given a shape that renders it REAL. Reality is sacred.” (p. 24)
“Any ritual, as we will see later, unfolds not only in a consecrated space—that is, one essentially different from profane space—but also in sacred time.” (p. 34)
The emergence of a world beyond this world, and a time beyond this time, is a result of erecting a temple within a common ritual, particularly in Wicca. To make use of this space, we transform the chaotic surroundings into a cosmos, an ordered reality, through the ritual act.
Here, emotion and intent are essential. In Synchronicity, Carl Jung says:
“Space and time seem to be psychically relative.” (p. 26)
“I defined synchronicity as a relativity of space and time conditioned by the mind. Rhine’s experiments show that for the mind, space and time are, so to speak, elastic.” (p. 28)
Many passages in Jung’s work mention intention, interest, and emotion as crucial elements in actions that can be deemed spiritual or magical. Therefore, it is our will and genuine desire to perform the ritual that truly allows us to trace a circle in our mind and consciousness (which is, in reality, an orb)—in other words, “to visualize it.” I once read, or perhaps thought, that magic is a burst of will manifested when the need is genuine.
Following this line of thought, creating a sacred space can be seen as an act of “cosmogony.” When we erect a temporary temple, we are re-enacting the primordial act of creation, and if this is the case, should we not refer to this creation as part of the ritual?
The Myth of the Eternal Return (p. 34) cites a Hindu proverb: “We must do what the gods did at the beginning. As the gods did, so do men.” This phrase summarizes the underlying theory in rites worldwide. This approach is found among both so-called “primitive” cultures and evolved civilizations.
Thus, a brief retelling of sacred history or myth at the start can connect us to the emotional state required. In Myth and Reality, Eliade also states:
“By the very act of recounting the myth, the deeds of supernatural beings and the manifestation of their sacred powers, the myth becomes the exemplary model of all meaningful human activities.”
“In most cases, it’s not enough to merely know the origin myth; it must be recited, its knowledge proclaimed. Yet that is not all: by reciting or celebrating the origin myth, one is infused with the sacred atmosphere in which those miraculous events occurred… mythic time is a ‘strong’ time, transformed by the active, creative presence of supernatural beings. By recounting the myths, we reintegrate ourselves into that fabulous time, becoming, in some sense, ‘contemporaries’ of the events, sharing the presence of the gods or heroes. In summary, we could say that by ‘living’ the myths, we step out of profane chronological time and enter a qualitatively different, sacred time.”
In simpler terms, if we are familiar with the collective mind, then a brief retelling of myth can help us attune to those eternal, conscious energy sources, or egregores—or, if preferred, deities. We briefly adopt the mindset of their earliest worshippers, those who first honored them.
The richer our pantheon is in ancient sacred history, the more imagery and symbolism we bring into our rituals, and the more connected we become. The Babylonians understood this and repeatedly recited their cosmogonic poem, the Enuma Elish, during the Akitu ritual, just to cite one example. From Eliade’s work, we can conclude that the magic of rituals lies in repetition.
The modern Wiccan rite should not differ in its logic from ancient rites: repetition of motifs works as a mantra, and if it benefits other religions like Tibetan Buddhism, why not for us?
A piece in the August 2016 issue of Reader’s Digest titled “These Magical Tricks Make Me Happy” mentions:
“When I focus on something concrete and REPETITIVE, parts of my parietal lobe activate—the same part of the brain associated with spirituality and which tends to activate during meditation and prayer.” (p. 38)
So the question becomes, how can we adapt these concepts and ideas to a Wiccan ritual? The answer is that, strictly speaking, we cannot. Wiccan rituals are traditionally established and do not seek to reconstruct the ancient religions. If we were to bring a devotee of Diana, a Druid from the first century, or a Germanic pagan to witness us drawing circles with a dagger, waving candles, drawing pentagrams with wooden wands, and sprinkling salted water while invoking the same deities they worshipped—complete with incense—they might be perplexed and wonder in their language, “What on earth are they doing?”
The sword and the cross erased nearly everything we might remember of pre-Christian rites. All that remains are the mythic accounts of their gods, which offer a glimpse of what we could consider a creed.
We understand that the Wiccan ritual is a newer, more adapted form (a “lighter” version?) of the rites from ancient and modern ceremonial magic, intended to invoke entities—in our case, the gods. (To those who doubt this, try downloading the PDFs of works by Pappus, Eliphas Levi, Aleister Crowley, among others, and compare their structures.)
So, how do we adapt mythology, or at least a summary of it, to rituals that already belong to an established tradition? The answer lies in a prologue.
A few words before beginning the temple-erecting ritual will enrich our intent, visualization, desire, and need to perform it. This will not alter the core of the ritual; instead, it will add richness in terms of images and symbols. And since these words are not part of the ritual itself, they can even be recited by a student, making the ritual more participative.
The richer our “creed” is, the more we have to say, to thank, to honor in the prologue.
Epilogue:
There are other elements in rituals with historical-anthropological and mythical parallels in humanity’s unconscious spiritual past. For example, the spiral dance practiced in some traditions symbolizes the cyclical nature of sacred time.
The Myth of the Eternal Return (p. 41) states, “All dances were originally sacred; in other words, they had a superhuman model. Choreographic rhythms find their origin outside of man’s profane life, whether they replicate movements of the totemic animal, the stars, or whether they constitute rituals in themselves.”
The Great Rite—the sexual union highlighting the magic of creation (optional in Wicca)—also has antecedents in deep ritual history. Known as the Hierogamy, or sacred union, it was performed by a king embodying the god with a priestess, repeating an ancient divine coupling of sky and earth. In the Akitu (Babylonian New Year) ritual, this sacred copulation occurred, with the king as Marduk and his divine consort Sarpanitum. Later, Christians condemned the Celtic “Marriages of Lugh” as heretical for their hierogamic nature. Similarly, the Yin-Yang, Sun-Moon dualities relate here.
Analyzing each anthropological aspect of rituals would be exhaustive. Enjoy reading and re-reading.
