City Magick: Urban Rituals, Spells and Shamanism - Christopher Penczak 2001

Ritual
The Three Rs

City magick, country magick, or any other magick consists of making something happen. By making a change on the subtle levels, these other levels of reality, you make changes here in the physical world. Ritual is a tool to accomplish change. Some rituals are pretty powerful in themselves, but in essence, any ritual is simply a way for you to contact and raise energy. You then program this energy with an intention and the energy fulfills the intention you give it. Casting a spell is programmimg energy with an intent and releasing it. Spells are a lot like computer programs. You build them privately, with a general intent. Let’s say the intent is money: I want more money. You then program in the specifics: I want seven hundred dollars to pay my rent. Then add certain restrictions: I need the money before the first of next month. I usually add a safety net: This spell won’t work if it hurts anyone in the process, including me. I could get hit by a bus and collect the money from the insurance company, but I don’t want to end up in the hospital. Magick is not moral in and of itself. It is neither good nor evil. Any energy is neither good nor evil. Energy and magick are potential. Like a computer program, they work within the parameters you give them—no more, no less. Just because some company’s computer platform may have a lot of bugs in it doesn’t mean it’s evil. Well, some might argue it, but ultimately, the program is only working with the codes it is given. Blame the creator, or the spell, or the program, not the construct itself.

While the analogy of the computer code is all fine and good, I don’t have a magical computer. So how do I use this? The vehicle to implement a magical program is ritual. A ritual starts with the practitioner in a trance state. It can be a light alpha state or a deep trance state, depending on what needs to be done in the ritual. Anything that requires attention to detail, like burning incense, reading words, drawing symbols, or lighting candles, may require a light meditative state, like the daydream, because you still have physical control over your body. You do not want to be deep in a sleeplike trance or on out-of-body state for this. Once in an altered state, you can, through ritual, perform actions to raise, program, and release energy.

Raising energy requires knowledge of what energy is needed. Energy comes in many forms. You can use the energy of Earth. You can call upon the four elements of land, air, fire, and water. Astrological magick is popular, beckoning the powers of the planets and signs. Specific symbols, spirits, totems, gods, and goddesses have specialties. Some may be able to help you in ways that others can’t. Your intention rules everything. Research the powers you need if you are not already familiar with them. If you continue to seek power in the cityscape, you will find the spirits and powers there. Develop a relationship with them.

In the basic neopagan traditions I use, the magick circle gives you a great basis for ritual. The circle ritual can be modified to fit any tradition with a little creative engineering. In this ritual, you will visualize a circle around you. The circle is for protection. It is a place between reality levels where you can gather different energies, program them, and release them to work for your goal.

Magick Circle Ritual

The circle is a prominent symbol, signifying the neverending cycles of life and death, the very egg of life, the portal to other worlds, the shape of the planets, and the orbit around the Sun. Each culture has modified the circle, adapting its meaning to their changing needs. Many tribal cultures start their ritual and story times with the group sitting in a circle. In the Western world, we mimic ritual stories at our weekend nature retreats, gathering in a circle around a campfire. Witches gather in a circle, under the light of the Moon. They dance in the circle to raise their power. Modern witches, like ritual magicians, call upon the four elements to balance the circle and to guard and protect them. The guardians in each quarter may change with the tradition. Names vary—Witch’s Circle, Magick Circle, Moon Circle, or Magician’s Circle. Native American traditions honor the four directions in the Medicine Wheel.

Those who practice magick have long known the power of the circle. The circle holds energy during a ritual. Here, as you raise energy, it will build to a crescendo. Energy can be raised through ritual, dance, visualization, concentration, masturbation, or sex. Once released, the energy from the circle will fulfill the spells cast. The circle, when made correctly, protects the user from harm during the ritual. I actually visualize the circle becoming a sphere once it is cast. This globe of light and energy blocks out all unwanted forces. Only the spirits and energies called upon can enter the circle. I call only for those coming in perfect love and perfect trust, in complete harmony with my magical intentions. You qualify the energy you want in your space by charging the circle with those intentions. By calling on the four elements of earth, air, fire, and water, and the guardians of the four elements, you invoke added protection and balance.

The circle gives you a direct audience with the creative force, the mother/father spirit and grand architect of the universe. You don’t have to go through many middlemen. Even when you are calling upon other forces, gods, spirits, or elements to fulfill your spell, the magick circle communicates your intention to the grand architect of the universe, assuring approval of your new project. From that approval, your desires will be worked into the plan of the universe. Sometimes, I am just as thankful to have a spell rejected when it’s not for my highest good. I usually ask that each spell be for “the good of all involved, harming none including myself.” That way, if it doesn’t work, its very faliure may be in my best interest. I usually don’t dwell on spells that don’t work, because the majority of them do.

Start by cleansing the space where you will be working. Just as you protect yourself from harmful energy and psychic pollutants, you must similarly cleanse your workspace. This can be done by burning a cleansing and purifying incense like sage, lavender, frankincense, or myrrh. A simple way to cleanse it is to visualize a cleansing light in the space. What color felt most pure to you? Most people use white, violet, or purple light and ask that all harmful energies be removed.

To create the circle, visualize a ring of white light being drawn around you, filling your space. Traditional measurements are usually seven, nine, or twelve feet in diameter, but in the confines of an apartment, use what space you have. The boundary of the circle passes through walls, floors, and ceilings, but that’s okay. Just visualize it wherever it has to go to be a perfect circle of light surrounding you. Even if you can’t draw a perfectly round circle, just visualize it as perfect.

Start drawing in the north, and make three complete circles with the intention of creating sacred space. Sacred space is simply a temple, created etherically in this case. In the temple, your connection to the powers of the universe are emphasized. I strengthen my circle by casting it three times. I come from a Celtic witchcraft background in which most things are done in threes. It helps to make the circle more stable in my mind and others who practice with me can feel this circle, this energy field, more distinctly when it’s done three times. I use three intentions, one with each pass. The first is for protection.

I create this circle to protect us from all forces coming to do harm.

The second is to qualify the energy.

I ask for only those energies coming in perfect love and perfect trust, in complete harmony with my magical intentions, to enter this circle.

The last is manifestation.

I create a sacred temple beyond time and space, between the worlds, where my magical intentions will manifest. So mote it be.¹

Many traditionalists use a magick wand, blade, or staff to trace the perimeter of the clockwise circle, but you can use your finger, the movement of your eyes, or pure visualization to accomplish the task. The clockwise motion is for those in the Northern Hemisphere. The circle is an energy field, and its magnetic aspect plays a role. I usually start in the north or east when casting. For those in the Southern Hemisphere, you may want to start in the south and cast the circle counterclockwise. The mechanics are much like the corollas effect, where water in the Northern Hemisphere empties from a drain in a counterclockwise direction, while in the Southern Hemisphere, it spirals clockwise as it flows from the drain.

Once in the circle, you can gather your power. Many practitioners take this opportunity to call upon the god and goddess in a gen-eral sense, or any gods, goddesses, elementals, or spirits that may help specifically with the spell. To balance the circle, I call upon the four quarters, marked by the four elements. Each tradition has a different way of assigning the elements to the directions. It doesn’t matter, as long as you use all four and do so with respect and honor. In each quarter, you can call upon a guardian in harmony with the direction or element. A guardian is a spiritual helper who will aid the process and, if asked, protect you from any harm. I call on at least four of them per circle. A guardian can take the form of a spirit guide, totem animal, god, goddess, angel, saint, or alien. You don’t have to meet them in your meditations first. I’ve called on the four archangels without working with them much in my meditations. If you use respect and ask them to come only in love and trust, you can ask anyone who is right for your spell to join you.

Table 1. Traditional Correspondences.

Start in the north and, moving clockwise, invite these beings to your space.

To the [direction], I ask the element of [name the element] and [name the archangel/totem/deity] to be with me, to guard, guide, and witness this magick.

If you are not familiar with any of these beings, simply start at the north and ask the powers of the north to join you for aid and protection. Continue to the east, south, and west. As we delve deeper into city magick, we will talk about specific beings upon whom you can call, beings drawn directly from the cityscape.

Once all the powers have gathered, I then see the circle turn into a sphere, a bubble containing energy. To psychically “stoke” the flames I have called into being, I visualize the ball getting brighter and more intense as the energy grows. You can use movement, song, or intention to build the energy, then program it with your will. You can write out your intention and read it in the circle. Burn the paper in a flameproof cauldron, tear it up, or bury it. My previous intention might be worded like this:

I ask the goddess and god that I receive seven hundred dollars to pay my rent before the first of next month. I ask this harm no one in the process, including me.

Your intention should be simple, direct, and clear. Once the energy is programmed with your intent, you are ready to release it. Through the ritual, you raise the cone of power, directing the beam of energy infused with intent through reality like a shot, a signal flare petitioning your needs to the universe. You raise it by raising your hands to the sky and visualizing the energy being released. Then let go of your intention with your conscious mind. Do not hold on to it, or your thoughts will sap its energy, bringing it back to you, and undermining your spell. As with the computer program, if the designer continually tinkers with the program, it will never run. You may lose momentum in your project, leaving it unfinished. If you let it run, however, regardless of the little glitches and worries, you will probably get the results you want. Be at peace and confident that your spells are at work.

After raising the cone of power, make sure to ground yourself and release whatever energy remains into the earth. Return the energy with the intention of healing for Earth and all who are a part of her. Then release the circle and close the sacred space.

To release, start in the north and thank and release all the powers that have joined you, moving counterclockwise. Thank each quarter’s element and guardian and release them from the circle, with respect, honor, and gratitude. These are guests in your space and should be treated as such.

Once the four quarters have been released, retrace your circle in the direction opposite to how you cast it. Visualize the energy dissipating, fading away, going back into your wand, or expanding infinitely across the cosmos, working your magick. A good magick worker is one who can not only call up powerful energy, but one who also knows how to release it.

Other rituals have the same basic elements. The act of focusing on the circle is not mandatory. The circle is only a useful tool. Other ritual techniques, including candle burning, drawing symbols, crystals, herbs, or other tools, can be used in conjunction with, or in place of, the simple petition and circle ritual. I have gotten great results using them together.

In an act of sympathetic magick, by making the smaller action in accordance or in sympathy with what you desire, you create change. To program energy with intent, you can use a voodoo doll. By sticking a pin where there is illness, you program the energy to destroy the illness. You can use two candles to represent two people coming together in love magick. You can drop a dirt-covered stone in a bowl of water to purify your energy and spirit while in ritual. You can put your intent into a small bag of herbs and carry them with you as a talisman. All these acts program energy.

Using these ritual techniques with an urban slant will be explored later. For now, get a feel for the way magick works. Each ritual gathers energy, programs it with an intent through any combination of words, visualization, or action, and then releases that energy to do its work, like the computer running a new program. The tools and techniques are helpful, but, in the end, your intent is what matters.

The three Rs—reality, rapture, and ritual—are the basic building blocks of most magical work. They are the core from which your traditions can be built. You can modify the exercises given here to fit your personal needs, or throw them out completely and work with a method that resonates with you. If you are already practicing magick, these concepts are probably familiar to you, and you can modify your own meditations and rituals to fit your work with the city spirits.