Inspiration for my blog posts often come from some of the most unusual sources. Take this post for example. I’d finished a crochet project and went to grab my loom to start on a table runner for my kitchen table. As I prepared to place the warp on the loom, (I am a novice weaver having received my loom for Yule last year), I was trying to choose a sturdy warp thread for my project. I’d used a thin yarn the time before and it kept moving and stretching causing my weaving to be weak and uneven. As I readied the yarn I thought that in weaving, as in all manner of crafts, the warp, the foundation, needs to be strong so our creations can manifest the way we envision them. If the warp is weak, no matter of how well we weave in our weft, our cloth may unravel in our hands.
It is the same in Witchcraft and all forms of magickal practice. If our foundations are weak, our magick will never manifest in the powerful ways it should. The strong threads of practice and knowledge laid down before we spell cast will hold the weft of our herbs, stones, candles, all of our correspondences, in place, creating the firm yet pliable cloth of manifestation. But what does our magickal warp consist of?
Our warp, our foundations, are those things that we were taught as budding magickal practitioners. With each coven, grove, and circle, these foundation will vary but without them, we cannot move forward along our chosen paths. Without first learning, practicing and becoming adept at these foundations our magick may work – for a time – but we will never move past the “keep the fingers crossed and hope it works” phase. Below is a list of the “warp” that I share with my students. I believe that without these threads one cannot be expected to create a resilient, strong, beautifully magickal cloth – Witchcraft at its finest.
- Meditation – As I’ve said many times before, without learning to clear one’s mind, to focus and be present in the moment, our magick will be just as unclear and unfocused. Creating a daily practice of meditation and communion with Spirit and other realms can only enhance our magick. Not only does it help us to focus our Will and our Word, it has mundane benefits as well. Meditation aids in keeping our bodies and mind calm, relaxed, and healthy, making us better people and magickal practitioners.
- Grounding and Centering – If we are unable to both ground ourselves in the Earth, in the Universe, before we begin our workings and then ground any excess energy afterwards, we can not only do harm to ourselves (magickal hangovers come to mind) we may also do harm to our spell casting and those caught in the crossfire when our ungrounded magick decides to manifest wonky – Yes, wonky is a very technical term. The same goes for Centering. If we do not center ourselves, that is get in touch with our core, our magick, then we have no starting point for manifestation, no point of origin from which to move forward.
- Visualization – If you cannot see the warp threads as they move up and down with the heddle, you have know idea where to place the shuttle for the next pass of the weft. In other words, without being able to visualize what we want our magick to do, where to send it and how we see it manifesting our magick will not weave into the creation we envision. Instead it will move into the Universe haphazardly, without direction. Learning to visualize properly and hold that picture in your mind for ever increasing lengths of time, is another sturdy warp thread in your cloth.
- Energy Work – I cannot tell you how many time I’ve talked to people in working groups that have never had any training in energy work. How can one expect to manifest magick without the foundation of good energy work? If one does not know how to properly create, move, shape and then direct energy how can they be expected to confidently and consistently cast with the desired results? Practice your energy work daily until it becomes as natural as breathing. The results will be a magickal thread that will bind and shape your spell’s fabric into whatever you can envision.
- Ethics – Yes, this can be a controversial subject, but without our personal ethics how can we believe in what we are trying to create? My ethics will never be the same as your ethics, but until we understand ourselves, understand what we feel is right or wrong, or somewhere in between, our workings will take on that ambivalence and become wishy-washy, uncertain of how it should express itself. Its true in all aspects of our lives, we must believe in where we are coming from before we can go anywhere. It’s like standing in the center of an amusement park, with rides all around you. If you don’t know that you get motion sickness easily, then you may end up on a ride that makes you so ill that you are unable to ride on any others or even enjoy the rest of your day. Ethics allow us to make the moves that are right and correct for us – not any one else – just us.
I feel that these five fundamental points are crucial for every magickal practitioner. Yes, I do have several others that I share in my introductory classes, but without these five, magick has no where to start. You may be an extremely powerful, natural-born witch, druid, wizard, but until you warp your loom of creation with strong threads, you may end up with a beautiful mess. Take the time, the effort, to give yourself a rock solid foundation from which to begin your weaving and your magick will flow from your fingers, creating the world you desire.
Blessed Be!
