Grounding

When the spell has been bound, give attention to grounding the energy. 

This is necessary because magic is not an exact science; you rarely use exactly the same amount of energy that you raised for a spell, although you get better at this with practice.

If the spell has “taken,” there is probably at least a little loose energy knocking around in you and in your work space which needs to be grounded before you are done.

When you neglect to ground after magical work you are likely to feel the results throughout the next 24 hours or so; depending on how much surplus is zapping around, these can include restlessness, insomnia, fatigue, headaches, absent-mindedness, irritability, and proneness to accidents. 

Fortunately, there are some very easy ways to ground:

Eating: protein and complex carbohydrates, not sugar.

Physical connection with others: hugging, massage, sex.

Talking, laughing and joking.

Visualizations that root you in the earth, or centers you in the middle of the four elements. 

You can say, visualizing the elements around you, 

EARTH AND FIRE, WIND AND SEA, 

I AM THE CENTER OF YOUR CROSS, 

LIVE EQUALLY IN ME. 

You can ground yourself by paying attention to the four elements in your body--your breathing, your heartbeat which is your inner fire, your fluids and the weigh of your body on the earth. 

You can also use a grounding-cord meditation for this, feeling how the life energy of your spine connects you to the Earth.

Ground energy with a staff, wand or broom: place the tool upside-down on the ground and grasp it firmly, letting excess energy run through your hands and into the stick, and then down into the earth.

Bind the Spell

This is the critical step in casting a spell, and often not sufficiently understood. 

You have created an image of what you want to achieve, but it is real only within the sacred space "between the worlds" where you have created it. 

Now, with closely focused will, you must perform some symbolic act which will bring the image through to the material plane, and cause it to manifest physically. 

A spell works best if you know specific moment at which it is bound; you should plan in advance when this is to happen, and focus your will on that phase of the spell. 

There are a variety of ways to bind a spell:

Finishing the image: taking the final stitch, placing the final bead, and saying, “It is done.”

A verbal formula: for example,

WITH ALL THE POWER OF THREE TIMES THREE,

THIS SPELL BOUND AROUND SHALL BE,

TO DO NO HARM, NONE COME ON ME,

AS I DO WILL, SO MOTE IT BE.

Breathing life into the image, or empowering it with any of your bodily fluids.

Tying a knot, or the final knot in a predetermined number. An effective kind of spell is the Witch's ladder, a cord in which a magical number of knots are tied (3, 7, 9, 13, or 40) while the witch repeats her intention over and over with each knot.

Burning the image: the magical effect of fire is not to destroy but to transform.

Charging the image with energy conducted through your own body, using your consecrated blade, wand or just your hand: this is done especially with talismans and crystals.

Passing the image through the four elements, earth, air, fire and water. (Be careful not to damage something which you value or intend as a gift, by over-exposing it to heat or salt!)

Placing the image on a pentacle, or inscribing a pentacle on the image: the pentacle symbolizes Earth, and therefore manifestation.

Releasing the power build by the group:  spell will be done when the energy is sent off, either by the decision of a leader or by intuitive consensus.

Orgasm will bind the spell if you have been using sexual energy to raise power. Or, in true tantric tradition, it is especially effective to raise erotic power and then bind the spell by some other means.

A pre-determined natural event: you can program a spell to be bound at the rising of the moon, for example, or by some other event which will naturally and inevitably come to pass.

Reflecting the image in a mirror: a mirror is a gate between the worlds, and so you can bring an image into manifestation in this way.

Passing the image through a hole: if you have created an image on a small piece of cloth or paper, you can pass it through a stone with a hole, or a vertebrae bone, or a Chinese coin with a hole in it.

Note: an effective variation on spell-binding is to perform an initial action to charge the image, and then leave the spell to take effect on its own over a period of time. This is what you do when you light a charged candle, or give someone a charged talisman. It is always advisable to place a time-limit on the charge you give an object.

Create the Magical Image

This piece of the spell may happen at the same time as the raising of power, or it may come after, or before. For the sake of clarity, however, it is helpful to consider the two matters separately.

Using one or more of a variety of possible means, the Witch creates an image of what she wishes to make a reality.
Effective techniques include:

Graphic images: pictures, sigils or symbolic drawings, mandalas, sculptures, carvings, poppets, textile art, beadwork, metal work.

Tokens and talismans: these are frequently gifts for the person for whom the spell is being cast.

Candles can be chosen, made or carved with symbols of what you wish to attain.
Potions: magical intent can be added to something which has medicinal powers.

Visualizations or other kinds of mental imagery: Your skill at constructing vivid images in your mind is one of the most important elements in working magic, and one you should practice and hone over time.

Verbalizations of your magical intention, spoken or written, should be very simple and direct, and are most effective when combined with non-verbal activity or non-verbal sound.

Naming: if a picture or poppet, for example, is to represent a certain person for the purposes of your spell, it should be formally named.

Here again, more than one technique can be used in a single spell. Visualization and verbalization can go together, and the combination can be especially effective when a group builds a composite image, speaking and visualizing together as the power is raised. 

Raising Power

A Witch's power is raised from her own body. There are other ways to work magic that draw power from other sources, but our power is our own life force.

Ways to raise power for working magic include:

Dance and movement: most often in a circle, with mounting intensity.

Sound: chanting, singing, toning, drumming and other percussion methods. Traditional shamans, whose way of working is similar to that of western Witches, often use drumming, and often have personal songs of power that have been given to them by their sprits.

A chant or song of power often relates previous feats of magic that the Witch has performed.

Altered breathing patterns: deeper and/or more rapid than normal.

Incenses and other aromas:  The sense of smell has great magical power. Over time you can program yourself to respond to a certain scent in a certain way, and use a specific scent for a specific magical purpose. Roses for love, cinnamon for wealth, rosemary for protection--these are traditional associations, but any association that a Witch makes regularly in her own practice will be effective for the Witch who uses it.

Sewing, weaving, knotting: especially effective for building a charge into an object you are creating.

Erotic energy: you can build this alone or with a partner, in order to lend power to a spell.

Mind-altering substances: drugs and alcohol have had a time-honored place in the magical traditions of many cultures. However, because of the corrupt role which such substances more often play in our own culture, they are not a good starting place for a novice magic-worker.

Stimulating the skin by rubbing, massage, scratching, scourging. Power is raised by doing this just below the pain threshold, which varies from one person to another.

Power may be raised by more than one method for any given spell.

Invoke the Powers

 who will aid you in your work.

One approach is to enlist the aid of a Goddess or God who is likely to be  interested in the specific work at hand: Aphrodite for a love-spell, for example, or Brigid for healing.

Or call a Deity with whom you have a personal relationship.

Or call one of the Deities whose business is to aid workers of magic: Hecate in her aspect of Queen of Sorcery, Hermes who is opener of the way and patron of magicians, or Isis who won the arts of magic from Ra.

If you call more than one Deity for a particular spell, give some though to how and if they will work together. 

When you speak invocations and intentions in magic, it is important to speak them aloud, even when working alone. The difference between disembodied mental language and concrete, audible words can be the first step in bringing your intention through to manifestation.

The best approach is simple and direct. Tell the Goddess or God what aid you need, and why. Welcome the Deity with things known to give pleasure to that Power. A little research on mythology will go a long way; seek out traditional stories and images of the Deity in question for ideas about what they like.

And Now, the Circle is Cast

C

Back to the spell.

There are at least three reasons to cast a Circle.
One of the foremost rules of Witchcraft is to pay attention to what you are doing. The Circle has the psychological effect of focusing your awareness and calling your full attention to the work at hand. 

A well-cast Circle contains the power that is raised within it. You cast a Circle for the same reason that you close your windows of your house when you turn on the heat--to contain the energy you will raise so that it is given to  the work you plan to do, and not dissipated into the surrounding environment.

Finally, the Circle alerts the Powers that you will invoke that you are ready to receive them. 

There are as many precise ways to cast a Circle as there are Witches. Witches who work together on a regular basis, with specific Deities, will generally have a certain way that they always cast the Circle. Whether you work with others or alone, it is best to establish your system and keep with it again and again over time, to build its power.

The Robert Glass number that you hear in the above YouTube video is based on a Circle-casting taught by the great sorcerer Victor Anderson (although Glass does not credit, or perhaps did not know, the source). If you need instructions, this provides is a good way to start:

Face North and say: BY THE EARTH WHICH IS HER BODY,

Turn or walk around to the east while you visualize a veil of light falling around your working space, saying: BY THE AIR WHICH IS HER BREATH,

Continue around to the South, still visualizing the veil of light and saying, BY THE FIRE WHICH IS HER BRIGHT SPIRIT,

Around to the West, saying: BY THE LIVING WATERS OF HER WOMB,

And return to your starting place in the North, saying: THE CIRCLE IS CAST.

Once your circle has been cast, do not break it or your concentration until your work is done, except for a bona fide emergency. 

Bobby, here.

This is how I look when I come back from the groomer. Mrs. D. likes me to look like this. The way I look is of no consequence to me, however.

Going to the groomer is a real drag. You sit in a cage for hours and listen to other dogs complain. They give you a bath. You sit in the cage some more. By this time, you really have to pee, but they are not done yet. You have to stand on a table and get brushed and combed and trimmed and brushed and combed and trimmed and brushed and combed and trimmed, all this time you have to go pee and the other dogs are whining and carrying on. What a waste of a day.

This morning Mrs. D. got on the phone, and I could tell what she was talking about. Now I am under the sofa. Way, way back, where she can't reach. I am not coming out.