Up with the *POOF* down with the ~CrIcK~

I was fifteen when I first learned of the word Pagan/Wicca. I went to a large rural Highschool in Huntersville, North Carolina. I was a bit of an outcast and hung out with a lot of the intellectuals and artist. School was a half day, so My friend Amanda D. invited Laramie W. and I over to her house. She lived right across the rail road tracks about a half mile from school. Amanda's home was an old wooden white farmhouse behind a larger plantation house. It was nestled by a mossy green pond and tall old pines. Her father was an artist and her mother a nurse. They were more liberal compared to my parents in the respect of they allowed Amanda to decorate her room as she chose. Coming to Amanda's room was my first experience with the eclectic nature of pagan/wiccans. The walls where black, covered with drawings and paintings directly on the plaster. Clippings from magazines and posters of all kind where stuck in, leaving the walls covered. She had a bookshelf full of books with titles I had never heard of. On top of her dresser she had brightly colored antique jars and knickknacks. Later I noticed that painted on her oak hardwood floor was a large circle with a star in the middle. I marveled on Amanda's ability of free expression in her room and jealously wish my parents would allow me to do the same. Time passed and we sat around laughing wildly and did girlish things, talked of boys and such. This conversation lead to Amanda's idea on doing a love spell…I had on little idea what that was or how it would work but the idea sparkled in my head likes a sliver gem of possibilities. The three of us sat in a circle as Amanda pulled this small green book from her shelf titled "True Magick" by Amber K, she flipped through the pages and declared that we need to get materials. Laramie and I followed her eagerly around as we stopped off in the kitchen to grab a few spices from the cabinet and outside to pick roses from her mother's garden. In returning to Amanda's room we prepared our items and followed step by step as the book suggested. The ritual began with Amanda taking a small bowl of salt and drawing a star over the salt saying " I exorcise thee, o' spirit of earth, casting out all impurities that lie within." Then she took a chalice of spring water and said " I exorcise thee, o' spirit of water, casting out all impurities the lie within. She added three measure of salt to the water, stirred it three times and passed it to each of us to sip and then splashed the perimeter clockwise of our circle with an asperger. Amanda handed me an incense stick told me to stand and say while drawing a star in the air " I exorcise thee, o' spirit of air casting out all impurities that lie within." Then she passed me a white candle and lit it with a lighter and said "I exorcise thee o' spirit of fire casting out all impurities that lie within." We set the incense a fire and the light shone over our faces. I felt the energy of our combine divine spirits as I walked around the circle. Next Amanda stood pointing her wand at the floor and walked around the circle drawing an imaginary line around us while saying loudly. " I cast thee great circle of power that thou behest a boundary between the world of humanity and the realms of the mighty ones, beyond time and limits a guardian and protection to hold and contain the power we shall rise with, therefore do we bless and consecrate thee. So mote it be." I stood there looking at Amanda, she spoke with such power and commitment, I didn't know why but I knew from then on that what we did within the circle was serious and not kid games anymore. We all looked at each other and I remember a feeling of sisterhood and wholeness unlike anything I had ever felt. The silence was broke by Laramie timidly asking " So what's next?" Amanda smiled and said, "We invoke the elements." I was South element of fire, Laramie was North element of earth, Amanda was East element of Air and we decided we would all invoke West elements of water. Amanda handed us each an item that symbolized our element and a sheet of paper with what we where to say. One by one we moved to the directions:

Amanda: Standing tall facing east, gazing deeply off in the air, rose her hands up it the air and shouted "Spirit of Air, Guardian of the watchtower of the East. Planet of Jupiter, An Aspen old with time blowing in the spring's dawn wind, Come to Our circle and grant us the will and energy to achieve our aims So Mote It Be." And drew in the air with the incense a five pointed pentagram.

She turned to me and said now you try.

Indigo: Facing south I breathed deeply for a moment cleared my throat and spoke with confidence " Spirit of Fire, Guardian of the Watchtower of the South. Planet of Mars, a holly bush growing on her summer fertile ground under the noon's day heat, come to our circle and grant us the will and energy to achieve our aims So Mote It Be." And as like Amanda I drew a five-pointed pentagram with a lit candle in the air.

We both turned to Laramie and silently coasted her in to her part.

Laramie: Looking from each of us and said where did you get this stuff from. Amanda smiled and said I will so you later, it's your turn. Laramie step forward facing north and slowly said " Spirit of Earth, Guardian of the Watchtower of the North. Planet of Saturn, an ivy winding around granite in the midnight full moon, come to our circle and grant us the will and energy to achieve our aims So Mote It Be."

We all moved to the west and said " Spirit of Water, Guardian of the Watchtower of the West, The moon a dragon sleeps in its cave guarding treasure of silver and aquamarine. Come to our circle and grant us the will and energy to achieve our aims So Mote It Be."

We all looked at each other amazed at our bold poetic statements and marveled on how well they where written. Amanda explained how she got the ideas from a Wiccan book, which listed the elemental aspects of many things, trees, planets, time of day etc.

"Now," Amanda declared, "We invoke the God and Goddess."

"Goddess?" I asked.

Amanda explained how the Goddess is the female aspect of God, equal but different similar to yin and yang.

Then Amanda walked towards the front of our circle raised her hands in the air and said. "Great Cernunnos, Horned God of the wilderness and the beasts which dwell within, bring your power, vitality and blessings to the circle this day"

Next she said " Great Demeter, earth mother, we invoke and call upon you to celebrate the bounty of your harvest, the fruits of the earth which you have generously provided us, and to ask your continued blessings, for We abide deeply within you and you within us.

The energy between each of us was so peaceful and right, we felt powerful and right. Truly women like our ancestors in control of our world and our destinies.

We followed the love spell to the letter. Amanda, Laramie and I all asked for boyfriends. I don't remember if we realized at the time if it would work or not but I knew what ever the outcome it would be interesting.

Three young girl wanting to be loved, chanting and circling around in our scared space. As we laughed feeling the Magick working with in us in three unique ways. Amanda declared our work was done and proceeded to thank the elements and thank the god and goddess for there attendance and if go they must we said hail and farewell. Lastly standing before us she walked counter clock wise around the circle with her wand pointed at the ground she said, " The circle is open but unbroken, merry met and merry part and merry meet again, so blessed be."

Three days pasted and I ran into Laramie in the hallway, we hadn't spoken since the spell. She had a bright smile on her face and pulled me over to tell me the news. " It worked, I am dating Jinx!" she said.

Jinx was an upper classmen that Laramie had her eye on but up until now had been giving her the cold shoulder. She explained how the night after our spell he called her out of the blue and that they have been talking on the phone every night since. I told her how happy I was for her as she rushed off the class. All thought class all I could think about is if the spell worked for her then it definitely was going to work for me. Later when I ran into Amanda, she didn't seem surprised at all, spells always work better in a group she says. Well time will tell, but try not to think about it, you don't want to jinx it…We laughed or our pun and parted ways to class.

Well that weekends Amanda meet Chris at a party. He went to a neighboring highschool he was a sophomore and had a car. He was the cutest boy and it was obvious they like each other a lot. I was the last for the spell to work on; I meet Stephen through my best friend Laura. He drove a light blue voluxwagon beetle he was a freshman in college and lived on his own, my parents liked him and needless to say we dated for along time. Now I try only to use Magick in extreme cases, I have had thing blow up in my face. I am very much aware of the pros and cons of magickal practice. I can say that from day one I have always known that I am a Witch.

My belief:

Pagan- From the latin paganus, country-dweller. Today used as a general term for the followers of Wicca and other magickal, shamanistic and polytheistic religions. All Wiccans are Pagan, but not all Pagans are Wiccan.

Wiccan- a contemporary Pagan religion with spiritual roots in shamanism and the earliest expressions of reverence of nature. Among it's major motifs are: reverence for the Goddess and the God; reincarnation; magick; ritual observances of the moon, astronomical and agricultural phenomena; spheroid temples, created with personal power, in which rituals occur.

Tribal societies where a form of paganism.

Magick-The movement of natural energies ie. personal power, the practice of rousing, building, using or being aware of the energies to create needed change in the world around you. Energy exists within all things- ourselves, plants, stones, colors, sounds, movement. Magick is a natural, not supernatural, practice, though it is little understood.

Everything is energy... Energy can not be created or distored.

Witches have the knowledge/ talent to use personal elemental energy ie. personal power and project it to a goal, hence a ritual or spell.

up with the *poof*- a childish phrase for raising energy, orginated by myself and my best chica friend Sydney aka in theme with this phrase" Poofaney" on a SCA weekend in Boone, NC.

down with the ~crick~- a childish phrase for banishing energy, orginated by myself and my best chica friend Sydney aka " Poofaney" on a SCA weekend in Boone, NC.