|
Positive Magick: The Power of Words
By Cynthia Randazzo
This time I wanted to talk about the use of words, in all forms of magick. Words are very powerful weapons, they can hurt but in the same sense they can also heal people it is up to you how you use them. The power in how you write, speak or think all have an outcome. They are used in our everyday life, from our families and friends to our co-workers and people we bump into on the street.
The use of words in positive magick is special; you want to create an outcome without harming anyone, and making sure not to interfere with free will also. We use words in our rituals, our celebrations, our meditations and life. The words you choose along with your intentions will bring about an outcome and hopefully that will be the one intended when you chose the words in the first place.
When I write a ritual, prayer, spell, recipe or whatever, the right words are needed to open up the space and draw down the energy that will be needed, express what you would like to see as the outcome and then returning the space to its original order. This is what pagans call their wedding celebrations. My husband and I have been married for 15 wonderful years and for our 13th Anniversary we renewed our vows in the pagan tradition of a Handfasting. We had talked to the priestess who was going to perform the ceremony, and she helped us so much. She let us use her personal land within her dragon circle for the ceremony.
So the ritual begins before the ceremony, you have to pick and choose your words you want to say to your loved one, so that you can let them know how you feel deep inside. You must also make sure that the people you want to have participate will all know what they are to say and where to stand. During this ritual the priestess will speak a few words, for us it was "As they close one door on their life they now open another with a renewal of Vows in a Handfasting Ceremony" and then she will cleanse the circle formed by your family & friends with smoke from sage she had grown on her own land, some will also call this smudging. She will then cleanse the bride and groom to rid them of any negative things from the past. Once this is done she will close the circle and the quarters will be called. Now I bet you want to know what are the quarters? Well simply it is the four directions, and each of these directions is associated with an element. Now depending on what path you follow some start calling in from the North which is Earth, then on to East which is Air, then South which is Fire and last of the quarters West which is Water. But it does not stop there as one important item is missing Spirit and the final call is for the Spirit. And that each of these are also represented by the five points on the pentacle (a 5 pointed star upright inside a circle, top point is spirit, top right point is air, lower right is fire, the lower left is earth and the left top is water)
The people who you have asked to take part in the ritual will recite a small invocation to the quarter that they will be calling in for the ritual in ours they started from the East. So it was spoken as this: Blessed be this union with the gifts of the East. Communication of the heart, mind and body, fresh beginnings with the raising of each sun. The knowledge of the growth found in the sharing of silence. Be with us here, O beings of Air. With your clever
fingers, tie closely the bonds between these two. Hail and Welcome!
Next would be the South:
Blessed be this union with the gifts of the South. Warmth of hearth and home, the light created by both, to lighten the darkest of times. Be with us here, O beings of Fire, give their love passion, your all consuming ardor. Hail and Welcome!
Now for the West:
Blessed be the union with gifts of the West. The deep commitments of the lake, the swift excitement of the river, the refreshing cleansing of the sea. Be with us here, O beings of Water, give them the deepest love and richness of the body, of the soul and of the spirit. Hail and Welcome!
The North is next:
Blessed be this union with gifts of the North. A firm foundation on which to build, a stable home to which you always return. Be with us here, O beings of Earth, let your strength and constancy be theirs for so long as they desire to remain together Hail and Welcome!
And the last would be the Spirit, in which the priestess uses her own words to call in the spirit.
Poems are a large part of these types of rituals, and most times after the quarters are called a poem will be read. Next will be the vows most times the bride and groom write their own words, or can have a series of questions asked of them, either way the priestess lays the colorful cords across the wrist of the bride and groom and ties it in a knot, (This is why we say tie the knot) next using the athame (dagger type knife) blesses the cake and wine with help of the bride and groom. A piece of the cake is cut and the cords removed, if the knot stays in place it is a good omen of the marriage and is held up for all to see. Then the bride takes a piece of cake and feeds it to her husband, saying "so you will never hunger", the husband will turn and do the same feed a piece of cake and states "so you will never hunger". Then the bride will pick up a glass of wine or juice hand it to her husband and bid him drink "so he will never know thirst". And in turn the husband will hand his wife a glass and bid her drink "so you will never know thirst".
Another poem and a song are played most times at this point. The priestess will then speak of the blessings that she wishes for the couple, and finally announces them married or re-married. As the priestess leaves the altar she sweeps away any negative things that may be in front of the couple and she will stop and hand the "besom" (broom) to two of the ceremony participants to hold, as tradition shows if you both jump the broom you will have a long and happy life together.
This is a very happy way to use your words, but what about if you need to protect yourself or others? The world is filled with a lot of things we cannot explain as of yet, and things happen for no reason. So in this case I would sit and write protection prayers and if it had been determined might also write a banishing spell or prayer. These too must be worded correctly as well, and as I have said before you must mean it…the intentions must be worked into the words. These types of prayers/spells will work and keep you safe as long as you have faith in the words being used. I hope I have given a bit more knowledge to you and the use of Positive Magick in words. You will find a couple prayers at the end of this article, to aid you in your words. In the pagan faiths instead of saying "Amen" we would most times use "Blessed Be!" and when sending out a specific intention to create a specific outcome we then use "So Mote It Be!" basically meaning it will be done. I hope that this has given you a little more insight into the world of pagan faiths, and know we are not what some would like to portray us to be, but just normal people just like you.
First to aid in a banishing;
Banishing
I ask you to watch this night
And show me in the bright of light
All that wishes us harm and shame
And try to throw us the blame.
I banish now the world of hate
And protect us now as we follow our fate.
So Mote It Be!
Wisdom
We call our ancestors
Long since past
Come to us this we ask
We need your strength & power
To help us in the daily hour
Guide us now to know the trail
Make us wise to grow not fail.
A parent's heart is now at stake
Help keep it safe so it will not break
Show us how to overcome this task
Give us the guidance is all we ask.
Grant us the peace that we now need
And help us through just plant the seed.
Blessed Be!
|
