The Rituals of Witchcraft

WitchSchool.com is the first online school for Witches. It currently has almost two hundred thousand members. Now available for the first time to readers everywhere is a complete collection of their rituals as they follow the Wheel of the Year. Revolving through the Sabbats, the Reverend Donald Lewis-Highcorrell examines every step of formal ritual-casting the circle, invoking the quarters, acts of power, and so on-along with traditional Correllian practices. Encouraging improvisation and innovation, Lewis-Highcorrell also offers tips for keeping ceremonies fresh. There are suggestions for decorating, costumes, colors, props, and more. Although sample ceremonies, complete with directions and speeches are offered, it is not expected that they be strictly followed. Rather, they are offered as templates for modification and alteration so you can create your own rituals.

Witch School Ritual, Theory & Practice naturally follows the teachings of the school's three degrees. However, if you are familiar with the basic teachings of Witchcraft, you will not need to study those books before this one. It stands on its own. In it you will find full directions for the most important rituals and acts of power:

• New Moon Esbat
A burning to bring about a specific goal; a group divination
• Full Moon Esbat
Draw on the full Moon to achieve a personal goal; do a healing
• Samhain
Honor ancestors; Hecate key blessing
• Yule
Gift exchange; A candle circle
• Imbolc
Striking a new fire; Blessing of the quarters
• Bealteine
Choosing the May Queen and King; The pole dance
• Lammas
Offering First Fruits; Earth healing stones

The rest of the major Pagan holidays—Ostara, Midsummer, Lamas, and Mabon—are covered in detail, too. The acts of power associated with them include an egg divination, seed planting, jumping the fire, an incense circle, enacting the mystery play of the Oak and Holly Kings, healing with a citrus fruit, a chakra balancing meditation, walking a labyrinth, and more.

Full Explanations
You can perform these rituals for powerful magical and spiritual experiences. Lewis-Highcorrell's goal, however, is to inspire you to be more creative and design your own rituals and acts of power using the ones here as templates. To do that you need to thoroughly understand ritual theory. These techniques and concepts are fully explored in Witch School Ritual, Theory & Practice.

• Why rituals should not be read from scripts
• The basic order rituals should follow
• How the ritual sections are divided and associated with the elements
• What to do when mistakes occur
• Maintaining the groups' interest
• Avoiding dangers

Rituals serve three primary purposes. First, ritual is an expression of religious devotion. Second, ritual is a means of raising, directing, or attuning energy. Third, ritual serves to create a sense of community with others, through common actions and through shared customs and traditions. All of these things are described and discussed so you can have successful rituals.

The Most Important Part of Ritual
Ritual should be an expression of the heart, either by the community or from an individual. The rituals presented here are primarily oriented toward group or temple practice, but can easily be adapted by the solitary practitioner.

All of this may sound complicated. But when you practice the rituals and techniques in Witch School Ritual, Theory & Practice you'll see that in use they are actually easy to do. That's important because if things get too complicated the focus changes from being an expression of devotion to simply a focus on the ritual. Ritual is meant to be a joyful, loving experience. The advice in this book is that you shouldn't get caught up in the details. Rather, you should allow the experience to unfold, as it needs to. Doing the ritual should make you feel good; it should leave you feeling energized and strongly connected to the Divine.

Step up to the next level of your Pagan practices. Do rituals more effectively and powerfully than ever. This is the source for your spiritual evolution.