On Casting the Circle

“This will be your first spell of practical witchcraft”

Instructions are given for constructing the circle, in Huson’s system, at the end of the Chapter discussing the working tools. It is, in effect, the first operation he provides which utilises all of the tools you have just spent so much time and effort constructing.

The process is fairly straightforward and will seem familiar to anyone with a passing knowledge of the Craft.

1. Trace three concentric circles in the ground with the athame, using your cord as compass and measure (this is where the various knots you have tied in the length of your cord come in handy).
2. You then exorcise the ground by “sprinkling and censing” to the four quarters (here you employ the standard exorcism formula learnt at the beginning of the chapter and applied in the construction of all of your tools).

As you can see, the ritual given for Huson’s circle casting is an incredibly simple one which varies from the standard in a number of ways:

1. There are no quarter calls used (however, in the later chapter on defensive magic we are given specific quarter calls to safeguard our circle against specific attacks — those of you as old as myself will recall one in particular being used by the character Nancy in “The Craft”);
2. There is no specific invocation involved for deities or energies;
3. You employ a triple circle instead of a single circle (which is in keeping with the more Grimoire-inspired practices – though I think I recall seeing something similar in a Ravenwolf book as a child);
4. The process is activated entirely with personal power and the principles of purification by salt, water, and smoke (all of which have been purified or charged by… personal power).

What is interesting about this, is that the entire objective of casting circle in Huson’s system is to create a pure place: a neutral zone from which you can generate, invoke, or engage whatever energies or beings necessary for the working at hand. This is different to the more explicitly devotional systems of Craft where particular gods, energies, or entities are introduced as a part of the casting process.

There is a fundamental aspect of Huson’s mentality underscored in this which may not, at first glance, be obvious.

The Huson witch stands alone. 

I don’t say this in a morose manner, or with any existential angst – it is simply that the system emphasises the importance of personal responsibility and the will or determination to carry through one’s desires, regardless of the implications or the efforts involved. We are not relying on gods to construct our circle or enforce it: we are generating a neutral space to the full extent of our own capability and power. By extension, we succeed or fail by our skill alone. This underscores a need for the witch to be confident in their abilities, practiced in them, and puts into context so much of the mythology and introductory information presented until this point.

The witch stands alone, in-between boundaries, and free of any binding associations which are not the explicit choice of the individual. It is for this very reason that we recite the Lord’s Prayer backwards – an action meant to enforce this state of liberation – and it also places us in the position to engage our familiar technology, even in the event that our actions may fly in the face of our standard allies. We also see the growing significance of the Pyramid Powers in these actions, and the manner in which they are employed.

It has been a popular position in many of the Traditional Craft communities to criticise the act of circle casting as unnecessary or a silly Wiccan/Golden Dawn invention – I once had someone tell me that circle casting is a pretenders version of working magic. To these arguments I can only offer that circle casting is a technology engaged in MANY historical branches of the Western Occult traditions and texts; it absolutely IS a work of magic; and it is meant to be a spring board for your other magic. You are carving out a ritual space founded on your skill as an energy worker, the force of your belief, and the authority of your position in the universal network of being – sounds pretty magical to me. That said, I will concede that it is not essential for every working – though one could argue it is essential for particular kinds of working (construction of tools, anyone?).

Hopefully it is becoming apparent how significant the role of our beliefs and our mythology is in working magic – and also just how much Circle Casting is both a foundational magical act as well as part of our magical heritage.