Autumn Rites: The Season of the Witch

Six Turnings for the Dark Master of Elfhame


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Introduction: Every Autumn Leaving

Of all the Times of the Year, late Autumn has always been my favourite. I like to think of myself as a person who possesses a relatively sharp sensitivity - "sensitivity" here meaning a kind of conscious awareness and connection to the natural forces around me. I also know that the spiritual and religious outlook of the Old Craft helps me to appreciate much more than just Autumn's red and brown leaves, or cool, crisp breezes. For me, as for most people in the modern day who consider themselves some sort of "Pagan," the tides of the darkening Autumn have an added dimension of spiritual meaning and power.

The full force of these added dimensions cannot be described, but they are certainly felt - and they add a note of mysticism and a pleasurable longing that cannot adequately be expressed. This is the time of gourds and straw, of bonfires and festivals, and of the chilling touch of deeper mysteries, those of life and death, and the shaded realms beyond, all of which come from the earliest times, and still carry the force of those times.

To some ancient Pagans in Northern Europe, the time roughly at the beginning of November was the beginning of their Winter - culturally and spiritually speaking, if not astronomically speaking. The Old Celtic "Samhain," and its Germanic equivalent "Yule" (which was more aligned to the actual later solstice), had a feel of culmination and dissolution into darkness, before a new year began. This feel was the "final sigh" of the earth as it gave into Winter-sleep, after a long year of pulsing forth life under the impetuous Sun.

Yet this "feel" also contained a sense of excitement; the dark and almost erotic feeling of "giving in" to the mysteries beyond which is the hallmark of the genuine experience of both the journeying Witch, and the dying person, who both face the weird immensities of the Netherworld in their own ways.

To all of this can be added the more mundane aspects of Winter in ancient times - drawing in animals and Winter food-stores, and kin-groups coming together to restore their bonds of clan and family before the hard spirits of Winter, snow, and the long nights took their own tithe in life - this may serve to explain the festive times that occurred in the late Autumn halls and villages of all our ancestors.

The old people were all aware of the strong, surreal force of the late Autumn. The strange interim time between the descent into Winter's gate and the true formalization of the New Year was a wild and uncanny time, a time when there were no longer hard distinctions between one world and another, or one state of awareness and another. 'The Dream and the Waking' were overlapping, in oftentimes eldritch ways.

The reason this is so is because the return to the darkness of Winter was nature's way of showing a deeper theme: it was a minor, yearly echo of the return to the primal chaos or formlessness which was the origin of all things - and this "Old Night" of chaos was itself once a unity. This Old Night was "all that was" before Old Fate spun forth the great emergence and differentiation. There was no "this world or that" or "dream and waking" in the Old Night. It was alone and it was all. The universe itself will one day be drawn back into the original state; and from there, it will come forth again, from the womb of Old Dame Fate. As the old Scottish saying goes, "Thus it was, thus it is, and thus it shall be, evermore - the ebb and the flow."

All Hallows is the in-drawing, the height of the ebb tide, before the flow of life into a new year. It is the Season of the Witch, because the states of mind that the Witch achieves by trance, whereby she overcomes the "separation" between herself and other creatures, or her fellows, or between herself and the immense and dark Otherworlds, is easily captured in this season. In the right places, the Otherworlds come to the Witch - the unseen forms of those who live beyond this world are swimming about us at all times, anyway; this season is simply the turning down of the garish light of life, so that their subtle forms can be apprehended more easily.

It is the river of the living mindstream that the "others" swim in; the parts that are submerged below the horizon of consciousness are the parts that the dead most easily rest in - and in this season, their motions are made apparent. This season has inspired fear and awe in all generations of humans that have come before.

I'd like to talk about the experience of the Hallowmas Season, from the perspective of Witchcraft, and what we who follow the Old Rite need to expect and consider, if we truly wish to step through the dark gate of Winter, into an experience of deepest wisdom and melancholic joy, amid the flickering remains of the old year.



The Hallowmas Agenda

As Witches, or Crafters, or whatever term you use to express your affiliation with the Old Ways, the foremost thought on your mind for the dark season should be one of "crossing over." The boundaries between your mind's horizon and the concealed reaches within, below, and beyond are never as ephemeral as in this season and while they strengthen and weaken cyclically throughout the year (such as during the other hidden festivals) they are practically gone on the Hallows.

Such an opportunity to place your mindstream in direct communion with the nighted regions beyond is priceless; the concealed places of Wisdom beyond and below are precious because they contain the greatest essence of all - the truth of wholeness and the hidden light. They also contain the shades of the dead - both ancestral and pre-human; they contain the lost of this world, and the Gods of the Earth; they contain the dim, howling, snapping intelligences and oneiromorphs that people the dreams and nightmares of humans and animals alike; the dark regions within and below are the borderlands of mortal experience. We cross near them in dreams, and beyond them in death.

Why does Wisdom hide there? Who concealed it in the center of the endless landscape deep within the mind, and deep within the earth? Some say that it fell there when the Master sent the stone down, to be lodged deep within a terrifying country that only the hero could cross through quest and ordeal, to bring the truth back to his people in this world; a truth which ends Winter and brings light. There is a wealth of symbolism and allegory there; The Hero becomes his people, represents them to the Hidden reaches, and his capture of the hidden grail-stone within represents the realization of true self-knowledge and universal lore by the race as a whole.

Others have a more abstract view; Wisdom, so they say, naturally abides at the heart of all things, and the dark, confusing landscape that separates us from it is nothing more (or less) than a living projection of our own delusions, ignorance, prejudices, and fears. I think the true answer may be somewhere between the two.

What better place for wisdom to hide, than where no mortal will naturally look? Deep in the heart of a mysterious, dangerous country whose price of admission is either death, or the likelihood of it? No "right-thinking" human will dare that - to gamble with your life is not something that we are encouraged or hard-wired to do. It is a special person indeed (and the term "special" is intentionally vague, trust me...) who can master the egoistic self-preservation mechanisms in the brain and body long enough to realize that a greater reality may lay beyond their limited notions of self.

Aside from taking stock of the year that has gone by, the Cunning Folk should be preparing to take advantage of "The Great Presence" of the Netherworld. "The Great Presence," as I have heard it referred to, is a key concept to those who wish to fathom the force of this season - and indeed, it is not hard to sense. When the sun is down, and the breath is visible in the moonlight, it makes itself known, just beyond the tree-line, forever watching, though closer in this season. When the bonfires are lit, and offerings made, they are being made partly for It - for the great presence in and beyond the Darkness. It is the very force of the Unseen, the Serpent come forth to open its eyes in its deep slumber.

The Witches who come together, or who face the season alone, are seeking entrance into the World Below, the Land of the Dead, to the lightless meadows that are illuminated by the throngs of the Ancestral Fetch-lights, as they gather around the Queen of the Hallows and the Black Master, who with his hounds, comes on the winds of the Great Presence to hunt through the leaf-choked fields and forests of our world. The Witches wish to go down to the world below to join in the Ancient oaths of the Sabbatstead, and to seek Wisdom. Wisdom defeats death and hard Fate; Wisdom shows us who we are, and what truly Is; Wisdom shows us a greater way of being, which leads us to the full flowering of our potential as human beings, blessed with the Fire of Cunning and Creation. But wisdom does not come easily or without sacrifice.



Fate, Fear and Wisdom: A Warning About Frivolous Craft

The Underworld, and its mysteries, is not to be trifled with, or taken lightly. You must consider it the same way you consider your own death. It is a boundary, it is a place that contains things that cannot be seen or known by the living. It is a place that represents a kind of finality - because the change of death, and the greater change of wisdom realized, both carry with them a great finality - there is no going back from them, to be as you were before.

The Underworld is a place that was ancient before Man had come from the bosom of the land and the waters. It is a place where memory stretches back to the first impulses and flickers of awareness on the part of Man's first ancestors. It is the place that draws us in finally, and for the last time. What emerges from the Underworld after the renewal of the dead is not what descended into it - and the mysterious currents that flow through it and through us are disturbing to the mind that cherishes its current memories and experiences too much.

You say you want to go down into the Underworld to join the Sabbat, to merge with the Fetch-stream of your Ancestors, to seek wisdom; indeed, as a Witch, you should do these things - but it is always good to ask yourself again and again: "Why am I doing this? Is it really what I want at the deepest levels of my being, or am I doing it because I think it's just a lot more exciting than going to a church or a synagogue?" These are important questions.

And the answer to them is to be found with difficulty. The question "Why am I doing this?" ties in to the greater idea that a Witch is born, not made. As a Witch, you actually don't choose to live your Craft - it is simply the way you are. Your development through life and death as a Witch involves striving for wisdom as a Witch, and nothing else. It cannot be a truly conscious "free will" choice; it cannot be something that you decided one day that you would do or be - it had to be what you were all the time. In short, it had to have been a pre-existing strand of your unfolding Fate. The difference between Witches and non-Witches is not mental or physical; it is a matter of a difference in Fate. It's something essential about you, and about what you are drawn to be and do.

The reality of the fact that you were a Witch may have dawned on you consciously at one point, but never forget - there is a difference between deciding to be a Witch, and gradually realizing that you always were a Witch. There is a large difference. Those who decide to be Witches without actually being Fated for the Craft will never succeed at it, it will not ultimately satisfy their inner thirst; and they will either put it down after a few months/years, have emotional "re-conversions" back to their original religious faiths or secular distractions, or end up spiritually choking themselves to death trying to be something that they are not.

So why are you doing this? Why are we? Is it because we think this will make an entertaining way to spend a Halloween, or is it because, as Witches, we can do nothing else? If the answer is the latter, very good - the Hand of Fate pushes the Witch to the limits of life and death, and to the fearful regions beyond, just as it pushes all life towards death one day - but to see death before you are dead, and reap the wisdom of the sights you will see, will be the gift of those who can bear the burden of the fate of the Witch.

There is nothing frivolous about this. It is the unfolding of the Witch's own being that is happening here, it is a Fated occurrence, not a "festival" that some Pagan people planned to do because they read it in a book. And it's not all light-hearted; opening the door to Elfhame below can be frightening, or disturbing and, truth be known, all true experiences of it should have a note of fear, or you are probably deluding yourself. The deepest mysteries of the universe are not all wonderful and exhilarating. They are a MIX of the holy, the ecstatic, and the harrowing. If a human looks within himself or herself, they will see that this is also true of their own human nature.

In short, be prepared to be as scared as you are overjoyed when you go into the Great Presence. And don't hurry to it. It will come for us all soon enough, with the unstoppable, oncoming motion of the seasons. It should be approached with dignity and with bravery. Just don't forget - if it doesn't bother you or fill you with tension on some level, you probably aren't approaching it with the proper frame of mind.

There is a connection between constructive fear and Wisdom - even the Christians have a quaint old phrase that runs "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom." Like so many little phrases that are to be found in their repertoire, one wonders if they even realize what a gem that one is. Of course, for the real wisdom of that statement to be found, we have to dig one layer deeper - only fearing a God is no basis for a healthy relationship with it; but constructive fear flows from a realization that some things are greater than yourself, and these things will not always be to your liking, as your Fate unfolds.

So we see that truly taking something seriously is almost always an expression of a kind of "awe" or "fear" of it. And the quest for Wisdom, and the Dark Places where Wisdom is to be found, should always be held up as objects of Awe. If you can't feel that way about them, perhaps you are in the wrong line of work.



The Bogies'll Get You...

Are you afraid of losing your soul to the forces of the Netherworld? The old church sure thought you should be, and to that end, any and all otherworldly beings, contacts, or attempts to contact the mysterious reaches, were vilified as being "dangerous to the soul." The Faery Folk in Ireland were placed on the same footing as fallen angels or demons, and spectral intercourse with them, or any dealing with them, was regarded as being a lethal threat to your soul's destiny beyond.

R.J. Stewart, in one of his excellent books, makes a statement regarding this. He says: "This... (concerns) the general ruling that any contact (with the Otherworld) is forbidden, as it is supposed to put the soul at risk, as if the human soul is a possession to be fought over rather than an integral part of our individual and universal consciousness and being. Such sad rules are found in many religions worldwide, for organized religion often degenerates from an original, pure spiritual impulse into something political, suppressive, and divisive..."

What Mr. Stewart is saying here is something that cannot be repeated enough: What we humans most fundamentally and substantially are, is not something that can be "lost" in bargains with Otherworldly creatures, nor given away in tawdry "pacts with devils" in exchange for power. What we are is as essential a part of the world as any spirit or force; what we are truly in danger of is not realizing wisdom, and being trapped as mortal subjects of hard Fates that seem implacable and uncaring - which leads to the greatest danger of all, namely forgetfulness.

Now, don't get too comfortable in your seats. The beings of the Otherworld can certainly affect you in ways you may not wish. Again, a good constructive fear is a good thing - but not the kind of fear that impedes the mind and the wits; that is counter-productive, and not becoming a Witch, or anyone that is Fated to face great odds (on any level) and to seek the mysteries.

The point of this is only to demonstrate that the dangers you do face are not to your soul, but to your condition as a whole. If you wish to find the wisdom to be all that you are capable of being, that is, free of the tunnel-vision limitations of the common mortal who is subject to Fate, then you need to balance fear with resolve and respect. Folklore is full of stories of mortals (including Witches and wise people) who fell foul of the denizens of the Netherworld, sometimes through no fault of their own, and came to bad ends.

Life is never risk-free for anyone, no matter what. How we face those risks is ultimately what defines us as people. What we do with the time we have and how we face opposition is the true test of a human being.



Lower Intensity Revelry

By this point, some of you are probably thinking "Slow down... let's stop it with the doom saying! We just want to bob for some apples and have some Ale! What's with all the dire warnings and Fate talk??"

This little section is just for you. If you don't fully understand where I have been going with all this, you need to do just that: Get some apples, make a bonfire, get a lot of dark ale, and have the merry time of your life. Do it for the Land below you - She has worked hard to give life to man and bEast, and water and sky, for the whole long year. Do it for those who have died in the past year, and those who will die in the coming Winter. Do it for the old people, who passed on so much to us, their descendants, in the modern day. They experience this season as we do, in a way; they draw close to us living - and so they are at your revels, if you have the politeness to invite them there.

Do it for the sheer joy of living, and showing the Great Presence, and all the throng of Winter spirits and powers that you are life, and that you are saluting the darkness as it covers you, that you respect it for what it is, and let it try to take you if it can.

Be alive. You might as well be happy, because we all make an end one day. Again, how we live with that is another defining point for us. Join yourself to the mirth of the season; your road lies before you.

Your revelry is the essence of this Season. Enjoy yourself. Get ready for the coming cold, and let life celebrate even in the presence of death, because Life and Death, they are joined at the hip - but Life and Love are together stronger than even Death.

For the rest of you, who want more depth and intensity - and who are in fact, powerless to choose otherwise, read on.



Do We Love the Old Gods?

Christians love the white Christ. Muslims love Allah. Buddhist devotees of Kuan Yin love her dearly. What about we of the Old Faith? What is the nature of our Relationship with the Great Spirits that gave us birth, life, and who encircle us in ever-new images? What about the Dark Master who becomes powerful in the Winter? He rides the land with his Yell-Hounds, hunting for lost souls, and the old legends tell us that it was a lethal danger to be caught in the nighted countryside alone when the Horned Master's Hunt rode by. And his Lady? The Queen of the Dead, whose embraces and kisses are death and mourning? The pale faced, red-lipped ghastly Mother who is circled by the groaning and cackling dead? Can we love such beings as these? How should we relate to them?

These are all good questions, questions that the season of Hallows affords us a good chance to consider. The Old Ones appear in their most strange and disturbing guises in this season, for as the power of the Serpent has waned into Winter, so have their Great Beings reverted to expose their natural darkness. But are they not the same beings that gave us humans life in the Springtime of the world? Are they not the same beings that sustain us? Are they not the same beings that guide us beyond, and rule over that place, and who ultimately undergo the same renewal, as those who renew, when the Serpent awakens?

Let's not even think down those lines; let's make it more personal. We are all part of the same turning Power - Fate's spindle has spun us all out, and we are all moving forward in the eternal still moment of realization. The Old Ones participate in this existence as well, as greater portions of it, though we are no less important than they, for all things must exist for the whole of Nature to be truly "complete."

The powers of life and death are not separate from us, nor we from them - we are their expressions, and we have pictured them in our own particularly human ways. Life and Death are the essential strands of motion in Fate; and Love turns the spinning wheel. Love, Life, and Death are not events, they are processes that give animation to life and to all things. All three are necessary, just as a stool needs (at lEast) three legs to stand with stability. All three move through us and define us, and differentiate us, and through us, the Mystery that resolves them has the potential of Being.

The Old Ones are within and without these forces, just as we are; they are within and without us, just as we are within and without them. Do we love ourselves? Yes, we do - because love is what we are - it supplies us with the basic "beingness" that endows our thoughts with reality, and our entire world with the motion that defines "being." Love is also what drives us forward. Fate's greatest expression is certainly Love. We love because we are life, and life loves life to live and to be. Love has no boundaries; it is a universal force. Love unites us to each other and to all things that we can see, or can't see.

So we love the Gods because there is no part of us (as the old saying goes) that is not of them. Union through Love is a rule, not an exception.

Do we love the beings that frighten us? That will envelop us at death? Guide our souls to places far away, never to return? That flow through Nature and like Nature, can be cruel or strange, or alien, or aloof?

Ask yourself instead do you love the people you claim to love? Do they frighten you at times, on any level? Does your love for them envelop you, sometimes denying you your own free will or desires? Does your love lead you into changes or into ways of thinking that you know will leave you changed forever, unable to go back to who you were before? Does love sometimes fill you with emotions that are strange, cruel, selfish, alien, or even distant feeling, despite the fact that these thoughts and feelings make you feel guilty or aware of the dark side in you?

I would hope that your answer to most of these questions was "Yes," for if it wasn't, I would have to wonder if you have loved, in the deepest sense of the word. It has been said, "A person who fears nothing, loves nothing." I think that truer words have never been spoken.

We love the Old Gods because they are a part of who we are, and we are a part of who they are. They express their Natures perfectly, and so should we. We should not flinch away from what flows through us, or them. This is the mystery of Wholeness, it is a recognition of things as they ultimately Are - and it is a mystery that is in sympathy with a Season like Hallows - a time of wholeness, as has been said before.

We love the Old Ones not as we love our mortal lovers, but as we love Nature itself - Nature in all its guises and aspects - and as we Love Wisdom, for the Old Ones are partners in our search for Wisdom, and teachers, and initiators, and ultimately the Granters of Wisdom. They can also be the forces that deny us the culmination we seek, but they will only do so if we approach the highest goal with anything less than seriousness in our hearts, and if we do not show cleverness and bravery.

It was the Master, the Father of All, who bestowed the Cunning Mind on Mankind, setting us apart, on some levels, from the other Beasts of the Land. This precious gift has come with a responsibility. The Guardians of Wisdom will be as terrible as we are irresponsible, and as helpful as we are genuine. That is also because they are a part of us, a part that cannot be deceived.



Taking the Road Below

I will conclude this little missive with a rite for Walking the Ghost Roads down into the Black Meadows below, where the Wise might merge with the Powers of this Season, and rise from the under-hollow renewed, and with new Wisdom to sustain them.

Some people (especially those influenced by Celtic Reconstructionism) feel that the spirits of Ancestors should be the focus of this holy season. To the Witch, I think, there is a point here that should be clarified.

While certainly this time is traditionally associated with the clannic dead, there is a metaphysical point that needs to be reconsidered, if one is to fully tap into the full force of this season. The individual spirits of the dead family members, even those from long ago, are not always present, for many reasons. The mysteries beyond life are not things that any wise person should try to lay out in the form of rules or statements about the "condition" of the dead - these things are best known to the dead themselves.

Many primal traditions believe that the dead can be reborn (sometimes) as humans; in the Isles Craft that I have come to know, there is an idea that the dead can be reborn into this world through their mother's line. There are also notions that some of the dead have moved on to other, more mysterious fates, and are simply no longer present in any way that we can see. Others may very well be right there, near us, or wandering the Meadows below, not going far from the places they felt close to in the temporary life they shared, here in the world above.

Regardless of who "approaches" when the Great Presence comes, there is another force, related to the Ancestral stream, which is the focus of the Wise, and the thing for which they wait - the Fetch of the Ancestral line.

The Fetch is a power that is related to the Ancestral line, and which is shared by every member of an extended family. It seems to act as the repository of the accumulated wisdom and power of the members of a kin-group, and as a guardian spirit, of types, for all members of the family that have the mental force to activate it or sense it, on some level. The mysteries of awakening the Puckerel, or identifying with it, are related to this, as the Puckerel is an extension of the Fetch, in a very natural sense.

The Fetch is passed on from generation to generation, and acts as the innerworldly "presence" of a family group, or even a people. It is this force that contains the accumulated wisdom of your forebears, and even something of those who have been united with it in times long past; it may appear as the "Mother" of the family, the "Feery Ancestress" of the Old Stories, or the "Dis" of Germanic lore - or even as a group of the ancestral dead. Union with the Fetch is something that is the equivalent of drinking from a fountain of ancestral memory - and a source of power for the Wise.

The Fetch turns and moves constantly, and the conscious minds of the living and the flowing minds of the dead interact with it, and the greater "pulse" of power all around it, and its component members, is the universal force that gives rise to the circle of the year, and the hidden festivals. The festivals are a time of experience of the Fetch. Seize the Night.

The Ritual for walking the Roads down below utilizes the "Treading of the Mill" technique, in a very simple, intuitive form. The main rite itself deals with making the place of the Mill-Treading sacred in the name of the Dark Master below, the King of Elfhame. He is chosen for this Rite because of his ascendancy in this season, and because he makes the "Roads Red" by the passage of his train of souls, hounds, and horses.

The rite is begun by finding the place where the Mill will be Turned. Here, we must construct the Compass first; this is done "By Dod, Mell, and Stang" - First you use your mell (hammer) to pound the dod (stake) into the ground at the place that will be the center of your compass, then pull it out, and place your heel to the hole, and walk three paces North, and where your toes come down at the outside of the third pace, you mark that spot with the dod, for this will be the Northern rim of your compass.

Then you take three toe-to-heel steps - that is, you measure three FEET, not paces, from the second mark, and there, you hammer the dod in deep - this will be the hole that you plant your Stang in.

You should never mark the ground with anything metal, nor drive anything metal into the ground. This idea, I understand, is as old as the hills, and we take it seriously. To plow the ground for crops with a metal plowshare is one thing; marking for a rite of the Craft is something else. This may not apply to practice, as you have known it; but know that it applies here.

Push the Stang into the second hole you made, and have it facing inwards towards the first hole you made. If you are going to have an ornament on the Stang, it should be crossed arrows, for the great Hunter, who is lord of Life and Death, and King of the Dead. Otherwise, leave it undecorated. Our Stang is a 6-foot dark wooden shaft with a two-horned buck's skull mounted on the top. It does fine decorated or undecorated.

Go back to the center hole of your soon-to-be compass, and pile the wood for a large fire there. Do not light it yet. Also, while you are here, you can use the dod to mark out the whole boundary of the compass.

Once that picture is complete, stand in the middle of your compass, facing the standing Stang, and allow the darkness of the night or twilight to cover you, and allow yourself to merge with it; we call this "Gathering the Mantle About," and it is a trance state that comes when you let yourself silently merge with the immensity of the night and world around you.



When you have a strong sense of otherness, pour clean water into a bowl or kettle, and breathe these words over it and into it:

"Water from the bosom of the earth, from which comes all life, be blessed and enlivened in the name of Dame Owl, the Old Serpent, the undying Queen below"


Then, take a small dab of salt into your left hand, and breathe these words into it:

"God in the salt, I call you to wakefulness with my words, and give you life in the name of the Horned One - be consecrated and forceful, and fierce red with might, you salt that sustains life."



Do bear in mind that your words, and the use of the power of the words, have force. The imagination is a divine power in you, and you have the ability to change things, on subtle levels, with your words and intentions.


Allow the salt to fall into the water, and then, carry the bowl or kettle to the North rim of your compass, and pour a little there, and do the same for each direction of your compass, each time saying:


"I cast water and earth (here), in the Old One's Name, to cleanse this place of all contrary workings of man or spirit."


When you are done, return to the center and face North again, and then move to the North rim, and take with you a horn. Hold it up to the North, then go down to one knee, or take a crouching stance, and bow your head downward to the ground.

Let your mind reach out to the Dark world below, and feel the gathering throng of the King and Queen of that place.

Say, clearly and with feeling:


"To the dark and bright ones under the earth, the hallowed Dead,
To the Black King, the Whistman and Master
Who hunts for souls with his horses and yell-hounds,
To the King of Dark Elfhame below, witness my Art!
Upon the Horn,
Both men and maids are sworn,
And consecrate the oath,
With dance and draught till morn . . ."


Then stand and make one horn blast.



If you don't have a horn, you can use a forked piece of wood. You simply lift it, and then strike the ground with it three times at the rim of the compass, after you have made the invocation.

After you have done this to the North, you walk counterclockwise around the compass, and return to the North, and stop, and repeat the invocation as written above. Then, you walk counterclockwise, and stop again at the North, and repeat it again! Three times it must be done - and when you walk counterclockwise around the compass again, you stop at the East.

You do the same for the East as you did in the North - you lift the horn, but you don't have to take a low stance. You stay standing and make the invocation:


"To the Firebringer
Secret and Splendid Master
Upon the Horn
Both men and maids are sworn,
And consecrate the oath,
With dance and draught till morn..."


And then you make one blast on the horn. You go counterclockwise around your compass, and stop at the South. Lifting the horn once, you say:


"To the Horned Man
Lord of Fen, Field and Forest
Upon the Horn,
Both men and maids are sworn,
And consecrate the oath,
With dance and draught till morn..."


And you make one blast again. You go counterclockwise around your compass again, and stop at the West.


Lifting the horn again, you make an invocation to the spiritual forces and powers of the place in which you are working. You should know already who these may be; if you don't, you need to spend some time in that place a few days or weeks in advance of the rite, doing some trance work and trying to feel who your "hosts" will be. At this point in the rite, you lift your horn and say


"To the Powers of that place...(insert particulars)
Upon the Horn
Both men and maids are sworn,
And consecrate the oath,
With dance and draught till morn..."


 Then you make one blast on the horn, and you move counterclockwise back to the center, before the unlit fire.



At this point, you may light the fire - saying something to this effect:


"Blaze forth, Elfin Flame
Six times the compass has been turned in the Master's Name
By the force of the Elder ones below the Ground
And the circling hills and hidden tracks
Illuminate my Art and Craft..."


As the fire springs up, watch the Stang. As it is illuminated, so is the presence of the Dark Master standing before your Compass. The compass is empowered and ready for your rite: At this point, you must share a Red Meal (using the common procedure) with the Old One and with the Dead Below and Around you, and as you lift the bowl and cup, ask that the Old One be your guide down the Ghost Roads, and into the Below, and to Deepest Wisdom, and ask that he be the Guide who brings you back. That last bit may be important.



After the meal, and after the remaining consecrated bread and wine is given to the foot of the Stang, you can Tread the Mill. The Treading should be done with the Fire as its focal point; start in the North and go counterclockwise around the fire, keeping your body straight, and your head turned inward, not taking your eyes off the glow of the fire, and yet, not staring straight at it. As you go around, spontaneously chant vowel noises - just let them flow - but the sounds should concentrate on the OOO noises (which sound like the OO in MOON) and the deep UHHH noises.

You have to tread until the otherness comes over you. You mean to go below; you fix your mind on nothing but the glow and the chanting, with the deeper intention to journey below when the doors open.

What strikes me is how effortless it all really is, when the time comes. You feel the "sense of being everywhere at once;" and you just let it happen. The deep reality is that you are united to the deepest underworld already, by the existence of the true nature of your mind; you just have to go with that. The Old One will take you down, if it is in your Fate, and if your heart and mind understand the seriousness of what you are doing. As the trance rises, you may have to go to the ground and lie as dead; you may do the whole journey as you tread; or you may blank out, or have strange dreams that night in which you make the descent.

I wish you many successful journeys to Wisdom.






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