The Line, The Cross, The Circle: How Magick Begins
This essay was published in
Numen Naturae: The Magician’s Wand, edited by Casandra Johns, Salem,OR House Of Hands Press, pp.16-36 September 2016
By Reverend Teri D. Ciacchi/aka Asteria Chthonia SeesFar
Do you think you could take over the Universeand improve it?
I do not believe it can be done.
The Universe is Sacred
and cannot be controlled.
Trying to control leads to ruin.
Trying to grasp, we lose.
Allow your life to unfold naturally.
Know that it too is a vessel of perfection.
Just as you breathe in and breathe out,
there is a time for being ahead
and a time for being behind;
a time for being in motion
and a time for being at rest;
a time for being vigorous
and a time for being exhausted;
a time for being safe
and a time for being in danger.
The Master/Magician sees things as they are,
Without trying to control them.
She lets them go their own way
and resides at the center of the circle.
Verse 29 Tao Te Ching – Lao Tsu
~ translated by Stephen Mitchell July 1995
Before all else we honor Earth & Sky. In the Living Love Revolution; Magick Begins with a Line, a Cross and a Circle three holistic embodiment exercises which added together equal “Step One” in all magickal workings.
These exercises are a PRAXIS; a way of becoming. The goal is to become a resonant and deeply held channel between earth and sky within your own body, to align that channel with a palpable energetic heart field and then to send it out from your own being into the environments around you. These actions are to be done consecutively, in the order given and together comprise “The First Act of Magick”. The Line is a specific type of grounding practice; an embodiment that connects the chthonic/earth axis to the cosmic/sky axis creating a Transpersonal column of energy within your body. The Cross is a Bodhicitta; or Awakened Heart practice that anchors your individual energy signature; your emotional body, to the larger Gaiaic Bodies and Heart of the planet. The Circle is a Circle Casting practice that serves to clear, consecrate and prepare a physical space for magickal workings, using the toroidal energy field that you activated by completing the Line and The Cross exercises.
The Line: Part One
Grounding: Setting the Chthonic Anchor
Step Zero includes preparation of yourself and the space. You prepare yourself: washing your body, choosing and wearing appropriate clothing, adopting the appropriate “state of being”. You prepare the space: setting up the altars and props, gathering magickal tools, liturgy, and all other items needed for the working. You use the four sacred elements of earth/salt and water and fire and air to banish/clear, consecrate and charge the space and your own body in that order. Once you are ready to begin the ritual; the meditation; the spell; your day; your working… When you are actually ready to begin, here is Step One.
This is how Magick begins:
Notice your breath.
Notice that as you breathe in, the air is slightly cool. Notice that as you exhale, it’s a bit warmer, a little bit moister. Notice your breath. Continue to breathe fully inhaling, fully exhaling.
Enter the experience that your lungs actually move in at least three directions: in the front, in the sides, and in the back. See if you can fill up every direction of your lungs with air as you inhale, and empty them in all directions as you exhale.
Allow your consciousness to permeate your body, to come down out of your head and fill up the cells of your body. Be present to the state of your body. Continue to breathe fully inhaling and exhaling and gathering your conscious aware attention into your physical experience.
If anything I say doesn’t work for you, make up something that does, or simply return to the experience of inhaling and exhaling. We are journeying with intention into the element Earth and the imaginal center of the planet itself
Imagine there is a central column of energy in your body, from the top of your head to the base of your spine. See this as an open column of energy and light. Imagine this column is filled with golden light, and that your energy centers, your chakras, are flowing in circular movements that are open and expansive. Scan your body from crown to base and feel that life force energy is moving freely from the top of your head to the base of your spine. If there seem to be any blocks or anything you notice that doesn’t seem open and flowing; believe that your breath is magic and that exhaling deeply will clear anything that’s an obstacle or anything that’s stopping the flow.
Follow your breath from the top of your head now, down to the base of your spine. Let your awareness and your attention and your breath rest at the base of your spine. Imagine there is a portal there, at your perineum, the bottom of your spine, whatever place works for you… but at the bottom of your body allow there to be an opening. And from that opening, using your breath and your imagination, allow this golden column of light to flow between you and whatever you’re sitting on.
With each exhaled breath, you can be more relaxed and move with more certainty towards the center of the earth. Where we’re going is down and back, down and into the Earth. We are intentionally and consciously and energetically in this moment connecting with Earth. Remember that we are connected with the planet. Offer your physical energy to the Earth. Give yourself freely in an energy flow with the Earth itself. This journey is imaginal and energetic and uses a grounding cord. In your mind’s eye, create an image for your grounding cord, it can be a monkey tail, a tree root, an anchor, a rope, make up an image that works for you and begin to see this grounding cord as an umbilical between you and Earth. As you inhale see the grounding cord clearly in your imagination as you exhale feel the energy of your body traveling with the grounding cord into the Earth itself, merging your energy with earth. Inhale: see the grounding cord and scan your body, Exhale: send the grounding cord, with your breath into the earth below you.
With this exhaled breath, feel your energy moving through whatever you’re sitting on and into the actual, alive soil beneath this building. Imagine that as you do this, immediately there is a sense of aliveness between you and the dirt, the loam, the soil, the sacred substance that everything we eat comes through. Imagine there’s a small sense of just “Aaah!”
Surrender to the beauty and ease and simplicity of this energy exchange.
Inhale, fully and deeply. Scan your body, feel your heart beat, set your intention and then…
Exhale fully and deeply moving more deeply through the loam and dirt and into another part of the crust of the earth. There are less things growing here, but things are still alive. Feel the soul force of this stratum you are moving through.
Inhale, Fully and deeply, put attention on your body calming and settling, send your consciousness back and down and then…
Exhale, moving yourself more deeply coming into the mantle of the earth. Here, in the mantle there are water tables, large deposits, blocks of ores and minerals. Notice that things are denser, here, at this level, but still, again, very much alive.
Inhale, fully and deeply. Lightly scan your body, from crown to root, set your intention to continue to open and settle and then…
Move now, with this exhaled breath, even deeper into the earth… and see that there is magma; molten rock here. We are also connected to this form of earth. Again, let your energy body flow into the planet itself in a sweet and easy exchange.
Inhale, fully, easily, bring attention to your body and find yourself incredibly relaxed and…
As you deeply exhale arrive at the iron magnetic core of the planet. Feel the electromagnetic pulse of it within your bones and tissues as you inhale.
Exhaling, fall through this level and find yourself suddenly and exactly at the imaginal center point of both the element earth and the physical Earth. See that there are three things: vast openness, a central flame and an ancestral presence.
The Vastness, the experience of infinity here, is one of the many portals within your own body. This is a gateway to the non-dual state. The flame is the eternal fire of erotic life force, bring its warmth into your body with your inhaled breath now. The ancient ancestral being you find here is a benevolent loving force for you to anchor yourself in. For me she is the Titan/Goddess Gaia. Let it be whatever imaginal being works well for you as an infallible source of love. Allow yourself to have the experience of being welcomed by these energies. Invite the experience of belonging into your body. As if this ancient ancestral being says to you “Yes. You belong here. You are welcome here, in this body, on this planet, in this particular moment of time.”
For the next three deep inhales and exhales we are just going to be with a sense of welcome and belonging. We are going to imagine and experience that we belong and that there is a deep emotional resonance and rapport between our bodies and the planet that we live on.
Feel the connection between yourself and the umbilical grounding cord you have now anchored in the center of the earth pulsing softly with your breath.
Now I invite you to focus on your body predominantly again and use sound to release anything that you don’t need right now, anything that’s in the way of your sense of connection, anything that’s not working for you. Wiggle and shake if you need to, release any tensions in whatever ways you need to.
And the earth receives this and the earth does one of the things she does best and recycles it, thoroughly and quickly. As quick as a wink, as quick as a thought form, she takes all that we have released into her in… and now we’re going to focus on our inhaled breath as she transforms what we’ve released into a healing and revitalizing sap of life. This sap is your erotic life force. This energy will be a reservoir of integrated energy for you through-out your day, your life, your magickal workings.
So breathe this golden green light in through the base of your spine, the bottom of your feet, the palms of your hands, this golden erotic life force, this beautiful revitalizing energy is your connection to your authentic sexual magickal self, the energy the planet is constantly offering to us with her every breath.
And pull this up now, so that it enters your root chakra, as it comes in that portal you opened, see it clearing and energizing your genitals, your organs and your pelvic bowl.
And pull it up now, so it goes to your 2nd chakra, around your belly button and just above that. Notice a tingling and awakening as you bring it into yourself here.
And pull it up now, into your diaphragm, your third chakra, the will chakra and use this golden erotic light to stabilize your intention for this day, this life, this working. Feel your torso relaxing and your anxiety clearing as you are filled with love and light.
And pull it up now, so it comes into your heart and runs down the channels of your arms and out the palms of your hands. Freeing you from fear and confusion, beautifully integrating your lower chakras with your upper chakras. See the bud of a lotus flower emerging there, its stem going down into the center of the earth aligned with your grounding cord.
And breathe in again… feel it flow through your voice, your throat, so you may speak freely and truly of your intentions and desires. May your speech and your words be aligned with your actions and intention.
And pull it up again, allow it to clear your sixth chakra, your vision chakra, your third eye. Let this beautiful life force energy clear your mind’s eye and prepare to be of service to the working at hand.
Finally, pull it up again, and let it come out the crown of your head and flow down in a circuit on the outside of your body, through your aura, and down again into the planet. So that now you have an intentional cord connecting you to the planet and the planet is responding with life force that flows back up through the central pillar of your body down the outside, and allow this fountain of energy to go for as long as you like, but most certainly until the end of your specific magickal exercise or working. And this is what it’s like to be grounded. Practice the ability to ground until you can reach the state of “being grounded” at will.
It is important, if you claim to be a magickal practitioner, that you actually be able to embody and palpably exude the experience of being grounded, anytime you like, simply by saying, out loud or in your mind’s eye, “I am grounded” and having yourself and others experience that it (being grounded) is, indeed, so.
The Line Part Two
Opening the Cosmic Channel:
Remaining grounded in earth energy, we are continuing our magickal journey. We will now direct our imagination and our energetic awareness to the Sky current, we will be going up and out into the Cosmos. Where we are going is up and out to merge with Star energy. We are intentionally, consciously and energetically connecting with interstellar energies of the Milky Way Galaxy to find a particular star to anchor in. Remember that we are always in some state of connection with the Universe. That Stardust is literally in the elemental composition of our bones.
Stay with your breath; continue to breath deeply and fully and allow yourself to remain in a state of groundedness. Take a few breaths to check in for a moment with the central column of energy in your body. Scan your body from crown to base and feel that life force energy is moving freely from the top of your head to the base of your spine. Continue to see this column as golden light, open to a sense of receptivity and expansion.
Follow your breath into your skull now. Let your awareness and your attention and your breath rest in your skull. Imagine there is a portal there, in the exact center of your head, near your pituitary gland. Begin to breathe deeply again, fully exhaling and inhaling. Find that center point here in your skull and breathe into it. Inhaling, feel energy and light coming into your skull from the air above the crown of your head. Exhaling, just being with the sensations that arise from breathing into your skull in this central point. See a small glow of silver light begin to pulse here in the center of your skull. See this silver light begin to form a cord, a celestial thread of energy.
Create an image for your celestial cord, it can be the sound of a ringing bell, a blossoming tree branch, a feathered wing. For me it is a silver cord, make up an image that works for you, right now. Hold the image clearly and begin to see this celestial cord as energy flow between you and the Above. As you inhale see the celestial cord clearly in your imagination as you exhale follow the energy up and out the top of your head.
With this next exhaled breath, feel your energy moving out the crown of your head through the rooms and ceiling of whatever building you’re sitting in and out into the actual, alive air above the building. Imagine that as you do this, immediately there is awareness of the aliveness of wind and air, imagine the sounds of the wind around you. “Swoosh!” See the trees and their branches near you and continue to ascend energetically into the sky.
Inhale, fully, easily, bring attention to your body, and the center of your skull and find yourself incredibly relaxed and…
You’re moving up into the troposphere about 10 miles high, here is where weather actually exists. Give yourself freely in an energy flow with whatever clouds and winds that you are aware of. Is there rain, sunlight, fog? Let’s take another inhale and just be with the atmosphere here. Inhale fully. Exhale deeply.
And now we begin to move with amazing speed and alacrity, we enter the Stratosphere at 21 miles high and move through the ozone layer there, guarding us from ultraviolet rays and gamma rays, Our temperature changes rapidly from the relative warmth here, to coolness as we enter the mesosphere, 49 miles high, most meteors burn up leaving trails in this part of the atmosphere and we move quickly into and through the Thermosphere where temps can reach 1,700 degrees Celsius. The Aurora Borealis happens here in scintillating veils, see the blue, green and pink curtains of light surrounding you.
Inhale, fully, easily, bring attention back to your body, and the center of your skull for a moment. Feel the energy flow building between you and your star. The star that shines for you out in the Cosmos, in the great Milky Way calling you onward.
This breath takes us from the edge of the Thermosphere into the exosphere, the edge of the Earth’s atmosphere and into Space. Our speed becomes so incredible that as we pass the moon we move into the speed of light. Breathe into this energy and travel at the speed of light. Inhale the space and stardust around you and move with more certainty towards the “star that knows your name”.
Exhale and now we are passing the planets, Mars, an asteroid belt, Jupiter, Saturn and even Neptune. Here we come upon the termination shock, and the heliopause the places that mark the end of the Sun’s influence and the beginning of interstellar space.
Inhale: see the celestial cord and scan your body. Exhale sending the celestial cord, with your breath into the energy of interstellar space above you. We travel now into the Oort cloud area full of ice and methane, ethane and hydrogen cyanide. Asteroids are here, some become comets. We pass through the Oort cloud and enter the Milky Way and see the stars closest to us at 4.2-11.7 light years from the Earth.
Inhale, feel the immense spaciousness surrounding us. Allow yourself to be dazzled by the starfield in front of us. Let this energy fill your skull as you take air in. On this exhale, find your star, is it Alpha Centauri, Regulus? Sirius? An unnamed star? You know which one, choose it now and begin to merge with the Star energetically.
Inhale and feel the brilliant lights and energies of the star enter your body through your breath. Breathe in deeply and let the star power pulsate through your body, pull the energy down with your breath until it fills your skull completely and moves down into your throat.
Breathe the energy in, all the way down through your body’s central channel entering your heart, your solar plexus. Exhale and see the energy returning into the star.
Breathe in again and feel the star energy pulsate into your creative channels, your womb, eggs, seed, your genitals. Exhale and see the rhythm of expansion and contraction occurring between you and the Star.
Breathe in deeply again and feel the star energies wash over your pelvic floor and through the base of your body. Identify that portal that you used for grounding and have the star energy exit the bottom of your body and flow upwards through your aura and back to itself within the Star. Set this circuit of Sky and Star energy to run for the duration of your magickal working. Now you are running the energies of Earth and Sky.
The Vertical Axis, “the Line” is now energetically activated in your body. Doing these visualizations regularly will increase your skill and ability to align your self with chthonic and celestial energies. If you practice the embodied visualizations given here regularly, you can gain the ability to conjure energetic resonance with earth and sky. An adept magician can say “Above all else we honor Earth and Sky” and the vertical axis of alignment with earth and sky will actually be present in their body and in their immediate ritual environment as the sentence finishes leaving their mouth.
The Cross Part One: Awakening the Heart: Bodhicitta**
**Bodhicitta is a spontaneous wish to attain enlightenment motivated by great compassion for all sentient beings, accompanied by a falling away of the attachment to the illusion of an inherently existing self.
Bodhicitta – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhicitta
Wikipedia
My Tibetan Buddhist root teacher, Reginald Ray defines Bodhicitta as an “Awakened Heart”. To learn more about these practices you can go to the Dharma Ocean website and gain access to teachings there; www.dharmaocean.org.
As The Line is an act of Magick that generates a vertical axis that merges the energies of earth and sky within your own body, The Cross is an act of Magick that creates a horizontal axis that makes these energies available to the environments around you. Living Love Revolution is about creating a life, an identity and community around the central ethic of love. In order for our activities to be embedded in loving actions, we must have practices that give us a palpable experience of love. The horizontal axis is about establishing and extending a resonant heart field in our own bodies. We access love from vertical axis and then build and charge that love in our own hearts. Human beings are, in the scale of the Universe, quite small. It is my assertion that in order for magicks to go well, they need to be right sized. In right sized magicks the magickal intentions are non-egoic. By creating the vertical axis and energetically “feeling into” and physically “being with” the immense energies of earth and cosmos, one’s individual human goals have an opportunity to become more appropriately aligned with the laws of Nature and Cosmos. I invite people who are creating magickal intentions to set up the vertical axis and create their intentions from within this energetic matrix. How one does magick and what magickal actions shall be taken are best determined when a person is already in alignment with the larger than human, Transpersonal energies of earth and sky. This order of business can/could prevent power-over dynamics from occurring and being acted out. As verse 29 of the Tao Te Ching (given at the beginning of this article) implies, the Universe is already perfect. In my opinion, magick is for aligning oneself with the already perfected and functioning multiverse that we dwell within. The appropriate direction of magickal action is for humans to align with what is already present. To exert one’s will in an attempt to dominate one’s environment and cause change is very small and inherently short sighted. To attempt to control outcomes is to court folly. To ask that one be opened to the already Sacred realms, to ask to be shown where flow and harmony already exist, to be given the grace to perceive where relationship and connection are already aligned; this is the way of the Magickian. One can find right action when supported by the energetic flow and the non dual states already at play within the body.
The vertical axis is where the actual power to manifest/femmifest comes from: the erotic life force embedded within the body. The horizontal axis is where the results of the manifestation/femmifestation materialize, directed out from the physical center of our being (the heart), through the creative channels of our hands. How does one activate the horizontal axis? One reliable way is to use a heart awakening (bodhicitta) exercise like the one that follows.
This is how Magick is Charged
Stand or sit or lie down comfortably. Establish the vertical axis (as given in the exercises above under the headings The Line Part One and Two
Re-establish a rhythmic breathing of full expansive inhales and complete contractive exhales. Feel the earth supporting you from below. Feel the Cosmic star power falling into you from above. Enter your heart. Recall that within the Earth below you is a flame, a central burning fire that is the Source of all life here on earth. Anchor yourself in your body and begin to breathe the heat and warmth of this flame into your body. Breathe the warmth and light of the flame into the central pillar of your body. Feel its gentle life giving warmth come up from the base of your spine and into the center.
Breathe into your heart. The inner breath that is awareness. Notice what is there for you. Whatever armoring or shielding exists there. Just notice it. Breathing into the heart in such a way that you are inside the heart. Being the heart. Just notice what feelings and sensations are there for you. Breathe right into the center and see if you can remove the armoring and shielding from your heart. Come into the center of your heart and clear a space there for the charging of your magickal working. This space is an altar within your own being. Breathe deeply, inhale and exhale and settle your aware attention in this space, this vortex of energy that is your physical and energetic heart. Take as much time as you need to clear any energetic barriers that may exist in your heart altar. Notice whatever there is to notice. Let your heart’s energy be warmed and expanded by the fire below you in the earth. Breathe and open and make sound as it arises. Once you have come to a place of peacefulness and openness, once your heart altar is in order and ready to receive your magical intentions, move your hands to touch your heart in a gesture of thankfulness and gratitude. Rest here for three complete inhales and exhales.
The Cross Part Two: Combining Horizontal & Vertical Axis
*Recall that there is a celestial cord on the crown of your head bringing cosmic starlight into your being. Breathe this starlight into your heart and let it mix there with the earth energy and the open awake energy in your heart. Feel the starlight and the earth fire mixing evenly in the four chambers of your heart. Breath this energy larger, expand it and see it moving from the center in your heart into the channels of your arms and out the palms of your hands.
Now the Horizontal Axis is set and you can move forward into actions that continue your magickal workings. Once the Line and the Cross are set it is time to move forward to the Circle.
Alternative Option: Using the Cross to Charge a Magickal working
These instructions are for use after the circle has been created. For ease of understanding they are included here out of chronological sequence.
(*this alternate embodiment visualization would be inserted after the gesture of gratitude and after resting for three breaths in the heart). Now move your attention to your third eye, your 6th chakra and reignite your awareness of the connection to star power there. Create in your mind’s eye an image of the results of the magick you wish to manifest/femmifest. Use your breath to charge the image of your desired magical results. Use as many sensory inputs as you can. Are there sounds, colors, smells, tastes, sensations? Take your time and build a clear and resonant holograph of your magickal intention. As you breathe in, imagine your goals, as you breathe out charge these goals with all of the energies gathering in the immense field of your consciousness. Use your palpable connection to the cosmic stream of star energy to empower and energize the envisioned intention. Once your holograph is clear in your inner vision and feels complete, return to simply breathing deeply while holding the vision. Rest here for three complete inhales and exhales.
Now use your breath to merge the vision of your magickal intentions with the altar you set up in your heart. As the image lowers from the location of your skull into your heart altar begin to feel your desire for these intentions grow. Give yourself total permission to want. Breathe in and see your heart altar glowing with the warmth and heat of the fire from the earth. As the holographic image enters the heart altar, see the silver star light encircle your heart and a brilliant energy & light coming out from the center of your heart. Exhale sharply and see the combined energies of earth and cosmos moving out from your heart down the channels of your arms and out your open palms.
The Circle Part One: Establish Energetic Boundaries
“In short a circle is not an obsolete symbol of superstitious fear of spirits, but an intentionally created ritual space for various purposes… Making sacred space is among the most primal of rituals, such intentional actions are worthy of the term psychoactive as any substance”
~ Jake Stratton-Kent “Geosophia: The Argo of Magic I” p.46
The Circle is the symbol for establishing the energetic boundaries of your Magickal works. I was taught that a foundation of containment is required in order for the work to build enough charge to be effective. A magician is attempting to take a personally held belief and intention, charge it with desire and move the desired outcome out and away from themselves so that the goal materializes (takes form) in the consensually shared material world. For intention and desire to move from an energy form within oneself into external material form, establishing a boundary is needed. If one tries to build a house, a foundation is needed to prevent the building from sinking into the land below it. To create the circle, physically stand in the epicenter of the area you are working within and chose the point that begins your circle.
This is Where Magick Materializes
Imagine a circle whose size will encompass the boundary of the space you wish to work within. Are you familiar with the Astrological Glyph for the Sun? It is a circle with a dot in the center. In this exercise you are the dot. Chose a point in the direction(s) that speaks to you as the appropriate beginning point, and orient your entire body toward that point. In my tradition the entrance to the circle lies in the Northeast of the circle. I would thus advise you to physically align with the space approximately in the middle of North & East of the place you are standing in. Return to the embodiment and visualization exercises from The Line and The Cross.
Notice your breath. Once again breathe deeply in and out, feeling your body expanding and contracting with your breath. Be certain to embody and energetically confirm your connection to earth and sky. One deep inhale of grounding, and, in the exhale; scanning the body. One deep inhale of Cosmic energy, and, an exhale in which you energetically scan your body. Take a deep breath to focus on your heart altar and experience the chthonic hearth flame and the cosmic star power mingling within you. Use your exhale to affirm the energies radiating out of your heart and into the creative channels of your arms. Breathe in and stoke the light and love emanating from your heart. Exhale and feel these energies emerging from the palms of your hands. Standing facing the beginning point of your circle, raise your arms in front of you and place your palms together pointing toward the starting point. (Some people choose to use an athame or wand here but rest assured, your entire hands in prayer pose or with pointed index fingers will do). Visualize and energetically experience a blue white light emanating from your hands and following your intentions to the chosen beginning point in the air in front of you. Continue the imagery and energetic flow as you carefully draw a circle from the center of the cross within you to the external boundary of the space you are declaring. Turn your body sunwise, deosil, until you have moved 360 degrees and when you reach the beginning point create a small motion that “locks” the circle to itself.
Now you are standing in a two dimensional magickal space, to affect all the realms, you need at least three dimensions.
The Circle Part Two: Magick as Multi-Dimensional Embodied Wisdom
You are already standing in the center of your magickal energy field. Let us add a boundary that allows for the above and below to charge this working.
Turn your head and attention and energetic will toward the Above. Still breathing deeply and fully, still projecting blue white light, Lift your hands with palms pressed together over your head. Separate your hands allowing them to fall into Chalice pose, (the traditional “Drawing Down the Moon” pose, where both of your arms are making a fluid curve from your shoulder to your wrists). Inhale, and feel that star power flowing down into you. Exhale and turning your palms earthward, physically pull the energy into the top of your circle making a dome that covers the top of the entire circle. Inhale again and return to the Line, affirm your vertical axis. Exhale and crouch or bend down over the Below. Breathe in and experience the soul fire of the earth beneath you and running through you, spread your hands palm down into this energy. Inhaling, pull that energy up with your hands turning skyward now. Bring the earth energy from below in a dome shape to meet the middle of the circle you created on the astral. You are now standing in a sphere of your own making. The place of your working has been declared. Once your circle is Cast, Step One of magick is accomplished.
Listen.
Below Us.
Above Us.
Inside Us.
Come.
This is All there Is.
~ Terry Tempest Williams, Desert Quartet