9 minutes read time.

What is ritual in witchcraft?

Ritual is a performance of a series of actions usually done within a spiritual context. Become a stronger witch when you harness the power of ritual witchcraft.

1. What is ritual in witchcraft?
2. Ancesetral Roots of Ritual in Witchcraft
3. Ritual Flow: What to do
   1. The 3 Phases of Ritual
4. Phase 1: The Setting
5. Phase 2: The Workings
6. Phase 3: The Return
7. The Transformative Effects of Ritual Work

Ancesetral Roots of Ritual in Witchcraft

In Kabbalah it says the Divine created the Universe by carving the sephirot (divine emanations) out of the ein sof (the eternal void) so the Mystery could manifest itself.

Ritual serves a similar purpose. When we engage in witchcraft rituals, as witches before us have done, performing the same repeated actions, a pathway is carved out that opens onto the landscape of the unseen, imaginal, and spiritual dimensions.

Ritual forms a container for channeling the powers of witchcraft, the forces of nature. These practices charge the spiritual space around us.

Our relationships with the spirit realm is strengthened and our power and magical skills like shape-shifting, clairvoyance, spirit communication are easier to access in the altered state of ritual.

Key Elements that make a Ritual Powerful

Ritual often follows a series of steps. The tradition you are working with will impact the actions performed and how they need to be performed, which ones are flexible, and which parts of the ritual must be done in a certain order or way.

For my rituals, I’ve draw inspiration from ecstatic pagan traditions I’ve studied including Reclaiming and Anderson Feary/Feri. These traditions and most neopagan traditions have a similar flow of rites that usually go as follows:

1. cleansing and alignment practices
2. calling in the directions and/or elements
3. invoking the spirits
4. raising energy
5. performing the rite (magic, spell-craft, healing, spirit communication, etc)
6. A ‘come down’ period releasing the ritual container and grounding into the body

Ritual Flow: What to do

Performing the same rites again and again is a potent way to deepen our relationship with the powers of the craft. Below is a list of what I do in my practice broken down into 3 phases: the setting, the workings, and the return.

For bigger workings, I follow the same ritual flow but with more time planning, preparation of offerings, and generating energy.

Workings that require more intention usually involve traveling to a particular location in nature and timing around lunar cycles or other planetary cycles. Otherwise, I do my daily practice wherever I am, usually in front of my altar.

The 3 Phases of Ritual

• The Setting
• The Workings
• The Return

Phase 1: The Setting

Phase 1 of the ritual is setting the space. Here I clear my energy, meditate, ground, get into alignment with my spirit and put out my offerings for the spirits. This phase then includes invoking the spirits, prayer, and rites that raise power.

step 1 Clearing – I cleanse and set my energy field by smoke cleansing with plants and anointing oils.

step 2 Offerings – I light a central candle on my altar to the Void and put out milk, honey, fruit, water, brandy, wine, or light candles for the spirits.

step 3 Anchoring to Spirit – I start with a prayer adapted from the Feri tradition,

“Holy Cosmos in you we live move and have our being. From you all things emerge and unto you all things return.”

I then call in the 7 directions bringing my awareness to my right, then left, in front, behind, above, below, and center.

At each point I connect with the forces of nature and angelic presences of that direction and/or element. I then connect to my spirit using visualization and my breath, feeding all parts of my being, becoming aware of each cell in my body, and awakening my connection to the Cosmos through my nephesh (soul/fetch), ruach (spirit/breath), and neshamah (God Self).

Spontaneity is an important part of my practice which allows the mutable nature of the spirit realm to shape me and my witchcraft.

step 4 Spirit Invocations – Then I call in spirits I work with in my practice, Ancestors, a primordial serpent spirit, plant entities, jinn, faery, stone, animal, and land/weather spirits, deities, and The Void. Depending on the day, different spirits come into my energy field stronger than others which will direct me to what workings I will be focusing on for that day. Spontaneity is an important part of this practice which allows the mutable nature of the spirit realm to shape me and my witchcraft.

step 5 Raising Power – The transition step between phase 1 and phase 2. This part involves chanting, hissing, humming, breath work, and sometimes dance or certain body postures to activate the power.

Phase 2: The Workings

After the energy has been raised, I then do the workings or rites of witchcraft. I might do one or multiple or sometimes just commune with an entity before moving onto phase 3.

Poison ‘Eating’ – I’ll talk more about this in a future article but this is a part of my work with the poisonous plant spirits, mostly the nightshades datura, mandrake, henbane, tobacco, belladonna, bittersweet nightshade, and angel’s trumpet. This is an energy healing technique that transmutes complexes and traumas.

Journeying – I do rites that change the space around me, opening my awareness of the spiritual dimension that interpenetrates the physical world. Energetic waves move my spirit double out of my body and into the Otherworld. My journeys tend to be visual with archetypal symbols, time and temperature shifts and sensations, kaleidoscopic colors, and flowing energetic/magical currents. Here I meet with entities, explore other worlds, gather information, and feed my fetch soul.

Shapeshifting – Often done within the journey space but sometimes in dreams, shapeshifting is a witchcraft skill of changing the form of our spirit double. This shifting can be felt as conscious awareness moving into the nephesh (fetch soul). We might take on the form of an animal or human-animal hybrid to travel through the Other World.

Spirit Workings – This practice involves connecting with entities, building ecstatic relationships with spirits, blending energy with spirits/gods to exchange and enhance creativity, power, and psychic skills. Spirit workings also include connecting with ancestors, healing ancestral lineages, and supporting the dead in crossing over. Additional offerings might be given now, or body postures or chants used to contact particular spirits as well as time spent learning from or receiving messages from entities.

Land Magic – These practices open up the spiritual inscape of the land to create a meeting place between us and the land/weather spirits. Land magic can involve moving energy, opening portals, inviting spirits into our world, working with ancient land spirits, and enchanting the land with magic. Additional offerings might be given or received here, prayers, songs, chants, breath, healing energy, and other ritual practices.

Collective Healing Magic – This technique involves opening up the heart space and connecting to unconditional love and universal oneness and sending that energy out into the collective.

Psychic Work – Psychic skills enhances my perception for spirit work. These rites involves receiving messages through my psychic channels. Listening with the heart and observing with the spirit body, drawing energy in and sitting in spiritual awareness with energetic currents past, present, and future.

Communion with the Mystery – This is a spirit nourishing practice that connects to oneness and divine consciousness. It usually involves connecting to the realms above, below, and center, my God Self, and the Cosmos. Steady breathing and meditation are one access point to this experience, which opens the crown and expands my energy to the All.

Prayers of Intention– This is the transition step between phase 2 and 3. Here I state to Spirit my intentions for my witchcraft path. While my prayers are always evolving, I have a few key statements I have been saying for years at the end of my daily practice workings.

Phase 3: The Return

This is the closing phase of ritual practice. It signals to your spirit that the ritual space is being intentionally closed for now.

Intuiting the space shift – I use my intuition to know when the ritual should come to a close. I feel the energy recede, a deity step back or other energetic indicators that the energy raised in dissipating.

Return to the body – I consciously call all parts of me back to myself and make sure to feel the energy return to my body. I open my eyes if they have been closed and take a breath, looking at my surroundings.

Grounding – I might eat some meat or chocolate, drink water, take notes, and gently shift my awareness to the physical space.

The Transformative Effects of Ritual Work

I like to ask myself what is the purpose or meaning of this work? Why are humans drawn to do rites and rituals with the Unseen forces?

I see the invisible realms as having just as great an influence on our destinies as the material one, even if the material one is more immediate and therefore certain things do take precedence.

But as a devotee of the divine, I choose to prioritize this work as it creates deep meaning for me, and perhaps for you too. Maybe you are also called to the work of the maintenance of the magical dimension?

Just like someone drawn to be an athlete might be naturally talented at sports and also have drive, motivation, and tenacity, those of us oriented towards the mysteries tend to have an inclination towards magic, spiritual study, and a desire to develop our craft.

I think some of us are just slated for maintaining these passageways between worlds. It’s a calling we answer and from what I’ve gathered from other practitioners, it doesn’t really feel like a choice, but something we feel we have to do.