Elements Of Magic – Becoming Center, Magic, Cauldron

Last updated on: May 24, 2017 at 10:14 am by Gwion Raven

Elements Of Magic – Becoming Center, Magic, Cauldron 2017-05-24T10:14:40-08:00 Gwion Raven

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I’ve been examining my practices and interactions with the Elements . It’s one of the core pieces of magic I teach in the Reclaiming Tradition. I revisit this work every so often as a teacher and as a student. In my last four articles I’ve chronicled my explorations with Air, my connections with Fire, my dive into Water and my complex dance with the Earth. And now I find myself standing in the Center.

Stand in the place that you are

Somewhere in Somerset a bell is struck. The chime rings out across the land and already hushed voices fall silent. Bodies in motion come to rest on benches and on old Kentish ragstone walls and on the grassy earth. Sounds flood in from everywhere; an afternoon chorus of insects and birds. Water drops and flagstones meeting one another other. Breezes causing leaves to shudder. My vision is soft and yet incredibly sharp, so sharp the world seems etched and highlighted and brighter. A familiar voice so very close to my ear and impossibly far way asks “where are you right now?” Words aren’t forming and those that do seem lacking and heavy and dull. All I can mange to say is “I’m right here and I am nowhere and I am everywhere.”

A different time and place and I’m standing in a field, on a hillside that cuts through the borders of North Carolina and Tennessee. It’s pitch black in the circle. A priestess beckons me to come forward and look into a large cauldron. It’s so dark and everyone is in black cloaks. I pick my way to the cauldron and peer in. I have the distinct feeling of falling. Stars are swirling around me. The cauldron is bottomless and complete. I am at once potential and matter. I am right here and I am nowhere and I am everywhere.

It’s after a particularly potent ritual, deep in the redwood forests of Northern California. I am spent from running, from being chased, from going in deep and from journeying out far. The sounds of the forest are deafening. I can hear every insect, every bird, every leaf, every person walking back to their cabins. My own skin is like a too tight T-shirt and I feel suffocated in it. I can tell that I’m not making sense. I can tell that I am making perfect sense. Someone asks me if I’m alright and the only thing I can think to say is “I’m fine, really I’m fine” but what is aching to be heard is “I am right here and I am nowhere and I am everywhere”

Center – In the redwoods – CCO Pixabay

The cauldron in the center

Not all magical traditions I’ve been part of work with five Elements, some work with three, others work with four. Different traditions call Center by different names. This is how I experience Center or Mystery or Spirit. When I work with Center it’s about connecting to that immeasurably expanding and infinitely rare moment of complete connection to everything, everywhere and nowhere. From this place or from no place or from all places, (see it’s tough to explain this in words) I find myself everywhere at once, which means it’s just one step to anywhere and that means I must be standing in the Center or in the Cauldron of Mystery or at the Crossroads or within the potentiality of Emptiness or by many other names that make sense in that moment to describe “Center”.

And this is what I hope to convey when I invoke Center. It’s not about a geographical location or the next thing to be invoked after the last thing that was invoked, it’s about connection. Center is about being present and holding that in this moment, this singular moment in all of creation, the gods, the universe, infinity, eternity, whatever you want to call it, is right there with me as I step in to make the calling.

Center – Be here now CCO Pixabay Public Domain

Actually getting there

So that sounds all well and good, but how does one actually find oneself at the Center? I mean what can you do to get there? Here’s what works for me – Breathing. I know, sounds simple, right? But it’s true. When I need to find center, I breath. I follow my breath all the way in, noting if it get stuck in my throat or stops in my chest or goes right down into my belly. I follow it out again too. Breathing changes my focus and brings me present. There’s some real science that supports this as well.

I also do one of two things, depending on how “un-centered” I am. I either open my eyes or close them. Ideally, I want to open my eyes and breath and look all around, so that I’m taking in the place that I am physically present in. Breathing both centers me in my own body and allows me to pick up the scents in the environment that orient me to the land I’m standing on, connecting me to it.

If I’m in a stressful situation, with lots happening, I briefly close my eyes, to slow down the intake of stimulus, focus on my breath and then open my eyes and see what’s really going on.

Center is with me always, if I only remember to step into it. It is there when I am harried and rushed, when I am at rest. Center is when I have choice and agency and when I have no choice but to stand still. This is how Center is part of my daily life and my daily practice. Center I honour you.

Previous Post

May 18, 2017

Elements Of Magic - Becoming Earth, Magic, Lover

Next Post

June 1, 2017 No One Cares What You Think

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Ancestor Work Art and Magic Athena Autumn Equinox Being a Priestess Being A Witch Being Pagan Belatane Beltane candle magic Cauldron Cernunnos cerridwen Choosing a magical name Circle Casting Community Coronovirus Coven Curious about magic Daily Practice Deity Depression Earth Ecstatic Practices Elements of Magic Every Day Magic Fae Food Magic Goddess Grounding House Magick Imbolc Ritual Kitchen Witch Knot Magic Lammas Life Ritualized Mabon Magical Healing Magical Practice Magical Teachers Magickal Tools Making Altars Many Gods West Mountain Magic Nature Witch New Year's Tradition Omens Pagan Books Pagan Camps and Festivals Pagan Food Pagan Gods Pagan History Pagan Holidays Pagan Humor Pagan Humour Pagan leadership Pagan Marriage Pagan Music Pagan Parenting Pagan Relationships Pagan Rituals Pagan Rules Pagan Tattoos Pantheacon Peaceful Home Pearl Pentacle Personal Power Politics Ritual Cleansing Ritual Drumming Samhain Samhain Practices saturnalia Skyclad Spells Spiralheart Witch Camp Spirits of Place Spring Equinox spring magic Summer Solstice Tarot The Magick Of Food Time Magic Uncategorized Winter Solstice Witch History Witch Words WitchCamps Work Magic Year End Review Yule

Select a Month March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 October 2020 September 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz