The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum

When casting a circle do you have to mark the four directions in the circle? I've avoided casting a circle for a while because I don't have much of a way or marking the directions, so I didn't know if it would be easy to call the four quarters without some kind of marker?? I tried casting a circle without calling the quarters some time ago and the spell I did kind of worked...just not as I had planned.

To answer the practical part of your question first: yes, you can call the quarters without having a separate altar or stuff for each of them.

A lot of people find it easier to have *something* - we're human, and humans like having things that appeal to our senses to help us focus. But it doesn't need to be a big thing, or a candle, or any particular object, so much as something that is consistent with your practice and your needs.

For example, a number of traditions find it useful to have something that indicates that the connection to that quarter is open or closed. Lighting a candle does that, but you can also do something like decorate a box and open the box (and maybe take out a couple of items) when you call that quarter, and pack them away when you close the quarter. You could paint two sides of a smooth rock differently.

You could do a drawing or illustration or calligraphed series of words, and have the back up before you call the quarter, and the image when you call. You could do a collage. All sorts of ideas.

(Local craft and hobby stores often have blanks for painting or inexpensive boxes really cheaply: you can get supplies to do something really simple - boxes, some basic acrylic paint, a brush - for under $10. I also really like 3-5 relevant colours of ribbon - the kind you get for a couple of dollars a roll, tied together in a length of 3-4 feet. You can hang them up, coil them on the ground, hang them from something nearby)

The larger, question, though, is that calling the quarters is a thing where how you do it, and why you do the steps you do, should make sense with your larger goals for your circle casting. Think of casting a circle like a recipe - there's a lot of ways to make bread, but if you want to make a specific kind of bread, you want to do stuff that will help get you that kind of bread. And not, say, cake or pretzels or crackers, even though they have a lot of similar ingredients.

So. When you're calling quarters, it should fit both into the style of the rest of your circle, but also into the same cosmology - your idea of what a circle is doing, why you're casting one, what you want this circle in particular to do.

That's a hard thing to break down, sometimes. One of the books I like best for the theory is Deborah Lipp's _The Elements of Ritual_. I don't agree with all of her conclusions, but she breaks down each of the steps in a Wiccan-based ritual in different ways, and talks about variations (for different goals, number of people, etc.)

 
Thankyou! I'll look into that book!

I live in a Christian home so I'm still "in the broom closet". I don't have a lot of tools and probably won't until I get out of the house. So the box thing... i'd have to make some elaborate excuse as to why I need four different painted boxes. haha. But it's a good idea and I'll definitely keep that in mind when I move out c:

All of my study books have to be in ebook form too so I can hide them on my kindle. (nobody dares disturb the privacy of my electronic devices anymore now that I'm paying rent) Is "the Elements of Ritual" available for the kindle? If not I suppose I could have my boyfriend order it for me and have it mailed to his house while his parents are on vacation (that way I don't have to deal with my parents prying as to what I got in the mail) (also I think my parents would be more okay with me getting a wiccan book in the mail than his parents would. They're the witch burning type)

Is "the Elements of Ritual" available for the kindle?

 
Well, it's on the list of e-books Mellee compiled for you.

That's not a jab at you; I just happened to think, 'Hmm, wasn't there something about that recently?' and looked, and there it was. You've been asking lots of questions (which is good!) and getting lots of new info, so it's not surprising if you don't recall one particular bit of info when it's relevant to a different context. (That said, this might be an indication that it's a good idea to slow down a little, and make sure you're taking in the info you're getting before asking more questions.)

And regarding your original question, I'll note as well that calling quarters is not necessarily essential to casting any-and-all circles - it's an element (heh!) of certain sorts of circle-casting, and those sorts are especially common and thus easier to find info about, but other approaches are also possible.

Jenett touches on this near the end of her reply, in the paragraph comparing it to bread, but doesn't quite go as far as I'm going. To stick to her analogy: you need yeast to make what people usually think of as 'bread', but there are also things like biscuits and muffins and loaves (called quickbreads, because you don't have to allow extra time for the yeast to do its thing) that use other leavening agents such as baking powder. The result is still bread, but it's a different sort of bread-thing - if that different sort definitely isn't what you want, then you need to use a yeast-bread recipe. But if what you want is simply some sort of bread, your options are wider.

A circle that doesn't involve quarters at all is a somewhat different sort of circle, but it's still a circle, and is functional for many (though not necessarily all) of the same purposes.

Sunflower

When casting a circle do you have to mark the four directions in the circle? I've avoided casting a circle for a while because I don't have much of a way or marking the directions, so I didn't know if it would be easy to call the four quarters without some kind of marker?? I tried casting a circle without calling the quarters some time ago and the spell I did kind of worked...just not as I had planned.

 
I don't always call corners when I cast circle now, it depends on what I'm doing and how long I have (and where I am).

However, I pretty much always called corners when I was first starting out.  There are a lot of things you can use for corner markers.  I've used rocks a lot (I'm definitely a bit of a rock hound), both tumbled crystals that I felt embodied the energy of the element in question, or painted rocks (I have a set of found rocks I painted a rune set on, and have used those to mark a circle).

I also like picture representations.  I have several lovely sets of elemental pictures.  Many are laminated (just the simple home laminate peel-and-stick plastic you can pick up at office supply stores) so that they are more durable.  In college, I kept them pinned up on a cork board.  You could also get some cheap picture frames and frame them (and as Jennet suggested keep them face down until you call on them, then set them upright).  Depending on what images call to you, these could easily be displayed around your room as simply art.

I also very much like found objects.  You could keep your eyes peeled as you are out and about and see what you find.  Acorns, rocks, leaves, branches, feathers, flowers...all these make great corner representations.

Ultimately, to me, a corner representation is simply something that takes my mind to a particular place.  So anything that makes me think of air could be a representation for air.  Find stuff that works for you

When casting a circle do you have to mark the four directions in the circle? I've avoided casting a circle for a while because I don't have much of a way or marking the directions, so I didn't know if it would be easy to call the four quarters without some kind of marker?? I tried casting a circle without calling the quarters some time ago and the spell I did kind of worked...just not as I had planned.

 
As I'm sure you're figuring out, you don't have to do anything. The freedom to experiment is part of what makes magic fun, but it can also be overwhelming when you're starting out.

In the apartment I lived in prior to my current home, I did most of my magic in my bedroom. This did not allow for a lot of space, and so my circles were purely energetic - I used no markers. What I did do was buy a cheap compass so I could figure out the directions and then just faced each one accordingly when preforming quarter calls. After the first few times I knew that the wall with the window was East, the back wall South, etc etc. The circle itself could probably be better described as a rectangle as it encompassed the entire room so that I could utilize the whole space.

In my current apartment, all of my magic work is done in the living room. This allows more physical space, and so sometimes I will set up a 'proper' circle. For markers I use small clear glass votive candle holders that I have painted the elemental triangles on.

I think that the key is to experiment in order to find a method that makes you feel comfortable. Especially if you're still living with parents who may not approve - it's more difficult to focus on the ritual if you're paranoid that mom might be suspicious of all the candles you keep buying or whatever. Ideally you'll want a method that helps you learn the elements of ritual, puts you in a magical state of mind, and doesn't cause undue stress. And remember that is IS okay to play around - not all methods work for all people.

When casting a circle do you have to mark the four directions in the circle?

No, not necessarily. Some cast circles without moving around the room physically, and just visualize the creation of sacred space while lying on the floor with closed eyes. This is a minimalist approach, and it is perfectly possible to follow.

However: We are physical beings, and for many persons the casting will probably be more efficient if it involves both our inner light (prayer), mind (visualizations), our sense of the etheric ('energy work', although I don't like that term), sight (visual markers of some sort), hearing (words or chant), olfactory sense (incense or oils) and tactile sense (moving around physically, perhaps using a symbolic tool of some sort).

The markers do not need to be extravagant. Have you tried tealights on plates (Plates are important to isolate the tealights from the surface, to avoid burnmarks)? Or 4-5 cards with symbols which you may hide in a book or a drawer when you not use them?

I tried casting a circle without calling the quarters some time ago and the spell I did kind of worked...just not as I had planned.

There are many ways of creating sacred space.

Traditional high caste Hindus invoke eight deities in different directions in the beginning of their thrice-daily Sandya Vandanam (although less traditional Hindus have left this formal practice for the more 'feelgood' rite of aarti).

Christians with their historical roots in the radical reformation (revivalist reformed protestants, baptists, quakers) do not give creating sacred space any conscious thought, but do it anyhow, just by beginning their meeting or their private prayer. This does also apply to RDNA-druids, who in principle regard every place a holy ground.

Catholics and Orthodox Christians set church buildings apart by a dedication rite, and Catholics and Orthodox laypersons rather often have a corner in the home permanently set apart with icons, holy water, rosaries, incense, books of prayer and other devotionals.

It is hard to generalise about Anglicans/Episcopalians and Lutherans. Both of the above descriptions of different types of Christians may apply on Anglicans and Lutherans, depending on where they place themselves on the Low Church-High Church scale.

Moslems are not expected to perform the five-fold daily office directly on the ground. They create sacred space by using a small, foldable carpet.

Druids of the British (not American) type and ceremonial magicians create sacred space in a way rather similar (but not entirely identical) to the way Wiccans do it - all these movements are historically related to each other.

Another poster recently described how reconstructionist Druids of the American (not British) type create sacred space by opening three gates at the centre of the gathering place instead of four at the circumference.

So, yes: Calling quarters are not a sine qua non for creating sacred space in general. It depends on the symbolical worldview of the practitioner. Which divine and/or apiritual entities do you want to commune with? How do you believe the worlds are structured? Adapt the creation of sacred space according to the answers of these questions. Only you knows how you answer these questions.

Opening rituals and closing rituals are not to be treated in a fundamentalist way. One and the same symbol may mean something else in another system than your own.

I remember discussing with a Wiccan many years ago, and realising that holy water was used in two distinctly different ways in our two paths: She used it to hallow a circle already cast, I used it (then) to 'clean-slate' the place where the circle would be cast a few minutes later. Nowadays I 'clean-slate' in another way.

Another example: The famous 'tree-visualisation' (in many versions) now turn up everywhere and among groups and individuals of many paths. As far as I know, it was initially invented by members of the American druid-organisation ADF, for three purposes: It would connect the participants with Cosmos, it would engage the 'energy-work' (sorry for that choice of word again), and it would mingle the individual spheres of consciousness into a cooperative common group sphere.

It doesn't work for me at all. I am a bad Druid in this regard. I have to connect, circulate Prana (or whatever you call it) and mingle with others in a group as three distinct practices after each other (not simultaneously), using other means than the tree-visualisation to achieve these ends. I nowadays prefer to perform the 'clean-slate' between the connectedness-practice and the circulation-practice.

My point is: There are more than one way of doing the same thing, and one have to make the purpose of every segment of an Opening ritual clear for oneself, to make the best of it. Then, we will be able to remove segments that doesn't work and insert segments that fills the same purpose best for each one of us.

Oh, and another thing: Elemental directions are not set in stone. The most widespread and commonly known correspondence system is based on the winds and weather conditions of ancient Egypt (especially Alexandria), and if I remember correctly it was first mentioned by the astrologer Ptolemy:
East - Air
South - Fire
West - Water
North - Earth

The Greek philosopher Aristotle, however, grouped the elements in opposite pairs, with four qualities combined in certain ways into a very symmetrical system, well-known to renaissance alchemists. This was also used by Ancient Druid Order - British Circle of the Universal Bond in the 1940's according to Ronald Hutton:
East - Air - Moist and Hot
Southeast - Hot
South - Fire - Hot and Dry
Southwest - Dry
West - Earth - Dry and Cold
Northwest - Cold
North - Water - Cold and Moist
Northeast - Moist

A third one is zodiacal in nature. Each element is corresponding to three zodiacal signs. Of these signs, one is cardinal, one is fixed and one is mutable. If the fixed signs of each element is ordered symmetrically, you find yourself with these correspondences:
East - Fire - Leo
South - Earth - Taurus
West - Air - Aquarius
North - Water - Scorpio

For some it is useful to adapt to their own climate and topography. Some years ago I read an article written by a member of some non-Wiccan British Witchcraft group, and their group had adapted the correspondences, by placing Air in the direction from which the strongest storms came, Earth in the direction where the farmland was and Water in the direction where the sea was. It sounds reasonable.

There are many ways of creating sacred space.

 
And of course, not everyone who casts circles regards it to be creating sacred space per se. (I note that the OP didn't use the phrase 'sacred space'.)

For me, there's nothing unsacred about the space to begin with; what I do when I cast a circle isn't sacralization (and, indeed, I don't cast a circle for all rituals, or even for all those that involve magic), it's making a particular sort of working-space.

The whole subject of casting circles and/or creating sacred space is quite a lot larger and more complex than most pop-Pagan books indicate!

Sunflower