Air Combination Ritual - Large
Written by Blayze, Beastie, BobKat & Kim. Owl meditation by Kim

·	The Ritual is divided into 6 parts.
·	There are four Sprites with elemental coloured wings that lead each group around. Each group moves to the elemental realms in a round robin configuration.
·	Introduction / Air of Air / Air of Water / Air of Earth / Air of Fire / Air of Spirit.

INTRODUCTION:
In the centre of the Circle area are 4 censers with elemental scrying smoke. This will be used later for Spirit of Air. A whistle plays a haunting melody as a figure steps from amongst the trees. This is the Owl.

Owl:
I am the music that is carried on the wind
I am the wind that caresses your skin
I am the kiss of a summer’s breeze
I am the wisdom of the Owl
I am the flight of the Eagle
I am the feather that carries your dreams
I am the journey and the journeyor
I am thought… I am Air”

Owl dances around the circle to the music of the whistle. At the end of the dance Owl gives each person a coloured feather.

Owl:
党I give to you a feather that you may fly to worlds as yet unglimpsed. 
Listen… my brothers and sisters come to guide you on your journeys. 
Find the bird that matches your feather and go to them. Journey well”.

Owl slips away as groups form.

AIR OF AIR:

Owl meditation
Usual breathing and trance technique.

It is a deep and dark night and you are standing in a clearing in a forest of tall tall trees.  You can feel the coldness of the soil beneath your feet, no longer warm from the days sun and the damp from the early morning dew as it begins to fall and form on you. Your breath is warm against the cool nights misty air, and all around you is darkness.  The crescent of a new moon shines above the trees canopy slightly illuminating the tall slender trunks of the trees in a ghostly white light, and all around you is silence.

You look up into the tall trees that frame the moon and can just see the slightest breeze rustling the leaves and swaying the delicate branches.  Your eyes are drawn to deep within the foliage as you feel you are being watched and try to search it out.  You squint into the darkness, and then feel your vision become clearer..

Amongst the foliage sits an Owl.  It is a large Owl with great cream rings around its dark slits of eyes, a spotted chest and brown and cream and black feathers.  The Owl is watching you silently and you feel safe in your spot and protected.  You look into the Owl eyes and slowly it leaves its branch and flies down to you.  Its flight is silent, its presence strong.

The Owl silently approaches you and you see in its sharp pointed beak a pencil and paper which it drops at your feet.  As you pick up the pencil and paper you notice that the owl is gone, and the wind is slightly stronger and cooler now as leaves fall from the tree’s that sway above you in the breeze.

Take the paper and pencil.  Feel the wind blowing around you, feel the wind of change, let it blow through you and cleanse you and feel your inner knowledge and strength.  Draw on this strength and write down what you wish to be released from.  You are like one of the leaves on the forest floor, being blown by the wind, but you cannot be blown freely if you are trapped beneath something.  Think of anything that traps you or anything within yourself that you wish to be free of..any emotions or pain or fears that you want the wind blowing about you to carry away.

Silence.

When you feel that you have written what you need, fold the paper and slowly tear it into pieces..keeping them held tight so as not to blow away just yet.

Light Frankincense for this part of Meditation

As you sit quietly, you feel as though you are being watched from behind and whilst you do not hear anything, you know that the Owl has returned and is behind you.  A pouch falls into your lap and you place your torn paper in the pouch which the Owl then takes.  You feel the Owl on your back, and the warmth of its soft feathers, the beating of its heart.  Its wings reach out and sit along your arms, and you are feeling as if you are one with the Owl.  Your arms are now its wings, and you are light, you are strong and you feel the wind blow harder against your back as you slowly lift your head and take flight.

You fly up through the forest canopy illuminated by the moon, and are looking down on the trees with the morning sun rising from over a distant mountain range and thick dark woods in the East.  Fly towards the East, towards the sun.  Feel the wind blow through you and around you and feel the strength and Freedom of your flight.  You watch as the suns first yellow rays climb over the mountain peak and pierce the morning mist.  

As you fly you see that your pouch is held in the claw of your foot and its weight is slowing you, dragging you down and beneath you sit darkened woods which you do not wish to enter.  You let the pouch slide from your claw and as the wind picks it up..your paper scatters to the wind and swirls around you in its many pieces as you continue to fly east.  Beneath you, you see your paper twirl and dance in the wind and as the sun rises higher in the sky and the wind blows stronger behind you, you see the paper begin to disintegrate and dissolve in the air as the suns rays creep over the dark woods below and cast an amber glow all around you. You feel the energy of the sun and the new day pulse through you and you are at one with the new dawn as you fly to the East.

 Higher and Higher you soar, savoring your strength and your forward determination and you know that you are freed from your burden.  The wind is still strong at your back, strengthened from your release and pushing you further onwards.  You soar over the awakening world and see that the moon is now dim and the rays of the sun are reaching up into the clouds that you fly amongst. 

You feel the wind begin to slow now and you your instincts tell you that now you are free and can fly alone.  As you begin to slowly descend downwards, you feel the Owl release itself from you and it flies behind you.  The Owl knows that you know the direction back, as you have gained knowledge and wisdom by letting go, and by your experiences.  The Owl must leave as the sun rises, but you now know where to find it.  Your pouch is full of seeds now, which you scatter for the birds as you slowly come back down through the canopy into the misty clearing.

Let yourself gently land in the clearing, and think on what you have learned from your experience that is now behind you and blowing as the wind.  Feel the wind in your face, feel it cleanse you and move you into the new phase, the new day of your life.  

You feel the soil beneath your feet, still moist from the dew, but warming as the sun grows higher and stronger in the East.  You can smell the rich scent of the earth mingled with pine, and flowers.  You hear the sounds of birds around you as they wake and busily begin their day and you thank the Owl for taking you on your journey, and for giving you strength and the gift of flight.  Feel the warmth of the sun on your face and the light fragrant spring air around you.  You are ready for a new season and chapter in your life, and when you feel ready, slowly focus again on your breathing and open your eyes when you feel you are back.

AIR OF WATER:
This will require a sacred space / circle. Cut a doorway and welcome the journeyers in. Close the door behind them.

Water Guardian:
党Welcome to Water of Air. The Air is our Knowledge, our Wisdom, our Journeys, 
our Messages and our place of new beginnings. It is a time of Sunrise.
Water gives us Understanding, it Heals us, it Cleanses us, it is our emotions, 
it is the place of Sunsets.
In Water of Air we journey under the light of the Sun… from its rising until its setting. 
A time of Friendship.
As we journey through Water of Air we will send messages of Friendship to 
those who are not with us today”.

In the centre is a bowl of soapy water and two wire rings.

Water Guardian:
党You see before you a shining bowl of cleansing water. This represents your Friendship. At the centre you will also find a circle… like the bowl it contains within it the Circle of Rebirth, the Circle of the Seasons and the Circle of Life. It will become a gateway to send your messages of Friendship to their goal. I ask each of you to come forward individually”.

Bring people to the centre one at a time. Speak these words to each person

Water Guardian:
Dip your circle in the waters. Hold up your circle in front of you. See within the newly-made mirror, the face of your friend. Hold their image in the surface and give it life. 
Think about a message of Friendship that you wish to send to the person whose 
image you see. Freely given and with harm to none.
As you feel the message building inside of you, let your breath of Air 
send your message through the mirror of water. Let the bubbles bear your message
and know that it will arrive. So mote it be”.
Let each person come forward and perform the spell. Guide them back through the gateway after all have finished and their sprite will lead them to their next journey.

EARTH OF AIR:

There is a space marked out around a tree, clear of rocks as there will be dancing.

Earth Guardian

The vibrations of all that we do are borne by the Element of Air. It carries our dreams, our messages to each other, in thought and in speech. It is the realm of music, the playing of pipes and whistles… the sound of bells tinkling, the running strings of a harp. The beating of the drum which is also the Heartbeat of the Earth. As we drum and as we dance, we hear the results through the Air, but we feel them through our bodies  - through the Earth. Combining music and dance is a combination of Air and Earth and it is a potent way of raising energy for our goals.

Together we will celebrate the Air and Earth… Feel the vibrations of them both. Lay your hands upon the earth… feel the subtle vibrations, listen to the wind as it blows through the trees.

Bring half the group toe stamp upon the ground in time.. the other half to feel it in the land…
Then swap. Get them all stomping in time… start singing the song

Mother I feel you under my feet
Mother I feel your heart beating
Heya Heya Heya Heya Heya Heya Ho
Heya Heya Heya Heya Heya Heya Heya Ho

Get them to raise and direct the energy that they are raising towards the tree… 
Once the energy is release get them down on the ground and guide through a tree meditation to ground them.

FIRE OF AIR
As each person enters the air area they are smudged with sage 

Fire Guardian:
Come… journey into realm where fire and air combine… feel the smoke as it cleanses you… cleansed by fire and the fumes it creates from the burning herb…. A gift carried on the winds… magick carried through the air…. The air around us… the air we breathe…. The air that fills our lungs with life….
The fire releases the hidden energies of the fuel… the vibrations… for good and for ill… the beautiful aroma of cooking food, the scents released to stimulate us…. To make us wish to replenish ourselves, the fire releases and transforms the fragrant oils that we heat to calm ourselves, to please ourselves to heal ourselves… yet fire can also pollute the air… the coal that burns to warm us, to light our way… the great electric revolution that both aids and us but harms the air and the earth… In the combining and transformation from the realms of fire and air we see the double edged sword of air… formed by fire… sharp and duplicitous as magick….
Tonight we look at the positive ways that air and fire can combine… through the burning of herbs we can create magick…. Censing ourselves and our lives…. Creating change by our will… transformation of fire… carried through the kingdom of air…

Discussion 
Make incense
Have each person crush the herbs in their hands.
Each person to approach the hibachi singly and perform their spell of transformation. Watch the herbs burn and the smoke carry the spell. 	 

Move to Spirit.
Everyone moves to where the four censers burn with different elemental incenses. Each elemental guardian places incense on the censers. Everyone scries into the incense smoke.