Water Combination Ritual - medium teaching version
by Blayze

This ritual was originally written as an exercise for Applegrove. It was held indoors and so everyone imagined the forest that is described, making suitable bird and animal noises... it was fun and also educational. 

Set up: 

At each of the quarters there is a bowl filled with coloured water. There is also a bowl in the centre of the circle for spirit. 

Western Quarter: Water 

The bowl is filled with blue water It contains quartz beads. 

Southern Quarter: Earth 

The bowl is filled with green water It has another bowl filled with earth beside it. 

Eastern Quarter: Air 

The bowl is filled with yellow water. It contains hazelnuts. 

Northern Quarter: Fire 

The bowl is filled with red water. There is a small cauldron of spirits and a basket of metal skewers. 

Centre of Circle: Spirit 

The bowl is filled with black ink and there is a censer for shaman mix. 

Circle Cast, Quarters, Central Invokation, Witches Rune 

Water Guardian: 
Tonight we will undertake a journey to the Enchanted Forest of Emotions. It is a land that lies between the worlds and a land of your own imaginings. We will be immersing ourselves in the Element of Water. During this journey you will encounter 4 pools of life. They will teach you about yourselves, your emotions and how you relate to them. They will take you into their depths and show you hidden mysteries about themselves. For behold - water is life and all the elements are different aspects of that life. 

Participants are led through hermetic journey to the Altar of Water.

Water Guardian:  Welcome back to the world between worlds. You have gained an understanding of the nature of Water. Now you must use your emotions to explore the relationship that Water has with the other Elements.

Let us journey to where Water and Earth combine. 

Water Guardian: To reach the enchanted forest we will walk the boundaries of our world between the worlds three times. 

Let the journey begin!!! 

WALK AROUND THE CIRCLE THREE TIMES TILL YOU ARRIVE AT WATER OF EARTH. 

Water Guardian: Look up ahead, a pool of green! Green as the grass upon the earth. There is a mound of fresh earth before it. 

Earth Guardian:		Hold, who seeks entry to realm of Water and Earth

Water Guardian:		I am the guardian of Water alone, the pure cleansing stream. I bring to you those who would know your realm, the place where Water and Earth meet.

Earth Guardian:		All who seek knowledge are welcome to this place, here where strength of earth is nourished by the tide of emotion. Enter freely and be blessed by Water and Earth.

Participants are asperged with salt water as they pass through the gateway.

Earth Guardian: 		Come... feel the water as it cleanses you.... cleansed by water, the blood, the tide and the tear and the pure nature of salt.  Come... sit before the pool and speak with me.

From the realm of Water alone you have travelled, now you find yourself carried by the path to the waters at the heart of all.

Feel the magic of this place and find within yourself the knowledge of how water and earth may work together, how they combine in so many different ways. Look deep within the green waters and think on this.

Participants take time to think.

Earth Guardian:		Feel the seeds of knowledge inside you. Bring to me that knowledge, borne within the body. Speak to me of water and earth. How can they be combined in magick. What do they represent together? 

Go around the circle with each person giving their insight into water and earth.

Earth Guardian:		I thank you for these gifts of insight. And to you I will give a gift in return. Earth and Water. Combined they become life. A seed planted in the Earth the womb of the Mother - starts to grow when water is mixed with the earth. Together they help create life. When combined in the hands of an artist they transform into something else. Different earth creates different transformation of pigment - they can combine in so many ways. 

Here is a mound of earth. We will transform it by mixing it with the green waters of the pool of new beginnings - growth. 

Everyone take a handful of the earth and place it in the pool. Together we will chant and dance around the pool - a dance for growth in our lives growth through the combination of earth and water. I would like you to visualise the green light of growth filling the pool. As we dance think of what we need to grow within our group. Yell it out till we have it as a group mind then the chant can begin. We will have growth of our spiritual nature, growth within our selves and our awareness? 

"Earth into water 
Elements combine 
A season of growth 
from the sacred signs 

To release the magick the sign of both earth and water is marked on your foreheads -over your third eye - may the growth be within you and with us all. This is your gift from the pool - a gift of inner growth. 

Water Guardian: Let us once again tread the ancient pathways of the Forest of Emotions. Where will it lead us next. 3 times we will tread this path - we are heading to the East. 

WALK THREE TIMES AROUND THE CIRCLE TILL YOU ARRIVE AT THE EAST 

Water Guardian: Look up ahead - a pool of yellow water. We have arrived at the Stream of Knowledge. Here you will experience the elements of air and water combined. 

Air Guardian:		Hold, who seeks entry to realm of Water and Air

Water Guardian:		I am the guardian of Water alone, the pure cleansing stream. I bring to you those who would know your realm, the place where Water and Air meet.

Air Guardian:		All who seek knowledge are welcome to this place, here where knowledge is carried by the waves of emotion. Enter freely and be blessed by Air and Water.

Participants are asperged with perfumed water as they pass through the gateway.

Air Guardian: 		Come... feel the water as it cleanses you.... cleansed by water, the blood, the tide and the tear borne upon the breeze.  Come... sit before the pool and speak with me.

From the realm of Water alone you have travelled, now you find yourself carried by the winds to the waters at the heart of all.

Feel the magic of this place and find within yourself the knowledge of how water and air may work together, how they combine in so many different ways. Look deep within the golden waters and think on this.

Participants take time to think.

Air Guardian:		Feel the breath of knowledge inside you. Bring to me that knowledge, borne upon the tides. Speak to me of water and air. How can they be combined in magick. What do they represent together? 

Discuss. 

Air Guardian:		I thank you for these gifts of insight. And to you I will give a gift in return. 
Water is able to travel through the air - as steam. Water can be combined in the air it is transformed through heat etc to be carried within it. Air can transform water through bubbles. 

At the bottom of the pool are hazelnuts. There is an Irish myth about the relationship between the hazels of knowledge and water. Cormac went to the Otherworld to try to recover his wife, son and daughter, who had been abducted by Manannan Mac Lir. While there he saw a spring with nine hazels growing over it. the nuts of the nine hazels fall into the water. the sound of the nuts falling into the water is said to make the sweetest music ever heard. There the nuts are eaten by the five salmon living in the pool. The Salmon separate the shells from the fruit and send the shells down the five stream which lead from the pool.  Eventually it is revealed to Cormac that this is the Spring of Knowledge out of which flow the streams of the five senses "through which knowledge is attained. Another story related to hazel and salmon is that of Finn - son a chief Druids daughter. He was instructed by the druid to cook him a salmon but was forbidden to taste it. However, in cooking it he burned his thumb. When he put his thumb in his mouth, he was inspired with knowledge and the arts because the salmon had fed on the Hazel nuts - there are many variation on this tale. 

And so hazelnuts represent knowledge. The hazelnuts are in the bottom of the pool. They contain the knowledge of self and the knowledge that is around us. 

We are going to pour energy into the pool and cycle the energy through the water and into the hazel nuts.We will dance and chant and visualise our goal resonating in the nuts. This spell will be for knowledge of ourselves as a group and the knowlegdge that we can share with each other. The hazel will be the symbol of that knowledge shared. 

Hazelnuts deep in the waters of gold 
food for the salmon in tales of old 
we give thee our knowledge with powers combined 
that we may share with each other 
in heart and in mind 

Splash yourselves with the waters and take your gift from the pool - the empowered hazelnut 

Water Guardian: Our time at the Stream of Knowledge has ended. It is now time to move the North 

WALK THREE TIMES AROUND THE CIRCLE TILL YOU ARRIVE AT THE NORTH

We tread the pathways once again, my fellow travellers. See in that clearing - a pool as red of blood? 

Fire Guardian:		Hold, who seeks entry to realm of Water and  Fire

Water Guardian:		I am the guardian of Water alone, the pure cleansing stream. I bring to you those who would know your realm, the place where Water and Fire meet.

Fire Guardian:		All who seek knowledge are welcome to this place, here where flame of passion is tempered by the waters of emotion. Enter freely and be blessed by Water and Fire.

Participants are asperged with warm water as they pass through the gateway.

Fire Guardian: 		Come... feel the water as it cleanses you.... cleansed by flame, by the blood, the tide and the tear.  Come... sit before the pool and speak with me.

From the realm of Water alone you have travelled, now you find yourself carried by the flame to the waters at the heart of all.

Feel the magic of this place and find within yourself the knowledge of how water and fire may work together, how they combine in so many different ways. Look deep within the red waters and think on this.

Participants take time to think.

Fire Guardian:		Feel the spark of knowledge inside you. Bring to me that knowledge, warmed within the body and the hot blood. Speak to me of water and fire. How can they be combined in magick. What do they represent together? 

Go around the circle with each person giving their insight into water and fire.

Fire Guardian:		I thank you for these gifts of insight. And to you I will give a gift in return. There is a delicate balance between fire and water. Fire can be used to heat metal, to re-shape, to forge. Yet water can temper the metal, making it hard and strong. The cycle of fire, water and fire that is used to transform and create for a specific purpose, the outer form surrounding the passion's inner core.

What passions do we need to bring into ourselves and into our group? 

Give the gift of those passions to the fire. 

When everyone has given their insights into the flaming cauldron they are then given a metal skewer.

Passions can be overwhelming. Sometimes we need to temper them, to make them manageable, to allow ourselves to function and to appreciate the passion gradually. The balancing of tempering, the inspiration and the act. Hot flame shapes us whilst the cool waters strengthen and harden us.

Take your piece of metal and heat it in the flame of passion, the plunge it into the pool of water, finding the mystery of the tempered passion.

Water Guardian: Again the sacred paths we tread - spiralling widdershins into the underworld. There we will find the Pool of Spirit - inky black. 

WALK THREE TIMES AROUND THE CIRCLE TILL YOU ARRIVE IN THE CENTRE

The spiral path is long but we finally have arrived. Here is the Pool of Spirit -Akasha. Look deep into the pool of darkness - what do you find there ? 

Contemplate all that you have learned - seek the spirit within yourselves and with us. Now is the time for quiet scrying Calm yourselves and open your third eye. Look with that eye into your spirit. See yourself reflected there. You have journeyed through the elements to get to this time, this place, this realm. Spirit is always present within and without. Look deep within the waters... seek yourselves, your spirit, your emotions. Seek your strength, your knoweldge, your passions... they all combine here. 

SCRY 

Slowly come back - when you are ready - you may stand up. 

Spiral deosil back from the underworld and into the forest. As you pass each pool - say farewell and thanks. 

Go to the edge of the circle and sit. Open floor for discussion 

Cakes and Ale 

Farewell Quarters 
Dryghton Prayer 
Close Circle 
Feast