Water Combination Ritual - small 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. It is filled with floating candles. 

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 

Priestess: 

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 5 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. 

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

Let the journey begin!!! Ring the bell x 3. 

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

Look through the undergrowth of the forest. See the pool shimmering in the moonlight. It is the Crystal Well. The water is as pure as the moonlight which fills it. Let us gather here for awhile. 

Water is the ruler of emotions. It is here that we begin our journey into ourselves. 

Stare into the blue waters. Think about how water relates to you. Think of the various forms of water magic that you know of or have experienced. What does the Element of Water mean to you. 

Meditate awhile - let the water give up its secrets. Don't worry if nothing comes -that is why we are here - to experience the water, but you may have knowledge that is heedful to your fellow journeyors. 

RING BELL ONCE 

Before you may receive the gifts of the Crystal Well, you must tell it what you have learned and together we will give hack a gift of understanding. 

Tell me what the water means to you - what forms of magick can it be used for? 

Discuss examples, experiences and give others. 

Water can be diffused. Its power transformed into something else. At the bottom of the pool lay crystals. They sit in the pool of emotion, deep within the the Crystal Well. They need your energies and emotions. Feed them, empower them and they will give your emotions, your love and your calm back in a tangible form. 

To calm ourselves emotionally and get in touch with our emotions and our love for one another - we will work a little magic. 

See the blue water - see the crystals, a healing of emotion can take place by cycling the energy of the water through the crystals. 

There are several ways of doing this - what can they be? 

Discuss. 

Let us dance and chant around this pool. Fill it with your energies and celebrate in it. Your love, your calm and your happiness will be merged with the crystals. This we do as one and we will fill all of them. They are a symbol of our emotions together as a group. Charge the crystals with emotions both pleasant and calm. See them glowing brighter -infused with calming blue water. 

"Crystals deep in the waters lie 
key to f eelings we hold inside 
We charge thee with our hopes and dreams 
Eternal cycle of stream to stream" 

You have done well. A gift from the waters of the Crystal Well. Splash the waters over yourselves and thank the guardians of the Waters for your gifts. You may each take from the well a crystal - it holds all of our emotions within it. A symbol of calm, of serenity and love - may it harm none! 

It is time to resume our journey through the enchanted forest. We will again follow our path three times. 

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

What is the relationship between Earth and Water. How can they be combined in magick. What do they represent together. Look deep within the green waters and think on this. 

Discussion 

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. 

Discussion. What forms of magick could come from this? 

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

Before you may receive the gifts of the Earthen Well, you must tell it what you have learned and together we will give back a gift of understanding. Tell me what the water & earth mean to you - what forms of magic can they be used for? 

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. 

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 

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. 

What are the-relationships between air and water. What do they can to you - together and apart. Look deep within the waters - what do you see there? What do they mean? 

Meditate 

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. 

Discuss. 

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. 

Before you may receive the gifts of the Stream of Knowledge you must tell it what you have learned and together we will give back a gift of understanding. Tell me what the water and air mean to you - what forms of magick can they be used for? 

We are going to pour energy into the pool and cycle the energy through the water and into the hazel nuts as we did for the crystals. 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 your gift from the pool - the empowered hazelnut 

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

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

We have found the pool of Fire. See the candles floating upon it? Starre into the depths - think about the relationship of fire and water - what magicks can be wrought with them both? 

Meditate and discuss. 

There is a balance happening here. The fire is held by the water - afloat. Yet if one candle topples the flame is extinguished. Within the bowl is the cycle of birth, death and rebirth - when the flame is relit. This pool represents the delicate balance between the elements and the spark of life. the spark of passion. The pool is red - the blood of the Goddess 

Discuss 

Tell the Guardian of the Pool of Fire what you have learned - give back the gift of understanding. 

We will cycle our energies through the blood of the goddess into the candles - when the flame is lit the magic of our passions is released. 

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

Dance and chant around the pool - see the flames. We charge them - when the flame is lit the spark of magick is released. 

"Floating Flames burning bright 
Give to us the spark of life 
through the blood of theLady our passions run 
With harm to none - the spells begun " 

All to light the candles - sit awhile and look into the flames - let your energies focus on them - they hold the spark of our passions. 

The gift from the Pool of fire is passion and the candles floating on its surface are representative of this gift. We must continue on our journey we will let the flames burn for awhile and collect our candles on the way back home. 

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

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 ? 

Take a pinch of the incense and place it on the charcoal. All of you. Give your energies to the pool that we may scry 

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. 

SCRY 

Ring bell to finish. 

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

Spiral deosil back from the underworld and into the forest. Go past Fire to collect the candles. 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