Lesson 5: Beginnings

It was a day in early spring when the power of being a Witch struck me

with such

abruptness it left me standing in awe.

I was deep in the rainy Coast Range mountains of Oregon state, preparing

to work with

a sacred site I had adopted and interacted with for several years. Weeks

before, I had

performed a ritual with a group of Pagan friends, using the rite to

welcome in the

coming spring, becoming a part of the process of the changing seasons,

something that

many Witches refer to as the turning of the Wheel of the Year. As I

looked at the world

around me, as I stopped, centering myself, filling myself with the energy

of Nature as I

breathed in the clean, crisp mountain air, my eyes began to slowly drift

over the land

that encircled me. Tiny bits of green had begun to show on the birch

trees that filled the

area. The first flowers of spring had begun to bloom.

Spring was in the air and I had participated in a ritual that welcomed it

in, that called the

rising natural energy back into the weave of life. Was it my

participation in the ritual

that had helped to bring life back to the world? Or had the ritual simply

reconnected me

to the power of the seasons, to the swelling of life-giving energy in the

natural world

around me?

To be honest, it didn't matter. From either perspective, I had become a

part of the

seasons. No longer did they turn unnoticed. No longer was I simply an

observer. I was

a participant, a part of the dawning of spring.

And after years of practice, after working countless rituals and

experiencing wonders

the mundane world only dreams of, I finally discovered my path, the

meaning behind

my identity as a Witch. What for so long had been mental exercises and

principles that

I applied with measured regularity, suddenly became something real and

alive. It was as

if a hidden door opened for me and welcomed me into the spirit realm. For

the first time,

everything that I did, everything I believed, and everything that I was

as a Witch truly

made sense. It was at that moment that my path truly began.

Lesson Five: Beginnings?

And here you thought we'd started long ago!

For a moment, let's compare our personal practice to an oak tree. When

you think of an

oak, you may think of an ancient, gnarled tree, its roots sunk deep in

the earth, the

branches reaching for the sky. But that oak tree didn't just suddenly

appear. It began as

a tiny acorn. It had to find the right conditions to grow - just the

right soil, not too

much light, enough water to nourish it. And then that tiny tree-to-be had

to push. And

push. And push, just to get through the shell of the acorn.

That's very similar to what you did when you began to search for your own

answers,

when you began the quest to find something that met your spiritual needs.

Like many of

us in the Pagan community, you were probably raised Christian, explored

some meditation

and Eastern thought, but nothing seemed quite right to you. Nothing was

home.

And then you found the Craft.

To many of us, being a Witch is simply that - a process of coming home.

Sometimes it

feels like this was what we were meant to be our entire lives. That we

have spent every

moment from birth searching for this. Start talking to us and you'll find

that many of our

favorite moments as children were spent outdoors, that we laid on our

backs, staring up at

the moon in awe, and that as adults, we longed for that simple connection

we had as a

child. To me, that's what Witchcraft is all about. It isn't about spells,

or power, or the

desire to appear special or weird. It's about reconnecting.

Like that tiny acorn, you've pushed through so much to get here, breaking

through that

shell to feel the soil. Remember way back at the first exercise,

"Learning to Listen?"

Remember how hard it was to do seven consecutive days without missing

even one? But

that process taught us so much about ourselves, about what we want from

life and from

this path we've chosen to follow.

As we pushed the pieces of our shell aside and began to make our way

through the soil,

we found the light of the sun and began to reach for it. We burst through

the soil and

began to experience the world around us. And now, as we look at the

landscape in which

we live our lives, we find all the things that we need to grow. It might

come naturally for

that tiny sapling, but if you're like me, I needed a friendly push every

now and then to

keep me growing on my path.

From this point forward, the path this course offers gets much more

intensive. This guide

will make the most sense to you if you can think of this book as a

ritual. In Lesson One:

Learning To Listen, we went through the first stage of ritual work -

cleansing. The first

exercise, Learning To Listen, began our process of transition from a life

where we simply

drifted by on cruise control, to a life where we are alive and where we

actively participate

in the cycles and energy of the natural world. The second exercise we

did, Attuning To

Natural Cycles, continued this process of transitioning. We began by

stepping from a

mundane life to one where we noticed the natural energy around us, to a

world where

even the sun and moon are filled with magick. We continued the process by

reinforcing

this process of transition each morning and night.

In the following lessons, our exercises extended the process, embracing

the second stage

of ritual work and setting up the things we needed to continue to move

down this path

and grow as a Witch. We learned the basic elements of ritual, something

which we will

apply again and again throughout this guide. And we began to explore not

only the power

of symbolism, but the concept of setting aside a specific space as

sacred, a concept we

will explore in much greater depth in this chapter.

In the last exercise we did, Symbolism, we began to explore not only the

power of specific

images, but the ideas of what we want to find on this path, the things

that we are hoping

to discover as we grow. What we have to understand is that, if this is

new to you, you

don't currently have the perspective necessary to speak that intent, the

third stage of

ritual. You need a little more time to setup, to step a little farther

from the mundane and

transition a little more into the world of the Witch. It isn't that you

don't understand what

you want from your life, it's simply that you aren't yet aware of how

rich life can be, of how

much wonder, beauty, and blessing is available to you.

You have to realize that this isn't a slight against you as a person. By

no means am I

saying, "Well, gosh, you're so inexperienced that you don't really have a

clue what you

want out of life." What I am saying is that as we grow, our perspective

changes. Each time

our perspective shifts, we see our lives and the world around us a little

differently. If you

strive to continue growing on your path, this will become a continual

process for you. Life

will always be new. There will always be something new to discover, some

new idea or

concept to explore, some new lesson about yourself to learn. If you

continue to grow, to

expand your horizons, your world will never grow dull and you will

continue to redefine

what you're hoping to find out of life, like a sailing ship tacking into

the wind. There will

be times when the wind fills your sails, when everything around you makes

sense and all

of the pieces fall into place. There will also be times when you seem to

be lost on the seas,

when you have no idea where to turn next.

I have found this to be true in my own personal practice. I had been

committed to my path,

practicing for years, before that day in spring when it all clicked, when

I realized what it

meant to me to be a Witch. You will find people that will tell you that

you need to do

rituals, that you need to dedicate yourself to developing your identity

as a Witch ritually

from the very beginning in order to explore your path. I like to take a

different approach.

Think of this period of time as an opportunity to learn the skills you

will need on the

journey ahead, a time of preparation that will prepare you for what will

come.

My approach to teaching isn't to have you meet certain criteria and to do

certain things to

move on with your studies. What I hope is that you will find your own

personal path in

the things that I teach, that somewhere in this guide, in the midst of

what I share and the

exercises that you take yourself through, that something will click for

you like it did for me

that day in the mountains. Perhaps you will find that, like me, the heart

of your path is

deep in the wilderness. Perhaps you'll find that it's working with the

energy of an urban

area, or focusing on the hearth, weaving magick into the kitchen,

bringing an enchanted

garden to life year after year, or something uniquely your own that I

have never even

imagined.

To do that, to find a path that resonates to the very core of your being,

I cannot simply

give you things to memorize, words to recite, or any lesson that says,

"This is the right

way. Learn to do it like I do." Instead, we both have to make a journey

in this relationship

of the printed word. I have to set aside my ego, to remind myself that

you and I are equals

in every way. It's not important that I may have been in the Craft longer

than you and

have gained enough experience to teach from. And it doesn't matter if you

are brand new

to Paganism or a crone with decades of practice under your belt. What

matters is the

journey. Each and every mighty oak once began as a tiny sapling. Like

that tree, each of

us began at the same level, looking at the path before us with wide-eyed

wonder, not

having a clue where to begin, not having the slightest idea what to

expect. Our beginning

steps were often frightening and uncertain as we moved into the unknown.

What's

important is that you find a path that is uniquely your own, that says,

"This is who I am"

and not, "I followed Graelan Wintertide's teachings and he made me a

Witch."

To accomplish this, we're going to take a different approach than you may

have seen in

books or in other courses. We're going to create sacred space, both

inside our home as

well as in an outdoor location that you will discover simply by following

your own heart

and your own instincts. Working with these two places, you will learn a

vast array of

skills, discover the power of myth and lore, and will learn how to

continue your studies

with Nature and the weave of life as your only teachers. I will share

everything that I

traditionally teach students for the first year and a day. There will be

no correspondences

to memorize. Instead, you will learn the traditional uses of an herb,

stone, or other natural

object, and then you will sit and connect with its energy in order to

discover how to best

use it in your own practice. Everything we will do in this guide will

involve finding your

own way. But by taking this approach, when you have scrolled down the

final page in this

course, when you have completed the lessons and set this guide aside, the

path that you

have discovered will be completely your own. You will have crafted the

foundations of a

new Tradition that is as unique as you are, that is an expression of who

you are as a

Witch. This was the gift my teachers gave to me. And I'm honored to pass

it on to you.

The First Cycle course is written by Graelan Wintertide

and is © 1999 All Rights Reserved