Drawing Down the Moon

The phrase ‘Drawing Down the Moon’ has been commonplace in Wicca-rituals and conversation on rituals for many decades now. For some covens, this is a monthly ritual performed by a coven of initiated witches at the Full Moon where an invocation to the Lady is made so She may speak through the body of the High Priestess to the Coveners. In this article, we wanted to share some information about how our coven sees this practice and just briefly describe a sacred ritual in our religion.

Drawing Down the Moon as done in the Sacred Pentagraph Tradition – the Ancient Order of Bell, Book & Candle

The practice of conversing with spiritual intelligences … including angels, elemental spirits, and spirits of the other side has always been part of our tradition. When it comes to the topic of DDTM: The terminology of describing a ritual as “Drawing Down the Moon” is a borrowed terminology made popular by other traditions of the Craft that came out of the broom closet around the same time as our tradition’s practices did – however – it is lingo that is understandable to most Wiccans, so we might as well use this term for this article to speak a common language; even though our ritual rubrics for carrying out this ritual are different than other traditions — though we might have a similar goal in mind in some instances.

The Coven Medium receiving messages from the Gracious Goddess – personal messages for the Coveners, the Covenstead and for the quarter ahead.

In the Sacred Pentagraph tradition, the practice of Drawing Down the Moon could potentially be performed four times per year during the Full Moons of March, June, September and December. These are the months in which the Solstices & the Equinoxes occur.

Since the months of the Solstices & the Equinoxes are times which initiate the beginning of each of the four seasons in the yearly quarterly cycle, this is the most opportune time to ask for messages from the Gracious Goddess in order to receive insight needed for that quarter. It is also recommended that it is not necessary to be performed more than these four times per year in our tradition, as that gives all the Coveners adequate time to put to use the information received by the Gracious Goddess. If we did this every month, we may not have had the opportunity to put into place all the insight that has been given – so this is a good ‘conservation of energy’ thing to consider. There are literally dozens upon dozens of other Full Moon Esbats that can be performed for many purposes during the other months of the year.

The initiate of the Coven who serves as the Coven Medium for the Gracious Goddess must have developed their mediumship abilities. In this ritual, it is most likely the High Priestess who will serve this role as the Coven Medium. In our own Wolfa Coven, most of our established and regularly attending current initiates have mediumship abilities to one degree or another – which means that any initiate of one of the higher degrees could technically do this for the coven if needed. I think it’s a little unusual to have a full coven of mediums like we do – it’s just worked out that way for one reason or another. The rubrics and rituals of this ritual have not been put into print, but we can at least describe our thoughts and reflections upon it so that other covens who are curious what we do get an idea of our ideas, and also for readers that just want to read about diverse thoughts and practices in the religion.

We cast the Cosmated Esbat Circle to begin – usually this circle is cast by the High Priestess, the High Priest, the Handmaiden & the Practicus who serve as the four officers of the Esbat circle – but in the case of this ritual, since the High Priestess and High Priest must focus on inducing the trance state, that usually means the Practicus and Handmaiden will carry this out, and witches make do!

We have many ways of creating a magical circle, and this method for Esbats is very quick and takes very little time. Since the time of Esbat is highly focused on spellcasting, psychism and talismanic magic, or the very practical sides of Wicca, the focus is mainly on these specialized areas rather than on the communal seasonal themes partaken of at a Seasonal or Sabbat where on occasion more ceremonial aspects of ritual might be done.

The Coven Medium sits before the cauldron with the hood covering her head and arms. Her body wrapped up in her robe and cape in order to go into the silence and allow trance to come on and speak forth the messages of the Gracious Goddess. It can be performed indoors or outdoors. The coven dances and invokes the Gracious Goddess to come down, and the High Priest will direct the Ether raised within the atmosphere to the High Priestess to use in trance.

After the Gracious Goddess speaks fourth what needs to be heard, then there may be a time allowed where questions can be asked of Her.

The Scribe of the Coven scribbles down notes as fast as they can, as quickly as the messages come in.

When finished, the High Priest asks the heaviness to withdrawal and the Handmaidens of the Coven perform specific actions which help to bring the Coven Medium back into normal time and space.

Before closing the Cosmated Esbat Circle, we like to have some wine and some bread in order to have some togetherness and ease back out of the state of consciousness that has been invoked, especially before the Coven Medium and others need to stand again. Sometimes, depending on the Coven Medium, sessions of trance mediumship can take a little while to shake off. This time sharing food also allows us conversation to discuss things shared and bring ourselves back gently.

In our own experience in our coven, every Medium experiences different effects on the mind and body through these types of rituals. Why this is so, could be many … some of the reasons can be related to the type of Spirit Guide that each Initiate of the Coven has that assists them on the Astral Plane; some could be because of the spiritual development that the Initiate currently has gone through in this life and the many lives before and some could just simply be related to the specialty and talents of the Medium.

During the time of trance as a Coven Medium, there are many things that happen — The most common thing that occurs is messages are shared, prophesy is spoken, clairvoyance is used. On rare occasions, even spirit healing sessions occur.

These rituals and how to do them are ones you learn and participate in a traditionalist coven amongst initiates.

Blessed Be!

If you wish to learn more about our practices, you can buy a copy of the Sacred Pentagraph book here from Amazon.

The Sacred Pentagraph – Five Books in One

Advertisement

Sabbat of Candlemass

At the Sabbat of Candlemass, (February 2015) the witches of our coven and companionship met around the altar in the temple here for the purposes of honoring the feast of waxing light and to celebrate the purification of the Earth-Mother so she could conceive of the birth of Spring.

The Ancient One and Watchers of times of old, time outside of time, were called to be present and draw in the power as we stirred the Astral Light that night.

The Sabbat that came before last Candlemass, Yule (December 2014), initiated the new season to come.

Yule was ruled by the God because Yule is one of the four Quarter Days of the year that marks the seasonal and Celestial Changes. (both solstices and equinoxes) Ancient monuments and stone megaliths from many thousands of years ago were aligned to mark these “Times” that initiate change here on earth: Such as Stonehenge and other round houses and stone circles of Britain and even the ancient monuments of the Mayans! Many ancient civilizations placed such great emphasis on these particular times of the year.

Yule represented the Celestial “Action”: the Initiator. Candlemass is now the Terrestrial “Response.” The time of daylight continue to increase since Yule from the heavenly Sun and now the Earth, our Great Mother, fashions the life by preparing the Earth with purification to wash away all the dross and the cobwebs from the doors. Soon, spring cleaning will be in the air.

Our Father God represents the Action, our Mother Goddess represents the Response. The God initiates, and the Goddess orders and manifests. One cannot exist without the other: Which is why we of the Wicca look to the Lord and Lady as halves of the same whole, and acknowledge the great “Oneness” as the Supreme Being from which all life unfolded and came to be fashioned: divine sparks dividing and indwelling and eventually through the process and progression of reincarnation, will all return to.

At this Sabbat, we wrote petitions for both spiritual and material growth. The Earth Mother is clearing a way for the opening of the tomb and life since the Celestial and Heavenly realms initiated it, so we too respond to Her changes by writing of the petitions and make room for what is to be.

The planting of seeds at Candlemas and nurturing them throughout the growing season.

The petitions were placed into the soil and watered blessed through practices of concentration, prayer and incantations. A circle dance to awaken the seeds of Spring performed around this “awakened tomb” was had to celebrate the increasing light and to send power up to our gods so they too will give response.

Once again, the awakening of the tomb and the feast of purification and waxing light is coming soon. Many mythologies represent this celestial ordering and earthly response in various myths and ritual: Such as the Descent and Release of Persephone.

I don’t know about you, but I tend to look back on the Sabbats with great fondness, sometimes even with a tear in my eye at their beauty. Sabbats are the memorable parts of our religion. We don’t always remember what happened at Initiations and Esbats because of the nature of their workings and their veil of mystery – but Sabbats always stick out in the memory for me – not easily forgotten! That is probably how it should be.

The rites have been kept and honor given to the Ancient One.

Blessed Be to the Wicca and to all who seek!