The Common Book of Witchcraft and Wicca by The Ancestors - HTML preview

AN ELEMENTAL DEGREE SYSTEM SUGGESTION

 by Alan Salmi

 Hermetic Fellowship of Chicago

While many Wiccan traditions use a three degree system for advancement in knowledge of the craft, that is by no means the only way to organize a person’s advancement in their experiences and spiritual pursuits. A Five Degree elemental system was used in the tradition known as The Pagan Way, originating on the east coast of the United States and an outline is given here for those groups that may want to organize in this fashion.

An important distinction is to be made between those who are an “outer court”, those who are merely seekers and/or who do not want initiation but wish to practice the faith of Wicca in a group, and those who wish initiation and eventual ordination in the craft.

In many groups that distinction of membership but not yet initiation uses a “pre-degree” status known as “Dedication”. A Dedicant could be considered an entry point into the group, and may be a further steppingstone into the path of Wicca, or they simply want to have a declaration of their intentions to practice a spiritual life.

The elemental degrees however imply a deeper commitment to the path, and to going through a tradition of knowledge and experience that could take months to, as often as not, years, in each of the degrees. Since much of craft symbolism is contained in the elements, the elemental system of advancement is a natural extension, and easily understood way of advancing for most members of a coven. Suggestions will be made here for the knowledge and experiences to be contained in both the Dedicant and Elemental degrees. Of course, each group will have to round this out for themselves, and are free to add or subtract from the suggestions given here.

The Dedicant “proto-degree”

We will not go into the issues here of how open or closed a particular coven should be. Rituals may be advertised or announced online or in local newsletters or a flyer at an occult shop. A group could likewise be only known by word-of-mouth or by invitation. The dedicant ritual is best done, in any case, once the person gets to know members of the group and the group likewise is willing to spend time putting forth energy in a short ritual to allow the person to make a public declaration of their willingness to take on the spiritual path in life.

The ritual itself should be carefully explained to the person about to undergo it. The ritual does not obligate them to the group itself, but should they wish to move forward their public declaration of taking on a spiritual path, in whatever form it takes, is a prerequisite to further entry into the group. The dedicant ritual is set up in such a way that the person could simply do that ritual, and then walk away and find their path in a totally different tradition. In a sense, as well as being a public declaration, the coven itself gives a form of blessing to the person in their declaration of wanting to move forward into a “path of light”.

 Typical elements seen in this ritual are the following:

• The person would purchase or borrow a white robe, and have available a white cord that could be placed around the waist, symbolical of a clean, unadorned state to start things with.
• A ritual purification of the four elements, emphasizing that the person is being cleansed and prepared for another stage in their life is then done. This could easily be done by either those who are officiating or with the help of people who are assigned to elemental places in the ritual.
• Having been purified, the person is then gently challenged with an oath. The oath should be as general as possible, neither binding the person to the group, nor to a particular manifestation of a spiritual path. The oath however can be seen as a public declaration of their willingness to add spirituality into their life in a meaningful way. They declare they are to move forward in a manner dedicated to their own advancement and spiritual knowledge and the spreading of light to others.

 Once this is done there could be one or both of the following to be given to the dedicant:

• A ritual blessing of the senses, with an opening to the eyes for being able to see more clearly, the ears to be able to hear truth, the mouth to be careful in their speech, and the heart to be filled with light of the divine to help them in the pursuit of their path.
• Also there can be a blessing to be performed with either a lower level of divine force such as a blessing of angels or elemental powers or a blessing from higher divine sources such as the Lord and Lady.

The completion of the ritual would be to have members of the group tie the cord around the person's waist to symbolize their connection to all of those who are also on the path of light in whatever spiritual tradition that they follow. This white cord would then be a reminder of following the light and keeping their eyes and ears open for truth.

The entire ritual act would take no more than 15 or 20 minutes, and may be done with two or three people at the same time if needs arise. Often times this is a very lovely little rite, and makes people feel more included into the outer court of the group. If the group wishes to set things up this way, it would be a prerequisite to gaining some knowledge before the first initiation into an elemental degree. The amount of that knowledge, in the course of study, would be left up to the group. It may also be possible to leave all deeper instruction for those who are initiated.

 Typically a course of study for a dedicant would however be one of the general Wicca 101 classes with an introduction to philosophy, history and practices as well as knowledge of the altar, ritual objects and the basic form of ritual that is seen in their open participation. This class is an opportunity to get to know the dedicant better, and give a standard basic knowledge to them before they are initiated. In the older days however, such knowledge was given only to initiates, so that form is not completely unusual or without precedent. Considering however, nowadays most of such information is available publicly in books and on the Internet, it would probably be most prudent to give your particular form that your group wants to work with to the dedicants to prepare them for further work. An obvious format would be to take the relevant parts from this book as a group study effort.

The elemental degrees

 The Earth Degree: 

The earth degree is meant to be the basis for most of the other work of the other degrees. This degree starts to move the person into the actual use of magic and basic understandings of the magical path. It is suggested that a number of different topics be covered under this degree with the following the major areas that are investigated:

• A basic reading list comprising of both the Common Book of Wicca and whatever supplemental materials the group or coven decides upon.
• The body and exercise: accomplished with martial arts, dance, exercise systems such as Pilates, movement awareness systems such as Alexander work or Feldenkrais or Rudolph Steiner’s Eurhythmy. Gurdjieff’s movement work could be included here, as well as yoga practices such as traditional schools of hatha yoga or even modern acroyoga.
• Basic understandings of the subtle bodies (chakra systems, acupuncture meridians, Qabalistic power centers)
• The basic structure of ritual, the uses of rituals for the seasons, the lunar tides, special occasions such as weddings and/or handfastings, memorial services etc. While the level of understanding for these rituals is not as exact as someone who is about to be ordained, knowing the basic patterns and being able to help with or conduct new or full moon and seasonal rituals would be a goal for this degree.
• A basic understanding of elemental magic and especially of the elements would be required in this degree. This would eventually build to a major project that could be used as a “final earth degree magickal discipline” which would be a working that would culminate in a seasonal body of exercises and meditations done for each season and its element.

The year-long seasonal/elemental working could be designed by the group to include such things as ritual word done at the proper time of day, with numerous other correspondences. The correspondences with food, incense, sacred names of elementals, etc. can be devised as part of this working by the elders of the group Once the group puts together this format, it can be refined over the years and/or used as a rite of passage in itself.

Once the earth degree has been gone through, the person should have the basic idea of magic and ritual as well as an understanding of the seasons and the elements. This becomes a strong foundation for the rest of the elemental degrees. The discipline gained in the areas of diet and exercise will have obvious positive effects that will form a basis for further discipline in other degrees.

Of course the particulars of this degree would need to be worked out carefully with all the members of the group. Typically it would take some design of checklists and books to be read with an understanding that at least a year would be spent in this degree work, and probably several years.

The Water Degree

Water degree consists of a deeper understanding of the unconscious, along with a mastery of divination and the beginnings of an effort at psychological and spiritual self-knowledge. To this end, the following areas would be examined and mastered:

• Dream interpretation and the reading of symbols
• Personal psychological work via psychotherapy, support groups, psychological systems such as NLP, experiential focusing, parts work (Internal Family Systems or Allione’s “Feeding Your Demons” work), family constellation work, all depending on local resources. Shamanistic journey work would do well here, since it deals with both inner realms and has elements of divination in the practice itself.
• Divination: mastery of two major systems is recommended, such as tarot, astrological geomancy, numerology, runes, astrology (especially horary astrology) or even Eastern systems such as the I Ching. A minor method, such as oracle reading, dice divination or working with a pendulum or other divining tool is also suggested.

The main goal of the water degree then is to gain a certain sense of selfmastery and self-understanding, with being able to understand symbols and the wider range of coincidences and correspondences in the world for divination work. While this is a degree that can be considered to never end, by the time that water degree has been engaged in for at least a year or two, this person should be able to grasp the possible motivations or unconscious processes of other members of the group and have some skill in negotiating and working through difficulties. This will greatly help to alleviate problems with drama within the group as well as gaining the obvious benefits of self-discipline and self-knowledge for further work down the road.

The Fire Degree

All the previous degrees could be considered challenging, the fire degree will be one of testing the discipline of the person as well as their ability to grasp and understand the changes that can occur in others as ritual work is done. This degree is the one in which one learns mastery of both group processes and the ways to read where a person is at and how best to design a ritual to cause change in their life.

 The areas of study in this degree are:

• Ritual Design and construction, particularly the ability to formulate initiations that are personalized to the needs of a candidate.
• Strengthening the Will
• Manifesting from inspiration to the actualization of a major change in one’s life in the material or spiritual realm.

Fire, being the element of change, is mastered when you are able to bring all of your previous knowledge and experience together to produce change for both yourself and others. In the ritual sense, understanding the person’s life stage, personal values, their life myth and the needs for the change that will be induced in the ritual is a necessary integration.

In many groups, the fire degree is also the place for ordination or elder status, since the amount of knowledge and the level of ritual ability needed flows into the usual duties for elder or full priesthood status. There should be a mastery of all the “womb to tomb” rituals, as well as all those rituals needed for initiation into the lower degrees. Areas of leadership, of course, should be mastered by this time, with an understanding of group patterns and dynamics and the structure and functioning of groups. In particular, the mastery of the self, to be able to step outside of a group process and observe what is happening and what is needed next, is a high level of attainment to be sought at this stage.

A personal project of one’s own would also be most appropriate at this stage. A long-term goal that would directly work on one’s own weaknesses or areas to enhance should be well formulated, stages set and then commenced. This project could be almost anything: improvement of health, a discipline of some sort that may be emotional or mental (in anticipation of the further air degree) or a community project would fit with this need to show mastery of manifestation through the power of will/fire.

The Air Degree

When a candidate moves into air degree, they either have to gain mastery of a particular system or path of magic and bring it to a new level, or they would synthesize a number of different systems bringing about the new formulation.

Obviously this work will be a major study for some time, the previous attainments in some system of magic, such as natural magic, Qabala, or even astrological magic, will be brought to an entirely new level. This may take several years to work through, and the ability to travel to other realms astrally to gain information will be essential here.

 Possible example projects here might be:

• A new synthesis of natural magic, done by in-depth study of the natural world, evolution, or astral or shamanic travel into fairy realms.
• Another project might the examination of a particular school of mysticism and how it may apply to Wicca.
• Further, in-depth study of some subject such as astrology, including it’s ancient history and its place in Western esoteric thought would be an appropriate study for this point, especially if it could be applied and adapted into a Wiccan worldview.

At this point, the intellectual attainment and discipline would be the equivalent of graduate study in the humanities. It would be natural for someone at this level to have a considerable library of their own as a resource or, in this digital age, to have e-books and online reliable materials (being able to identify unverified personal gnosis in writings of others would be an obvious skill to have at this level).

 Not all are called to the Air degree, just as many are not called to active leadership in a group, but for those who work in this area, there is a chance to contribute to the community and the magickal path in a whole new way that may well have an effect on future generations.

The Spirit Degree

Once the intellectual/air degree is mastered, the only thing then is to continue to travel the path. This level of attainment would probably not be reasonable to consider before at least two decades of work on the magickal path. The things that may happen here are really up to the individual and their own connection to the divine. There are few areas that would not be at least familiar to, or mastered by the person in Spirit degree. While this does NOT mean that the person is more than human, nor even at a point in their own evolution where they have completely cleared themselves of their issues or personal challenges, they are operating on a level and with subsequent challenges that few are able to reach.

This is truly the attainment of the long path of magickal work. Ultimately, they should be continuing to contribute their wisdom to others, if even to just a select few. At this point also, it would be appropriate to designate someone as their special successor for their lineage, to help them in their own level of attainment to continue the teachings to future generations.

Conclusion

Obviously, this is only an outline. Any group that attempts to implement this would do well to consult with elders of the Wiccan tradition, especially those using this system. If none are available, a well-run group could have a focused committee to work on the specifics of what they would like to see in these degrees in the ways of specific work. It would be up to the group/coven itself to determine if they would want a connection via formal initiation to a lineage or to work in a manner in which the group would support each other in their ongoing levels of attainment.

Notice that, aside from a few suggestions for the Dedicant degree, no mention is made of the form of the initiation rituals to be used. This would either be communicated from such Elders as the group can contact or find to advise them in a particular tradition or devised by the group itself from the knowledge of the patterns of ritual and the needs for initiations. In this latter instance, the old saying “of course it’s true, we made it up” is perfectly appropriate!