Softening the Circle

Do we need to be as protected as we think we do?

I realize I write these words in a world that is rife with turmoil. As we watch children being carelessly slaughtered, as we demand basic human rights for queer, trans, women and people of color in this country, as we navigate the lingering effects of a global pandemic… There are many real threats to protect ourselves from in this day and age, and there is much need for protection magick in our lives.

Yet, this consideration of and preoccupation with protection continues to chase me, as I cast my circles and call in the elements to support and aid in my magic. Do we need to create such impermeable boundaries around ourselves and our magick in order to feel safe and witnessed by spirit? Or are our circles sometimes cast with too much force, too much opacity? Do our magic circles sometimes restrict our capacity to work in collaboration with spirit?

I was taught to cast circles formally by the Reclaiming Collective. As I stood in circle with so many bright new witches, I could feel the power we were each conjuring with each element invoked. I could feel the edges of where our circles met, with strong intention and individual flair. I was taught to cast - not really a circle - but a sphere, a bubble that encircled myself and the magical work I was aiming to perform. We were instructed to engorge our circles wide and expand those circles as large as our imaginations would permit, then to shrink them down to thread bare whispers of their former glory. This exercise was an experiment in power and imagination, and a way to feel into the true potential of the cast circle - and the energy the well cast circle has to offer us as witches. 

Now, as I cast my circles, often with a heart heavy with concern for the Earth and our global community, I can feel how my circles have grown thick and thorny, selective of what energies and entities I am open to inviting into my workings. With the robust protective skin I have stretched around my sphere, I feel that I am shutting off potential points of connectivity, potential allies in my own quest for healing, and imposing limits to how far I am able to send healing outwards into the indelible webs of connection that we all participate within. 

As I feel into the energetic thorns I have circled around me, I am reminded that that as witches, our strength lives within our ability to be with the darkness. During these moments when we are each feeling triggered, traumatized, and alone, we need to tap into the power of vulnerability more than ever. Our vulnerability breeds our ability to feel empathy. Our vulnerabilities are what connect us, especially in the darkest of moments. If you too have felt the need to batten down the hatches of your energetic output, this is for you. 

Here is my case for softening magical circles and for relating to our protections with more fundamental trust in the cosmos:

1. When we approach the world and our lives with a sense of basic trust, we provide the universe with opportunities to meet us accordingly. 

2. When we replace protection, which is also a form of defensiveness, with a sense of trust, we invite in more opportunities to relate with the world and to learn from the world. Protections create shields between us and others. Trust opens windows and doors to connection. 

3. Casting a circle with trust, instills a pact of reciprocity. When we trust ourselves, and our magic, we empower greater connectivity with the unseen world. We show that we trust our unseen allies to support us. 

4. Casting softer circles allows for a deeper form of relationship building, between ourselves, the natural world, and the unseen world all around us. 

I am not advocating for bursting our bubbles wide open, or adopting a sponge like aura that soaks up all the energies around us. What I am suggesting is that we might be able to tap into more love, more connection, and more power, if we have less boundaries with the world around us. Ancient practitioners of sorcery cultivated the ability to commune with the unseen through their basic trust in the animism of our cosmos. We have been indoctrinated into a culture and perspective that separates us from everything - making us feel isolated when in fact we are an integral part of an ecosystem. If we can tap back into the magic of the web, perhaps our lives will be strengthened and supported by that basic trust. In affirming our interconnectedness, we can soften the boundaries we’ve cultivated to protect ourselves from the mystery of what we know little about. By navigating with curiosity, unseen allies will also approach us with curiosity. 

As witches, we must remember that our magic is rooted in reciprocal relationships. Like any relationship, one that is rooted in trust, is much more able to expand, bend, and shapeshift. May our circles soften to open up more opportunities for such magic to take root in our worlds and between the worlds.

In perfect trust ~