Читать книгу The Real Witches’ Craft: Magical Techniques and Guidance for a Full Year of Practising the Craft - Kate West - Страница 18

Most people are familiar with the children’s chant ‘Rain, rain, go away, come again another day.’ Or its variant, ‘Rain, rain, go away, come again by night not day.’ Both of these can be worked as spells, so long as they are performed with balance, focus and intent.

To perform them effectively, as with all spells, invoke the Elements and call upon the Goddess and the God. Say either of the spells three times, whilst actually being outdoors in the rain. Remember to dismiss the Elements and thank the Goddess and the God afterwards, and expect results to be soon but not necessarily immediate.

A similar spell goes, ‘The clouds are sheep, the wind their shepherd. Shepherd, take your sheep away.’ This is intended to remove both clouds and rain.

To raise a wind, perhaps to dry washing, stand with your back to whatever air movement there is, and blow three times whilst focusing on a gentle increase in wind.

‘Delayed magic’ can also be worked. It used to be common, but is now much less so, for sailors to ‘buy the wind’ from a Witch. The Witch would tie three knots in a cord, which the sailor could untie at need. The first is for a breeze, the second for a wind and the third for a strong wind. In this case, the Witch would have used magic to visualize and tie each form of wind into the cord, so that it could be later released.

Every Coven I know of has its own weather worker, usually the person who shows most natural skill at this kind of magic. It is their task to try to ensure that conditions are as good as possible when outdoor rituals are intended. This form of ‘in advance’ magic is worked keeping in mind the seasonal norm, for instance, if it is winter then the spell is worked to make the Ritual site a little warmer and drier than might be expected. The worker will visit the site in good weather, then when they need to work the magic they will use all their experiences of that visit to create a spell which comes as close as possible to the preferred weather. This is not to say that Witches avoid the cold or wet, for we are nature based, but some places can be unsafe if it is particularly inclement. Likewise, there are some events which can be nearly intolerable if it is too hot; I have tried to do a dance and chant workshop in brilliant sunshine, but I’d rather not!

However, knowledge and understanding of the Elements is simply the first step towards working effective magic, so I’d like to move on to some of the other steps.