Monday, June 11, 2007

A Circle Casting

I've recently been working on an alternative to the Bloodrose Feri circle that I was taught and so decided to incorporate this poem that I originally wrote back in 1998.  One of the verses borrows heavily (like three out of the four lines!) from a poem by Doreen Valiente, but it was just so perfect I couldn't help it. I have been revising this casting ever since I first wrote it, and just this past week added a new verse (so now there's seven... I love sevens), changed a couple of lines, and reordered it. Chas recently posted a previous version in his LJ when posting about the faery hounds. In the circle script I will pass on it is listed as an alternative to the (somewhat altered) Bloodrosian version that I received, and has a list of "stage directions" including different energetic instructions/visualizations for the participants to perform at different parts, but here is just the poetic invocation for your amusement. 

Invocation of the Circle
©1998-2007 Storm Faerywolf

By Forest dark and standing stone,
By rushing wind and life's first breath,
By flame that burns the flesh to bone,
By ancient sea, the land of death...

By the Mother and Her Son
Is the circle made and done
Descend the light of Moon and Sun
Our Holy Rite has now begun.

My blade has cast the circle round,
with razor's edge and bluest flame,
from earth to heavens, sky to ground,
the power comes that has no name.

We summon forth the faery hounds,
From Outer Darkness now draw near,
to prowl beyond the circle's bounds,
And put intruder's hearts in fear.

Between the worlds of flesh and Fae,
we touch the Source and form the weave,
a ward to keep the worlds at bay,
that none may enter; none may leave.

This holy ground now lies between
The realm of Gods and mortal men,
By human eye cannot be seen
the faery sight alive within.

As above and so below,
enveloped in a cobalt flame,
the stars that shine, the stones that know,
within we speak Her sacred name.

12 comments:

nightqueen13 said...

I love it!!
I'm going to use it when I cast my Circles. Been using Thorn's poem from E.W. so far, which is very beautiful too, but it's good to have more than one, I think, and since I haven't created any of my own as yet, I feel yours' going to be terrific!!
Thank you.

elorie said...

Ooo, I like it :)

anatketani said...

Holy shit, that's hot. *whistles* DAY-UM. Thanks for sharing it!

lobolance said...

Tis lovely. Thanks for sharing.

ryanfirewitch said...

Wow! Beautiful!
By any chance, is there a "devoking" poem to go with it? Or any that you would recommend?

tanith_astlik said...

I'm not usually a fan of rhyme, but I like. Beautiful and powerful.

kiramor said...

oooOOOOoooh. I'm not normally much for lots of words at casting, but this one is fantastic! It resonates. I'll have to hear you say it sometime, because just reading it is giving me goosebumps!

smirkingjustice said...

going into intellectual property geek mode...
I noticed that the first thing you put on this was a copyright notice. Given that you admittedly borrowed from Valiente, don't you think it would be appropriate to let others borrow from you by putting this under a Creative Commons license? Perhaps allowing anyone to use it for non-commercial purposes as long as they attribute it to you? or allow them to take small excerpts of it (which, btw, they could do anyway by means of a fair use exemption, but that's a murky area legally, and it's best for the author to specify outright what they won't sue for it)? Or commit it to the public domain after a certain number of years? Or after you die?
taking off ip ranting hat.... putting on pointy hat...
This is an incredible work. Have you put it to music? or considered it?
Peace and Blessings,
Smirk

dietrich said...

Now *that*'s a freakin' casting.
Gave me chills. Thank you.

faerywolf said...

It's not a bad idea. I'll certainly think about it. I hear you about the murky area of "fair use"... that was exactly how I was seeing the use of those few lines.
Thank you for you input and your kind words. Putting it to music? Hmmm... very neat idea! Perhaps someone would be so kind as to do the music part of it one day...

mrj15 said...

Very nice!
Michele

ashlupa said...

...There's a melody running through my head for the first two stanzas...