Sacred Texts
Some words are not meant to be read silently.
They are meant to be spoken aloud, felt in the chest, carried into ritual space where they shift the air and make the invisible tangible.
There are some words we say almost without noticing that they are doing anything at all.
We say “come in” when someone is standing at the door, and suddenly the person on the other side is a guest. We say “I do” when the question before us is much larger than those two little words. We say “safe travels” as someone heads out the door, and somehow a simple phrase can feel like a small blessing.
The words are ordinary. The moment is not.
Witchcraft has plenty of words like these. We offer blessings and prayers. We make vows and invocations. We name things, call space sacred, welcome one another into a circle. Sometimes the words have been handed down to us. Sometimes we find them and discover that they fit. Sometimes we change them, slowly making them our own. And sometimes, we sit down and write our own.
I think it’s easy to miss what’s happening when we treat all of these as simply texts. We read them, study them, perhaps even memorize them, and in doing so it can become tempting to think their meaning lives entirely on the page.
But some words are meant to be spoken.
Not because speaking them makes them more impressive, or more properly witchy, but because the speaking is part of what we are doing. And that gives us a rather different way of looking at the words we bring into our practice.
"Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little."
~Tom Stoppard
Guidance for the path – not law, but compass. “An it harm none, do what ye will” condensed into verse that teaches moon phases, elements, sabbats, and the balance between freedom and responsibility.
A declaration of identity – who we are when we step into sacred space. “Hear Now the words of the witches, The secrets we hid in the night.” This is what it means to walk the path and claim the magic as our own.
The voice of the divine feminine speaking directly to you – present in earth and ocean, in breath and moonlight. She reminds you that you are not separate from the sacred. You are part of it, and you are not alone.
The voice of the sacred masculine – not domination, but strength and presence. He is the sun that warms, the blade that protects, the fire that lights the way. He offers partnership, not power-over, and stands near when you falter.