Once you have effectively cleansed your altar area and set everything in place, the next step before beginning your rite/ritual/celebration is the casting of the circle. Many Magick Users cast the circle, then cut ahole to admit the other participants and close the circle back again. Personally, I find that weakens the magickal sphere you've taken such care to weave, and therefore is a bad thing. For Me, casting the magickal circle is the very last step before beginning the spellwork at hand, regardless of what it is. Many times, I do not feel the need to cast a circle. When working every day spells, acts of healing or protection, cleansing or kitchen witchery, casting a circle first is not necessary.

Casting a circle should be done when you are about to call ANY powers that be to attend or assist you. If you are beseaching or asking the spirit of the oak to come join you, then by all means, do cast a circle to help clarify and focus what you are doing into and inside the circle, using a pentacle. When dealing with "dark" forces, then use the pentagram to hold those forces outside the circle, thereby protecting you, keeping you safely inside. Sometimes, it is necessary to have dealings with Beings of Chaos. At those times, it is necessary to protect yourself.

Casting the Circle

There are many steps in casting a magickal circle, but I will simplify the process to the bare minimum to allow you to adapt this task to your particular style/path of magick.

If you are still using magickal tools, just continue to follow this section. If not, then GO HERE. If you cannot cast your circle outside, then GO HERE. To take down a magickal circle, GO HERE.

Take your compass and determine in which direction North lies. Take a patio tile, or concrete block, or whatever makes you the most comfortable, and set it at the due north point of your circle area. Pace off 9, 11, 13, 21 or 30 feet directly south and place another tile there. Return to the center of your pacings and head due east, then west, adding a tile at an equal number of pacings in each direction. You are doing nothing more, at this point, than setting the physical boundaries of your circle. When dealing with your magickal circle in the creation, fortification or ignition, do remember to always begin north and move ONLY clockwise.

Next, is the creation of your Magickal circle. I am using the "old standby/European" system here, so adapt the elements to the direction which best suits your part of the world. At the northenmost point, on the tile, set a green (Earth) candle; blessed, annointed and prepared for this rite alone. Move east and place a blue (Water) candle on the tile, then south is red (Fire) and west is yellow (Air/Wind). If water is to the west of you and the equator to the north, then adjust these elements to fit your world. Whatever the case, begin with earth and move in the direction the second hand on your watch does.

Consecrate your salt and use it to make your Holy Water. If I just spoke Greek to you, click the link. Walk the inside of the circle area, forming a visible line with cleansed, blessed, consecrated holy water, beginning in the north and moving east, south then west. Envision the ground for a good foot wide, becomming blessed, sanctified, as you move. Say your words of blessing/sanctification as you walk and pour. Make them up. Write them yourself. They will be a thousand-fold the stronger for it.

Call the deities/energies/powers that be to your circle and ask Them to add Their energies to it.

Gather and focus your energies, point your athame and draw a line of white energy completely around the entire circumferance of your circle area. Envision the energies moving out of the point of your athame and around the entire area, forming a solid white ring which grows at your beckoning up, up and over you, meeting at the zenith and melding together there. Then envision it building again and send it down to the very nadir, forming a complete sphere of your magickal energies.

Once done, then return to the north and light the northern candle, calling the Guardians, benevolent spirits and elements which dwell to the north to attend and lend their power to this rite.

Move to the east and do the same thing. Then South, then West.

Now your circle is complete.

Casting The Circle Without Tools

Take your compass and determine in which direction North does lie. Take a patio tile, or concrete block, or whatever makes Yyou the most comfortable, and set it at the due north point of your circle area. Pace off 9, 11, 13, 21 or 30 feet directly south and place another tile there. Return to the center of your pacings and head due east, then west, adding a tile at an equal number of pacings in each direction. Yyou are doing nothing more, at this point, than setting the physical boundaries of your circle. When dealing with your magickal circle in the creation, fortification or ignition, do remember to always begin north and move ONLY clockwise.

I am using the "old standby/European" system here, so adapt the elements to the direction which best suits your part of the world. At the northenmost point, on the tile, envision a very large green (Earth) candle; blessed, annointed and prepared for this rite alone. Move east and "see" a blue (Water) candle on the tile, then south is red (Fire) and west is yellow (Air/Wind). If water is to the west of you and the equator to the north, then adjust these elements to fit your world. Whatever the case, begin with earth and move in the direction the second hand on your watch does.

Consecrate your salt and use it to make your Holy Water. If I just spoke Greek to you, click the link. Next, is the creation of your magickal circle. Begin at the northernmost point, walking the inside of the circle area, forming an invisible line with your pointed finger, beginning in the north and moving east, south then west. Envision the ground for a good foot wide, becomming blessed, sanctified, as you move. Say your words of blessing/sanctification as you walk, creating the strong cleansed and sanctified ring to house your circle. Make the words up. Write them yourself. They will be a thousand-fold the stronger for it.

Call the deities/energies/powers that be to your circle and ask Them to add Their energies to it.

Gather and focus your energies, point your finger and draw a line of white energy completely around the entire circumferance of your circle area. Envision the energies moving out of the point of your finger and around the entire area, forming a solid white ring which grows at your beckoning up, up and over you, meeting at the zenith and melding together there. Then envision it building again and send it down to the very nadir, forming a complete sphere of your magickal energies. ["As Above, So Below."]

Once done, then return to the north and light the northern candle, calling the Guardians, benevolent spirits and elements which dwell to the north to attend and lend their power to this rite.

Move to the east and do the same thing. Then South, then West.

Now Your circle is complete.

Casting The Circle Inside

Purchase a circular rug. Not an oval one, but one which is an actual circle. Place it on the bare floor. Take your compass and determine in which direction North does lie. Take a small ceramic tile with any design you favor, and set it at the due north point of your circle area. Go directly south and place another tile there. Return to the center of your area and head due east, then west, adding a tile at the very edge of your rug in each direction. You are doing nothing more, at this point, than setting the physical boundaries of your circle. When dealing with your magickal circle in the creation, fortification or ignition, do remember to always begin north and move ONLY clockwise.

Consecrate your salt and use it to make your Holy Water. If I just spoke Greek to you, click the link. Next, is the creation of your magickal circle. I am using the "old standby/European" system here, so adapt the elements to the direction which best suits your part of the world. At the northenmost point, on the tile, set a green (Earth) votive candle; blessed, annointed and prepared for this rite alone. Move east and place a blue (Water) candle on the tile, then south is red (Fire) and west is yellow (Air/Wind). If water is to the west of you and the equator to the north, then adjust these elements to fit your world. Whatever the case, begin with earth and move in the direction the second hand on your watch does.

Walk the inside of the circle area, forming a visible line with cleansed, blessed, consecrated salt, beginning in the north and moving east, south then west. Envision the ground for a good foot wide, becomming blessed, sanctified, as you move. Say your words of blessing/sanctification as you walk and pour. Make them up. Write them yourself. They will be a thousand-fold the stronger for it.

Call the deities/energies/powers that be to your circle and ask Them to add Their energies to it.

Gather and focus your energies, point your athame and draw a line of white energy completely around the entire circumferance of your circle area. Envision the energies moving out of the point of your athame and around the entire area, forming a solid white ring which grows at your beckoning up, up and over you, meeting at the zenith and melding together there. Then envision it building again and send it down to the very nadir, forming a complete sphere of your magickal energies.

Once done, then return to the north and light the northern candle, inviting the Guardians, benevolent spirits and elements which dwell to the north to attend and lend their power to this rite.

Move to the east and do the same thing. Then South, then West.

Now your circle is complete.

Taking Down The Circle

Begin in the north, pointing your athame/finger at the ground where your energies rise from the earth's surface and slowly draw the energies back into yourself. Change these energies into healing energies; warm and soothing, and send them back into the earth from whence they came. Oour Great Mother needs Oour help to reverse the damage we, as Humankind, have inflicted upon Her. Do your part by giving Her energy anytime you can. When you have finished, sweep the area lightly with your besom (magickal broom) to discharge any tarrying energies. Thank the Deities, Powers, and Spirits for their attendance/assistance and wish them a merry day/night and move on to Wine and Cakes.

I must also take this moment to attempt to enlighten. There is something about casting a strong Magickal Circle which many [believe it or not] HP/s are not aware. When using the Athame to create your circle, they invariably train the novice to shoot their energies out through the blade. What they fail to mention [even in the higher levels because most people are not aware of this step] is that when you shoot your energies out the top of your blade, you should be DOING something with those energies. Now the books and sources which do bother to mention this step still fail to say anything beyond the suggestion that your energies are used to create the circle. The vast majority do not bother to tell you that...

  1. When casting a circle, one does NOT cast a circle! One casts a SPHERE! As above, so below! WHAT is a circle going to do to protect you? It has to encompas the WHOLE SPHERE in which you are working!

    And no LESS important, is this...

  2. Those energies you're shooting out the end of your athame had best be CUTTING A HOLE into the dimension YOU DETERMINE, or you're just sealing yourself into a pretty unremarkable bubble without the benefits of the energies you try to call later in your rite. If you are endeavoring to work with Faerie Energies, ASK FIRST, then cut a "rift" into Tir NanOg. If you need Dragon Energies, ASK FIRST, then cut an entrance into the Dragon Realm. I am not being purposefully obtuse here, but the Dragon Realm has a different name for each person who uses it, except when a group is working with Dragons together. Dragons communicate through dreams to impart wisdoms, sometimes, and that is usually how they give the Sacred Names. If one is advanced enough to travel to their Realm while remaining awake, they may learn most any name the Dragons see fit to impart. If you need a specific Deity [or an aspect of a specific Deity], then you ASK FIRST, then cut a portal into the Guf [Summerland, etc.] and speak with that Deity.
If you have been doing it some other way, I beseach you to try it this way before continuing to cast a Sacred Circle without either of these elements.