Dance Magick

Dance is certainly an ancient ritual practice. It's also a magical act, for physical movement releases energy from the body, the same energy used in magic. This "secret" was discovered early, and so dance was incorporated into magick and ritual to raise energy , to alter consciousness or simply to honor the Goddess and God with ritual performances.

Group dances such as the spiral dance, are often performed in coven workings. In individual workings, however, you're bound by no tradition or choreographed steps. Feel free to move in any manner you wish, no matter how child like or "savage" it may seem In magick many Wiccans perform a short spell or ritual manipulations of some kind and then perform the real magic: raising and channeling magical energy. They often move in a increasingly faster clock wise circle around the altar, either alone or with a coven, watching the candles flaming on the altar, smelling the incense, overwhelming themselves with chanting and intense visualization.

When the practitioner has reached the point of no return, the exact moment when the body can raise and channel no more energy, the power is released toward the magical goal. To do this, some Wicca collapse to the ground, signaling the end of what is rather peculiarly called "The Dance." Dancing is used to raise energy as well as to facilitate attunement with the Deities of nature. Dance as the wild wind; as the stream rushing down a mountain, a flame flickering from a lightning struck tree, as grains of sand bouncing off each other in a gale, as flowers unfolding their brilliance on a sunny summer afternoon.

As you dance, using what ever movements you wish, open yourself to the God and Goddess.

Think for a moment of the whirling dervishes, the untamed Gypsy dances of Europe, the sensuous belly dancing of the Middle East, and the sacred hula of old Hawaii. Dance is one of the paths to Deity.