Casting Circles

The circle has always had enormous symbolic power to us. It is at the same time something that is infinite and yet definite. It is measurable but the most important measurment of a circle, the number pi, is an irrational number whose decimals never end or repeat. It is a thing of mystery and wonder. The most important point of a circle, the center, is not part of the circle. Circles seem to occur naturally in nature and are quite easy for humans to reproduce. In a circle one has something mysterious, wonderful, beautiful, infinite and glorious, with the added benefit that even the simplest person can draw a circle with a piece of string and a pin.

Circles universally symbolize wholeness, completion, and perfection. Since we also conceptualize the Divine as perfect, the Circle also seems to be a universal symbol for the Divine. St. Augustine's famous definition of God was "God is a circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere." Even in the Bible, in the vision of Ezekiel, God is described as circle. The seer saw wheels within wheels turning on themselves, filled with eyes, and fainted at this vision.

Circles tend to dominate in religious art whether we are speaking of Buddhist mandalas, Taoist yin and yang symbols, Celtic crosses, Gothic cathedral rose windows, Roman pagan temples, Navajo sand art, ancient Peruvian land sculpture, Druidic circles of stone, or modern UFO related crop circles. However, probably the most persitent use of circles in spiritual art is as the "halo".

It also seems a natural human endeavor to make circles out of people. One of the great myths of Western Civilization centers on a circle of knights of a Round Table. Folk dances tend to be circles of humans. Native Americans pow wow in circles. Small groups of women always tend to call their groups "circles", such as "church circles", "sewing circles" or "garden circles". Support groups tend to sit in circles.

We tend to think of our own personal space as a circle, which only makes sense since the area that one can reach without moving actually is a circle. Also space in general seems to be defined by circles. The earth appears to be a circle for the horizon is the defining circle of its space. The Sun and the Moon are circles and move in circles. (We now know they are actually ellipses, but these are so close to true circles that only scientific measurement tells us otherwise.)

We often do not build in circles but in squares and rectangles. But when out in nature and claiming an area as our space we revert to circles. The idea of a circle around the campfire is so natural we never question it.

Thus it is just human nature to think of a certain space in terms of a circle, especially if the space is a temporary one created just for a brief period of time. Even if one doesn't draw a circle in the ground one would still tend to create a circle just by claiming a certain area as a sacred space

When one wishes to commune with the Divine in Nature it is very helpful to do so out in Nature, to claim a bit of the earth as a safe place to experience the sacred. In doing this the space is set aside by the worshipper, even if the worshipper doesn't do this formally. The intent of the communer sets aside the circle.

Casting a circle for a Witch is simply making all this conscious and ritualized. We do not cast circles primarily to protect us from evil spiritual forces that might attack us, as one might think from how circles are used in the game Dungeons & Dragons. Instead the point of consciously and ritually casting a circle is to focus our attention on the sacred space we are inhabiting, it is to consciously hallow the area with this powerful symbol, and it is to temporarily focus us upon the spiritual activity we will pursue within the circle we cast.

Some of us draw a circle in the ground. We might do this with our fingers, or with a "wand", or even an "Athame", which we will discuss later. Others of us outline a circle with something symbolic, drawing it with chalk, or marking it with a herb, flour or salt. In doing this we are ritually setting aside a small area as a sacred space for us to engage in spiritual activity.