Opening the Circle

____________ devoke God with:

"Warrior God of ending and beginnings, by whatever names we call Thee -_____________ - we know that You have heard us. We thank You for Your presence in our Circle this evening and we ask for Your blessings as You depart. Go if You must, stay if You will and may there be peace between us, now and forever. Go in power, blessed be. Hail and Farewell."

____________ devoke Goddess with:

"Mother Goddess, both Dark and Bright, by whatever names we call Thee - ___________ - we know that You have heard us. We thank You for Your presence in our Circle this evening and ask for your blessings as You depart. Go if you must, stay if You will. May there be peace between us, now and forever, go in power, blessed be. Hail and Farewell."

_____________ snuff the white candle and say:

"Chichiri, Guardians of the East, Powers of Air,
We thank you for joining our Circle,
We ask for your blessing as you depart,
May there be peace between us, now and forever,
Go in power, blessed be.
Might Dragon of the East, Sairys,
We are honored by your presence tonight
And for acting as witness and guide to our Circle.
May there peace between us, now and forever,
Go in power, blessed be.
Hail and Farewell."

_____________ snuff the red candle and say:

"Tasuki, Guardians of the South, Powers of Flame,
We thank you for joining our Circle,
We ask for your blessing as you depart,
May there be peace between us, now and forever,
Go in power, blessed be.
Might Dragon of the South, Fafnir,
We are honored by your presence tonight
And for acting as witness and guide to our Circle.
May there peace between us, now and forever,
Go in power, blessed be.
Hail and Farewell."

_____________ snuff the blue candle and say:

"Hotohori, Guardians of the West, Powers of Water,
We thank you for joining our Circle,
We ask for your blessing as you depart,
May there be peace between us, now and forever,
Go in power, blessed be.
Might Dragon of the West, Naelyon,
We are honored by your presence tonight
And for acting as witness and guide to our Circle.
May there peace between us, now and forever,
Go in power, blessed be.
Hail and Farewell."

_____________ snuff the green candle and say:

"Tamahome, Guardians of the North, Powers of Stone,
We thank you for joining our Circle,
We ask for your blessing as you depart,
May there be peace between us, now and forever,
Go in power, blessed be.
Mighty Dragon of the North, Grael,
We are honored by your presence tonight
And for acting as witness and guide to our Circle.
May there peace between us, now and forever,
Go in power, blessed be.
Hail and Farewell."

_____________ raise your athame to the sky, touch the earth, open your arms and
say:

"Our Circle is open, but unbroken,
May the peace of the God and Goddess go ever in our hearts.
Merry meet, merry part, until we merry meet again
Blessed be."

_______________ ring bell three times.

Phaedra's Notes:

As you can see, this follows the same basic pattern as the Casting. I include devoking God and Goddess in this, but the invoking is generally part of the ritual we are performing. The reason for this is I tend to change the invoking part quite a bit but the devoking stays the same for the most part. The only thing that gets changed is the first sentence so it fits what ever archetype we are dealing with. Like for Beltane the devocation to the god might start: "Fertile Lord of the lengthening days, by whatever names we call Thee..."

Unlike some I don't snuff the candles counterclockwise to the way I cast them. Why? Well, since we are releasing the energy that we have built up, whether its for a sabbat or a spell, we want to release it in a harmonious manner. Thus the reason for starting in the east to devoke. During some dark moon esbats and for some darker spells we will perform both casting and opening counterclockwise because that is the type of energy we want to draw and work with. Did my rambling make sense.

The final bit of 'undoing' seems rather simplistic and it is. =) I like things to be left as loose as possible so that the good energy we built up in ritual will tend to pool in my ritual area, giving us a nice base to work from. However, it is still rather powerful in its simplicity and there are times when I have to take a moment to 'take a breath' before moving after opening the Circle.