Magic Circle

The magic circle is the ritual space marked out before any working, cast with the athame, the wand or a finger, often in a clockwise direction. It is conceived as a boundary between the everyday world and the sacred one, containing the energy that is raised and protecting those inside. Once it is cast, the four quarters are called, associated with the elements and the cardinal points. At the end it is opened in the opposite direction and what was invoked is thanked. It originates in Renaissance ceremonial magic, from which Wicca took much of its structure.