Taking the Sacred Breath

Aligning and Infusing the Spirit

By Dobhair

Anima, the Latin word for both breath and spirit, also applied to the indwelling feminine essence by the psychotherapist Carl Jung, is the quintessential principle of Life itself. Anima is the primal force imbuing all in existence with the ethereal shine that is the life-force. It flows and courses along tides and rhythms and pulsates along the central cycle, the middle pillar which is cleansed and activated by the breath – the sacred sigh.

            In the Witchcraft traditions we are first taught to centre and ground and this ritual employs the breath in order to still the mind and regulate the energy travelling throughout the body. Rhythmic or yogic breathing is harnessed so that the individual may rise above their ego and take into themselves the divine light that is theirs to behold. In my own magickal practice I centre by breathing in through my nose and exhaling through my mouth while I resonate “ha”. This is a Huna tradition that stems from the shamanic practices of the Hawaiian people. The Ha (as it is popularly known) is believed to stimulate the flow of life-essence which then connects us to the vibrating web that is Nature; that is the Great Spirit.

We are all conscious beings that are subsumed by the ocean of subconsciousness that derives from the poetry and prose of the work-a-day world. We are easily distracted and prone to reflection and projection into both past and future, however it is in the present that we must reside, in full awareness of who we are and what we are doing. When we breathe we are taking part in the most simple and yet most primal act that a living being can perform and we are enlightened to the fact that our bodies are just that – bodies; physical shells that are vessels for the life-force that is carried by the breath. When we are born we take our first breath of life and the essence of all there is sweeps through our fragile mortal coils, enlivening our spirits and colouring our souls. When our bodies die we exhale the life-force and our souls travel on the outward breath, returning to the world, to the cosmos. This is the secret of all sorcery, Witchcraft and Magick. The secret of the continuum, of the eternity, of the never-ending cycle. Breath unites all things in ribbons of give and take and the great Web vibrates, singing a song that passes by even the Gods lips.

To breathe consciously, deeply and rhythmically is to acknowledge the Anima, the primal pulse. Before embarking on any magickal work, whether it be trance, spellcraft, ritual or simply meditation, I breathe. In saying this I bring my awareness to my centre which is the prime meridian, the middle pillar, the river that is itself the joiner of all worlds. My consciousness is absorbed into the higher reality, into the infinitum, and it is here that I rise, rise and rise, and deepen, deepen and deepen. I call upon the tides of light (I use the words ‘light’ and ‘energy’ interchangeably) that stem from the heavens and from the earth and open myself as a vessel to house them, circulating and marrying their polarity and dynamism within me. All the while the breath is carrying these forces and helping to centre my focus and retain my altered state. It is because of this that I have always said that the first step to achieving success within any magickal tradition is to learn how to breathe correctly.

There exists today a plethora of how-to texts that lay down various meditative procedures. The multitude of these mention the counting breath. This is a highly popular technique that aids in focus and develops concentration. It is used to instil a depth of consciousness within a person and to entrance the worker by way of the repetitive rhythm causing a shift in the dynamic of presence of oneself. The rhythmic count of one-two-three-four breath is as follows:

v     Breath in deeply through the nose, counting to four

v     Hold the breath to the count of four

v     Release the breath through the mouth to the count of four

v     Hold to the count of four

This can be called the fourfold cycle – inhalation, hold, exhalation, hold. This kind of breath control accelerates and puts stress on the heart and therefore the blood-flow. Magickally this benefits the transcendence of the ego, which is a prerequisite for invocation, ritual possession and trance.

The breath is the compounding element. Without it we remain scattered and elusive. It is the centre of our being and it animates our souls. Breath is the Anima, which means Spirit, and that is what we as Witches know to be the highest of truths.