Trance and Drawing Down in Wiccan Theology
The central Mystery in my Tradition of modern neo-Pagan Witchcraft is expressed through the ritual of Drawing Down the Moon and Sun. During this ritual the Priestess and Priest of the coven enter a state of trance and request the deities of the coven to enter them and use their bodies as Their vehicles.
We see trance as a voluntarily entered state of altered consciousness which involves reduced conscious control over the body and its actions, a greater suggestibility, and emotional and intuitive openness - at its height a state of pure 'flow' is entered into rather like the Tarot Fool's at-one-ness and ecstatic identification with the universe.
Pagans for Peace Tradition is not alone in using this ritual, or in using trance - we adapted it from the published version of Drawing Down the Moon in Alexandrian Wicca contained in Janet and Stewart Farrar's books on the Craft - but we have developed it in different directions from other Traditions which use it and place a higher emphasis on the experience and what it can teach us than on the exoteric details of ritual format. Whereas many Traditions rarely perform Drawing Down we do it at every coven meeting and while DDM is quite common our regular performance of DDS as well is unusual. But what's more important than details, including the script details which express some nuances of our understanding of the nature of the Gods, are the underlying theological points.
Drawing Down is seen by us as a ritual of possession trance - ideally the Goddess will completely take over the body of the Priestess and 'move through her limbs, speak with her voice and see through her eyes', and the same will happen with the God and the Priest. In practice we rarely achieve that level of trance but frequently experience inspiration trance and prophetic trances of various levels of intensity.
A brief outline of the ritual is as follows. A variety of full scripts can be found in many places - A Witch's Bible Compleat by Janet and Stewart Farrar, Toward a Theology of Witchcraft, book one by Samuel Wagar, and others. First the Priestess is blessed by the Priest with kisses on various parts of her body together with the recitation of a blessing. This recognizes her body as a sacred and worthy vessel for the spirit and begins the process of trance induction. Then a standard formula of invocation is recited to deepen the trance and the Goddess is asked in general terms to enter the Priestess' body. Then short specific invocations to particular deities are recited in a pronounced rhythm and with each invocation her trance is deepened and the specific forces of different deities begin to gather. At the end a few brief and forceful movements of her body are made by the Priest to precipitate the trance induction.
I'd like to distinguish between the different types of trance experience evoked by this one ritual and the relationship to our underlying theology.
"Presence trance" is generally the lightest stage of the experience. A sense of the strong personal presence and interest of the Goddess or a particular Goddess is felt but there is no message or action expected of the Priestess. Although this is usually mild the sense can be very intense, involving sensations of warmth or cold and deep emotional power - what is key is that the sensation is diffuse and non-specific. Usually the deity does not tell you Her name - rather like She's telling you that She's aware of you and that She cares but doesn't want to do anything more direct with you presently.
This experience is an intensification of the awareness of the immanent Goddess. In our experience the divine is everpresent and we and all of our activities are expressions of divinity. So during the presence trance we simply become more clear and more aware of this fact of existence. We are introduced to our Holy Guardian Angel but do not as yet have her conversation. "Inspiration trance" is more intense, involving messages and a particular deity. There will be a strong sense of presence and a physical sensation of the body being filled with the spirit. Sometimes a visual impression of the deity will be given, usually She will tell you Her name when you ask. Frequently the Goddess will give poetry or a new chant or song to the Priestess and frequently She will prompt the Priestess to bless the coven members.
During this experience we come into deeper contact with our own abilities - with our poetic and creative sides, with our wiser and Older Self. The indwelling aspect of the Goddess Who is our specific matron is reminding us of Her presence and sparking our own powers to create. We emerge from this experience more aware of our selves, clearer and less emotionally needy. We may experience this stage as being a force coming from outside of us and descending with rivers of poetry through our bodies but more usually as a fountain moving upward through us, whose source may be our heart or gut or the Earth underneath our feet.
"Prophetic trance" feels like a stronger version of inspiration trance. The key difference is that the Goddess has a specific purpose for coming. She will deliver a particular message or messages dealing with specific issues of individual members of the coven and then leave. The poetry and beauty of the inspiration trance will be missing - these are very pragmatic and direct words of advice which may not make any sense except to the individual for whom they are intended.
During this experience we awaken the matron deity of the coven as a whole, and come into contact with the guardian spirits of each of the other people in the coven. We broaden out our contact with the divine through realizing that the Goddess within is at the same time the Goddess outside.
This stage is usually experienced as a power coming from outside in response to a call from inside the Priestess. It may also be experienced as being called by the Priest into the empty shell of a Priestess in deeper trance whose volition has been surrendered in 'perfect love and perfect trust' to the Priest and the Goddess.
"Possession trance" is the rarest stage of the experience. In possession the Priestess and Priest surrender all conscious control of their bodies to the divine from the light stage of dancing or singing without being aware of what movements you are making or what words are coming out, to elaborate rituals and a whole gamut of movements and activities, including the Great Rite as a specifically Wiccan ritual. The Priestess may retain awareness of what is happening while surrendering control over her body or she may remember only snatches and fragments. This last stage is where a trained working partner is very much advised. The Priestess will need to be supported while in trance, as the Goddess may move the body awkwardly and the merger of the two might not be complete so the Priestess may experience some physical or emotional distress. She will also need support in coming out of trance, re-owning her body and her emotions, and in the immediate aftermath as she debriefs from the experience. A working partner is strongly preferable for all Drawing Down since it is not the Priestess or Priest who determines where the experience is going to go, but the Gods.
In possession we come to know that our inner divinity and the specific guardian powers of our coven-mates, our coven, the natural processes and the Earth Herself are all in some way aspects of the divine universe Herself. We come to know both the smallness and the greatness of the seed of divinity contained within each of us and active through us in the world. Some underlying assumptions of all types of DDM/S experience are; the surrender to openness and to trust can be so great and so safe as to permit possession to happen; the Priestess is a 'proper person, properly prepared' for the gift of grace; the desire of our Gods to enter human bodies for periods of time.
Ego control is a necessary aspect of life in physical bodies on the Earth and anything that threatens our sense of self and our sense of personal control of our bodies is frightening. We ordinarily will resist any direct threat to our ego boundaries and to our personal boundaries. But to let the Goddess use our bodies and minds is the most intimate and complete surrender of this control, requiring the maximum amount of trust in the process and trust in the Gods.
Such trust does not come quickly and it cannot be forced even in the slightest degree. Any violation of the personal physical or emotional autonomy of a Priestess is not only immoral but also completely counterproductive in allowing the release of control for a true Drawing Down. Practice in the coven and with the Priestess' working partner, not just in the specific ritual of DDM/S but in all of the other ritual practices of the group are essential for the building of trust and its' expression through trance.
Most Traditions limit Drawing Down to Initiates because of the need to ensure that the person who is lending their body to the Goddess is a 'proper person, properly prepared' as the saying goes. Since each of us is an embodiment of divinity and all of our bodies are already reflections of the divine purposes, this seems not completely necessary. Priestesses are no more nor less divine than anyone else just, one hopes, more trained and more aware. A person who is full of their ego all of the time, who is very conscious of the 'respect owed the Initiated', who is arrogant or callous or cruel, who is exploitive of others or thoughtless in their treatment of the bounty of nature, who is wasteful, who is promiscuous, who is judgmental - this person is not properly prepared for the expression of the Goddess, even if she has been formally Initiated.
But the Goddess will act through us if we trust and are sincere to clarify our motives, make us stronger and more healing, give us grace and kindness and gradually make us more able to express Her. To begin the process and begin as a Priestess to practice Drawing Down we need only be open to change and open to receiving the prompting of the Goddess to make the necessary changes.
A factor over which we have no control is the desire of the Gods to commune with humanity in this way. Many Goddesses and Gods are interested in being involved with humanity but many are not - the Goddess Who lives in the clouds, the God of a species of nematode, etc. We must consider not just who we are but also Whom They are. We may take it as a given that the Gods of our covens, our Guardian spirits, our communities, will be interested in talking with us, as will the deities strongly interested in aspects of human life - the healers, midwives, the deities of sex and love and drunkenness.
There are other types of trance used in the Craft but they generally have a more specific magickal purpose and are more related to the "craft" aspect of Wicca than the worshipful or High Magic purposes of Drawing Down. Trance journeys to the otherworld, the state of relaxed anticipation that an effective magician reaches when she is about to perform magick, guided meditation and similar things are all types of trance related to the "craft", but of a different type than Drawing Down requires.
Practice in these other kinds of trance and in other ritual and 'craft' are very good things because they discipline the mind and body and create a greater awareness of the flow of energy and a greater comfort with it. They create a trust in ones personal power and ones fitness to express the Goddess. And they create an openness to ecstasy - to pure pleasure and awareness without judgment nor preconceptions about the nature of the experience or of reality in general. This open and accepting attitude is a key to effective Drawing Down.