The Sphere of Self is a ritual from a magickal group I used to be a part of. (You could argue I’m still a part as I never left the Order, it just fizzled out.) This is pretty much the foundational ritual within our system, so while we used rituals and tech from other traditions this was the root ritual that was ours alone. Used on its own, or before meditation or other rituals it served as a zone rite, or a circle, or a banishing, whatever the term you use for such a ritual.
It combines (apparent) dualities and fills the space with their balance, but perhaps more importantly is it balances you between these dualities of matter and spirit, higher and lower, and of inner and outer. Which is why it can be performed on its own, as it works to balance the Selves on these concepts. This is based on the cosmology of the group, and while some of it is heavily routed in our triplicity model and symbols, it is still accessible and workable to others. It was a foundational ritual that “grew” with the practitioner becoming more detailed and complex as the practitioner grew learnt more of the system, and came to see some more of what was going on in the ritual. In writing this for public consumption my challenge was to explain it in a way that makes sense without the grounding in our symbol set, and deciding where on the spectrum of depth/complexity to discuss it. With no intended offence to my readers I weighted it toward the beginner end of the spectrum, falling just short of what would be explained in Second Sphere.
Stand facing the East with your feet shoulder width apart, hands at your sides. Reach down with your mind into the Earth, and draw up, you’re pulling up the energy or notion of physical reality, material existence, and all the chthonic and atavistic forces. Above your head see the endless Sky, the energy of spirit, divine reality, potential, and all the sacred and spiritual forces.
Drawing your hands up and out to the sides, with the energy from below, bring them together above your head, so you’ve traced a circle. The circle you’re drawing is not drawn with the hands, but a few feet out from them, so that the circle begins beneath your feet and extends an equal distance over your head, your heart is the centre of the circles you’ll draw. You can draw with your hands in any position you want, I was taught and prefer to have my pinkie and ring fingers against my palm, with my middle and pointer finger extended with my thumb placed between pointer and middle. As you do so say “From Earth to Sky.” You’re pulling this “lower” energy or concept of matter up, and when it reaches the “higher” sky energy or spirit they connect, and the higher energy flows down the circle you’ve drawn. It’s not about introducing the low to the high, but when they connect you’ve completed a circuit that both forces can flow and mingle on freely.
In the sky where your hands are is now the Sun. The Sun is not just the Sun, but it represents the highest reaches of your Soul, your True Will, your Orbit, your place in the Cosmos, it is your Soul purified. Beneath your feet is the Moon. The Moon likewise is not just the Moon, but it is the “base self,” the lower or mundane aspect of your being, the day-to-day consciousness, current incarnation, and the physical self.
(This section is described in terms of left and right hands, which hand you use to do what doesn’t matter, but it is more clear to explain the motions in terms of left and right hands) Reach into the Sun and then swing your left hand down in front of you, and the right behind you, turning your shoulders to the side (left forward, right back) as necessary to facilitate this movement, this will leave you facing your right. As you’re pulling down the Solar energy say “From Sun to Moon” and when your hands reach the lowest point of the arc you’ve connected the Solar energies, the Higher Self into the Lunar energies or Lower Self, and the Lunar current runs up the circle you’ve drawn. Again it’s a circuit that is formed the energies freely connect and mingle. You don’t stop here though, the right hand swings in front of your body, and the left behind, as your turn your shoulders (left back and right forward) so you are eventually facing your left. Bring your hands up until they are level with your shoulders.
Taking the Solar-Lunar current turn your shoulders (right back left forward) so that you trace a horizontal circle at shoulder height, continue until your left hand is where the right began, and the right is where the left began. Again this will leave you facing your right. As you trace the circle draw the Solar-Lunar current along until it connects with the Earth-Sky current and let them flow along this horizontal circle. As you’re doing this say “And bound by the Endless Horizon.” You are now standing in the centre of three circles drawn on the three axes.
You should be standing with your right arm reaching behind you and your left in front of you, torso turned to face your right. Draw your hands up above your head saying “I forge this Sphere” bring them together touching thumbs and pointer fingers to form and upward pointing triangle, as you bring your hands up untwist your body so you are facing forward again. This triangle gathers the combined energies from the ritual, stabilizing them into a single unit. Realize at this point that what you traced was the skeleton of a Sphere, the three circles spread together, becoming a sphere that contains what you have brought into this space. Bring the triangle down to centre on your third eye saying “of Will” and draw the energy in from the triangle into your third eye, spreading it down your central channel into your navel. Reach your arms out and up, bent at the elbows, to make an upward half circle palms facing in “and Self.” Here you are emulating the sign of the Highest, moving beyond the notions of Lower Self, and Higher Self, into the realm of Godself or Transpersonal Self. Take a moment to reach out with your mind, now that you’ve balanced yourself in the Space Between reach out and find what is Beyond, Above, and Within. Pull this connection, this Non-dual or third triplicity into the space between your hands and into your body.
Bring your arms down to cross over your chest “I am my Self, Always.” As you say Always let the combined energies of the Earth-Sky and Sun-Moon (Higher Self-Lower Self) expand to push the Sphere you’ve created out as far as you need for your ritual space.
There is a simple follow-up half-ritual that is used to expand and strengthen this farther, but I think this is sufficient for now. I’d love to hear people’s experiences with it, or comments/questions (explaining parts of it are hard I know), cause it’s hard to “translate” it out of our symbol set when so much of it is engrained in me.