Product Description

2005 Coalition of Visionary Resources (COVR) tied Winner for Book of the Year and Winner for Best Magic/Magick Book!

As you enter the heart of witchcraft, you find at its core the power of sacred space. In Christopher Penczak's first book, The Inner Temple of Witchcraft, you found the sacred space within yourself. Now The Outer Temple of Witchcraft helps you manifest the sacred in the outer world through ritual and spellwork. The book's twelve lessons, with exercises, rituals, and homework, follow the traditional Wiccan one-year-and-a-day training period. It culminates in a self-test and self-initiation ritual to the second degree of witchcraft-the arena of the priestess and priest.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #54939 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780738705316
• Condition: USED - GOOD
• Notes:
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Penczak, a New Hampshire-based witch and teacher, is one of the most prolific and esteemed authors in the Wiccan community. In The Inner Temple of Witchcraft, he helped readers go inward—mastering the interior state of consciousness needed to create magick. This sequel is a logical follow-up, with Penczak teaching readers how to bring the sacredness of the inner world into the outer, visible world. As he did with Inner Temple, he organizes this guidebook into a 12-part lesson plan, designed to be completed month-by-month over the course of a year. (Traditional training in witchcraft lasts a year and a day.) Whether or not readers follow the monthly time line, this still makes an excellent grimoire of spells, recipes and rituals. Lessons include an extensive discussion of the gods and goddesses of witchcraft that helps practitioners understand why it's important to honor and work with them. Consistent with the nature-based foundation of witchcraft, Penczak devotes a lesson to the elements, explaining how to integrate them into rituals and cleansings. Like any good reference book, this one offers an abundance of exercises and visual examples throughout. But what makes this an exceptional resource is Penczak's ability to offer deeper philosophical discussions while simultaneously giving practical advice. One doesn't have to relate to the word "witch" to appreciate this guidebook; all it takes is willingness to create through intention, honor the cycles of nature and be ready to take personal power and responsibility over one's life. Once again Penczak proves himself to be a gifted teacher and a witch of the highest order.
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About the Author
Christopher Penczak is an eclectic witch, writer, and healing practitioner. His practice draws upon the foundation of modern Witchcraft blended with the wisdom of mystical traditions from across the globe.

Formerly based in the music industry, Christopher was empowered by his spiritual experiences to live a magickal life, and began a full-time practice of teaching, writing, and seeing clients. His books include the The Inner Temple of Witchcraft: Magick, Meditation, and Psychic Development, The Inner Temple of Witchcraft CD Companion set, City Magick (Red Wheel/Weiser), Spirit Allies (Red Wheel/Weiser), Gay Witchcraft (Red Wheel/Weiser), the award-winning The Outer Temple of Witchcraft: Circles, Spells, and Rituals, The Outer Temple of Witchcraft CD Companion Set, The Witch's Shield, Magick of Reiki, Sons of the Goddess, and the new Temple of Shamanic Witchcraft.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
1

Sacred Space and the Circle If you enter the heart of the teachings of witchcraft, at the core you will find the power of sacred space. When I started, sacred space was just words in a ritual. No one really explained the true meaning of that term to me. Sacred space was just a buzzword. But as I kept saying it as a part of the rituals, I learned. Eventually, the layers of the mystery were revealed to me. I finally understood what sacred space was all about.

Looking back on it, it seems so obvious, but the teachings I initially received didn't emphasize the sacred aspects of the craft. Everyone around me was so afraid of using the word religion or spirituality; so much was kept to the technical and philosophical. And at the time, that's what I needed. My emphasis wasn't on the sacred. Now, in my own teachings, I have a hard time divorcing myself from talking about the spiritual path of witchcraft, because it is all part of what led me to my spiritual path. At the moment, if you are like I was, you might not appreciate this. In fact, I can describe it at length and with my own personal stories and meanings, but until you seek spirituality out and start to experience it yourself, my words are meaningless.

I've contemplated not sharing these things, but letting my students figure it out for themselves, as I did. I decided not to for one simple reason. For many people, the craft of the witch becomes so focused on spellwork or memorizing rituals that even the concept of the greater meanings and mysteries never cross their minds. The possibility is not contemplated and explored because, for so many, it is unknown. Students will still have to figure it out on their own, truly, because it must experienced.

All I hope to do is plant a small seed of awareness, and give you the means to be your own gardener, the means to care for and nurture that seed. You can always choose to grow something else. You can save the seed of truly understanding sacred space for a later time, like I did. Or, you can grow it and make it flourish right now. The choice is up to you.

Perfect Love and Perfect Trust Sacred space is simply honoring the sacredness, the divinity, found in all things everywhere. Through the ritual of the witch's circle, we mark a territory, a circle that can be out in nature or in our bedroom, and recognize its sacredness. We acknowledge that this space exists not only in the physical, but also in all worlds, and opens the doorway between the worlds, to be in conscious communion with the sacredness on all levels of reality. Our temple is said to stand not in any one world, but between the worlds, and in all worlds. In our sacred space, there is no separation. Through it we partner with all that is seen and unseen, through perfect love and perfect trust.

Perfect love and perfect trust were other buzzwords I heard in circle. Some traditions used them. Others didn't. But no one really explained to me what these important words meant, other than saying sacred space or love and trust. I knew the perfect was a big key to this mystery, but at the time, I was focused on the Moon, and picking the right time to do my spells, rather than really understanding what I was saying. I was told to say perfect love and perfect trust, so I did, but didn't know why and didn't really dwell on it.

Only once I ventured out of my safe world of Wicca did I really come to understand these five important words. I developed a very eclectic view of the witch, looking to all traditions, not just Celtic. I studied shamanism, energy healing, Kabalah, yoga, reiki, flower essences, and herbs, purposely looking outside the pagan view. Witchcraft became a vast umbrella for all these disciplines, since its philosophies gave me a great grounding that I noticed many in the New Age world didn't have. As the craft of the wise, I saw all these disciplines as part of witchcraft, though I soon found out many did not.

Through this exploration of new techniques and philosophies, I found a common thread: unconditional love. I wasn't big on the word love. I thought it misused. So many people say the word love but never really back it up with any meaning or intent. As a songwriter, I thought of all the trite songs using the word love, and how it has lost its value. So I avoided the word in my creative work. Even in my Witchcraft I class experience, I thought of self-love as self-confidence, assurance, and esteem. But here the word love kept on popping up. I thought these New Age practices a holdover from the 1960s, with vague concepts of free love and spiritual love, and started to question if I was learning anything of real value. Then I felt the love.

Through various meditation workshops, one in particular about awakening the heart chakra to unconditional love, I really felt it. I really awakened it. Like all things, I entered a skeptic, but from the first moment, I felt heaviness in my chest. As the day

Customer Reviews

Buiding a sacred Witchcraft Temple
In 'The Inner Temple of Witchcraft' author Christopher Penczak helped readers discover their inner divinty. In his follow up, 'The Outer Temple of Witchcraft', Penczak helps readers reconize the outer divinity through rituals and spells. Like the first book in the 'Witchcraft Temple series', 'The Outer Temple of Witchcraft' is composed of 12 chapters that are suggested to be covered one per month, ending with and intitiation ritual into the priesthood of Witchcraft.

Like the first, 'The Outer Temple' begins with four introductory chapters covering the sacred space, Witchcraft ethics, the history and use of magick, and the meaning of the Wiccan priesthood. From there, Penczak dives right into a through discussion of the Gods of Witchcraft, describing the five-fold divinty, archetypal beings, and relationships with the Gods. From there, the author uses three chapters to discuss the elements of Wicca explaining the what, why, and how of each element.

Similar to most Witchcraft 101 books, Penczak discusses divination, ritual, tools, sabbats, and spells. Unlike most Witchcraft 101 books, the author explains the why of the various topics above. Penczak believes that in order to practice truely effective Witchcraft, we must know the why. One of the most enjoyable and interesting topics of 'The Outer Temple of Witchcraft' was the author's explaination of why spells work using astrological timing and correspondence.

Many would say that the information within this text is covered in other books on modern Witchcraft. Much of the information is, but never have I seen a book that has all of this information in one place or explains it so well. Honestly, it has to be one of the best books I've seen on the market. If you're new to the Craft, don't hesitate to pick this one up. While you're at it, check out the first one in the series, 'The Inner Temple of Witchcraft'. I promise you will not regret it.

5 out of 5 magick wands!

*courtesy of Copper-Moon.com*

No nonsense, little fluff.
This is one of the few books on witchcraft that didn't leave me feeling dumbed-down and dizzy. Most Witchcraft 101 books spend a good deal of time going over what have become well-known and relatively obvious facts about pagan deities, nature and its energies, the sabbats, and the very basics of magical tools and techniques. In this book, however, Penczak chooses a few of the more intriguing (and, for beginners, often intimidating) practices and explores them in depth.

Rather than the usual cursory chapter on magic--which is often no more than the repetition of warm-fuzzy affirmations about how "anything goes" and the power is "all within you" anyway--Penczak devotes two chapters to a detailed explanation of the theory of spellwork, discussing first the guiding principles of energy and the "science" behind magic, and then turning to a treatment of spellwork as artistic crafting. This is the only book that didn't take me from "it's easy!" to a "sample spell" of five or more exotic ingredients and astrological correspondences in one giant leap. Step by step, Penczak builds on knowledge in an intelligent and instructive way, without implying either a dumbed-down make-believe approach or an all-or-nothing game of calculations and memorizations.

This is also one of the few books that does not place visualization as the primary tool of magic. I found this immensely comforting, as I have worked intuitive magic for years without hardly any visualization or "mystic experiences" (and always felt I must somehow be "doing it wrong"--even if it worked!). Overall, his approach is a scientific one, primarily, and yet it incorporates the foundations of personal and thoughtful spirituality as a necessary building block for (and ultimately the goal of) witchcraft. A great book, well worth the read.

It's Just Like His Classes!
I have been blessed to live in New England and to study witchcraft with Christopher Penczak. So far, I'm about 2 levels ahead of his publishing schedule. If not, I might be tempted to jump ahead on my own. His writing is that good.

My first Wicca book was fine, written by a highly-respected elder, but it didn't answer my questions, especially about WHY we do things in a particular way.

Mr. Penczak's books read exactly as though you are sitting in his class. This is the real plus for readers: You get all the background information that would normally be discussed in the class setting. Not many authors can anticipate reader's questions, but with his vast teaching experience, Mr. Penczak knows what else you're going to want to know.

When I was first exploring the Path, I believed I only needed the spiritual work that is so carefully laid out in the Inner Temple book. Until I tried spellwork with amazing results. Now this is the one book on my shelf that I find myself returning to time and again.

You will enjoy reading and referring to The Outer Temple for years to come.