ab:cone2.txt                                                       16jan90


                         The Cone of Power


    This was the old way. The circle was marked out and people stationed to 
    whip up the dancers. A fire or candle was within it in the direction 
    where the object of the rite was supposed to be. Then all danced round 
    until they felt they had raised enough power. If the rite was to banish 
    they started deosil and finished tuathil, so many rounds of each. Then 
    they formed a line with linked hands and rushed towards the fire 
    shouting the thing they wanted. They kept it up 'til they were 
    exhausted or until someone fell in a faint, when they were said to have 
    taken the spell to its destination.  
----------
    -Published in Janet and Stewart Farrar's "The Witches' Way"; from GBG's 
     BOS (Text B and C give identical versions)
    -Doreen Valiente gives just about the same text in "The Rebirth of 
     Witchcraft", describing it as notes she made from Gerald Gardner's
     description of the ritual used to deter Hitler from invading Great 
     Britain

