Some people regard the quarter calling ritual as rote memorization to get through before the ‘real’ part of the ritual begins. Nothing could be further from the truth. In a quarters-cast circle, inviting the Mighty Forces of Air, Fire, Water, and Earth into the circle builds power for both the circle itself and the power it’s containing inside it. Just as you invite your incarnate coveners into circle to help you celebrate or perform magick, the elemental forces are energetic coveners who can guide, guard, and empower you.
I learned how to call the quarters by trying to teach someone else how to call the quarters. I had the words down, and I knew the correct pentagram to draw to unlock the gate at each quarter, but I lacked any sort of emotional connection to what I was doing. It was all head, no heart. And so it was ineffective, both for teacher and student. When I learned to call a quarter with my whole body — voice, aura, and will — I learned the true power of calling the elements. I became engrossed in the experience. And it was delicious.
It’s important to remember that the Craft is more than a live-action role-playing game. It is real and powerful. It can change your life. You just need to slow down and enjoy the moment, and the Mysteries will reveal themselves to you. Each moment builds on the next, from circle casting to quarter calling to invocation.
The Quarter Calling
When most people think of the quarter calling, they think about the words they’re saying. The words are important. They have inherent power through sound and meaning, and they carry magickal power that can be harnessed through the repetitive force of ritual. Thinking about these words and understanding their function will help you unlock the power of each quarter. In my tradition, we call upon the element through correspondences — time of day, time of life, time of season. We ask each element to guide us and guard us, as well as to offer their special powers for our use.
Unlocking the Gate
As powerful as words are, they aren’t everything. There’s also the energy of each element. In the circle, we reach out with this energy to create a gateway that only the powers of each element can pass through. Many witches do this through the elemental pentagrams, but others may use the alchemical triangles or other symbols to aid in unlocking the gate. The idea here is to transmit on a frequency that the element can tune into and transmit back on. And the key to figuring out what frequency that is is working with the elements outside of circle, to get to know them, to feel what they feel like. Air is ticklish. Fire is burning. Water is buoying. Earth is supportive. Once you have a feel for their energies, you can call to those energies in the protected space that is the magick circle.
Weaving the Energies Together
The energies enter the circle from their respective quarter, but that doesn’t mean that’s where the energy stays. Once at the boundary of the circle, they weave their energies into the circle to strengthen it. And once past the boundary, they reside most strongly at their quarter but permeate the entire inside of the sphere/egg that is the cast sacred space. Part of the quarter caller’s job is to make sure that these energies are woven evenly into and throughout the circle. This is done through visualization and energy movement and is largely an intuitive process.
Closing the Gate
At the end of the circle, the quarters should be given permission to depart. In my tradition, we thank them and bid them to go if they must but stay if they will. The quarter caller is responsible for making sure that the elemental energies are collected and guided back through the gate if they are willing to leave, like a gentle hand on the shoulder of a good friend leaving your house for the evening. Then, the energetic gate is locked, again with an elemental pentagram or an alchemical triangle or some other symbol, and the quarter is fully closed.