Wheel Dances And Sabbat Cords 
by Blayze

When many of us think of cord magic, we think of knot spells and bindings, handfasting cords and the cords of degree, however cords are very versatile working tools and with a little imagination, they can be used to enhance all manner of rituals.

One of my favourite ways of raising energy is via a cord or wheel dance. This does require several people, usually from as few as 3 people to a maximum of 13. Any more would mean the cords would have to be very long. For a cord dance, everyone involved can use their own working cord, or cords may be spun (or bought) for the specific ritual. These cords may need to be a certain colour or combination of colours, or if you work numerologically the cords may have a certain number or strands or the dance a certain number of participants. It really is up to the intent of the ritual organisers and the ritual itself.  

Basically, a cord dance is formed like a wheel. Cord 1 is looped in half, Cord 2 is looped through Cord 1 and Cord 3 is looped through both and so on until a wheel is formed. Participants hold their cords tightly by the ends and dance around the circle pulling the cords tight. This technique creates quite a stable form and the tension of the cords serves to hold the energy of the circle dance until it is time to for the energy to be released or set within the cords. This is acheived by releasing the cords and throwing them up into the air, usually on the signal of one of the participants or at the end of a specific chant. Not only does this technique raise a huge amount of focused energy, it is also loads of fun to do. Whether the energy is actually released from, or set into, the cords really depends upon the goal of the ritual and should always be discussed beforehand.

So if we take the simple premise of a wheel dance, we can expand its use into many situations. For example, we have empowered cords for use in ritual where 5 cords (representing each element) were being charged for a handfasting. The five people who were gifting these cords danced them in a wheel over a low central altar, chanting a rune written specifically for the ritual. The energies were woven into the cords and released over the rings sitting on the altar. The cords were then individually presented to the couple during the ritual and later used to perform the actual binding.

We have also utilised a dance of eight cords, specifically representing the eight Sabbats. Each participant had previously been appointed a Sabbat ritual to write for the coming year. At the cord dance ritual they stood at the point in the circle that represented their particular Sabbat and held a cord woven to represent the colours of that Sabbat. As the cord dance began, I called an invokation of blessing upon the coming year's rituals. When the energy had built to a crescendo and the dancers were back in their original positions, we set the energy into the cords. Each dancer then retrieved his or her cord from the centre and took it home with them. Over the coming year each person was to write their sabbat ritual for the group somehow utilising their sabbat cord within the ritual. Having the cord as a starting point gave some kind of initial focus to the writing of the ritual and also provided a common thread (pun intended) to the wheel of the year cycle for the group.

The positions and colours we used were:

Samhain		South West	Black and Silver	
Yule		South		Red, Green and White
Imbolc		South East	White, Yellow and Green
Ostara		East		Green and White
Beltane		North East	Red and White
Litha		North		Red, Orange and Gold
Lughnasadh		North West	Orange, Gold and Brown
Mabon		West		Gold and Black

Each Sabbat ritual utilised the cords in different ways. We wove wheat into them, hung crystals and bells from them, we wrapped them around objects, used them to measure a plot for planting wheat, spun people into Spring with them, created a pendulum with them and lead people on a journey with them. The cords from two wheels worth of rituals now hang in our temple space providing energies and colour and fabulous memories.