We Are a Circle

The circle here at Pagan Song is expanding! From now on, we’ll regularly have posts from Guest Bloggers–pagan musicians who will share their unique perspectives on pagan music and magic. Our guest this week is Rick Hamouris, talking about his song We Are a Circle, one of the best loved and most often sung chants in the pagan liturgy.

Well met, my friends. Rick Hamouris here. I’m pleased to be part of the Pagan Song blog, and to have this opportunity to share my insights and memories about We Are a Circle. I hope this discussion serves as a cornerstone, in order for you to understand where it all began.

The architecture and purpose of the song

I wrote We Are a Circle as a musical means to cast circle for ritual, and to call in the elements at the four quarters. Here’s a recording, and the original lyrics.

Chorus:
We are a circle within a circle, with no beginning and never ending. (3 times)

Verse 1 – Air:
You hear us sing, you hear us cry,
Now hear us call you, Spirits of Air and Sky.
Chorus (3 times)

Verse 2 – Fire:
Inside our heart there glows a spark,
Love and desire, a burning Fire.
Chorus (3 times)

Verse 3 – Water:
Within our blood, within our tears,
There lies the altar of living Water
Chorus (3 times)

Verse 4 – Earth:
Take our fear, take our pain,
Take the Darkness into the Earth again.
Chorus (3 times)

Verse 5 – Closing:
The Circle closes, between the Worlds,
To mark this Sacred Space where we come face to face.
Chorus (5 times)

We Are a Circle, Copyright © 1986 by Rick Hamouris. Recorded on the album Welcome to Annwfn. All Rights Reserved. Permission Upon Request.

Sung in this manner, your circle has been cast in song. The chorus structure invokes the Triple Goddess five times, the verses invoke the four directions and elements and close (create) the circle. The closing chorus invokes the five points of the pentacle. The 20 total repetitions of the chorus invoke the higher power of two (cooperation and partnership) Just add participants and simmer until done.

The chorus has been used, on its own, to produce trance state very successfully.

I’ve given this song up into the folk process in the hope that people will make it their own (such as changing lyrics, melodies, instrumental compositions, etc, like a game of telephone.) As the chorus states, the process will never be over. Permission to perform or record given upon request.

The Song Manifests

A member of my first circle was going on an adventure with Otter (now Oberon) and Morning-Glory, both clergy of The Church of All Worlds, to find The Ree (mermaids) in the South Pacific. I wrote this song as a gift for our last circle gathering prior to their departure. I was in a blues band at the time and had a two-and-a-half-hour drive to one of our gigs. I heard the chorus spring into my head fully formed with the melody.

Since I was driving, I had no access to writing implements, so the only way to capture it was to sing over and over until a new melody and a verse came to mind. Line by line, I sang and repeated the song, so far, until it was complete. Five verses later I arrived at my destination. This became a common process for all my songs on the album, since I was working regularly and most locations were at least 90 minutes from home. The song was delivered in the spring of 1986.

This song became part of a recording project I did with my sister, Deborah Hamouris. We titled it Welcome to Annwfn. Annwfn is the Underworld, the Otherworld, a land of faerie and specifically a deer sanctuary in Northern California dedicated to Mother Gaia and fostering stewardship and an expansion of pagan philosophy and work. The whole recording is a prosperity spell for Annwfn, all those who participated in the effort, and all those who purchase it, according to the law of multiple returns. We released it in 1986 as a cassette tape. The first 7,500 copies benefitted the Forever Forests project (a reforestation effort) in Northern California. Since then we have kept the flame alive by providing a digitally mastered CD version of the original analog tape.

The Circle Expands

In the early days of The Circle That Dares Not Speak Its Name, just after I wrote We Are a Circle, we were lying on a hillside staring into the universe and awaiting a message… just in case somebody was speaking, we were providing a listening. I got a very clear message, and Her voice said simply; “Make your music available to as many people as possible”. And so, I had my vocation. This was WAY before the internet, so it’s been catch as catch can ever since.

Many, many people have sung We Are a Circle. I’ve been approached for permission to use the song in recordings, films, songbooks, public and private gatherings, and have always given it at no charge. I was once told that over 5 million people worldwide now use this chant on a regular basis. It’s been sung by thousands of women processing and carrying candles at an event in Canada–the night was alight with energy. It’s used regularly by Dianic groups in Germany to cast their circles. There’s a school in Africa which uses the chorus of the chant to generate relationship between the orphan children of disparate tribes.

Many ritualists cast circle with spoken word. They declaim a traditional circle cast, or one made up specifically for the ritual at hand. Likewise, quarter calls are commonly spoken aloud, often in beautiful language. My song transforms these steps into song.

I find that music avoids the shielding of the conscious and lizard brain, a backdoor to the nervous system if you will, that allows music to both focus the mind on a specific intention and move energy in a coordinated way via the group mind. This allows the participants to freely contribute energy, or prana, into the ritual vessel designed by the officiants, thereby powering the work at hand as well as freeing the officiants to monitor the ongoing process and make corrections or trim focus as needed.

Tips for large rituals

Large public rituals are always tricky, especially if the wind is blowing or other environmental distractions are present.

Here’s a serving suggestion:
Engage all your participants in singing the chorus, have a person or a Greek chorus, standing at each quarter sing the verses while the rest of the group sings a monotone (such as ‘AH’ for East) while the soloist/chorus sings the verses. Perhaps they travel around the circle facing each direction. Perhaps they use a handsign (see below) to invoke the quarter (we used two hands stretched up for East, triangle (finger tips and thumbs touching representing fire held above eye level for South, same hands, inverted, representing water below waist for West, and both hands stretched down for North. Or pick your favorite mudras, or invent something (make sure you don’t inadvertently use a handsign that might mean something embarrassing).

Keep the drummers going so people don’t get lost. For the closing verse, start the sound OM with the crowd and keep it going while soloist/chorus sings last verse.

Tips for solitary practice

The song can easily cast your circle for solitary practice or the chant/chorus can be used to deepen a trance or focused state. I encourage people to tailor the verses to fit their individual style, situation, or specific working. I find that mumbling parts of words, or simply stringing sounds together, can bypass your monkey brain, ESPECIALLY while singing, and interesting text can be discovered. May you get lost in your own creativity for awhile.

My creative journey continues

My life has been a magical, musical journey, as you can see in my bio here on Pagan Song. These days, I’m putting everything–including the ‘garage’ tapes of my various bands–someplace where they can be found and covered by the next music megastar (hee-hee)…or simply enjoyed for what they are. Currently, I’m finishing up the reconstruction of my studio so I can transcribe all those various tapes to digital. If you’d like to support me in this dream, please become one of my Patreon subscribers by joining here.

We are indeed a circle within a circle. We’re a circle of spirit, within the spinning circle of this universe. May the Goddess bless you with enough and some to share.

This website is a rich source of ideas for using music in your magic.
Check out the Magic and Ritual How-to page to start exploring.