Long before there were temples, there were circles of fire. People gathered at dusk, bodies swaying, hands beating the drum, feet pounding the earth. The rhythm rose, breath met breath, and something unseen began to move through them. It wasn’t just sound. It was spirit — the current of life itself.

Every culture knew this current. In Africa, in Greece, in the temples of Egypt and the forests of Europe, ecstatic dance was a language between the seen and unseen. The ancients didn’t separate religion from rhythm. The dance was the prayer.

In the Hermetic understanding, this current is the Solar Force — the divine vitality that animates all existence. When we move, breathe, and feel with intention, we awaken that current within the body. It rises like light through every cell, harmonizing matter with spirit. The ancients would have called this invocation; today we might call it flow.

Modern society has forgotten the sacredness of movement, yet echoes of the old rites still pulse through contemporary culture. The rave — with its lights, rhythm, and unity of hearts — is a direct descendant of those ancient gatherings. The ecstatic state reached by dancers is not artificial; it is inherited. It’s the same instinct that once brought people to temples to celebrate life and renewal.

Anthropologically, such experiences served a spiritual and social function: they released collective tension, renewed emotional bonds, and opened the participants to higher awareness. In shamanic terms, they aligned the tribe with the living rhythm of the cosmos.

When Leslie McQuade speaks of this, she doesn’t romanticize modern nightlife; she reminds us that energy itself is sacred. Whether awakened through ritual magick, meditation, or the pulse of a drum, it’s the same current. The difference lies in intention. Conscious rhythm becomes invocation; unconscious repetition becomes exhaustion.

True ecstasy — from the Greek ekstasis, “to stand outside oneself” — is not about escape but expansion. It’s the moment when individuality melts into unity, and awareness remembers its source. When danced consciously, that current transforms from chaos to communion.

In this way, every beat can become prayer. Every movement becomes a message to the divine: “I remember.”

We no longer need the trappings of an ancient temple to find that connection. The temple is already built — in flesh and breath. The drum is your heartbeat. The altar is the floor beneath your feet. The Light you call down through movement is the same Light that lives within you.

​​​​​​​The circle is still open and the drums are still calling.
If you feel the rhythm awakening in you, step into the lineage of living magick → shamanicmagick.com

So the next time the music begins and the rhythm catches you, remember — the rave was always a ritual. The gods are still dancing.