Ritual design and outlay

Well met! This post is about ritual and what my ritual outlay looks like, as well as some advice on how to tweak and redesign your own rituals.

DISCLAIMER:

These are entirely my own methods for creating and doing ritual, based on how I have been taught and how I have been developing it myself, and others may do it differently from me. This ritual outlay is written with a Wiccan perspective, but may also work for others. Use it and tweak it at your own pleasure.

~•*•~

I have done many rituals through the years and I vary the way I do ritual based on the phase of the moon, for sabbats and for special occasions. Sometimes I do them in a very simple and minimalistic way, at other times in full blown ceremonial fashion.

Despite the tools, ritual garb, altar decoration and wordings changing, I have found that some things remain constant. The basic layout or design of my rituals follow a scheme that has not changed much over the years. Here is one I did yesterday at the full moon, in an attempt to recreate some of my earliest rituals:

1. Cleansing and consecrations
2. Grounding and centering
3. Ringing the bell
4. Casting the Circle
5. Calling the Quarters
6. Inviting Deity
7. Statement of purpose
8. Meditation/Prayer/etc.
9. Magical Workings...
10. Energy raising
11. Cakes and Ale
12. Thanking Deity
13. Closing the Quarters
14. Opening the Circle

That is the basic outline. I usually divide rituals into sections. Especially when working with groups it is easier to plan them if one can look at a ritual in sections. These are (with examples of content):

☆Before ritual

Cleansings and consecrations, baths, setting up the space

☆Beginning the ritual

Circle casting, quarter calls, invitations to deity, statement of ritual purpose

☆Ritual main part

Magic workings, worship, prayer, meditation, raising energy, cakes and ale, etc.

☆Ending the ritual

Thanking deity, releasing the quarters and opening the circle

☆After ritual

discussions, food, cleaning up

These sections are always a part of my rituals in one way or an other. What happens within them and how exactly this is formatted varies. The above picture is one way to do it, but not the only way. Rituals I do using this format may be as short as 15 minutes, up to hours.

I have made it a point in my practice to question why I do certain things a certain way. It is good to make rituals a habit. After a while you learn the flow of the ritual and remember it by heart. But it is also good to be critical of the way you do ritual, as in asking yourself why some things come in a certain order (like cakes and ale), or if there are any other methods for raising energy than the ones you are using.

Usually I only change the order of things within the main part of the ritual, but there are other things as well to consider: How do you cast the circle? How do you call the quarters? Etc. You can vary these methods and learn a lot from them.

Try things out, experiment, and do not fear new methods. Who knows, you might find something that works really well for you.

Here are two books that I warmly recommend for anyone interested in getting more in depth with ritual work:

• Amber K. & Azrael Arynn K (2006): Ritualcraft - Creating Rites for Transformation & Celebration
• Deborah Lipp (2003): The Elements of Ritual - Air, Fire, Water & Earth in the Wiccan Circle

I would be happy to hear your thoughts in the comments. I am thinking about writing a short series of posts about ritual work so let me know if this interests you. This series would be theoretical as well as practical.

Blessed be!

~Stella

Practising your path in your mind

This post is meant as encouragement for the beginner practitioner of Wicca of any Pagan path, and for the one broomcloset witch who cannot practice the Craft openly.

I recently joined the Pagans and Witches Amino, and while browsing posts there I see some posts asking for help with practicing the Craft while living at home with parents that do not necessarily approve. So I wrote this piece.

~***~

I myself grew up in a Christian family, and although I would count them as almost secular compared to some others, they still had hard principles which led them to denounce my choice of Wicca. While still living under their roof, for four years I practiced the Craft as best I could, in secret under their noses.

I thought I would share what I learned during that time, and hopefully it will help you. It helped me to get back to my own practice after some turbulence in my life.


Do what you can, find alternatives
Are you allowed to have candles in the room? Are you allowed to burn incense? Is there a spot you can go to where you can practice undisturbed?

I was allowed candles (but no more than a maximum of two at a time), and incense (but in low moderation). I had a small bedside table where I would light a candle and incense and I would sit quietly in front of this. To my parents I said I was meditating. It worked for me and it might work for you. We all need some quiet in our lives sometimes. This was my way of performing ritual. I will discuss how below.

If you cannot practice at home in privacy, is there somewhere you could safely go where you know you will not be disturbed? I had a spot in a woodland park, slightly off-trail, where I would sometimes go, while sneaking candles, incense, bells and crystals with me in my pockets. I usually went for walks there, so staying a bit longer for ritual or spellwork did not matter.

What of tools then? You might not be allowed an athame, tarot cards or cauldrons, and random bells and wands might look suspicious to some parents. If you stay on this path, you will eventually get all of these. But in the meanwhile, find alternatives.

The athame is used to direct energy, the same goes for the wand. But you can just as well use your finger instead. Any tool you direct energy with is just an extension of yourself and your will.

If you need to find representations for the elements to symbolize them, find something that corresponds with them, that feels like them. For the longest time I used a rock or pinecone to represent earth, a feather to represent air, a red jasper for fire, and a seashell for water.

There are countless things you might use to represent the elements, and if your are crafty you could even make them yourself. Finding different things to use as elemental representations is a good exercise for your mind as well. Which leads me on to the next thing.


The power of the mind
When it comes to performing magic and spells, your most powerful tool is your mind. Magic is to create change in conformity with will, ie. it becomes so because I will it to be so.

As I mentioned earlier, when I started out I would sit in my room, maybe with a candle and some incense, and "meditate". What I actually did was practice ritual and spells. This is possible because of the power of the mind.

The tools we use and the words we say carry symbology that triggers our psyche. This helps our minds support the frameworks of ritual and spellcasting. Or put differently: Tools (as symbols) help us concentrate on the work we are doing.

In itself, the tool does not have any power, besides the one our mind gives it (attunement). This means that even if you had an athame, if you do not know the symbolism behind it, and feel no connection to it, then it will not work for you as a tool because it does not trigger your mind.

In your mind, you can have all the tools you want, or none, that is up to you. When doing ritual or spellwork in your mind, you use visualization to see and feel what you do. You might use physical gestures, but I would usually sit still with my eyes closed. I would even be silent, just saying any words in my mind alone.


Vizualization - the key to successful ritual
I've talked about theory, now let's get down to actually doing it.

If you go in for performing ritual or spellwork in your mind, find somewhere quiet where you can sit, stand or lie down undisturbed. Close your eyes. Imagine yourself in your ritual space. Now you will use your imagination to visualize yourself doing that spell or ritual, following any instructions you have. This will be easiest if you have them memorized.

If you are casting a circle, you can visualize yourself walking around, casting the circle, or you might choose to visualize how the circle just starts forming around you into that perfect bubble. Visualize the tools that you need on your altar, how you prepare spell ingredients and how the spell comes together.

As you raise energy, feel it with your body. You might want to tighten all the muscles in your body as much as possible, and hold on until you are ready to release the energy. When you do, relax your muscles and let go of the energy, but keep the visualization of your ritual or spell going.

End the ritual and take down the circle just as you started it. Then allow your mind to come back to the physical space you are in and reconnect with this world.


"But it's too difficult"
Imagination is something all of us do. As children we are experts on it: imagining we are adventurers, or princesses, or Batman, etc. As we grow older and learn more we tend to use fantasy in imagination less and less, it is a skill we loose.

Visualizing whole rituals can feel very difficult at first because you have to concentrate very hard and keep that concentration going. With practice, however, you will become good at visualizing. And if your first years of practicing magic or Wicca or any other path consists of doing it through visualization, you will become very good at performing powerful ritual and spells later on.

Because, you might light candles, wave your wand, put together spell ingredients, and read incantations, but nothing will come of it if you do not also put the power of your mind behind it. So practice with patience. Maybe just practice casting a circle in your mind at first, or visualize yourself in your ritual space. It can be the room you are in, or a completely different room. Your choice.

However you practice, you will become good at it after a while. When I had done this for a few years, I was able to do it whenever I needed it, wherever I was: on the bus, in class, even once at dinner.

~***~

So let nothing stop you, just start practicing ritual and spellwork, in your mind. Take baby steps while starting and, as Scott Cunningham put it in Living Wicca: Just do it!


Blessed Be!
~Stella

PS: this post has no images, you'll just have to visualize the pictures of all the tools, and of me standing in line for school lunch, eyes closed, doing ritual. ;)

Book Review: Living Wicca by Scott Cunningham

Cunningham, Scott: Living Wicca - a Further Guide to the Solitary Practitioner. 2018 (12th printing), original copyright 1993. Llewellyn Publications. ISBN: 978-0-87542-184-1

Living Wicca was the second ever book I read on the subject of Wicca. The year was 2004 and I was 15 or had just turned 16. I had been introduced to Wicca earlier in the year, and been lent the book Teen Witch by Silver Ravewolf (I might discuss that one  at some point) which I read cover to cover. In my eagerness to learn more about this religion that held such a calling for me, I entered the library with as much courage as I could muster. I was scared that if I asked for books about Wicca my parents, who did not approve, would find out. But despite that fear, and the fear of being reprimanded by older women, I went and I asked.

The librarian who helped me found one book that she could get me. It was located in Oulu - which felt like the opposite end of the country - and asked if I was willing to pay the reservation fee for them to mail the book between our cities. I happily paid my weeks allowance (I did not have a huge allowance), and waited for Living Wicca by Scott Cunningham to arrive. Once it did, I fashioned a faux cover from colored paper for it and read it at night under the covers by the light of a flashlight. That is how secretive I had to be. I also made coded notes from the book that I still have to this day.

That was the backstory of my relationship to this book. I eventually read more books, and now own quite a few Wiccan titles myself. I purchased Living Wicca for myself late last year, but did not get around to reading it until recently. Here I will give my thoughts of the book.


Living Wicca - a Further Guide to the Solitary Practitioner

Living Wicca is dedicated by Scott Cunningham "to solitary practitioners everywhere". After the success of his book Wicca: A Guide to the Solitary Practitioner he worked on bringing about further instructions to solitary Craft practitioners. Wicca was emerging as a religion and demand for information was growing, especially information for Wiccans practicing alone.

Living Wicca consists of three main parts. Part one deals with learning, of how to teach yourself and learn without a coven or teacher to guide you. Cunningham states that every book is a teacher in itself, and urges the practitioner to read everything. He does however stress, that one should always be critical and not accept everything one reads, as books just as well as the people who wrote them, can be in the wrong. This part of the book also deals with the questions of taking magical names, of self-initiation, Wiccan mysteries and Wicca in everyday life.

Life itself can be seen as a ritual to the Goddess and God.

- Cunningham, p. 35                        

Part two of the book deals with different practices of the Craft. The first thing that Cunningham tackles here is prayer. I truly enjoyed this chapter as Cunningham talks of prayer almost like a conversation with the Gods. Some Wiccans I have spoken with have great trouble relating to prayer because of the subservient stance Christian practitioners have to it. I think this is simply a stigma that needs to be broken, and Cunningham tackles the subject in a very down-to-earth manner. 

This part also deals with some parts of rituals, such as circle castings, and invocations to the Goddess and the God, as well as a chapter on magic and why the Circle is needed.

The moon illuminates the earth

With wondrous silver rays;

Illuminate me through the night

And through the sun-lit days.

- Evening prayer, Cunningham, p. 53

The third part, and indeed half the book, centers around how to create your own Wiccan tradition. Cunningham breaks down the process into a comprehensible and easy to grasp method, giving concrete advice on what to include and how to write your own material. With a firm starting point in the basics of Wiccan beliefs, morals and practices, he provides a framework upon which one can create a working Wiccan tradition. Each chapter within this part of the book contains a comprehensive list of suggested further reading (I have myself taken many clues from here).

He deals in deity concepts, tools of the Craft, ritual design and different ceremonies, and symbols, to name just a few. Here he also writes about teaching, weather one should teach, when and whom, as well as what ethics govern teaching. At the end of the book there is a glossary of terms, and then a bibliography. 

My thoughts

I always enjoy reading Cunningham's works. His language is easy to read and there is good flow to it. Beacuse I had read the book before I new what it was about, but as 15 years have gone by my memory was rusty. Re-reading it, however, felt like coming back home to a warm meal after a long day out in the cold. 

Cunningham writes in a manner reminiscent of an uncle teaching a child in the gentlest of manners. He is not judgmental in any way, but he is firm when he for example states that certain things have to be a part of your new tradition for it to be counted as Wicca, but leaves the possibility to the reader to formulate their own beliefs upon the previously existing framework. 

Wicca is a religion that teaches specific beliefs. We should be fully familiar with them if we're to practice this religion. It may take time for you to completely accept some of these beliefs. Study, think, pray and experiment. Wiccan beliefs are the heart of Wicca.

Cunningham, p. 114

I really like this approach, and maybe it stuck out to me because I have heard so much of the "you can take whatever beliefs you want into Wicca" that I have grown sick of it. Yes, you can include a lot in your Wiccan practice and beliefs, but without the core principles of Wicca, it ceases to exist and becomes something else. This is something that irritates me extremely in a book I am soon going to review, but I will take that discussion then.

What I really enjoyed is that Cunningham has included so much suggested reading. I especially enjoyed the suggested reading in the third part of the book, as he sometimes not only lists books, but even the relevant pages. I feel like he has been very thorough in his research and made an effort to make the study of the Craft as easy as possible for the (new) practitioner. 

Cunningham has a very positive tone throughout his writings. He on one hand encourages the student to read as much as possible, from as many sources as possible, and on the other encourages the student to just go out there and do it, to not think too much, but rather just start practicing. 

In conclusion I would say that I like this book very much, and I would recommend it to both beginners and more advanced practitioners of Wicca. It is an easy read with good information, and with merely 168 pages it is amazing how much good information is in it. I would however suggest for the beginner that at list a slight grasp of what Wicca is about is needed before reading this book. If looking for one, I can recommend Wicca: A Guide to the Solitary Practitioner. 

If you have read this book, or if you have questions, leave your comments down below.

Blessed Be!

~Stella