February full moon esbat - rekinding old circles

Last night saw an old circle come together. Some years ago I used to circle fairly frequently with two friends and we had a rather good group egregore built up. Perfect love and perfect trust. We would be able to do ritual without anyone leading or giving hints for what to do next. Our rituals were smooth and seamless. It has been years but last night we got together once more in order to celebrate esbat. 

An empty room was methodically transformed into a ritual space: tables carried, altar set, candles and incense lit. As calm music filled the room we commenced the ritual with a triple cleansing. Casting the circle and quarter calls were combined in one, the three of us working in unison. As the gods were called, the room changed. Suddenly there was warmth, golden light, power. 

Everything flowed as if we were working with one mind. We performed our work, toasted to the gods and allowed inspiration to guide us. It was magical to say the least. And although it might not have gone as seamlessly as it used to, we knew that we had not forgotten. We still had the feel for working ritual together, as we used to. 

Afterward we sat and talked, going through what we had done and commenting on what worked and what we might improve. We talked about possibilities and inspiration for future rituals, for how we might work and what we might experiment with. 

The empty room turned ritual chamber is empty once more, but with the promise of new and engaging rituals.

~Stella

Thoughts on playfulness and ritual

I remember my school days, when at the end of the school year we would have a service at the local church and our teachers would keep an eye on us and place all the rowdiest pupils in the front rows. Any misbehaviour would be punished. When we went to church with my family it was the same: you had to sit quietly in your seat and pay attention, dress neatly and be at your best behaviour. Going to church was a boring event, yet stressful because of fear of doing something wrong and having everyone stare at you.

When I started getting into Wicca and performing Wiccan rituals, I had to face these past experiences. Even today, when I have been Wiccan for a larger part of my life than I was Christian, I still remember and confront these past experiences: the gravity of going to church, the kneeling at the altar, the submission to a higher power that might judge you for accidentally farting during service. When one comes from this tradition, how does one move on from it?

***

My first rituals were quiet and still. I lived with my parents who did not tolerate deviation from their Christian tradition. They were by no means fundamentalists, in fact they were quite secular. However, they had grown up Christian and knew nothing else. Add to the fact that at this time Finland had just had its share of the satanic panic, so anything deviating from the safety of Christianity and tradition was scary to them. 

So I set up small altars that would not draw too much attention, I told them not to disturb me because I wanted to meditate. And so I sat down in my small room, in front of the few ritual objects I owned (a rock, a seashell, a feather, a red candle and some incense) and I performed my rituals sitting there, while visualising myself performing circlecastings, quartercalls, communing with the gods, etc. 

My rituals were almost as quiet as my church visits, if not even more so. I had no hymns to sing, not that I could have sung them anyway, and no space to move. When I moved away from home a few years later and got my own apartment, I finally had space to perform rituals and no one to hear me. But breaking out of the quiet shell during ritual was difficult. I had no problem doing so outdoors, but indoors was problematic.

Today I still reflect on this difficulty because it is still present, especially when I do solo rituals. During group work it is easier to speak out loud, to move, but sometimes it feels silly and pointless to do it by myself. At those times I remind myself that I do this for my gods, not for anyone else to see and that usually helps. I have also noticed that the more I do it, the easier it gets. At times in my life when I have had less time to perform ritual, they also tend to be more quiet when I start again.

Rituals can be breath-taking and demand silence, like this early morning view that I woke up to last summer.

But what about playfulness? What does it have to do with ritual? I will get into how I personally approach playfulness in ritual shortly, but let me first make a few notes about playfulness and ritual in general. As a theologian one of my interests of study has been ritual theory. I also study games, and there is a peculiar overlap between ritual theory and game theory regarding playfulness, or what might otherwise be called a ritual mindset.

To phrase it as concisely as I can: In order to enter a ritual or a game, the participant has to be willing to engage with a ritual mindset, a certain playfulness. This entails a willingness to submit to the rules of the game or ritual, as these are governed by other laws than those of the mundane world. When we enter a game we accept the reality of the game and the rules it entails. At the same time we leave behind our mundane selves and commit to a role in the game. When playing chess it really doesn't mater if you are a lawyer of a nurse in real life. For the sake of the game you are equal players. Likewise, when we enter ritual, eg. the Wiccan circle, our mundane lives, social positions and status give way to our roles as participants in a ritual. Once we exit the ritual or game, our lives return to normal.

In order for this process to work, for us to be able to enter the liminal space of ritual, the world between worlds, we need a certain kind of playfulness. We need to accept that the ritual reality is needed. To achieve this we might use certain symbols to trigger this response: we decorate an altar with special tools, we light candles and incense to set the mood, we wear jewellery specifically dedicated for ritual use. We set the mood, and we set our minds. And through this, we are able to experience ritual in a completely different way than without preparation.

I have sometimes wondered if this preparation is what has made Wiccan rituals so powerful for me? Compared to those church-visits where everything seemed boring and non-engaging, would they have felt different if we had prepared for them? I remember my confirmation: There was preparation, there was the wearing of robes and memorising of verses. I looked forward to it, but I still felt like I was being watched and judged. Maybe I could blame our church leaders? I'm not sure.

Rituals can also function as doorways
to other worlds and new perspectives on
life, philosophy and other things.

I said I was going to talk about how I approach playfulness in ritual. In the beginning when I could have ritual without the fear of parents walking in on me, I had to force myself to not make my rituals less "grave", like the church services I was used to. It took some time to come out of my shell, and it was always easier to do outdoors.

Ten years ago I got together with some other Wiccan friends. None of us had really performed ritual together with others before, at least not in a group. All of us came from similar backgrounds so we had some quite extensive discussions on ritual and how we wanted it to feel. This was extremely valuable to me, as I learned that it was no big deal if one stumbles a little on the words, or if mead is spilled on oneself while drinking. Or that laughter is a wonderful addition to ritual.

Since then I have tried to keep these things in mind and to not bee too serious in ritual. I mean, of course rituals are serious business, but that does not rule out that they can be fun. In fact, they should be. In the words of Doreen Valiente:

"Let there be reverance and mirth within you."

Those words are from the Charge of the Goddess and they ring true for everyday practice as well as for ritual.

~Stella

PS: A really interesting and fun way that I have found for dealing with my past church-experiences within Wiccan ritual, is to sometimes chant or intonate (in Swedish: mässa) certain parts of ritual. If you haven't tried it you should. It feels super ritualistic and works well. And it can lend a special feel to group rituals. 

Ritual of hope and healing

The corona virus pandemic is hitting the world hard. Here in Finland, where I live, a state of emergency resembling martial law has been declared today. We are literally at war with the epidemic, with the goal of slowing it down and protecting the people most vulnerable to it. The past week has been more or less chaotic, with events being cancelled, schools closing and gatherings of more than ten people being banned.

Amidst all the people hoarding food and toilet paper (for which a special place in hell has been reserved if they do it without good reason, especially here in Finland where paper never runs out), and the neighbors who turn their back at you in the stairwell out of fear of infection, what can we as a magickal community do?

In the Finnish Wicca group on Facebook, the following video was posted today. It is a call to action by Chi Nami for the magickal and spiritual community to raise energy to heal, help and create hope in the world during this pandemic. The ritual will take place on Friday 20th March at 8.00 p.m. UTC +2 (= 2 p.m. EDT).

If you are not into doing ritual, you can send a prayer as well. However, if you do want to do a ritual, but do not know how to structure it, here is what I will do, presented as a complete ritual structure.

Ritual of hope and healing

Prepare your ritual space and set up an altar. Here is how I will do it:

• Elemental representation for Water and Earth: a bowl of salt water
• Elemental representation for Air and Fire: smoldering incense
• Any representations for your deities*
• A white candle. You could also opt for three different candles: 
• Light green for healing
• White for helping 
• Yellow for hope
• Cakes and ale (aka. some food and drink to help you ground after raising and sending energy)

Here are the ritual steps:

1. Ground and center
2. Magickally cleance your space and yourself by asperging (springling salt water) and censing (wafting incense).
3. Cast the circle in your preferred manner
4. Call the quarters, starting with the East
5. Invite Deity* and state the intention of the the ritual
6. Meditate for a moment on the goal of this ritual, visualizing it in your mind: 
• See before you how healing and help comes to everyone in need, and how hope is born.
7. Keep this visualization firmly in your mind as you start raising energy. You could use a number of methods:
• Drumming
• Chanting/singing
• Dancing
• or others
8. While you keep the vizualisation going in your mind, as the energy rises and comes to a peak, release it and send it out into the world to do its work.
9. If you have any residual energy left you can earth it 
10. Next, bless the cakes and ale (or whichever food and beverage you have) and relax for a  moment. If you invited Deity, share some with them.
11. When you feel ready, and it is time to end the ritual, start by thanking Deity for their presence and help.*
12. Release the quarters
13. Open the circle

Now that the ritual is done, it is time to act in accord with the intention. Do what you can to help keep others and yourself safe (wash your hands, follow the directions of you country's health department, etc.) and create hope by sharing positive moments with friends and loved once on social media.

*Skip if you are not into deities or are not religious

***

After the ritual on Friday, I will be hosting a chat (in Swedish) on my Discord channel Hexagram for anyone who wants to talk and share experiences. 

Stay safe and hopeful, everyone!

Blessed be!

~Stella

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. ;)