Back before my agnostic conversion, I spent some years as a free-form pagan (no circles, no dogmas, no rules but the basic “do no harm to anyone else”). I knew a lot of other pagans, both the free-form and the ones we used to call the good church-goin’ sort (attended circles, condicted organized rituals, etc). For all you pagans out there, organized and unorganized, what is your favorite ritual, the one that brings you closest to the universal? It can be one you developed yourself, or an extablished one you participate in.
Any non-pagans out there who want to jump in, feel free.
Since I lived in a beach community, a lot of the rituals I and my friends participated in were ocean centered. Got some interesting responses. During my most memorable one I had given food and wine to any watchers, seen and unseen. It was an hour after sundown and I was looking to myself and Anyone Else to see if I should marry the man I was dating. As I stood there (I swear this is true, I have witnesses), a flaming meteorite dropped into the ocean about 100 yards directly in front of me. That brought everyone running, and one asked me what the hell I’d been asking for? Well, I got my sign, married the man, and 10 years later have not had a moment of regret. I’m not entirely dim, and I didn’t want to think of where the next meteor would land if I didn’t marry him.
Hmm…meteorites usually aren’t flaming by the time they hit the ground. Anyway, too bad you didn’t/couldn’t retrieve the meteorite…they’re worth quite a bit of money.
Rituals that pertain to astronomical conditions (solstice, etc.) both please & annoy me. I like the appreciation for the universe, but dislike the mysticism that is attached to it.
Excuse me, I should have said glowing, and as it fell into the ocean it would have been difficult to retrieve. It’s possible it was a bit of man-made debris, a disintigrating satellite bit, whatever. It’s what I saw and how I interpreted it at the time. It’s what the other people saw as well. Now I tend to interpret it as a very interesting coindidence, but it was damned impressive at the time.
My personal favorite has always been an autumn equinox ritual designed to usher out bad habits or things about your life you want to change (and free you up for the things you would like to do and be.)
The ritual involves an apple. Essentially, without getting into the specifics (this is a very simplistic explanation), you cut the apple open and put into it all the things you want to rid yourself of. Then you bind it and toss it away/cast it off. (Of course, there’s more to the ritual as it usually accompanies other festivities of the equinox–feasting on foods made from harvested grains, fruits, wine etc.; circles and chanting; etc.)
I always feel very cleansed and whole after this ritual. Of course, that has alot to do with the fact that it is becoming fall and I love that season above all others–the smells, the crisp air, the beautiful leaves, my birthday…
Soulsling, you wouldn’t happen to be a virgin, would you? In that case, let me heva some friends come and talk to you about a very special ritual that would really mean a lot to them…
lucie, it would be my pleasure to become a virgin if that’s necessary. I can do it you know. Well on my way as it is.
…ahem, er, um… would these friends of yours happen to be extremly luscious and curvacious sex hungry women? Because I would do my best to make sure I could facilitate in whatever rituals they might have in mind, I mean, well, you know…
I like the one where the whole village gets together in the cornfield and has sex to insure a good harvest.
Unfortunatly the pagan gatherings I’ve been to tend to involve not so many orgies and more bad poetry and men wearing capes.
Actually I want to a very nice Samhain circle, where we remembered people who had died and said what we wish we has said to them, and tied our wrists with crepe paper and then ripped them off to symbolize the breaking of unhealthy bonds. Which was kind of silly, but sort emotionally effective at the time. And it was interesting to do something spiritual and then walk back out into the NY Halloween Parade going on outside.
I had a roomate who was a witch who decided to make his own ceremonial knife from scratch. (Very literally from scratch.) Imagine a lovely young homosexual in burgundy velvet and heavy makeup sitting and sharpening a six inch dagger for hours. Like one of Jerry Falwell’s nightmares.
Jeez, good thing I’m not a Pagan because I would have taken this as a sign NOT to marry him. Why did you think it meant you SHOULD marry him, rather than not?
(not being snotty, just curious… )
Thanks.
Wow, someone else who likes Samhain rituals. I particularly liked one where the coven that I was in at the time had for a remembrance. This was in a Wiccan group that I was formerly in. Anyway, we went around the circle and each person said the name of a person they wanted to remember and on a piece of paper wrote why that was so and a reason why we would not want to see them. It was a very neutral type of balance in this particular group. Anyway, at the end of the ritual we all set fire to the notes in the cauldron with the bad thought leaving ourselves and the good thought going to the person we missed. It was quite powerful.
Grove centered rituals were just as interesting although for me it was more difficult to find as Druids aren’t as common as Wiccans. I can go back and forth between the two but rarely get much from the Wiccan side. I have been in Grove rituals that would be really similar to a Quaker ritual as it was in silence and had no specific set to follow and people spoke up as they felt necessary. I have been in many Druidic rituals. I particularly liked the one where I fasted for a few days and got my totem animal (the Squirrel). I went into the woods and sat under a tree as was directed. I had only some water to drink. I went back home the first night pretty late but the second night I stayed out. Anyway, by the third day squirrels were everywhere. I had been meditating on receiving a totem and finally there they were. At first I tried to force them into a bear as that was the gay personna that I really liked but it just didn’t work. They were squirrels. Shortly thereafter, I did a closing ritual and ended my personal circle and went home and bathed. Pretty good for basically one complete day out in the woods without returning home. (I am not including the first day where I left as I now think of that as cheating. When I returned, day 2, I stayed until day 3 when I finally got my animal.) It was nice having silenced my conscious mind and letting nature have a place within it. That was one nice ritual.
I’m a still-learning-but-don’t-have-much-time-for-actual-practice Pagan. I have participated in a few ceremonies and holidays with some Wiccan friends (and goodness, those are fun! Pagans know how to paaaaar-taaaay!) but I’m more of a Solitary. I also don’t consider myself a witch, since I don’t practice magick (nothing against it, just haven’t had time to really sit down & learn it).
I am interested in hearing about other peoples homegrown spells & rituals, though!
This may not be the correct forum for my question but, how important is it to really conjure up emotion when performing a ritual or spell?
I’ve read that it’s the way to make anything happen. I have avoided attempting any rituals, spells, etc. for fear of failure due to lack of emotion. I simply can not seem to summon any strong emotion anymore. Oh, and yes, I went thru a divorce where my heart was ripped out and stomped on during the course of the public humiliation I was subjected to, but that was three years ago…
Obviously, what I really need to know is the instructions for a ritual or spell (homemade or otherwise) which will cause him to suffer horribly both physically and mentally, feel like he has an open wound the size of a basketball in the pit of his belly 24/7, and have his hopes, dreams, ego and everything he believes in ripped to tattered shreds–it must be one where I suffer no repercussions whatsoever. Uhh…
Sorry. I really am curious about the importance of projecting emotion.
Persephone, Mattmcl, has designed his own rituals. I have also in the past but they weren’t in a group so I won’t really go into them here. Matt’s ritual that he listed in Mpsims was quite nice though.
Shhh zzzz, emotions in a ritual are very important. In my experience the most moving and powerful rituals always had some type of emotion attached to them. The ritual itself can be purely mental but you take out what you put into it. I had a tarot ritual to invoke action (there was more to it than that) that really only got me to get on the ball when I forced myself to become more emotional about it. You know that magick basically works like a prayer. It is putting your intent into doing something and then doing it, not waiting for things to happen. I always thought of spellwork as a formal way of stating my intent thus making me actually complete the given action because I committed it to myself. If you are not into it emotionally then you get out of it what you put in, as I said earlier.
Well, like all signs and omens, I took it to mean what I really wanted it to mean - that I should marry him. It’s all in how you decide to interpret them for yourself. The meteor or whatever would have fallen there whether I was there or not. Other people probably saw it and interpreted in a meaningful way for themselves.
Samhain rituals are fun - I still indulge in dressing up and trying scare the bejeezus out of young children. I think it is important that all children get a little fun, pointless terror in their lives. It helped make me the persone I am today. Okay, that and Sci-Fi Theater every Saturday morning.
