When putting together a sabbat ritual for my coven I tend to look out the backdoor of my office for inspiration. As of mid-June my garden is home to several healthy tomato plants, a couple of sunflowers already over five feet tall, and a few beautiful yellow-orange flowers that will soon turn into baby pumpkins. Our lawn is a lovely shade of brown and and our lemon tree has all I need for a wide selection of Summer drinks. In other words, it’s a perfect near-Midsummer Day in Northern California, but I’m not finding it as inspiring as I usually do.
My garden and this morning’s breeze is a lovely respite from the pain all of us have been experiencing the past few days, but it’s only a respite. The Orlando tragedy hangs heavily over everything I see right now, and while I know that my sadness is nothing compared to those who lost loved ones there, I can’t help but feel effected by it. Both my wife and I cried on Sunday morning when we heard the news about America’s latest tragedy. We cried because in the words of John Donne: “no man is an island . . . any man’s death diminishes me.”
No Man Is An Island
No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thy friend’s
Or of thine own were:
Any man’s death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.–John Donne
RITUALS CAN BE ABOUT MANY THINGS
When we think of sabbat rituals we tend to think of nature rites and the changes happening right now in the natural world. There’s a natural association there because in Modern Witchcraft our rites have generally been about just that (with the possible exception of Samhain). Our holidays have never specifically been about particular deities* or even certain mythologies, they tend to be about what we and the world are doing (or want to be doing) at that particular moment.
Since most of us are not farmers we tend to symbolically observe things that are going on in nature. In the Fall we design rituals to “harvest things” into our lives. In the Spring we plant seeds in the hopes that they will help grow our dreams and desires. At the solstices we note just how powerful (or not) the sun is, even though we are perfectly capable of simply turning on a lamp for light.
For many Witches sabbat rituals are thought of as celebrations; at such gatherings there’s often feasting, merriment, and games. This is probably the original purpose of the holidays we today refer to as sabbats. When we look through the historical record associated with holidays such as Lammas, Harvest Home, Yule, Beltane, and Midsummer those are the things that are the most prominent.
At a business meeting for my local open Pagan circle one of our members got into an argument when he mentioned that the original point of the sabbats was frolic and fellowship and not transformative ritual. In many ways I believe he was correct, though the expectation in most eclectic circles these days is for some sort of transformative ritual connected to the seasons, though sometimes it’s just nice to celebrate without having to worry about anything else.
RITUALS SHOULD REFLECT OUR PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCES
If you were to ask me what sabbat rituals should be about I would say that first and foremost they should be about what’s going on our lives, and that includes our internal existence, as well as what’s going on in our extended communities. For both my coven and I that means acknowledging the events of this past Sunday in Orlando. Acknowledgement is an accurate word in this instance and one I hate writing all at the same time. What I want to do is go back and stop 50 senseless murders, or somehow give the fallen their lives back. “Magic” as I’ve come to understand it the last twenty years feels like a trifle in our current circumstances.
Though I feel like I’ve just insulted magic, I have to acknowledge that it’s been a powerful force in my life the last twenty years, but it is not capable of breaking universal laws, and what it offers me is far more limited than I’d like. The most obvious thing I can do after Orlando is to send energy to comfort the families of the victims, or power to those still recovering from injury. I could perform a spell that calls for understanding, or maybe one to end bigotry or extremism. In my most aggressive moments I envision a binding spell against terrorists, assholes, murders, and those who pervert faith; though I’m not sure I can bind millions of people at one Summer Solstice Ritual.
Of course even as I write down my more grandiose ideas I know that they are non-starters. Magic works best when it’s directed at particular and specific circumstances. Stopping one homicidal asshole is something it might be able to accomplish, asking it to change the hearts of thousands is something else entirely. What I won’t do this particular Midsummer is abandon how I feel today. I want that energy channeled into my coven’s workings this weekend.
ACKNOWLEDGING TRAGEDY IN RITUAL
This weekend I will read the names of those who were taken from us this past weekend. I will read their names to remind those around me of what we lost. I will read their names so their souls will know that we remember and that we care. I will read their names in the hopes that it will inspire all of us to do something.
Two weeks after 9-11 at our circle’s Autumn Equinox Ritual all of us who gathered together lit candles to honor the fallen. I feel as if our ritual was more for us than those passed, but I could still feel some of those souls stirring the breeze. As Jason at the Wild Hunt has said “what is remembered lives” and we will all remember. We will remember those who lost their lives in Orlando just as we remembered Freddie Grey, Tamir Rice, and Trayvon Martin, and we will use their memories as a reminder to ever seek justice and understanding.
As we honor the solstice we may reach out to the sun, but while doing so we will also reach out to those that have been lost. We will grieve for them and we will grieve with them. Hopefully the energy we raise in their remembrance will inspire us to help bring about the change that will make for better tomorrows. This Midsummer will be a somber sabbat, but that’s what it should be.
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*You can celebrate Imbolc without Brigit and Lughnassa without Lugh, you really can.
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