I’ve been thinking a lot about rituals the past 48 hours. A lot of that is because John Halstead and I are sort of arguing over them and just how we should approach “bad ritual” in public spaces. I’m of the opinion that there will always be bad rituals, and that there’s not much we can do about it.
“Public Ritual” is a skill-set that can’t really be taught. It’s a mix of writing, presence, theatre, experience, and about three dozen other things. One can read books on how to do ritual, and that can help, but it won’t turn someone into a ritual expert. One can be “taught” how to run a ritual, but I know people who have had that sort of training, and sometimes it still doesn’t quite work for whatever reason. I’ve watched people grow into ritual roles over the years, and I’ve seen others never quite get there.
Public ritual is hard, and I don’t think we acknowledge that enough. It can be difficult to come up with an idea that’s not a cliche or hasn’t been done a hundred times before. It’s hard to juggle the energy of fifty or twenty strangers in a room, all with varying beliefs and backgrounds. And the bigger the group, the tougher it often is! How do you give 100 people something to do without creating a three hour slog of a rite?
I think escaping the trap of Wiccan ritual in public settings can be especially beneficial (many of the public rituals I do today outside of home are not Wiccan/Witch related), but that creates other difficulties. Will people pick up on what you are doing? Will people enjoy what’s going on? I think there are a lot of Druid groups that do good work, but when they present things to groups that have done mostly Wiccan-style ritual over the years, many of the participants look a little lost. Is there time before the ritual to reset expectations and get everyone involved?
I think more than anything good ritual is about connection. What that connection is or can be is going to vary from person to person, group to group, and rite to rite. The Autumn Equinox is coming up and my rites next weekend will most likely* be about connecting with where we stand on the Wheel of the Year. Sometimes my rituals are about my community or coven, and other times they are about deity or magickal work (we connect with energy there, Wicca is a magickal path!). Those are all valid things to work for, and they are all wonderful goals, but sometimes when people put on public ritual, they fail.
They fail for a variety of reasons too. Sometimes they just aren’t prepared, or perhaps they over-reached and tried to go for grand spectacle when simple competency would have worked better. Perhaps their ideas weren’t fully realized, or they were unable to manage the ritual’s participants. I have seen some of the best ritualists I know fail, completely and utterly, and sometimes it wasn’t even their fault. Things just don’t work sometimes for whatever reason.
I’ve been pretty honest about not having a lot of faith in most public rituals, and that’s generally because of the reasons I outlined at the beginning of this piece, but I’ve seen some really work. I’ve experienced a few moments of transcendence at public rites, and I expect to do so again in the future. However, I don’t expect it every time. Do I have lowered expectations? You bet I do!
There are days when I think it’s just enough to be outside with friends and my extended community. The sabbats are meant to be celebrations first and foremost (thanks for Spring! thanks for the harvest!), they don’t all have to be life-changing events. I like being with people and sharing a laugh with them, I think those are transformative things too. They might not tickle the soul, but it’s the little things that often bring us together as a community.
We also need room to fail. I think this is really important and I think it’s something very easy to overlook. Since ritual, especially public ritual, is such a unique skill, most of us are not especially good at it right out of the box. People are going to stumble and fall before they run. We can certainly help first time ritual leaders (and those still learning) with their rites, but eventually we have to let go, and sometimes it won’t be pretty.
There are also lessons to be learned when we do fail in public. I think I’m a pretty good ritualist today because I’ve witnessed so many bad rituals over the years. Want to learn how to write good ritual? Visit a lot of terrible ones! Seriously, it’s the best education for public ritual, and will expose your limitations, mistakes, and misconceptions.
We also have to allow room for bad rituals, because that’s how we grow. You can’t learn how to do a great public ritual without failing a few times. I don’t like seeing things that discourage people from trying. I think I didn’t like John’s initial post because it basically said “don’t try“:
Let me suggest a radical idea: It’s better to not do a ritual at all than do a bad ritual. If it gets close to time for your Mabon ritual this year, and you don’t really have time to plan the ritual, and you’re tempted to half-ass it … just don’t.
I think it’s better to try and to fail and to have that experience of trying and failing than to not do anything at all. It sucks when people half-ass a ritual, but some of the most amazing rituals I’ve ever been a part of were spur of the moment type things, or “half assed” ideas that ended up working! You never know what’s going to happen if you don’t do it, so give it a go even if you don’t think it’s your best.
How do we fix “bad Pagan rituals?” I don’t have all the answers, but I do know that we will never do it by discouraging people from trying in the first place.
*It’s not written yet, I know, shame on me! But I’ve got confidence in myself and my High Priestess. We can McGyver the shit out of a sabbat.
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