I gave her a quick answer, but I also let her know that answering fully would probably take a blog post. As ritual is important to most of us as Pagans (and as humans), I think it\u2019s worth diving deeper into the subject.<\/p>\n We need to start with some basic definitions. Some people prefer \u201critual\u201d and some prefer \u201cceremony\u201d \u2013 we need to not get hung up with dictionary definitions.<\/p>\n Rituals and ceremonies are the formal and symbolic activities we do to create change and\/or commemorate an event, and in doing so form and maintain relationships and identities. Our high day rituals bring us together as a community and remind us what it means to be Pagans.<\/p>\n In common usage \u201critual\u201d has a stronger and often darker connotation \u2013 sometimes literally. Ceremonies are day things \u2013 rituals are done at night. We say wedding ceremony but exorcism ritual. In practice, though, the two words are largely interchangeable.<\/p>\n A ritualist is a person who composes, plans, and leads ritual. In some traditions, they\u2019re the High Priestess or the Chief Druid. In others, they\u2019re the person responsible for coordinating the upcoming event. They may be the person front and center leading the liturgy, or they may just be the planner and organizer who takes a small part and shares the bulk of the ritual work with others.<\/p>\n One of the many things I missed growing up in a small fundamentalist church was the lack of ritual. The few rituals they had were watered down to avoid appearing \u201ctoo Catholic.\u201d I was fortunate to join a college fraternity with a very good initiation ritual. It\u2019s inspired by Freemasonry \u2013 beyond that I can say no more.<\/p>\n As a Pagan, I\u2019ve put a lot of work into creating and presenting rituals. I\u2019ve been honored to lead rituals at conventions and gatherings around the country. I\u2019ve participated in some excellent rituals led by others \u2013 I\u2019ve tried to learn from them. And I\u2019ve participated in some truly bad rituals \u2013 I\u2019ve learned from those as well.<\/p>\n Based on all that, here\u2019s what I think it takes to make a good ritualist.<\/p>\n When an actor gives an uninspired performance, we say they\u2019re \u201cphoning it in.\u201d The part didn\u2019t really matter to them, so they did the bare minimum.<\/p>\n We sometimes see the same thing with ritual. And not just with the presentation but also with the composition and planning. You don\u2019t have to compose something completely new for every event. Nor should you \u2013 one of the meanings of \u201critual\u201d is \u201cconvention\u201d or \u201chabit.\u201d Using common elements in every ritual leads to familiarity and a sense of cohesion. But using the same quarter calls<\/a> every time because you like them is one thing \u2013 doing the same main working over and over again gets old.<\/p>\n And also, you can see who\u2019s put in the preparation to get things right and who threw a script in a binder and is working through it for the first time.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t have to have the near-obsession I have with ritual to be a good ritualist. You do have to care about what you\u2019re doing. It has to be important to you.<\/p>\n Many of us grew up in churches where religion was a passive thing. You come in and sit down, listen to some music, maybe join in a reading or a common prayer (or maybe not even that), listen to a sermon, and then go home. The architecture of many contemporary non-denominational churches<\/a> emphasizes being part of an audience, not part of a congregation.<\/p>\n Good religion \u2013 especially good Pagan religion \u2013 is an experiential thing. We don\u2019t just hear someone talking about our Gods. We talk to them and listen for them and we feel their presence. We don\u2019t just sit quietly (or worse, stand in place the whole time) we move our bodies. Paganism is a sensual religion \u2013 it\u2019s something we experience with all our senses.<\/p>\n A good ritualist helps people have religious experiences. We can\u2019t command the Gods and spirits and we can\u2019t make people see and feel what they aren\u2019t willing to see and feel. But we can create an atmosphere that makes it more likely people can have a spiritual experience. We can plan and lead participative elements that help people do and feel instead of just sitting and listening.<\/p>\n A good ritualist isn\u2019t interested in making themselves look and sound important. A good ritualist is interested in facilitating religious and spiritual experiences in others.<\/p>\n We can get so caught up the \u201cwhat\u201d and the \u201chow\u201d that we forget the \u201cwhy.\u201d<\/p>\n Ultimately, ritual is about relationships: between the participants and their Gods and ancestors, the spirits of the land where they are, and their virtues, values, and traditions. And it\u2019s about the relationships between the participants. Each occurrence, each presentation of a ritual is at least subtly different. Everyone in attendance will share an experience that no one else will ever have, even if they participate in the same liturgy over and over again.<\/p>\n Good ritualists know how to form, maintain, and strengthen relationships on multiple levels.<\/p>\n So far we\u2019ve talked about love and desire \u2013 two very important things. But a good ritualist doesn\u2019t just want to do a good job, they know how to do a good job.<\/p>\n Does your tradition have a standard liturgy? Know it inside and out. What are the necessary elements? What do they do? How do they combine to become one complete ritual and not just a bunch of elements thrown together?<\/p>\n What are the themes of your holy days? A Beltane ritual is different from a Samhain ritual, and both are different from a Winter Solstice ritual. A ritual honoring Brighid may have many or even all of the same elements as a ritual honoring the Morrigan, but they will look and feel different.<\/p>\n Good ritualists are familiar with the myths their rituals commemorate and\/or re-enact. The best ritualists know the stories in depth, because they\u2019ve read them, studied them, discussed them, meditated on them, and contemplated them over and over again.<\/p>\n It\u2019s one thing to understand why we call the spirits of the elements and directions to begin a ritual. It\u2019s another thing to know which quarter calls will be effective in ritually re-creating the universe and which ones are pleasant rhymes but nothing more. Which decorations create an otherworldly atmosphere and which ones remind you of a Halloween party?<\/p>\n A good ritualist knows the principles of magic. They know how to raise and direct energy\u2026 and they know that the techniques that work for 13 may not work for 30 and definitely won\u2019t work for 100.<\/p>\n Temples were our first theaters. Priestcraft and stagecraft share many similarities.<\/p>\n I\u2019m glad to see this piece by UU minister Rev. Victoria Weinstein is still up after 17 years. It\u2019s titled Serving Dionysus<\/a> and it\u2019s about the holiness of the theater. Rev. Weinstein says \u201ca faithful Catholic will attend Mass to receive the Eucharist no matter how inept or unenergetic the parish priest. Patrons of the performing arts, however, tolerate no such sloppiness.\u201d<\/p>\n You can put most Pagans safely in the \u201cpatrons of the performing arts\u201d section.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not a natural public speaker. I have some talent for writing, but when it comes to speaking everything you hear is the result of years of deliberate practice. I got started because my desire to lead ritual was greater than my fear of public speaking.<\/p>\n In 2020 \u2013 when most of us were doing our rituals online \u2013 I wrote Speaking Effectively In Ritual<\/a>. I encourage you to read the whole thing, but the key points are:<\/p>\n The best ritualists aren\u2019t just good writers and directors. They\u2019re also good presenters.<\/p>\n A good ritual is a lot of work. Research, composition, stage directions, logistics, rehearsal, setup, presentation, and the important conversations that come after it\u2019s all over. And then taking down everything you set up. That\u2019s on top of all the skill-building discussed above. You can\u2019t just show up, read your lines, and go home.<\/p>\n The best ritualists do the necessary work, because they know it\u2019s worth it.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t a ranking. I\u2019m sure I\u2019m overlooking a few people I know and a bunch of people I wish I knew. But when someone asks \u201cwho are the best ritualists you know?\u201d this my answer.<\/p>\n Ivo Dominguez, Jr.<\/strong> I haven\u2019t been to a lot of Ivo\u2019s rituals, but the ones I have attended have been amazing. They\u2019re big and powerful. They have a clear purpose, an effective plan, and an attention to detail unlike anything I\u2019ve seen elsewhere, including my own rituals.<\/p>\n Ivo would tell you that if his rituals are great, its because he has many skilled and effective co-leaders. That wouldn\u2019t be false modesty \u2013 he does. But most of those co-leaders learned from him, and he set the standard they meet.<\/p>\n Kristoffer Hughes<\/strong>. I\u2019ve seen Kris take a basic seasonal celebration and make it something deeply meaningful for everyone. I\u2019ve seen him invoke Cerridwen in a hotel ballroom and looked around as everyone experienced her presence. I\u2019ve seen him take a part in a standard Druid ritual \u2013 a part I\u2019ve done myself on other occasions \u2013 and transport people between the worlds.<\/p>\n Kris is a professional actor and it shows. But more importantly, he\u2019s intimately familiar with the myths and the persons<\/em> he\u2019s presenting. When he leads ritual he isn\u2019t acting. He\u2019s using his acting skills to serve a sacred purpose.<\/p>\n Jason Mankey<\/strong>. Most of Jason\u2019s rituals I\u2019ve seen have been at conventions and gatherings where he had no temple, no decorations, no props, and no co-leaders. It was just Jason and an outline, that may or may not have been written down. And people still walked away feeling like they had experienced something sacred and magical, because Jason knows how to do witchcraft.<\/p>\n I\u2019m still trying to figure out how to adapt his methods to my style of rituals.<\/p>\n Cynthia Talbot<\/strong>. When Katrina Rasbold wrote \u201cThe New Vanguard: 10 Pagan Voices Shaping Our Future\u201d for Green Egg Magazine<\/em><\/a>, I saw a few people complain that the list was all authors and that it ignored people doing good and necessary work at the local level. That\u2019s mainly because Katrina and others have no way of knowing who\u2019s doing good and necessary work at a local level that isn\u2019t their own.<\/p>\n Cynthia Talbot does good and necessary work in Denton, Texas, and occasionally beyond. She isn\u2019t well-known because she doesn\u2019t write books or post on Instagram or TikTok. But she\u2019s one of the best ritualists I know, and I\u2019ve been honored to work with her for the past 18 years. Her rituals are grounded in the love of the Gods and the understanding that effective witchcraft means getting your hands dirty.<\/p>\n She does a pretty good job with UU Sunday Services<\/a> too.<\/p>\n A Ritual of Resistance and Alliance<\/a> (July 2025)<\/p>\n We\u2019re Pagans \u2013 We Do Ritual<\/a> (March 2024)<\/p>\n The Evolution of My Pagan Ritual Liturgy<\/a>\u00a0(May 2020)<\/p>\n 8 Essential Elements of Good Pagan Ritual<\/a>\u00a0(October 2019)<\/p>\n![\"photo](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2026\/03\/Samhain-2019-27b.jpg\")
<\/a>Ritual? Ceremony? Ritualist?<\/h2>\n
I\u2019ve always been intrigued by ritual<\/h2>\n
A good ritualist loves ritual<\/h2>\n
A desire to facilitate religious experiences<\/h2>\n
A desire to form and maintain relationships<\/h2>\n
An understanding of ritual themes and elements<\/h2>\n
An understanding of what works and what doesn\u2019t<\/h2>\n
A commitment to presentation<\/h2>\n
\n
A willingness to do the necessary work<\/h2>\n
The best ritualists I know<\/h2>\n
![\"photo](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2026\/03\/Beltane-2017-21.jpg\")
<\/a>For further reading<\/h2>\n