{"id":377,"date":"2010-08-09T19:07:00","date_gmt":"2010-08-09T19:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/08\/what-makes-a-strong-ritual\/"},"modified":"2010-08-09T19:07:00","modified_gmt":"2010-08-09T19:07:00","slug":"what-makes-a-strong-ritual","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/08\/what-makes-a-strong-ritual.html","title":{"rendered":"What Makes a Strong Ritual?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
<\/a><\/div>\n

Rehearsing this year\u2019s Celebration of Spring \u2013 making sure the plan is clear and the leaders know what they\u2019re going to do<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Catharine<\/a> left a comment on my post on Ecstatic Ritual<\/a>, asking \u201cwhat do you think has made your strongest rituals strong?\u201d That\u2019s a good question, and here\u2019s my attempt at an answer.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

A clear intention<\/strong>. Before trying to decide how to do a ritual, figure out what you want to accomplish. Some rituals are simply intended to be celebratory: to mark the changing of the seasons or to commemorate an important event. Some are primarily worshipful: to honor our goddesses and gods and to commune with them. Some are for magical workings, or divination, or initiations. Different intentions will call for different ritual styles \u2013 a festive Beltane ritual will be very different from a Samhain journey to the Otherworld.<\/span><\/p>\n

A clear plan<\/strong>. Once you decide what you\u2019re going to do, how are you going to do it? Are you going to cast a circle? With an athame or a wand or a staff or your finger? Are you going to psychically project it or scribe it on the ground? Sweep first? Bless with salt water (earth and water) and incense (fire and air)? Making three separate circumambulations or three people following each other? <\/span><\/p>\n

There are many ways to do something as simple as casting a circle. Add in all the other ritual elements and you have dozens if not hundreds of decisions that have to be made. Planning ahead removes mundane distractions and allows you to focus on the intent and the flow of the ritual.<\/span><\/p>\n

Competent, confident leader(s)<\/strong>. If you\u2019re working with two or three or four people then maybe everyone is a leader, but if your circle is more than a handful then one or two people are going to have to lead. You can call them High Priestess and High Priest or Presiding Druid or Worship Coordinator, they can have most of the speaking parts or just the transitions, but somebody has to drive the bus. <\/span><\/p>\n

A good ritual leader exudes confidence and knows how to quickly and quietly get things back on track when Coyote makes his inevitable appearance. A good ritual leader isn\u2019t arrogant \u2013 she knows her job isn\u2019t to call attention to herself, it\u2019s to facilitate a spiritual experience by everyone and to make the magic work.<\/span><\/p>\n

An engaged, committed circle<\/strong>. You can have the best ritual leader in the world, but if people come into the circle upset over traffic or mad at the guy in the East quarter or worried that people are going to think they\u2019re not dressed properly then the ritual isn\u2019t going to be as good as it could be. That\u2019s why most Pagan rituals begin with a cleansing and\/or a ground-center-and-merge meditation. Good ritual involves changing consciousness, and the most important consciousness change is setting the mundane world aside for an hour and becoming a part of something magical. Once that\u2019s accomplished it\u2019s much easier to get everyone pulling in the same direction.<\/span><\/p>\n

A willingness to take risks<\/strong>. There are smart risks and there are dumb risks. Walking out to lead a public ritual with no preparation is a dumb risk. Trying something that\u2019s just a bit harder than you\u2019ve done before is a smart risk. So is opening yourself to the Divine and listening for the call that you need to step up and speak out. And so is committing yourself to a journey you believe is your life\u2019s work even though you can\u2019t see exactly how to get from here to there.<\/span><\/p>\n

Others may have had different experiences, but when these five things are done well, the rituals I\u2019ve been in have been very strong.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rehearsing this year\u2019s Celebration of Spring \u2013 making sure the plan is clear and the leaders know what they\u2019re going to do Catharine left a comment on my post on Ecstatic Ritual, asking \u201cwhat do you think has made your strongest rituals strong?\u201d That\u2019s a good question, and here\u2019s my attempt at an answer. A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Makes a Strong Ritual?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Rehearsing this year's Celebration of Spring - making sure the plan is clear and the leaders know what they're going to doCatharine left a comment on my\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/08\/what-makes-a-strong-ritual.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Makes a Strong Ritual?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rehearsing this year's Celebration of Spring - making sure the plan is clear and the leaders know what they're going to doCatharine left a comment on my\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/08\/what-makes-a-strong-ritual.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-08-09T19:07:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_cpRXT6ZSHTw\/TGCdghDuTBI\/AAAAAAAAAg4\/Z1g6F2UOthE\/s320\/COS+2010+Cathy+032010+rehearsal+altar.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/08\/what-makes-a-strong-ritual.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/08\/what-makes-a-strong-ritual.html\",\"name\":\"What Makes a Strong Ritual?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-08-09T19:07:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-08-09T19:07:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\"},\"description\":\"Rehearsing this year's Celebration of Spring - making sure the plan is clear and the leaders know what they're going to doCatharine left a comment on my\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/08\/what-makes-a-strong-ritual.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/08\/what-makes-a-strong-ritual.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/08\/what-makes-a-strong-ritual.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"What Makes a Strong Ritual?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"description\":\"Musings of a Druid, Pagan, and Unitarian Universalist.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"John Beckett\"},\"description\":\"I grew up in Tennessee with the woods right outside my back door. 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