{"id":4820,"date":"2018-05-06T21:38:07","date_gmt":"2018-05-06T21:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/?p=4820"},"modified":"2018-05-06T21:38:07","modified_gmt":"2018-05-06T21:38:07","slug":"pagan-ritual-lessons-uu-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/2018\/05\/pagan-ritual-lessons-uu-services\/","title":{"rendered":"Pagan Ritual Lessons for UU Services"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"My teacher in Witchcraft, Christopher Penczak, when talking about (Pagan) ritual design taught me that there are three simultaneous levels that need to be considered. There are people who come to ritual to have a good time, to experience the joy of life and ritual, and a good ritual should meet this need. Then there are people who come to ritual for self-development of some kind, and a good ritual will give these folks some avenues for that. Finally, the ritual itself generates energy and that energy is used for something. Specifically in the context of Wheel of the Year rituals, the energy should be channeled to helping to turn the Wheel of the Year, and it is up to the ritualist to direct the energy in this way \u2013 though others in the circle may also be consciously amplifying that intention.<\/p>\n

Self-Development<\/h4>\n

I\u2019ve been thinking about this wisdom recently, both in the context of designing Pagan rituals, but also wondering if it might have some carry over into UU Sunday morning services. When I myself participate in a ritual I am not leading, I am most often doing so for the second of these three purposes of ritual \u2013 self-development. That\u2019s just where I am most naturally drawn. So, unsurprisingly, that is the component of ritual design to which I pay most attention, and therefore, at which I am most skilled. I\u2019m wondering if I\u2019m missing something \u2013 and if those who experience rituals and services I design are missing something \u2013 because I\u2019m less aware of and skilled in the other two areas.<\/p>\n

Enjoyment of Ritual<\/h4>\n

Let\u2019s think about the first one \u2013 the enjoyment of ritual part. There is lots of discussion in UU and Christian circles about worship as entertainment versus worship as something \u201cdeeper.\u201d I acknowledge my own frustration with a certain consumerist mentality that can sometimes pervade the way people speak about worship. But, I think perhaps it can be too easy to dismiss the necessity for enjoyment in worship. In particular, I am thinking about the style of worship in communities that have experienced significant oppression, knowing that affirmation of life and joy are often important parts of these worship traditions. For example, please check out\u00a0Kimberly Quinn Johnson\u2019s reflection<\/a> on the place of joy in black worship.<\/p>\n

I think I have not been as attentive as I might be to the place of joy in worship \u2013 and the necessity for it as one of the vital reasons to do worship in the first place.<\/p>\n

The Energy that Ritual Generates<\/h4>\n

The third strand in this model asks that we consider what we are doing with the energy that worship generates. When I lead a Pagan ritual, I am very attentive to this, in both planning and in the midst of leading ritual. But I almost never think about this when leading a UU worship service. In fact, these two modes have been so disconnected in myself that it was 2 years after completing\u00a0<\/i>my training as a Wiccan priestess that it ever occurred to me that one of the reasons I had a tendency to experience a pronounced crash in my energy level on Sunday afternoons is because I had not been grounding the energy raised during the service. All my training in witchcraft predicts exactly what happened to me every week \u2013 an energy high followed by a crash that meant I could basically not function for the rest of the day. I\u2019m so glad it finally occurred to me to try grounding all that energy intentionally!<\/p>\n

Wouldn\u2019t it be even better, though, to actually use all that energy to some constructive end? We don\u2019t raise a cone of power in a UU service the way we would in a Pagan ritual \u2013 we\u2019re not generating the same kind of intentional energy, but a good worship service still generates energy. UU ministers talk about mediating that energy as part of the job of leading a service, but in my experience, I haven\u2019t thought about (nor have I been encouraged by others to think about) consciously directing that energy to some purpose. I wonder what would happen if we did.<\/p>\n

If so, where would we send that energy? I imagine each service might have a particular purpose to which the energy could be directed. Or it could be dedicated to a particular deity or spirit for aid in their work. Then the question would become whether to make this explicit or to simply silently direct the energy without speaking about it aloud. I can see good reasons for either choice.<\/p>\n

<\/a>I know this post is a lot more questions than answers. I\u2019ll be experimenting on my own, but I would also love to hear your thoughts about this, if you have experience or ideas about how to do this more effectively!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I think I have not been as attentive as I might be to the place of joy in worship – and the necessity for it as one of the vital reasons to do worship in the first place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2431,"featured_media":4829,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[752,221,20,5,533],"class_list":["post-4820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-christopher-penczak","tag-ritual","tag-spiritual-practice","tag-unitarian-universalism","tag-wicca"],"yoast_head":"\nPagan Ritual Lessons for UU Services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Erica Baron considers Christopher Penczak's three levels of a ritual as they apply to Unitarian Universalist worship services.\" \/>\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\/naturessacredjourney\/2018\/05\/pagan-ritual-lessons-uu-services\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pagan Ritual Lessons for UU Services\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Erica Baron considers Christopher Penczak's three levels of a ritual as they apply to Unitarian Universalist worship services.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/2018\/05\/pagan-ritual-lessons-uu-services\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nature's Sacred Journey\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-05-06T21:38:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/857\/2018\/05\/incense-390875_1280.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Erica Baron\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Erica Baron\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/2018\/05\/pagan-ritual-lessons-uu-services\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/2018\/05\/pagan-ritual-lessons-uu-services\/\",\"name\":\"Pagan Ritual Lessons for UU Services\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-05-06T21:38:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-05-06T21:38:07+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/#\/schema\/person\/c6cc7248c31d8d9d06adf7bae19db131\"},\"description\":\"Erica Baron considers Christopher Penczak's three levels of a ritual as they apply to Unitarian Universalist worship services.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/2018\/05\/pagan-ritual-lessons-uu-services\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/2018\/05\/pagan-ritual-lessons-uu-services\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/2018\/05\/pagan-ritual-lessons-uu-services\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Pagan Ritual Lessons for UU Services\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/\",\"name\":\"Nature's Sacred Journey\",\"description\":\"Celebrating UU-Paganism and Earth-Centered Experience\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/#\/schema\/person\/c6cc7248c31d8d9d06adf7bae19db131\",\"name\":\"Erica Baron\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a3487f62c599f06f80de0679e7c1d0b5?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a3487f62c599f06f80de0679e7c1d0b5?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Erica Baron\"},\"description\":\"Rev. Erica Baron was raised as a Unitarian Universalist and was ordained to the Unitarian Universalist ministry in 2008 after receiving a Master of Divinity degree from Andover Newton Theological School. She dabbled in Pagan spirituality from high school through graduate school, but got serious about pursuing a Pagan path after her ordination. She has received training from and is an active member of the Temple of Witchcraft. She currently serves as the minister of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Catskills in Kingston, NY.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/author\/ebaron\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Pagan Ritual Lessons for UU Services","description":"Erica Baron considers Christopher Penczak's three levels of a ritual as they apply to Unitarian Universalist worship services.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/2018\/05\/pagan-ritual-lessons-uu-services\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Pagan Ritual Lessons for UU Services","og_description":"Erica Baron considers Christopher Penczak's three levels of a ritual as they apply to Unitarian Universalist worship services.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/2018\/05\/pagan-ritual-lessons-uu-services\/","og_site_name":"Nature's Sacred Journey","article_published_time":"2018-05-06T21:38:07+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":512,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/857\/2018\/05\/incense-390875_1280.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Erica Baron","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Erica Baron","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/2018\/05\/pagan-ritual-lessons-uu-services\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/2018\/05\/pagan-ritual-lessons-uu-services\/","name":"Pagan Ritual Lessons for UU Services","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/#website"},"datePublished":"2018-05-06T21:38:07+00:00","dateModified":"2018-05-06T21:38:07+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/#\/schema\/person\/c6cc7248c31d8d9d06adf7bae19db131"},"description":"Erica Baron considers Christopher Penczak's three levels of a ritual as they apply to Unitarian Universalist worship services.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/2018\/05\/pagan-ritual-lessons-uu-services\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/2018\/05\/pagan-ritual-lessons-uu-services\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/2018\/05\/pagan-ritual-lessons-uu-services\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Pagan Ritual Lessons for UU Services"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/","name":"Nature's Sacred Journey","description":"Celebrating UU-Paganism and Earth-Centered Experience","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/#\/schema\/person\/c6cc7248c31d8d9d06adf7bae19db131","name":"Erica Baron","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a3487f62c599f06f80de0679e7c1d0b5?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a3487f62c599f06f80de0679e7c1d0b5?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Erica Baron"},"description":"Rev. Erica Baron was raised as a Unitarian Universalist and was ordained to the Unitarian Universalist ministry in 2008 after receiving a Master of Divinity degree from Andover Newton Theological School. She dabbled in Pagan spirituality from high school through graduate school, but got serious about pursuing a Pagan path after her ordination. She has received training from and is an active member of the Temple of Witchcraft. She currently serves as the minister of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Catskills in Kingston, NY.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/author\/ebaron\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2431"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}