Redesigning Rituals

I'm starting my first book of shadows. It will be my book of shadows for 2009.

I've been reading more of Scott's book on Wicca. He offers his Standing Stones book of shadows as a guide. It's just meant as food for thought to give ideas on what a book of shadows should contain. He strongly suggests that a individual practitioner should create their own book of shadows to fit their own intuitive connection with the spirits. And I'm totally taking his guidance on this one.

He begins the book with his moral values, and for me, my book of shadows must contain my moral values. He also includes a small section entitled "The Nature of Our Way". But the very word "our" implies this is a book of shadows for a clan or coven. I will entitle that section in my book of shadows, "The Nature of My Way", because this is my own spiritual journey.

He then goes on to describe a section called "Before Time Was" and gives a brief genesis of creation. Again, if I include a section like this it must contain my own innately intuitive philosophical ramblings. I see Wicca, in its truest non-dogmatic form as truly being a religion of the soul. And therefore each person must go by their own intuition. Even if that intuition is to skip a section altogether simply because they have no strong feelings on that subject.

Then he moves into very detailed poems that describe and worship the Goddess and God. Again, I absolutely need to write my own descriptions and praise to fit what feels natural for me.

He then begins to talk about how to cast a circle, and ultimately a sphere of spiritual energy. There are many rituals that he performs in this process that simply aren't compatible with my abode. For example, he talks about walking around the circle's perimeter as it is being constructed. I won't be able to do that because I'll be casting a circle that necessarily must reside partially outside in my front lawn. I've decided on a 25' circle. It's just what it has to be. It's what innately comes to me. Only half of the circle will be inside the house. So walking its perimeter will not be possible. But I can mentally walk its perimeter in astral projection. And owl certainly do that.

My altar will be in the center of the circle, but actually against the north wall of my house. With a small wall shelf about it to serve as the north stone. In fact, I may even use a marble or stone shelf there. There will also be East, South, and West stone pedestals which will serve as the altars to the winds and their associated spirits. I may actually make these "stone" pillars out of wood with a large carefully selected rock cradled in the top to serve as the surface of these secondary altars.

He sprinkles salt and holy water around the perimeter of the circle. I think I'll do that prior to casting the circle. Outdoors I'll sprinkle the salt and holy water around the entire cottage including on the path of the projected circle in the front yard. Then when I actually cast the circle in ritual, I mentally re-sprinkle the salt and holy water via astral projection, whilst simultaneously walking to each of the four secondary altars and placing a sacred spoon full of salt in a small plate on each altar. I'll do the same with the holy water.

So I need to write up this entire procedure in my book of shadows. This will become my standard ritual for casting my circle.

I also want to write my own dedications to the Goddess and God and recite them so that I can perform them without a need to read them. I'm sure I will write them as 'songs' along the lines of Gregorian chants as this is the best way to learn them.

This is important to me to cast my very first circle with the proper dedications and recognitions. I am invoking the Gods. I'm also glad that I just accidentally found, not one, but two singing bowls. I will use the smaller bowl (higher tone) to invoke the Goddess, and the larger bowl (lower tone) to invoke the God.

After the dedication ceremony, I plan on asking the God's to charge the athames. I plan on charging two of them, one for the Goddess, and one for the God.

I then plan on using these athames to charge a magick wand that I will build. I've already ordered a large quartz crystal to serve as the point of the wand.

This is an initiation ritual not only for me but for my tools. My broom will of course take part in this ritual as well.

Scott suggests that tools should be used immediately within the same ceremony in which they are initially charged. He suggest that this serves two purposes. First it gives the tools a chance to serve as a conduit of energy, and secondly he suggests that this also shows the Goddess and God that the tools will indeed be used and aren't just being viewed as superficial symbols. This is a good thing.

So I'm thinking about preparing a few of my musical instruments to be part of the overall ritual. I will use the spiritual tools to charge those instruments with spiritual energy and bring them into harmony with my spirit.

Finally, Scott also suggests that any magick should also be performed in this ritual, if needed. He suggests that no magick should be left undone simply because of feelings of unworthiness or greed. If the magick is something that is needed it should be included in the ceremony. The Goddess and God are all for doing whatever is needed.

So for this reason I plan on performing a Fire Healing Ritual as the last request of this invocation of the Gods. Finally, before I close the circle, I plan on performing a Simple Feast Ritual, with wine (champagne) and bread which I will have baked especially for the Gods. I will perform the feast with both the Goddess and the newly born God. This ritual will take place on December 21st, and most likely span most of the day including a pre-circle-casting bath ritual.

After the circle has been closed I will also have a Yuletide feast for myself.

I'm looking forward to it. This will be my first circle ever, and I have much to do in preparation for this Yuletide ceremony. And I only have about a month and a half to prepare for it! Within the ritual I'm going to bless and empower a cello, a violin, a viola, a flute, and two classical guitars! Each one will be a ceremony in itself.

I better get busy! I have a lot of incantations to write, and ceremony details to work out, and altars to build! I feel like a priest preparing for a holiday mass!

Since I posted the above I checked out a few other books of shadows on the Internet. I can see where eveyone does things differently. Some people begin the circle in the east. Some begin it in the north.

The north feels right to me for some reason. Although in truth I truly don't believe it matters where the circle is started. The main idea is to cast the energy.

The whole thing comes down to 'religiousity'. There can be no doubt about it.

I've decided to take the sabbats literally including the death and rebirth of the God.

For this reason I see my book of shadows as being merely the book for that cycle. My book of shadows for 2010 will be totally different I hope.

If it's not it means that I haven't grown.

I would expect to have a new book of shadows every year, some things may carry over, other's may not.

I'm definitely becoming a witch and not necessarily a 'Wicca' at all.

Adhering to a rigid book of shadows is dogma. I just read the original Garnerian book of shadows. The book requires that the witches be naked when they cast the circle.

It also required that the women bind the men's hands behind their backs and have them kneel at the altar to purify them.

I wonder how many Wicca actually do that?

I'm sure that would have the Christians running in the opposite direction.

I'm interested in the techniques of energy tranformations. I'm not so sure I'm intersted in too much of the dogma.

In fact, I'm even hesitant to view the Goodess and the God as deities.

I might ulimately end up writing a book of shadows that is truly pantheisic or animistic which is supposedly compatible with Wicca.

But I'm not sure precisely how I want to view the Yin and Yang forces.

I guess that will come over time. Owl just let it reveal itself to me and not try to define it.

In fact, as I write my own descriptions of the Goddess and God for their praising rituals is where it will show up. So maybe that's where I should start.

That's gonna be some ritual, James.

Some Covens perform rituals and spellwork skyclad. Its certainly not unheard of. If someone is uncomfortable with that arrangement then they would have plenty of warning and Ive never had occasion to be forced into anything. But it does occur.

I went to an All Hallows dinner/ritual last night. It was truly horrible. I had been there once before for a healing circle and it was okay, but it was outside. Due to the rain this one was inside. I didn't participate in the circle. It was really hot in the house, there were about 15 people crammed into the living room (I am a tad claustrophobic) and they were lighting enough incense for an outdoor ritual. I finally went outside and waited for them to finish.

The hostess of the dinner wasn't even there. Apparently, she has a lot going on in her life right now and had some kind of break down earlier in the day. She left and told her friends and husband that they would have to put on the dinner.

It took them so long to get this going (it started at 5:30) that I finally left about 8:45 without having had dinner. I think that will be the last time I participate outside of my coven.

Yep.

Uhh ya that sounds unbearable. She should have just canceled. I have trouble with incense sometimes even with ventilation. It can make my eyes burn. I LOVE the scent of Nag Champa but I just cant handle it when people burn like a box all at once.

Yes, I was actually quite annoyed that she didn't just cancel. I would have understood completely. People apparently (I found this out last night overhearing conversations) had been telling her for almost 48 hours to cancel. I could have just stayed home and relaxed.

This incense was frankincense which can be overpowering in any circumstance. TOO MUCH!!!

Oh yeah, not a fan of frankincense. Its too oily and flowery. Thats an eye sweller for sure. People always feel compelled to burn a grip of it also. Even the Catholics.

I think it's the Byzantine Catholics that burn it every Sunday Mass. I went to those a few times. I know frankincense is a popular incense in such rites and used a lot for Wiccans, but it is by far my least favorite scent.

Nag Champa is one of my favorites. My friend makes her own blend of loose incense every season and always gives me a bunch. I burn that and, of course, sage when I feel I need it. Always with the door open and the fan on.

Yes it will be. It will be my first Yuletide celebration ritual. The rebirth of the God.

It will be a 'first' for me on many levels, and I'm already beginning to practice the ceremony. I see nothing wrong with rehearsals. Religious people often rehearse important ceremonies before they conduct the actual ceremony. This is probably best seen in weddings where many of the participants run though things dry so they have a clue what to do in the actual ceremony. Choirs also practice their songs of praise before performing them during a service or ritual ceremony. Priests and monks are trained for many years. Both observing, and acting as helpers and pupils before they become full-fledged priests. I see no reason why a shaman can't also do the same type of thing. Especially for a lone practitioner who has never done these things before.

Last night I practiced casting the circle using a butcher knife as the athame. It went quite well actually and I also discovered various facets of the casting that I found quite interesting. The circle will encompass my entire cottage and part of the front lawn. I also noticed that when I was casting the circle to the south the energy also infused the woodshop outback. I could visualize it almost like a vapor of luminescent gas filling the woodshop out back almost like incense smoke. This is not something that I had planned to do, it just automatically happened when I was casting the circle. The energy just automatically wanted to do this on its own.

The woodshop isn't actually inside the circle, but rather contained in a separate bubble out back. I actually felt like it was the power of the spirit that was doing this, in fact in a sense I was wondering why this was happening and at as soon as I pondered the thought the answer sprang forth. The woodshop is where I will be building many of the sacred altars and tools and so the woodshop must be purified and blessed as well.

I would have never thought of that on my own. Now I'm thinking I should also make a boom for the woodshop and hang various amulets in there as well over the course of time. I never really thought of treating the woodshop as a sacred place before.

Even though last night was only a practice casting, I felt like I had actually cast a circle. And the whole cottage feels different today in a good way. I never did close that circle. I only went through the practice of casting it, so maybe it's still up?

Scott says in his book that even thoughts and preparations for rituals are themselves a part of the ritual. He emphasis that all of this is ultimately making a connection to our subconscious mind. And the more we think about it the more connected we become.

I'm still working on how I want to think of the Goddess, God, and spiritual powers in general. I've notice that much of what I've read on the Internet is based on Gods and Goddesses from Greek Mythology, Celtic folklore, and even a lot of stuff that clearly is intertwined with Catholic traditions. In fact, when I think about the pope swinging his little incense burner I suddenly realize that he's just a shaman with a funny hat.

Somehow Catholicism, and Christianity in general, stole the spirituality away from the practitioners and gave it only to the high priests. And of course that whole thing became very patriarchal. Maybe those guys were getting tired of being tied up naked by women.

I think Protestantism was actually an attempt to regain personal spiritually and idea that everyone should be their own shaman (or priest and priestess). They did proclaim that only the Holy Spirit can speak to an individual, but for some reason Protestantism failed miserably and just became a religion of Paper Popes instead. It just ended up being opinionated individuals preaching to the masses. The Holy Spirit was never permitted to speak for itself.

When it comes to knowing the Holy Spirit I don't have a problem. There's no need to visualize it. I can just feel its guidance. But when it comes to all these rituals of praising Gods and Goddesses it become a little more difficult for me to truly conceptualize them. I'm trying to envision them from a purely pantheistic or animistic point of view, but at the same time I need to make them more palatable for my human brain.

The popular concept is to humanize the Gods as human-like deities. But at some deeper level I feel innately drawn to thinking of them more in terms of animistic spirits. So I'm thinking along the lines of the North American Indians and how they saw things like the spirit of the wolves, the spirit of the eagle, the spirit of the forest, the spirit of the lake, etc. And of course Wanka Tanka, the great spirit of all creation.

Their Wanka Tanka was also feminine, so she is much like the Witch's Goddess of the moon.

In fact, when I write rituals, I'm refraining from saying things like, "So I proclaim", or "Let it be as I have said", or things of that nature. That sounds like I'm the God. But I also have a problem with saying things like "So let it be in the name of the Goddess", or worse yet using an actual name for the Goddess.

I find myself just wanting to write, "In nature's name let it be so".

So I still have a way to go with precisely how I want to think of these things, and I'm probably going to be on the outskirts of Wicca. Although they do say all the time that pantheistic and animistic concepts of God are welcome, but at the same time much of their doctrines (books of shadows) are filled with praises to deity like Gods. And their profuse focus on the Goddess is quite deified.

So I'm at a bit of a loss to see how they can claim to be so open to pantheism and animism and yet be so strongly deified. This might stem from the fact that most people prefer to think of Gods in human terms. But for me personally, this isn't truly necessary.

So I feel like I'm almost pioneer of truly pantheistic Wicca. Although I haven't truly searched real hard to see if I can find pantheistic versions of Wicca. I keep looking for books of shadows to read, but so far everything I've found seems to be quite dogmatic. I think Scott's sample Standing Stones book of shadows is fairly abstract, but he still speaks in terms of the Goddess and God being almost human-like.

I need to write my own Song of the Goddess, and Song of the God and see what comes out naturally for me.

SONG OF THE GODDESS
by Abracadabra



You are the Great Mother Spirit
Omniscient in all of Nature
You are the feminine
You are the yin

You are the giver of life
The Mother of creativity
The ethereal wisdom of the wind
Your grace flows in the waters
Your love shimmers as moonlight

You light up the night
and show me the cosmic wonders
Your lunar globe guides my path
Its waxing and waning directs my deeds

You are the healer of wounds
and the restorer of the soul
Your infinite patience is only eclipsed
by your eternal flowing love

I cherish the gift of life
that you have bequeathed to me
I extol your sacred presence
now and forevermore

Namaste

~~~

I wrote this as a rough draft, but I'm kinda liking it. I might just leave it as is, and move on to the Song of the God.

I dig it. It has a melodic quality. I can sense that even just reading it on a forum.

I should not be expressing this on a open forum of course but those Catholic priests, they are deprived yes but they are human. Its an issue. I shall say no more. Nudge nudge wink wink.

You mean in regards to sex? Yes its a big problem for many of them. I have met only two priests that I consider to be very holy men. Of course they are very faithful to the teachings of the traditional catholic church so I don't have contact with them anymore, but I wish I could.

I heard Catholic again.

Paul caused all that crap with the no marriage and women are sinful. That was unnecessary in my opinion. But ya know the Paganism and female high priestesses (who had sex with many partners as a ritual) probably caused some of that.

Yes. It started with Paul. I believe it was St. Augustines "confessions" that sealed the deal in regards to the outlook on sex and women.

My guess was Paul was gay and the type that is very fearful of females and their power.

There is also indications that the term "virgin" actually was initially applied to high Coven and Pagan priestesses and the direct meaning was:


"one of herself"

Nothing to do with sex because female priests had sex with multiple partners during ritual. All this was suppressed.

I'm building up my own version of Wicca. And I'm doing it entirely from what feels natural for me. I don't even need to call it 'Wicca' actually, but there are a lot of things that I like about Wicca, and a few things that I don't care for.

One thing that I don't care for is the idea of coven that says that things need to be done in a certain way. I'm writing a personal version of Wicca that will be highly pantheistic or animistic and if it doesn't work for anyone else so be it.

I also have absolutely no need to get naked before the Gods. I wouldn't view that as shameful, but at the same time I don't see the point to it.

This does bring up the question of wardrobe though and I will need to think about this. I think I might just get a brown running suit that will kind of serve like a monk's robe.

I read where a lot of people like to wear black during rituals (if they aren't naked), but I prefer a more earthy color. Black is supposed to be the color of the spirit. The void of empty space.

I can see maybe working up to some ritiuals over time where I might want to wear black to symbolize my spiritual growth.

But for now I prefer to present myself to the spirit as a mortal man. And wearing earth-brown, or even green might be good.

I think I'll begin with brown to represent my 'raw spirit'. As I progress I'll move to green to represent my growth. Perhaps by summer I may wear brightly colored robes to represent my flowering in the guidance of the spirit.

Then as I enter Mabon I can go with golden robes to represent the fall of summer and harvest season

Finally in Samhain I can wear black to represent both the death of the God and my progress toward the spirit world.

On the Winter Soltice I'll start the cycle all over again with a brown robe to celibrate the rebirth of the God, and the new cyclic journey for myself.

This is the way I'm going to look at it. A rebirth every year gaining a little more spiritality with each passing year until I finally join the spirit world in my death to be recarnated again and start the whole process all over again anew.