Ritual Basics
This will be an interesting page; not because I am a sage raised in the ways of ritual, but because I'm a beginner learning my way thru. Please keep this in mind as you read thru my general dos' and donts of ritual. I am not much of a stictler for tradition as I personally wasnt raised in tradition. If you are looking for a very traditional approach I suggest you post your request on the message board and some of our traditional witches will reply.
Keep in mind that ritual is nothing new. We all have rituals in every day life. I have a ritual for when I wake up on a work day. I have another ritual for when I cook dinner. My daughter has rituals in her everyday life.
Okay I'm going to be giving you a very very basic outline of a ritual. I want you to always remember that if you are doing a ritual and suddenly get the urge to do something.... go with YOUR own flow. We are all unique and what works for some wont work for others.
First basic rule....
Whatever you close you OPEN (when done) and whatever you open you CLOSE (when done).
You will notice in ritual that you cast your circle in one direction and at the end of the ritual you sorta take back your circle cast in the opposite direction. You close the circle do your ritual then you open it back up. If you cast your circle and cant remember which direction you cast it in and your all freaked cause your afraid you wont pick up your circle ... get creative. Remember you made it you can take it back. One way to do this would be say something such as... "circle be open" and visualize the circle erasing itself. Wala!
Whatever you invite remember to send home.
Okay so this one seems woooo scary.
Not scary. In ritual your going to ask for the watchtowers (or arch angels or four elements) to kinda show up and hang out at the four corners with ya. So if you call them up, invite them over you should thank them for coming and show them the door when your done. Dont walk away on guests and dont forget their there. Okay so dumbass scenario: your sleeping and you wake up out of a nightmare and are convinced you forgot to send your Northern Watchtower home after ritual. Dont freak out, get a grip... just say something like... yo North, thanks for coming... blessed be and bye. Go back to bed.
If you make a mess, clean it up.
Okay so your in ritual and you decided you were gonna do this whole big eleborate thing. Then your in there and you cant remember the words maybe you spaced out and walked thru your circle boundry and you just want to say screw it... i'm going to bed. Dont. Your messing with energy and you messed with it now so you should clean it up. Its not such a big deal its just not good habbit and conduct. You dont have to "undo" everything you did but you do need to clean up the energy. You might simply ask your dieties (god and or goddess) to clean it up and thank them... or you might do a visualization and send the energy into the ground for mother earth. The thing is if your going to take yourself seriously then you need to take yourself seriously. Okay?
Lift the seat rather than pee on it, and put it down when your done.
I hate when you go into the bathroom and someone left the seat up. Yuck. So this one is basically dont be inconsiderate. If you live somewhere with roomates you might not want to invite the ghosts of all your family past to hang in the house or do something like a seance. Its just not nice to the roomates. So this is basically a .... dont be an asshole rule.
Dont Panic and 'Never Let 'em See You Sweat'
Just what it says. Its your ritual if something is wrong with it fix it. Just like in a dream if you decide to make a boogie man spray to spray the boogie man you can and it will work. If you freak out you'll work yourself into a tizzy and all you will have done is freaked out rather than handle it. So even if you are freaked out never let em see yo sweat.... handle it as though you arent. Now just a note: I havent ever had anything occur during ritual that was scary... never never never. The circle is basically privacy for you so nothing can peek in on what your up to. It also serves as protection. You can call out for protection from your guide, a unicorn, a pit bull spirit, whatever you want... its YOUR ritual.
Sometimes when we talk to other people that do magick they will share some of their fears with us. I've probably shared some of mine with you or at least implied them. Keep this in mind: they arent yours, you dont own them unless you take ownership of them. You have your own beliefs and crap that will keep you busy. If someone tells you that everytime they cast a circle ___ happens... and you choose to believe it will happen to you also it probably will. lol. So dont. Casting circles and doing magick are really pretty uneventful. lol. Think about it like baking a cake your just focusing your energy differently.
Spellwork:
I wont address spell work here but I'll give you just a few tips. Spells dont need to be elaborate they can be simple... your focus needs to be elaborate. Think about what your doing before you do it. Consider the outcome. Take responsibility for what you've done. If you want some info on spells see "
Spells"
Questions to ask yourself:
Okay so we're ready to do this then right? Here are some things to ask yourself first.
What diety do you plan to worship/invite/hang with? You can just generally work with "the universe", or you can research a goddess or a god. Personally goddess worship just doesnt cut it for me. I need the male/female balance so I use two candles to represent the balance and visualize the universe.
What is the purpose of your ritual? Are you celebrating a rite? Do you just feel like hanging out with the universe for a bit and maybe meditating? Are you doing a spell? Does your dieity(s) in some way symbolize or represent your intent?
Do you have privacy? Ritual work and prayer is a very private matter. If your planning to do your ritual when your spouse or parents are out of the house... will they come in 1/2 way thru? Will you be worried about someone interupting you? Did you turn off the ringer on your phone? Your ritual is as serious as you are about it. If your 1/2 ass prepaired you'll get your 1/2 ass ritual.
Are you inviting someone to join you? If your inviting someone to join you for your ritual have you properly explained to them what steps you'll be taking? Have you talked it thru with them to be sure their going to be comfortable with "dieties" etc. Are you inviting someone to show off? Keep in mind having your giggling girlfriends in circle isnt showing much respect to the universe or your diety. If ya want your friends to be involved maybe pick a party diety. :-)
Elements / Watchtowers / Archangels
Fire, Air, Earth, and Water - the elements. Some will simply use water and salt to represent the elements. So lets see here... you can represent each element and acknowledge it (example incense = fire/air).
The Watchtowers / Quarters - You can call each of these and light a candle for each direction.
OR>>>
You can do the watchtowers (quarters) with the elements verbally/visually. Check the "Imbolic Rite" page for a terrific example. Notice that in the ritual first they call each quarter and its associated element, they then tie it in with a statement relating the type of energy to their intent then they call the center and after the center is called the ritual begins.... then notice the way they erase the circle (after the ritual)... starting in the center where they stopped and going backwards. So this is an example of a really cool easy way to call your quarters/elements.
Casting the Circle
This can be done anyway you want. You can visually imagine a light appearing and sending it all around you to make your circle boundary. You can take your hand or athame to draw a circle boundry. You can walk a circle boundary. You can use plants or flower petals... potpourri or candles as your circle boundary. ( I don’t suggest candles you might meditate and light yourself on fire ;-)
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