My spiritual life has included a slow move from private, often solo ritual to
ever-larger group rites. Literally beginning alone in the attic of our community house I found my
first circle of 8 or 9 people, and spent the next years working in ‘covens’ of
no more than that number of folks. However the 1980s saw the invention of Pagan
Festivals and soon I found myself involved in efforts to do magical work, or
produce spiritual results, for randomly assembled groups of 50, and 100 and
more people, using methods developed for those smaller groups.
But this article is not about how to do ritual for big groups. More often than
I found myself leading such rites I found myself as one of the folks in the
circle, trying to open myself to whatever magic the operators intended.
Somewhere between the operator’s skill and my own willingness and ability to
participate in receiving, lies the answer to the question “am I wasting my
time?”
This article is about the latter – the skills and methods that allow an
attendee at a public rite to make the hour into a personal spiritual and even
magical experience, and not that of an ‘audience member’. I think that being
present at the Sacred Fire, as we Druids do, or coming into the Magic Circle is
an opportunity for blessing. However it requires effort, and even skill, to
best receive that blessing.
By Blessing I do not, incidentally mean only the sweet calm
and excitement of coming out of a rite with the Fire and Water in you. Rather
(or in addition) I want to talk about how a regular round of such ritual and
spiritual world can help (by ‘magic’, as some might say) to create a magical
life of weal and wisdom for those who participate in our Pagan religions.
So, my reader, I’ll assume that we enter into participation in a group ritual
with the intention to help the ritualists achieve their goal, and thus to
obtain for ourselves the portion of the rite’s result available to us. If you
attend a Pagan group’s rites as an observer, or an inquirer, and are not
committed in that way, I still suggest that adopting these ideas as an
experiment will help you understand what is being done.
Let me begin with a core assumption that positions all the rest of the work:
I Am Not The Audience
A formal group seasonal or spiritually-thematic rite (even a wedding or
funeral) can be very like a theatrical. This is no accident, of course –
theater grew from the performance of ritual. However the modern Pagan lives in
a world where information parades before us almost non-stop, competing for our
slim bank-accounts of attention to be paid to them. We ignore vast quantities
of signal, triage inputs, and are used to critically assessing all efforts to
hold our eye.
All that needs to be set aside upon entry to someone else’s
rituals. As I see it we must all come together the way a village might have
done, all confirmed in our earnest desire for that good harvest and peace. It
is not the job of the ‘priesthood’ or celebrants to ‘entertain’ the assembled
folk. A rite of this kind is performed both to
and for the Gods and Spirits, and it
is performed by everyone whose face
can be seen in the light of the Fire. So even if one is two rows back in the
gathered folk, it is good to begin by understanding that you are a player in
the work at hand, even if not a central one.
Just to belabor this a bit, we can hope that when the Gods and Spirits come to
our fire, in answer to our calls, they will be presented a scene of dignified
ritual, with a dedicated company that includes all of the folk. It has become
my custom to assert that the Holy Ones “see our hearts and know our thoughts”,
so it seems proper to encourage us all to join mutually in the focus of the
rite. Together we will offer a good sacrifice (sacred work) and seek, in turn,
a good blessing.
Trance Participation
One of the primary ways of accomplishing that mutuality is through group trance
and vision. It is fair to say that ancient ritual did not include periods of
focused or directed meditation or guided mutual thinking. My opinion is that
lacking the mutual cultural hypnosis of a group of villagers, raised in the
ways, we must compensate through deliberate effort.
Successful
participation in group ritual requires first the clear intent to participate,
and then the willed effort required to do so. Settling one’s mind into
concentrated entrancement in a church-basement or backyard, as a distant train
rumbles on by and the celebrants rattle papers is precisely such willed effort.
Make it your work to listen closely to whatever voice is guiding such work, and
allow your inner process to be guided like a caller guides a dancer’s steps.
Participation
is enhanced by what I call Basic Trance – a combination of physical relaxation,
mental focus, and the suspension of the critiquing impulse for the duration of
the rite. This latter is key; a willingness to dive in, to refuse aloofness, to
ignore the criticizing voice is one of the primary efforts of will of the work –
especially if the ‘performance’ is less than polished. Holding firm to your
Center, reminding yourself of your trance by patterned breathing, and
deliberately constructing the intrinsic visual forms of the rite (the Circle,
or Gates, the forms of the spirits, etc) will help bring a more powerful
result.
Projected Awareness
I’m uncertain what to call the technique of identifying
yourself with the words and ideas of a ritual, even when you are not performing
them. In this work it is good to be familiar with the experience and feel of
personal, solitary ritual – of speaking one’s will firmly into the air, or
displaying the mystery-symbols to yourself. As a participant in group ritual
all that experience is conferred on the performing celebrants, and must be
inferred in turn by the observing participants.
So as
participants we make the words of the ritual script, of the celebrants, our
words. We can recite them quietly, in affirmation, in our own minds, saying
again what was said by our own voice. The ‘speaking part’ ritualists become the
representatives of each individual in the company, and all join their intent
together around the worlds and images of the rite.
Receiving Blessing
In the Order of Ritual (OoR) used in Our Paganism (ADF Druidiry)
special attention is payed to the work of invoking and receiving the Power of
the Powers, once the invocations and offerings are done. We teach that ‘a gift
calls for a gift’ and the Holy Ones give us their various good things in
response to our worship. Most magical religion includes such work, but
sometimes it can pass with less emphasis than other sections. Our Order of
Ritual includes a specific invocation, usually a litany shared with the whole company,
which calls on the Powers to give their Blessing. As a participant it is
worthwhile to note this moment in the rite, and be certain to employ it
personally.
Our OoR Invokes the presence of a
number of spiritual Powers in every rite. Along with the Earth Mother and Fire
Gods, we call the hosts of the Three Kindreds, and the specific persons of the
occasion. Other traditions will have a different ‘constellation’ of Powers, but
in general it is valuable to open one’s awareness to those presences. A
Visualization of the assembled Holy Ones is a fine way to open oneself to their
blessing. This is followed by conscious participation in the visualizations of
blessing the Drink, or the Flames, or whatever symbols the ritual is using. We
have never formalized such visions. Many find that our vision of the Blessing
has grown and changed over time, but one can always begin by seeing the flow of
the Nectar or Mead descending into the cups, even as the material ale or water
is poured.
Internalizing the Blessing is a
moment that is usually private an individual. Some ritual scripts may include
some meditative guidance for it, but often one is left to quietly feel the
material blessing, drink, etc, in us physically, and open up to the power of
the Powers we have helped to invoke. ADF’s OoR usually includes at least an
affirmation that the Blessing has been received.
Group Ritual, Personal Magic
This is the moment when the combined power of the group’s
work becomes available for the individual mind. A deliberate effort can make it
useful for specific desires or boons. However in my opinion the best use for
such magic is to flood the whole body, whole self, in whatever pattern of
energy-flow one has used for centering. The Blessing requires very little
detail beyond “Let me be whole, and well, and let every good thing that is
proper to my way be mine.”
The work of gaining the good of
these blessings, in our Pagan ways, relies on persistence. We are offered the
Blessing of the Season, each in turn. If we consciously and deliberately accept
each in turn we can hope to be blessed with life, strength, beauty, gain,
reward, and rest, each in the measure our fate allows. But it all happens at
the pace of the sun and seasons, perhaps with Lunar occasions for more detailed
work.
Some corners of our modern Pagan
scene seem to want to use spellcraft as a method building a blessed and whole
life. The use of spiritual power for personal, specific goals (fix my car,
chill me boss, etc) can be valuable, but it can also bring us to a point where
we have too many lamps to tend, and possible cross-purposes in our several
intentions (be rich, or have leisure?) I think that the persistent, slow-burn work
of Pagan ‘religious work will eventually result in the Health, Wealth and
Wisdom we might seek, and do so in gentle harmony with the turning of the
world.
