Sep 17 2007
Weekend Ritual
I attended a group ritual yesterday for the first time in over a year. It was a great deal of fun, and I’m glad that I went. It was a long drive to get to where the ritual was behind held about almost two and a half hours but that was good too because it got me to drive on the interstate which is something I often chicken out of doing if I can. I could have this time but it would have meant the drive was over an hour longer.
The friends who were hosting the ritual were very prepared to the point of having a ritual meal and having a circlet made, and symbolic weapons. They work much along the way I do which is that a lot of the ritual is left to inspiration at the moment rather than pre-written and pre-planned. There were twelve of us participating overall, and the energy and sentiment were well harnessed and well intended.
It seems that whenever a group of pagans from different walks and groups come together there’s always some sort of politicking that happens but thankfully nothing came of it to ruin the ritual it’s just souring. Things didn’t come to a head on that until afterwards, and turned out to be a discussion between the two groups’ leaders. I hope that things can be resolved, but I don’t. I like group work, but I don’t know if I can do it more than every once in a while on special occasions because it seems that there’s going to be politics that happen no matter what the group is for. I saw it when I helped my Mum with Sunday School that there would be internal friction between certain people because, “so-n-so changed the flowers,” or “such-n-such is friendlier with the vicar.” I think it’s going to happen no matter what the group is involved with.
But overall I feel that the ritual was a great success. It was an “Ascension” ritual for a friend, which meant she was reaffirming her faith and her intention to carry on her path of self-discovery and magic. I was called to represent one of the corners, and I blessed her with Strength and Longevity, others gave her Self-Confidence, Self-Esteem, Balance and so on. She said she felt like she was floating after things got underway, and I know a lot of energy was built up.
