This week, I posted a video about ritual planning for beginners over on my YouTube channel, A Wyrd-Worker’s Wisdom. Be sure to check it out.
[youtube https://youtu.be/Fv1PUSQGs6k]
When I first got started with witchcraft back in 1998, I struggled to figure out why I was doing a ritual. The books I was reading kept telling me that rituals — especially full moon rituals — were important. But I’d look over their example rituals and they seemed so…bland and pointless. They didn’t resonate with me.
For me personally, I think that’s because most books focused on rites performed for the full moon and Sabbats. I think it takes time tor really become comfortable with them. Hell, there are a couple Sabbats — like Mabon — that I’m still not entirely sure what to do with.
I think this is why it’s easier to start ritual planning with simple things, like a daily offering to the Divine. Or perhaps a daily ritual to center, ground, and shield. These are simple, yet important activities that are easily grasped. So it’s easy and good practice to make a ritual out of them. You can even ritualize little everyday practices.
How about you? What advice to you have for beginners who are just getting started with ritual planning?
My tips for ritual planning: understand the myth or symbols you’re working with.
Ditch the heterocentric thing about the God and the Goddess around the Wheel of the Year. Look up the real meanings of the festivals (I have a post or two about that on my blog) and augment them with the wonderful queer Wheel of the Year in Queer Magic edited by Lee Harrington and Tai Fenix Kulystin.
For Autumn Equinox (never Mabon), it’s the second of three harvests. Lammas is the harvest of grains, Autumn Equinox is the harvest of fruits, Samhain is the harvest of meat (when people would slaughter the cattle they were not going to over-winter). If you’re a vegetarian, focus on the ancestor aspects of Samhain.
All good advice. Especially the part about understanding the myth or symbols you’re working with.
Also, thanks for the link to the information about why not to call it Mabon. (Also, kinda curious which author they’re talking about, but won’t press for details they chose not to give.)
Yes, I wrote a post on planning inclusive rituals here
https://dowsingfordivinity.com/2018/01/07/creating-inclusive-rituals/
Thanks, Yvonne.