Course Four: Rites 167
places. In 1997, I wrote and edited the first of what
was intended to be three volumes of material called
HOME Cooking. But after that, my life and work took
me elsewhere as I started sculpting statuary of Gods
and Goddesses for the Mythic Images Collection, and
I never completed the other volumes.
When Gwydion was killed in a car wreck at
Samhain of 1992, our community was plunged into
deep grief as for the first time we dealt with death in
our own family. Our rituals developed a new and
darker aspect as we created funerary rites and wakes,
exploring the Underworld through the mythic Mys-
teries of Samhain, Walpurgisnacht, and the Eleusinia.Lesson 3: Planning a Ritual
(by Anodea Judith [from HOME Cooking, 1997])Anodea and I have worked together for more than 25
years on many major rituals, training programs, and
other projects. She is the author of Wheels of Life: A
User’s Guide to the Chakras (which I illustrated),
along with several other books synchronizing East-
ern and Western magickal systems. Here are some
questions she feels are important to ask in planning a
ritual:- What is the purpose of the ritual? Why are
you doing this, what do you wish to accomplish,
what is the problem you wish to solve? Answers
can be anything from the removal of nuclear weap-
ons to simply having a good time. This dictates
the theme. - What time is it? What time of year, season,
Moon cycle, day or night, time in your life, time
in a group’s life (such as initiation, closing, etc.),
or what time in a succession of rituals, such as
planetary, or chakra rituals, which may go in a
certain order. - Who is it for and who will take part? This
encompasses number of people, level of experi-
ence, age, physical capabilities, children, all
women, all men, mixed, closed intimate circle,
large public ritual, or anything in between. - Whom do you wish to influence? This is
slightly different from #1, and may also be skipped,
as in a purpose of simply having a good time. If
your purpose is to remove nuclear weapons, you
may wish to influence politicians in the White
House, or you may wish to influence families in
the neighborhood to inspire them to write letters
to congressman. A word of warming must always
be added on this one, that what you’re doing
doesn’t become manipulation, which is both ex-
hausting and of questionable ethics. - Where will it be held? Indoors, outdoors, in a
home, temple, classroom, etc. - How long should it last? This relates to #2 and
#5, for outdoor, nighttime rituals may need to be
shorter than others are. It also must take into con-
sideration who will be there. For example, chil-
dren cannot sit through long rituals. Planning the
length of time is important and subroutines of the
ritual should also be planned (such as casting the
Circle: 5 min.; Invocations: 10 min.; etc.).- What do you have to work with? If it’s out-
doors on a Full Moon, you have the time and the
place to work with, and whatever elements they
invoke. A mountaintop gives you one thing, the
ocean another. What tools do you have, what in-
vocations, skills, people, robes, dances, chants?
Sort through what you have from your Grimoire
and Book of Shadows and lay out all the things
that are appropriate. You may not use them all,
but you can sort and order them later when the
skeleton comes into play. - What will be the main techniques for work-
ing? Meditation, dancing, chanting, healing, walk-
ing, drumming—which is most appropriate to the
purpose and theme? - How do you symbolize on a microcosm
what you wish to work? If you wish to cross
the Abyss, how can you set that up in the ritual? If
you wish to open people’s hearts, how can that be
symbolized in a direct, subliminal way? - What should be on the Altar? This comes
out of the symbolism of #9. If you are working
with Air, then you would have feathers and in-
cense; if you are working with Earth, you might
have crystals. In different seasons you might have
seasonal items.
By the time these questions have been asked and an-
swered, a general thread should start to appear. Be
creative. Look for lines of flow and how one part can
flow into another naturally and gracefully, all feeding
the central theme and purpose that was chosen. Once
the theme becomes clear and you know what you have
to work with, these answers can be fed into the ritual
structure outline (see 4.IV.2: “Ritual Structure”) to
create the actual ceremony. Allow for a certain amount
of overlap and repetition, like the chorus of a song. It
is far more important that the ritual actually work on
a gut level, than having every little thing in place.
Give yourself full rein for experimentation, and know
that there is no “one true right and only way.”Lesson 4: Ethics of Magic
and Ritual
(by Anodea Judith [from HOME Cooking, 1997])Everything is connected to everything else. All
elements of life—the trees, the weather, the emotions
we feel, the words we speak, the time of day, and the
way we move—all are intimately connected, inextri-- Rites.p65 167 1/15/2004, 9:08 AM