Creating Circles and Ceremonies: Rituals for All ... - reading...
Creating Circles and Ceremonies: Rituals for All ... - reading... Creating Circles and Ceremonies: Rituals for All ... - reading...
20 Creating Circles & Ceremonies costuming, and makeup, to on-stage acting. Morning Glory and I both regularly got leading roles in many of the school plays, and we remember each of them fondly these many years later. We consider our theatrical experience to be perhaps one of our most important trainings for our later vocations as Priest and Priestess—especially for large public rituals. And we highly recommend this training to anyone who is really serious about wanting to create and perform rituals and ceremonies. Nearly every community has a local community theatre where plays are performed several times a year. Look them up, and go try out for a part. Even a walk-on or extra role will teach you valuable lessons – especially in how to project your voice and your energy – that will lend depth and authenticity to your performance and staging of ceremonies. Ritual and theatre were originally one. They began around the campfires of our most ancient ancestors, from the time we first learned mastery of this most magickal Element. For our very humanity began with the taming of Fire. All our magick—and all our culture—came first from the Fire. Gathered around our blazing hearths, we sang our first songs, made our first music, danced our first dances, told our first stories, and performed our first plays. These performances recounted the experiences of our lives and adventures for the rest of the clan, enacting, in time, the tales of our ancestors, the mighty deeds of our legendary heroes, the myths of our gods, and the Mysteries of Life, Death, and Rebirth. For hundreds of thousands of years we did this, and only in the past 2,500 years did “theatre” begin to be distinguished from “ritual.” If theatre is to be defined as involving the art of acting a part on stage, that is the dramatic impersonation of another character than yourself, we begin with Thespis. A figure of whom we know very little, he won the play competition in honor of the Greek god Dionysus, in 534 BCE. While it is uncertain whether Thespis was a playwright, an actor or a priest, it is his name with which the dramatic arts are associated in our word “Thespian.” (from “History of Theatre” http://www.tctwebstage.com/ancient.htm) All Greek drama was dedicated to Dionysos, and performed in the context of sacred rituals in his honor. And for the next 2,000 years after Thespis, the vast majority of Thespian performances continued to enact religious rituals, pageants, and “Mystery Plays.” So there is a rich historical lineage and tradition of dramatic ritual, and ritual drama. Good ritual is good theatre. Read play scripts to learn how to stage and script your rituals dramatically—and how to write them up so they can be easily understood by the performers. Learn how to designate characters, costumes, sets, props, and stage directions. Learn to make ritual implements (“props”): magickal tools, staves, scepters, streamers, etc. Learn to design and create appropriate costumes, such as simple robes and colored tabards for the four directions, as well as masks, wings, tiaras, helms, and headdresses for different spirits and deities. Learn to create dramatic sets, with altars, gateways, henges, ritual fires, tiki torches, and banners. Learn special effects to add a flair of drama, such as powders to make the fire flare up in different colors. And develop a good stage voice to reach to the outermost fringes of the largest Circle. And most important, memorize your lines! Nothing detracts more from the effect of a ritual than the performers carrying around paper scripts, and reading aloud from them! However, for certain formal rituals (such as handfastings, initiations, dedications, rites of passage, etc.), it is not untoward to have your script bound into an impressive-looking binder as a Grimoire or “Book of Shadows” which will sit open on the Altar as a prop—perhaps even on a stand. An image of a Pentagram or Magick Circle Mandala on the cover will give it a real mystical aura of credibility. After all, magickal rites are often referred to as “Bell, Book, and Candle.” Ethics of Magic & Ritual By Anodea Judith Within the realm of magick, everything is alive and connected to everything else. All elements of life—the trees, the weather, the emotions we feel, the words we speak, the time of day,
Book I: T he Magick Circle 21 and the way we move—all are intimately connected, inextricably interwoven within a greater field that surrounds us. What affects one element affects all, as expressed by the Hermetic maxim: “As above, so below.” Furthermore, what occurs without occurs within, and vice versa. The various realms are but mirrors for each other, and mirrors for our very souls. In this way, magick is but a microcosm of the larger forces—a microcosm small enough to be influenced by us, but one which in turn influences larger forces which might otherwise seem beyond us. Magick does not manipulate the world as much as it follows the natural lines of force as Life flows into the stream of Time. In this stream, nothing is stationary or stagnant; everything is constantly moving and changing. It is this fluid movement that allows magick to occur, for in the midst of change we can reach in and create new realities as the forces of Life journey from chaos to manifestation. As everything in the magickal world is interconnected, it makes for an interesting question of ethics. We ourselves are not separate from this world, nor can our actions be separate, nor their results. Thus, magick contains its own sacred immune system. All that we do within the magick realm we do to the field around us, and hence to our very selves. Magick can, in fact, be one of the quickest karmic feedback systems we experience! This is summed up in the Wiccan Rede: “An it harm none, do as ye will” (an is archaic Middle English for “if”). This means that the sovereignty of one’s personal will is highly respected as long as it does not cause harm or interfere with the rights of another. To do so would be to harm the basic underlying fabric that connects all things, and reflect back negatively upon the practitioner. Yet to act upon one’s own will is also to be responsible for it— to follow up on actions, to avoid blaming others, and to live responsibly and consciously. This may also be expressed in what is called The Threefold Law, which states that whatever we generate magickally returns to us threefold—positively or negatively. Ritual within a Magick Circle is basically an amplifier for energy, multiplying the effects of one’s actions. Therefore, whatever we initiate magickally expands exponentially, like ripples from a stone cast into a still pond, into the outer world. If our intentions are not clear, if we do not act with respect and affinity for all that may be affected, then the results of these actions, as they run through the connective web of all Life, eventually return to us magnified in threefold measure. This requires the magical participant to take full responsibility for any actions initiated within the Circle—and indeed, throughout one’s life. This even includes unintentional mistakes, which can happen to anyone. We are still required to be fully responsible for those mistakes, and do so always provides valuable lessons in magickal and spiritual growth. Pagans recognize a responsibility to treat the Earth with respect, to reuse and recycle, to treat each other excellently, to empower their word by speaking truth at all times, and to be conscious of their behavior. In Paganism, there is no concept of a stern “Father in Heaven” to sit in judgment of us, damning us to some eternal hell. There is merely the state of the world we wish to live in, which we can make into a heaven or a hell, depending on our own actions. Pagan ethics, therefore, are based more on cause and effect than an arbitrary sense of right and wrong. They are intrinsically woven, inseparable from all action. Opinions of right and wrong may vary, but results are the definitive experience for each individual practitioner. Circle Lore & Etiquette By Eldri Littlewolf & Wendy Hunter Someday you will very likely want to attend rituals put on by other people and groups. Here is a guideline for how to behave, along with some information to help you feel comfortable. The Circle is a manifestation of cyclic energy in the form of a vortex. This holy time and sacred space is separate from the world and contiguous with all other Circles. The Circle is an animate universe between the worlds that we empower by our agreement. Therefore:
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Book I: T he Magick Circle 21<br />
<strong>and</strong> the way we move—all are intimately connected, inextricably interwoven within a greater<br />
field that surrounds us. What affects one element affects all, as expressed by the Hermetic maxim:<br />
“As above, so below.” Furthermore, what occurs without occurs within, <strong>and</strong> vice versa. The<br />
various realms are but mirrors <strong>for</strong> each other, <strong>and</strong> mirrors <strong>for</strong> our very souls. In this way, magick<br />
is but a microcosm of the larger <strong>for</strong>ces—a microcosm small enough to be influenced by us, but<br />
one which in turn influences larger <strong>for</strong>ces which might otherwise seem beyond us.<br />
Magick does not manipulate the world as much as it follows the natural lines of <strong>for</strong>ce as<br />
Life flows into the stream of Time. In this stream, nothing is stationary or stagnant; everything<br />
is constantly moving <strong>and</strong> changing. It is this fluid movement that allows magick to<br />
occur, <strong>for</strong> in the midst of change we can reach in <strong>and</strong> create new realities as the <strong>for</strong>ces of Life<br />
journey from chaos to manifestation.<br />
As everything in the magickal world is interconnected, it makes <strong>for</strong> an interesting question<br />
of ethics. We ourselves are not separate from this world, nor can our actions be separate,<br />
nor their results. Thus, magick contains its own sacred immune system. <strong>All</strong> that we do within<br />
the magick realm we do to the field around us, <strong>and</strong> hence to our very selves. Magick can, in<br />
fact, be one of the quickest karmic feedback systems we experience!<br />
This is summed up in the Wiccan Rede: “An it harm none, do as ye will” (an is archaic<br />
Middle English <strong>for</strong> “if”). This means that the sovereignty of one’s personal will is highly<br />
respected as long as it does not cause harm or interfere with the rights of another. To do so<br />
would be to harm the basic underlying fabric that connects all things, <strong>and</strong> reflect back negatively<br />
upon the practitioner. Yet to act upon one’s own will is also to be responsible <strong>for</strong> it—<br />
to follow up on actions, to avoid blaming others, <strong>and</strong> to live responsibly <strong>and</strong> consciously.<br />
This may also be expressed in what is called The Threefold Law, which states that whatever<br />
we generate magickally returns to us threefold—positively or negatively. Ritual within a Magick<br />
Circle is basically an amplifier <strong>for</strong> energy, multiplying the effects of one’s actions. There<strong>for</strong>e,<br />
whatever we initiate magickally exp<strong>and</strong>s exponentially, like ripples from a stone cast into a still<br />
pond, into the outer world. If our intentions are not clear, if we do not act with respect <strong>and</strong><br />
affinity <strong>for</strong> all that may be affected, then the results of these actions, as they run through the<br />
connective web of all Life, eventually return to us magnified in threefold measure.<br />
This requires the magical participant to take full responsibility <strong>for</strong> any actions initiated<br />
within the Circle—<strong>and</strong> indeed, throughout one’s life. This even includes unintentional mistakes,<br />
which can happen to anyone. We are still required to be fully responsible <strong>for</strong> those<br />
mistakes, <strong>and</strong> do so always provides valuable lessons in magickal <strong>and</strong> spiritual growth.<br />
Pagans recognize a responsibility to treat the Earth with respect, to reuse <strong>and</strong> recycle, to<br />
treat each other excellently, to empower their word by speaking truth at all times, <strong>and</strong> to be<br />
conscious of their behavior. In Paganism, there is no concept of a stern “Father in Heaven” to sit<br />
in judgment of us, damning us to some eternal hell. There is merely the state of the world we wish<br />
to live in, which we can make into a heaven or a hell, depending on our own actions.<br />
Pagan ethics, there<strong>for</strong>e, are based more on cause <strong>and</strong> effect than an arbitrary sense of right<br />
<strong>and</strong> wrong. They are intrinsically woven, inseparable from all action. Opinions of right <strong>and</strong><br />
wrong may vary, but results are the definitive experience <strong>for</strong> each individual practitioner.<br />
Circle Lore & Etiquette<br />
By Eldri Littlewolf & Wendy Hunter<br />
Someday you will very likely want to attend rituals put on by other people <strong>and</strong> groups. Here<br />
is a guideline <strong>for</strong> how to behave, along with some in<strong>for</strong>mation to help you feel com<strong>for</strong>table.<br />
The Circle is a manifestation of cyclic energy in the <strong>for</strong>m of a vortex. This holy time <strong>and</strong><br />
sacred space is separate from the world <strong>and</strong> contiguous with all other <strong>Circles</strong>. The Circle is an<br />
animate universe between the worlds that we empower by our agreement. There<strong>for</strong>e:
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