Creating Circles and Ceremonies: Rituals for All ... - reading...

Book I: T he Magick Circle 77
Some chants are longer songs that insist on being sung many times—there’s something so
very satisfying about them that you simply want to keep going. Don’t be afraid to sing a song for
five or ten minutes – or for thirty. In all times in all cultures, people have sung their sacred songs,
and the oldest chants are the devotional ones. Think about Gregorian chant, sung for hours on
end in monasteries. Pagans don’t have monasteries in which to live and worship; we have living
rooms and back yards and parks and, occasionally, dedicated land. So we sing our chants wherever
we are.
Zipper Songs
A zipper song is one in which a certain key word or phrase can be replaced to change the
meaning. For instance, Starhawk’s song “Snake Woman,” goes: “Snake woman shedding her
skin / Snake woman shedding her skin / Shedding, shedding, shedding her skin / Shedding,
shedding, shedding her skin.” And that’s the way you’d teach it – singing it enough times that
everyone’s familiar with the tune and words. But I might not feel like a snake woman tonight.
Maybe I feel more like a worm, in which case I might change it to “Worm woman burrowing
down / Burrowing, burrowing, burrowing down.” And maybe Connie feels like an “eagle woman
flying so high,” while Jim feels like a “mountain man feeling so strong.” One way of making
these changes while you’re singing is to go around the Circle in order and let each one do a
verse. Or you may want to let people put up their hands when they’ve got a verse and you point
to them.
Rounds
Rounds are songs like “Row, Row, Row Your Boat,” in which you divide up the available
singers into groups, and each group begins singing the song at a different time. The trick to
learning rounds is to sing the song many times all together as a group so that everyone’s
thoroughly familiar with it before you divide into parts. As a rounds singer you’ll learn to listen
so you can hear all the parts happening at once. When everyone’s comfortable singing it as a
round, you can stand up and walk around and sing it, or you can sit in a circle and number off so
you’re not with the others singing your part.
Call & Response Songs
Call and response songs are fun to teach and easy to learn, and many longer Pagan songs
have choruses that are easier for the group to learn than the verses. Try to sing the new song at
several different places in the ritual; this will help develop auditory memory. And keep a list of
which songs you’ve taught to your group so you can repeat them at regular intervals. I carry
around a small book, listing the songs I have by title under various headings, such as “Earth,”
“Air,” “Healing,” and “Winter Solstice.” Many songs will be listed under several headings because
they fit into several categories.
Healing Songs
Sometimes, during the check-in or during the Circle itself, a person will be so overcome with
the emotional muck of life that he or she will im- or explode. This person needs the special
attention of an on-the-spot healing. It’s best to ask the person what he or she needs: to be
rocked, stroked, left alone, listened to. Singing to the person in distress is almost always appropriate.
What is the need in this exact situation? Which song you select is important, and here’s
where having many songs becomes essential.
Trancing Songs
All cultures in all times have had trance songs: Shaker songs, Indian ragas, some Japanese
music that expands the mind’s frequencies, certain Greek chord changes that alter your consciousness,
and various contemporary Pagan chants that spin you out into ecstasy. There are