Like anything else we do, there are some useful safety notes. (And I’m sure, looking at this list, I’ve forgotten some, and will continue to come back.) I talk about safety considerations in beginning group work on its own page.
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There are lots of resources out there that talk about planning a ritual in greater length, but I wanted to include at least an example here. (For those wanting more, Amber K and Azrael K’s RitualCraft is a great starting place.) So, for an example, let’s take the new moon closest to when I’m writing this (on January 4th, 2011, to be precise.) I’m using it as an example both because I want a little more planning of what I’m going to do, but also because it happens to have some interesting aspects to it. (This ritual is going to be solitary, but I’ll talk a little more at the end about planning group ritual.) I’m writing on Saturday, (January 1st), so I only have a couple of days to put everything into action. Before we get started, I want to clear up one fairly common misconception. People have gotten the idea that in order to be a witch (or a religious witch, or a Pagan, or whatever), you simply need to study for a year and a day. And that that time frame is really fixed – you can’t take longer. The reality is a bit more complicated, but basically – that’s not true. You can read more over here on the essay “a year and a day – why?” Consider the following a sample of what one teacher might cover with students leading toward initiation. Before we get there, though, a few notes. There’s a lot of material listed here. I’d expect to cover most of this content in 2 classes a month (each lasting 2-3 hours) plus some discussion at time after ritual. Students would generally plan on 3-5 hours at home each week, some time in practical exercises and personal practice, some in written or creative work (not counting reading time or the deity projects described below). So, if you have less time for your learning, you might expect it to take longer to cover this many topics. I’m one person. I have reasons for what I include, and where I put it, and why it’s there -but there are lots of other very viable ways to teach religious witchcraft, to share a tradition, to build skills and knowledge, and much more. There are things on this list that a lot of people don’t teach directly (finding and evaluating information, the bits about arts and music) because they’re important to me or the group focus. There are things I don’t teach substantially here (much in the way of astrology or herbs, for example, other than some basics) that many people spend much more time on. (I think they’re useful, but I think they’re something people can explore in other ways, or that’s a good focus for post-initiation work. Continue reading A possible Dedicant year Many people following a Wiccan-based or religious witchcraft path celebrate both the Sabbats in some form (the solar holidays), as well as the Esbats, or lunar holidays. In many paths, the Sabbats are seen more as a celebratory time (a chance to pause and reflect on the seasonal change, while the Esbats are seen as a more practical time: a time to do magic, divination, and other workings. You don’t have to follow this (lots of people include some divination, magic, or other workings in their Sabbat work, for example), but it can be a good way to start figuring out what you’re doing. Recently, I’ve been seeing more posts from people who are frustrated because they feel left out – that following the passion of their heart is going to take resources (time, money, ability to travel for training) they just don’t have. So, here, I want to discuss some of the options. The short answer is that whatever your current living situation, there are options for you that will help you along the way. However, not all options may be available to you right now, or you may need to be willing to make changes in your life to open up some different choices. The good news is that you don’t have to do all of this now – you may find that new options open up for you in a year, or three, or five, that you’d never have dreamed right now. And, of course, other people are in the same basic position: we all have things we’d love to do, that just aren’t realistic for us at a particular time in our life. Continue reading What does this take (in terms of time and money) How is really the meat of the question. There are of course, many different ways to do ritual together. Even within religious witchcraft traditions, different parts may appear or not – or they may be in different orders. I’m not going to go into vast detail at this point, because there are excellent books out there that do a great job of this. (Noted below, and on my suggested reading list.) First, there are a number of possible sources of information (in general terms). However, they share different kinds of information, so it can be good to have a reminder of what to look for (and expect) from a given source. One question I hear a lot is “How can I find groups near me?” It can be a frustrating search, and some of the best resources aren’t obvious to newcomers. While there are different ways to go about this, here’s my suggested method. |
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