Introduction

We watched as the male shape, covered in feathers and matches, and the female shape, wrapped in clay snakes, each burned, to reveal the opposite-gendered image hidden beneath. Then, when they were joined, we knew that together they forged our strength of spirit. Seeing the participant reaction to this transformation, and experiencing a ritual devoid of words of instruction, helped set us on this path to Take Sacred Back!

The Union of the Elements ritual

Neopagan religions are among the fastest growing in the world, in part because they empower a personal relationship with the sacred. The resurrection of engaged ritual has inspired and introduced a whole new generation of seekers to embrace the sacred experiences possible in a group setting. Ritual can be a safe and creative method of fulfilling our spiritual needs regardless of personal belief or religious affiliation.

In the years since we first came to the Pagan community much has changed. Knowledge in ritual organization, engagement, and theater is passed informally and by regional cross-fertilization among ritual facilitators. These lessons and principles can be used to avoid many common mistakes and jump right to offering the inspired expression you have within. The purpose of this book is to give you the benefit of years of ritual experience and help you overcome the fear of learning leadership skills. We all have our special talents, and whatever yours are, this book will help you form a team that can take your community on the journey you envision!

In the following pages, we will share principles and techniques of developing and presenting successful large-group community rituals. These are drawn from our own observations, personal experiences, and presentations over the course of the last twenty-five years. Large group rituals are designed to engage a broad audience and feel inclusive and welcoming for whoever chooses to attend. Our goal is to help you develop your own ritual toolbox, filled with suggestions and methods to design and increase the impact of your rituals.

Who we are, our personal story, is unique because we each were creating ritual when we met, and then we married, becoming life partners and a team designing and presenting rituals for our community. We speak in this book mainly from the “we” voice. We each also have had personal experiences in ritual, and when we speak from that personal perspective, we will identify ourselves as such.

Nels: I first experienced ritual with my introduction to Paganism. In 1986 I was convinced by a friend to attend Circle Sanctuary’s Pagan Spirit Gathering (PSG). The day after my arrival I went to the co-created men’s ritual, and as luck had it I ended up perfectly in the South of the circle of men. During the walk to the site I had met the ritual priest, and at the appropriate time he said, “Nels, please invite the fire of the South to join us.” I have no idea what I said as I turned, raised my arms, and spoke, but it was good enough for the magic to touch me that day. Several times that week in ritual I danced, sang, chanted, and cried. After five days of ritual I went back home with my head spinning! I became an “eclectic Pagan” and started reading. I had no coven or group, and those first few years my Pagan “practice” became a yearly journey to PSG and participation in the festival’s co-created rituals. As an artist and creative thinker, for 51 weeks a year my head would fill with ideas to include in ritual. Then for a week each year I became a ritualist. After a few years of contributing I figured out that no one else could create the ritual I envisioned. If it was going to happen, I would have to organize and lead it; no one else could do it for me. I began sponsoring Samhain rituals at my home that involved large effigy figures set aflame. I eventually contributed this prop-building skill to the main rituals at PSG and three times was priest for the men’s ritual there. My vending as a craftsman took me to many festivals around the country, where I always participated in and deconstructed their rituals. And then at one festival I met Judy.

Judy: My fascination with ritual began early, as a child raised in a very traditional, pre–Vatican II Catholic church. The doctrines and dogma never made much sense to me, but the ritual experience—the mystery, incense, chiming bells, burning candles, and chanting which flooded my senses—that is where the magic was. Later as a young artist I began to study symbology, which led me to tarot, which led to Qabalah, Hermeticism, Ceremonial Magic (and yes, even through the doors of the Gnostica Bookstore), and on from there to the Pagan community in the Twin Cities, where I found a home in the Craft. The Wiccan teaching circle I was working with at the time celebrated every Sabbat with ritual. These were commonly attended by anywhere from 20 to 60 people. Here again I found the burning candles, incense, chanting, and chiming, and now the dogma matched the intent. Not only could I attend, as I had when I was a child, now I could also present ritual. By the time I met Nels I was surprised to find
that I was good at it.

We both began contributing to the ritual committee at Sacred Harvest Festival in 2001. In 2003 as a team we wrote and led an arc of rituals on elemental magic. This series of four rituals worked together and built upon a theme over the span of a festival. In the first ritual, we were using wet clay to cover a prop. We were at the ritual site mixing clay in buckets and had doffed our white costumes to keep them clean. The procession from the gathering point was approaching, and we realized we did not have enough time left to get ourselves clean. We looked at each other and said, “In for a penny … ” and proceeded to cover our naked bodies in clay slip. We facilitated the whole ritual nude, covered in clay. After you have been naked in front of 150 people you no longer worry about making mistakes. Besides cementing our relationship as a ritual team, it verified an oft-spoken piece of Pagan folk wisdom about ritual: If you want a powerful ritual, either include a nude person or burn something. Do both and you are guaranteed success. In this one we did both.

At the festival’s end people came to us in tears, saying the experience had changed their lives. We witnessed the magic that is community, and our audience of participants grew. We became engaged and committed to ritual, offering at least four major festival rituals each year, large-scale Sabbat celebrations at our home, and guest rituals at other events over the next dozen years.

Working together we found that what one of us lacked at any point in time, the other could often provide. When one got fanciful in concept, the other brought us back to earth. When one had a mental block, the other had a swell of creative inspiration. Judy came to excel at movement, blocking, voice, memorization, and flair. Nels found he was the skilled organizer, percussionist, prop builder, and problem solver, and was good at speaking from the heart. We are both master craftspeople (Judy a goldsmith and Nels a ceramic artist), so creative thinking and expression were the assets at our core. We discovered the joyful challenge of working within limits. Our best rituals came from being forced to present many aspects of a single theme. When we started we were both shy and with limited talent in the theatrical arts. Until we took the risk to offer what we saw a need for, we had no idea we could be ritualistas.

We had a major role in the creative development, production, and facilitation of all the rituals presented in this book. Some we wrote exclusively as a two-person team, others included the input of a ritual committee or team in their development. Every community ritual is made possible by the contributions of many people, and every hand helps it evolve as it takes form. Although we include the originally written words in these rituals, there were some situations where others adapted performance words in their own style. To the many people who participated in creating these rituals, we offer a profound acknowledgment and thank-you.

Permission is granted to directly use these rituals as written. We ask that credit be given in any promotional literature if used or only slightly modified. We offer them as reference for your own creativity and adaption to your circumstance and community. We hope you will use these examples as inspiration to create rituals or make them your own!

Community ritual can transform your participants and, most amazingly, will certainly change anyone who works to offer it. Taking on a leadership role in creating community ritual may seem daunting, but as it was for us, you may find it is your task to claim, and for no one else. When you do this work, you are in effect taking sacred back into your own hands and in turn, giving it as a gift to those you care about, whether you call them family, community, tribe, or clan.

We want you to succeed, to take on the challenge of offering ritual, and to create the joy it can bring to others and yourself. We structured this book to help firmly set you on that path. It begins with Part One: Your Ritual Plan. These four chapters give you a framework to consider the nature, community context, and various types, purposes, and styles of ritual available to you. To become a ritualista you will need to see all the possibilities before you. Part One will help you envision and translate your ideas and concepts into your first group ritual.

Part Two: Your Ritual Toolbox dives into every specific aspect to consider and provides the tools you need to be confident and successful with even your first ritual. It covers how to get organized and stay on track with your plan. You will learn what you might include in your ritual and why and how to do it. Engaging your audience in the ritual process is essential, and you will discover the techniques that will make your group eagerly await your next ritual. Chapters Eleven through Thirteen contain ritual tips and props to refine your ritual to the highest level of engagement, and adapt what you have planned to different-size audiences.

Each chapter has specific examples and exercises for you to work with. As you move through the book, try them out, and by all means, write! Every idea that comes to you, every list you create, will be an asset as you grow, so begin with the ritualista’s first rule: save everything! At the end of this book are resources to further explore group ritual and to find the idea, story, song, or chant that is just what you need. A good ritual experience is like love. If it is sincere and engaging and touches another, there can’t be too much of it. You can do it, and every community needs you to. Now get started taking sacred back!

We offer a brief anecdote at the start of each chapter, and the complete context and script of a ritual at each chapter’s end. They are a good way to practice visioning a ritual. The following ritual describes our real introduction to self-identifying as “ritualistas.”

Ritual: The Union of the Elements

Location: Moonspirit Festival, 2006
© Judith Olson Linde and Nels Linde

Ritual context

This ritual was originally offered as three separate rituals for audiences of more than 150 each. As invited ritualists for the Moonspirit Festival, we rewrote those rituals into one combined ritual, which was more effective for a smaller audience. This ritual represents our first experience as co-facilitating ritualistas. Originally written in 2003, it betrays our Wiccan foundations and is notable for the many familiar elements we include. We created sacred space without a word of direction, danced and told relevant stories from many cultures, and included a transforming prop element that helped participants look at their gender aspects from a new perspective.

Ritual intent

Deepen your experience and understanding of the power, symbology, and connection between the masculine elements of Fire and Air and the feminine elements of Water and Earth, and their intimate relationship with each other.

Ritual description

Consider which masculine aspects need enhancing within and prepare to charge a feather symbol with them. Which feminine aspects within need recognition as you add your snake of renewal? Masculine and feminine conjoined create magic.

Ritual setup and supplies

Team members

Co-facilitators Ritualista 1 and Ritualista 2 with bell; four people as elementals; four dancers, one at each direction; percussion core (four people) in place: drummer for North, flute for East, chime for South, didgeridoo for West.

Ritual script

The circle was silently banished (cleared of negativity) and blessed by ritualistas together, as a drum-led procession arrived. The East and West elemental team members formed a gate in the East. As festivants entered through the gate, the East elemental briefly smudged each participant, the West marked their foreheads with a dot of red clay slip, and they were silently directed to form a circle. The ritual opening was without words.

Having completed the entrance, the directional elementals sat at their respective altars. The ritualistas were near the center fire. The bell was chimed by Ritualista 2, and the North/Earth elemental rose and with an exaggerated flourish took the hand of the person to her left, who took the hand of the next person and so on (hand-to-hand circle casting with no words). As the hand-to-hand circle approached the East altar, the bell was chimed again and the East/Air elemental repeated the action. The bell chimed as each elemental continued the action around the circle until the circle was completed in the North.

Ritualista 2 rang the bell, and the Air elemental faced East and with a large exaggerated flourish made an air-invoking pentacle using a smoking smudge stick. He lit his tiki torch, and a flute played as the East/Air spirit dancer welcomed the element.

Ritualista 2 rang the bell, and the Fire elemental faced South and with a large exaggerated flourish made a fire-invoking pentacle in the air using a lit sparkler. He lit his tiki torch, and a chime played as the South/Fire spirit dancer welcomed the element with movement.

Ritualista 2 rang the bell, and the Water elemental faced West and with a large exaggerated flourish made a water-invoking pentacle in the air with water flung from the bowl. She lit her tiki torch, and a didgeridoo played as the West/Water spirit dancer welcomed the element.

Ritualista 2 rang the bell, and the Earth elemental faced North and with a large exaggerated flourish made an earth-invoking pentacle in the air using sand spray from a bowl. She lit her torch, and a drumbeat played as the North/Earth spirit dancer welcomed the element.

Ritualista 2 rang the bell, and all the instruments began a rhythm, then the elementals and helpers added in a clapping beat. When all had joined in clapping, Ritualista 1 (as the Spirit dancer) began at the North and danced around the circle, making eye contact with each participant in turn. Ritualista 2 stoked the ritual fire.

At the Southeast (between the participant circle and the center fire) stood one of the metal frame sculptures, supported by a pipe in the ground and standing about three feet tall. It contained a hidden feminine image covered with a masculine shape formed of straw.

Ritualista 2 rang the bell, signaling the elementals to begin speaking Air and Fire myths in turn:

  1. 1. (Greek) “Daedalus conceived to escape from the labyrinth on Crete with his son Icarus by constructing wings and then flying to safety. He built the wings from feathers and wax, and before the two set off he warned Icarus not to fly too low lest his wings touch the waves and get wet, and not too high lest the sun melt the wax. But the young Icarus, overwhelmed by the thrill of flying, did not heed his father’s warning, and flew too close to the sun, whereupon the wax in his wings melted and he fell into the sea.”
  2. 2. (Australian Aboriginal) “A man went to put another log on the fire, and found it light to the touch, for it was hollow. He noticed the entire length was covered with termites, and he could not throw the branch into the fire, because it would kill the termites. He carefully removed all the termites from the outside of the log by scooping them into his hand, and he deposited them inside the branch. Then he raised the branch to his lips and blew the termites into the air, and the termites blown into the air became the stars, and the first didgeridoo was created.”
  3. 3. (Native American) “Coyote went East to the fire people to dance, play, and gamble, and came wearing a pitch-and-cedar-bark headdress. He complained he could not see well enough, until the fire people stoked the ritual fire high. He danced, leaning in, until his headdress caught fire, and then he ran out the lodge door swift as the wind. As the people approached to catch and kill him, he ducked behind a tree and gave the fire to the tree. Since then the people have been able to draw fire from wood with fire sticks.”
  4. 4. (North European) “Tales of Santa Claus were inspired by flights of Laplandish shamans and tales of Odin, who flew through the air with his Howling Host on the night of the birth of the new year. He delivered gifts to his worshipers and fiery punishments to those who were not.”

Ritualista 1 said:

“In ancient times the thunder’s breath, lightning, began fire, and the people hid as the wind carried it with devastation across the land. With the magic of community, these elements of Air and Fire were tamed to serve our tribe for heat and cooking and magic.”

The East and South elementals joined Ritualista 1 as he took a basket from below the masculine straw sculpture and demonstrated taking a feather and a match from the basket, inserting each into the masculine straw sculpture. Ritualista 1 said, “Such is the transformative nature of Fire and Air.”

The hidden masculine steel sculpture in the Northwest had been bound tightly with straw and string in the rough shape of a feminine figure. Ritualista 2 rang the bell, signaling all elementals to begin speaking Water and Earth myths in turn:

  1. 1. (Egypt) “The people were created on a potter’s wheel, from clay and straw, by the god Khnum. However, to be fully alive they had to be animated with the ankh, the symbol of life, by the goddess Hathor. Khnum created humans after heaven and earth were established and the battle with the water monster was won. Then Khnum made the breath of life for their nostrils. They who have issued from his body are his images.”
  2. 2. (Ojibwa) “Manabozho climbed the tree of life as the flood waters grew until they abated, and when all was covered except his chin. The loon came and he asked it to dive down and bring back earth. It tried but floated back dead. Then the muskrat came and he promised it the ability to live on both land and water if it succeeded, so it dove and came back senseless. Manabozho breathed life back into it and begged it try again. This time it returned with the tiniest bit of earth, but that combined with the dead loon carcass allowed Manabozho to recreate the earth with all the animals, plants, and birds.”
  3. 3. (Sumerian) “The first people were fashioned from clay by Enki, who then decreed their fate. This creation was so successful that deities celebrated with too much beer. Ninmah, who was assisting Enki in the process of making the first humans, wanted to be even more involved. Because she had drunk too much, her creations were different: One was blind, one had paralyzed feet, one lacked sexual organs, and one woman could not give birth. They are all divine creations whose dignified place in society was granted by the creators themselves.”
  4. 4. (Australian Aboriginal) “In the beginning there was only sky and earth. In the earth was Ungud in the form of a great snake and in the sky was Wallaganda, the Milky Way. Wallaganda threw water on the earth and Ungud made it deep. In the night they dreamed and life arose from the watered earth in the forms of their dreams.”

Ritualista 2 rang the bell and said:

“Since awakened consciousness, our ancestors lived in the comfort of the earth, their homes always near water. With the deepened connection of community these elements of Water and Earth were combined like bricks to build the magic tribal village.”

The Earth elemental gave Ritualista 2 a grape-sized clay blob (she had a larger one for the demo). Ritualista 2 made a clay snake by rolling it in her hands and with exaggerated gestures demonstrated wrapping it onto the straw feminine form. She washed her hands and said, “Such is the transformative nature of Water and Earth.”

Ritualista 2 rang the bell and Ritualista 1 took the hand of a participant and drew the whole circle into a line to the masculine sculpture so they could each insert a feather and stick match onto the male straw shape. Then Ritualista 1 continued on to the feminine straw form, made a snake by hand-rolling, and pressed the snake onto the feminine straw sculpture, and then returned to the circle edge. Ritualista 2 acted as wrangler and guide as the participants repeated these actions. The East and South elementals gathered to help participants place the feather and match. The West and North elementals helped participants make a clay snake and place it on the figure, and wash up.

All sang “Earth My Body” (author unknown) during this process:

“Earth my body, Water my blood, Air my breath, and Fire my spirit,”
with a descant of “I am born of the elements” (four times).

Ritualista 2 rang the bell on completion of the process, and the re-formation of the circle signaled the ending of the song. Ritualista 1 and Ritualista 2 spread fire coals with the shovel to light both figures and burn off the straw. A bell cued the song by all of the ritual team when the figures were alight: “Behold (There Is Magic),” by Abbi Spinner McBride.

139591.jpg

139480.jpg

Feminine sculpture covered in straw to display a masculine profile (left).
Masculine sculpture covered in straw to display a feminine profile (right).

The song continued as the transformation of the elemental sculptures to their opposite gender by fire took place, and was recognized as magically creating our god and goddess figures. The elementals each removed their sculpture to a frame in the central area and held it as helpers joined the two sculptures together at the base and top, creating a pentacle shape where they joined. A glow stick pentacle was taped on to accent it. Ritualista 2 rang the bell for the song to end.

139809.jpg

Joined sculpture creates a pentacle,
outlined in glow sticks.

The Elementals now spoke in turn:
“Ireland had five great roads, five provinces, and five paths of the law.”
“The fairy folk counted by fives.”
“We note five stages in our lives: birth, adolescence, lovers, parenthood, and death.”
“We have five senses: hearing, smell, sight, touch, and taste.”
“We have five fingers or toes on each extremity.”
“There are five knightly virtues: generosity, courtesy, chastity, chivalry, and piety.”
“The Wiccan Kiss is a fivefold salute: feet, knees, womb, breasts, and lips.”

Ritualista 1 said:

“Magic of five, breath of life, in mathematics and magic in many cultures. Alchemy of community, the matrix upon which the layers of existence and reality are woven, like cloth on a loom, our spirit. And at the root (the center of the pentacle) is implied a sixth element, love and free will, with which we gain control from within ourselves. With free will, we rule matter and the spirit.”

Ritualista 2 said:

“As above, so below.”

The ritual team started a closing song: “Air I Am,” by Andras Corban Arthen (1982).

The joined sculpture was walked once around the circle by Ritualista 2, displaying the pentacle to all. For the second round, it was held at the center for a moment and then carried to each direction, starting with East. Ritualista 2 and Ritualista 1 led a farewell closing song (author unknown):

“The circle is open, but unbroken.
May the love of the Goddess be ever in your heart.
Merry meet, and merry part, and merry meet again!”

A farewell pentacle was made by Ritualista 1 while the song continued. The sculpture was then put back in its holder. Ritualista 2 rang the bell to end the song.

[contents]