why ritual?
The Power of Connection
Ask five Modern Witches just what Witchcraft is and you’ll probably get six or seven different answers. I’m not always sure myself just how to define Witchcraft in this day and age, but I’m comfortable writing that I know it when I see it. Modern Witches practice in a variety of ways, with many embracing traditions derived from Wiccan-Witchcraft and others exploring traditions more closely related to the disciplines of Conjure and cunning-craft.
There are two elements though that show up in most Witchcraft traditions. The first is magick. Witchcraft is empowering and offers us the means to take control of our lives through spellwork and petitions to deity. The second is ritual, which often goes hand in hand with magickal practice. Much of my spellwork takes place in sacred space, and setting up that space is done through ritual. Anytime we do something magickal in a prescribed order, we are performing a ritual.
As a young Witchling, my first steps upon this path were tentative. I began with prayers to the Goddess, lots of reading, and eventually a smattering of spellwork. After a few months of this, I decided it was time to perform my first ritual. On the Autumn Equinox, I retreated into the most private spot in my basement apartment and lit six candles, one for each of the elements—air, fire, water, and earth—and then one each for the Goddess and the God. I don’t remember much about that ritual other than lighting those candles and casting a circle, but it was a start.
Most Witches today, no matter their path or tradition, honor the turn of the seasons, also known as the Wheel of the Year. The Wheel of the Year is made up of eight “spokes,” with each spoke being a holiday that most of us call a sabbat. The sabbats include the earth’s annual solstices and equinoxes, along with the days that lie in between them (give or take a few days), which are called the cross-quarter days. Not all Witches call these holidays by the same names, but most Witches celebrate or at least acknowledge them in some way.
Since the time of that small ritual in my basement apartment, I’ve participated in over 250 sabbat rituals. Many of those rituals have been solitary affairs, as I practiced my Witchcraft alone for several years before finding other folks of like mind. There have also been lots of coven rituals, and on several occasions I’ve presented seasonal rituals for groups of up to 200 people.
Every ritual is different to some degree. The biggest differences involve the size of the rite, when and where the ritual is being held, and the rite’s focus. Despite the diversity in the various rituals I’ve participated in over the years, they all have shared one common attribute: connection. What was being connected to varied, of course, but all of them connected both myself and those I was with (if applicable) to something greater.
Six Areas of Focus for Ritual
There are six different energies that ritual generally attempts to connect us with, and every ritual in this book is designed to connect its participants with at least one of those. Those rituals may not always succeed in their intended purpose, but that’s because we all experience ritual differently (something we’ll get into a little bit later on). Many of the energies we connect with in ritual are clear and obvious (the natural world, for instance), while others, such as connection to community, can be a bit more abstract. One of the things that makes Witch ritual so great is that it has multiple points of connection, and all of them are worth exploring.
The Natural World
For many people, Witchcraft is primarily a nature religion or practice. They find solace and comfort in wild spaces and seek to find their place in the natural world. Rituals about the natural world can also be about protecting nature or experiencing just what makes the world divine. I’ve participated in rituals where I’ve planted seeds, picked grapes off a vine, stayed up super late to watch a sunrise, and used fallen leaves in spellwork. All of those things are ways to connect with the natural world.
Seasons and the Wheel of the Year
The energy of winter is very different from that of summer. In the summertime I tend to my garden, and by August I begin to enjoy the fruits of my labor. In the winter my garden lies fallow, the rain and cold of the season preparing my garden for what will happen in the spring. There is a cycle and a rhythm to the annual turn of the wheel, and it’s one that many Witches choose to connect with during ritual.
The natural energies of certain seasons can also affect our spellwork. Summer spellwork is for the (metaphorically speaking) bright and shiny things we might want or need, like a new (to us) car. Autumn is for letting go of the people and energies that no longer serve us. Winter is about ridding ourselves of bad habits or undesirable traits. Spring is about renewal and new challenges. Connecting to the natural energy of the seasons can change us and charge our magick.
Magick
When Witches create magick in ritual space, we’re doing more than just trying to change our circumstances or reach a desired outcome. Magick itself is something we can feel, and when we practice it, we connect in a greater sense to all the magick practitioners the world over and throughout history. The practice of magick allows us to tap into a current that goes all the way back to our earliest ancestors (most likely).
When I engage in magickal practice with my coven, I can feel their energy around me, and I get to share it with them for a few moments. The same type of thing happens when a deity or spirit lends their energy to one of my workings. Practicing magick with another person is an intimate act of connection.
Deity and Other Higher Powers
Many rituals contain more than just calls and invocations to deity; they are specifically about a particular deity (or deities) and focus on interacting with that deity. The name of the god Lugh shows up in the sabbat of Lughnasadh (also called Lammas), so a ritual about connecting with him on that day seems entirely appropriate. Though most sabbat rituals aren’t focused on a particular deity, there’s no reason they can’t be.
By honoring our gods in ritual, we strengthen both them and the bonds between deity and mortal. Sometimes we just feel called to write a rite for a particular deity, too. The Rite of the Three Brigids found in chapter 13 of this book came about because I felt her asking me for a ritual, and who am I to say no to a goddess?
Ancestors, Spirit Animals, and the Fey
Outside of the gods, there are several other entities we often connect to during ritual. Many Witches call to their ancestors in every ritual they do, and for many of us, Samhain in particular is about reconnecting with those we have lost. The fey (or fair folk/fairy folk) have long been associated with Midsummer, and there are also several fair folk who have become a part of modern-day Christmas and Yule celebrations. I’ve never seen a sabbat ritual built around spirit animals, but it could be done. If something is worth connecting with, it’s worth building a ritual around, if time and circumstances permit and it makes sense to do so.
Community
The idea that we should connect to one another gets lost in a lot of Witchcraft circles. If a coven is a chosen family, why wouldn’t we want to participate in and craft rituals that celebrate those bonds and bring us closer to one another? Simply doing something enjoyable in a group setting helps connect us with each other.
One of the best rituals I’ve ever been a part of was a simple rite where we all stood in a circle and took turns throwing around a large ball of yarn. Upon getting the yarn ball, we would share how we were going to contribute to our local community and then throw the ball across the circle to someone else. In the process of doing this, we created a spider web of yarn connecting us all together. What probably made this ritual so memorable was that we were able to physically see the connections that we were attempting to create.
The community we create through ritual often includes more than just the people we share physical space with. When I use the rituals of my tradition, I’m in a sense connecting with every other follower of that tradition who has used those same rituals. Thousands of Witches past and present have read the words of Doreen Valiente’s Charge of the Goddess, and every time I hear that particular piece of liturgy, I can feel the presence of those who spoke the words of the Goddess long before I was born.
As Witches, we often attach very high expectations to our rites and rituals, and I mostly see that as a good thing. Witches are generally exceptional people, so it stands to reason that our rituals should be powerful and transformative. But because there are so many variables in ritual, not everything we do is going to be earth-shattering. However, even the worst rituals I’ve attended over the years have still connected me to something.
Most of us who have been around the circle a few times can tell you a story or three about that one Beltane ritual where it rained all day and everyone was soaked and miserable. But once the pain and shock of not having everything go perfectly fades away, such stories usually turn into bonding experiences. “Remember when we were all there together in the rain and how terrible it was? That was awesome!” Ritual is powerful and brings people together, even when it doesn’t quite go as planned.