Breathe together. Connect. Choose facilitator, vibeswatcher, timekeeper, and notetaker. Check-in.
Review agenda and make changes, or call for agenda items, establish priorities, and set times for each.
Go through the agenda.
Take breaks. Stop to periodically check how members are feeling, and to breathe.
Evaluate the meeting.
Set the next meeting date, time, and place.
Close.
Gather people and explain the ritual. Introductions. Check-in.
Ground and center. Hold hands and breathe together. Tree of Life.
Purify.
Make sacred space. Invoke the four directions.
Invoke the Goddess and God.
Create the image upon which the energy will focus.
Raise the cone of power.
Ground the power.
Share food and drink.
Say goodbye to the Goddess and God, and to the four directions.
Open the circle.
(These are useful in self-cricticism sessions.)
1. Why did I come to the group and what do I want from it?
2. What is the group doing well? Poorly? How do I play a part in each?
3. How much time do I take up as compared with others?
4. How much attention do I get as compared with others? Compared with what I want?
5. How much do I listen to others? How present am I?
6. Am I getting the information I need in order to participate in the work of the group? If not, why not?
7. What am I seeing, thinking, or feeling that I’m not saying?
8. How central am I to the group? How much influence do I have? How much do I want? Over which decisions?
9. With whom do I talk most outside the group?
10. How much structure do I want or need in the group?
11. How much closeness do I want or need? How much can I tolerate?
12. How important is the group to me? What priority does it have in my life? How committed to it am I?
13. What are the unspoken rules of the group?
14. Is what I am doing or saying serving the interest of the group or my personal hidden agenda?
There are an infinite number of possible topics, but these may get you started. Note that broad topics are tackled from a specific, personal angle. We don’t do a round on “sexism,” we do a round on how being a woman or man has limited us.
1. How has being a woman/being a man limited me? What possibilities has it offered me that I wouldn’t otherwise have had?
2. What are the strengths I bring to the group from my specific racial, ethnic, or cultural background? What needs do I have from the group?
3. How has my experience of life been limited or enriched by my class background? What strengths and weaknesses has it given me?
4. How has violence affected my life?
5. In what situations do I now feel powerless? When do I feel empowered?
6. How would my life be different without the threat of nuclear war?
7. What do I do to make money? What do I have to give up to do what I do?
8. What do I do with my anger?
9. What problems do I have with love relationships?
10. how do J expect to die? What feelings does this question evoke?