The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum

So, I'm not big on fancy ritual. At least that's what I tell people. But really, what I'm not big on is theatrics. Raising my hands to the sky and vigorously invoking or casting or whatever makes me really uncomfortable, like I'm talking to air. If I have to talk, it's really quiet, and in a very conversational tone, because I also don't like formality. Really, If I'm alone I'd rather not talk at all. Is this weird, having a silent ritual, where the spoken parts are all said in my head?

I don't think so, that's what I do too. Partially because I've always either shared a house with others or lived in an apartment so it would be pretty obnoxious to make a ton of noise, but also because I don't think it needs to be a big theatrical performance. That's when I'm actually doing a ritual too, and most of my work isn't in a formal ceremonial setting. Just my two cents.

Sunflower, I'm really glad you wrote about this.  I used to do this all the time, but I thought it was wrong, so I've been forcing myself to try verbalize my thoughts".  Now I know it's okay and I'm not the only one  I feel that words are just a way to focus our energy on the intent.  If we can do that with our thoughts, I think it's the same thing.  It will have the same out come.  I think soemtimes words are needed to give your intent extra focus sometimes.

When I first started out, I was (a) closeted and (b) stuck for most of that year living back at home with a parent and a passel of siblings in a small space. I thought all my rituals in my head. It worked, for what it's worth. That said, when I got my own place and realized I could say my liturgy out loud, it was a huge rush and felt much more powerful to do it that way. Maybe just because I'd done it silently for so long! It also had the effect of making me simplify my liturgy. When I look back on the rituals I wrote when I was just silently reading them to myself, I used a lot more ten-dollar words and a lot more words, period. Speaking out loud made the long speeches feel like overkill somehow.

I just wanted to give some thanks for Jenett's post. She brings up some points that I would not have thought of, but that upon reflection are so important.
That being said, I found that when I first started doing it out loud, I felt silly - like I was 'faking' even though in my heart it did not feel fake - only to my more insecure self I suppose.
But in time I became more comfortable with it. There are times when my solitary practice still includes more 'silence and reverence' than more vocal interaction. And I think both have their place.

Not weird, precisely. But you're removing tools you might actually find useful.

The thing about talking in ritual is that it's not *just* about you saying stuff so the Gods can hear. (Because, really, they're probably not relying on soundwaves in the first place.)

But when you need to say something outloud, a bunch of things happen.

- No matter *how* focused you think your thoughts are, having to put stuff into precise controlled words is probably more so. Especially when you add the speed, pacing, and so on of those words. (This, by itself, you can manage silently, but...)

- Saying things aloud requires that you're breathing. Simple, right? But the thing is that you'll need to stop and breathe somewhere. It puts pauses in what you do. Each of those pauses reconnects you with a body at a point in what you're saying. By saying things outloud, you make those decisions more deliberate. (You're unlikely to stop to breathe in the middle of a word, or two words from the end of sentence, for example.)

- When you speak, all sorts of bits of your body make the resonance that makes sound. Your inner ears vibrate as you hear what you say. The bone in your jaw and skull conducts sound. Your vocal cords move, your chest rises and falls, your diapragm moves. And how you're standing or sitting or holding the rest of your body makes a difference too.

Talking - making sound - is an intensely physical and powerful tool that involves nearly your entire body.

And that's pretty powerful in ritual. Even if you're talking to an empty room.

So, can you do silent ritual? Yep, and it's a good skill to learn, because there are times that silence is the best choice for various reasons. Is it the best thing to do all the time, especially when you're learning? Maybe not.

The good news is that - to get all those benefits of talking I just listed - you don't need to be very loud. There are certainly things you can learn about yourself (about pacing, about pitch, about speed of speech, about phrasing) if you can speak at a normal conversational level or a tiny bit louder (like an actor might). But you can get almost all of the ritual benefits of sound if you're talking not much above a whisper.