Rituals without working magic

[Emerald]

I have been wondering what people who don't work magic do to celebrate whatever special days they have in their path. For example the holidays on the wheel of the year (which I know not everyone uses).

Hmm how to elaborate... Like maybe you do a special meditation, make offerings to deities or ancestors, chant. I'm interested to know what other people do.

Thank you,

Emerald

[MadZealot]

Hmm how to elaborate... Like maybe you do a special meditation, make offerings to deities or ancestors, chant. I'm interested to know what other people do.

In my home I mark seasonal passings with decorations, with the mantel serving as something like a shrine.  Right now it's in fall/harvest mode-- pumpkins and and autumn leaves and a stuffy guy.  Next month it'll be pine boughs, a stag, and a Father Christmas figure decked out in browns.  There's a wooden pentacle always in place.  
For some reason an Anubis statuette and a Cthulhu plushie have taken up residence on the mantel's far right.  I think they have a better view of the TV.

There's also a new arrival-- a figure representing Ratonhnhaké:ton.  You win geek points if you can place the name without Googling.  
Moving on.

On occasion I'll mark a given day by cooking a special dish or going to a particular place.  There's more to 'observance' than ritual imho.

[Siren]

I have been wondering what people who don't work magic do to celebrate whatever special days they have in their path. For example the holidays on the wheel of the year (which I know not everyone uses).

Hmm how to elaborate... Like maybe you do a special meditation, make offerings to deities or ancestors, chant. I'm interested to know what other people do.

Thank you,

Emerald

I do occasionally work magic, but not often and not usually as part of my seasonal rituals or rituals for deities' particular sacred days--my timing for magic is generally tied more to either "I need it right now" or moon phases.

As for what I do to mark the seasonal or other sacred days: Generally I'll light candles to the deities associated with the day and say a poem or hymn that reflects what I believe they're doing at that particular time of year. Sometimes I write these, sometimes I wing it, and sometimes I adapt them from existing hymns from antiquity or from modern writers. (For example, if it's a day involving Persephone, I might read a poem I wrote, or I might read an Orphic hymn, or I might read something from Jennifer Reif's Mysteries of Demeter, or I might just spontaneously speak from the heart, depending on my mood.) I'll do an offering of food and drink, and I'll thank the deities for whatever I believe they're getting up to.

What I'm hoping to work into my practice more this year: I want to learn to make some specific dishes and get into the habit of making those specific dishes at specific times of the year. Currently I'm not much of a cook and I purchase a lot of my offerings, which is OK, but I think it would enhance my practice if I added this element to it. I'd also like to get back into meditating more, which I used to do often and haven't done as much recently.

[Maps]

I have been wondering what people who don't work magic do to celebrate whatever special days they have in their path. For example the holidays on the wheel of the year (which I know not everyone uses).

Hmm how to elaborate... Like maybe you do a special meditation, make offerings to deities or ancestors, chant. I'm interested to know what other people do.

Thank you,

Emerald

 
My festivals are very specific in their goals and traditions, so I try to keep to them as best I can, and if I depart from that then it's because I know (or at least think I have some kind of idea about) what's behind the symbolism of the festival.

The last festival was Oc-na, the renewal of homes and temples. It was originally at an arbitrary date relative to the American civic calendar, but back in the day its date was determined by the priest and wasn't set, so I took the liberty to move it to Nov. 1st, since doing a big fall cleaning sounded appropriate happening the day after Halloween. I wound up completely rearranging my room and shrine to something far better for the space, making offerings, burning incense, saying some prayers, and putting on some music while I worked.

Ritual doesn't always mean high ritual, like the stuff you'd do if you were an initiated Wiccan or a practitioner of the western magical tradition. But it does mean process and a following-through of a thing that needs to be done to keep lines of communication open between you and ____.

[SunflowerP]

There's more to 'observance' than ritual imho.

 
Oh!  And also, d'oh!  That's what I've been trying to express for years (mainly, to counter the "must do formal ritual on exact day or you're not a real X" contingent), but, strangely, it never occurred to me to centre it on the concept of observance.

Sunflower

[Nyktelios]

I have been wondering what people who don't work magic do to celebrate whatever special days they have in their path. For example the holidays on the wheel of the year (which I know not everyone uses).

Hmm how to elaborate... Like maybe you do a special meditation, make offerings to deities or ancestors, chant. I'm interested to know what other people do.

Thank you,

Emerald

 
I usually just maintain a shrine to the deities I honour, offering candles, incense, libations and prayers to said deities. That's my regular practice, on special days I mostly just offer special incense and more elaborate and holiday-specific prayers.

[RandallS]

Oh!  And also, d'oh!  That's what I've been trying to express for years (mainly, to counter the "must do formal ritual on exact day or you're not a real X" contingent), but, strangely, it never occurred to me to centre it on the concept of observance.

There's also more to ritual than magic. Many religions (and non-religious groups, for that matter) have rituals that involve no magic whatsoever. Take your average wedding or funeral, for example. There's ritual, but except in a few religions like Wicca, no magic is involved at all.

[Emerald]

Here's hoping I manage to quote people in the proper way. :whis:

There's also more to ritual than magic. Many religions (and non-religious groups, for that matter) have rituals that involve no magic whatsoever. Take your average wedding or funeral, for example. There's ritual, but except in a few religions like Wicca, no magic is involved at all.

 
Thank you all for your replies, you've given me a lot to think about. I hadn't thought about ritual in the way that Randall said, so that gives me something to think about.

On occasion I'll mark a given day by cooking a special dish or going to a particular place. There's more to 'observance' than ritual imho.

Another good point. Like the making of Beltane Bannocks? I was going to try to make them but ended up having oat pancakes instead.

As for what I do to mark the seasonal or other sacred days: Generally I'll light candles to the deities associated with the day and say a poem or hymn that reflects what I believe they're doing at that particular time of year. Sometimes I write these, sometimes I wing it, and sometimes I adapt them from existing hymns from antiquity or from modern writers. (For example, if it's a day involving Persephone, I might read a poem I wrote, or I might read an Orphic hymn, or I might read something from Jennifer Reif's Mysteries of Demeter, or I might just spontaneously speak from the heart, depending on my mood.) I'll do an offering of food and drink, and I'll thank the deities for whatever I believe they're getting up to.

I like this way of marking the days, thank you.

Ritual doesn't always mean high ritual, like the stuff you'd do if you were an initiated Wiccan or a practitioner of the western magical tradition. But it does mean process and a following-through of a thing that needs to be done to keep lines of communication open between you and ____.

Good to know I'm not doing it "wrong" if I'm not doing high ritual type stuff. XD

SunflowerP - glad you got that figured out from this discussion.

Carnelian - thank you. Incense comes in so many awesome smells eh?

Sorry for the slow reply all, had a lot of thinking to do. Many thanks,

Emerald

[GaiaDianne]

I have been wondering what people who don't work magic do to celebrate whatever special days they have in their path. For example the holidays on the wheel of the year (which I know not everyone uses). ....

Thank you,

Emerald

 


GAIA:

Hi and Merry Meet, Emerald -

Atr the risk of being (quite reasonably!) accused of nitpicking -- I think it really depends upon how you define "ritual" and "magick".  

Here's (what i consider to be) a very interesting and helpful quote from one of my favorite books, "The Heart of Wicca" by Ellen Cannon Reed:
   
"We tell visitors looking for spells that spells are a very small part of what we do....but magick is a great part of it.

.....The greater magick we do is often referred to as "High Magick" or "Spiritual Magick".  It's the magick we do in our "Great Work" - our purpose in following a Mystery religion.This magick is worked on ourselves, to help us make the changes in ourselves that are  necessary so we can grow.....

     There's magick in casting our circles, in using symbols to contact that which is beyond our conscious mind.  There's magick in the invocations we use.  There's magic in the communion we have with our Gods.

     "Because we see the world with different eyes, we also find magick in everything else we do, and can put magick into everything we do.Vacuuming the house can be a magickal cleansing of negativity.

     "One muist sink down into the lower realms of instinct and psychism , where primary desire mingles with vivid fantasy.  Then one must represent the goal in the Imagination, and forcus with total concentration and intense desire."

(Ellen Cannon Reed, "The Heart of Wicca", pp 103-104).


Blessed Be ~ Gaia