1st Execration ritual

[Ashmire]

Apparently some people feel guilty about these, according to the blogs I've been reading.  For me, for the first time since getting dumped onto this path, reading about them was the first time I really thought, "You know, I might kinda like these Guys!".

  I have been feeling a lot of free-floating anxiety and frustration lately, without being able to find a constructive outlet.  I have also been too broke to buy any fun ritual stuff. 

Finally, I started thinking about the idea of "red pots" in a modern context.  Needed to be cheap enough to destroy without regret ( for that matter, needed to be *free* because I am particularly poor the last couple of weeks), and I did dislike the idea of burying something potentially environmentally harmful in the ground afterwards, also a nod to the  traditional red color would be nice.

  Then, while about to toss one in the breakroom recycling bin at work, it hit me what the perfect thing would be.  Coca Cola cans!   They can be easily and gleefully stomped to bits, then sent away to be melted down entirely, and they are indeed red as well!


So I spent some time after work today writing down what ultimately amounted to a list of pet peeves and frustrating injustices in the world with Sharpie on Coke cans, while burning incense in front of my altar, before stomping the hell out them and throwing them into the city recycling bin with as much force as possible.  Not the most elaborate or elegant of rituals, but it's a start and it felt good!

[Vixen]

Apparently some people feel guilty about these, according to the blogs I've been reading.  For me, for the first time since getting dumped onto this path, reading about them was the first time I really thought, "You know, I might kinda like these Guys!".

  I have been feeling a lot of free-floating anxiety and frustration lately, without being able to find a constructive outlet.  I have also been too broke to buy any fun ritual stuff. 

Finally, I started thinking about the idea of "red pots" in a modern context.  Needed to be cheap enough to destroy without regret ( for that matter, needed to be *free* because I am particularly poor the last couple of weeks), and I did dislike the idea of burying something potentially environmentally harmful in the ground afterwards, also a nod to the  traditional red color would be nice.

  Then, while about to toss one in the breakroom recycling bin at work, it hit me what the perfect thing would be.  Coca Cola cans!   They can be easily and gleefully stomped to bits, then sent away to be melted down entirely, and they are indeed red as well!


So I spent some time after work today writing down what ultimately amounted to a list of pet peeves and frustrating injustices in the world with Sharpie on Coke cans, while burning incense in front of my altar, before stomping the hell out them and throwing them into the city recycling bin with as much force as possible.  Not the most elaborate or elegant of rituals, but it's a start and it felt good!

I'm going to have to look into that. I never heard of it. Sounds real therepeutic.
I have learned a mind trick for that. I imagine a piece of paper that I write my concerns on. Then I place it in an imaginary jar and light it on fire. When the piece of paper is gone my frustration is gone. Now its not as simple as that. Depending on what kind of frustration the piece of paper sometimes goes whoosshhh and is gone, or POOF!!, or just simmers and sometimes the damn fire goes out like 20 times and I have to relight it over and over again till its gone. But it does work.

[SunflowerP]

Not the most elaborate or elegant of rituals, but it's a start and it felt good!

The impression I have (largely from this five-year-old blogpost by Kiya) is that elegance is not a requirement of execrations, but catharsis is. So it sounds to my not-Kemetic self like you're doing it right.

Sunflower

[Sefiru]

Apparently some people feel guilty about these, according to the blogs I've been reading. 

Why would people feel guilty about doing execrations? Does it have to do with not being "nice"?

Finally, I started thinking about the idea of "red pots" in a modern context.  Needed to be cheap enough to destroy without regret ( for that matter, needed to be *free* because I am particularly poor the last couple of weeks), and I did dislike the idea of burying something potentially environmentally harmful in the ground afterwards, also a nod to the  traditional red color would be nice.

I like to get tacky plates from the thrift store and then write things on them with a red grease pencil. Then I fling the plates at a hard surface  The pieces go in the trash afterwards.

I've also written down things that are bugging me, folded the paper into origami bugs, and burned them. That was fun. I'm thinking of doing an origami 'scapegoat' if I can find folding instructions for one.

[Sefiru]

I imagine a piece of paper that I write my concerns on. Then I place it in an imaginary jar and light it on fire. When the piece of paper is gone my frustration is gone.

I've got to say, doing this for real is so much more effective (for me, at least) than imagining. Of course that depends on being able to burn things safely.

[Yei]

I have learned a mind trick for that. I imagine a piece of paper that I write my concerns on. Then I place it in an imaginary jar and light it on fire. When the piece of paper is gone my frustration is gone. Now its not as simple as that. Depending on what kind of frustration the piece of paper sometimes goes whoosshhh and is gone, or POOF!!, or just simmers and sometimes the damn fire goes out like 20 times and I have to relight it over and over again till its gone. But it does work.

Interesting that you might say that. It reminds me of a Nahua confession rite, where a confessor wrote their 'sins' on paper, and then burned it before the idols of Tlazoteotl and Tezcatlipoca. This would expiate the Tlazolli (difficult to translate, lit. trash), and return the individual to normal relations with the world.

Now, the ritual was only supposed to be conducted once in a person's lifetime. However, it is possible that this only applied when making a formal and complete confession. I think that smaller rituals (one that is more specific to a concern) could be performed repeatedly.

[Darkhawk]

I've got to say, doing this for real is so much more effective (for me, at least) than imagining. Of course that depends on being able to burn things safely.

Ripping things up into itty bitty pieces is always doable!  Also stomping!

(I once got ritual advice from a generopagan of 'do it on the astral' and was very NO PRETENDING TO DO MY RITUALS IS NOT ACTUALLY DOING THEM.)

[Sefiru]

Also stomping!

Ooh, stomping! Now which culture was it that would write the name of an enemy on the sole of their shoes, so they could constantly stomp on them? Or was that fictional?

[CoyoteFeathers]

So I spent some time after work today writing down what ultimately amounted to a list of pet peeves and frustrating injustices in the world with Sharpie on Coke cans, while burning incense in front of my altar, before stomping the hell out them and throwing them into the city recycling bin with as much force as possible.  Not the most elaborate or elegant of rituals, but it's a start and it felt good!

I've done some similar things, mostly destroying pieces of paper with things I hate or representations of my own anger/misery drawn on on them- crumpling them, stabbing them through with a pencil, etc, etc. I'll rip up any drawing I view as representations of my own failure (normally because they're absolutely below my personal standards), and have destroyed numerous sculptures I've made for class for the same reason or to let out my frustrations with the semester when it's over. I threw a ten pound fired clay piece into a dumpster once and it shattered into million teeny tiny bits! That was fun! Made me feel a bit better, at least.