Returning to a project to build a collection of useful threads that share the scope of what people do around here, here's another special topic thread (please see the guidelines below for how we're keeping this thread useful as a reference.)
Topic:
What's your ritual year like?
Questions to get you started
How is your ritual year structured? Is it based on seasons, on specific events, or on something else?
What celebrations or rituals are central for you?
What celebrations or rituals might be more optional?
Do you have personal things you celebrate as part of your ritual year that are particular to you?
What do you do if time/energy/logistics/etc. don't allow you to do a ritual in the way you would normally prefer?
Plus, of course, any other related things you'd like to add.
Guidelines:
- Posts that stray from the topic of the thread will be moved to a new thread.
- Please include a brief label/description of your current path at the top of your reply. ("Seeker" or "Learning" are fine options if you don't have something more specific yet.)
- Please take replies to a particular thread in an appropriate forum, to keep this thread focused.
I am basically an eclectic (and for better or worse chronically agnostic) Anglo-Catholic. I am not a literalist or orthodox.
I am in the process of writing my own theological take on the basics of the Christian mythos.
Comments as to changes being made and how this affects my ritual year:
I am in the process of collapsing a parallel religious path back into an extension of my Anglo-Catholicism. That is how it originally started, so I am reforming the reform.
So there are some things about my additional observances that are changing back to what they were originally and others that grew up in another context that are now being adapted to another context or that will be dropped altogether, so some of this is in flux.
My ritual year consists of the Christian liturgical year plus additional observances and rituals. My additional observances occur on the deaths of significant people in my personal life or at large, some of whom I revere as god-like saints.
I also observe dates of significant events in my life, and I honor four beings, one on each of the solstices and equinoxes.
The central ritual that I observe in addition to Christian rituals is a reenactment of a particular spiritual encounter I had. That ritual is basically Christian with many prayers, but also involves in the climax of the rite the four I call "my good angels." I offer it up every Saturday evening.
The other additional observances I mentioned before right now are "on the fly" with no fixed ritual and optional, but I have a collection of personal writings I can utilize for those various days. Some will need to be adapted a bit, others are fine as they are.
Some of those days include the spiritual event that led to the main rite, the death of my grandmother, the death of Matthew Shepard (for whom I've written a protomyth), and some traditional saints days celebrated with my own writings and theological perspective.
As I progress in reintegrating my spirituality into a single whole some of these days will become more central, but probably less fixed and formal in observance.
I cannot perform my central personal rite every day, and it is confined to evenings or nights only. But I have a ritual, a "little rite," derived from it that can be performed at any time in about 5 minutes.
The rest of my rituals are merely Anglican or Anglo-Catholic. I recite the Office daily. I commune every Sunday and often Wednesdays. These are core parts of what I do along with the main evening rite.
I am liturgically traditional, period, and try to avoid liturgies overtaken with overly sentimental notions or happy clappy stuff, and that aesthetic and sensibility informs every single ritual and prayer I perform.
Less essential but important rituals and practices: I visit the Sacrament, pray to traditional angels and saints, make the sign of the cross frequently, study religions in general, and I try to cultivate kindness and gentleness toward everyone.