Ritual tools: choosing them, preparing them, consecrating them...?

[Eastling]

Lately I've been essentially building a religio-magic practice from the ground up (because why would I ever do anything the easy way when I can spend way more effort to make something all my own?). This has meant slowly piecing together and inventing a new religious text based on the ones I'm drawing from (Judaism, ancient Sumerian and Canaanite sources and other bits of ANE mythos, some Hellenic mystery religion, and a bit of Kemeticism), which is an on-going process at the moment, but it also has ramifications in the material world. That is to say, I need physical and metaphorical tools to perform my rituals.

So far, I've settled on the idea that as I worship a semi-differentiated quartet of gods and have always been fond of Tarot, they have associations with the elements and the four suits of the Minor Arcana, which has led to me deciding to eventually predicate ritual practice around a set of four objects: a bowl for offerings, a lighter for creating fire, a knife for...something I haven't figured out yet, and a pendant/coin/medallion for grounding and preserving energy.

Which leads me to the larger question at hand: when you know you need ritual objects, how do you choose which ones fit the bill? How do you walk into a store, thrift shop, or Etsy page and decide, "This item will serve my ritual purposes?"

Then, once you have the object in question, how do you prepare it? Do you consecrate it in some way? What kind of ritual does that involve?

Not to mention there are tools that aren't even concrete physical objects, like specific chants or ritual/magical processes. How do those fit in?

I'd be interested in hearing from other eclectics as well as people focused on specific traditions and paths.

[Jack]

Which leads me to the larger question at hand: when you know you need ritual objects, how do you choose which ones fit the bill? How do you walk into a store, thrift shop, or Etsy page and decide, "This item will serve my ritual purposes?"

When I'm doing something like this, it's generally something I do in-person and it's almost like a kind of magpie divination - one step outside of reality, wandering the store/estate sale/flea market with the sense of the feeling I want represented on the altar in my mind, waiting for something to resonate with that feeling. It's harmonics. And sometimes something just gets my attention out of nowhere.

Then, once you have the object in question, how do you prepare it? Do you consecrate it in some way? What kind of ritual does that involve?

I spend a little time with it to get a feel for what energy it already has, do any physical cleaning it needs and then a clear water bath and, if necessary, leave it in the moonlight. I don't usually formally consecrate things but if they go on the altar I treat them as belonging to the deity in question.

Not to mention there are tools that aren't even concrete physical objects, like specific chants or ritual/magical processes. How do those fit in?

Trial and error, mostly.

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[Kylara]

Which leads me to the larger question at hand: when you know you need ritual objects, how do you choose which ones fit the bill? How do you walk into a store, thrift shop, or Etsy page and decide, "This item will serve my ritual purposes?"

Then, once you have the object in question, how do you prepare it? Do you consecrate it in some way? What kind of ritual does that involve?

Not to mention there are tools that aren't even concrete physical objects, like specific chants or ritual/magical processes. How do those fit in?

I'd be interested in hearing from other eclectics as well as people focused on specific traditions and paths.

 
My path is very eclectic, I pull inspiration from a lot of sources and end up with a pretty varied practice.

When I was searching for tools, I had two categories I put things in:  this will work for now, and this is what I want!  For some tools, like my blade, I knew I wanted one from the start, that was my main working tool for years.  I had a broad idea of what I wanted (this was back in the day of 'two edged black handled knives' being the standard, so that was what I was after).  At the very beginning, I used a pocket knife that I happened to have...it fit none of those descriptions, but I had it so I used it.  Then I worked my way through several other blades, before I found the one I use today (which amusingly to me does not fit my own original preferences).

When I found the one I have now, I wasn't particularly looking for it.  I hadn't gone to the store to buy a blade, I was just exploring a swap meet and saw it.  I thought about buying it, but wasn't sure, as it wasn't what I had pictured in my head for so many years.  But after walking around some more, I circled back and bought it.

That is how it often works for me.  Sometimes I will see something and just know I have to use it, but sometimes I will see something and be sort of dithering about it, until something just pushes me to either get it or not.  It's very much a gut thing in the end.

The same for consecrating items.  Some items seem to want more formal consecration (being cleansed in and offered to the elements), and some don't seem to want much at all.  

Chants either resonate with me or they don't.  A couple I have ended up working with because they resonate with other members of my chanting group (so I have learned them to chant with my group, but not so much because they called to me specifically).  Most of the times I know the first time I hear a chant if I want to learn it, but sometimes I have to listen to something a couple of times to decide I need to know it.

[Dynes Hysbys]

Lately I've been essentially building a religio-magic practice from the ground up (because why would I ever do anything the easy way when I can spend way more effort to make something all my own?). This has meant slowly piecing together and inventing a new religious text based on the ones I'm drawing from (Judaism, ancient Sumerian and Canaanite sources and other bits of ANE mythos, some Hellenic mystery religion, and a bit of Kemeticism), which is an on-going process at the moment, but it also has ramifications in the material world. That is to say, I need physical and metaphorical tools to perform my rituals.

So far, I've settled on the idea that as I worship a semi-differentiated quartet of gods and have always been fond of Tarot, they have associations with the elements and the four suits of the Minor Arcana, which has led to me deciding to eventually predicate ritual practice around a set of four objects: a bowl for offerings, a lighter for creating fire, a knife for...something I haven't figured out yet, and a pendant/coin/medallion for grounding and preserving energy.

Which leads me to the larger question at hand: when you know you need ritual objects, how do you choose which ones fit the bill? How do you walk into a store, thrift shop, or Etsy page and decide, "This item will serve my ritual purposes?"

Then, once you have the object in question, how do you prepare it? Do you consecrate it in some way? What kind of ritual does that involve?

Not to mention there are tools that aren't even concrete physical objects, like specific chants or ritual/magical processes. How do those fit in?

I'd be interested in hearing from other eclectics as well as people focused on specific traditions and paths.

I improvise with what I have or what I can find and then consecrate through use. I do "upgrade" if I happen to find or make or commission a more appropriate item but the basis of my practice is generally to use what I have to hand or can source fairly easily.

I don't feel the need to perform any ritual to consecrate - the fact that I'm using it in ritual is good enough. The item picks up the necessary energy very quickly anyway.

[RecycledBenedict]

Which leads me to the larger question at hand: when you know you need ritual objects, how do you choose which ones fit the bill? How do you walk into a store, thrift shop, or Etsy page and decide, "This item will serve my ritual purposes?"

That very much depend on the particular tradition.

In Graeco-Roman domestic religion sacrificial bowls and libation cups ought to be made of a suitable matter. Copper or bronze are the most allround materials.

In certain types of Ceremonial magic certain specifics have to be met, in other types there is wiggle-room if you know what to do. If it is impossible to find a particular material corresponding to a chain of correspondences, use another material belonging to the same chain of correspondences.

Chaos magic is very flexible, but in that case I follow hunches.

Then, once you have the object in question, how do you prepare it? Do you consecrate it in some way? What kind of ritual does that involve?

Being an exoteric religion, Roman domestic cultic objects are hallowed by use, but sometimes I have used lustration of some objects. I am still developing the added methods for Hellenistic theurgy, which is a trial-and-error process.

Some time in running water and in sunlight may be used before marking and praying, which also goes for Revival Druidry. Some types of Ceremonial magic prescribe certain symbolic texts or symbols added on the tools. Prayer and exorcisms are the most frequent methods in the Ceremonial magical toolbox, but, depending on tradition, physical cleansing, visualisation and so called 'energy work' (I don't like that term) could be added. Intermediate entities functions in different ways, depending on tradition.

In Caribbean traditions ordinary washing, followed by sprinkling of holy water, washing in rum, and smoking with cigar smoke or palo santo are happening.

Not to mention there are tools that aren't even concrete physical objects, like specific chants or ritual/magical processes. How do those fit in?

 
If you share texts with a group of people, you are not supposed to change a text transmitted from the past on your own initiative. A shared use maintains a specific egregore.

If you are constructing a ritual out of traditional sources for individual use, and understand the reasons why things were used as they were in the past, you can change things in accordance to those reasons. Changes done blindly might, on the other hand, lessen the efficiency of the ritual.

[LilacRaveclaw]

When I'm doing something like this, it's generally something I do in-person and it's almost like a kind of magpie divination - one step outside of reality, wandering the store/estate sale/flea market with the sense of the feeling I want represented on the altar in my mind, waiting for something to resonate with that feeling. It's harmonics. And sometimes something just gets my attention out of nowhere.



I spend a little time with it to get a feel for what energy it already has, do any physical cleaning it needs and then a clear water bath and, if necessary, leave it in the moonlight. I don't usually formally consecrate things but if they go on the altar I treat them as belonging to the deity in question.



Trial and error, mostly.

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Me too, but I love Etsy.


May the wind always be at your back.