What activities during rituals have you enjoyed?

[SolsticeSnaca]

Hi! : I'm planning a few public rituals for my local Pagan group, and I'm trying to come up with some creativity new things to try!

In rituals you have experienced, were there any activities that you really enjoyed? For example: my group typically plants seeds on Imbloc or Ostara...but I want to do something different! Spice things up a bit! We've recently gained a lot of new-to-the-craft people and it's difficult sometimes to get them to relax and participant in the ritual activities, especially when we do the same things every time.

Thanks in advance!

[Jenett]

In rituals you have experienced, were there any activities that you really enjoyed? For example: my group typically plants seeds on Imbloc or Ostara...but I want to do something different! Spice things up a bit! We've recently gained a lot of new-to-the-craft people and it's difficult sometimes to get them to relax and participant in the ritual activities, especially when we do the same things every time.

 
Can you share a bit more about the practical details? How many people, on average? What kind of space are you using? Do you have a core of people who come regularly, or is it not clear before the ritual who'll be there? Is there a budget for supplies?

In general terms, Amber K and Azrael K's book RitualCraft has a bunch of ideas that have been used in public and not-so-public rituals, with some practical stuff. I also really like Deborah Blake's books for this kind of thing: she's got a lot of ideas that are practical (though some of htem work better with a small known group than, say, 30 people, 10 of whom you've never seen before.)

[SolsticeSnaca]

Can you share a bit more about the practical details? How many people, on average? What kind of space are you using? Do you have a core of people who come regularly, or is it not clear before the ritual who'll be there? Is there a budget for supplies?

In general terms, Amber K and Azrael K's book RitualCraft has a bunch of ideas that have been used in public and not-so-public rituals, with some practical stuff. I also really like Deborah Blake's books for this kind of thing: she's got a lot of ideas that are practical (though some of htem work better with a small known group than, say, 30 people, 10 of whom you've never seen before.)

 
Oh, yes! lol Forgot to mention the important details. It's usually 10 to 30 people...it's difficult to know because people do not have to say they are coming, or they can bring friends who are not members.

There's usually the "core group" of most active members, with a few less active members. Lately, though, we've been getting more and more new people that we barely know and are very new to Paganism! At one event new people outnumbered old members!

Budget is up to the facilitator and we accept donations to offset those costs. We do rituals for every Full Moon and Sabbat. I'm trying to plan a Mabon

[Kylara]

Hi! : I'm planning a few public rituals for my local Pagan group, and I'm trying to come up with some creativity new things to try!

In rituals you have experienced, were there any activities that you really enjoyed? For example: my group typically plants seeds on Imbloc or Ostara...but I want to do something different! Spice things up a bit! We've recently gained a lot of new-to-the-craft people and it's difficult sometimes to get them to relax and participant in the ritual activities, especially when we do the same things every time.

Thanks in advance!

 
I am a hands on person, so I love any ritual where I get to make something, whether it then goes into the fire, gets taken home for continued work (or to be a focus for work), or given to another in the circle.

I do rituals with a handful of others, and we have done quite a lot of different crafty things in ritual.  We have created things out of salt dough, braided prayer cords and made prayer sticks. We have blown eggs out (to create a hollow shell) then filled, sealed and painted the eggs.  We made honey pots one day too.  We have done several variations of blessing or wish chains (each person has wishes that they mark on paper or cloth and they are all connected together as we are all connected together in community).

One of the things I like about crafting rituals is that it gets everyone involved.  I don't feel skill is so much an issue (we haven't ever done anything that requires a lot of skill), and it is always fun to see what kinds of things other people create.

[Olivia]

Hi! : I'm planning a few public rituals for my local Pagan group, and I'm trying to come up with some creativity new things to try!

In rituals you have experienced, were there any activities that you really enjoyed? For example: my group typically plants seeds on Imbloc or Ostara...but I want to do something different! Spice things up a bit! We've recently gained a lot of new-to-the-craft people and it's difficult sometimes to get them to relax and participant in the ritual activities, especially when we do the same things every time.

Thanks in advance!

 
My mom has a big bonfire every year for solstice and anyone who wants to can make a little man out of various herbs to throw on the fire. She has a fairly large selection of them and people can pick and choose what they want to put in to represent things they want to move past in the coming year. I don't think it has any real spiritual connection for her though. I think she is just trying to make up for the fact that she has always wanted to go to Burning Man and never got the chance to.

[Jenett]

There's usually the "core group" of most active members, with a few less active members. Lately, though, we've been getting more and more new people that we barely know and are very new to Paganism! At one event new people outnumbered old members!

 
Some things I've done or seen done that were interesting:

- the blown out eggs (fill with protection herbs, and they can be hung outside the door of a home as a protection charm: decorate with markers. We run ribbon through, and use first aid tape to close the bottom hole after the ribbon's in.)

- I've seen some interesting things done with minor divination - taking meaningful texts, having people write a question, someone else draw a piece (a bit of the Rede, or the Charge of the Goddess, or whatever other text you can break into short segments) and then write an interpretation of the question. It doesn't require particular knowledge (like Tarot cards or Runes would) but can still be very helpful and interesting if you get the right mix going.

- I did a ritual a number of years ago now that was about experiencing the elements. I picked out music related to each one, people sat in a circle, and then we went through all four, and while the appropriate music played, I handed around foods and drinks relating to the element, things to touch, things to smell, etc.

(This can be a little tricky if you have food allergies to consider, but there's ways to work around that - careful labelling, avoiding or making the likely ones really obvious,  using closed containers that people open individually, etc.)

- For a Lammas ritual one year (this one takes some time. And an oven), we got people together, blessed the ingredients for bread, made dough. While it was rising, we split people into groups (doing a little forcing of the groups so each group had one experienced member who was comfortable encouraging people to participate/etc.) and then handed out brief summaries of myths or folk stories relating to bread or the ingredient (there's a great fairy tale about three daughters, a king, and salt, for example.)

Each group then had to come up with a short skit or something else that told the story. We had some basic props for things like capes and crowns (some construction paper, pipe cleaners, tape, and scissors go a long way). People had the first rise of the dough to plan, and then the second rise to perform, and it turned out to be a lot of fun and very silly, but also suprisingly meaningful - it was a great ritual for community and fellowship in a lot of ways. (You want groups of 4-5 people, probably, but hte more groups you have, the more time it'll take for performances, so you might need to adjust on the fly.) And then we baked the bread, and spent time talking over the stories and just hanging out while we ate it.