PAGAN RITUAL

Pagan ritual, whether it is an act or worship or magic, employs a specific series of stages, using symbolism and ceremony, to create a sacred place and state of consciousness whereby the participants are put in touch with forces outside themselves – the Gods. Step by step, we weave together the disparate threads of time, place and people using the beliefs, words, symbols, movements and intent of those involved to make the ritual pattern, a pattern by which we “establish a link and cultivate a dialogue between the microcosm and the macrocosm”. Ritual is a two way exchange between the microcosm (us and through us, our world) and the macrocosm (the greater Cosmos and the powers of the Gods).

You need to understand why you are performing the ritual (its intent), you need to be fully prepared, purified and consecrated, able to understand the magical language (the symbolism and mythology) that the ritual employs, and you need to be capable of total concentration, able to focus your whole being on a single aim. You need to be able to relinquish your ego in order to become part of the group mind. Furthermore, the group needs to have effective techniques of opening up the channels to the Gods, and the individuals within the group the skill to receive that energy.

However, it takes a special kind of person to work effective ritual - what we call a priest or priestess, a person who is willing undertake the training, to persevere when faced with failure, and who is able to find within themselves deep reserves of self-discipline, application and learning: an initiate.

When you create within a sacred paradigm, you find a strange thing. You are communicating with, and being fed by, sources you know are within you, but have a much greater reflection somewhere else. You are in touch with something timeless.” [i] Elizabeth Fuller

The Oxford English Dictionary defines 'ritual' as “a ceremonial act or series of acts, a prescribed method of procedure”. The word derives from Latin and relates to ‘number’ or ‘counting’, in the sense of the order that things should be done in, and this tells us the most fundamental thing about ritual.

Pagan ritual, whether it is an act or worship or magic, employs a specific series of stages, using symbolism and ceremony, to create a sacred place and state of consciousness whereby the participants are put in touch with forces outside themselves – the Gods. Step by step, we weave together the disparate threads of time, place and people using the beliefs, words, symbols, movements and intent of those involved to make the ritual pattern, a pattern by which we “establish a link and cultivate a dialogue between the microcosm and the macrocosm”.[ii] Ritual is a two way exchange between the microcosm (us and through us, our world) and the macrocosm (the greater Cosmos and the powers of the Gods).

The world-view of the majority of Pagans is holistic: all of the Cosmos, both manifest and unmanifest, even the gods and goddesses, are part of a single great whole. The divine is not separate from creation, but is manifest within it and within each of us; just as we are all contained within the divine spirit. We are indivisibly connected to everything else. Thus, the Pagan recognises his or her place in the Cosmos, not a stranger, or a separate being apart from it, but part of the living diversity in unity.[iii]

We know that the material world we perceive with our five senses is only part of the whole; there are unseen Otherworlds overlapping our own, populated by gods and goddesses, non-incarnate adepts, nature spirits, elementals and wildfolk: embodiments of natural forces and energies: un-numbered conscious entities which are responsible for the functioning of the Cosmos. They have been given different names, faces and allotted assorted functions in sundry cultures around the world. We humans view them anthropomorphically in order to identify with them more closely as concepts we can easily grasp, but in truth they are not limited by the forms we give them, which merely reflect our own desires and fears: we only glimpse their essence.

It is said that there are two forms of magic, thaumaturgy which means ‘the art of working wonders’ harnessing natural forces to create effects, and theurgy which means ‘divine work’. The latter is the approach of the Pagan, one that puts religion and magic hand in hand. Paganism is a religious path after all, but one which aims to develop the soul and the world by magical means. We recognise the existence of the creative forces of the Cosmos, and each person’s right to approach the transcendental powers themselves without an intermediary, for as Dion Fortune said: “The gods are alive in the minds of all of us, and it is up to us to open the channels of inspiration.” [iv]

However, ritual is something that many new Pagans have difficulty coming to terms with; after looking forward to their first ceremony, they are often left with a feeling of disappointment. I sometimes have probationers who are drawn to the ideology of the Craft, but say to me “I don’t like the rituals” or “I don’t get anything out of the rituals”. They can be left unaffected while their fellow coven members are reeling under the impact of a powerful ceremony feeling divinely blessed and spiritually enlightened. They were all at the same event, so what was the difference? It may sound simplistic to say it, but you only get out of a ritual what you put in. If you merely observe and do not try to participate to your utmost capacity, then you will never be touched by ritual.

In order to work effective ritual, you need to understand why you are performing the ritual (its intent), you need to be fully prepared, purified and consecrated, able to understand the magical language (the symbolism and mythology) that the ritual employs, and you need to be capable of total concentration, able to focus your whole being on a single aim. You need to be able to relinquish your ego in order to become part of the group mind. Furthermore, the group needs to have effective techniques of opening up the channels to the Gods, and the individuals within the group the skill to receive that energy.

It has to be said that some covens, groves and moots are little more than communal meeting places, holding ad hoc festival celebrations that are little more than social events, paying lip-service to the relevant occasion. Such events are pale shadows of what rituals can be, merely touching the mental plane of ceremony, rather than connecting with the spiritual plane of ritual, and though it may satisfy and stimulate for a time, the effects of the ritual will not be profound, and will not last. It may sound very glamorous to call yourself a witch or a druid, but those titles have to be earned with study, commitment, time and effort in order to be able to move beyond the outer forms of worship. We live in a society that expects instant gratification, big rewards for little effort, and most resist the idea that self-discipline and hard work is necessary.

Those who give of themselves will receive blessings in return, stimulating experiences that extend their understanding and development far beyond the bounds of what may be achieved by study and meditation alone. Ritual is a powerful path to illumination; humankind, through ritual, gains access to the Cosmic consciousness.

Those who take readily to ritual are often Old Souls, celebrants of the mysteries in previous lifetimes whose past-life memories are stirred by ceremony. Newer souls take longer to come to terms with ritual.

However, some people can never work magical ritual at its deepest levels; it takes a special kind of person, what we call in the Craft a priest or priestess, a person who is willing undertake the training, to persevere when faced with failure, and who is able to find within themselves deep reserves of self-discipline, application and learning: an initiate. Not everyone has the strength of will and mental stamina to withstand the pressures of such a path.

As Pagans, we hold a wide variety of rituals, private and public, seasonal and esbats, weddings, namings and funerals; rituals designed for magic, for transformation, for healing and to give thanks. There are many kinds of ritual structure used by modern Pagans. In its most basic form this might be:

In this chapter, I’ll talk you through the steps of formulating a ritual and its execution in our tradition and ask you to think about each step described and how it might be applied to your own practices.

The first and most important step in planning a ritual is to determine its intent: knowing exactly what you want the ritual to achieve - and you have to be absolutely clear about this. Even if it is Beltane and you decide you should have a ritual because that’s what Pagans do, what is the exact intent?

Above all, it should be remembered that every ritual intends to align the macrocosm and microcosm; to allow the greater forces of the Cosmos to flow through the circle and through the participants, re-forging the links between us and the Gods. Each ritual we perform should progressively make that connection easier and more permanent.

Every act performed in the ritual must be in accord with the intent of the ritual, and this should be reflected in its themes, symbols, words, music and invocations in order to create an harmonic resonance that amplifies that intent. Any false note within any of the above will corrupt the focus of the intent. What happens in the circle has results in the outer world - that’s the whole point. Its energies are magnified in the outside world, so that if we introduce anger or chaos, for example, these will be magnified in our lives, the lives of those around us, and the world at large.

The Wheel of the Year concerns the flow of energy, pouring in at one part of the year and ebbing out at another. Our ancestors recognised this as a balance – a time to receive, a time to pay out. This is something not well understood nowadays when dark, death, winter are seen to be evil, rather than part of the Cosmic balance. For the Pagan death was not the end but part of the cycle: corn is sown, grows, is cut down and the seed re-sown to grow again in its season, a cycle we call the Eternal Return. The task of the Pagan is to understand this many layered pattern and work in harmony with, rather than in spite of, natural cycles.

The sun marks four clear divisions of the year at the two solstices and two equinoxes, which are referred to as the Quarter Days, and symbolised by the equal armed solar cross found widely depicted on pre-historical artefacts, and these are the oldest festivals of all. At the spring and autumn equinoxes, day and night are of equal length. At the summer solstice we have the longest day, and at the winter solstice, the longest night. These days have been observed by virtually every culture at some point in their histories. Into the modern neo-Pagan calendar are inserted the Cross Quarter Days to make eight festivals. These Cross Quarter festivals are also ancient, and were almost equally celebrated. They are based on the position of the stars rather than the sun, though today they are rarely celebrated on the true date which has moved with the precession of the equinoxes, but meshed with the fixed calendar. The fixed calendar moves us further from the original date by virtue of the fact that in 1582 Pope Gregory XIII wiped out ten days from the old Julian calendar to re-align it with the seasons. However, the Gregorian calendar was not adopted in Britain until 1752 and Ireland until 1782, by which time eleven days had to be dropped. This led to the festivals being celebrated on either the old date or the new, called respectively New Style and Old Style. As a general rule, most celebrations gradually moved to the New Style calendar.

There are no greater and lesser Sabbats, but each festival carries equal weight within the story of the year.

NB: The rituals in this book are suggestions, sketches of rituals, some with invocations and some without. It is u to you to flesh them out and adapt them to your needs, or simply take some of the ideas and formulate your own.

“…the winter solstice was the turning point of time and the birthday of the sun, the moment of new beginnings. All of nature was poised to step over the border of the year.

The winter solstice was celebrated on every continent of the earth; by the ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Jews, Persians, Greeks, Roman, Norse, Celtic and Germanic, in North and South America, the Far and Near East and Africa.

The winter solstice takes place on or about December 21^st every year in the northern hemisphere (or 21^st June in the southern hemisphere). The sun hangs low and weak in the sky during the brief daylight hours, casting long shadows. It is the shortest day and longest night, but from this time the sun gradually strengthens; thus it is the death of the old solar year and the start of the new.

Ancient man would have realised that we depend on the sun for life- in the summer the long hours of daylight and warmth make the crops grow. In the winter days of darkness and cold, they shrivel and die; humans and animals struggle to find food and survive. Each day, up to the winter solstice, the sun grows weaker and weaker. If it does not regenerate then life must end. Then, on the shortest day in the time of darkness, the light is reborn and with it hope.

‘Solstice’ is derived from two Latin words: sol meaning ‘sun’, and sistere, ‘to cause to stand still’ and so means ‘sun stands still’. A little before and during the winter and summer solstices, the sun appears to rise and set at almost exactly the same place on the horizon. Throughout the year the sun passes through the constellations of the zodiac and the summer solstice occurs in the constellation of Cancer, the Crab, and the winter solstice in the constellation of Capricorn, the Goat. At the moment of the winter solstice, the path of the sun in the sky over the past six months has reached its furthest southern position and now turns northward again.

The winter solstice is generally considered to be the start of winter, and the three winter months are reckoned as December, January and February. However, the ‘solar winter’- the period with the fewest hours of daylight and the weakest sunlight - stretches from November 1^st to February 1^st with the solstice marking Midwinter.

Though the Winter Solstice is the shortest day of the year, it is not the date of either the earliest sunset or the latest sunrise. The earliest sunset occurs around Little Yule on 13^th December, and the latest sunrise around New Year at the beginning of January.

The celebration of the winter solstice dates back at least 10,000 years and possibly very much earlier. Many archaic structures, such as stone circles and the burial chambers, have winter solstice alignments. Stonehenge is not only orientated to the summer sunrise as many think, but also to the winter solstice sunrise and sunset along the main axis of the temple. The temples of Karnak and Abydos (in Egypt) have winter solstice alignments and the Sun Dagger celestial calendar in New offers a direct alignment with both the winter solstice sunset and summer solstice sunrise. Newgrange in Ireland was designed to funnel a shaft of sunlight deep into its central chamber at dawn on the day of the Winter Solstice. Above the entrance way is a stone box that allows the light from the sun to penetrate to the back of the cairn at sunrise. Its older name was An Liamh Greine or ‘the Cave of the Sun’.

It was a common belief that the sun spent each night or each winter in a cave. Many solar deities are said to have been born from a cave: Mithras dragged the solar bull from a cave; Zeus was born in the Dictean Caves on Crete; the god Krishna was born in a dark dungeon; Apollo was born under Delos, where no rays of sunlight could penetrate; the Phoenician god Melkarth woke from his winter sleep in his sacred cave at the winter solstice and the Japanese sun goddess Amaterasu lived in a cave for a time. In early Christian stories, Jesus was born in a cave - the Greek text of the Gospel of St Luke uses the word katalemna, meaning cave, not stable - and in Bethlehem the Church of the Nativity is built over a cave.

The sun god is always said to be the son of a virgin- he is born at the winter solstice at midnight when the sign of Virgo the Virgin is rising above the horizon. In ancient Egypt the incarnated god and saviour Osiris died and was entombed at the winter solstice, then at midnight, the priests emerged from an inner shrine crying “The Virgin has brought forth! The light is waxing" and showing the image of a baby to the worshipers, the infant Horus, Osiris reincarnated. The festival lasted twelve days (the origin of the twelve days of Christmas) to reflect the twelve months of the year.

It was a common belief that the twelve days of Yule were connected to the twelve months ahead. In Britain, the weather on each day reflected that which could be expected in the corresponding month. In Germany and Scandinavia, the twelve months of the year are magically reflected during the twelve holy nights when the Wild Hunt rides out. It is an especially dangerous time when spirits are abroad.

The legendary King Arthur (‘Bear-Man’) was identified with the constellation of the Great Bear which was called Arthur’s Wain (wagon), or sometimes Arthur’s Plough. The bear hibernates in the winter, entering a cave or some quiet, secluded place. It emerges in the spring with the female often having given birth in the meantime and appearing with cubs in tow. This led to the bear being associated with regeneration and rebirth, adopted as a solar symbol. It seems likely that Arthur was originally a sun/bear god, with the solstice being called Alban Arthur or 'Arthur's Time' by modern Druids. Arthur’s marriage to the Earth causes it to blossom. During the year he is a warrior who battles the darkness. In the winter he is the aging sun king who dies, sleeping in a cave until his promised return.[ii] Following the Great Bear is the constellation of Boötes, the herdsman, with its brightest star Arcturus or 'Bear Keeper'. When it first rises over the eastern horizon, not long after the winter solstice each year, it means that spring is on its way. Arcturus is known as 'The One who Comes', and just as Arthur is known as the 'Once and Future King.' The constellation of the Great Bear circles around the still Pole Star during the course of the year. To this day the Welsh refer to the northern heavens as the Bwrdd Arthur (Arthur's Table), described as round. [iii]

For the Romans, Dies Natalis Invicti Solis, ‘the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun’ celebrated the birth of Sol (the sun). Roman women would parade in the streets crying ‘unto us a child is born!’ In the old Julian calendar the winter solstice, or Bruma ‘the shortest day,’ fell on December 25^th..

The Romans also held the Saturnalia festival at the winter solstice, and it is the origin of many Yuletide customs we still enjoy today. Saturn (from satus meaning ‘sowing’). Cognate with the Greek Kronos, is one of the elder Roman deities, a god of time and agriculture. The feast commemorated the mythical age of Saturn's kingship, a Golden Age of happiness for all men. Like Arthur, it is said that he lies asleep on a secret island and one day will return. In the meantime, once a year a temporary Golden Age was celebrated. Riotous merry-making took place, and lights were kept burning to ward off the spirits of darkness. Schools were closed, the army rested, and no criminals were executed. Friends visited one another with gifts of cakes, lamps, dolls, jewellery and incense. Temples were decorated with evergreens symbolizing life's continuity, and processions of people with masked or blackened faces danced through the streets. Masters served meals to their slaves who elected a Mock King to take charge of the revels. This custom continued with the Mediaeval Lord of Misrule who presided over the Christmas festivities.

There is an element of anarchy and the reversal of social order about the Yuletide festivities, because the dying of the sun threatens a descent into primal chaos: it the end of the old cycle of existence, and order is restored only with its rebirth. The intervening period or ‘gap in time,’ the inter-calendar days of the twelve days of Yule, is especially magical and otherworldly, being a time on the verge of chaos when the barriers between the realms dissolve, when the veils between the living and dead are thin. Finnish shamans call it ‘The Dreaming’ or ‘God’s Trance Hour’.[iv] Several fairies are said to destroy any spinning left on the wheel at Yule or Christmas. This has its origin in the fact that many sun gods and goddesses were associated with spinning, either spinning the Cosmos itself, or sunbeams in the hours before dawn. At Yule, the midwinter solstice, when the sun stands still, all forms of spinning and weaving were forbidden because it was a pause in the turning of the wheel of the year. The Lapps forbade the turning of any kind of wheel, including cartwheels and churns.

Stories surrounding the winter solstice often tell of a battle between light and dark, during which the light triumphs. The battle of the summer and winter king at Augsburg, where summer wears ivy and evergreens and winter is masked, is marked by a fight between the two in which summer wins. In Steiermark winter and summer are teams of young men. The winter men wear fur jackets and have baker’s shovels, flails and reels of twine. The summer men have sickles, scythes and pitchforks.

All of the customs associated with the modern Christmas are Pagan in origin. A December festival to celebrate the birth of Christ didn't exist until the fourth century when Christians simply adopted the popular solstice celebrations honouring the birth of the divine child, the sun. The eastern churches refused to honour it for another hundred years, and the church of Jerusalem ignored the date until the 7th century. John Chrysostom, a fourth-century bishop of Constantinople firmly believed December 25^th was selected so Christians could celebrate Christ's birthday undisturbed while "the heathen were busy with their profane ceremonies".[v]

Fire is the little brother of the sun, so fires were lit at the solstice to encourage (by sympathetic magic) the sun to strengthen and begin the long climb back to midsummer. Around the fire would dance shamans dressed in deer skins and antlers, goat hide and horse head skulls and masks. Red was worn to give strength to the sun.

To keep alive the vegetation spirit houses were decorated with evergreens, holly, ivy and mistletoe. Evergreens had great power as they could withstand the winter death. The mistletoe grows not on the ground, but on the branches of a tree, so it was considered very magical. The berries were regarded as the semen of the host tree, or by some the semen of the Lord of the Trees. The most sacred mistletoe grew on the oak (a rare occurrence). The mistletoe represented the vitality of the oak and was used to strengthen the sun god in his weakened state. Amongst the Celts, warfare had to cease at the time of the winter solstice and mistletoe cutting. Later, Christian cathedrals and churches would lay mistletoe on the altar for the Twelve Days of Christmas and in some cities, such as York, a general pardon would be proclaimed at the gates.

In Scandinavian and other northern countries, including some Celtic ones, evergreen trees were decked with lights. The Romans decorated pine trees with images of Bacchus.

The custom of holly decoration was carried on into the Christian era although it was not to be brought in until Christmas Eve or allowed to remain after twelfth night. The ivy is a symbol of life and rebirth as it remains green throughout the winter and for its spiral growth, which represents the path of the sun (as do the spiral patterns at Newgrange).

Father Christmas is one of a number of gift-giving spirits that appear at the winter solstice, depending on which country you live in. It is possible that he evolved from the Scandinavian/Germanic god Odin or Woden, who rode the skies at Yule wearing a red, bloody, flayed animal skin, punishing the wicked and rewarding the good. It seems likely that he passed into English folklore and can be traced in the character that appears as master of ceremonies in the mumming plays, and as the King of Christmas. Perhaps the figure may be older still, originating in the Druidic midwinter festivities and the Roman Saturnalia or the tribal shaman dressed in red and white to echo the fly agaric mushroom. In European legends he rides a goat or a donkey, the latter a Saturnalian beast sacrificed with a holly club at the midwinter solstice. In Germany, he is also known as Pelze Nicol ('Furry Nicholas' from his fur costume), who is titled Schrimmerlreiter 'Rider of the White Horse,' one of the titles of Odin.

Priest: In this the season of the Dark Time, shrouded in the frosted cloak of the Crone, we celebrate the festival of Yule, the rebirth of the sun, and the life of the coming year.

Priest: The year has reached its lowest ebb, all is darkness and death. Yet in this darkness we must find hope. In this darkness we must find light. The sun must be reborn!

Each person takes a token, usually the remains of last year’s mistletoe, or an object that symbolises something you wish to be rid of, or a piece of paper on which you have written all the things you wish to be rid of (such as bad habits, illness, old ties, destructive relationships and so on) and invokes into it all that they wish to leave behind with the passing year. This is then burned in the fire.

A priest wearing a sun mask lights candles around the circle. He says: "The light is reborn!"

[i] Krupps, Beyond the Blue Horizon

[ii] The Light of Britannia by Owen Morgan

[iii] ibid

[iv] Nigel Jackson, Compleat Vampire

[v] http://altreligion.about.com/library/weekly/aa121305a.htm

[i] http://www.rainewalker.com/book-page.htm

[ii] Bill Whitcomb, The Magician’s Reflection, Llewellyn, St Paul, 1999, p. xv

[iii] W.E.Butler, Magic, Its Ritual Power and Purpose, quoted in The Ritual Magic Workbook by Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki, The Aquarian Press, Wellingborough, 1986 p54

[iv] Dion Fortune, Applied Magic, The Aquarian Press, Wellingborough, 1981

[v] Vivianne Crowley, Wicca, The Aquarian Press, Wellingborough, 1989

[vi] Nigel Pennick, The Ancient Science of Geometry, Thames and Hudson, 1979

[vii] John Michell, At the Centre of the World, Thames and Hudson, London, 1994

[viii] Gracheva; G. K. Etnokulturnye kontakty narodov Sibiri. 1984, p 91

[ix] Alexei Kondratiev, Samhain, Season of Death and Renewal, 1997