From: wolfe@wolves.Durham.NC.US (G. Wolfe Woodbury)
Subject: Re: Looking to explore ideas on paganism and ritual, 2nd try
Date: 11 Aug 93 05:53:14 GMT

I read with interest the commentary on rituals here, and hope that
this turns into a longer thread.

At Lughnasahd/Lammas my CUUPs chapter held a public ritual that was
also part of the program for a Pagan Conference sponsored jointly by
CUUPs and "Our House/Unltd Academy" of Durham. (With assistance from
the Stardust Circle Wicca Seminary, etc...)

The ritual was essentially a "BYORP" (Bring Your Own Ritual Piece)
affair, where the participants sat down before the ceremony and put it
together on the spot.  There was a "Master of Ceremonies" (me :-) who
had proposed a theme for the ritual - Healing of ourselves in renewal
of life - and provided an outline for fitting pieces into.

It was an outstanding success (well, one guided meditation was badly
done, but it was a "first effort" for the writer.)

We had Unitarian Universalists, technopagans, formal Wiccans,
conservative Wiccans, ecclectic neo-pagans, Gaian ecopagans, and
several one-of-a-kind pagans in attendance.  It was held in the forest
glade space of our CUUPs group, on the grounds of the local UU
Fellowship, and thus we were using the UU principles as the guide for
activity.  This means that there is a "respect for the worth and
dignity of every person" and an emphasis on tolerance and inclusivity.

I don't have my notepad with the order on it here, but the sequence
was rather generic.
	procession to glade with chanting (We All Come from the Goddess)
	call to the directions/elements  (east,south,west,north)
	casting the circle (person to person)
	sealing the circle (walking the perimeter)
	singing the circle
	Invocation of the Goddess/Lady
	Invocation of the God/Lord
	raising energy (circle dance,spiral dance)
	sharing of energy, healing sendouts, grounding
	healing meditation
	sharing of wine/water and bread
	heart circle, sharing of experiences
	farewell to the God/Lord
	farewell to the Goddess/Lady
	farewell to the directions/elements
	opening of the circle (merry meet, merry part, merry meet again)
	potluck feast

Most of the rituals and ceremonies that I have participated in in
groups have followed this sort of a sequence or some variation on it.
Parts of it are shortened or combined with other parts, some parts may
be absent or have a different focus (different meditations or heart
circle theme.)

I got a "post-mortem" report on the ritual from several folks this
last week and was gratified by the success that it seemed to be.  For
several folks it was their first large group (we had 40-some folks
present) ritual, and they were quite pleased.  Some of the older (as
in more experienced) folks were also pleased with the coherence of the
ritual despite its impromptu planning method.  The one uniformly
negative comment was that the "healing meditation" was badly timed and
obvioulsy the work of an inexperienced person.  It should be easy to
fix this for other rituals of a similar nature.

Interspersed with the pieces above were chants and drumming and
general "foolishness" to cover the rough spots were we had to dig
around and find the notepad or get a candle over to light a direction
beacon or altar candle.

We had 5 altars set up.  In in each of the cardinal directions, and
one in the center.  Participants were encouraged to place objects of
their own on the altars as they felt inclined.  I should have
announced this a bit more in advance of the time so that there was
more opportunity for folks to do this.  (The purpose of this is to
"charge" the objects or to "sanctify" the altars.  I find it is a way
to make a group ritual much more personal by adding pieces from my
home altar(s) to the group altars.)

Perhaps others can comment on their reactions to this description,
and/or comment on rituals that they have been involved in.

Bright Blessing to all
Wolfe