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This is an interesting topic that a lot of people struggle with, especially when you are learning remotely and from books. I see it so many times when the students I am tutoring come to the actual ‘doing’ parts. After all, how do you know if you are doing it right when you have never don’t it before, or seen someone do it? And then to top it off, there is almost too much information out there.
Take a simple thing, or what should be a simple thing, doing a ritual. When you have never done one before it can be a daunting task. So you look to websites and books to get an idea of “how” you should do a ritual and “what” you should do. Only to get completely bombarded with so many different ways to do one and a lot of it conflicting.
A ritual should preformed outside, a ritual can be preformed inside, a circle needs to be 9 feet wide, a circle can be as big or small as you need, the elements go in these directions, no hang on it depends on what is around you, or what side of the world you are from, you do the circle, once, or maybe three times, you go clockwise, or is it anti clockwise, do you open the circle or not, you need to be skyclad, or you can wear cloths just not jewelry, you need to dress up as much as possible and look fantastic, hear out, hair up, you need all the tools, you need no tools, and on, and on and on.
And in amongst all of this the reason behind why you wanted to do the ritual can get well and truly lost.
So here is what I tell my students. Keep it Simple. Read up on a few different ways, think about them. Ask yourself what appeals to you, what do you want to try first to see how it feels for you? There are some basic elements or structures that are good to follow. Building a circle by walking around your space (with either your finger or athama or wand) visualizing the circle space building around you. Calling the elements in some way. Inviting the Lord and Lady into the space. Doing the ritual work and the reason that you wanted to create this space in the first place, which could be a simple as just wanting to communicate and spend time with the elements and/or the Lord and Lady to some form of complicated Magick, or anything in between. Sharing some Cakes and Ale, Saying good buy and thank you to the elements and the Lord and Lady. And though not everyone does this, I like to open the circle space again by walking the opposite way around the circle space (again with finger, athama or wand).
These are basic building blocks and from there it is try, try and try some more. Put the elements in different directions and see what works for you and your relationship with the elements. Do one that is clockwise, then next time anticlockwise and see how both feel to you. Think about how you want to be in the circle, how you want to present yourself in this space. Rituals can be very personal things and they do require some thought and planning, at the same time they can be very spontaneous.
And probably one last note, you can also trip over, stumble on words, forget what order you were going to do it in and get it back to front, burn things, drop things, head go blank, and have all sorts of Opps moments. The Lord and Lady are not expecting you to be perfect, after all they see you every day and know all your inner darkest secrets and all your bad points, and they love you anyway. When you drop the scared candle on the rug that catches fire in the middle of a ritual, they are going to completely understand that you are going to stop every thing and put the fire out.
So when it comes to the ‘doing’ relax,breath, keep it simple and most importantly, enjoy it.
Image courtesy of bandrat at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
