Thanks Philip. For me, the amount of ritual depends on the amount of people present. If I am working alone, my ritual is very simple. If I am working with another person, we must have some form of ritual connection in order to be focused together. If more people are present, then a more complex ritual is required in order to achieve the "group mind". After many years of studying various spiritual traditions (Druidry - OBOD, the Gaelic Druid Order, other Druid groups, etc - Wicca and other forms of Paganism), I see ritual as a joining of the spirit (of whatever we are doing) with the physical - one triggers the other and the more often this is done, the more the connection is built. To perform something that others before us have performed adds to the whole. For me, proper ritual is awesome! Having said that, unnecessary pomp and ceremony is distracting and counter productive.
That's a good way of looking at it Ruiseart, and I feel the same way. Alone, I need little, if nothing. The bigger a group gets the more we need ritual to 'hold us together'. Blessings, Philip
Thank you for this, Philip! I regard ritual as important. I’m in my fourth month of Bardic training, and I find that ritual helps me set aside time to totally be focused on the Great Spirits and Mother Earth, as well as my own spirit. It is a time to honor that which has given us so much, and I don’t see a problem with the few minutes set aside for this. And, though I don’t attend any OBOD groups yet, as there are none near me, I find that even wearing my costume/robe helps get me in the right mind frame. The only time I feel awkward to do this is when my husband is home, but that’s more because I don’t want him to feel awkward more so than myself. So, I just carve out time to do rituals when I’m completely alone with the trees and birds. The only issue I have with ritual currently is that I sometimes have to bring my notes with me to remember how to do and what to say during the event. However, I know that will become easier as I consistently practice. 😊 Again, thank you for this chat. I appreciate all that you do for us members. ❤️
It has taken me sometime to feel comfortable with ritual again. So much of what you said tonight made sense to me. I think I disliked ritual for many years because I was just an observer watching others perform rituals which seemed shallow (this was in both the Catholic Church and several Protestant churches). They were performed without much enthusiasm or meaning. I have also found that as I get older my rituals are much simpler and spontaneous. I do enjoy most of the Druid ceremonies but I sometimes simplify them, being cognizant to keep the essentials. This was a wonderful talk - thank you for doing it.
Sometimes, I like ritual with fellow Druids and when we can call in the directions in our own words personalising and identifying with East, West, etc. Other times, I need to celebrate one of the eight ceremonies as a 'Hedge" Druid and experience the energy by myself it just depends what I am working on spirituality or with a focus on the environment - connecting with the trees etc.
Dear Philip, I still love rituals (doing so for more than 20 years in different contexts), but I`ve also come to more simplicity, and less role play. As a very good example, I loved the rituals we created spontaneously during the gift of the forest workshop in October (with Penny in the Eifel)- there was no costume-use, and a minimalism which allowed deep immersion with the content (the forest) and on the other hand, all elements were deeply known by all participants, so we could let go of the form and dive deeper. So, I think, a kind of tool set about ritual is very helpful, but the intention and simplicity alignment can give us deep and beautiful experiences with the otherworld, deity and spirit. I always love to include meditation (at the beginning or even as a middle part) which helps to get into the depth of conncection with the divine. I always experience beautiful reassuring and healing dreams after such rituals, and I still remember a lot of my/our rituals which touched me deeply, like our wedding ceremony, the godfather/godmother rituals for our children, a menarche ritual in our reclaiming group, a Beltane ritual in the public with Bärenwald Seedgroup, and even some of my first art performances, which are healing rituals for me, too. And, seeing it much more generally, we have loads of rituals in every day life, too, which can help us to adjust to life (outside/inside), like morning meditation or even brushing our teeth... maybe, we even cannot avoid rituals in life ;-) much love to all you beautiful people!
Thank you Sian! Yes it's really fruitful to look back on one's life and remember all the times of meaningful ritual... like stepping stones across the river.. great to read your thoughts...Blessings, Philip
When I was a young Witch, ritual was very important to me. My only real regret at leaving Christianity (I was raised Anglican) was the loss of the liturgy, and I put a great deal of effort into planning, selecting and consecrating my tools, arranging my ceremonies just so. Twenty-odd years later, though, I find that the ritual, the trappings, the tools, have all become secondary... even tertiary. Honestly, I haven't really bothered in years. I'm a Solitary Druid and hedgewitch, and nearly all my work happens inside my head, while I'm walking in the woods or if I'm sitting quietly in my inner Grove. Maybe that's the contemplative path you're talking about? It meets my needs beautifully. I begrudge no one their rituals, and I would love to participate in a large gathering, but I'm happy as I am.
I've been exploring ritual of-late, writing one for the Winter Solstice, which I'll be sharing with friends and family. I tend toward the occasional use of ritual, as I'm moved to use it, but now in my forties, I don't find I need ritual as much, though I feel it's important in certain settings: seasonal celebrations and passage-rites, for example--though I tend not to do the ceremonial-magic influenced sorts of ritual. I've been a pagan since I was twelve-ish, and that's a good thirty years. My enthusiasm for ritual has changed, over time, and I went through a stint as a Christian, because I felt a need to explore other styles of ritual. The basis for my ritual will be a Pacific Northwest Coast (Haida) story about Raven stealing the Light, so I'll be erecting a ceremonial space, with a central candle, and pieces of yellow calcite to represent fragments of the Light, which each participant will be able to take-home, and to sit with that stone during the ritual, and contemplate the unexpressed "gold" within them.
Hi! As I've just said to Jennifer in the comment above, I think your first paragraph and what she says sumps up where I feel I'm at - at the moment. Thank you!
Ritual is designed to get you in the headspace/higher vibration to be able to commune with the high/older energies/gods. If you can get there automatically you need no or less ritual. After years of training and ritual most adepts can get there without ritual because it is just the way they live now. Personal ritual is different than Sabbaths. Community ritual is always good for the heighten energy levels for the goal of the village/town/land.
Oh yes, ritual vs. simplicity. And yes, ritual is distracting for me at least. Maybe it’s because I grew up in a Catholic home and when I decided to pitch all that rot, if I may say so, I didn’t want to go down the Ritual Road again. So maybe that’s my aversion? While I appreciate those who can appear to pray, which I feel is a ritual, I much prefer to go down the simple, inner road. But I think your reference to the tea ritual is valid; it does center one for what is yet to come. But if one tones down, that process can be eliminated. The challenge is the toning down.
Hi, Philip. I 'm here listening you! How do you know maneger and leave us a beautiful and blessed meditation? I'm grateful so much. When I'm in the Subway I use to meditate.
i like to bridge the more formal rituals with the intuitive shamanic as the formal stuff makes a basic framework and basis to launch from but the intuitive stuff gives freedon to idividualism of symbols etc. I feel i need the discipline of formal ritual to balance out the big and almost sole intuitive shamanic stuff i've been working thus far.
Simplicity is key. I stumbled across druidry(neo-druidry) last year. Had no knowledge of the movement not even its existence. I felt this is for me. Yet I still haven't joined an order. what put me off, except for the money aspect, was the rituals. Each to their own, I wouldn't belittle anyone for dressing up and doing the face paints etc, but it left me thinking "am I missing something here?"... I really don't feel the need to dress up or dance about or hold hands chanting, because to me its an exaggeration on an idea of a possible historical reenactment. A crowd sitting by a big fire in silence, eyes closed together listening to the wind, fire etc with a very slow beat of a drum would achieve just as much atmosphere, in my opinion anyway, and there's no evidence to prove or disprove my idea is what happened. Its impossible to recreate the original druids. They had robes possibly because that is only what was worn in that time. Ultimately what I love about druidry is its ability to allow the individual to express themselves independently, everyone is different/right in their own way. Historically they weren't all uniformed movement anyway, what with Celt/Gaelic/gaul tribes going to war with each other, the druids were a key part in that
The first couple of community rituals I went to made me feel awkward and self-conscious. I don't think this was because the rituals themselves were awkward, but because I wasn't accustomed to religious rituals at all. I still feel awkward and skeptical during rituals, but I'm "warming up" to the spiritual, sacred mindset that we invoke in a ritual.
Thanks Philip. For me, the amount of ritual depends on the amount of people present. If I am working alone, my ritual is very simple. If I am working with another person, we must have some form of ritual connection in order to be focused together. If more people are present, then a more complex ritual is required in order to achieve the "group mind". After many years of studying various spiritual traditions (Druidry - OBOD, the Gaelic Druid Order, other Druid groups, etc - Wicca and other forms of Paganism), I see ritual as a joining of the spirit (of whatever we are doing) with the physical - one triggers the other and the more often this is done, the more the connection is built. To perform something that others before us have performed adds to the whole. For me, proper ritual is awesome! Having said that, unnecessary pomp and ceremony is distracting and counter productive.
That's a good way of looking at it Ruiseart, and I feel the same way. Alone, I need little, if nothing. The bigger a group gets the more we need ritual to 'hold us together'. Blessings, Philip
Thank you for this, Philip! I regard ritual as important. I’m in my fourth month of Bardic training, and I find that ritual helps me set aside time to totally be focused on the Great Spirits and Mother Earth, as well as my own spirit. It is a time to honor that which has given us so much, and I don’t see a problem with the few minutes set aside for this. And, though I don’t attend any OBOD groups yet, as there are none near me, I find that even wearing my costume/robe helps get me in the right mind frame. The only time I feel awkward to do this is when my husband is home, but that’s more because I don’t want him to feel awkward more so than myself. So, I just carve out time to do rituals when I’m completely alone with the trees and birds. The only issue I have with ritual currently is that I sometimes have to bring my notes with me to remember how to do and what to say during the event. However, I know that will become easier as I consistently practice. 😊 Again, thank you for this chat. I appreciate all that you do for us members. ❤️
It has taken me sometime to feel comfortable with ritual again. So much of what you said tonight made sense to me. I think I disliked ritual for many years because I was just an observer watching others perform rituals which seemed shallow (this was in both the Catholic Church and several Protestant churches). They were performed without much enthusiasm or meaning. I have also found that as I get older my rituals are much simpler and spontaneous. I do enjoy most of the Druid ceremonies but I sometimes simplify them, being cognizant to keep the essentials. This was a wonderful talk - thank you for doing it.
This was great. Oddly it turns out that my sacred grove is a cold, rocky pacific northwest beach. Beautiful in its own solemn way.
Sometimes, I like ritual with fellow Druids and when we can call in the directions in our own words personalising and identifying with East, West, etc. Other times, I need to celebrate one of the eight ceremonies as a 'Hedge" Druid and experience the energy by myself it just depends what I am working on spirituality or with a focus on the environment - connecting with the trees etc.
Dear Philip, I still love rituals (doing so for more than 20 years in different contexts), but I`ve also come to more simplicity, and less role play. As a very good example, I loved the rituals we created spontaneously during the gift of the forest workshop in October (with Penny in the Eifel)- there was no costume-use, and a minimalism which allowed deep immersion with the content (the forest) and on the other hand, all elements were deeply known by all participants, so we could let go of the form and dive deeper. So, I think, a kind of tool set about ritual is very helpful, but the intention and simplicity alignment can give us deep and beautiful experiences with the otherworld, deity and spirit. I always love to include meditation (at the beginning or even as a middle part) which helps to get into the depth of conncection with the divine. I always experience beautiful reassuring and healing dreams after such rituals, and I still remember a lot of my/our rituals which touched me deeply, like our wedding ceremony, the godfather/godmother rituals for our children, a menarche ritual in our reclaiming group, a Beltane ritual in the public with Bärenwald Seedgroup, and even some of my first art performances, which are healing rituals for me, too. And, seeing it much more generally, we have loads of rituals in every day life, too, which can help us to adjust to life (outside/inside), like morning meditation or even brushing our teeth... maybe, we even cannot avoid rituals in life ;-) much love to all you beautiful people!
Thank you Sian! Yes it's really fruitful to look back on one's life and remember all the times of meaningful ritual... like stepping stones across the river.. great to read your thoughts...Blessings, Philip
@@PhilipCarrGomm thank you! For all the beauty and wisdom you share!
When I was a young Witch, ritual was very important to me. My only real regret at leaving Christianity (I was raised Anglican) was the loss of the liturgy, and I put a great deal of effort into planning, selecting and consecrating my tools, arranging my ceremonies just so. Twenty-odd years later, though, I find that the ritual, the trappings, the tools, have all become secondary... even tertiary. Honestly, I haven't really bothered in years. I'm a Solitary Druid and hedgewitch, and nearly all my work happens inside my head, while I'm walking in the woods or if I'm sitting quietly in my inner Grove. Maybe that's the contemplative path you're talking about? It meets my needs beautifully. I begrudge no one their rituals, and I would love to participate in a large gathering, but I'm happy as I am.
Hi Jennifer - yes I think you and 'Labyrinth Spirituality' in the comment below have expressed really well how I feel now. Thank you!
I've been exploring ritual of-late, writing one for the Winter Solstice, which I'll be sharing with friends and family. I tend toward the occasional use of ritual, as I'm moved to use it, but now in my forties, I don't find I need ritual as much, though I feel it's important in certain settings: seasonal celebrations and passage-rites, for example--though I tend not to do the ceremonial-magic influenced sorts of ritual.
I've been a pagan since I was twelve-ish, and that's a good thirty years. My enthusiasm for ritual has changed, over time, and I went through a stint as a Christian, because I felt a need to explore other styles of ritual.
The basis for my ritual will be a Pacific Northwest Coast (Haida) story about Raven stealing the Light, so I'll be erecting a ceremonial space, with a central candle, and pieces of yellow calcite to represent fragments of the Light, which each participant will be able to take-home, and to sit with that stone during the ritual, and contemplate the unexpressed "gold" within them.
Hi! As I've just said to Jennifer in the comment above, I think your first paragraph and what she says sumps up where I feel I'm at - at the moment. Thank you!
Ritual is designed to get you in the headspace/higher vibration to be able to commune with the high/older energies/gods. If you can get there automatically you need no or less ritual. After years of training and ritual most adepts can get there without ritual because it is just the way they live now. Personal ritual is different than Sabbaths. Community ritual is always good for the heighten energy levels for the goal of the village/town/land.
Oh yes, ritual vs. simplicity. And yes, ritual is distracting for me at least. Maybe it’s because I grew up in a Catholic home and when I decided to pitch all that rot, if I may say so, I didn’t want to go down the Ritual Road again. So maybe that’s my aversion? While I appreciate those who can appear to pray, which I feel is a ritual, I much prefer to go down the simple, inner road.
But I think your reference to the tea ritual is valid; it does center one for what is yet to come. But if one tones down, that process can be eliminated. The challenge is the toning down.
Hi, Philip. I 'm here listening you! How do you know maneger and leave us a beautiful and blessed meditation? I'm grateful so much. When I'm in the Subway I use to meditate.
i like to bridge the more formal rituals with the intuitive shamanic as the formal stuff makes a basic framework and basis to launch from but the intuitive stuff gives freedon to idividualism of symbols etc. I feel i need the discipline of formal ritual to balance out the big and almost sole intuitive shamanic stuff i've been working thus far.
Simplicity is key.
I stumbled across druidry(neo-druidry) last year. Had no knowledge of the movement not even its existence. I felt this is for me. Yet
I still haven't joined an order. what put me off, except for the money aspect, was the rituals. Each to their own, I wouldn't belittle anyone for dressing up and doing the face paints etc, but it left me thinking "am I missing something here?"... I really don't feel the need to dress up or dance about or hold hands chanting, because to me its an exaggeration on an idea of a possible historical reenactment.
A crowd sitting by a big fire in silence, eyes closed together listening to the wind, fire etc with a very slow beat of a drum would achieve just as much atmosphere, in my opinion anyway, and there's no evidence to prove or disprove my idea is what happened.
Its impossible to recreate the original druids. They had robes possibly because that is only what was worn in that time.
Ultimately what I love about druidry is its ability to allow the individual to express themselves independently, everyone is different/right in their own way. Historically they weren't all uniformed movement anyway, what with Celt/Gaelic/gaul tribes going to war with each other, the druids were a key part in that
Egads! I just realised the next one will be number 100!
The first couple of community rituals I went to made me feel awkward and self-conscious. I don't think this was because the rituals themselves were awkward, but because I wasn't accustomed to religious rituals at all. I still feel awkward and skeptical during rituals, but I'm "warming up" to the spiritual, sacred mindset that we invoke in a ritual.
I prefer private rituals for my spiritual practice and group rituals for sharing with community.
Smells & bells 100 %