I had posted here rituals and practices I had been using as a solitary magician/witch/pagan and I think there was a great deal of good in the fact that they were repeatedly formulaic though now my practices vary much more. I have learned and experienced a very great deal indeed. In recent years I have returned to the fold of witchcraft and found that both practice and thought have both broadened and deepened by working with others. As always, there is much going on below the surface and I want to write additional notes to explain this further as well as adding more creative and dramatic elements.
I should note that much of the wording and ritual movements here are drawn from the published works of GBG and the Gardnerian tradition. There are some bits that I was taught specifically in my coven days, some stuff I threw in myself (mainly for clarity) and a few "Nottingham" witch traditions that I think are almost like a dialect.
Of course the essence of ritual is to present the celebrants/magicians with the right material circumstances for their "true being" to reach into the spiritual (or at least non-material) realms . . . so drama plays a part and the acting out of things helps to free the inhibitions which is also conducive.
Let the reader be assured that every small thing is significant and that the emphasis is on the PRACTICAL performace of these rituals . . elaborate rituals are easy to write, but to actually perform and keep up the atmosphere one requires either a level of dedication akin to amateur dramtics or one risks losing the sponteneity of the event, which is, I beleive, a vital part of it.
I would
like to make special mention of the people who brought these writings out in
me, to Margaret where it all started and to Ian whose influence brought
me back into the fold and completed a very long arc of the great spiral that
is my life. And now to Taryn, with whom the future plots itself out spiralling away to foreverness of spirit, magick and love
