Ceremonial acts of gladness
Here are a whole bunch of pagan rituals described in detail for your convenience.
I find it’s more powerful to make up my own rituals. And it’s more fun! Ask Hal Falon. He once wrote to me, asking to be pen pals and reassured me he’s witchier than most women. I did not find this information reassuring. I’m obviously not pagan enough.
olivia
Hahahaha! Either that or he’s too happy these days to blog.
nathan
I can only imagine the weight of holding up the woes of a world gone awry became too much for him to bare, and, like a Q-tip without a cotton swab, he bore into his own brain the screeching moaning wailing death of a thousand nations.
st0nes
So what happened to Hal?
olivia
Wow. That’s so beautiful! I thought it was really small, which was a silly thing to think.
Quiddity
this is my stone
Quiddity
well, nature doesn’t generally leave quarried stone, shaped and buried to half its height in arable farmland.
olivia
So… how did you know it was a standing stone and not some ancient stone placed there by nature?
Quiddity
standing stones are stones that were placed in the earth by pagans. Sometimes they’re massive like those at stonehenge, sometimes they’re relatively small and solitary like the one i found.
olivia
What’s a standing stone? I want to find one now.
Quiddity
I went out into the countryside and found a standing stone I’d not seen before. it was so close to home but i’d never heard anyone mention it before. it seemed like just the right time to find it.
Fuschia Faery
I agree with Nathan that it’s always best to use your own words and intent. But inspiration can come from others. We went to a full moon ritual last night focusing on summer solstice. it was great! Yay!
nathan
Hmmm…. when you take a wonderful thing like being a pagan and start practicing other people’s rituals, I think you’ve missed the point.
Granted, I’m no expert on paganism, unless you count that I started my own pagan religion, in which case I am the foremost leading expert…
But really, the ridiculous part of Christianity, particularly the Catholic branch of it, is all of the kneeling and standing and sipping of watery wines and singing on queue. Spend an hour in a Catholic Church and you won’t hear squat about what Jesus has done but you’ll be inundated by the chanting of old perverts.
“Pagan” to me, is just a loose term for the oodles of religions that we white people had before Asian philosophies completely dominated all religion. We like to think of Christianity as being our Holy White Religion, but it was invented by Asians and therefore I don’t think we, being completely culturally different, can grasp the concept. That’s why we’ve distorted it into the business/government that it is today.
Perhaps the fact that caucasians stripped themselves of their original ways of thinking is precisely why we’re singlehandedly the biggest bunch of bastards on the planet. If we wouldn’t have forced ourself into celebrating in a religion that we can’t possibly completely fathom, and if we would have embraced Pan and stuck around with Zeus and the boys, well we might not have come out to be such fucked up little brats.
olivia
I think its all those things for a lot of people. But for me its a way to give thanks for something wonderful or to focus intently on a goal or desire until it fulfils itsself. I do this all the time and I usally get what I want unless its completely wrong for me. There’s a word for it, but I can’t remember it now.
Cait
I wonder what it is in human nature that requires rituals? The comfort of repitition? Putting our fate in the hands of an Other? I loved the liturgy of the Episcopal Church. It’s just the doctrines of religion I can’t abide.