Guidelines for attending your first outside Ritual

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Return Home FORUMS Beginning Wicca Introduction Ritual and Magick General Beginner Community Q&A General Information Community Articles Mythology Pagan Parenting WordCrafting Pagan Humour Comics Free Images Wallpaper & Icons Keitha's Pagan Music WebWeaving Links Awards Message Forum Publish Your Article! About Glass Temple About Keitha Contact Me Link to the Site Copyright & Privacy Terms of Use	Home -> Beginning Wicca -> General Beginner Guidelines for attending your first outside Ritual By: Keitha (FireWind) Posted: May/00 Safety 1. Find out a little something about the group/individual. 2. leave the address, phone number, and time you expect to be home with a friend/family member, etc. 3. If you are nervous, bring a friend. There should be no objections to this (unless your friend will be quoting bible passages all night :) 4. If you are not comfortable at any time; Leave. Ettiquette 1. There is usually a feast or at least cakes and ale at most rituals, so it is usually polite to bring some food. If you are not sure, just bring a bag of chips- no-one ever turned down munchies! :) 2. Don't be too late- you may hold up the ritual, or miss it altogether. If you must be late- call if possible. 3. Depending on the type of ritual you are attending, there may be some in-house rules. Do keep them- it's bad manners to have a tantrum just because only priesthood are allowed athames into ritual. 4. If you want to leave during ritual, talk to the summoner, if available, to open a door in the circle (he'll be the guy with the big stick). Failing that, talk to the other members, or the priesthood, depending. (Please note that the Priest or Priestess is very busy during ritual, so talk to someone else first, if there are others). 5. Don't talk about the weather or your favourite band during ritual, it will disturb others who are concentrating. 6. Never, ever, touch another person's tools or jewlery without asking first; it's incredibly irritating. 7. Don't spend the ritual criticising the way people do things; ie. "My group usually does things this way...". 8. Don't try to be the center of attention- you are a guest in the temple/home/group. 9. Many groups provide the ritual materials (candles, incense, etc) out of their own pockets. Sometimes a hat will be passed around to help offset these costs. You are not required to give a 'donation', but it is polite. Understand that a lot of time and money can go into a single ritual, and you are the beneficiary. It's best to come prepared with a couple of bucks. 10. For Goddess' sake- thank the group for allowing you to attend. 11. Relax; and have fun. :) Other Points 1. If you do something silly, just laugh. Rituals can get serious, but most are fun. Everyone makes mistakes, and some are incredibly funny. For example, one Beltaine, my friend and I thought it would be fun to have a little fire going. But it was freezing out, so we had the ritual in her livingroom. So, we used sparklers instead. We thought it would be okay if we used the sparklers inside a pie plate, on top of a heat pad on the floor. Note to all -> Never set off 30 sparklers in a pie plate at the same time. Try to imagine a Beltaine ritual with 30 sparklers burning a hole through a pie plate, and rapidly heading through a heat pad towards the wooden floor while a fire alarm is going off, blue smoke rapidly filling the room, and two frantic Wiccans desperately trying to figure out how to put the damn thing out. When it was over, we laughed til we cried. Definately a memorable ritual, if anything. 2. If you're not sure what to do, just do whatever everyone else is doing. If you do something silly, see above. 3. Sometimes people who have done energy work are concerned about what to do during ritual. Should you call the elements along with the Priest/ess; is it rude to ground yourself during ritual; should you help cast the circle; if there's loose energy wafting around you, should you do something with it? I had these concerns myself, and was told to do whatever makes the ritual meaningful for you (without subtracting from the meaning for others). If in doubt, follow your gut. Print this page Copyright Info: All articles by Keitha may be copied, posted, printed, distributed, reprinted, and linked to as long as the text is not changed, money is not earned, full credit is given to Keitha at www.glasstemple.com, and this notice is attached. For all other uses, please contact me © 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 2005 2006 Keitha. All Other Rights Reserved.
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