Herding Cats - Practical ritual writing Part 2
by Blayze

With public or open rituals we do not have the luxury of working with a group mind or even known participants. Some sort of bonding ceremony usually helps to make the ritual a little more cohesive. You may wish to have games before the ritual or some kind of offering made by each person, maybe an offering of food to the communal cauldron or a stick to a sacred fire. Each person says their name, gives some information on their path and what they bring to the circle.

To establish a ritual link and understanding it can be useful to also run some kind of pre-ritual workshop that will establish a level of understanding prior to the ritual itself. If this is done, then the ritual has more chance of participants joining in with higher levels of energy and less selfishness.

People will generally not allow themselves to be challenged if they are not within an environment in which they feel comfortable or linked into the ritual enough to rise to the challenge, it is part of human nature and as such, they will not truly participate if they are uncomfortable. This means that finding a balance between safety, common sense and challenge is another consideration in writing the ritual.

A public ritual usually has disparate energies and participants, this means that it can be hard to get people to let go of themselves and just BE in the ritual. This is where ritual tools of energy raising and working can be added to the structure to help participants get into the flow of the ritual.

Ritual tools like vine dancing or spiral dancing can get a ritual moving, especially if you can give people a simple chant to use or have drummers keeping a beat. This serves to energise and relax at the same time.

Appointing guardians whose only role is to observe the mental health of the group and let people in or out of the ritual space is also a good idea. These guardians and their roles are introduced in the ritual preparation, this means that the participants do not feel trapped in an unfamiliar situation and can leave the area discreetly if they become uncomfortable. It also means that they will not disrupt the ritual for everyone else.

Another ritual tool that can be built into the ritual structure to help people actively participate and get into the spirit of the thing, is to have them make an object with a purpose in the ritual. You can build on the pre-ritual theme if, for example, they are outdoors, have them find a stick or a leaf, a stone or a flower to use as an offering in the ritual. This ties the participants into the ritual itself. Or, if they are making something that they can take home with them, it gives participants a feeling of linking in to the ritual and fulfils that slight selfishness which can be a hallmark of public events.

Meditation and guided visualisation is also used as a tool within ritual structure, but the person who is leading this needs to radiate a level of trustworthiness and conduct themselves well in the ritual so that participants will relax into the visualisation. The leader also really needs to know what they are doing. Again, guardians who can watch specific sections of a group are a good idea as one person may have difficulty checking the state of a large group of people. In a large group, people will ‘come back’ from the meditation at different times and having them awaken in a healthy state of mind is extremely important, as is keeping the ritual tight.

Once you have worked out the structure of the ritual and taken the nature of the participants into the equation, you can begin to move into the more specific realms of staging and props.

Now how you go about staging the ritual may be determined by the venue. Do you require a fire pit and is there one available or will a brazier or cauldron of flame be appropriate? Is there a cleared space or will you wind in amongst the trees. Is the room bare or full of furniture that can be moved or incorporated into the ritual? The last thing you want are obstacles that could cause accidents or will disrupt your vision of the ritual outcomes. So be flexible and work with what you have. If you do not have access to a venue before hand, then make your ritual structure, and it’s staging, as flexible as possible and work in any contingencies that you can think of.

Decorations used to enhance the feeling and mood of the ritual can also be very important as they give a sensory connection to the ritual. However, outdoor rituals may only require fresh flowers for the altar or maybe a circle marked out in flour. Circles of natural elemental substances such as barley, salt, feathers, shells, chilis, hazelnuts etc., help to create a pleasing environment as do lanterns or flaming torches at the quarter points.

An indoor ritual may make use of wall hangings or banners, hides on the floor, multiple elemental altars, fresh greenery or seasonal decorations; basically whatever creates the mood and atmosphere you are looking to achieve. Preparing the ritual space with decorations makes people focus on the ritual and leave the mundane world behind. It gives a sense of ‘Other’ which can be very helpful in stimulating the senses in preparation for ritual.

The difference between decoration and props is that props have an actual physical use within the ritual. The props can be anything from altar tools, a maypole, a wicker man, a scrying bowl or mirror, a flaming cauldron, a shroud, extra candles to be lit within ritual or a mortar and pestle for making incense. Props can be very important within large group ritual as they make visual cues available to all participants. Participants can then see what is actually happening. Props should be within the ritual space before the ritual begins unless the fetching or hunting out of the props is built into the ritual. If possible have someone assigned just to look after the props, making sure they are in the right place and everything is handy. Each person who will be using a prop should also double check before they start to make sure they also know where their particular prop is located. If you are using a prop in different parts or sections of the ritual, then make sure that within the structure of the ritual, there is some way to move that prop from one area to another. This plotting is very important and working it out beforehand can save a lot of messing about within the actual ritual. If someone is using a spear as a guardian before the ritual, but then that same spear has a major function within the ritual itself, then either build that into the ritual with a scripted ‘handover’ or make sure that the original carrier places it discreetly in the new location. Basically this is where imagination comes to the fore. You may like to make a drawing or plan of the ritual’s movement to help you to work out the plotting.

If you make up a props list to include with your ritual script, then make sure you include items like matches, water for the chalice, charcoal for the censer etc. It is all too easy to forget the little things when setting up the big picture.

If you have chosen to work on the structure of the ritual, rather than the words first, then now is the time to start the creative process of using words as a tool to bring the structure to life. You may have been making notes of poetry or invocations during the structuring process or maybe you are using the structure itself as the inspiration. Descriptive language that can be used as verbal cues and explanation is a good place to start. 

If you find that within the ritual structure you have a space set aside for a blessing, say of an element, then you can tie the language of that blessing into the overall theme of the ritual. The tone of the language should be consistent, if you are structuring a formal ritual, then you may wish to have formal language all the way through or if the ritual is light in tone then write words that reflect this. You can also use the language to link ideas or bring in recurring themes. Have different participants speak the same phrase at various places in the ritual to highlight a point, for example. If you are using poetic forms, then also try to keep those forms consistent. For example if you have four people representing each of the elements, then you write a speech for each of them, have the poetic form the same. It helps the listeners to tune in to what is being said especially if you keep the last line of each poem the same. These final lines can be said with power and used to either invoke or release energy.

Conversely you may have a story or long poem as your starting point. You can then use descriptive ideas within the piece to plot the physical structure of the ritual - remembering to break up the poem to suit the actions. The last thing participants want to hear in ritual is an overly long, boring speech. If you must have a long speech to convey the nature of the ritual, then break it up between different voices (this will also make memorising the speeches much easier as reading from pieces of paper detracts from both the visual harmony and power that is sent behind the words). Question and answer styles of speech can also work well and make the participants actually think - however it is sometimes a good idea to have a plant in this section as the ritual can come to a grinding halt if no-one knows the answer, just make sure that the plant waits an appropriate length of time before speaking.

One of the only times that long poetic speeches may work well in ritual is when dealing with an invocation or evokation. A stand-out piece of invocation can really enhance the tone and create the spiritual base for the ritual. If everyone can feel the energies building with each stanza and the invoker has the voice for it, then the ritual can really move to another level of experience for all involved. There is nothing worse than someone shuffling to the centre of the circle, mumbling some long bit of inane poetry, read badly from a piece of paper, and basically bringing the ritual crashing down, as well as showing profound disrespect for whomever or whatever is being called. A good invocation with power behind it will generally echo off the walls even if the invoker is mainly soft-spoken. However, there are times when an invocation or evocation is spoken quietly, but still so all can hear it… this form of presentation and spiritual working creates a different atmosphere again, and it is up to you how you use this technique. 

This leads us into casting the ritual. Not everyone is a performer and, in large public ritual, a good performance is necessary, not great acting, just an ability to understand and work with a part and not show nervousness or unwillingness. I believe in giving everyone a chance but sometimes it is wise to give a first time speaker in a large ritual, a small part so they have a chance to show what they can do, but if they stuff up, it will not cause too much grief. Part of the process of casting is to utilise the skills of those involved as well as creating personal and group challenges. Again, finding the balance between these is important.

When you have a good first draft of your ritual, then it is time to start the process of visualising the ritual itself. Check things like the flow of energies and people, look at what sections can be moved around to enhance this. Check that you haven’t made things overly complicated and by all means have someone else read the ritual and get some feedback. Often when we are too close to a subject we don’t convey what we really mean as we write with an assumed level of understanding. I actually prefer writing rituals with at least one other person as they may have ideas on structure or language that I had not thought of. Try to come up with contingencies if something unforseen was to happen and then when you have your final draft, give copies of the ritual to the people who will be taking an active role. Also try to come up with some kind of ritual briefing that can be held before the ritual to let the rest of the participants know what to expect (within reason).

So keep your ritual as simple as possible but still take form, structure, style, decorations, props and casting into consideration. If you enjoy working with other pagans in a public or semi-public space, go for it. Just remember, if you are on an experiential path, then embrace the experiences that you encounter, both the good and the bad and learn from them.