Paganistan: Notes from the Secret Commonwealth
In Which One Midwest Man-in-Black Confers, Converses & Otherwise Hob-Nobs with his Fellow Hob-Men (& -Women) Concerning the Sundry Ways of the Famed but Ill-Starred Tribe of Witches.
Procession of the Equinoxes, or: Some of Our Best Rituals Are Processions
For far too long now, contemporary pagan ritual has been imprisoned in the magic circle. There's more, far more, to liturgy than Summoning, Stirring, and Pointing Knives At.
Consider, for example, the common Procession.
When I'm teaching the Art of Ritual, I generally draw on the Procession as an example of a successful ritual-form that doesn't require a magic circle.
As a ritual, a Procession has a lot going for it.
- It's something that we do together.
- It's self-explanatory.
- Everyone already knows what to do without having to be told: the ritual itself leads us (literally) in the direction that we need to go.
- It has a single focus and a clear goal.
- It felicitously combines formality and informality.
- Without words, it says: Something non-ordinary, something significant, is happening here.
- In it, we engage our environment in a sacred way.
(Note that these same criteria characterize virtually all good ritual, not just Processions.)
I often cite the Procession as an example of ritual that can't go wrong. But at one workshop a woman spoke up, a priestess well-known in her area.
“That's not true at all. Last year we did a Procession that absolutely bombed.”
I can't recall what I said in response. I'm sure it was something politic.
Discussing the matter later, though, my friend Sparky T. Rabbit—who, as it happens, knew the woman and her work quite well—was less polite.
“Leave it to N. to f*ck up a Procession,” he said.
Comments
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Monday, 16 September 2019If I'm remembering my archeology correctly both Stonehenge and Woodhenge had processionals to walk on before getting to the circles.
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I love processing. The ADF Core Order has a procession and I normally include it in our Grove rites. Coming from LA, where you had to drive everywhere, the idea of moving from one spot to another has deep impact on me. I have fond memories of car pooling to ritual spots together, prepping your mind for the event to come. With ADF ritual style specifically, it's yet another way (along with asperging and censing) to purify/align the participants to the rite.