November 15, 2008
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Do you do rituals?
I am not much for rituals. Spontaneity is more my style, but I sometimes find myself sliding into a ritualistic mode at certain times of year, as the seasons shift.
This week’s Daykeeper Journal email reminded me that the current (just past but still obvious and in effect) full moon is the Snow Moon in the Northern Hemisphere.
Crystal Pomeroy writes:
This Full Moon opens a powerful door to charge yourself with the courage to move. According to Zsuzsanna Budapest, ceremonies for this purpose form a part of pagan tradition for November lunations. Scorpio Sun goes into those dark, spooky areas that less hardy signs dare not tread.From where I sit, Scorpio Sun is headed into Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and a dark frigid winter, which could be pretty scary if I were to allow myself to dwell on the danger.
Actually, this year the coming of winter isn’t scaring me as much as it once did. Since I don’t think climate change has taken all the hazard out of Alaskan winters yet, I must assume that the major change is within me. Hey, I survived last winter, when I could barely breathe for months, and for several days before Doug called 911 for me I couldn’t breathe and walk, talk, or keep my sphincters tight at the same time.
Friedrich Nietzsche is credited with saying, “What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.” Implicit in that, maybe, is the idea that the closer it comes to killing us, the greater its strengthening and encouraging effect. For whatever reason, this winter I don’t think I need a courage boosting ritual or any prayers for strength. I feel myself moving, growing and changing. If you think you could use a boost, you can find one at Daykeeper.
Comments (15)
Such a spirit that comes from you. Rituals are more my style when I want to insert myself. In saying that, I speak from the hip and heart at funerals. If I knew them, I speak. I share a feeling as I know I can. That is sort of a ritual for death and crossing over and release for grief. When Teen Dude turned 13, I invited him and The King to join me and I went out under the huge pine and called all direction to welcome him to the beginnings of adulthood. I spoke of his amazing connection to all the directions and it was very powerful. I want it to mean something if a ritual is part of my plan.
I’m not big on ritual but at the extremes of life, they seem almost mandated – birth and death – leaving and arriving.
@Jaynebug - I made a big deal out of Doug’s thirteenth birthday, too. I used a saguaro rib we had picked up on the Big Field Trip, added stones, feathers, and significant symbolic objects, and made him a shaman’s staff. There was a spontaneous element to it, too, because the idea just “came” to me.
I don’t do a lot of ritual. This drives some of the other nice heathens quite batty because I am more inclined to raise a water bottle on the spot in the middle of a public green space and call it a blot, than I am to orchestrate and organize a ritualistic affair complete with read and response handouts.
rituals -I’m catholic
I hope that this winter finds you in better health than last winter for sure. I’d do rituals if I weren’t so derned lazy. I like them. I guess the bottom line is that I don’t feel they are necessary.
my only ritual is putting off getting ready for work until the last possible moment and then carrying it off because i lay everything out [clothes, make up, etc...] in order as needed.
i wish i could develop a ritual for cleaning house or something. but no. just not feelin’ it.
I guess if I have a ritual its to break rituals in my life as soon as I recognize them. I try to never go the same way to work two days in a row. I brush my teeth with alternate hands. I do things at different times of the day and on different days. I guess you get the drift.
Rituals are part of connecting with the Divine.
I do them regularly, even if there isn’t a purpose.
Stay warm
{{HUGS}}
~P~
Is Communion a ritual?
The man’s moustache probably cast light on the nature of his insecurities.
It was pretty cool, though.
@C_L_O_G - Yes, I get your drift. I have been doing something similar for a while now, examining my thoughts and actions, eliminating habits, routines, beliefs without solid evidence or reasoning behind them….
@SuSu - Thought rituals are even more interesting to exam.
We all have them, some since childhood.
What hasn’t killed me has made me both weaker and stronger. But I’m confident those things will contribute to my demise soon enough - and I’m okay with that, however painful it may be. I greet death with either apathy or excitability, not fear and aversion. The only calamitous bit is that I’ll no longer be able protect those who I feel need my protection. Sigh.
As a young child I was plagued by thoughts of my own mortality, and the potential discomfort of death. I even wrote a letter to Santa asking him to bring me a potion that would make me immortal (which my parents subsequently read and humiliated me about, along with my brothers who felt the need to chime in). In time, I gave up any concern with self-protection in life or death situations. The realization that there were things much worse than death, and death could even be viewed in a positive light helped to foster that lack of concern. I guess I just realized what a messed up place I’m in. From then on, I lost my fear of the dark, vampires, serial killers, zombies, demons etc. and conducted myself with reckless self-abandon — now a zombie apocalypse would be more of a dream than anything. My grandmother says I’m like ”a bull at a gate”, whatever that means. I’m known for being headstrong and risk-taking – somehow, I’m still here.
A temporary bout of atheism contributed even further to my psychological health – parts of Christianity made me feel very guilty and scared the hell out of me; I took it all a bit too seriously. For instance, the part about blaspheming the Holy Spirit leading to eternal damnation since it is an unforgivable sin… of course, I couldn’t stop thoughts of blaspheming the Holy Spirit coming into my head, and invariably I did. So I would pray to God for forgiveness, terrified at the prospect of ending up in hell for all eternity… I was also worried about demons attacking me (thanks, Ms. Smith), and the questionable vows I was forced to take when the year-long communion classes were finished and I was finally allowed to partake in this Christian rite. Today, I can even say I’m comfortable with the prospect of hell – thanks atheism! If I were to design my own hell… the suffering would not be so overt, but it would do more harm than flames ever could. So yeah, errr, in some ways I’m stronger.
/rant
Ritual… um… on occasion, I suppose.
I like rituals…..I don’t practice them as routinely as some but, the first snow fall is always a hot chocolate day….Sunday is football, and incense burning….