I find, as I almost always do, that the coming Sabbat is "really" my favorite Sabbat. (This happens eight times a year, every year.) I'm looking forward to the ritual that my wonderful circle of witches has planned for Friday night to celebrate Imbolc.
One of our newest members -- a beautiful, brilliant, and strong woman for whom the term "still waters run deep" was likely coined -- is leading her first ritual with us. I've been cleaning my house and polishing silver, and meditating on her theme for days. One of her themes is Creativity, a very logical theme for Pagans celebrating the feast of the Goddess Brigid, patron of those who create everything from metalwork to poems. And my meditations have helped me to realize that one of my own forms of creativity is the creation of ritual. I suppose that's a bit like saying that one of your forms of creativity is performance art. Ritual is impermanent, transient, short-lived. You can't really control it, the way that you can a quilt or a poem or a song. And yet, and yet, and yet. Ritual is so necessary.
Pagan Godspell has an incredible post up about ritual. You should go read the whole thing. Here's my favorite bit:
“Dwelling is not primarily inhabiting but taking care of and creating that space within which something comes into its own and flourishes.” It takes both time and ritual for real dwelling."
I love this. My Taurus Moon, my dedication to Hestia, my INTJ self adores the notion of ritualing a dwelling into being, of helping the place where I dwell to "come into its own and flourish." I'm within a few months of having the inside of my cottage -- that I moved into 3+ years ago -- just like I want it. And I'm spending hours dreaming, browsing, preparing to hire a landscaper and redo the garden over the next year and a half. The garden will be my next big creative project and it will be, as of course a garden must be, the place where my spirit and body truly dwell. I'm excited about the idea of ritualing it into being. I can't wait to do ritual in it.
What and how do you create? What makes ritual meaningful to you?
2 comments:
hi hecate....
i'm new to this area, and would like to meet up with other pagans, find some likeminds. i'm encouraged by your existence, that there are people celebrating imbolc here in the land of the upside-down-pentacle. but i'm a little dissatisfied with open hearth, and have no clue where to go from here. it's an office town, not a coffee shop town. tell me, please, do you have a pinch- or even a few pinches of friendly advice to give?
thanks!
nicole in rosslyn
Dear nicole,
Welcome! This is a great area full of lots of interesting Pagans. Check out Witchvox. There's a local group that does Pagan Nights Out (I think you can find them on Yahoo Groups), which can be a good way to meet local Pagans; they're often in Arlington, which you can get to on Metro.
The RadFey will be holding their Feast of the Red Dragon later this month -- check out their web page -- lots of local Pagan folks show up for that one.
There's a group called Becoming that I'm pretty sure accepts new members; check out my blogroll and look for Ninth Raven.
If none of that pans out, contact me by e-mail and I'll see what else I can recommend.
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