Musings on the Shape of Rituals
Searles O'Dubhain
searles@summerlands.com
Sun Oct 24 14:57:18 1999
Musings on the Shape of Rituals*p*My understandings of these things come from dreams, from visions  and from a study of what is left to us from tradition, archaeology and folk practice.*p*Firstly, I'd have different circles for different levels of people. Some of these I'd have running energy one direction and others would be running it in a different direction. The direction depends on the world to which the circle is tied and to the type of energy that the people are supplying (this gets into all kinds of particulars that I hope we will discuss together as this thread matures). I would explain the workings and fundamentals to those in each level and circle. Each might have a dance, a song, a chant, a ribbon or a color that unified their particular working and tied it to the primary. The entire operation should be viewed as a team operation where everyone has something to do from high to low, and everyone can have both outward and inward cues for what and when certain actions should be taken.*p*In every circle there would be those who were responsible for *cleaning* the power, *focusing* the power, and *pushing* the power in the right direction.*p*Within the center of all of these concentric circles, there would be three people: one, to monitor the power flow, one to journey, and one to maintain a connection between the group and the journeying member.*p*The purpose of the journey could be a soul reclaiming, opening the doorway between the worlds, a healing, a rite of passage (from birth to death), communicating with the Ancestors or the Gods, visiting other groups, prophetic divination, crop blessing, etc...*p*I also recommend that each ritual have a few things specifically associated with it: special garb (even ritual masks), a special chant, a special symbols or object. This object of the working will be the lasting connection between the people and the working and show, among other things, the lasting nature of the working, as well as being a focus for future work of a similar nature.*p*Searles*p**p*