Participating in ritual can change your life. Even practicing
one ritual can uplift and inspire you for years, and regular
involvement can lead to spiritual riches. Ritual is soul work.
Increasingly, with our hectic workday schedules, you may
find yourself creating rituals and meditating alone, praying
by yourself, and performing daily spiritual practices solo.
In addition to planning more intricate proceedings, you should also craft little on-the-spot private rituals that serve
immediate spiritual needs. You can celebrate your gratitude to
a deity that is special to you or light a candle and meditate at
your altar on a holy day. Your rituals should reflect the ebb and
flow of you outer life and your inner work.
This kind of ritual is simple and pure; I call it real ritual. Your
spiritual pursuits should be a mix of simple, solo ceremonies
and more complex ones that you perform alone or with
others. The work of the soul is stimulated by interactions with others and grows in your time alone. Rituals enliven and
add meaning to each day. Your simple daily ceremonies and
practices are the individual threads that weave the fabric of
your life rather like a tapestry quilt that grows thread by thread,
stitch by stitch, and square by square. You need the threads,
the patches, and the squares to hold together the tapestry of a
rich, memory-filled, and meaningful life.
You can choose from the
wealth of correspondences in the appendices to add layers of
meaning, depth, and effectiveness, building your knowledge,
expanding your experiences, and connecting you to the
world’s wise traditions. Also, by keeping a Book of Shadows or personal ritual journal, you will have your own set of
measurements and memories of what has worked for you.
The appendix gives ingredients that you can add to your ritual
“recipe.” Let’s say you want to create a personal and private
ritual to get a new job. You can look up the best time to do it in
the Ritual Resources section and you will see that a Thursday
new moon would be an optimum choice to perform such a ritual.
There are also different divinities you can choose from to
call upon for help in this ritual, from jovial Jupiter to the very
sympathetic and helpful Lakshmi, to name just two. There
are also a variety of herbs and plants you can choose from
to assist with money matters, along with correct colors for
candles and essences for both incense and oils that supply
abundance. When you create your new job ritual, therefore,
you can select the right traditional correspondence that
matches your need and you are halfway there.
Focus and attention concerning your intention are of equal
importance. In terms of the language of your original ritual,
you should write from your heart, which will ensure that the
words will personally affect you and work for you. Believe in
yourself and believe in your intention and the right words will
flow. There is no exact science to writing rituals. Just match
the words and correspondences to your intention, and you will
be a creator of rituals.
It is natural that once you are completely comfortable working
with the realm of existing rituals, you should begin to trust you own intuition and create your own. Listen to your inner
voice and trust yourself. Correspondences are a start, but you
must take a leap of faith and delve into the depths of your own
psyche for rituals you create, enact, and share with the world.
While we know there is no exact science to ritual design, there
is an art to it, and the knack is developed from participating in
group rituals, learning from the experienced elders, performing
private rituals, and endeavoring to craft rituals on your own for
every season and reason. The art of creating rituals is the work
of the heart, and while it is not always easy, it is the work of
creating joy in your life. With each ritual, you are taking a step
to a reality of your own creation. Rites and ceremonies serve
many purposes in our lives. They can be designed to fulfill one person’s wish, help a member of your spiritual circle, or help
heal the entire world like the Dalai Lana’s sand mandala ritual.
There are no limitations to the scope of rituals you can design.
Where there is need, you can supply intention and inspiration
and, in so doing, spread bliss in your wake. Rituals can change
the world, and your rituals will most certainly change your
world. When you are designing ritual, you are really designing
the life of your dreams.
