What is the Purpose of Ritual?

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So I've been thinking about the age old rift between Traditional Wiccans and Eclectic Wiccans. Traditional Wiccans accuse Eclectics of "making things up" or being too relaxed during ritual. Then of course Eclectics are made to feel like we're the black sheep of the family.

So lets ask ourselves, what is the purpose of ritual? Is it to follow to the letter what Gerald Gardner and other mentors taught? Should we require our rituals to never evolve?

The purpose of ritual is to connect with Deity or Universal Energy. We connect to Deity by a series of actions that are symbols of our faith and bring out our emotional bond with this energy.

If you need a drawn out ceremony to do that, then great. If you prefer a shortened ritual, that's great too. Often it is the purpose of my ritual that makes me decide on whether I want a short simple ritual or a long drawn out intricate ritual. Again, it depends on my feelings at the time. Intuition guides me when planning my ritual and altar.

When I began my Pagan journey I had many people offering advice. Most of them would hand me books to read on traditional witchcraft. Things must be so so for it to work, etc... I felt I was lost in this path because I just didn't feel the connection I was told I was suppose to have. Then a friend of mine and mentor said, hey if its not working, change what you're doing. Do what your intuition is telling you to do and you'll never go wrong.

Since that day I've followed their advice and its never led me wrong. If traditional rituals are just motions and does not bring out emotion in you, try something that does speak to you. 

Have you ever felt like you're the "black sheep" of the Pagan family?

Finding My Balance

What does it mean to have Balance in our life? There are plenty of other blogs discussing why it is important to have balance in your life. If you don't understand I invite you to read Madame Molly's Balance post. But this isn't about why balance is important. It's about how it pertains to my life. Crafty Sandi recently did a reading for me and her message was about me finding my balance again. I didn't realized I'd lost my balance, but she's so right. I have!

Lance(DH) and I usually balance each other. He's normally the over the top happy (sometimes impulsive) guy who does everything to excess. He's also normally the leader. I'm more reserved, always thinking ahead, never impulsive and always must have a plan woman. I'm not a natural born leader, so I will give my input on important topics, but generally am willing to allow DH to have the final say. Put us together and we balanced each other out.

Now I find we are no longer in balance. My leader refuses to lead. He's no longer happy, nor impulsive or decisive. I know our move to Ohio was the right thing. I've always had a dream that I'd end up in Ohio and we'd be happier and more financially stable. Honestly I felt we could be "rich" in Ohio but not necessarily "in the millions rich." I felt we'd have a comfortable life and be happy.

Grasping that dream has been more elusive. I find that I must step into the leadership role. Yet it's not one that comes easy to me. Honestly, I'm afraid I will lead, and then make a bigger mess than we already have. I suppose that's the fear of any leader isn't it.

My biggest downfall is that I haven't followed my intuition. I've allowed my husband to stop me from doing that. I feel we are meant to live in or around Chillicothe. I know my DH is healthier when we join with other Pagans. We found a lovely Pagan group there. Yet both of us are naturally solitary creatures so it can be a challenge for us to integrate into a group.

I think to find our balance again, I need to step up. I've always said I don't let fear hold me back. Yet that's what I have done. Time to conquer my fears and step forward.

This article is in response to the Pagan Blog Project.

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Have you ever saved a life?

When I was a kid we had horses despite the fact that we were poor. I've always had issues with my mother's decision to have so many animals while we struggled to feed and cloth ourselves. But regardless, we had them and as a kid I enjoyed every minute of it. We found ways to help pay for the horses care by taking on odd jobs. One of them was to do horse transport. We had a two horse trailer and I remember one instance where a woman had bought two Mustangs (A mare and her foal) from the Bureau of Land Management. I remember the lady telling us that it was about 50 miles to her house, and that her drive was long and up a steep mountain. Boy was that an understatement. By the time we arrived at her farm it was pitch black outside and the "drive" was a one lane gravel road at a 45 degree angle up a curving road. Both sides had a good 50 foot drop off. We took it slow but found ourselves stuck at a corner that we needed a better angle to clear. Which meant my mother's boyfriend (Named Butch) needed to back down the driveway to take a second shot at the turn. With it being so dark my mother got the bright (Read dumb) idea of getting out and signaling Butch on when he was getting too close to the edge. All of us were nervous by this point but after about 20 minutes of backing up, moving forward and backing up again we eventually got around the corner with everyone intact. Since Butch had a running start at the steep incline he didn't want to stop, but I looked at him and reminded him my mother is night blind. How she helped with that turn I'll never know. We both thought it a bad idea she walk the whole distance in the dark. I'm so glad I convinced him to let me out so I could walk with my mother. She wanted to continue walking in case he got stuck again.

Not 5 minutes after I joined my mother, I was stopping her from going off the edge. She was just one step away from going down the 50 foot drop. At the time I didn't really consider I did anything special. But I do remember my mother thanking me all the way up that drive and later it kinda sunk in that the feeling of unease I felt was my inner warning telling me something horrible was about to happen, and I could stop it. Ever felt that (For a lack of a better term) "spidey sense"? It's served me well over the years. Of course there's no solid proof that anything bad would have happened. But I remember more than once slowing down for a traffic light because I felt something was wrong and then someone running it moments later. One of my biggest lessons has been to trust my instincts. They are rarely wrong.

Do you trust your instincts? Have you ever saved a life?