The Rowdy Goddess

An Ecstatic Vision of the Goddess, dancing in harmony with the Universe.

Archive for the category “Ritual”

06 Apr 2015
1 Comment

In Praise of the Sweetness of Life

Easter basketWe are just emerging from the cocoon of a cold, cold winter to emerge into the season of mud, cold, and continued snow here in Central New York.  With stunned hoped and distrust, we are now seeing and hearing the signs of spring.  Robins, red-winged blackbirds, mourning doves, finches, and jays congregate greedily at the bird feeder on our front porch.

Another sure sign of spring is the Easter season.  In the past, as a former fundamentalist Christian and then a pagan, I had not been a big fan of Easter.  I remember in the last year of my Christian days sitting in a Bible Baptist church on Easter Sunday listening to a sermon and becoming frustrated by the continued overt sexism and hidden racism of the smug, well-dressed preacher.   That was back in 1976 and I made a vow never to attend such a sermon again.

Since that time, Easter with the store closings and lack of services for the non-practicing Christian always took me by surprise.  It’s like I obliterated it from my mind.  In a more suburban and diverse place like Washington D.C. (where I used live in the suburbs), it was easier to forget about Easter.  Here in Central New York, it’s much harder to ignore the holiday.  I’m not sure people realize how dominate the Catholic religion is in this area.  Holy Week is important here!  Sometimes even state agencies and related entities don’t do work because it’s Holy Week.

At the same time, I love this season.  I love the pastel colors, the baskets, the eggs, and the general sweetness of it.  Spring usually bursts forth in the stores before it’s reflected in the flowers and the trees.  It makes my spirits soar to see all the yellows, pinks, greens, lavender, and blues of the seasons.  It’s a reminder that the Wheel does turn and light and lightness overtakes the dark.   As a quilter, I like bright bold colors and I also like the spectrum of pastels.  The pastels bring a lightness and pleasure not felt with the power of dark and bold colors.

And thPeepsen, there are Peeps.  What is the Easter season without Peeps.  I love Peeps.  I love the pretty pastel colors, the cringing sweetness, and the chewy delights of the marshmallows.  I am instantly transported back to that lightness and delights of our imagined and sometimes real childhoods memories.  Plus, I adore the kitschy, fun, funny part of Peeps.  Every year since 2007, my favorite newspaper, The Washington Post, has a Peeps Diorama contest.  They are too funny.  The internet is full of things that people do with Peeps.  As a librarian, I am honor bound to tell you about the Peeps at the library, one of my favorites.  I am not ashamed to admit that I have a great many Peeps products.  I was going to tell you it only filled a small storage tub but that would be a lie.

More often than not, my circle celebrates this season with a Peeps ritual.  I learned this ritual from Lady Phoenix Medusa and have embellished it with my style.  We gather together to play, sing, dance and do ritual.  It’s all about celebrating the sweetness of life in all its mysteries.  And of course, we eat.  Like all churches, pagans celebrate with food.  We all assume our Peeps names — I’m Lady Creamsicle  take place in circle and make fun.  We make fun of ourselves, we make fun of each other, and we make fun in general.  Through our laughter, rowdiness, our funny clothes, and food we celebrate the joys of our connections with Spirit.

 May you find joy and sweetness today and everyday!

 

Posted in Goddess, Ritual and tagged , , ,
01 Mar 2013
1 Comment

Blessed Be My Plan B

Business plan - woman drawingPlanning is important and I’m a good planner.  I also like to be flexible so that if an opportunity presents itself, I can take advantage of that spontaneously.

A good example of that in ritual was a big deal ritual my coven did for our tradition-wide gathering.  At the time, we were a brand new coven and while I was not new to group gatherings and leadership, this was a venue where I wanted us to excel and shine.  We would be doing the ritual for the gathering of our entire tradition including our elders and founders.   It was daunting, but I knew we could do it and do it fabulously well.

So we rehearsed and rehearsed and rehearsed.  Our group was still learning how to be a coven together and how to do ritual so a big one was intimidating.  As part of the learning and rehearsal, we also practiced how to work through mistakes — keep on going and act like it was meant to be that way.    We where rehearsing right up to the last minute.  It was a little tense and we were all a little bit nervous.  Or maybe a lot.

And the ritual went really, really well!  There were a couple of misspeaks and the priestess went through it like it was meant to be that way.  When we finished the spiral dance and raised a lot of energy, an inspiration came to me.  And I said (for the benefit of the well-rehearsed covener), “I’m going a little off script,” and launched into the unofficial chant of our tradition which raised some incredible magic and energy.  And that is an example of good planning and the ability to be open to spontaneous inspiritation.

Another aspect of planning is being able to pick up the pieces when things go wrong.  “I always have a Plan B” is a Gailism.  It’s part of my professional training, a side effect of working with technology.  What if you plan a ritual and a key person doesn’t show up?  Plan B.  What if you forget to put water in the chalice:  Plan B is to pretend it’s there.  What if you knock over the chalice full of water?  What if you forget which vial contains water, which contains wine, and which contains oil?  Smell it or pretend [Plan B].  What if it rains on your outdoor ritual.  Plan B.

Sometimes you need a Plan C, D, or E.  Just being willing to be aware that things may change is an important part of planning.  It might not be necessary to have a full alternate plan, but rather to have the ability to draw on the well of experience, creativity, and spontaneous growth.  The new inspiriation is always there.  One time I went to a ritual and the priestess didn’t show up.  It turned out she was ill and unable to get out of bed.  So a group of us, some of whom had driven two or more hours, were ready to go about our business.  Wait!  I had a key to the building, so we decided to do the ritual.

We all went to our cars and pulled out blankets and pieces of this and that and pulled together an altar.  I had a Tarot deck and a traveling altar.  One woman had some pretty nifty Pagan stuff in her trunk.  We put together a really good ritual and the performance by a group of people who didn’t know each other was a very enriching experience.

So be ready with Plan A, B, C, and more.  All we need to do is learn our ABCs and draw on our creative power and good intentful heart.  Blessed Be the Plan B!

Posted in Planning, Ritual, spiritual practice, Wicca and tagged , , ,

Post Navigation