Starting a Practice, Creating Rituals
For those who are starting out on an Atheopagan path—or any Pagan path—it can be bewildering to know how to start a practice.
Fortunately, Atheopaganism is in many ways easier to “learn” than other Pagan paths, because there aren’t any procedural rules about how to do things, and you don’t have to have anyone else teach or “initiate” you to get started. You can and should craft your practice to fit you: to be consistent with the climate where you live, the symbols and meanings that matter to you. You don’t need to learn tables of correspondences or memorize invocations or learn the metaphorical associations of the four directions of the compass (though you can, of course, if you like).
All you need to know is what you find meaningful: your loves, your passions, your dreams, even your fears and angers. All are rich fodder for creating rituals and observances.
Still, that’s a two-edged sword, isn’t it: lots of freedom, but at the same time an intimidating blank slate, all but crying out but what do I DO?
Thus, this post. If you’re just starting out, or struggling with creating rituals, this post is for you.
I recommend that when starting a practice, a newcomer do three things, in this order:
- Create a Focus, or altar;
- Conduct a first personal ritual; and
- Contemplate the meanings of and decide how they would like to celebrate the 8 sabbaths of the Wheel of the Year.*
As you can see, there are links to other posts about the first and third elements. This one is specifically focused on how to plan your first ritual.
So…how do you do that? Here, you can download a simple step-by-step workbook for ritual planning. All you’ll need is a pencil and paper to sketch out the structure of your ritual.
You can also consult the Atheopagan Ritual Primer, which goes into more details about the various phases and elements of effective ritual.
The main thing to remember is that this is not just a “serious spiritual practice”. It’s also fun. Fun is good for you. It’s not trivial, and it’s not frivolous. Throw off that Abrahamic guilt about having a good time, and be playful and creative!
*You don’t have to do this all at once. You can do some general planning around what the seasonal celebrations mean to you, and then wait until each sabbath approaches to plan details of your observances. After your first year of practice, you will have a calendar of rituals for your Wheel of the Year!
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I could not agree more! I do not want a paint-by numbers experience. I seek genuine, authentic experience.
Great list of considerations for ritual.
I would add:
1. Be aware of health and safety. Large flaming cauldrons in enclosed spaces, copious amounts of incense in poorly ventilated spaces… potentially disastrous.
2. Make sure people ground (e.g. by eating) at the end of the ritual. People can get into altered states and they need to eat before driving home.
3. If you have props such as candles or something, remember that participants only have two hands and cannot hold three candles at once, especially if they are all lit.
All good points!
Can your ‘newly arrived’ page also include a link to the A-P Ritual Primer? Because that is some solid gold material, and just the sort of thing people are always asking after.
The Primer should be easier to get to if you’re new here…ideally, obvious from the home page or only one click away.
“Because after all, it is far better to be a skilled cook than merely to have a good recipe book.”
good stuff that
Good idea. I will edit it–thanks.
I just looked, and there was a link to the Primer, but you had to click through another page. I’ve made a direct link now–hopefully that’s easier for people to figure out.
I was just referred here from an Ex Christian Science Facebook group I am in. I wrote a post in there about Paganism, Atheism, and Pantheism. I would love to subscribe to your posts here and it looks like leaving a comment is the only way I can subscribe to new posts. So, this is my comment.
I look forward to reading your posts and learning more! Thank you for being here and posting!
Welcome!