Up: [[Mystery]] Created: 2022-11-03 Updated: 2025-01-12 I used to think of ritual as wholly related to mysticism and spirituality. My understanding came from movies where teenagers would gather in the woods at night, candles dancing in the dark as they chanted and swayed, playing at being witches. Or movies showing religious ritual, particularly in the Catholic church. None of it made much sense to me. I wrote it off as ‘woo-woo’. Then I had some experiences with the coven (see [[ZC10 - Identity 3]] ) and, over time, I’ve come across these definitions of ritual. > [!orbit] Kent Nerburn in *Small Graces* > Ritual is routine infused with mindfulness. It is habit made holy. > [!Orbit] Maria Branscombe in *Ritual as Remedy* > A ritual can be anything that is done with intention. (p. 15) > [!Orbit] Helen Conway in ‘Creative Fire, Beltane, and Chicken Dancing’, *Encore* Substack > Rituals exist to help us practice existential experience. (May 1, 2024) The words in these definitions are anything but woo-woo: routine, mindfulness, habit, intention, practice. What I’ve learned is, first, to open my mind to new ideas. My all-or-nothing approach doesn’t serve me here (or anywhere). And second, that the way I name and frame has a huge impact on how I show up. Ritual is *not* synonymous with practice, although it does share practice’s repetitiveness. Rituals are practices that we do again and again in order to improve our connection to the seen and unseen world. A ritual can range from something as simple as taking three slow deep breaths in order to become more centred in the moment, through a regular meditation practice, to elaborate practices that have been alive for thousands of years in esoteric or religious traditions. I now have a positive, if still sometimes *slightly* uneasy, relationship to ritual. I appreciate that we’ve lost something now that [[We No Longer Have Rituals to Help Us in Liminal States]]. And I’m now paying attention to the rituals I engage in and, in paying attention, I do feel more connected to both seen and unseen worlds. ## Specific Rituals - [[Hestia, Goddess of the Hearth]] - [[Fire Rituals Related to Hestia]] - [[I Want to Stay in the Dark at Imbolc]] - [[Rituals for Imbolc]] - [[Fire Ceremony Ideas]] - [[Release Ritual with or without Fire]] - [[An Altar to the Elements]] Celtic prayers and blessings often include *this day and every day, this night and every night*. It’s a way of expanding the present moment into all moments to come.