Ritual is a form of drama that allows you to put aside your daily concerns and focus on a specific area or pattern that exists within and without yourself The ritual allows you to enter into a psychological relationship with the ritual intention. Enacting this play and using focal objects will help you to change consciousness, to actively raise your awareness and realign it. Intention is the heart of ritual, it is important to spend time carefully considering why you are seeking to perform the ritual. What is it that you seek to achieve though this method? There may be a far more effective method of producing the desired effect. For example if you or a friend is suffering from a headache, it is far more expedient to prescribe a painkiller than to enter into a healing ritual. However ritual can be used in order to provide some form of service to others. Equally ritual can be used to celebrate a festival, or to explore some deeper inner mystery of your own being, or the nature of manifestation. The style in which you will perform ritual depends entirely upon the intention behind it. A festival will have a sense of jollity about it, whilst a ritual for a persons well being may be more serious. Intention also dictates what you will be doing within the main part of the ritual. If you are seeking to explore some particular aspect of esoteric philosophy and your personal relationship to it you will want to use the time to take a visualised journey. Whilst a more practical intention may require a more practical activity. Ritual should be a very personal process, whether you are working alone or with others you should spend time preparing. Consider all of the factors that are involved, in order to help you decide on your approach. There are many pre-written rituals about, but they are always less effective than that which you have developed for yourself What follows is only a framework, and as such will need you to develop it further according to each ritual intention. I suggest that this framework ritual be used at the full moon. Traditionally this is a time of increased psychic energy. The human being is mostly water, and in this sense is responsive to the motion of the moon, in the same way as the sea. There are tides of life, which ebb and flow. Part of your future work will be to become aware of your own life tides, through a variety of means. For ritual to work well it should be something you feel strongly related to, that belongs to you. To that end what is presented here is a framework ritual. You will have to think about what you want to say in each part, as very little will be prescribed. You will need some basic tools, which can be as cheap or expensive as you wish. At the start it is not important to know too much about each one. The tools are related by correspondence to the four elements, and to aspects of your own inner self They are a small knife, called an athame, this could be a kitchen knife, hunting knife or letter knife. It is usually best if it has a natural handle, some pagans insist on a black or white handle, however this detail is not essential, it is one of those nice touches. It is essential that the knife has not been used for any other purpose, and that you keep it for magical work alone. You will need a candle or oil lamp. It is best not to use electric light when working a ritual, try to get as many natural sources as possible. The candle or lamp is used whether you are working by night or day, as it is symbolic rather than practical. A pot to burn incense, there are many available on the market but a simple ceramic pot filled with sand will do. You will also need some charcoal blocks on which to burn your incense. These can be bought as single rolls or in boxes of 80\100. Grain incense can be bought pre-prepared or you can buy separate herbs and resins in order to blend your own. A good starting incense is: 3 parts Frankincense 2 parts Myrrh a few drops Lavender Oil a few drops Sandalwood Oil Mix these together thoroughly and store in a jar or tin, until use. When the charcoal is lit place a small amount of incense on the block. A cup, this is can be as simple or elaborate as you please. It is nice to pick something with a chalice like shape, ceramic or metal, or a nice crystal wineglass. Try to find something you really like. It is traditionally given to you as a gift by a loved one. This will hold wine during the ritual. A pentacle, this can be made of wax, wood, metal, or ceramic, its shape is up to you as is the pattern it carries. Traditionally it is a circle with the symbol of the pentagram, a five-pointed star. You may chose to use another symbol, and the pentacle may change depending on the work you are doing. First, prepare the altar, a small table or windowsill. You may use a cloth to cover it. Add your tools; wand, cup, athame, pentacle, incense and pot, lamp or candle, and some matches. You will also need some bread or biscuits and some wine. Anything else is up to you. Some people use images, some have flowers, it is up to you what you add. A good altar is one that appears well balanced and not too cluttered. You should not use electric light for ritual. Try to change the atmosphere in the place. Put on some music to start. Have a bath or shower. Change your clothes, maybe put on a robe. All these things will you get in the mood. You are trying to separate yourself from your normal everyday world, and experience a little of the special world of spirit, a place set apart, between the worlds. Spend some time grounding. Think about what you are about to do as you sit in front of the altar. Be silent for a while, get used to the atmosphere. Maybe light the candle and the incense. Use one of the grounding and centring exercises or, you might like to imagine that you are rooting into the earth. Then up though the roots draw raw earth energy. Fill yourself with it. With each breath visualise golden light entering you and mixing with the earth energy. Know that you are completely present in this time and place. Focus your mind on what you are doing. State your intention aloud. What are you here to do? Take the wand or athame and walk around the altar in a large clockwise circle. As you walk around imagine that you are drawing a circle of blue light with the tool. As you do this you may want to hum, sing or make sound of some sort. Use everything you have learnt in studying sacred space, and create a ritual-working circle. Now you have drawn the circle, you quarter it and bring in the first basic energies. This is the opening of the elemental gates. These gates are the access of raw spiritual power to the circle, they each have an elemental character. Start for now in the East, the place of the rising Sun and progress round clockwise. East Air South Fire West Water North Earth Moving clockwise about your circle go to the east gate, symbolically open it. Say something, about the act, ask the element to be present, tell it why. Visualise a landscape or image, though the gate, that you feel corresponds to the element. For example in at the festival of Yule I might open the east gate by saying: "I open the Gate to the East. Come Lord of Air, bringer of laughter and music, Lord of misrule let your winds blow though us as we celebrate Yule. May your winds renew us and with the Sun bring us to rebirth in the turning of the wheel. Welcome to the circle of Yule." You must choose what to say. You might want to rehearse it, but I find it best if you just do it, and let the words come into your mind at the time. Don't worry what you say, short or long. If you have the intention to open that gate, and are focused on that element, it will be right. When you have opened the gates, go into the centre of the circle. Call upon the God and Goddess to be present with you in that space. Tell them what you are doing, thank them for their presence. You could sing them in or talk them in, again allow the words to come to you as you do it. Try to make it clear what you are going to do in the circle. At this point you start to raise the cone of power, use one of the techniques you have already learnt. When you feel that the circle is buzzing with energy stop. Now turn to the work that you have decided to do, whether it is going on a journey, or working a practical spell. Free form visualisation is useful in giving you a deeper contact with the inner realms. If you are working in a group it is useful to share the result with the others, when you return. Now take the bread and wine, fill your cup with the wine, if you have not already. Ask the God and Goddess to bless it, ask for a special blessing in that element. When you have said your piece you might like to end by saying; "Merry meet, Merry Part, and Merry Meet Again. Blessed Be." This is a traditional blessing. Now eat and drink, saving some of each as an offering. You may like to sing or play some music afterwards. Now ask the God and Goddess to bless you. Think of anyone or any situation that you think needs particular support. Ask that the blessing of the God and Goddess go out. Remember that you may be the tool of that blessing. At this point you may want to use the circle blessing that you learnt previously. Now thank the God and Goddess and bid them farewell. Do the same with gates, closing them in reverse order. Do not forget to thank them for their presence as you bid them farewell. Also symbolically close the gates. Now take the athame and go to the edge of the circle, if you are indoors then go to the nearest point in the circle to a physical door. With the athame cut the circle saying: "The circle is open. Yet ever remains a circle. Within me and without me flows its magical energy. Go out into the world and work its magic." Now tidy up your space and put things away. Do not leave your magical tools lying about. They are not for everyday use or even for anybody else. Magical energy will build up in them, but it easily seeps out into other people's hands, or around other people. Take the offering you saved and try to find some natural place to leave it, in a stream, river or the sea, on the earth (garden or wild place). Leave it there do not pick it up and chuck it out if it remains untouched. It is no longer yours, although it represents your magical work going out into the world. To throw it away is to throw away your magical energy. Take some time to write a report on your ritual in your magical diary, or think over it. Review what you have done, how do you feel about it? Do you think it was successful? What would you differently? What did you discover? This process is just as important as the ritual itself, as it brings it through into this world, into your everyday life. Create a ritual for the next festival, try to think of something to do in it that relates to the meaning of the festival. Create a blessing ritual for your home | 
