This is what I've done so far for the
Liturgy 1
Daniel N. Quiray
Introduction
This essay is the result of over six years as a Pagan, in several different traditions. In this time, ADF’s rituals are the only ones that I think I’ve completely understood, especially with all the other experiences to compare to those I’ve had with Ocean’s Tide Protogrove. Because of all of Ocean’s Tide’s rituals, and discussions with Anthony Thompson about liturgy, I have gained a good understanding of the ins and outs of putting together a public rite using ADF liturgy.
The Purpose of Ritual
Rituals, especially public group rituals, are multi-faceted things that fulfill several purposes. The first, and likely the most common, of these is providing a way for a person or persons to worship and give praise to their selected deities and spirits. This works to form a stronger relationship between people and the entities they give praise to, and this can be considered a purpose of its own.
In the case of group ritual, one would hope that the ritual has the effect of bringing the participants (a congregation, perhaps?) closer to one another, and creating more of a feeling of unity and friendship among them. After all, we humans are social creatures, and we like the feeling of belonging somewhere. Therefore, forming and strengthening social ties is another potential purpose of ritual.
The commemoration of an event is also a reason to have a ritual. Rites of Passage are a good example of this, as well as rites to celebrate accomplishments. Ocean’s Tide Protogrove has already included the swearing of Dedicant Oaths into two of its rituals since we formed.
Though not a part of every religion’s purpose for ritual, teaching can be a valuable function. In ADF this is especially true, since we’ve decided to hold our rituals publicly in order to provide a resource to the community. Even when not intended as a teaching tool, rituals at which young people are present have the potential of teaching many things.
The receiving of a blessing, whether it is called a blessing or not, is probably one of the most common purposes of rituals. I think this is the most common function to Neo Pagans these days, since so many of them seem more concerned with absorbing magical and mystical energies than they are with worship and praise. Whether it is done by way of flat bread, drawing down the moon, or some liquid in a big horn, many faiths have ways to bring blessings to their followers.
Finally, through ritual people can specify and clarify their beliefs. This function, I think, reinforces most or all of the others, especially the forming of social ties. This is because, as both social psychology and common sense tell us, people prefer to spend time with people like themselves. “Birds of a feather flock together”.
Ritual Roles
A well organized ritual should involve people with clearly defined roles. This is true of just about any group activity, be it team sports, military service, or public ritual. A leader is certainly a good thing to have, even if they are little more than an MC.
I feel that we are extremely fortunate in ADF to have all of the training guilds, since each reflects a very valuable skill or set of skills for rituals, and allows members to get training in these skills.
Any grove could benefit from having a musician to sing and compose songs, or a craftsman to make ritual objects. It’s certainly great to have someone skilled at writing liturgy, and definitely good to know that safety and security are taken care of. Even the often overlooked efforts of someone who spends hours pouring over books enhances a ritual. And of course, our rituals wouldn’t be complete without someone interpreting the runes, ogham, or cards. All of these skills put together can end up making one fine ritual.
The Center and the Gates
To create the Center in our rituals, we generally use the Fire, the Well, and the Tree as gateways. The Gates allow energies, spirits, deities, et al. to easily enter our ritual space. Each of these Gates, of course, corresponds to one of the Worlds as we conceive of in our cosmology: Land/Sea/Sky or Mid-/Lower-/Upper- Realms. Not only are they Gates, but also symbols of these Worlds, and by using them we symbolically bring all the Worlds together in our ritual space, making it, at least in symbol, the nexus or Center of all the Worlds.
Of course, this is done not to delude our egos, but instead to make our reciprocal relationships with the deities and spirits much easier to engage in, for both of the aforementioned parties. As I see it, these symbols of the Worlds act as Gates by the Law of Association described in “Real Magic” by Isaac Bonewits. The Law of Association states that “If two things, “A” and “B”, have something in common (anything!), that thing can be used to control both, and “A” and “B” have mutual influence on each other, depending upon the size of the thing shared. The more they have in common, the more they influence each other.” Thus, by having something that is associated with the Worlds, we have a connection and some influence on the Worlds.
“Hey, Why No Circle?”
I have, on occasion, had other Neo Pagans wonder at how I could possibly have a big ritual without casting a circle. “How do you keep bad forces out/good forces in?” they might sometimes ask.
Of course, I would then have to go off on some long-winded, overly intellectualized, boring rant about cosmologies, worldviews, history, paradigms, monkeys, etc.
To boil it down, I would basically tell them that the drawing of the circle didn’t fit into my ideas of ritual any more than it would fit into a Christmas day mass. This is due to a few reasons, which I will quickly articulate below (if it is actually possible for me to write anything succinctly):
Reason 1 - Mystically speaking, it would be quite pointless for us to set up some boundary at the edge of our ritual space, since we’ve created Gates to the Worlds inside of our space. These, in my opinion, would make drawing a circle a waste of time and effort.
Reason 2 - We conceive of the God/desses and spirits as actual beings, not unconscious forces or aspects of one big super-deity. As such, they can come and go as they please, and probably don’t want some stupid circle keeping them from collecting their presents. That would definitely piss me off.
Reason 3 - Since we believe all of these good spirits are real, it likewise makes sense that some potentially bad ones are as well. Because of this, and of what I stated in the first reason, we instead give something to the Outdwellers, though more as a bribe not to bug us. This fulfills a similar purpose to the ceremonial magician’s circle.
Reason 4 - It doesn’t make sense in regards to practicality either. Since we have our rituals open to the public, it is likely that we occasionally have large groups, and maybe even people coming late. People are allowed to come and go as they please, because it would just be a bitch if each person had to ask before they left, and had one of us cut them some imaginary hole every time someone has to take a leak.
The Earth Mother
One thing that all Neo Pagans can agree on is that nature is sacred. That’s it, the one thing we don’t argue over. Our planet is the source of literally everything we have. As such, we consider it the source of life, and rightly so.
Although my explanation of why nature is sacred might be a bit less romantic sounding than does the explanation of the average Pagan, it pretty much boils down to the same thing: we depend on natural resources to survive. Without natural resources, we would die. The Earth mother, of course, is the source of all of these resources. I tend to believe that the Kindred depend on the Earth Mother as well. This is why we honor her first of all in our rituals; she is the source of ALL we have.
Fire and Water
Fire, Well, and Tree
Outdwellers
As I mentioned earlier, in the section describing why it isn’t necessary for us to cast circles, we often give to entities we deem potentially troublesome. While not all of us do this, it is a fairly common practice.
Like I said before, we believe that these entities are real, individual beings. Thus, we give them something as a bribe not to do us harm or cause us any problems. Unlike the offerings to the Kindred, the Outdweller Appeasement isn’t performed with the understanding of forming a relationship. In my case, when I perform this part in Ocean’s Tide’s rites, I purposely pour out the appeasement (usually soda) with my left hand while looking away. These subtle clues are meant to indicate that I don’t want anything to do with them.
The Three Kindred
Other Ways to “Fill Out the Cosmic Picture”
Other Models for the Sacred Center
Choosing a Focus for the Key Offerings
There are a few ways that people choose whom to make the Key Offerings to. The primary way to is to give the Offering to a deity who is associated to the Holy Day in traditional lore. For instance, Brigid is associated with the holiday of Imbolc, Lugh with Lughnasadh, Saturn with Saturnalia, etc. These are obvious choices.
There is also the Neo Pagan associations and traditions to consider. A good example of this would be choosing a deity of love or lust for Beltane, or any old agricultural deity for the Autumnal Equinox. Basically, you can choose to honor a deity whose primary role(s) match up with the generic meaning given to a holiday by the general Neo Pagan population.
Sacrifice
As I’ve seen repeatedly while studying this liturgy, sacrifice comes from the Latin which means “to make sacred”. In our case, we’re making it sacred by giving to the Kindreds, and since it becomes their possession, it is from that point on off limits to us, or any other human being.
We give to the Kindreds for one primary reason, which is to create a reciprocal relationship with the other entities that are around us. In ancient Indo-European cultures, the reciprocal side of gift-giving was considered extremely important, and it would be considered dishonorable in some of the cultures not to give a gift back. For example, in Egil’s Saga, a story from Iceland, one lord is given a great gift by one of his close friends, and he jokingly remarks that he could never give such a great gift, and that he should go cut off his friend’s head for giving him something so nice. Also, many people who read runes interpret the rune Gebo, which generally means ‘Gift’, as having to do with relationships.
The Omen
The taking of the Omen is a fairly straightforward part of the ritual that I don’t think requires much explanation. It is the interpreting of signs in order to receive a message; in this case, the message is from the Kindred. What we’re trying to figure out is either a) if the omen was accepted and/or b) what sort of blessing will be given in return for the sacrifices. Sometimes people will be asking both of these questions together.
Usually, we use some sort of divinatory tool to take omens. These are generally culturally specific to the rite, such as using ogham for honoring Celtic deities, or runes for a Norse ceremony. While it’s not especially important to do this, I think most people like to keep a good flow going and keep everyone’s attention directed at the cultural images. When in doubt, however, any form of divination can work, as long as the seer is competent.
The Blessing Cup(s) and the Return Flow
As I stated at the beginning of this whole big mess that has become and essay, the receiving of a blessing is one of the big functions and purposes of rituals, especially in modern Paganism. In the case of ADF Liturgy, we usually use a cup of some sort filled with liquid to receive our blessings. In my case in particular, I use a large horn.
The Kindred give the Blessings as the fulfillment of their side of the reciprocal relationship we’ve formed with them by giving gifts. In a scientific sense, it can be seen as the equal and opposite reaction caused by the activity of sacrifice. What the form the Blessing comes in is usually determined by the omen which is mentioned above.
How the Liturgy Corresponds to Ocean’s Tide Protogrove’s
For the most part, the public rituals I perform with Ocean’s Tide Protogrove match up with the ADF Standard Liturgical Outline. One of the main differences is that we take a less ‘magically’ focused approach to our rites, but instead worry primarily about simple worship and good aesthetics.
We do things slightly out of the typical order, and take out just a couple of what we consider to be the less essential parts. For instance, I recite the Opening Prayer after the Procession, and we don’t normally do any of the optional parts.
We also try to work in our own personal traditions, such as the continuation of the waters, which involves putting a bit of the water from the last ritual into the well each time, which at our first ritual as a grove the founding members each put in a bit of seawater.
part of ADF's Generalist Training.