I celebrated with my usual solitary circle ritual. My rituals are usually nice and slow-paced and quiet and satisfying, but except for in certain parts, I feel a little empty with them, and some of the setup and execution I regard as work. That's not good. In a way it's a bit like a person of a more mainstream religion who doesn't really feel like going to church, but goes anyway, partly out of obligation and partly because deep down he really does want to go.
So, after three years of doing my self-created Sabbat rituals, I've decided it's time for a change.
After Lughnasadh, I'm goin' simple.
I'm going to isolate which parts of the ritual I especially like and mean the most to me, and only do those, probably. And save the more formal circles for if I want to do something with company or if I have a particular reason for getting fancy.
Holidays are supposed to be fun, and when parts of the ceremony drag, something's wrong. Because my religion is all about celebrating the joy of life.
I decided I'll do one more "formal" ritual, the one for Lughnasadh next season, because that will make it a full circle of three years since I started actual formal Sabbat rituals with a real circle-casting and all the fixin's. Mabon 1999 was my first.
And then hopefully I'll find a nice balance. In the past year and a half or so, I've been moving away from formal circles for my Esbats, at least, and tended to celebrate them mostly by gazing at the moon while sitting outside, with some light vanilla incense, a candle, a glass of milk, and some crescent cakes. And I'd just read a Pagan-oriented book and slice an apple and take a bite and bury the halves somewhere, crumble a cookie for the birds, bathe in the moonlight, all that. It seems like that was a bit more fulfilling than an indoor circle, though outdoors there were a couple things I couldn't do.
It would be nice to have an outdoor temple where I could do my rituals. That would be so excellent. Okay, that goes on my list of life goals. Become a bestselling writer so I can afford a nice house with a backyard for my temple and a garden. YEAH.
In a couple weeks I'm going to a Pagan gathering, where there will be camping, a barbecue, and a drum circle. I'm looking forward to doing some major celebrating, as this will only be my third time doing something related to Pagan religious matters with other people.
I have always thought of myself as rather partial to only solitary practice, but I think maybe I might want to branch out more now, it might just be time.
Weird ponderings aside, I had a decent ritual. Nothing weird happened, and I had strawberries, salad, mushrooms, special fruity iced tea that I made, Sabbat cakes drizzled with brown sugar icing, some strawberry daiquiri, and buckeye chocolate balls I made a buttload of (the extras got brought to work via a special trip I made, even though it was my day off; I like making my co-workers fat).
Happy Solstice to everyone who cares!
Notes:
Quiet simple rituals are in my opinion are the best. I occasionaly like to do group rituals but I much prefer letting the ritual sort of take on a life of it's own. [RavenSilverPhoenix]
i know what u mean sometimes rituals seem to drag in parts and some are like "what the earth is the point of saying this etc" so i see where u'r coming from. [practikalmagik]
If it works for you, then it's good :D I have my own 'ritual' for saying my prayers...I don't tell my parents 'cause if they found out they'd accuse me of...well...messing with beliefs or something crazy like that ^___^ Maybe I should snack during my prayers, though it's probably not going to enrich the experience...just make ME fat! [katqueen]