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A pastor opened a campaign event with an odd prayer. He wants god to grant McCain a big win.
"Before McCain spoke, a Christian pastor offered a prayer that seemed to ask for divine intervention on his behalf. "There are millions of people around this world praying to their God - whether it's Hindu, Buddha, Allah - that [McCain's] opponent wins for a variety of reasons," Pastor Arnold Conrad said. "And, Lord, I pray that you would guard your own reputation, because they're going to think that their god is bigger than you, if that happens."
The only surprise will be if McCain wins.
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In the previous post (Spirit of Generosity and Generosity of Spirit), I discussed what both ritual leader and participant have to bring to a public ritual in order for it to be successful. Here, I'd like to get into the nitty-gritty of what it takes to write and lead a successful, unconventional public Pagan ritual. Some of this will apply to a standard Wiccan-style public ritual, and will certainly apply to non-Wiccan public rituals, but I am most interested in the presentation of experimental Pagan rituals.
Give advance notice.
Whenever possible, tell your participants a little bit about what to expect before you start. If there's an email or message board post about your event, include a note about what tradition or religion you are from, maybe with a link to a website with some basic information. If your ritual isn't from an established and recognized tradition, you may just want to note that you will be leading an unconventional ritual.
Face it: your potential participants are mostly Wiccans or Wiccan-influenced. Even those who don't identify as Wiccan will probably have a basic understanding of that ritual structure. By all means, conduct your ritual according to your own tradition - as un-Wiccan-like as it might be - but if you assume knowledge of Wicca when choosing what to explain and what not to explain, you will be able to pick your talking points with more accuracy.
If your ritual includes anything that could be controversial - political magic, nudity, mind altering substances, blood magic, sex magic - you absolutely must let people know before you start, and preferably before they arrive. You would think this would go without saying, but I have been in a circle where there was an undisclosed skyclad requirement, and one where participants were asked to make a voluntary blood sacrifice, and I know how upset some of the participants were in both cases. By the way, both rituals were led by elders of the community.
Even with advanced notification and FAQ links, there may be some things you'll want to explain to the group. If you can work the explanations into the ritual in a way that feels smooth and unforced, that is best, but sometimes it just can't be done. Rather than doing the "professor thing" of lecturing while walking back and forth or around and around during the ritual, just get everyone gathered up and give the most basic explanation possible of what's going to happen. I highly recommend writing this in advance and reading it off the paper if you have to; you want to be as concise as possible, explaining only what you absolutely have to as clearly as you can. Winging it will often lead to extraneous points obfuscating the important parts.
Show, don't tell.
The participants will be looking to you to model what is expected of them. Rather than explain that in your tradition, you call the element of spirit while all looking up, just do it. Make sure anyone else who is running the ritual with you knows what to do, or tell a few people in advance, but then just let it happen. A few people may bow their heads instead, in keeping with their own tradition, but most will follow your lead.
Do a walk and talk.
Have you ever noticed how TV shows deal with long exposition? When something absolutely has to be explained and cannot be shown, a show will often have the characters on the move, walking and talking down a hall or a street. Or the talking will be split between several characters, instead of a monologue. This helps the audience stay engaged. Similarly, in a ritual, instead of having your priest or priestess drone out all explanations and directions while standing in the centre or at the altar, split it up between several people and move it around. I like having each of the quarter callers take a piece of the explanation in turn, so the participants' attention ends up flowing around the circle.
Commit to the performance.
You will quickly lose the attention of your participants if you mumble. If you are doing a very unconventional ritual, it is especially important that everyone be able to see and hear what's going on at every stage. Ideally, your participants have come to your ritual with open minds and generous spirits, but you will quickly use up their good will if they can't hear you.
I believe in practising ahead of time. Even if you don't require memorization, everyone who is helping you put on the ritual should be familiar with what's going to happen and should know their cues. Make sure everyone reads or recites their lines out loud a few times before starting so they have a good flow to the words. For bigger and more elaborate rituals, do the ritual with a smaller group in advance - a dress rehearsal of sorts.
Make it work.
A public ritual is an act of generosity and compromise. Sometimes, something that works in your small group ritual setting will not work in a public or very large ritual. For example, in my circle, we all bring our own goblets for sharing drink, but asking 300 people to remember to bring their own goblets is impractical. Be prepared to modify how you do things to make the best ritual experience for everyone.
There are some common things to look out for when modifying or writing a ritual for a large group. We will talk about these more in a future post, but, as an example, look for long pauses where nothing happens for the majority of participants. Food and drink sharing is a place where this happens a lot; as the one goblet is being passed around, everyone else stands and waits. Consider using several goblets and/or adding a chant to break that up. Look at your ritual with the eye of a director putting on a play. You cannot provide a spiritual experience to a group if your performance basics aren't met, so I definitely recommend compromising on your religion's usual traditions in order to better serve the group.
Serve the ritual.
Some things cannot, and should not, be compromised. Even though they might be controversial or less than optimal for performing, if something is fundamental to the ritual, than do it. Just use this rule thoughtfully; plenty of things we do in rituals aren't fundamental and can be modified, they just usually aren't. As you write or edit every part of the ritual, ask yourself: "How will this perform? Will it be clearly heard, seen, and understood? Is there a spiritual or religious reason why this has to be done this way?"
In small groups, some things we always do because they are religiously important (for example, we may always call the Goddess before the God for religious reasons), and some things we always do because the routine - the ritual of it - helps get the group into the right mindset because of the repetition (for example, calling each quarter from the edge of the circle, facing outwards, may be just how things are done in your tradition). The latter things can be changed; your large diverse group does not have the repetition to call on, so it is more important to serve the needs of the group than to follow the exact requirements of your usual ritual structure. Sometimes it is hard to tell the difference between the two, though. Try asking yourself: "What belief does this action serve?" If you don't have an answer, you may be able to compromise on that part of the ritual.
There is an art to putting on public rituals, and it can take practice. I recommend attending as many public and semi-public rituals for as many different Pagan traditions as possible and see what works and what doesn't for you, and what does and doesn't for the other participants. Then, practice with smaller groups - your coven, grove, or other usual group with some guests - before going to big groups of strangers. But at some point, if you want to conduct public rituals, you will just have to take the plunge and do it.
Source: http://wiccancommunity.blogspot.com
A question from a friend at facebook the other day:
Just curious about your name. I daresay "Venus Satanas" is not your birth name, and you don't seem one to do anything that isn't very well thought through. "Satanas" is obvious, of course...but why "Venus?" It's quite a suggestive name...
My name, is my magical name. It is a name that I gave to myself when i was re-initiated back into satanism in 2004. It was a name that I created from the associations and experiences that were in my life at that time. In order to understand this you would have to travel back in time with me to '04 to see how this happened.
It was the summer. I had just moved into my own place, a small apartment by the river where I could begin a new life from the one that i worked hard to leave behind. See, i spent 7 years in a bad relationship. the kind of relationship that was poison to my soul. the kind of relationship that made me feel that I wasted years of my time caring about a person who couldn't even care for himself. It was an abusive relationship. But i am a fighter. When i had enough, I walked out and i got my own place to live.
Part of my reason for leaving was that I really missed my communion with Satan. It was the one thing that was missing in my life, my spiritual path. I forgot how good it felt to be self empowered. Without that self empowering element in my life it was hard to be happy.
I got my own apartment that summer, and i was able to decorate it the way i wanted and I set up a ritual room in my bedroom with a complete altar. It took months to set up things the way that I wanted to. Along the way, I worked on meditations and I performed rituals for Satan. I was focused, more focused that I had ever been in my life. I also adopted my cat from the shelter, an adorable black kitty that I named Shadow. Once I had a stable place to stay and my life was in order, I was ready to bring him into my life.
Every time I came home to my place, i saw the single pink rose that was growing at my doorstep. It was so beautiful and it took a long time to grow. It reminded me of my new life, my new freedom. The rose was very symbolic to me in a very spiritual way. Just before it faded I gathered it for a ritual. In this ritual, I gave myself my magic name VENUS SATANAS, to associate with two of my favorite god-forces as a title and as a tribute. The rose was an offering to the goddess, my blood was an offering to Satan.
Some say that the name is
Bryon is a neopagan with a deep interest in the gods of Rome, so we share a lot of commonalities when it comes to magic and working with gods. One of his desires is the return to the classical age of Rome, to worship the gods as they had been worshiped long ago. He is into Roman reconstructionism. Over the years he has become somewhat of a 'magical partner' to me as we have experimented with spells together with varied results, and we discuss our experiences in working with the Roman gods.
So, Venus has become a very important goddess in my life. While she is not 'satanic', her name is Venus has an independent and willful character, if she can be described as a goddess. She is the type of goddess that does whatever she wants, whenever she wants. In her stories she was not a demure, faithful lover. She had many partners and she caused a lot of mischief and trouble. She is never pictured as a child. She is always portrayed as a woman. Venus is the type of goddess who speaks through the heart, and it is through this understanding that I have come to begin to understand Satan with my heart. It is very spiritual to me.
A magical name is so much more than just a title. It is a role that you have to fulfil, a name that you give form to. When you choose a magical name you are born into the world of magic. The magician is self-created.
Venus Satanas
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