It’s really not a complicated ritual. There’s a a simple but powerful gesture–passing the flame–and a recitation of poem that resonates deeply with me and gestures to something bigger than I can easily explain. And there’s a little deliberate structuring to give it shape. And that’s it.
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Ritual is the product of a conscious form applied to unconscious content. The most evocative rituals I have created came from somewhere other than my rational mind. They combined intuitive bodily movements with what W.H. Auden called “privately numinous words”, words that I had read or heard which had a talismanic-like effect on me.
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Category: John Halstead, Latest Posts, The Naturalistic Pagan Toolbox, uncategorized
Tags: body, gestures, light, listening, movement, Natural Pagans, nature, poetry, ritual, solstice, unconscious
Ritual is the product of a conscious form applied to unconscious content. The most evocative rituals I have created came from somewhere other than my rational mind. They combined intuitive bodily movements with what W.H. Auden called “privately numinous words”, words that I had read or heard which had a talismanic-like effect on me.
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Category: John Halstead, Latest Posts, The Naturalistic Pagan Toolbox, uncategorized
Tags: body, gestures, light, listening, movement, Natural Pagans, nature, poetry, ritual, solstice, unconscious
To live a pagan life, we need practices, rituals and observances which saturate everyday life. They don’t need to be demanding, but the frequency is important. We need daily practices, but we also need more than eight special days.
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Category: John Halstead, Latest Posts, The Naturalistic Pagan Toolbox, uncategorized
Tags: Christmas, naturalistic paganism, New Year's, Paganism, ritual, seasons, solstice, winter
If you’re interested in listening to the place where you live, in cultivating your relationship with the more-than-human world in your neighborhood, in turning that instinctive feeling of joy or thanksgiving at the turning of the seasons into a simple but powerful ritual, in celebrating being alive and just feeling more human, then this will be a good place to start.
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Category: John Halstead, Latest Posts, The Naturalistic Pagan Toolbox, uncategorized
Tags: animism, cosplay, esotericism, magic, Natural Pagans, New Age, occultism, Paganism, ritual, Wicca