Formal vs. Informal Rituals

[aluokaloo]

before I knew much about paganism, even before I had even heard the word, with the few deities I knew, I was also informal, when I started rituals to help me connect with my Gods, it did help, with the new Gods, and it helped me a little with the older Gods that have stuck with me since I was an kid. But I havw noticed that my stronger connections with the Gods who have been around for a long time have dropped, and I want to rebuild it. I love all the pomp, and props and the ceremony of more formal rituals, but lately I have been less into them dropping them in favor of good old plain informalities and such, what aboutthe rest of you? Experiences, storiesw, opinions welcomed.

[Nitefalle]

I often struggle between formal & informal. I have had great results with both and I have had great flops with both. I find that if it's just myself, informal works best as I can just go with what I feel and speak from the heart. When I celebrate the Sabbats with my group, however, a little formality goes a long way in the form of organization and keeping everyone on track during ritual so it doesn't turn into a chat session or having people just wander off out of boredom or distraction. We pre-plan and that helps a lot.

[Fiamma]

before I knew much about paganism, even before I had even heard the word, with the few deities I knew, I was also informal, when I started rituals to help me connect with my Gods, it did help, with the new Gods, and it helped me a little with the older Gods that have stuck with me since I was an kid. But I havw noticed that my stronger connections with the Gods who have been around for a long time have dropped, and I want to rebuild it. I love all the pomp, and props and the ceremony of more formal rituals, but lately I have been less into them dropping them in favor of good old plain informalities and such, what aboutthe rest of you? Experiences, storiesw, opinions welcomed.


Since this is more about rituals than it is about the deities themselves, I'm going to move this thread on over to the rituals forum.

To answer your question, I definiely prefer rituals with a certain amount of structure to them. Not so structured to the extent of say, ceremonialists, but defintiely structured and reasonably planned. (Though, one of the best rituals I've ever taken part in was done with no planning, the major details only decided on about 20 minutes beforehand the minor details left to the participants and the moment. However, it was done within the structure with which I am familiar, partially as an exercise to show that if one is reasonably familiar with our format, a well-executed ritual does not require pages and pages of scripting or weeks of planning.

I also prefer my rituals to be mostly serious. The occasional silly ritual is cool but I am an Apollonian, give me a serious ritual that runs like a well-oiled machine and knocks you on your a** any day and twice on Sunday.

[Windsmith]

Informal all the way. Then again, I'm a Reclaiming Pantheist (we Reclaiming folks think we're pretty formal if we decide in advance who's invoking what) who usually practices with no more than 2 other people, so I think being formal about my rituals would feel pretty funny.

One of the best rituals I've been part of recently was the full moon ritual my wife and I did last month. We just did our casting and invoking and then went outside and sat on our patio for about 20 minutes, soaking up the moonlight. It was incredibly effective and the least formal thing I'd done in ages.

But, no matter how informal I intend to be, I need to do some planning. A few of the other people in my home spirit community are masters of improvisational rituals, and I've watched them do it enough times to know that I don't have the discipline or the experience to pull it off. You have to practice a lot before you can pull an effective ritual out of your bum right there on the spot.

[Mòrag Elasaid Ní Dhòmhnaill]

I guess it depends on what exactly you consider ritual to be. I consider everything I do spiritually on a daily basis to be ritual. For example, I pray every morning when I wake, evening before I sleep, and am trying to get into the habit of included mealtime pray and these to me are ritual. I don't need to do anything special to set them up as I don't pray before an altar or with candles lit, etc. These are very informal and don't require any advanced planning at all. Even with the Sabbats I rarely do a full out formal ritual. Instead I make the whole day or weekend about celebration. Because the Mighty Ones and my spirituality are such an integral part of my life and I rarely perform magic I don't worry about formalized ritual structure. I try to live every moment spiritually and there is no ritual structure to contain that. The only times I can think of that I would really feel the need to formally set up ritual space is in the consecration of new altar space or tools and the very occassional times when I do feel that magic is needed. And that is only to keep the Good Folk and other malevolent spirits outside.

[Darbla]

My favorite tale (told as truth) of an informal ritual is from Phil Hine. I give you "The Sausage Curse":

http://www.beyondweird.com/occult/perm13.html
Some years ago, I learnt a powerful lesson in the sorcery of
need by watching an adept of the art at work. I was visiting the
High Priestess of a local witch coven. Whilst idly glancing
through the evening paper, she came across a report of a rapist
prowling in the district. She shot up out of the chair, shut up
everyone else in the room with an icy glance, and, on reaching
the dining table, cleared a space on it by simply sweeping
everything onto the floor with a mighty crash. She placed an
indenti-kit picture of the rapist from the paper in the centre of
the table, grabbed a sausage from the fridge, and, after furiously
rummaging in her sewing box, proceeded to methodically drive
needles into the sausage, muttering furiously under her breath.
The atmosphere in the room was electric. After some minutes,
she stalked out of the room and took the sausage into the back
garden. On her return, she smiled brightly at the cowering men
in the room, and announced “I think a cup of tea would be
nice, don’t you?” She offered no explanation or justification
for her actions, and never alluded to it afterwards. A week
later, the rapist was caught, sentenced and incarcerated.
It was only years later that I began to appreciate the power
of this woman. She didn’t dither around, nor did she worry
about the ethics, morality, or whether or not she had the ‘right’
to act in this way. Nor did she bother with any of the elaborate
procedures of ritual magic. By her glance, and her violent
clearing of the table, she created a charged atmosphere that
rivalled anything I had experienced in more formal magical
surroundings.

[Teresa]

When I work with others it is formal for the most part.

The workings that I do on my own are still structured but very informal for the most part. I guess it would depend on the nature of the ritual.

[Ivy Artemisia]

My rituals are usually formal. My group is Wiccan, and we follow that ritual structure, usually. There are times, however where we experiment with different types of ritual. On the whole, however, we are structured. In my personal practices, I like a little bit of structure- I find that it goes a long way when I need to focus.

I have friends who do quarter calls, etc. on the fly. I've done this before, but when I'm practicing alone, I like to use memorized calls, as it gives me more energy to focus on the intent of calling, and the energy visualization. The structure helps me focus my energy on my working. Not to say that informal circle doesn't work, 'cause I've done that as well. I'm just more comfortable with a formal/structured ritual.