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Book ClubsWomen's Rites, Women's Mysteries: Intuitive Ritual Creation by Ruth Barrett | Chapter 4: Developing The Theme
Hello Goddesses, I hope you had a good week and have had a chance to read a bit more of Ruth Barrett's Women's Rites, Women's Mysteries: Intuitive Ritual Creation.
This week we are discussing:
Chapter 4: Developing The Theme
In this chapter Barrett invites us, for one or more of the ritual purposes identified in Chapter Three, to build a corresponding theme that resonates with the ritual's purpose. This means choosing meaningful sensory stimulations -- movements, activities, colours, objects -- that relate to our ritual and bring it into literal being. Barrett guides you, step-by-step, on how to do this.
She argues that sensory elements and thematic components engage the deeper subconscious mind more profoundly than words can do, and this in turn allows us to access "our deepest healing and transformation". This, essentially, is what Dianic ritual is for.
Barrett offers a loosely structured sensory practice to help build your theme. She calls this "Going Wide" and it's basically a series of guided meditations/visualisations that are written out in the chapter in easy-to-follow steps.
She next provides categories for different types of ritual, with examples of thematic elements that could be employed. I've picked out a few examples but there are more in the book:
Finally, Barrett encourages us to bring this process of sensory "brainstorming" into an outline structure with a clear sequence of events/actions. She stresses the importance of planning and preparation. Once you enter the ritual itself, you do not want to have to interrupt the flow or disrupt the journey to the subconscious mind by having to wrench yourself into logical "left-brain" state to sort out some logistical issue or decide what to do next. So she helps you think through the practical work of facilitation.
Please share your thoughts in the comments below, and, if you feel comfortable doing so, share the outcome of some of this work. As always please be aware this is a public forum and be aware of any personal information you might be divulging.
Lastly, I want to thank @CompassionateGoddess for recommending this book and having the idea of a book club. I have taken on creating the posts but it was her idea. Thank you to the aptly named @CompassionateGoddess !! And thank you all for joining in.
@TSTat1400 @PickettyWitch @Committing_Tervery @Yarrowheart @Itzpapalotl @Amareldys @Hollyhock @a_shrub @Jehane @CompassionateGoddess @Unicorn @ActualWendy @TervenRainbows @DonnaFemina @salty-tomorrow @Lilith @DonnaFemina @TheChaliceIsMightier @sealwomyn @WhiteSowBlackMoon @LunarWolf @WitchPlease @proudcatlady @BerehyniasEggs
Thanks for giving us a pause, @Tm. Thanks for reminding us that we don’t have to know it all, and that the important part is doing it.
Doing it: it can be simple.
One of the earliest lessons for me in this I learned from this poem by Elsa Gidlow, a lesbian poet, and some kind of witch. Each day, she lights her fire. And each year, she lights the solstice fire from the coals of the old one.
Chains Of Fires
Each dawn, kneeling before my hearth, Placing stick, crossing stick On dry eucalyptus bark Now the larger boughs, the log (With thanks to the tree for its life) Touching the match, waiting for creeping flame. I know myself linked by chains of fire To every woman who has kept a hearth
In the resinous smoke I smell hut and castle and cave, Mansion and hovel. See in the shifting flame my mother And grandmothers out over the world Time through, back to the Paleolithic In rock shelters where flint struck first sparks (Sparks aeons later alive on my hearth) I see mothers , grandmothers back to beginnings, Huddled beside holes in the earth of igloo, tipi, cabin, Guarding the magic no other being has learned, Awed, reverent, before the sacred fire Sharing live coals with the tribe.
For no one owns or can own fire, it ]ends itself. Every hearth-keeper has known this. Hearth-less, lighting one candle in the dark We know it today. Fire lends itself, Serving our life Serving fire.
At Winter solstice, kindling new fire With sparks of the old From black coals of the old, Seeing them glow again, Shuddering with the mystery, We know the terror of rebirth.
Thank you for the above reminders and for sharing that beautiful and powerful poem. Both are simply divine, and I got some goosebumps from the poem!