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:

• Creation rituals: you might create a symbolic object; enact a symbolic birth scene, plant a seed.
• Release/Transition/Transformation rituals: you might dissolve soil/salt in water, wash something in running water, place/throw stones into earth/water, destroy a symbolic object.
• Honoring rituals: proclaim what is now so, wear or be adorned with a symbolic item, pass over a symbolic threshold.
• Celebration rituals: perform a dance, light candles, invoke your ancestors.

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.

Previous discussions:
Introduction & Chapter 1
Chapter 2: Rituals in the Belly of the Beast
Chapter 3: Developing The Purpose

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