From: rbowman@reed.edu (Rain) Newsgroups: alt.pagan,alt.religion.wicca Subject: Re: Help Needed - Ritual Writing Date: 14 Mar 1995 11:03:25 GMT Ken wrote: > I need help/ideas for writing good solid rituals, except I don't > know where to start. If anyone could help it would be greatly > apprecatied. Renee Beck and Sydney Barbara Metrick's book, _The Art of Ritual: A Guide for Creating and Performing Your Own Rituals for Growth and Change_ (Berkeley: Celestial Arts, 1990). ISBN 0-89087-582-0. This book gives a good breakdown of ritual components and possible themes from a Pagan/Wiccan-friendly but largely secular standpoint. Discusses physical layout, use of food, sound and smells, coreography, etcetera. Also, I find that the sample rituals in Starhawk's _Spiral Dance_ and in Janet and Stewart Farrars' _Eight Sabbats for Witches_ are excellent models. Starhawk's adapt very easily for open or semi-open public rituals, the Farrars write more for tight and formal covens, while Beck & Metrick focus on customizing each ritual for its own occasion. Hope this helps! - Rain, rbowman@reed.edu === From: luther@saucer.cc.umr.edu (John Luther) Newsgroups: alt.pagan Subject: Re: Rebirth Ritual Date: 13 Jan 1995 15:22:13 GMT I suggest a nice little primer for ritual design. It is _The Art of Ritual_ by Renee Beck & Sydney Barbara Metrick (CelestialArts, 1990, ISBN 0-89087-582-0, $11.95). It opens with a discussion of what ritual is and why we do it. They present a classification scheme of type of ritual: Beginnings, Endings, Mergings, Cycles, Healings, etc. It then discusses ritual design and planning (complete with worksheets) and presents some examples of practical rituals for such things as divorce, quitting smoking and preparing to write. Peace, jwl John W. Luther -(905)- luther@umr.edu "If a man achieves or suffers change in premises which are deeply embedded in his mind, he will surely find that the results of that change will ramify throughout his whole universe." -Gegory Bateson