Liturgical Choices

“Wiccans choose the liturgy they resonate with individually. There’s no specific one, but there may be a coven liturgical cycle which gives the group a method and a structure to learn, grow and worship.”

This is a follow up post on this post.

In other posts on Wiccan Philosophy, I have shared my opinion. In this instance my opinion doesn’t matter. It is your opinion that matters and it is your education that matters. My own experience tells me that I learned better through my own investigations than by lectures or essays…so here’s a multi-part  assignment, followed by some direction for study in the years to come. In the mean time, you will likely want to be experiencing rituals. Pick an author you really like and follow her liturgy while you do this research. This will give you inspiration and by doing her rituals, you’ll have a better idea of what you like and don’t. It will help you with your study. Please note that I have given this assignment more than once to neophytes considering initiation. I will say to you what I’ve said to them. If you can’t get through this assignment, it’s likely you’ll move on before you ever get to initiation. Wicca is not a lazy woman’s path. People who seek this way only succeed if they are self-starters and if they are diligent and focused…so let’s see how you do:

1) Define the term liturgy. Go look it up from more than one resource, and not just a Wiki.

2) Define the term mythology. Do the same research.

3) Research and write a 1000-1500 word (each) essays on two traditions besides Wicca You may not use a Wiki. You have to find credible resources that would be used in a college research paper. That will take you more effort, but you will net information with more depth. One of these you choose to study, should be a tradition that you  fear or just plain despise. Learn why anyone would believe in this. What’s the appeal…? Find it and write about it. Don’t report only in essay form. Get out a recorder and tell me a story the followers tell their children…or get out the pastels and make me some pictures of their altars…Record your findings and then report them without bias or judgment. Definitely bother to interview someone to learn more. Find me some videos on the topic…Be creative. (Note to readers: if you do this assignment and want to contribute your information to a future reader, you could share that information here…and you could even make the effort to choose a different tradition than others who have may have commented previously.)

4) What is the liturgy associated with these two traditions? Tell me their creation story, tell me their customary rituals.

5) Now do some research on some common liturgical themes you’ll see among Wiccans. Write a brief description of those you find intriguing to keep in your notebook about them. Keep track of all your resources as you do these assignments so you can find them again. (The reason you really want credible sources, is because they tend to remain available and people are willing to stand behind them.) When you speak about a religious tradition speak with authority and back your assertions up with citations!

6) Research the Sabbats. What are these festivals supposed to reflect about the Cycles of Life or about a human life? Make notes for yourself in your notebook.

7) Now choose a theme that especially intrigues you. What about it feels compelling to you? What lessons do you think it holds for you? What do you imagine a year of Sabbats might be like using this mythic cycle? Pretend you are the Fool embarking on an adventure to explore the world and put yourself into the theme you chose. What do stories might the fool encounter? How would you ritualize that? Write a loose template for each Sabbat.

8) Research lunar rituals that fall between the Sabbats. What themes do you notice? How might you design lunar rituals to reflect your Sabbat myth? Write a few Templates.

9) Now choose songs to enhance rituals for that theme. For this, YouTube is wonderful! You might look up Inanna: Sisters in Rhythm (a women’s drumming group),  Libana, Karen Drucker and others. For that matter, you’ll find fabulous stuff just typing Goddess, chants, or women’s frame drumming into a YouTube search engine. I found two middle eastern women frame drummers easily with that last search phrase. Fabulous song! As well, you can do a Google on the Reclaiming Collective, who have a compendium of chants and songs they share with the community.

10) What did you learn from all this research and study? What else intrigues you enough to go back to learn more?

Some additional things to know or remember:

• Your Wheel of the Year is an enactment of a myth or myths that you find important. Keep that in mind as you design templates for Sabbats.
• Your Lunar Wheel has the purpose of supporting both the structure of your Sabbat cycle with related rituals and magickal workings…and the purpose of giving you time and space for personal process. In a few years, you should have a series of Full Moon esbat templates that support your Sabbat cycle and another series of New Moon esbat templates which you’ve planned and used to process life experiences and other activities.
• These assignments ought to take you 6 months to a year. It will take you several years to have a full Wheel of templates you feel proud to share and have used enough times to work the bugs out of them.  Some time each week should be set aside to this study.
• This activity is crucial to adopting a liturgy for  your Tradition and to be able to define, describe and enact your chosen Liturgical Cycle. This investigation should be ongoing. Look for books on myths. Look for Wiccan publications that will help illustrate some additional activities to generate this understanding. I can recommend Twelve Wild Swans by Starhawk and Hilary Valentine for this purpose. Less handy with regard to liturgy, isWheel of the Year: Living a Magical Life by Campanelli. That latter is out of print, but worth finding simply because it’s such a fabulous example of how to live in harmony the life cycles and this gives you a measure for where you are headed with your practice if you immerse yourself fully in Wiccan practice.
• Make it a habit to research in this way at least once a year even after you’ve chosen a mythic cycle. There’s good reason for that…it’s because you will need to continue to evolve. To do that, you’ll find working with new myths can help you along the way.  Keep improving your knowledge and give yourself enough resources to choose myth cycles that are rich enough to keep you engrossed in your practice.

I’ve  encouraged  those few I’ve mentored  to explore freely…I haven’t imposed a liturgy on them. However, I feel there are a few studies that I would consider essential education. Of these, I would say first that every neophyte to Wicca should do a study of an Earth Goddess and a corresponding God of Light or Green Man. These liturgical myths reflect the life cycles most closely and that’s why there’s such a rich body of these kinds of myths. Every first degree initiate should do a study of a Seeker myth in which the Fool’s adventures lead her into self empowerment. Second degree initiates should do a Descent Cycle and complete it the year prior to any training of others. It takes awhile to fully cook that process, so don’t be hasty in rushing on to teaching!! Third degree initiates should seek myth cycles that reflect balance and restraint of power on the part of the Divine. These are the primary lessons and challenges at each level of training. Your study should instruct you along those lines in order to support your development. Again, the studies relating to this first assignment should last at least a year…preferably 3.

Otherwise let your curiosity and passion guide your mythic cycles and liturgical studies.