This is an excerpt from ‘The Web of Wyrdcraft: 5 Principles of Ritual Design.’ It’s a ritual practise manifesto and guide that outlines a simple, yet profound philosophy for designing communal and individual rituals for support, healing, clarity, and cooperation. You can purchase the full manifesto for just $11 right here. Paid subscribers get a copy for free, so consider becoming one if you want it in addition to a year of free attendance to the Alchemical Writing group.
What is ritual for?
All worthy things are a means unto life; life is an end unto itself.
At the most basic level, ritual is an instinctual animal behaviour. However, that is not the only thing it is. It is also a co-regulatory somatic practise. It is also a process by which we individually and collectively receive information and generate meaning. It is a way to engage in ‘serious play’ with our environment. It is how we stay in relationship with more-than-human forces.
Ritual is for so many things because ritual is so many things. It isn’t something we need to do so much as it is something we cannot help but do.
Rituals can be for a lot of things, but at their core, they are for life itself. Life created the conditions for ritual behaviour to emerge; it is certainly a human trait, but it goes beyond humans. Other sentient nonhuman animals display ritual behaviour as well.
Ritual is a practise of venerating life: participating with it, expressing gratitude for it, protecting it, and so on.
Ritual praxis in a fragmented world
There are few so-called ‘intact’ cultures on this planet, but those who are the most preserved tend to assume relationality. Us Westerners, however, have to consciously recall that this is the case.
The Web only exists because we exist in a cultural context of fragmentation. I speak about the domains as if they are separate things that I have connected to each other, however this is not the case ontologically. All domains connect to all other domains, either directly or by way of a middle-man. Nevertheless, our tendency is to assume discreteness and thus experience fragmentation. The Web is an attempt to stitch together something that is already innately a whole, complex system, in the hopes that we can once again experience that wholeness and complexity.
Ritual is a practise of relationality: becoming aware of it, getting better at being in it, and remembering how to assume it as default.
happy underworlding.
become a ritual design wizard with the web of wyrdcraft.
master language to make the imaginal real at the next alchemical writing workshop.
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