Working Together: Active Participation in Public Ritual
by Blayze

The idea of public pagan ritual is a strange beast. For many pagans their path is a private and personal thing, their rituals solitary or with a small group. Not all of us are 'out' to our families, friends or work colleagues, I have even met some pagans who are not 'out' to themselves.  So if this is the case, why would pagans want to participate in, let alone run, a public ritual?

Public ritual gives us, as a community, a chance to come together and celebrate in all our diversity, it gets ideas flowing, puts faces to names only seen in chat rooms or via email. It is a useful tool in showing a positive face to the wider world and allows those who practice alone to work with group energy without a coven-style commitment. It allows new seekers to the pagan paths a place to meet and work with experienced practitioners and other newbies in a safe environment. 

On the flip side, public ritual can be seen to be a dumbed-down exercise in media manipulation, a recruiter's (or predator's) playground, a good excuse for a bitch session, a social event where everyone is left spiritually hungry or an ego-trip by the organisers (or participants).

It is often a mix of both the positives and the negatives outlined above. Somehow, somewhere, there must be a way to make public ritual a positive experience for all, to fulfill the needs of community and the individual. I believe that active participation is the key.  

Let's face it, I doubt that there are many pagans out there, either new or old hands, who have not attended a public ritual with the attitude of "what's in it for me?"  Sure, we might have some altruistic reason for attending, such as celebrating a particular festival, working with other people of like mind or meeting new people. However beneath the altruism, most likely an inner voice is saying, "let's have a sticky beak" or "I wanna be entertained and feel the powwwweeeerrrr". We have all been there at some point in our pagan lives, I know I have, and I see the same attitudes at every public ritual I attend or present.

Really, I don't see anything wrong with the above, it is a natural human reaction. If we acknowledge the inherent selfishness of ourselves and our attendees then we can work with it, use it and poke (or provoke?) people into actively participating because they are enjoying themselves, are being challenged and spiritually fulfilled. We need to give participants a reason to drop the selfishness for the duration of the ritual, to take ownership of what is happening within the circle or sacred space and contribute to the success of the ritual. There is no point running a public ritual if no-one attending wants to take part, or if you are lucky enough to come across a bunch of pagans willing to actually contribute something to the ritual, not giving them a chance to do so.

Many pagan paths are experiential, if we are to grow in ourselves and in our practice we need to give participants the tools to experience those paths, not just go quietly through the motions from the altar on high. That way lies a bunch of bored, sore-footed and inexperienced sheep.

I'm sure most of us have attended public rituals where no-one really participates. It can be frustrating for both the organisers and the attendees. The two-way energy flow that happens in a powerful ritual can lead to exhilarating experiences for all and I have been lucky to have attended many rituals where this has been the case. However, it is rare that this will happen without some effort on everybody's part. What we all need to realise is that Public ritual is a totally different beast to ritual performed in small working groups, covens or by solitaries. It requires a different approach, a different set of skills and a different attitude. If we accept this from the outset then we can all work together to create positive, memorable experiences.

Manipulation

We shy away from the term manipulation, but a good public ritual is all about that seemingly dirty word. Manipulation of energy, of flow and yes, of the participants themselves. I don't want rituals full of sheep, but I am perfectly willing to manipulate participants into actively participating. I'm not talking about mind control or coercive magic. I am talking about understanding group dynamics and using them to get participants motivated enough to allow themselves an experience. 

There is a balance to this manipulation and it all weighs out. If a ritual organiser or organisers put in the effort to create a safe but challenging and interesting ritual, are seen to be competent and confident, then participants are far more likely to respond in kind. If it appears that no effort on the part of the organisers has been made, then participants tend to wonder why they should make any effort either, and rightly so. If participants are coming along for a celebration, then give them that, give them the keys to the mystery of that celebration and ownership of their experience. If the ritual is a magical working, then make it magical... and the energies will flow freely and with strength.

So now that I have had my little rant and probably insulted everyone still reading, I'll put my experience where my keyboard is. 

Participants

Most public rituals have a mix of participants. There will be varying levels of experience, from the stalwarts to the fresh-faced newbie. There will probably be some who have loads of group rituals under their belts and others who are for the most part solitary. In public ritual, you rarely know who your participants are going to be, or how many people you will be working with. This can be, and for me still is, very daunting. There is no real group mind to work with, generally there is no specific path common to the those attending and between the very vocal and the painfully shy, no way of knowing if anyone will actually listen to or act on instruction.

Not everyone is going to love what you do. There will always be participants for whom your style does not work. If you are going to run public ritual you have to accept this. However, by writing this article I am trying to give both organisers and participants an understanding of just what public ritual can involve and yes, aspire too. If just one person reading this says to themselves, I would like to give running a public ritual a go, then the outpourings of my jaded brain will have been worth it.

For those that are chronic complainers about the quality or content of public ritual, then use the information in these articles to run something yourself and lead by example, show us how it should be done and we'll get some great rituals to add to the mix. 

Preparation

Preparation on the part of the organiser(s) is paramount. If you as the organiser are not prepared, even with just an outline of what you hope to achieve, then no-one is going to trust you enough to participate fully.

So what is the ritual for? If you don't know, then it is highly unlikely that anyone else will. Work this out first as everything else leads from this point.

Have you checked out the ritual site? A recce is always a good idea if possible. Are there slopes to contend with? Will the altar slide down the hill or sink into boggy ground? Do you need to cast the circle around the trees? Are you allowed to have flame? If you are performing a Midsummer ritual, will everyone die of heatstroke in your shadeless ritual space? Is there a bindii problem that prohibits bare feet and/or dancing? If you can't inspect the site beforehand, then build contingencies into your ritual, have alternative ritual parts at the ready.

Are there many speaking parts in the ritual? If so, are the lines easy to be learned? Can someone learn them in the 10 minutes before the ritual prep? Do you need to have some people learn lines beforehand or have you built in a section for inspired utterance? Can the chant actually be chanted without turning into a tongue twister or losing the flow? Always practice a chant and build it up to speed to check that your participants will be able to say it. Can the chant be learned quickly or be easily picked up during the ritual? If an invokation or prose piece in a ritual is too long to learn by heart, then it is too long to be in the ritual. People will be snoozing long before the twentieth stanza. Reading off a piece of paper by candlelight on a windy night is nigh on impossible, does not instill confidence in participants and looks silly. It is also not conducive to a good energy flow.

Know your format. Again, if you don't know what comes next, don't expect anyone else to work it out for you mid-ritual. You need to know your format and alternatives so well that you can keep control of the ritual but also go with the flow of where the ritual takes you. If inspiration hits you during the ritual, you should be able to make the transition seamlessly.

Props are great for public ritual as they provide visual cues, draw people into the sense of the ritual, enhance a theme, make a point and can be used to give participants something physical to work with. Finding the right balance of props is important though. You need to be able to keep track of them during the ritual, have ready what you need, and know how to move them to the appropriate ritual point. Props need a purpose, an intent, too many and chaos ensues. Be prepared for something to go wrong with a prop in the ritual, for it to disappear or break. Know what you will do if that happens and have a propless contingency. 

Decorations are different and they can instill a beautiful sense of the overall ritual, highlight a celebration and set the mood. However, they also need to be appropriate to the ritual space. Setting fire to crepe paper streamers flying in the wind is not usually a good idea, especially in bush fire season. Keep your torches away from other flammables!

Finally, when you have completed your preparations, then get to the site early and set everything up. Then you will be free to greet people, hand out parts, teach people your chants and all will be ready in time for the pre-ritual prep. This is the talk given to all of the participants before the ritual, outlining what is to happen, what the goal is, how the ritual will work. Give people the option of whether they wish to attend the ritual now they know what is to happen. If you allow people to watch from outside the circle, remember to ask them to respect those inside and keep quiet, not talk on their mobiles or dance around like loons whilst the ritual is in progress. Always point out a person who will let people out of the circle if participants have trouble or that can ground anyone who might still require that after the ritual.

Sacred Space

If your ritual requires the setting up of sacred space then you need to make a choice. Will you set this up beforehand, energy-wise, and then invite people in, or will you create it in front of them? If the latter, then you also need to work out whether one person will do this, a couple of people, or the whole group. If the whole group is not responsible for setting up the sacred space then make sure they at least know what is going on. Speak loudly and clearly, make it obvious, make it beautiful, engaging and give it a sense of awe. If participants feel they are now in a sacred space they will act accordingly. Sure you can cast a circle with an act of will, but will the rest of the people know that it has been cast? Not all attending will be that sensitive. 

Up to this point I have covered the big picture of public ritual. This involves goals, participants, manipulation, preparation and sacred space.  Now I would like to look at some of the actual techniques that we can use to encourage participation in public ritual and activate a low-level group mind. 

Group Mind

Group mind is a wonderful thing, anyone who has worked in a tightly knit group will have experienced that synergy, the perfect timing without word or gesture, the flow of energy that is just right. Public ritual can have this too, it may not be to the same level, but with effort and preparation you can make it happen. You need to bring people together into the sacred space, to allow them to let go of any selfishness and act as a group that is greater than the sum of the individuals present. This is not to say that we want to overwhelm the sense of the individual, just that if participants can 'get in sync' with each other the ritual experience is usually a lot more enjoyable and powerful for all.

If time and numbers allow, why not have each person say their name and why they are there? You could have each person, or groups of people, make an offering at the same time. This could be placing an object in a cauldron, libating, lighting a candle, stating what the season means to them. You could take them through a meditation or use energy raising in the form of drumming, dance, intoning or chanting. The point is to get everyone participating at the same level, to feel part of the ritual itself. Give them something to do.

This does take time, and so a good idea is to use several of the above techniques and build them up. Use the same chant in different parts of the ritual. Start with a simple dance such as a vine dance and then incorporate a spiral dance. Have some people drum during this. Have a cord dance with a few people, assign others to drum, others to chant. It is amazing the results you can achieve. Give all of this purpose within the ritual itself and give the participants the why.  Use riddles or challenges to engage participants. All of this builds the framework of a group mind. By the time of the second dance or the second chant, you should find people are stopping and starting at the same time. 

You can also create several smaller group minds that then merge into a large group mind. Before the ritual assign small groups of people to perform the same task. Give them enough time to chat about it. This could be a certain number of people all coming forward to make an offering or a libation at a pre-arranged time. Then another group comes forward to light candles in the libation bowl. Another group then takes the bowl around the circle etc. This again builds up ownership. Each group can chant for the other. It really depends on the purpose and story of the ritual.

For a really large group you can break them into smaller groups maybe assigned to a specific clan or element. Give each group a purpose, an object to create or consecrate, a person to anoint or robe/crown. You could send each group on a quest. When each group returns, find some way to unite them into a whole. For example, in one Midwinter ritual we sent 4 groups in search of the new born flame. When each group's representative returned they gave the light to their group who had been sitting in the cold and the dark. When all groups had their fire lit then candlelight was sent around the circle joining each group and each fire. The four had become one, the clans had become the tribe. 

Working with group energy

So when the energies have started to flow and people can feel them and own them, then use those energies. In the above example an invocation was made and the central fire lit with magical and seasonal purpose after the circle had been joined with the candle flames. Wild dancing then ensued, followed by a nice grounding feast. 

Using the idea of group energy to aid in invocation, you can have participants intone around an invoker and invokee (or priest and priestess). This raises group energy that is then focused by one person and channeled by another. As a preface to this, a couple of participants can cleanse the invokee, and robe, crown or mask them. Others can dance or drum around the intoners. Again using small groups as part of a large group. This will help build up a good energy flow for the recipient to channel back into the ritual. However, depending upon the number of participants, this technique can generate a lot of power, so the people who are performing the focusing and channeling should be experienced in handling energy. 

Group power raising can also be used to aid active ritual storytelling. Instead of just reciting a story, the speaker draws upon the raised energy to illustrate certain points and bring the listeners/participants into the story itself.  For a Midsummer ritual we raised energy with a ribbon dance and when the energies peaked, the ribbons were laid upon the ground with the participants still holding onto them. A storyteller then spun a tale about Midsummer and as they described a spear plunging into the earth and energy being spread out across ley lines, so the participants felt those energies pouring down through the ribbons. This energy was then used to fuel the visions generated by the rest of the story.

Using this technique, the participants build up the energy and are then 'rewarded' by being able to see what their efforts have achieved.  Even though such a reward is not necessary, again it breaks down the inherent selfishness of public ritual and of course, achieves a desired magical or celebratory aim. Storytelling is also useful if the ritual is a working with specific deity or deities. The images and aspects can be built up during the story so that everyone is sharing the same ideas and focusing on the same aim. 

Overall, how you encourage active participation depends upon the nature of the ritual being performed. Not all techniques are appropriate for all rituals. Wild dancing at an introspective ritual probably wouldn't work too well, conversely a deeply introspective meditation may not achieve much when there is a maypole to be danced... then again...

Direction, instruction and confidence

For all or any of the above techniques to work, some direction and instruction is required. All of this does require someone to lead, everyone needs a person to take cues from and focus on at first. Someone should be giving clear signals and it should be someone that has been pointed out for this purpose and knows what they are doing. No-one wants to listen to an involved lecture in the middle of a ritual, so get any lecture-like instruction out of the way in the pre-ritual prep. Instruction within the ritual should be more along the lines of statement of purpose, e.g. "We stand upon the threshold of Spring, at this time we celebrate such and such. Let us awaken the Maiden from her Winter slumber by... etc",  "I call the warriors to the Hunt.", "I call upon the Maidens of the Moon to libate the waters...". Make it short and to the point and in keeping with, or complimentary to, the language style of the whole ritual. I also can't state enough that any instruction really needs to be said with confidence and in a voice that can be heard. No point giving direction if no-one can hear you.

It takes skill to direct and co-ordinate a large ritual and the person doing so will probably need to be alert for the duration. It is a good idea then that if someone is supposed to go into trance during the ritual, that this person not be the co-ordinator of the ritual. Generally speaking, the ritual will lose focus and the trance will not be very deep if the person in trance is worrying about the next section of the ritual. Delegate.

There is a big difference between writing and performing rituals. Not everyone can do both well, and in public ritual the person co-ordinating, directing etc must be able to perform. Think ritual theatre with intent. If someone is quietly spoken, shy and suffers from stage fright, they may not be the best person to run the ritual even though their writing is inspirational and magical. Also someone who has little skill in public speaking may yet be brilliant at acting as a circle guardian. They can watch the energy levels and keep a discrete eye on newbies for any signs of distress. They can let people out of the circle if needs be and make sure props are where they ought to be. Again delegate if possible and know your limits. 

In a small group setting where people have time to build confidence and don't need to boom out across a windy and noise filled night, the shy retiring ritual co-ordinator is fine and probably beneficial as they will encourage their co-ritualists to listen. 

If you do know the skills of any participants attending the group ritual, use them. If the public ritual is a regular one with some regular attendees, then up their participation levels over time. People do like to be challenged so locking someone into one role may not be beneficial to anyone. As you can see, balance and judgment are also necessary skills in ritual co-ordinating. 

Closing the ritual and de-briefing

In public ritual it is a good idea to make sure there is some way of grounding the participants and preparing them to enter the mundane world once more. The ritual also will need a sense of closure. You don't always know your participants or how they will react, so play it safe and bring the ritual to an obvious end both physically and energy-wise. Spare some time after the ritual for de-briefing. Make sure that people know that if they require additional grounding there is someone to help. Allow people the time to chat and come down, to discuss the ritual and how they felt about it. 

Experience, Experimenting and Archiving

So the ritual is over. Did it meet your expectations? Did it run to plan or move in wonderful or uncomfortable new directions? Did it fall flat? Did you achieve active participation? Ask yourself these questions and learn from your answers, compare the original script with what actually happened and write down the changes... you may want to incorporate them into your next attempt.  Not every ritual works, sometimes we have to experiment to understand the dynamics of a particular public group / space / festival. Rituals grow and change, some take more time than others to set-up or run. 

Sometimes, and I hope that it is often, everything works, participants participate, they unlock new mysteries, they want to come back for more and they help you pack up. This is what makes public ritual such an inspiring experience. It can be scary, frustrating and exhausting, but I think it is worth it.

My sincere thanks go out to all of those participants on the 'Hill' who truly understand the meaning of active participation and who continue to provide inspiration with their willingness and contribution to making magic truly happen.