Wiccan Rituals

The Wicca faith is very open to the idea that every Wiccan can believe and practice the faith in their own desirable way. There are no set rituals, in fact there are hundreds if not thousands. Any Wiccan can create their own rituals and/or copy each others rituals from what they call a Book of Shadows. The Book of Shadows has religious texts and scripture as well as instructions for magick rituals. In present day, a Book of Shadows is mostly for personal use, but some “traditions” (various denominations in Wicca), have a specific copy of a Book of Shadows for that particular tradition.

The “Father of Wicca”, Gerald Gardner’s earliest Book of Shadows (Image retrieved from Wikipedia.org)

 

 

Most Wiccan rituals are used with magical spells to influence events. Perhaps a Wiccan performs a ritual to achieve a practical goal like getting a job, or casts a spell to increase their self-confidence, or even recite a special chant to feel warmth and love from the Goddess. These rituals can be done in multiple ways. They can do it with a group of Wiccans or in solitude, they can chant, sing, dance, read aloud a spell, use special props, and much more. 

 

It’s difficult to provide one concrete example of a ritual since there are so many out there and different rituals can even be used for the same purpose.

But I will choose discuss one type of ritual Wiccans perform. They believe in celebrating what they call a “Rite of Passage.” According to http://www.wicca-spirituality.com/wiccan-ritual.html, rites of passage involve “rituals for the human seasons of life, such as birth, death, marriage, divorce, coming of age, croning, and so on. Any major turning point in life can and should be marked by ritual.”

Once again, to perform a ritual for one of these life phases, one can decide in their own way how they would like to carry it out; there is no set way of doing it, it is up to the individual.

I found one ritual example called “Modern Female Rite Of Passage”. It is like a “coming of age” ritual for for a girl having a birthday, or becoming a teenager, or growing into adulthood. In this specific ritual, the girl is being presented into an adult coven (congregation of Witches). The mother, father, and daughter have to perform specific movements, with the proper props and tools, and speak aloud invocations. Here is the link in case you are interested in reading it:  http://www.paganlibrary.com/rituals_spells/modern_female_passage.php

 Here is also a YouTube link for a live full moon ritual: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwrHapcDbhk

Now when it comes to the matter of performing rituals offline vs. online, people want to know which one is more beneficial. I have found examples of Wiccan practitioners on the virtual world of Second Life. These Wiccans benefit from online ritual activities because just as Louise Connelly stated in her research on Buddhism and Second Life, “the virtual practice enables them to belong and to engage with a community and be taught or guided by a facilitator, which may not be possible in their offline world.” This is exactly the case with many Wiccans. Many Wicca followers may be able to perform rituals offline in solitude, but when they want to join in a cohesive group or coven, they may not geographically have that opportunity. Therefore, they can hop online to Second Life or join any other website that is an online coven and be able to participate in rituals and share experiences and spells with others of the same faith around the world. 

Both images above were retrieved from: http://kittywitchin.com/kittywitchery/

 Some people ask if performing rituals online have supernatural efficacy. This response can be different for everyone. However, in the case of Wicca, everything is open to interpretation and up to the individual to decide if the online ritual experience is valid or not. Just as Professor Heinz Scheifinger states in his case study about Hindu worship on and offline, “If a ritual appears to be transformed online but it is still deemed to be acceptable, then it suggests that the ritual itself has not changed significantly and that there is unlikely to be fundamental changes in the religious experience that it gives rise to.” So for the Wicca faith, the individual can believe the online experience is real if they actually feel it is. If Wiccans perform the cyber ritual under the right circumstances, with the right mental preparation, it could be legitimate based on their own theology and understanding of what’s happening.

 My personal thoughts--
I don't think that performing online rituals is a negative thing. But I don't believe completely replacing offline rituals with online rituals is a good thing either. It's important to have a healthy balance. Wiccans represent a different case however. Since they "practice a relatively unorganized ‘living room’ religion with minimal state, national, or international organization" (Jensen & Thompson, 2008, p. 755), they may need that online support to perform their rituals. Therefore, I think it's a wonderful thing for them to have that advantage and opportunity. They should definitely use the internet as a positive tool to carry out their rituals, in addition to performing them at home to have an even more intense, energy-filled experience.  



Case Study Quotes from Scholars:

-Louise Connelly. "Virtual Buddhism: Buddhist ritual in Second Life." 
-Heinz Scheifinger. "Hindu Worship Online and Offline."
-Jensen, G., & Thompson, A. (2008). “Out of the Broom Closet”: The Social Ecology of American Wicca. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion,  47(4), 753–766.