My first personal ritual, sort of...

This my seem kinda strange and it's a bit embarassing. I have been learning about, studying, and practing Paganism for nearly 7 years now and I haven't really done any rituals myself. I've participated in a few over the years with varying degrees of success. I have just never felt very comfortable with the eclectic Wicca types of rituals. The ones I have participated in felt strange and awkward for me. I felt a lot like when I was nearing the end of going to Church. It felt awkward and strange and like I was going through the motions in a fake sort of way. I just didn't feel a spiritual connection. I did enjoy the few shamanic rituals that I participated in with my shamanic journeying group. Those felt really meaningful and spiritually connected for me. But they aren't quiet right for me for a regular practice.

I have long felt a yearning, a pull towards doing something more with my personal practice. I've spent a LOT of time studying and learning and not a lot of time DOING. But that's me though, a big part of my spiritual practice is the learning and studying and reading. But I've felt a strong pull towards a more active personal practice, especially lately. I just wasn't finding stuff that felt right. The eclectic Wicca type rituals just haven't felt right. The Full Moon and New Moon ritual stuff I've found just hasn't seemed quite right either. I know it doesn't have to be perfect, but I have to feel SOME kind of connection with what I'm doing or it just makes no sense to do it, especially if it feels weird and awkward.

Lately I've been looking into Druidry. I've looked at what seems to be the three main Druid organizations that I can find, ADF, OBOD, and AODA. I'm sure there's others, but those seem to be the largest and most well known. Each has varying perspectives on Druidry and their own takes on it. There's a LOT of excellent information available through each organization. However, I have found that I really seem to resonate with the ADF style rituals. I've read a bunch online at their website and I have also read a few books that had information based on the ADF, written by current or former members. I really feel a connection to their ritual format.

Today I decided to kinda give a ritual a try, loosely based on the ADF format. It was more just kinda pulling things together for setup to see how I'd arrange the altar setup and how the flow might go, to see if it's something I might actually feel comfortable doing. I didn't quite do the ritual, though I did light a candle once the setup was all done. It felt very nice. I think with a little adaptation for my own personal practice it will be a nice ritual format for me to use. I'm actually looking forward to giving a full ritual a try.

For now, here's a couple pictures of how I had some things set up to try today. There are representations of Earth, Sea, and Sky as well as the Sacred Well, Sacred Tree, Sacred Fire. There's a circle created by 4 Citrines to represent the Solstices and Equinoxes and Quartz points to represent the 12-13 Full Moons of a year. There's also stones for grounding and shielding (black tourmaline, smokey quartz, amazonite, fluorite, selenite) as well as stones to support me energetically as I usually get very fatigued after rituals (ametrine and red apophylite).

Portable Version

Full Altar Version

The portable version isn't quite complete, but I was just trying some things while resting in bed. I decided to give a full altar setup a try after working with the portable setup for a while, just to see what would work. I still have a little adapting to do, but I'm looking forward to giving this ritual format a try on the Full Moon on Friday. I'll be sure to post about how it goes.


https://www.adf.org/about
http://aoda.org/index.html
http://www.druidry.org/