Mini-rituals

Easy practices for the beginner and the time-constrained

While we can just talk to our gods, and don’t hesitate to do so, doing something physical adds power and calms the busy brain. Ritual does this spectacularly well, but not many of us have time to spend an hour or two everyday doing a full ritual. The habit of achieving a quiet mind and sense of purpose is like any other habit or skill. We have to practice. Practice is mini ritual. Done daily, these practices are like money in the bank. When the stuff hits the fan, we have the tools to calm ourselves immediately, and make a connection with the gods and ancestors when we really (really) need it.

Here’s a list of things I’ve used to calm my mind and keep me centered when the stuff is hitting the fan.

- After breakfast, once my husband has left for work, I take a sage leaf and give a quick smudge to the house. At first, I just said the words, but gradually my brain started to come along for the ride, and now just picking up the sage is enough to trigger a different state of mind. After I smudge, if I am going to be home, I light a candle to one of my deities and dedicate the day’s work to them. If I need to head out, I do the dedication without the candle. 

- I treasure is working with prayer beads. My beads are a representation of Plato’s cosmology. I love the beads because I can do my practice without looking. Each bead represents an element, ancestors, guides or god(s), and each is different. I can tell easily by touch where I am in the sequence. This means I can do prayers as I fall asleep, which helps to quiet my absurdly busy brain. As I touch each bead, I say the evocation and offer a feeling of respect and love.

- When I’m feeling especially negative, I have a black cup that I’ve decorated with a paint marker. Inside is a maw, representing a dark, oceanic deity. Into this, I pour my negative emotions, sending them to a where they can be absorbed and recreated. My emotion becomes an offering to an energy that can handle it without harm and leave me clear.

- I often light the candles on my altar while I write, and do the same evocations that I do with my prayer beads.

- I go for walks or a run, in three of the four seasons. While this isn’t a ritual, it is a mediation. My favorite local park has running water, and I can sit next to it and put my hands in it, and let what I don't need get washed away in the current.

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- For half the year, I can garden. Again not a ritual, and not quite a meditation. It’s communing. I came across this snippet from ten years ago:

Today was hot and I have lyme disease. It has been improving, but I was getting dizzy, having to hang on to the fence posts for a moment when I stood. And then the Corn touched me. I sat down in their shade and grasped the base of a corn stalk. Waves of energy leapt from the plants into my body. I protested weakly, they were supposed to be using that energy for growing! But the leaves whispered that there was plenty of energy here, and I had given much. I shut up, and sat and shook and cried as I received the gift. How could a grass feel so strong?

- That was a different garden than the one I have now. In this garden, the soil is new, and is still building health. But it’s been laid out with care, and I’ve talked to each perennial to see where it wants to be. The shade part of the garden is thriving, and my apple trees [this will be year 2 with them] are still growing even during the winter. The branches have reshaped themselves as the season goes on and they’ll look completely different this spring than they did last year. I no time it will be warm enough to take my writing [and my cats] out to the garden. I’ll be able to weed during my breaks.

These things aren’t complicated, although a couple of them were craft projects. Of course, dedications and clearing can be done with nothing more than intention. But our brains like objects and actions. Paganism isn’t a mental religion but one that connects our brains to our bodies, letting us feel the sacredness of both.

What mini rituals nurture you, and build your connection to the unseen world?

If you’re curious about Paganism/Heathenism/Wicca/Druidry, please feel free to message me and I’ll be happy to answer questions.

Selina Rifkin, M.S. [Nutrition], LMT, has been Pagan since she was 14 [which was a long time ago] and been to Hades in a handbasket. More than once. This has given her some opinions. She has direct communication with her gods and they’ve always given her answers when she asks. [One does have to ask.] Like most of her generation [X] she’s okay with snark. Most days she tries for good writing. But the snark, and side comments creep in. Be warned.

Pagan Organizations

Cherry Hill Seminary

Sacred Well Congregation