Day 3: My first ritual!

So yesterday (cough) I thought about the meanings and connotations of certain words. Today I did a ritual based on my thoughts about them.

First I had to identify a common theme. The book suggested fear, anger, anxiety, hope, etc. I picked ignorance. When thinking about those words, one of the first things I thought of was the fact that I didn't really know how to define them.

Next, I needed to etch the word of my theme (in this case, 'ignorance') onto a white candle. I don't have any candles or money for them, so I used a white piece of paper and wrote the word on it in crayon. I used purple, green and silver crayons. Purple is good for rituals involving spirituality, green for spells that deal with growth, and silver to attain a peaceful state of mind. Spells and rituals are all about symbolism. If you don't have a specific item, substitutes work as long as you feel it symbolizes the same thing. The paper worked as a substitute for the candle because they're both white, and white in this case is supposed to be a blank canvas.

After finding a comfortable position in which to sit, I closed my eyes and tried to make my theme to be dominant in my mind. I was to allow this feeling to transport me to a scene in my life that could explain this feeling. I don't know if ignorance was the "right" thing to pick, because there wasn't any one scene for this. It was hard to do what the book told me, so I thought about how exactly I felt ignorance applied as my theme.

Then, I lit my "candle." As it burned, I vowed to remain aware of my feelings during this year and a day process. The candle is supposed to melt my charged word away, changing it into something else. I imagined the ignorance slowly melting away over this year, being replaced by knowledge. Afterward, I was supposed to bury the candle wax someplace far form my home. Not having wax or anywhere to bury the ashes, I opted to flush it all down the toilet. The way I see it, the water flows from my house, carrying the ignorance away. The ashy water gets replaced by clean water, almost like wiping the slate clean. I also had to resist the urge for any toilet humor (snicker, pun intended).

What was it like to take part in this small ritual?

I liked it. I'm not normally this introspective, and this game me the chance to think about me, not what's going wrong around me. I would say that this little ritual was peaceful. It seems like a good way of letting things go. Having the physical things (like the word on the candle melting away) made it easier for me to let things flow.

What emotions did the ritual bring up in me?
Peacefullness. I felt calm and purposeful. It was a nice change :)

Did I "let go" of anything with this ritual?

I don't think I let go of anything, per se, but I still feel like I accomplished something. I feel more determined to keep with this year and a day.


So, I had a good experience with all of this except formatting the blog post. Had to fight with the stupid thing to let me switch back from bold. Grrrrrrr. Remind me never to bold things again.