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Okay, before I get to the interesting stuff:
God Damn Fucking Viral/BActerial Infections!!! Now my *left* ear is getting infected, and I'm still hacking up taupe (sp) coloured mucus, and the stuff coming out of my *nose* is freakin' neon yellow! Vearging (Sp) on chartreuse!
What the hell???
Right.
Now that I've got that done:
Some thoughts on Ritualization and the Making/Acknowledging of the Sacred.
Creation vs Acknowledgement
Props and Getting into the Groove
Altars as Microcosm according to Will
Altars and Making things Sacred
So, thing one: I'm talking here about Neo-Pagan Goddess Spirituality.
Thing two: In my branch (well, twig -- possibly leaf) of Neo-Paganism, you don't create sacred space, you acknowledge it. Therefore props and quarter-calls and such-like are (A) not remotely necessary, but (B) useful for getting you in The Mood, if you find them helpful.
Props help to get people into the right mind-set because they jack right into the senses and bypass the "thinking brain". Sort of like how smelling poridge cooking in my mom's house made me think that my grandparents were visiting, because the smell of poridge is so totally linked with my grandparents' house and presence.
But it can also work... not "the other way around", but the same way, from a different point.
See, if you start out lighting insense and candles, and singing particular songs, and what-not, because you've been told that Deity X will show up if you do it this way, then later on, when you've got those smells and light-levels and tunes embedded (sp) in your brain, you can then use them to go *to* Deity X, as opposed to dragging Deity X into your space, you can use it like a sort of... Astral Plain Global Positioning System (or something) to find where Deity X is, and go to them. :-)
Altars, as far as I'm concerned, are a type of prop.
See, in my little world, an "Altar" isn't a "place where one makes sacrifices", it's a sort of scale model of the Sacred Cosmos. Similarly, a "Working Altar" (I think Lucie talked about this in her disertation) is a scale model of the Sacred Cosmos as one Wills it to be.
So, for example, if a woman who has had a masectomy (sp) and is on chemo to get rid of the cancer, might make a beat-the-cancer altar that features an Amazon as her Goddess image: A strong, powerful, unbeatable woman who has only one breast.
Because she has put that image in a place where it becomes a sacred image, it will effect her mind in such a way that (maybe) a connection between "one breast" and "unbeatable fighting woman" will be made, and she will be able to beat the cancer that much more.
(That was a bit of a tangent, I think).
Anyway. What I'm trying to get at here is that when you put the trappings of "sacredness" around something (A) The part of your brain that is constantly saying, "This is so dumb, it's not going to work, wouldn't it be embarassing if someone saw you doing this?" will shut up for a few minutes, and (B) You start to believe your own made-up mythology -- e.g.: That the rituals work *because* they are ritual-y, and then they start to work because you know they've worked before.
So, ritual trappings and props and actions aren't actually necessary, but they help you get past the initial "I can't"-ness until you don't need them anymore.
Thus, if you are trying to change your opinion of, say, your own bodily functions (e.g.: Menstruation) and you have to go against several thousand years of Official Public Opinion being: "Ew, it's gross and bad", then using props and ritualizing things will help you get past Official Public Opinion and help get to the point where you can *not* light insense and *not* dim the lights, and *not* have Venuses all over the place, and still say "Actually, this is kinda neat. Look at me bleed." Or similar.
Anywhoo. That's my two cents/theory. :-)
- Nam'ara,
- Amazon. :-)
God Damn Fucking Viral/BActerial Infections!!! Now my *left* ear is getting infected, and I'm still hacking up taupe (sp) coloured mucus, and the stuff coming out of my *nose* is freakin' neon yellow! Vearging (Sp) on chartreuse!
What the hell???
Right.
Now that I've got that done:
Some thoughts on Ritualization and the Making/Acknowledging of the Sacred.
Creation vs Acknowledgement
Props and Getting into the Groove
Altars as Microcosm according to Will
Altars and Making things Sacred
So, thing one: I'm talking here about Neo-Pagan Goddess Spirituality.
Thing two: In my branch (well, twig -- possibly leaf) of Neo-Paganism, you don't create sacred space, you acknowledge it. Therefore props and quarter-calls and such-like are (A) not remotely necessary, but (B) useful for getting you in The Mood, if you find them helpful.
Props help to get people into the right mind-set because they jack right into the senses and bypass the "thinking brain". Sort of like how smelling poridge cooking in my mom's house made me think that my grandparents were visiting, because the smell of poridge is so totally linked with my grandparents' house and presence.
But it can also work... not "the other way around", but the same way, from a different point.
See, if you start out lighting insense and candles, and singing particular songs, and what-not, because you've been told that Deity X will show up if you do it this way, then later on, when you've got those smells and light-levels and tunes embedded (sp) in your brain, you can then use them to go *to* Deity X, as opposed to dragging Deity X into your space, you can use it like a sort of... Astral Plain Global Positioning System (or something) to find where Deity X is, and go to them. :-)
Altars, as far as I'm concerned, are a type of prop.
See, in my little world, an "Altar" isn't a "place where one makes sacrifices", it's a sort of scale model of the Sacred Cosmos. Similarly, a "Working Altar" (I think Lucie talked about this in her disertation) is a scale model of the Sacred Cosmos as one Wills it to be.
So, for example, if a woman who has had a masectomy (sp) and is on chemo to get rid of the cancer, might make a beat-the-cancer altar that features an Amazon as her Goddess image: A strong, powerful, unbeatable woman who has only one breast.
Because she has put that image in a place where it becomes a sacred image, it will effect her mind in such a way that (maybe) a connection between "one breast" and "unbeatable fighting woman" will be made, and she will be able to beat the cancer that much more.
(That was a bit of a tangent, I think).
Anyway. What I'm trying to get at here is that when you put the trappings of "sacredness" around something (A) The part of your brain that is constantly saying, "This is so dumb, it's not going to work, wouldn't it be embarassing if someone saw you doing this?" will shut up for a few minutes, and (B) You start to believe your own made-up mythology -- e.g.: That the rituals work *because* they are ritual-y, and then they start to work because you know they've worked before.
So, ritual trappings and props and actions aren't actually necessary, but they help you get past the initial "I can't"-ness until you don't need them anymore.
Thus, if you are trying to change your opinion of, say, your own bodily functions (e.g.: Menstruation) and you have to go against several thousand years of Official Public Opinion being: "Ew, it's gross and bad", then using props and ritualizing things will help you get past Official Public Opinion and help get to the point where you can *not* light insense and *not* dim the lights, and *not* have Venuses all over the place, and still say "Actually, this is kinda neat. Look at me bleed." Or similar.
Anywhoo. That's my two cents/theory. :-)
- Nam'ara,
- Amazon. :-)
