Ritual:
Experiential work to lay a new pattern

The Diana's Grove style of ritual is a prayer; it is a tool for personal growth, a tool for building community.

"Ritual is a multi-sensorial prayer to lay new patterns in our souls."
--Cynthia Jones, Diana's Grove

Earth-based spirituality honors nature, the natural rhythms and patterns of our world. Ritual honors the natural rhythms of our humanity. Rites of passage such as birth, death, becoming an adult, marriage....the cycles of the land, the sap rising up in the roots of the trees, the flowering of spring, the heat of summer, the fruit of the harvest, and the return of the land to slumber in winter.

Life and natural cycles are sacred. Ritual honors these natural cycles in ourselves and in the land around us. Ritual helps us to connect to mystery.

Ritual Flow
The basic flow of a ritual includes gathering, grounding, casting the circle, invoking the elements (Air, Fire, Water, Earth, and Center), invoking deities or archetypes, and the "work" of the ritual which is determined by the theme and the intention. This work might include storytelling, trance, and providing a way for participants to embody the work, to physicalize it.

The ritual reaches its peak with the energy raising. Drumming, singing, moving; we each add our physical presence, our energy, to support the work of the ritual. The ritual ends with devoking the deities and elements we invoked, and opening the circle.

Participatory Ritual Style
The Diana's Grove style of ritual may be different from rituals you have experienced in the past; Grove-style ritual is inclusive, asking for the participation of all.

"Ritual is a container for magic. it is a format, a process, a spell in action. Diana's Grove rituals are based on involvement, on your participation. Involvement gives us the gift of energy. In that circle, we increase our life force by breathing, singing, dancing, drumming, feeling, caring, speaking, dreaming, and interacting."
--Cynthia Jones, from "Myth, Magic, and Community."

In the Diana's Grove ritual style, Air is not summoned with liturgy, but invited in by each of us. Each person in the ritual may be invited to support the invocation of Air....Can you feel the wind blowing? What does it sound like? What are the gifts of Air? Does Air have a color for you? How does Air move? Can you make the motion of Air, or make the sounds of Air? Can you speak the gifts of Air into the circle that they may be present with us for our work tonight?

Stepping into an elemental invocation is a great way to fully participate in ritual; it is a way to more fully and deeply experience any piece of ritual.

Ritual Energetics
When we participate in the ritual, we add our energy. Diana's Grove is an ecstatic ritual tradition, which means that we work throughout the entire ritual to build up energy. We raise energy for the ritual by including every participant in our community. For each ritual, we become a community, a tribe, and we each put our energy forth for to support the intention and the community.

"The ecstatic energy raised by our rituals is for you...Our goal is that you will use the energy that you raise, your energy, in the way that is best for you. Rituals lay new patterns in the soul. They create new pathways in the mind. Magic - the art of changing consciousness at will. The goal of our rituals is to enable you to shape your own consciousness according to your will."
--Cynthia Jones, from "Myth, Magic, and Community."

The ritual will conclude with ecstatic energy raising; our talented energy drummers will drum, we can sing, move our bodies, share eye contact...we share our energy together in community.

Questions
If you have any questions about this ritual tradition, or have never been to a ritual with an earth-based spirituality group, please feel free to contact Michelle; there really are no stupid questions!