Ritual is reenchantment in practice

Craft your signature ritual for sacred space

Ritual creates a container or sacred space for transformation and magic—defined as the art of changing consciousness at will. It is presence, resistance, awareness, integration, connection, and communion with the unseen. In its most profound essence, it is reenchantment. Ritual is not overly prescriptive, punishing, or burdensome. Depending on your intention, it may invite qualities like divinity, protection, and playfulness. What is ritual? You decide, just let it reenchant you.

Ritual is reenchantment: a vial of tears

In a spell of tears, my four-year-old son recognized the sacredness of this moment of pain and emotion: he paused mid-tears, looked up, and said, “Mommy, can you get me a vial to capture my tears? I am going to use them in a potion.” His presence, radical imagination, and desire for integration transcended the moment, creating sacred alchemy for his sweet little heart and mine. I ran to find a vial. We captured his powerful tears—embraced, affirmed, and validated the experience—and he was off to create his potion.

Ritual is reenchantment—rekindling a sense of wonder, mystery, and connection to the world.

Now, our family collects our tears with awe for the divinity and humanity they carry, marking thresholds, transformation, and healing.

Ritual is wonder: candlelight dinners with family

Another family ritual is lighting candles at dinner. Ritual-making is ingrained in my child, as it is in all children and humans. My kid likes to move around, and dinners often feel like a game of duck-duck-goose. I started asking my kid to help me set the table and light candles at dinner. He will occasionally sit through a meal now, but he always wonders at his role as firekeeper and the flicker of the candles. The ritual is the constant invitation to wonder and connection.

Ritual is initiation: walking with Persephone

I have been curious about Demeter and Persephone mythology since I was young, and Persephone and Hekate more recently. In Goddesses in Everywoman: Powerful Archetypes in Women’s Lives, Jean Shinoda Bolen writes, “After Persephone emerged from the underworld, Hecate was her constant companion. Hecate, Goddess of the Dark Moon and the Crossroads, ruled over the uncanny realms of ghosts, demons, sorcery, and magic.”

This reflected a new “discernment that intuits the symbolic meaning of events” and marked the importance of ritual for Persephone’s return from the underworld and her autonomy from Demeter.

Reading about Persephone and Hekate became an initiation into ritual and divine feminine wisdom—coupled with what was happening in my life, this was a threshold.

What is ritual?

Throw stones over your left shoulder into a stream, one for each thing you’re letting go, says my sweet and magickal wisdom-teacher friend, Andye.

What is in your cauldron? says beloved friend and leader Karna, as we stir a soup of emotions and qualities about a thing.

Play pupa people with me, Mommy. What color are your wings? says my son.

Hum, like carpenter bees in summer to invoke warmth, says a wiser version of myself.

Put licorice and marigold seeds on the altar, say my ancestors.

Sing to me while you harvest, say the dahlias and sweet peas in the yard.

Starhawk defines ritual as the “act of setting a stage, creating a container for sacred transformation. When we call a circle, we say, ‘We are in sacred space,’ and that’s the first step in magic and change.” Following this, what makes a space sacred? Casper der Kuile says in The Power of Ritual: Turning Everyday Activities into Soulful Practices, “Sacredness is in the doing.” So, what constitutes ritual is entirely up to you. You cannot do it wrong.

In Poetry as Spellcasting, authors Tamiko Beyer, Destiny Hemphill, and Lisbeth White partly define ritual as “putting our bodies into ceremony or practice.” I can’t stop thinking about this. It is a brilliant definition. It encompasses physical and energetic bodies and centers the role of body in ritual (i.e., the mind-body connection), which essential for shifting consciousness.

For in-depth analysis of the meaning of ritual, including subversive and classical definitions, read What Is Ritual?

Reflections on: what is ritual?

I invite you to write a list of reflections about the meaning of ritual in your life. Here goes:

• Marking transitions, thresholds, changes, and rites of passage

• Guidance in liminality

• Awareness, attention, and presence

• Bring the unconscious or subconscious out of the shadows

• Alchemy

• Radical imagination

• Healing or restoring harmony

• Recognition or reclamation of what is sacred

• Organizing the human experience of mystery, the unknown, and the deeply difficult

• Slowing down

• Symbolic acts, words, and gestures

• Expression of creativity, intuition, celebration, desire, hope, and beyond

• Shifting energy

• Invocations of protection, deities, love, and beyond

• Connection with archetypes, ancestors, or elemental forces

• Communion with the unseen

• Opposition to dominant cultural narratives

• Psychological wholeness and conscious/unconscious self-integration

• Bringing intentionality to everyday life

• Opportunity for togetherness and community-making

Explore the elements of ritual and inspiration questions in What Is Ritual?

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Spellcast: craft a signature ritual for sacred space

I invite you to craft a signature ritual for creating sacred space. I have a short verbal invocation to call in everyday presence and a more complex space-setting practice for ceremonies that mark the moon cycles, liminal spaces, and thresholds. With this practice, you can create a container for transformation. It should feel like yours and be easy to access so you can practice shifting consciousness at will. For each suggestion below, consider exploring the practices of your ancestral lineages.

Here are some suggestions you can combine to create a signature ritual practice—write down your ideas, then weave away.

1. Words for opening and closing

Create invocations for opening and closing ceremonies, establishing groundedness and presence, and calling in guides. It can be simple. Here’s mine:

Opening: Angels, ancestors, and guides, please gather around me now. [Call out their names if you wish.]

Closing: All this and more or better, with harm to none. Angels, ancestors, and guides, thank you for your support, seen and unseen.

A common way of entering or exiting a cast circle in spellcraft, derived from the Wiccan Rede, is to say, "In perfect love and perfect trust."

For rituals marking moon cycles and thresholds or with the community, I craft unique invocations based on what is or needs moving.

2. Mark your space

Consider how you want to mark your space. Casting a traditional circle marks what is inside/outside the sacred space, or you can forgo the idea of inside/outside sacred space entirely (remember, sacredness is in the doing).

• Draw a geometric shape with your finger or pour salt into the shape of a circle, and move your body within the shape

• Cut a sheet into a circle and sit in the center (I learned this gem from Ro Marlen). Consider marking it with runes, hieroglyphs, or intuitive art

• Place stones in a circle or mark the cardinal directions with symbolic objects

• Practice in outside where nature is your open container

3. Ground your physical body

Invite presence through your physical body—connect your mind and body until you feel calm and grounded. Here are some ideas:

• Somatic practices like EFT, breathwork, grounding, body scanning, movement, dance, or laughter medicine (thanks for this technique, Pauline Salazar)

• Turn toward each cardinal direction, then above and below, and say a simple invocation. Research your ancestral lineage’s symbology of the directions to expand your wording

• Clear yourself and your space with smoke medicine, take a bath, or wash your hands before or after

• Wear or use a talisman to anchor, perhaps a piece of jewelry, stone, or scarf

3. Support your energetic body

Create a visualization for your subtle or energetic body. This might look like light work or bubble protection. Get creative with this. I used to always envision a color of light or being surrounded by trees (and turning into a tree myself). Then, Sarah Faith Gottessdiener of Moon-Studio invited us in her Protection Magic Workshop to imagine being surrounded by diverse imagery and qualities.

Create a list of energies you can play with in ritual: consider roses, crystal caves, mirrors, molasses, saltwater, gold, honey, storm clouds, plants, and beyond.

You may also consider the energies of plant and animal guides, ancestors, and your immediate environment. Explore Jessica Snow’s meditations and more magickal tools to support your ritual practices.

4. Weave a signature ritual

Craft what feels right from your ideas above, but find flexibility when you practice. There are many ways to weave sacred space. Please revisit these inspiration questions. Here is an example lineup:

Ritual weaving: cardinal directions + circle + roses

1. Face each direction and say: I call upon the energies and wisdom of the East… [say each direction, then Above and Below]

2. Draw a circle on the ground and sit in it

3. Say: Angels, ancestors, and guides, please gather around me now. [Call out their names if you wish.]

4. Visualize roses blooming and growing all around, then as far as the mind’s eye can see

5. Shift consciousness. This is whatever you are creating sacred space to mark or move. Always tune in to ensure you are grounded and ready. Take your time

6. Say: All this and more or better, with harm to none. Angels, ancestors, and guides, thank you for your guidance, seen and unseen.

You know what I’ll be playing with for the foreseeable future. If you want to play together, reach out.