An excellent article on Traditional witchcraft vs non-Traditional (note the capitalisation), initiation, and suchlike:
Oathbound: The meaning of traditional paths in an instant gratification society
(This just so happens to have been written by someone who led a fabulous closing ritual this weekend.)
Witches Weekly Questions, August 13, 2004: Sound
1. Do you enjoy having any type of music or sound during a ritual? If so, what?
Always. My life has a soundtrack, and ritual is no different. The score to the film Fairy Tale was nominated as the Official Ritual Score a few years ago. Nowadays I often use the score to Myst as well. It depends on the tone of the ritual. Worship: Fairy Tale. Working: Myst. And because I’m so tuned to music (no pun intended) I can time my words and energy to the music’s crescendos. It enhances everything so beautifully.
Drummingis marvellous, especially when you have a strong and talented drummer. TO drum, however, you have to accept that you’re not in the heart of the ritual, but managing the energy levels on the side. I can’t do rit and drum simultaneously, so I have to look forward to high ritual when others do it. And it has to be done correctly; so many let the beat falter or meander around. I’ve only met a handful of people who can correctly use drums as ritual tools.
2. Do you have a favorite chant?
Good question. I’ve always love The Earth is our Mother; I can chant Holy Well Sacred Flame for hours in ecstatic meditation; and Air I Am was on the list until near the end of this weekend when the Clan’s chants mistress (a woman whom I love fiercely) taught my dedicants to sing “Sam I am, Sam I am, I won’t eat green eggs and ham” to the tune, thereby endearing her to the Seuss fanatics (everyone) and ruining the chant forever for me. Earth My Body has taken its place in my top three chants after this weekend.
3. What sound tends to move you spiritually the most?
A slow well-built orchestral crescendo; rain; water of any kind; the cello (go figure).
Not much else we could do yeaterday after four hours of sleep, so we went out to lunch (and nearly wept on the waitress’ neck for the quality of food; remember, we were in the US of A for four days) and then caught a movie. We chose to see King Arthur.
My four-word review:
No guts, no heart.
It’s an interesting theory, and I enjoyed the presentation of the three sides to the conflict, but it felt like there should have been documentary narration over it. It was stoics, not stirring. It felt as if there were chunks missing. At least they cut out the whole stupid Lancelot/Guinevere thing. And, I am sad to say, I was so tired that I nodded off during the final battle. (The glass of white wine I had with lunch probably didn’t help.) Best sequence: the ice battle. Best knight: Gawain. Fabulous costumes. Great designs for the native Britons (Woads — honestly, what a dull name).
Excellent music, though. Zimmer’s score is a nice contrast to Goldsmith’s music to First Knight.
We won’t own it, despite our love for all things native Briton, armour, and epic battle sequences.
Don’t get me wrong; there were bad things too. We left three and a half hours later than we had intended to thanks to the idiocy of the regie d’assurance automobile; we drove in a blinding rainstorm; the portable CD player and the tape adapter hook-up didn’t work; we set up in the pouring rain, and were subsequently damp all weekend (I’m just throwing my rotting sneakers out); the air mattress had a hole in it and deflated completely within two hours; more people showed up than registered so that there weren’t enough sites for those who *did* register, forcing people to double and triple up on soaking, flooded, bog-like sites; one of the catered meals was rancid, forcing us to default to breakfast food on our barbecue (which was yummy, and a good bonding experience); and due to unclear communicaion about scheduling, we left five hours later than we had expected to leave, forcing us to drive through the night instead of just the evening, and on not a lot of sleep at the end of a draining weekend.
That’s just so you know I’m not romanticising. There were as many downs as ups. However, dwelling on the downs isn’t constructive.