The Power of Ritual

Rituals are ingrained in Human culture. If we carefully look around, we can see that magickal rituals are just about everywhere in society.

Wall Street rings the opening bell at 9:00 EST every Monday through Friday. National anthems are played prior to the start of every major sporting event (when they still happened pre-COVID!). American children “pledge allegiance” to the flag every day before school (or used to pre-COVID!). Major social events like weddings and funerals have dozens of rituals that take place within a single ceremonial event.

At a Mystical level, rituals have been used to create good luck, bring the rain, send off the dead, and signal the start of a new cosmological cycle, for tens of thousands of years.

There’s a reason why we see rituals in almost every aspect of our lives.

Rituals are everywhere because they work. They are one of the earliest and most effective forms of Magick.

Inelia Benz in her Are You A Witch? book describes a ritual as, “A series of movements, chants, invocations, thoughts and feelings, usually pre-designed to either call forth entities, a particular effect in the future, or in the mind, physical and subtle bodies. It is one of the easiest ways to bring forth Magick, both material and mental.”

If rituals didn’t work, we wouldn’t see them all over society. Even the most “logical” or “materialistic” driven endeavors are riddled with rituals. If you’ve ever talked to a successful stock broker or serious athlete about their craft, more often than not, they have a very precise and definitive ritual that they believe leads to their success. Is it logical when they describe it? Probably not. Do they believe it works? Absolutely.

And that’s the secret of the success — believing the rituals work is what makes them work. This is how magick works. We use the power of our mind and emotions to move, transmute, or influence energies.

Even science has copped on. Recent studies have also shown that “…performing rituals with the intention of producing a certain result appears to be sufficient for that result to come true.”

Rituals work because we KNOW it to be True.

Rituals have been shown to help people quit smoking, start a new workout routine, learn how to master a skill or become a world-renowned artist. Rituals can also be used to call in spirits, cast spells, and consciously manifest things into your life.

So why do they work? Well, the physical and mental movements of a ritual have an uncanny way to set our intent, focus our efforts, and help us imagine new possibilities for our reality. Basically, it helps program our bodies into bringing in certain energies through conscious intent.

As Mystics, ritual is one of our most important and effective Magickal tools.

Rituals don’t always have to be about spells or witchcraft, although they’re especially effective for that. Rituals can help us create a safe space for some of our most complicated feelings. Even the act of journaling or showing gratitude every day can become a sacred act and dramatically change our physiology and psychological well-being.

We all need sacred space or place of ritual safekeeping. A sacred space can be our kitchen table, magick altar, oratory, garden, favorite nature spot, bed, or the morning routine walking the dog.

We all have the innate right to create space of our own devising that satisfies us, supports us, and inspires us. But remember that if a ritual doesn’t resonate, then don’t do it. Simple! Always follow your inner knowing, especially if the ritual is being conducted by someone else.

 Here’s how to add a Mystic Twist to your life by creating a Magickal ritual:

1. Consciously set your intention — what do you want to create? You need to know where you want go before you can get there, so set a personal goal or magickal spell before you do the ritual. It’s super important only to put yourself as the focus on the ritual; focusing intent (even good intentions!) onto others could infringe upon their Free Will, which doesn’t end well for you or them. Trust me on this.
   
2. Plan the ritual ahead of time — don’t just “wing it” or make it up as you go along; rituals are serious business, and you don’t want to accidentally create something you don’t actually want. So set your intent, pick the objects you will use to symbolize that intent, think about what invocations or actions you’ll do as part of the ritual, consider how you’ll end the ritual, and process any fears or resistances before you start. It’s a good idea to write this out ahead of time so you can reference it along the way. Think of it as following a recipe in a cookbook or writing an algorithm!
   
3. Use objects for the ritual that symbolize your intent — if you want to remove a negative energy from your life, write that thought or feeling on a piece of paper. If you want to grow or enhance something in your life, use an object that you can see every day so you’ll be reminded of that intent daily. It could be a crystal, sticky note, necklace, wall painting, anything.
   
4. Plan your ritual actions to fuel your intent — use movements, words, chants, music, or other physical actions that helps you to allow Superconsciousness (your Higher Self) to flow through you. For example, if you wrote a negative word on a piece of paper, consider burning it (following fire safety procedures!) to symbolize that issue is being removed from your life and being released. If you want to use a crystal to help remind you to stay in high-frequency, consider putting the crystal near your heart and visualizing Source light going through you and into the crystal. Ritual actions that symbolize your chosen intent work best.
   
5. Daydream and feel the experience of your intent as being real — During the ritual, KNOW that the outcome of the ritual will become true. Our consciousness affects reality at a quantum level, so “make-believe” and daydreaming is the beginning to believing it. The more “real” it feels, the more powerful the invocation.
   
6. End the ritual — create a signal of “closure” that the ritual is complete. This could be done by a simple gesture, removing your objects from the space, or even saying “thank you.” It doesn’t have to be long or dramatic, just acknowledge somehow that you know the work is done.

Remember that rituals are just a tool. You are the one who makes the change and magick happen. It’s not the ritual itself that is powerful, it is you as Spirit that makes the ritual power-ful.

It’s also important to realize that rituals gain power when more people join in the intent. Think of the “Hail Mary” or “Glory Be” prayers; billions of Catholics over millennia have spoken and felt into these words, fueling the power and influence of the ritual over themselves and the planet. It’s much more difficult to dismantle a ritual when large groups are engaged in the opposite intent.

Yet rituals can still be powerful if we do it alone or by ourselves, so don’t let that stop you if you don’t have a ritual buddy. But if we really want to create some powerful change in our personal lives or on our collective reality on the planet, the rituals become much more effective if many peoples join the same intent. This is why global meditations at the same time are so powerful and measurable. Even just adding one more person to your ritual enhances the effect big time, assuming they believe and feel the intent behind the ritual, of course 😉 But remember to respect the Free Will of others, so if they don’t want to do it, don’t force it.

Rituals are an innate part of what it means to be Human. So let’s use the power of rituals and “make-believe” to help us believe that our dreams can become reality.