So here I am, reading the Autumn issue of _Green_Egg_ on the bus
today, and I see an article about rituals on the computer.
"Great!" I thought. "I've always been interested in doing
rituals within cyberspace."  Imagine my surprise when the author,
a professed computer program, blasts at the entire concept
of "virtual ritual", denigrating the entire realm of cyberspace
as a flimsy veil covering the Real reality, whatever the Hecate
that's supposed to mean.  He said that it was "an inherently
dead, mechanistic place..."  And here I've been astounded at the
beauty of this place, where people from across the world can
interact, hopefully to create a new understanding of life,
the universe, and all that.

Well, feh.  My credo is "If you're angry, do something about it or
shut up."  So I decided to do something about it.

How many folks here are interested in attending a virtual ritual
right here on Grex?  Suggestions?  Comments?

82 responses total.

Sounds interesting; I I'd be willing to get involved; without the immediacy of 
real-time, though, I suspect it would become something other than ritual (there
are, of course, various ways to interact on then net in real time) and more of
a description of a ritual.

Real-time interaction is what I had in mind.

it's an interesting thought, but I'd rather play with simple exercizes
first for a while- for one thing, I find party, chat, etc. a bit
confusing.  for another, I've been known to fry computers just by 
walking in a room when I was younger and more messed up. (Brighn says
I should have left it "more fucked up" and not wimped out..<g>) I
wonder, if we managed to raise a significant amount of energy, what
kind of mess it would make... But has potential.

Oh I'm sure it'd make a mess.

A year ago I'd have been totally not into it...but yea, let's do it. It's just
weird enough to work!

In the words of the silly naif...
What harm could it do?
We could do it in a private channel on Party, even.

I"ve done Tarot readings in party, and they worked fine, in fact,
better than in real life.  :)

Read my Tarot brighn!!! pleeeeeeeaaaaaaze!!!!
:)

Yes, I was figuring on a private party channel, the only other way
to do multiple folks in real-time would be ytalk, which will give
us each one or two lines at a time.  >8(

I'll be gone until Jan 17th or therabouts.  I'd like to take part. Might
be best for me to do so on a day when Brighn is visiting, in case I get
too freaked out by the environment, but that presents the problem that
we'd have to share one login, I believe.  Unless we used ppp?  But then
there would be an annoying degree of lag which I avoid by dailing in.

More general questions:
What would be the purpose around which such a ritual would be built?
What tradition(s)?
Who would run it?
Scripted, outlined or impromptu?
What kind of "work", if any, would be planned?

The keyboard limitation is the problem, Kami dear.  The singular
log-in problem can be overcome by prefacing one person's entries
(the person whose log-in is NOT being used) with their initial.
It's been done on Party; I 've done it.  E.g.:
kami:    We invoke the powers to the east.
robh:    We invoke the powers to the south.
kami:    (B) We invoke the powers to the west.
anne:    We invoke the powers to the north.
(Powers that be... the above is an example, we're not starting a ritual,
please don't be invoked!  :)

I'm sure we can get over the keyboard hogging, or I could just be there 
for moral support.  :)

sounds like fun.  A good exercize in concentration/visualization.

I'm beginning to think I should have gone upstairs.

What tradition - Ah, that's always the biggest problem when trying
to organize a ritual with such diverse folks.  Any ideas?  If
both kami and brighn and there, would Druid stuff be good?

Purpose - Well, my main purpose would be to find out how well it
works, to explore the new medium.  A shake-down ritual, you might
say.  Of course, that's not a good reason in and of itself.

I'd prefer for it to be at least somewhat planned.  I was thinking
of the model that the CyberSamhain ritual used last October, but
now I realize that most of you don't know anything about that...
Tomorrow I'll snag some info from the Web and post it here.
Basically, they had selected folks to do each part of the
ritual "calling each direction, invoking the God and Goddess, etc.)
and they wrote their stuff in advance, then typed it in when the
appropriate moment came.  There was some free-form stuff too,
I believe.

I think most of us have at least some Wiccan background, so that might
be the best general format, but even then, do we need to specify a
tradition of Wicca?  What deities?  Are we trying to work with a particular
pantheon, a generalized "great goddess" and "horned god", or each person
name their favorite/patron, or do we try to choose those most appropriate
to the purpose and medium regardless of pantheon?  Also with quarters:
are we calling them as guardians or qualities?  Into where- the computer,
(that is- the Sun3 which is Grex), the network, all of our own spaces,
ourselves, or what?
Do we plan to raise energy?  How?  To what purpose? HOw to contain it
so that it doesn't diffuse into the ether and so it doesn't fry anyone's
hardware?  Who sends it and who directs the ritual?  Yourself, I would
think, Rob. 
I know a delightful woman who is one of the moderators of the pagan live
discussion on AOL and has done cyber-ritual.  I'll see if I can get her
to log in here and talk with us about it.

You should have gerald

Oh stop it, you two.  We're having a serious conversation here.
Gerund, you *should have* come upstairs, but you didn't feel comfortable,
and you should never enter a ritual space when you're not completely 
comfortable.  It's not only a bad experience for you, it's a bad 
experience for the others whose energy is diffused as a result.
So no, in the end, you *shouldn't* have come upstairs.

Now that we've confused everyone else, let's get back to the topic.

I would think we would want to start with an impromptu ritual with 
pre-assigned roles (which we'd need an HP or HPess to assign to
interested parties... Rob, would you be willing?  I'll HP if no-one
else wants to.).  While specific magic might be an idea, it would
have to be known that the first ritual would most likely have shaky
energy at best... the first time is always the most anxiety-riddled,
and many of us are unfamiliar with each other's magic.  I've ritualed
with a few of you (Kami, of course, and Val and Vampyre, and probably 
a few others here), but other than that and conversations, the 
unknown factor would be tense.  But I think impromptu is better than
scripted for this, at least the first time, because a script would
have to be *saomebody's* script.  Unless Rob wants to write the whole
ritual, seeing as this was HIS idea.  :)

uh huh

Yeah, it was my idea, wasn't it?  >8)  I will gladly HP, of
course.  As for script vs. improv, I'd at least like us to
have it organized in ageneral way, i.e. first we cast the
circle, then we call the quarters, then invocations, then
whatever the Hecate we're doing this ritual for, then
the devocations/sending/opening.

But I would want people to type things in as they wanted
to, during the ritual itself.  If all I wanted was to get
a scheduled display of exact sequences of text, I could write
a program to do that.  >8)

So, should we figure out a good time for this?  I just
noticed that my calendar doesn't have lunar phases marked,
so I'll drag out my Old Farmer's Almanac, hang on...

OK, Full Moon is the 16th, which is also when the next
Grex Board election starts, interestingly enough.  The next
New Moon after that is on the 30th.

A ritual over the computer... I have partaken in these before. They can become
quite interesting. The problems begin when people become unfocused. It is very
easy to become unfocused and spill the energies everywhere. I suggest making
it very obvious that focus is a must if you are going to attempt this.
Other than that, give a time and a date, and if it is possible, I will attend..

Rob, of course... that's the way our coven works.  A skeleton of
who does what when, and the specific words and actions are up to
the individual.  Now that I'm thinking about it, would we want to
restrict the first one to people who are fairly familir with party 
(familiar enough to do noises, etc.)?

Has anybody asked this:  Should the ritual be open (via invite) or
closed (only the participants)?  And once the circle is cast, I assume
we ignore people knock-knock-knocking on the door.

I think the first one ought to be closed, to limit confusion and diffusion.
I won't be back until the 17th and I have class then.  On the other hand,
I suppose it won't kill me to miss one ritual in my life and I"m certainly
NOT familiar with party...

Gerund, maybe next time you will feel ok to come upstairs. You haven't
closed any doors behind you, after all.

next time?

we do public rituals 8 times a year.  The next will be Saturday, Feb.
4th, at 2:PM at the ICC building.  We will be celebrating Imbolc, also
known as Candlemas or Lady Day (also Groundhog day <g>): the first hing
(oops- hint) that Spring is actually coming, that light will return, a
time when the power of the Earth Mother/Land Goddess protects and nurtures
that of the young god who will rule in the summer.  The image/symbol of
this time is a single candle flame in a dark night or cave, being 
multiplied until it shines like stars.
This is off topic to the current item and ought to be moved to the item
on local happenings or on druidism ADF style.

(But after Imbolg is Ostara, which is hopefully outside, so "upstairs"
will then become a metaphor :)

OK, I guess the fleas migrated, now I'm going to pick nits:
Ostara is the name or a Roman or Germanic goddess.  I'm not aware
that it is formally the name of the holiday.  Well, at least, I think
it could conceivably be the Roman holiday, but it's definitely not
Celtic.  I'll have to look it up.  Ask after the 18th please, and I'll
go find it.

this sounds very interesting and i'd like to know when you  end up
doing an open ritual.  
by the way what is the focus?  i may have missed it 
thanks

We haven't got a focus yet, not the best sign.  Any ideas?

have we come up with a date yet?  that might influence the focus.
harmony and "perspective" might be a possibility...

How about world peace?...

You know, there is a Full Moon coming up in two weeks, which seems like
enough time to get things organized.  (Just a suggestion... if people
are busy with actual rituals that day, we might try the day before or
after...)\

Gjreetings all...I know this may sound stupid, but concerning your
ritual over the computer what about using a social MUD.  Many have
privacy sections on the different rooms?  The fact that I might be
missing the point has not eluded me...just a thought...

A MUD has its advantages in many cases, *however*, I'd like
to do it someplace that all Grex users can get to, and since
not everyone can telnet out, and there's a bsolutely no
way we can put a MUD on Grex, it wouldn't work.  Sorry.

Full Moon would be decent, but didn't kami say she'd be out
of town?  Would the next New Moon be better?

Kami also said that she can miss a ritual, and she's not all that 
familiar with Party, at least not enough to do things comfortably
and quickly... I dunno.  Im not being presumptuous, btw:  the two
of us talked about it last night.  OTOH, the New Moon might be a 
better idea just from the standpoint that much fewer people will likely
be doing any group stuff.  I dunno.  I'm a ritual addict; I'll do
it whenever.  :)

didnt i read this in a willam gibson novel? count zero mona lisa orverdirve! :)


me. last time i tried something through the net liek this i lost my root to the
earth and it fucked me up pretty badly i ended up surging and losing controle
fried my motherboard and pulled lightning onto my house. so i think everyone
will understand. i was waked for a week before my conection fully healed. just
gos to prove redman shouldnt play with cybertotoms! have fun tho and id love to
watch just not my bag. cant all do everything!

It pulled lighning into your house??!! Yow. Just say no.

that is im sure everyone will understand if i decline.
yeah when i lost my root land conection i flaid and instinctivly pulled for
power and it backlashed into my water totom conection wich was what i was using
for the visualization and in my grop for stablity i pulled storm energys i
should have left and wham next thing i know house is geting hit by lightning
out of the growing storm was not a happy experince. its not a pretty picture
when my energys unblance.

Wow!  Dag nabbit, vampyre, just don't send any lightning after me...

I'd prefer to remain lightningless as well:)

Well, here it, one day before the full moon, and...
What happened?  Where di dthe inertia go?
IS this off for good, then?  :(

Well, I told you the 17th was too close...  >8)

Last check - Anyone want to try this out?  If so, on the
30th or thereabouts, for the next new moon?

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss