Ceremony

What is a ceremony?

The word Ceremony comes from the Latin "caerimonia", which means "religious rite". A Ceremony is a form of ritual that often has more than one participant. Where a ritual can take place anywhere and can inculde anything from a simple prayer at meal times to a set of morning practices to help keep you spiritually clean. A Ceremony is a grand event that ties in often more than one ritual to create a deisred result.

Ceremonies are often performed when the general public are present, so for many the ceremony presents the public face of their tradition.

Why have ceremonies?

People hold ceremonies for many reasons. These include, rites of passage, healing, celebration, diagnosis & obtaining information and for thanks & Offerings and prayer. The overall feel of the ceremony may be very different for each kind of ceremony and within each tradition. Within Christianity the majority of ceremonies are focussed on prayer and thanksgiving and are often solemn events, whereas in modern druidry, ceremonies are more often held in celebration, such as the eight festivals that mark the turning of the wheel of the year. And again in ancient Druidry and other Shamanisms ceremonies were used for all kinds of things.

Ceremonies are a tool, used to give a massive boost of energy to a certain thing, and also to give the general public a boost of encouragement, for this reason ceremonies are usually grand events where the public are invited to watch or even join in. They sometimes include the enactment of old stories and also sometimes have grand costumes and displays, such as the celebrations in China for the new year.

The elements of a ceremony

So what makes up a ceremony? We can look at the parts of a ceremony from an elemental viewpoint.

• Earth

Location

It is important that you spend time finding the right location for your ceremony. Although theoretically you can just stop and perform a ceremony in any place, you would be doing so at the risk of A) offending the spirits of that place, B) drawing unwanted and unneccessary attention to your self/group and the ceremony and C) ending up with the results turning out drastically different from that of your intention.

In looking for a spot for ceremony it is important to remember the lessons of the Bear: Know your landscape intimmately, Know it's seasons and cycles and know it's spirits. Things to look for when trying to find a location for your ceremony can include local sacred sites, quiet natural spots or community centres that can be rented. In each of these cases you may need to ge the landowner's permission, and be prepared, not everyone likes the idea of a druidic ceremony being held on what they percieve to be their "property".

Tools

The tools you use in your ceremony can include altars, drums, costume, dance, song etc, but when considering which tools you need for this ceremony, amke sure you take your location into consideration. All the tools used in druidry can draw even more uinwanted attention to our workings, drums can often be very noisy and so a community centre or spot near people's houses, or perhaps where other groups may be trying to meditate or hold another workshop is often a bad choice of place for drums, song and dance.

What tools do you associate with the purpose of the ceremony? In healing, perhaps crystals, journeying and smudge are the most beneficial. For a seasonal celebration might need all manner of tools such as plates, a mead horn, seasonal decorations, even an Eisteddfod.

As a rule of thumb, try to limit what tools you bring into the ceremony to only what is neccessary. If you find yourself halfway through a ceremony realising that another tool might be useful, wing it, use the Air element and be inspired. Look at your surroundings, if you are outdoors, is there something you can use to quickly craft such an item? Remember though, in Mongolia and Siberia shaman's were banned from using any tools whatsoever under the Communist regime, Perhaps tools are not needed at all?

Setup

Ceremonial setup is very important. You need to take into account not only your personal views, but the views of anyone else taking part in the ceremony. This also includes religious views as within druidry the layout of the ceremonial area most often becomes a mirror for our view of the universe. Whilst some may work with the Celtic or Norse traditions, others may be Christian. Smoe might place the element of Earth in the North, some might place it in the west. Before you even begin to set up, make sure you discuss the setup with all the members of the group involved in the ceremony and always make a compromise. Truth is, "Energy flows where attention goes" and it wouldn't matter if we mixed up all the elements and placed them where ever we wanted, the spirits know what our intention is. Perhaps the most difficult part of setup where differing traditions work together is the siting of the altar. Christians would have it in the east as would the makority of wiccans, however, many Shamanic cultures place it in the north, whilst other traditions place it in the south. Others still find the centre a good spot. If you're not having a ceremonial fire then the centre is an excellent position, not only can it thus be seen as being in all places, but it can represent both equality between religions and also represent the ceremonial fire itself.

Performance

The most obvious part of the earth element manifest in ceremony is the performance of the ceremony itself. If all the elements come together perfectly, then the performance will be great and the results will be astounding. If just one element is out of balance, it can steer the whole ceremony in another direction entirely. When looking at the performance part of ceremonial construction you must consider several things such as, length of the ceremony, whether the public can be invited to watch or even participate, and whether the time of year/day/moon cycle etc are right.

• Air

The seed

The seed represents the initial need/idea/seed thought for the ceremony. As soon as you become aware of the need for a ceremony, then it is already being worked upon.

Inspiration during it's creation

As we have seen from the Earth element, there are many palces where confliction between members and between the ceremony and the public can happen. This is where you must allow yourself to be creative and inspired. You have to learn to work around all these conflicts and minimise the risk of them coming into being. Obviously whereas an experienced group can block out the abuse hurled by people who stumble on your ceremony and become frightened, a new group may find that the slightest thing throws them off balance, bringing the whole ceremony to a disaterous end.

Inspiration during it's performance

As I mentioned in the "tools" section of the Earth element above, sometimes you just have to wing it. There are often times when things don't go according to plan. As a friend of mine says "Man plans, God laughs". And no matter what tradition you come from, we all acknowledge the trickster spirit, the one who wants to throw us off course and into chaos. Either as Coyote, or Loki, Satan or Pookha, each tradition knows the importance of focus and also of being prepared. One such example of this happened at a winter solstice. Our ceremony had been planned way ahead of time, all the elements were in balance, we had our location. But when we Walked the path up to our location we found that there were local kids there, they had lit a fire and were not intent on moving, they began hurling abuse at use and so we had to relocate. Thankfully we let inspiration guide us and after a treacherous walk we came to a beach where it became evident that we had all three realms of the Celtic otherworld represented around us, it made for an incredible (if somewhat cold) ceremony.

Within a ceremony it's not just the leader who needs to be prepared to be inspired, it's every member of the group. If the feeling to move or act in a certain way strikes a member of that group they should be allowed to, an experienced leader will be able to tell if the movement or act is beneficial or negative and can act out in accordance. An example of this happened druing a shapeshift ceremony I was running. One member became possessed of Cernunnos, the antlered lord of the wood and as he was prophesising another member became possessed of CuChullainn and proceeded to march in and "attack" Cernunnos. Thus Myself and another experienced member began took the forms of wolves and separated them. The result was a powerful connection between all involved and the beings that they allowed to flow through them. Whereas in another ceremony one member began to chant what was coming through them, the other more experienced members realised that this chant was beneficial and began to echo that chant, thus the end result was far beyond what we could have hoped for.

Clarity of mind

Of course keeping a clear mind is very important to both allow inspiration to flow through you and also to stop any of your personal needs, desires and fears from disrupting the ceremony. Thus I would advise all members of a group that are entering into a ceremony to meditate before the ceremony begins, after any major happening occurs within the ceremony and at the end of the ceremony.

• Fire

  The energies of the ceremony

  The energies of the ceremony include all that you are calling into being, your own energy, the energy of the place, time and the spirits. All this energy manifests in many was, but more commonly it does so as unexplained heat (I tend to get hot feet and hands even in the middle of winter), boundless energy, time distortion and inevitably, mishaps.

  These energies need to be guided effectively towards the goal and that is the job of the ceremonial leader. If they are not guided properly then things can, and often will, go wrong. During my early years as a ceremonial leader I was not aware of how powerful a ceremony had become and did not concentrate hard enough on directing the energies. The result was that the next day three of my friends were badly hurt. I learned the hard way, and part of my reason for sharing this information with you is to help make sure you don't have to.

  One good way of directing the energies is by channeling them into an object such as a crystal that has been cleaned and energised for that purpouse. For instance in a healing ceremony you can direct the energies into a quartz crystal and then give it to the person in need of healing. Other good ways are to have someone write the ceremony as it happens into a book so taht the next time you need that kind of ceremony, you can work from the book, thus recalling the ceremony's energies.

  The passion and drive of the participants

  This is a very important part of the ceremony. If people don't put the effort into the ceremony, it will be a flop. If people get too worked up, they can cause an upset in the balance of the elements. Everyone needs to remain in balance and thus the meditations I suggested in the "Clarity" section of the Air element above can be used to maintain this balance.

  Also make sure there is food and drink available at a marked point in the ceremony to both act as an incentive and to give a well needed boost when the energies begin to wane.

  Transmutation

  Of course the desired effect of most ceremonies is to change one state of being to another. This we call transmutation. This can be something like changing the state of a members health from sickly to healthy, or from unemployment to finding a job. But here I must point out something very important. Doing a ceremony for healing does NOT automaticaly heal a person, doing a ceremony to find a job does NOT land a job in your lap. you have to put in the work. a healing ceremony acn work brilliantly for someone who needs a lift when they are feeling blue, but in the modern western culture we lack the skill and power to cure cancers. Thus ceremonies are only ever used to make whatever treatments the person is being give, more effective. The person in question needs to have their illness looked at by a medical proffesional. For jobseekers, You still have to go out and look for a job, the ceremony only helps bring the right job to you, you still have to look for it, fill in the application forms, attend the interview and work hard at it.

• Water
  

  Flow

  The ceremony must remain fluid, if it begins to stagnate the energies can go bad and thus it must flow, like a river. At times it needs to be aggitated like a stormy sea, at times it neesd to be calm like a gentle brook. But always watch the flow of the ceremony as at any point it can break it's banks and then all the hard work you put in during its construction will be wasted.

  Ensuring an even flow during the ceremony helps to wash away all that is no longer desired, and helps to keep everything nourished with a steady flow of inspiration and wisdom.

  Wisdom

  There are always beings that are FAR wiser than yourself. Before you even begin to write your ceremony I suggest you consult them. Take a journey to the ancestors, to whichever deities you work with, to the spirits of place where you plan to hold your ceremony, of time when you plan to hold it, tae a journey to talk to your guides, guardians and totems and ask for their wisodm. Ask for insight into the outcome of the ceremony, whether it the ceremony is a good idea and whether they can suggest how to make it better.

  Also consult someone with experience in the type of ceremony you wish to perform and ask for their help and advice.

  If you ignore this wisdom, you risk your ceremony becoming a disaster. Ceremonies are not toys for eager show offs to impress their mates, they are very serious tools to affect change upon the web of existence. To perfom a ceremony for every little thing will is wrong, Ceremonies must only be performed when absolutley neccessary. Even celebratory ceremonies. The Gods and spirits have thier own agendas and things that they need to attend and if they are called on for every little thing, you'll soon find yourself with an angry deity or negative spirit, ready to spiritually cuff you in the ear as a lesson.

  Purity

  Last but not least, purity. Like clarity this is an essential ingredient to the ceremony. Humans have the unique ability to become negative at the drop of a hat. Jealousy, anger, animosity, fear, negligence can all add up to some of the nastiest things to happen in a ceremony such as group possessions, polterghiest manifestation and even a total reversal of the desired outcome.

  Again having the meditations I described above help maintain the purity of the ceremony and the group as will smudging, inspired channeling of the energy and inspired action at every moment. If we imagine the energies of the ceremony as streams flowing into a lake, we can see that if any single one of them becomes impure the whole ceremony goes awry.

Writing a ceremony

The basics

In the most basic form, a ceremony needs to have three definite phases, a beginning, a middle and an end.

The beginning, begins when you first think about having a ceremony. You are already preparing yourself mentaly, physcialy, emotionaly and spiritualy for the event, and it ends when you cross the barrier into your ceremonial space. During the beginning you must take time to lay out the groundwork for the ceremony, this could be simply writing it, or it could include finding a specific location, researching old methods of the type of ceremony you wish to perform, making specific costumes and tools, creating dances, chants and prayers and so on and so forth.

The middle of the ceremony begins the moment you cross from the mundane world into ceremonial space. This phase includes the enactment of the entire ceremony, from calling on the help of whichever powers you feel need to be brought to the ceremony, through the rituals, the farewells to the powers and the closing of ceremonial space. The moment your sacred space is closed, this phase ends. It's good to think of this phase of the ceremony as a time when you are standing on a threshold, balanced in time and space. your ceremonial space is apart from the "normal" mundane world and is also apart from the "natural" flow of time. when you sross from the beginning and before you reach the end you are outside the world you know and are in the realms of the divine. Thus this phase must be enacted and treated with utmost respect and care.

The ending, as I say happens when you ave closed the ceremonial space. This phase actually lasts for eternity. you have made a mark on the web of existence and that cannot be erased. All that you have done during the beginning and middle phases of the ceremony are now planted into the web and are growing, they will echo over eternity. And for this reason you shold always bear in mind that, as the mark cannot be erased, and as the Druid accepts full responsibility for his/her actions, you will always be affected by what you have done, so think very carefully about the whole ceremony in the beginning phase, act the ceremony out properly in the middle phase and be prepared for the consequences in the end.

Considerations

Some things must always be very seriously considered before a ceremony can begin. One of the problems that we face as Druids in the modern world is that whatever one group does, the rest of the tradition is stereotyped with. So a few things that you must consider whilst writing a ceremony are:

Skyclad, robed or clothed?

Each has it's pros and cons, to be Skyclad (Naked) is a beautiful way to reconnect with nature, it's certainly how the gods intended us to be, it dispells fear, breaks barriers of guilt and self confidence and can greatly add power to the ceremony. Being skyclad does not have to mean "being horny" and in fact we practice sexual abstinence in our ceremonies. Alas the popular media has Druids and pagans down as "dancing naked at stone cirlces" and "engaged in acts of gross and overt sexuality"... in fact while the former may happen if we have a private space, the latter very very rarely does, sexuality in Druidry is considered sacred and happens between the people involved away from public places. I would seriously advise against being skyclad anywhere where the public might run into you!

Whilst being robed is a great way to stand out as a Druid and say firmly and proudly "We are still here!" it can also, like being skyclad, attract unwanted attention.

Just wearing normal clothes can give the impression that in fact Druids aren't wierdos but are actually quite normal people with a different perspective, but it can get you looked down on by "bigger, older and more established" druid groups.

Allowing the Public to view your ceremonies

One of the best ways to break the ice between the community and your group is to allow the public to attend one or more of your ceremonies as onlookers. When doing this I'd suggest keeping it to just the seasonal celebrations and I'd also advise that you make sure that you write it "public friendly". Alas there is always the chance of hecklers, people that do not understand and thus fear your ceremonies who start to cause trouble, from throwing abuse, to throwing bottles. And of course you run the risk of fundementalist picketers who may try to stop people from attending your ceremonies and give out leaflets that damn your practices. You may also get the odd one preaching loudly throughout your ceremony. You CANNOT react to these people, they are only doing it because they are ignorant, and if you give them attention, they will only do it more.

Allowing the Public to participate in your ceremonies

This can be a really tricky but excellent way of helping get your group accepted into the community. The same risks are there as with allowing the public to watch but with the obvious addition of having those trouble makers inside your sacred space. I really would limit any intrusion on sacred space to inviting the public to partake of the bread and mead at the simple feast (see below).

Indoors or Outdoors?

Again both of these is fine, but both have their limitations. Being outdoors is obviously more traditional and is better for being in tune with the powers of nature, but if the weather turns sour then you can run the risk of illness, just as you miht if you hold an outdoor vigil during the winter solstice. Indoors on the other had gives you a safe space out of the weather and away from the public eye, but often the energy of the ceremony will be dampened because of the lack of link with the natural world. However, Being indoors makes the ceremony accessible to disabled people which the middle of the woods does not.

Ceremonial construction

During the beginning phase of the ceremony it is good to write down at least the basic outline of the ceremony and a rough guide as to what happens and when. Many modern Druid orders give printed materials that seem to be the be all and end all of a ceremony, particularly when it comes to the eight great celebrations of the wheel of time, but I have found that although these written ceremonies are a grat way to get started in ceremonial work, they can become a bit of a crutch and even stunt your spiritual growth. My advice is to take these written ceremonies as guidelines only and allow yourself to be open to inspiration and the wisdom of elders and the spirit realms to help you create a ceremony that is meaningful and powerful. Remember, these written ceremonies are just one person's way of working, and we are all different.

A very basic outline of a ceremony could be as follows.

1 - Set up altar
2 - Smudge all participants & altar
3 - Meditate on ceremony
4 - Cast circle
5 - Call quarters

• North
• East
• South
• West

6 - Call heights and depths
7 - Call deities, totems, allies, guardians
8 - State purpose
9 - Meditate on purpose
10 - Perform rites
11 - Give offerings
12 - Share food and drink
13 - Give thanks to deities, totems, allies, guardians
14 - Give thanks to depths and heights
15 - Give thanks to quarters

• North
• East
• South
• West

16 - Close circle
17 - Meditate on ceremony
18 - Smudge all participants

Now of course, each tradition has it's own unique method of holding ceremonies, and there may be elements of the outline that I have just given you that are not used in some traditions, such as casting and closing a circle, calling or giving thanks to the heights or depths, or even the meditations, sometimes a tradition calls for other things to be done during a ceremony, such as in Asatru where the ceremonial leader will hammer and hallow the sacred space with a Mjollnír (a sacred hammer, representative of Thor's Hammer), and of course there are traditions such as wicca that cast a circle but do not allow people to enter that space until they have sworn that they do so "in perfect love and perfect trust".

As a result the ceremony outline above has been left basic so that you can tailor it to your needs and the needs of your group.

I will now elaborate on a few elements of the outline above.

The reason I put the altar set up before anything else is that I belive this is best used as a focus to bring people into the right frame of mind, kind of like a trigger the the psyche that says "aha, sacred time!" I then have all the participants and the altar smudged (wafted with sacred smoke) so that they are clean before they enter into a ceremonial space. Meditating on the Ceremony before enacting it helps to bring the group into focus and casting the circle places a protective barrier around the area and also signals that the ceremony is now beginning.

There are many ways of calling the quarters, given by many traditions. Some like Wicca call to the "guardians of the watchtowers" of whichever direction they are calling at that time. In modern Druirdy, participants call on the season, time of day and elemental totem of that area and I expect it was the same in ancient Druidry too as it is with many forms of shamanism. of course in Catholic christianity it may be correct to call on saints, whereas in Protesetantism it would be more likely that the ceremonial leader would call on God alone.

I will give and example of my way of calling the quarters and the heights and depths and also the circle here.

North

I call upon the powers of the North, element of earth, place of the Great Bear, both asleep in her cave and in the stars, guiding us. Grant us the powers of strength, stability and steadfastness in this our ceremony, and provide us with good ground in which to plant the seeds of this ceremony, that it may grow and be beneficial for all creation. thank you for your presence as without you, this work could not be! Hail and Welcome!

East

I call upon the powers of the East, element of air, place of the Great Bear as she comes forth from her den to look upon the new day. Grant us the powers of inspiration, clear thought and clear mind in this our ceremony, and provide us with fresh, clean air to gently blow across the young shoots of our ceremony, that it may grow strong and healthy and be beneficial for all creation. thank you for your presence as without you, this work could not be! Hail and Welcome!

South

I call upon the powers of the South, element of fire, place of the Great Bear as she wanders the land watching, learning and loving. Grant us the powers of passion, fertility and warm heartedness in this our ceremony, and provide us with warm sun and long days that our prayers may grow strong and full of life and be beneficial for all creation. thank you for your presence as without you, this work could not be! Hail and Welcome!

West

I call upon the powers of the West, element of water, place of the Great Bear as she feasts on the fruits and the salmon, growing fat with wisdom. Grant us the powers of purity, grace and wisdom in this our ceremony, and provide us with good rain and clean rivers that the fruits of our ceremonies can grow fat and stay healthy and be beneficial to all craetion. thank you for your presence as without you, this work could not be! Hail and Welcome!

Heights

I call upon the spirits of the Heights, Father Sky, bird spirits, star beings, deities and all the forces above that watch over us, guide and protect us. thank you for your presence as without you, this work could not be! Hail and Welcome!

Depths

I call upon the spirits of the Depths, of earth and stone, crystal and bone, Mother Earth, ancestors, animal spirits and all the forces that watch over us, guide us and protect us. thank you for your presence as without you, this work could not be! Hail and Welcome!

The Circle

I call upon the participants of this our ceremony and the spirits of place, time and season, Hail Brothers and Sisters, thank you for your presence as without you, this work could not be! Hail and welcome!

Similarly, when I give thanks and say farewell I thank each of the above powers for all that it brought to our ceremony and end it with "Hail and Farewell!". I also like to close a ceremony as I began, clockwise, however other traditions prefer to open clockwise and close anti-clockwise. There is often much debate on this as to some people, moving anti-clockwise is a symbol of destruction. But my choice to close as I open is simply my way of saying "start as you mean to go on".

Ceremonial setup and practices

I would like to share with you an example of our one of ceremonial setups, remeber this is just a guideline. Below is an image showing the layout of the circle and places of the participants:

Key:

1. Altar/Fire
   If we have a fire in the centre we position the altar in the North in front of the standard
2. Standard
   Our standard bearing the Tribal design
3. Matriarch/Bear Man
   This is the representative of our Tribal totem and is the person responsible for keeping the ceremony flowing in the right direction
4. Representative of North
   This is the person responsible for the calling and thanking of the spirits of the north and also the person responsible for all the earthly duties of the ceremony
5. Representative of East
   This is the person responsible for the calling and thanking of the spirits of the east and also for all the airy duties of the ceremony
6. Representative of South
   This is the person responsible for the calling and thanking of the spirits of the south and also for the fiery duties of the ceremony
7. Representative of West
   The person responsible for calling and thanking the spirits of the west and for all the watery duties of the ceremony
8. Ceremonial Leader
   The person with overall responsibilty for the ceremony
9. Ancestral Representative
   This person acts as a channel for the ancestors to speak through
10. Bard
    Is responsible for telling appropriate stories, poems and songs for the ceremony and also opens the Eisteddfod
11. Seer
    The diviner, responsible for all divination needed in the ceremony
12. Celebration Leader
    This person leads the part of our ceremony we call "the simple feast" (see below)
13. Gate Keeper
    This is the peacekeeper and is the person responsible for casting and closing the circle and for the defensive protection of the ceremony
14. Sword Bearer
    This person is responsible for the aggressive protection of the ceremony
15. Horn Blower
    This person calls the ceremony to order if it the flow becomes to erratic and also signals the beginning and end of the ceremony itself. He/She may also blow the horn to end each of the calling/thanking of the spirits.

The altar

Upon our altar you'll find a collection of items that change to meet the needs of the ceremony. Most often you'll find among other things, a replica skull in honour of our ancestors, a mead horn to be used during the simple feast (see below) a rattle, drum or other instrument for focussing the group, cleansing the area etc, crystals, seasonal decorations, a statue of a bear and perhaps statues of deities, a palte of bread for use in the simple feast, a large Mjollnír (Thor's Hammer) a knife, a bowl of water, candles, incense and a bowl of earth.

The simple feast

Now a long time ago, this practice was not so simple as it took the form of a sacrifice, but before I explain about the simple feast I want to dispell a few myths about sacrifice. Firstly, this is not a malicious practice, it is in fact a sharing of the bounty with the unseen forces, also, it was a ceremonial slaughter of an animal which was an important practice as druids realise that all animals have spirits and also because meat is such an important food, obtaining it should never be without ceremony. Secondly, sacrifice is not a practice that has died out, we just call it by different names, after all, how do you think Jews get Kosher meat and Muslims get Hallal? They are sacrifices, it is only Christianity that has changed the focus of sacrifice from the animals to their lord Jesus Christ, they enact his sacrifice in the Easter celebrations and also at communion where they eat of his body and drink of his blood in the forms of bread and wine. And it is from the Christian practice that we take the simple feast.

One person takes the loaf of bread for the altar and cuts it giving thankss to the earth mother and sky father for the food we eat, another takes the mead and also gives thanks to the earth mother and sky father for al that we get to drink. A portion of the bread and mead are then given to the earth and fire. The person with the bread then passes clockwise around the circle giving a piece of bread to each participant and says "may we never hunger, nor grow fat" (we say this because it is jsut as bad to submit to gluttony and greed as it is to grow hungry), finally they take a piece for themselves. The person with the mead follows the person with the bread and as they give a bit of mead to each person they say "may we never thrist nor drown" (again this has the same meaning as what is said with the bread), they then have some mead themselves.

Eisteddfod

Eisteddfod is a Welsh word meaning "a sitting" and it's a practice used widely in modern druid ceremonies. This is the part of the ceremony where people get to share their creative works, in whatever form, in a ceremonial space. However, unlike the Eisteddfod we hold at Lammas, this is not a competition, just a place to air our inspiration. Sometimes people feel that they are nervous about showing of their own work and may tell a story, read a poem or sing a song that they find relevant by someone else, this is fine.

Other Practices

Sometimes we use the Mjollnír to hammer and hallow the sacerd space, this is a simple practice where the hammer is lifted uup to the sky to be charged by Thor/Taranis/Jupiter/Zeus/Yaweh and is then brought to the ground as if smashing negative energies, at the same time the participant with the hammer calls out "Mjollnir, Hammer and Hallow this sacred place, make it clean and keep us safe!"

Group healings are sometimes to be found in out ceremonies where an individual is brought to the centre and all the participants place their hands on his/her shoulder and focus healing energies into that person whilst praying to whichever deities they work with for the healing of that person.

Focussed, group meditations, journeys, prayers, enacted plays can also be found in our ceremonies as needed.

Other forms of ceremony - The heavy stuff

Within the Tribe of The Spirit Bear we occasionally hold some of the less common kind of ceremonies, these include handfastings (Weddings), Farewells (memorials), namings, coming of age ceremonies, vision journeys, sweat houses and major healing work (soul retrieval, extraction etc). To find out more about these ceremonies please: Contact the Tribe