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If centuries-old incantations are nothing more to you than senseless gibberish, chances are the ritual won’t work [...] To be effective, rituals must speak to you [...] Effective ritual unites the worshipper with Deity. Ineffective ritual kills spirituality.

This is easily one of my favorite lessons from Scott Cunningham’s works, as the father of Traditional NeoWicca- though I've unfortunately seen it misinterpreted severely in the last day or two here on Tumblr by someone who pulled the final line of this quote out of its complete context.

If centuries-old incantations are nothing more to you than senseless gibberish, chances are the ritual won’t work [...] To be effective, rituals must speak to you [...] Effective ritual unites the worshipper with Deity. Ineffective ritual kills spirituality.

This is an incredibly important lesson, because in NeoWicca, Ritual is not merely what we do to cast spells; while casting spells may be a part of Ritual at specific times, there is a stark difference between Ritual and Spellwork for us. And in that regard, Ritual is the method of Worship for us through which we connect to, and commune with, the great Deity; the mode through which we are guided through, and learn to experience and interpret, the great Mysteries of the Divine, Life, and the Universe.

Effective ritual, then, is ritual which draws us easily into the appropriate states of altered consciousness which make communion easier, and allows us to experience these Mysteries. Thus, what NeoWiccan ritual looks like after the base requirements are met isn’t nearly as important as whether or not it is effective. And what is effective is going to be what resonates the most deeply with us as individuals.

As Cunningham says:

If centuries-old incantations are nothing more to you than senseless gibberish, chances are the ritual won’t work.

For some of us, what works may be accurately reconstructed rituals pulled from the archaeological record, using centuries-old chants in ancient languages. But for others it may be something far more intuitive and fluid, and filled with the heartfelt extemporization of the moment ... Some may prefer simulated Old English rhyme and meter, with a lot of ritual pomp and ceremony. More may prefer something far more simplistic and minimalistic in design, with straightforward modern chants.

There are so many options for what ritual may look like, once the base requirement for NeoWiccan ritual are met. And none of these are "better" or "worse" than another form- or "right" or "wrong" compared to another. What only matters is that they are effective at doing what ritual is supposed to do.

This is because by contrast, ineffective ritual- ritual filled with components which we do not resonate with- leaves us wanting and disconnected from the source. Sometimes it can also leave us feeling uncomfortable- potentially even unsafe- in the wrong circumstances. And that draws us away from the Divine, and away from the Mysteries, leaving us unable to participate fully in the point of the ritual.

The importance of building effective rituals filled with components which we connect to- which spiritually resonate with, and therefore fulfil us- is something which cannot be understated, then.