The Ritual Practice
As we begin to move along The Gathering Path together, I wanted our first ritual to be one that anyone joining in the future can perform to connect with the energetic connections we are creating. The basics of this ritual was definitely born from the late 90s/early 2000s enthusiasm of the early magickal internet and especially the feminist communities that viewed the internet as the "midwife" for a new era of Goddess spirituality.¹ At one point, Reclaiming Collective, a feminist Pagan tradition and community, had a community web project that encouraged practitioners to charge up and bury quartz in the earth to held create an energetic grid that everyone could draw upon as a community (I enthusiastically participated in this as a teenager).
For The Gathering Path we'll be creating our own web of wonder to strengthen our ability to connect as a community with the following simple ritual. There are plenty of moments to make this ritual more personal and tied to your own practice. Sing and drum or make music, light incense, cast circles, invoke powers, spend a longer time in meditative breath - whatever it is you feel called to bring to your pathwork, bring it.
You will need:
Two stones - quartz is great, but any non-water soluble type of stone will do including stones found while out and about
A tea, allowed to cool, made from your heart plant ally of choice
A bowl
A candle
A cloth for drying the stones
A place outside or inside that you can bury your stone
Optional: a sealable jar (see below)
For our ritual, your stones will act as an anchor to hold one point of our community web, while the plant ally will help illuminate the lines of the web, traveling through time and space so that you are able to connect with everyone else in our community. If altar-making is a practice that speaks to you, you can create an altar that you might have up for the entirety of The Gathering Path or put together during the Full Moon. Your altar may contain images or the physical material of your plant ally (the plant "bones"), images of any Holy Ones you work with, including guides, as well as meaningful items that represent your path as an herbalist, healer, and/or magickal practitioner.
Begin by making tea with your heart plant ally and while that cools, choose one stone to be buried and one stone that you will keep with you, either on an altar, in your apothecary cupboard, carried in a charm bag or wherever you see fit. If you like, you can create sacred space by your preferred method, but however you show up for the ritual, choose a time and space where you'll be uninterrupted.
Place your bowl, tea, candle, and stones before you in a pleasing manner. Hold your hands over your heart, gathering up energy from the living flame that dwells there, and then take up your matches or lighter. As the energy of your heart flame runs through the matches to the candle as you light it, say:
By the fires of my heart
I light this flame
The gathering path
Is known and named
Visualize the web of our community beginning to glow all around you. Pick up both stones, holding the stone that will be buried in your receptive hand (i.e. the hand you do not write with) and the stone that you will keep with you in your projective hand (i.e. the hand that you write with). Breathe over them, letting your breath infuse them with your energy.
Begin to weave your hands around each other, through your energy, tapping or holding them together if you feel called to that, but letting the stones and your body move in a way that feels good to you. Repeat again and again in a rhythmic way:
The stone that draws me to the web
The stone that draws the web to me
When the stones feel charged with your energy, set them in the bowl. Pick up your tea, take a sip, thinking of your intention for the path ahead. Pour some of the tea over the stones in the bowl. Hold your hands over the bowl, saying:
By stone, by flame,
By breath, by sea
The path reveals itself to me
Visualize the community web growing brighter around you, with one line in particular drawing close. Pick your stones up and dry them off with care, knowing they are imbued with your plant ally's wisdom along with your energy.
Next, it is the time to bury your stone, traveling to the spot if you need to (and extinguish your candle if you need to for safety reasons). For those who don't have a safe or easy enough way to bury a stone outside, you can bury it in a pot of earth (better yet if there is a plant growing in it), adapting the ritual as follows. If you are traveling to a spot, pour the tea water in a jar to bring with you. If traveling with tea water is too cumbersome, bring along some of your dried plant ally material or another biodegradable offering instead.
When you're at the place you'll be burying your stone, connect with the land in your preferred way (if you need an example, taking nine deep long breaths while some part of your skin is touching the bare earth or tree is a lovely and simple way to connect with the land). Dig a small hole for your stone, offer the tea water, and return your stone to the earth, reburying it. Once you've buried the stone, visualize a point of the web being drawn and rooted into the earth by energy of stone and plant ally. Place your other stone on the earth over the buried stone and standing or sitting there as well, say:
Stone above, stone below
The path revealed
Where I must go
Let yourself stay with the stones for as long as you like, basking in the energy of the community web. You can choose to perform divination, meditation, or any other form of magick at this place, paying attention to any signs or omens that might occur, but mostly allowing yourself to enjoy a point of well-rooted community energy. The buried stone will help to anchor as well as strengthen your point on the community web while the stone that you'll keep with you will help you connect with and illuminate our community pathways to one another.
As you dwell on this point of connection, name yourself and the path you are walking, such as:
I am a crone of the hedgerider's path
I am a student of Rose on the path of self love
I am Luna Seawolf walking the path of plant magick
It's ok to try on a few self names and path names, speaking them out loud until you find one that resonates. Let yourself be named and speak that to our community web - we can't wait to hear your song.
Before you end the ritual take a moment to send a blessing along the path to your fellow travelers for them to pick up as they need it. For all future journeys along The Gathering Path you can draw upon this regenerative point of energy that you've created.
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Remediation: If you feel like you need to clear out energy before participating in the Web of Wonder ritual, consider the following New Moon inspired ritual.
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Footnotes
1. See: Goddess 2000 Project for a good example. The glee felt regarding that this invisible connection through time and space was called the world wide web was not lost on many magickal practitioners.
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