Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Staring at the Sun

Sol Invictus was yesterday. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. Our Solstice celebration was fun. It's a tradition that we try to stay awake through the night of the Solstice performing a vigil for the sun's journey through the long night. While we didn't have the opportunity to do it this year, we make candles to burn through the night as a part of our ritual.

I'm often conflicted about my feelings toward ritual and spirituality. Even more so now that I'm sharing this with the wider community. I believe that rituals are a significant part of our interaction with the gods. Through ritual we can create a common ground for our worship of the gods and ancestors. Rituals build community. But, rituals can become dogmatic. Dogma is to be avoided. Dogma is what I fear from sharing my view points. I may sound egomaniacle, but I have a calling to share my belief with the world. Writing is the best way to spread a message as far as possible; however, the intentions of the writer can be twisted and misinterpreted by the dogmatic. As much as I would like to describe our solstice rituals, and all of our other rituals, I shrink back from doing so in more than general terms because spirituality isn't about the exact shape of the ritual so much as nurturing the community of faith within which you live.

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