The Elements of Ritual: Air, Fire, Water and Earth in the Wiccan Circle

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 288 pages
• Published by: Llewellyn Publications April 1, 2003
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 073870301X
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0738703015
• Book Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.5 x 0.8 inches
• Weighs: 1 pounds

Product Description
Wicca 202: Advanced training by an experienced High Priestess
Many books may tell you how to cast a Wiccan circle, but none really bother to explain why. When you finish reading The Elements of Ritual, you'll know what each step of the circle-casting ceremony means, why it's there, and what it accomplishes. You'll learn several alternative approaches to each step, and you'll be empowered to write your own effective ceremonies using sound magical, theological, and pragmatic principles.

Selling Features
Advanced, sophisticated Witchcraft philosophy
and practice
Delves further into the theology and theory of every phase of ritual, along with practical how-tos and how-not-tos, and much esoteric, hard-to-find information
Every step of ritual has at least two sample scripts, including an avant-garde example
Provides detailed instructions for writing your
own ritual
Includes meditations on the deeper meanings of each phase of ritual




About The Author
Deborah Lipp was initiated into a traditional Gardnerian coven of Witches in 1981, became a High Priestess in 1986, and has been teaching Wicca and running Pagan circles ever since. She has appeared in various media discussing Wicca, including the A&E documentary Ancient Mysteries: Witchcraft in America, on MSNBC, in The New York Times, and in many smaller TV and print sources.

Deborah has been published in many Pagan publications, including The Llewellyn Magical Almanac, Pangaia, Green Egg, The Druid's Progress, Converging Paths, and The Hidden Path, as well as Mothering Magazine. She has lectured at numerous Pagan festivals on a variety of topics.

Deborah is a technical writer with a variety of skills. She lives in Rockland County, NY, with her son, Arthur, who tap dances, and two cats. Deborah reads and teaches Tarot, designs wire-and-bead jewelry, solves and designs puzzles, watches old movies, hand-paints furniture, and dabbles in numerous handcrafts.


Reader Reviews
This is a book that will make you think about your practice as a pagan. Are your rituals consistent with themselves? Are your rituals consistent with the goals you are trying to accomplish? Are your rituals consistent with your beliefs about the universe? Are you worshipping your deity as She or He would want to be worshipped? Really wonderful and thought-provoking questions. If you're willing to give them deep consideration, your practice will change for the better, I guarantee it. And exploring the different pieces of ritual using an elemental focus (covering theological, mythological, psychological, and practical aspects for each) was a truly inspired approach. The book uses the word "Wiccan" rather than "pagan" in the title, and I think that's appropriate. The focus of the book is very Wiccan. Pagans who, like me, are not Wiccan, may find themselves a bit frustrated by Lipp's emphasis on polarity and hierarchy. The ritual examples given are mostly led by a High Priestess and High Priest, with polarity-symbolic role assignments for other ritual participants. Lipp does write that you don't have to use polarity if it's not an emphasis for you, but it still remains a strong focus in the book. (I was especially disappointed that when she explained that [some] pagans often use the union of God and Goddess as a metaphor for love rather than a symbol of polarity, she didn't follow her explanation with an example of how a single-sex...oriented coven would do things, but still stuck to a traditional model with a High Priestess and High Priest.) Lipp also seems to feel strongly that there is a "right way" and a "wrong way" to do things. She tells you why she thinks her ways are correct, and the reasons are usually good, but nonetheless, this approach doesn't fit very well with the pagan idea of tolerance for many paths. I feel that it's the only serious downside of the book. For example, she writes that the "correct" order of circle casting is to cast the circle, then purify it (so you have something to purify), then consecrate it (so that we bring the sacred into what has been cleansed.) That's one theory. The theory that I use, which I would suggest is equally valid, is that you purify and consecrate your space _before_ casting a circle, so that the circle has a cleansed and holy place to come into existence. I'm not saying that my way is better or even that Lipp should have written about it, and it's just one example. However, in my opinion the book would have benefited from an exploration of the rationales of more varied approaches to magickal practice, both in terms of completeness and interest factor. To sum up, I enjoyed the book a lot, but I would have enjoyed it more if it had had more breadth. I would have enjoyed reading about perspectives from some other traditions, Wiccan or not. The concepts in this book could be applied a lot more broadly than they were. Nonetheless, it's a very thoughtful and serious offering that pagans wishing to deepen their understanding of ritual should consider reading. Perhaps this marks an upswing in Lwellyn titles?