- If you are going to use the Caste System, assist your House members in deciding which Caste they belong to. You would not address other Castes if you are all of the same Caste.
- Be in contact with your members. You can incorporate announcements about their lives [wedding anniversaries, birth of children, newly received certifications, etc.] into your ritual.
- Design different rituals based on what your House deems important. These can be Mass [your House's typical ritual], Rites Of Passage [initiation into the House, receiving a higher position in the House, marriages, marriage vow renewals, baptisms, funerals, etc.], Blessings [exorcisms, private sexual rites, etc.], Holidays [days that your House has decided on based on the universal energies that converge on that day or based on the culture your House members feel they have descended from].
- Decide with your House members what you will refer to them as during ritual, what masks they can wear if they do not want other members to know what they look like, what attire and jewelry and makeup is acceptable and logical, and what symbols hold special significance for your House. Your symbols will likely be abstract [blood, darkness, mist, etc.] so decide how to translate them into physical actions [bloodletting from a dagger, a candle snuffer, incense, etc.]. Keep in mind what the significance is of the metals and stones are on the jewelry; and the significance of the colors and patterns on the robes.
Organization Of A Ritual
ACT I.
Clear out existing energies in the space you are going to use. Project a positive emotion into the area with your newly generated energy.
The first kind of energy work you need to perform is establishing a sacred space. What that means is going from the atmosphere and logic of your everyday life into the subtle reality. Subtle reality is where you accept that anything can happen and that you can do anything because you are much more focused. It’s important to be focused because it makes you more likely to notice signals from your unconscious mind and to directing your full attention into the task at hand.
To create your sacred space, have you and your constituents go into a trance. You can enter the trance through meditation, dance, etc. If possible, before the trance starts, follow other routines to get immersed in the prospect of a magical realm such as taking a bath with scented bath oils, putting on ritual attire [masks, makeup, hairstyles, jewelry, robes, etc.], decorating the area for worship, etc.
If anyone is not in a good mood, have him/her inhale slowly and exhale slowly, breathing from the diaphragm, until he/she is relaxed, before allowing him/her to enter the sacred space.
Proclaim the reason for the ritual. Mass will be your everyday ritual and so the purpose would involve unity. If you skip this step, then your constituents will divert their attention from energy work to figuring out what point you’re trying to get across.
Everyone’s energy has it’s own feel the same way everyone has a distinguishing fingerprint. Get a feel for your constituents’ energies and distinguish which belongs to whom. Circulate the energies between each individual in the group. Use creative visualization to visualize each constituent as a column of The Temple. Take notice of the feelings of tranquility or excitement or awe that each constituent is weaving into his/her energy, and heighten it. Do this by taking the energy from an individual, heighten it, then putting it back into the individual. Do the same with the non-emotionally-charged energy that is going around. Direct this energy and emotionally-charged energy to a concentrated area just above you. Visualize this spot as the ceiling of The Temple. As the energy gets increased more and more, the ‘ceiling’ rises higher and higher.
Your Priests should help with the gathering of the energies into a concentrated area and giving it form.
Your Warriors should help repel any entities that try to interfere in the ritual by visualizing themselves as sturdy columns that have a protective force field which keeps all other things out; should help ground everyone now and then so no one short-circuits; and should help ground out stagnant energy.
Your Counselors should help generating energy, charging it with positive emotions, circulating the energy, refining the energy, and heightening the energy.
Any Caste can perform any of the skills, but the aforementioned are their strengths.
Direct the concentrated energy construct at a diety, at a ritual object, or back into the participants. In the case of the ritual object, you are making it life-like [making a statue look as if it’s crying blood, making a dagger shake, etc.].
ACT II.
Perform your ritual actions. It’s where you use your symbols, perform dances, sing hymns, recite chants, etc. that are relevant to the reason for the ritual and reinforce the importance of the reason.
ACT III.
Explain in everyday language how the ritual applies to you and your constituents once they leave the sacred space. This part should not be scripted, but you should have some notes to make sure you cover all the areas you had planned on. Your constituents will zone out and get confused if your speeches are riddled with “uhh…”s and “umm…”s; therefore, you command authority and are more of a focal point of attention when you know where your speech is headed and articulate it clearly.
