Anthropology and Sociology have traditionally defined ritual (including Wiccan ritual) as a function of religion and a function of society. Hmmm... All very well and good until we look a little further at ritual and its purpose and see the context in which Wiccans actually use it.

For many religions, especially the more mainstream and traditional ones, the rituals they use serve to supposedly bring their parishioners closer to their deity. The rituals become a fate compli, a sort of expectation of communal reverence. Everyone crowds into the church, temple, synagogue or whatever, follow the ritual conducted by the priest/minister/father and hope like heck they paid their dues to their God. In other words, it may not have taught them much about life or themselves or even their God but it served the purpose of going to church and doing the right thing.

Religions and faith systems that lay more responsibility on the practitioner for ritual design like Wicca serve a broader purpose than that. Not only are they ways to connect with the Gods and Goddesses but they’re also learning events and the result of learning. As students of Wicca, you will usually be asked to contribute to and eventually design your own rituals, especially for Sabbats. For students learning within a group, you’ll be coached in how to write and conduct a ritual for maximum effect and for solitary learners, you’ll probably be learning by following suggestions in a book or even by trial and error. So ritual becomes not just a way to honour the Divine, but also a way to learn how to honour the Divine.

Then once you’ve written a few rituals, conducted a few and designed different ways to morph your rituals into personalised events of honour, you will have reached a stage where those same rituals are the outcome of your learning to be Wiccan. So now ritual is a way to honour the Divine, a methodology for learning and a result of your learning. Compare that to parishioners who just go to church on a Sunday and follow what is presented to them!

So being a Wiccan and a Witch is also a wonderful way to take control of your own learning, to take control of the rituals you sue to honour the Divine and to measure how far you’ve come in your training. Clever us Wiccans eh?!