Proposed Ritual Structure

[OmniZero]

Okay, so what I've noticed at the last group working was something that I wanted to share a little bit. There seemed to have been a huge rush of last minute effort and jumping into the call without preparation just to kind of throw down on some level. There seemed to be more contribution via efforts in the moment, than there was efforts in preparation. There was too many people to even support with the tech setup we had. This gave insights on ways to approach large scale group rituals with people of varying intents and paradigms in the future, including both online and offline. I've never drawn anything up like this before, so please bear with me if it's less than perfect at first. I would like input on what people think, so please chip in whatever you think would help.
Let it first be stated though, that nothing in here is concrete. Take as much of this as you want, or burn it all if it pleases you.


To keep this relevant, let's say we're doing a group ritual for Chelseanacht, and we want a big coordinated ritual, but as you know chaos magicians are tough to herd. How do we avoid confusion of 20+ people trying to all get in on doing the same thing? Circles. So let's say we got a big group of people in NOLA this year, who have their own big ritual planned out, all created by them to do what they want, but working to a certain shared goal of the AOR and Chelseanacht. This group can be easily represented as one of the possible circles one could work with to do a ritual. Each circle would set it's own rules, modify and make it's rituals how it wants, and chooses who joins, and how many may join. For example, let's call this first circle, the NOLA Circle. They could have requirements like being physically present for the ritual itself, or how much contribution each member should add to creating the ritual, or if there is to be a recital ritual before. The Circle in specific sets it's own rules, and is not required to do anything specific to meet a mould, aside from focusing on the focal point of the ritual in their own way.




Then you could have online Group A, let's call them OGA. OGA circle is going to do a group ritual online the night of the Chelsea ritual at 6:00 pm Eastern. They have a specific ritual set up to activate a generator in each of the cities they live in. They all plan on doing a google hangouts call, but don't want to have a recital. They have a 10 member limit for the circle because of the limitations of Google Hangouts and Skype. The ritual they use is a modification of the base ritual provided for the mass ritual.
[/size]And you could have another group, this one not using any type of video to the call, with no member limit, and they do a group working at the same time, but each from their solitary positions, all focusing in with the same ritual planned out, but with none of them connected physically or with tech.




This more or less goes on for any degree of variance people are willing to create or adhere to. Each Circle can only be what the people in it make it to be. In essence, you choose your own level of involvement. If you want to be the solo person who just uses the base incantation, and trance techniques with a group sigil, you can. If you want to write a in a personal magic language and write out intensely complex spells that only some people will want to join, you do it. If you want to put more love light, and sunshine happiness into the spell with your circle, you can. If someone isn't doing something you're interested in, then make something, or get involved in your own way. Its like a structure with as little set structure as possible, so anyone can build with their bubble what they want.

[Ringtail]

This would be very applicable for the eclipse working, since we'll likely have at least two physical locations plus a bunch of distance workers.


Some things I would suggest from last nights working:


- No last minute changes to ritual structure. That kind of thing is fine in meatspace, but it's too difficult to get the message across to every participant when we're also dealing with tech problems and bad audio. The final plan for the ritual needs to be posted on the forum at least a day in advance, including precisely what we're doing re: banishing and opening and what everyone's part will be. Of course there can be set times within the structure for improvisation.


- The people participating need to say so in advance, and have the attendance list locked a day before it happens. Maybe there could be a separate circle on its own channel for people who want to throw in at the last minute in a less structured way.


- All those participating need to gather on hangouts or discord or wherever a day or two before, make sure the platform will support them and work out any tech issues.


This applies more for big rituals with many participants and a lot of preparation. Smaller and more frequent things like that one a couple weeks ago are also good; they'll be messy but it's less of an issue because there's not so much investment.


You are of course welcome to disagree with me on this, and keep it loose because "Khaos, man, come on and get the wand out of your ass!" I remind you all that we are indeed working in chaotic forces with a history of fucking up technology and power grids. We want to aim for a situation where we show up an hour before the ritual and twiddle our thumbs until it's time to start, if we're doing it at a set time, specifically because it will never truly happen like that, there will always be something that we need to deal with last minute. And if not, no problem, it's called hangouts for a reason :)