Neopagan Rites: A Guide to Creating Public Rituals that Work

by Isaac Bonewits

Practical and engaging, this guide represents the best practices from Isaac Bonewits' over thirty-five years of experience creating, attending, and leading public ceremonies as a Neopagan priest and magician. Ideal for Earth-centered spiritual movements and other liberal religious traditions, Neopagan Rites explains how to design powerful and effective rites of worship for small groups or large crowds. With his trademark humor and candor, Bonewits covers every important aspect of creating and performing a public ritual that inspires and unifies the participants, and fulfills its intended purpose. You'll learn how

Genres: Paganism, Magic, Nonfiction, Spirituality, Religion, Wicca

240 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2007

About the author

Phillip Emmons Isaac Bonewits was an influential Neopagan leader and author. He was a liturgist, speaker, journalist, Neo-druid priest, and a singer, songwriter, and independent recording artist. He had been heavily involved in occultism since the 1960s.

Reviews

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had hoped that this book would provide insight into how to create meaningful rituals through the liturgical design. Basically, I was hoping that this book would provide a deeper look at the content of liturgy as a means of deepening the meaning of rituals. This would have been useful because it would provide useful information for improving both public and personal rituals. Instead, this book focused very heavily on the form of ritual, advocating the theatrical and practical elements of actually conducting a ritual. While there was some discussion of how to construct the content of the liturgy, even this discussion focused heavily on the surface rather than substance of the content. Most of what is discussed here is not specific to Neopagan rituals because the basic discussions can be equally applicable and valid to all kinds of religions and secular rituals. Ultimately, this book was a bit disappointing because it focused on surface over substance, cast a very broad scope, and was so short that it couldn't really provide much meaningful discussion of each element. With the specific exception of the continuous discussion surrounding mana, this book provides little information that is not also included in almost any general book on how to conduct ritualistic displays.

[Dáithí's · Rating 5 out of 5]

This title has been an indispensable tool in the setting up and refining of my Interfaith Church. I have been a pastor and chaplain for quite a while now, but am far from being "an old pro". Many of my mentors have said that being wet behind the ears is a feeling that I will get even after retirement. It presents various liturgy and types of ceremony and public ritual from the Neopagan perspective but allows enough "wiggle room" to utilize the wisdom offered for pretty much any type of ritual / religious ceremony.

Well organized and providing much needed background information and history of some of the ideas, this book is perfect for the seasoned clergy member all the way to the seeker wanting to understand spirituality a wee bit better. The language used is clear and accessible, and the author provides many useful ideas and examples.

The author does a wonderful job illustrating ritual from both sides of the altar as well. It is imperative as clergy to have as much information about your "audience" as humanly possible. Even though I have many hours of "pulpit time" under my belt, the author offered me a few things that I had never really considered in the past. I am curious to read more of his work and incorporate it into my public as well as private ceremonies.

I wish you peace on your journeys...the chosen ones and the ones that are guided by destiny. Blessings...

[Lilla · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have never read the original version of the book, Rites of Worship (2003, Dubsar House), so I unfortunately cannot compare the two. Neopagan Rites does lack an index, which is a pet peeve of mine, but that still doesn't put a damper on this decent piece of writing. Mr. Bonewits gives us an all-in-one guide to effective and intelligent public rituals.

I’ll be honest, though, I’m not into the whole public ritual aspect of modern Druidry. I like to know before hand whom I will be in ritual with, but this is just a personal preference. But if you happen to feel the same as I do, don’t let it stop you from checking out this book. Anything and everything within it is still meaningful to a solitary practitioner.

If you ignore the entire book, I hope that you at least pay careful attention to Chapter 11, 'Preparing for a Ritual', as this is the most important chapter in the entirety if the book. It doesn’t matter how fantastically written your ritual is if you are not properly prepared, people will notice this.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great "how-to" for those who desire to set up spiritual rituals for small or large groups. The author has over thirty years of experience in organizing these religious and cultural events.