The Art of Ritual: A Guide to Creating and Performing Your Own Rituals of Growth and Change

by Renee Beck, Sydney Barbara Metrick

Rituals are important markers of life's significant events. In our modern, hurried society, we've gotten away from the idea of commemorating symbolic moments. We move on with our lives too quickly, without taking time to celebrate or mourn the many wondrous events of a full life. In this book, you learn how to create your own rituals—for whatever is important to you—from births to special friendships to the changing of the seasons. There are many simple rituals for significant personal events as well. The many elements of ritual are discussed, including how to create your own vows or affirmations, how to know when to have a ritual, and how to utilize the elements of Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Spirit as symbols.

Genres: Spirituality, Nonfiction, Paganism, Religion, Witchcraft, Reference, Personal Growth

192 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1990

Reviews

[Sydney · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. But then, I wrote it.

[Pretentia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This walks you through creating your own rituals. You may want to create a ritual in your life to honor a change, help process your feelings, build community or connection to others or many other reasons. This has a definite pagan twist to ritual.

[L.A.L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A friend lent me this book because she thought I’d like it. And I do! It’s a great reference book that I will definitely add to my library. And I love that it includes a bibliography because I’m also going to check out some of the books she references.

[Gillie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good primer for creating rituals to mark or honor various transitions in life. It explains types of rituals, using the elements in ritual, steps for creating a meaningful ritual, and more. The process described seems a bit cumbersome, but it would definitely be possible to streamline it. There's lots of good stuff in this book. I recommend it for anyone wanting to introduce more ritual in their lives.

[Mitchell Stern · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a good general overview of how to build rituals in multiple contexts. I will say it lacks the level of depth found in other works and is a bit overly brief but still a useful broad strokes reference

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

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