Joy Ritual

Pagan rituals tend to focus on Sabbats and Esbats with the occasional Rite of Passage thrown in for good measure. Yet sometimes, even Pagans want to celebrate just for the sake of celebrating. This Joy Ritual is a great example. If you are looking to lighten up a little and and reflect on the spiritual practice of joy, this ritual is for you.

Notes about Music

Like the Sex Goddess ritual from an earlier blog, this ritual is a perfect way to incorporate mundane world music in the spiritual world. There are so many happy, joyful songs out there. I’ve included a few for your inspiration, but you might have some of your own favorites.

To aid the less musically inclined, you might bring a CD or iPod playlist with the music you want to use and let the participants sing along. To allow for ease of moment (i.e. dancing along to the beat), I put the lyrics to the songs on poster board that people could read without weighing down their hands.

Joy Ritual setup

The important thing about a Joy Ritual is that it has to be fun! You might want to encourage your participants to wear things that make them happy. The space should be decorated with fun colors and lightness. We happened to do this ritual outside in Alane’s backyard on a beautiful sunny day, so Nature did her job with decorating.

A few items you might want to include:

• Bottles of bubbles (small bottles for weddings are perfect)
• Birthday candles (sparkler or relighting ones for extra fun)
• Squirt guns
• Pop Rocks
• Balloons
• Strips of construction paper
• Markers
• Stapler or tape

Casting the Circle

The joy begins with casting the circle–full participation style. Call the directions/elements by inviting everyone to use the assigned props:

• East/Air-Blow bubbles to help “see” the air around us.
• South/Fire-Everyone light their candle for celebration and then blow it out together (making a wish is optional, but can you really resist?)
• West/Water-A 21 Squirt Gun salute around the circle!
• North/Earth-With a small handful of Pop Rocks down the hatch, we can honor the joy of the earth.

Inviting Joy

Let’s start by inviting some joy into this ritual. We started with singing “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” by Bobby McFerrin (words on poster board, of course)!

Next I challenged the participants to name things that bring them joy, and then to blow up a balloon to represent all those joyful things. I cranked up “Walking on Sunshine” by Katrina and the Waves, and all the balloons went in the air. Our goal was to keep the joy in the air by keeping the balloons up off the ground, batting them around like cats with yarn balls.

Round out the Joy by singing “Shiny Happy People” by R.E.M.

Finding Joy in Gratitude

A huge component of opening our lives to joy is finding gratitude for the wonderful blessings we already enjoy. Using thin strips of construction paper (each about 6 inches long), I invited participants to write something for which they were grateful. They could use as many strips as they wanted. As people wrote, I played “What a Wonderful World” by George Davis Weiss and Bob Thiele (popularized by the inimitable Louis Armstrong).

Then as we named each gratitude, we stapled (or taped) the loops into a chain, a la Christmas paper chain. The result: a beautiful representation of our gratitude that we created together!

Bringing the Joy Ritual Into Your Life

The magic of ritual shouldn’t just stay in the sacred circle, especially when we’re talking about joy! So, participants picked three things they wanted to do to bring more joy into their lives. We each chose at least one that we promised we would try before the next full moon.

We sealed the deal with cakes and ale (Twinkies and hot cocoa? Cookies and milk? Moon pies and RC Cola?) while playing “Three Little Birds” by Bob Marley.

Close the ritual by singing “Happy” by Pharrell Williams.

More Songs for Your Joy Ritual

Want a few more songs for your Joy Ritual? Or want to substitute something I included? Here are a few more ideas for songs to get your joyful spirit up:

• Happy Together–The Turtles
• Good Vibrations–Beach Boys
• I Feel Good–James Brown
• Girls Just Wanna Have Fun–Cyndi Lauper
• Away Ye Merry Lasses–Kim Lowings and the Greenwood (sung by the Crow Women)
• We are the Witches–Carole McWilliams (sung by the Crow Women)