Rituals of Thanks-Giving?

[windinthemaples]

I originally posted this to my fellow Outer Temple classmates. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the issue, too. (Whether you're a witch or not.)
~~

Speaking of Thanks-Giving

In the Autumn 2009 edition of SageWoman magazine, ritual arts columnist DeAnna Alba wrote,

"I have done literally hundreds of rituals in my thirty-plus years as a Witch. I have participated in the rituals of a variety of Wiccan/Pagan paths and traditions ranging for British Traditional through Dianic to the wildly eclectic; attended rituals involving two or three people, and ones with hundreds of attendees and any number in between. But in all of those rituals in all of those years, not once have I seen a Ritual of Thanksgiving."

She went on to suggest that most of the rituals she'd attended were geared towards asking Divinity for assistance.

"We are like little children who [are] constantly asking Mommy or Daddy to "gimme, gimme, gimme"....do we ever actually sit before our altars with the sole intent of saying thank you?"

What do you think? Has that been your experience in the pagan community? Is she right?

I was knocked back by the harsh tone and don't care to be painted by such a broad brush of pagan greed and magickal immaturity. I'd say the majority of my ritual life is communion and gratitude, an exchange of emotional energy with my gods instead of a petition to them for help. In fact, I must say, a great deal of it is checking in to see what they'll have *me* do for *them* next. Hardly a "gimme gimme" mentality, so I was offended by the tone of the article and its assumption that pagans don't know how to be grateful for what we already have. Maybe I'm being too touchy. Maybe I'm wrong.

My question to you, my fellow witches, is whether you have any rituals of thanks-giving? Do you ever participate in ritual or do little things to acknowledge the blessings you've received in your life? Do you have habits of gratitude in your daily practice or larger rituals in your repertoire to express thanks for the blessings in your life, dark and light, as they stand?

My daily practice includes reading from books on gratitude like M.J. Ryan's edited collection A Grateful Heart: Daily Blessings for the Evening Meal from Buddha to the Beatles. As the main component of our Mabon celebration with our SpiralScouts circle and my son, we made gratitude mobiles where we used fallen branches, yarn, cardstock and a lot of creativity to cut and color shapes representing some of the many blessings we're thankful for in our lives. They've fluttered since, beautifully, heartfully displayed like arts and crafts prayer flags, like a mobile of magick for the harvest season. After recently learning that $1 donated to our local food bank can feed a meal to a family of four, I've contemplated getting a coin bank for our dining room table so that each time we have a meal together, we can invite a family, via donation, to join us at our own table. I have a playlist in my iTunes of upbeat, optimistic, life-is-good, rocking-philanthropy tunes and I can tell you at least once a month that gets cranked up for an hour of ecstatic ritual ala socked feet dancing on hardwood floors.

Would I like to do more gratitude work? Yeah. I'd love to spend the time to write an excellent chant along the lines of "Thank you, thank you, thank you, hurrah!". I'd like to stay as mindful of the good life I've got around St. Patrick's Day as I do when Thanksgiving and Mabon swing around on the Wheel. I'd like to participate in more community rituals where gratitude and an outpouring of love for Divinity was the primary focus. But yeah, thanksgiving rituals? I think Alba has been spending 30 years in the wrong crowds if she's *never* seen one.

What do you think? Do you have any rituals of thanksgiving or gratitude, any time when you cast a circle with the sole intent of saying thanks? Do you have any particularly pagan rituals for Thanksgiving, the holiday? Am I a feel-good crackpot? Typical pagan? Tell me. :D I'm curious about your opinion and personal experiences. :)

Blessings (I'm counting 'em!),

Rachel

Comments

[mermaiden.livejournal.com]

I'm wildly surprised that something like that was published in SageWoman. I have been reading the magazine for years, and almost every single article comes back to the beauty of giving thanks for everything--from the path that the Goddess has put us on to meals to a cat. So, in the magazine ALONE (let alone the macrocosm of the community that the magazine is for!), she has no idea what she's talking about. Wow. :/

All of my esbat rituals and all of my Sabbat rituals are thanks-givings. Specifically my esbat ones come to mind because it's two set times in the month that I set aside time for an outpouring of gratitude, but I do it everyday, too. Every day, I go through what I'm grateful for. Every night, I send kisses to the moon and stars, because my heart is so full, and I have to express it somehow...I'm overflowing with love and blessings, and sometimes, I'm so overwhelmed, I don't even know how to speak it, and I simply fall to my knees beneath a tree, press my forehead to its bark and say, over and over and over again, thank you. It is the grounded base of my entire practice in life, this all consuming gratitude.

What a sad, jaded view of a handful of Pagans who have never opened their eyes. That's not us. Not by a longshot. ://////

*HUGE hugs* I'm so grateful that I've been blessed to be your witch-sister in this lifetime, Rachel. You empower me, you inspire me on absolutely every level--you are goodness personified, and it's a blessing to everyone you touch--me, included. <333333

[sugarmaplelife.livejournal.com]

I'll be honest. Reading the article, I was like "Bullshit!". It felt like a betrayal to have her say that, a slap in the face, especially coming from their newly-returned ritual columnist. It's one thing to say, "Here's a nice solitary thanksgiving ritual" and anothing thing entirely to call witches out on the carpet like that--especially with the taunting, ugly "Gimme, Gimme, Gimme"s thrown in. I pretty much never wanted to read SageWoman again. Nothing like insulting your entire readership in one fell swoop!

So yeah. Steamed. :)

{{{hugs}}} Your friendship, the heartbond between our families, is one of the greatest blessings I'm grateful for. If your ears are ringing, it's because I'm giving thanks in ritual (:P) for you. :D

[mermaiden.livejournal.com]

*laughing* Well, if my ears are ringing, yours must be, too! And yeah. Giving thanks for all of this wonderfulness--in ritual. XDDDDDDD

I promise, SageWoman is not usually like this. It's been my favorite magazine for years, and I've not always agreed with every bit of it--but its core is intensely goodhearted. And my article is going to appear in it next year, so I'm totally not biased in the least! XDDDDDD *LOVE*

[sugarmaplelife.livejournal.com]

Ha! Of course not.

I can assure you I'll be buying a copy of your issue and sending anonymous letters to the editor begging to make you the new ritual arts columnist. ;)

<3 R <3

[raynemaiden.livejournal.com]

Every time I go out in the woods I give my thanks, every time something good happens to me I give my thanks whether that good is large or small.
You don't need a alter or a ritual to do it. Many of us express our gratitude every day.
I'm not really a ritual person though so I can only speak of my lone experience in which I give my thanks and ask for assistance whenever it comes up, there is no ritual involved and I have no alter because everything I need to give and receive is within me.
Maybe her experience is what it is because pagans tend to use the combined energies of a group ritual to create a stronger message and those usually involve asking for assistance. All the Thanksgiving, as it were, is done in private every day.