The Elements of Ritual: Air, Fire, Water & Earth in the Wiccan Circle [Paperback]

Deborah Lipp (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 8, 2003

Many books may tell you how to cast a Wiccan circle, but none really bother to explain why. When you finish reading The Elements of Ritual, you'll know what each step of the circle-casting ceremony means, why it's there, and what it accomplishes. You'll learn several alternative approaches to each step, and you'll be empowered to write your own effective ceremonies using sound magical, theological, and pragmatic principles.

•Advanced, sophisticated Witchcraft philosophy
and practice
•Delves further into the theology and theory of every phase of ritual, along with practical how-tos and how-not-tos, and much esoteric, hard-to-find information
•Every step of ritual has at least two sample scripts, including an avant-garde example
•Provides detailed instructions for writing your
own ritual
•Includes meditations on the deeper meanings of each phase of ritual

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Deborah Lipp was initiated into a traditional Gardnerian coven of Witches in 1981, became a High Priestess in 1986, and has been teaching Wicca and running Pagan circles ever since. She has appeared in various media discussing Wicca, including the A&E documentary Ancient Mysteries: Witchcraft in America, on MSNBC, in The New York Times, and in many smaller TV and print sources.

Deborah has been published in many Pagan publications, including The Llewellyn Magical Almanac, Pangaia, Green Egg, The Druid's Progress, Converging Paths, and The Hidden Path, as well as Mothering Magazine. She has lectured at numerous Pagan festivals on a variety of topics.

Deborah is a technical writer with a variety of skills. She lives in Rockland County, NY, with her son, Arthur, who tap dances, and two cats. Deborah reads and teaches Tarot, designs wire-and-bead jewelry, solves and designs puzzles, watches old movies, hand-paints furniture, and dabbles in numerous handcrafts.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Llewellyn Publications (April 8, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 073870301X
• ISBN-13: 978-0738703015
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #210,477 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

79 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully deep, but narrowly focused, November 11, 2003

By 

WitchGrrl (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Elements of Ritual: Air, Fire, Water & Earth in the Wiccan Circle (Paperback)

This is a book that will make you think about your practice as a pagan. Are your rituals consistent with themselves? Are your rituals consistent with the goals you are trying to accomplish? Are your rituals consistent with your beliefs about the universe? Are you worshipping your deity as She or He would want to be worshipped? Really wonderful and thought-provoking questions. If you're willing to give them deep consideration, your practice will change for the better, I guarantee it. And exploring the different pieces of ritual using an elemental focus (covering theological, mythological, psychological, and practical aspects for each) was a truly inspired approach.

The book uses the word "Wiccan" rather than "pagan" in the title, and I think that's appropriate. The focus of the book is very Wiccan. Pagans who, like me, are not Wiccan, may find themselves a bit frustrated by Lipp's emphasis on polarity and hierarchy. The ritual examples given are mostly led by a High Priestess and High Priest, with polarity-symbolic role assignments for other ritual participants. Lipp does write that you don't have to use polarity if it's not an emphasis for you, but it still remains a strong focus in the book. (I was especially disappointed that when she explained that [some] pagans often use the union of God and Goddess as a metaphor for love rather than a symbol of polarity, she didn't follow her explanation with an example of how a single-sex...oriented coven would do things, but still stuck to a traditional model with a High Priestess and High Priest.)

Lipp also seems to feel strongly that there is a "right way" and a "wrong way" to do things. She tells you why she thinks her ways are correct, and the reasons are usually good, but nonetheless, this approach doesn't fit very well with the pagan idea of tolerance for many paths. I feel that it's the only serious downside of the book. For example, she writes that the "correct" order of circle casting is to cast the circle, then purify it (so you have something to purify), then consecrate it (so that we bring the sacred into what has been cleansed.) That's one theory. The theory that I use, which I would suggest is equally valid, is that you purify and consecrate your space _before_ casting a circle, so that the circle has a cleansed and holy place to come into existence. I'm not saying that my way is better or even that Lipp should have written about it, and it's just one example. However, in my opinion the book would have benefited from an exploration of the rationales of more varied approaches to magickal practice, both in terms of completeness and interest factor.

To sum up, I enjoyed the book a lot, but I would have enjoyed it more if it had had more breadth. I would have enjoyed reading about perspectives from some other traditions, Wiccan or not. The concepts in this book could be applied a lot more broadly than they were. Nonetheless, it's a very thoughtful and serious offering that pagans wishing to deepen their understanding of ritual should consider reading. Perhaps this marks an upswing in Lwellyn titles?

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wiccan Mentor in a Book, December 30, 2003

By 

"starpixie" (La Crescenta, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Elements of Ritual: Air, Fire, Water & Earth in the Wiccan Circle (Paperback)

Inevitably, when one studies any area of interest, one accumulates a library of books and other references along the way. After decades of study and practice, I have seen a lot of trash written about Wicca, so finding a well written, useful reference book like this one is a delightfully pleasant surprise.

As the title suggests, this book dissects and discusses common Wiccan ritual practices in relation to the four Elements (Earth, Air, Fire and Water). What is particularly nice about this book (as opposed to the average BoS) is that it explains WHY things are done a certain way. (Why do we make offerings to the gods? Why use incense and water to cleanse the circle before casting? Why ground and center before beginning a ritual? etc.) It's kind of like a Wiccan mentor in book form.

FWIW, I do not agree with everything Ms. Lipp has to say about Wiccan ritual, or a number of practices she recommends, but that does not make this book a bad reference in the slightest. Her reasons and rationale are well thought-out and expressed, her explanations are reasonable, and her opinions are declared as such. She also includes anecdotes from her own experiences as an HPS, plus examples of chants and invocations in both formal and informal styles that can be used as is or adapted to suit your individual needs and/or preferences.

I would highly recommend this book for those who are new to witchcraft, or to any kind of magickal practice, as a teaching reference or even as the focal point for a discussion group because it addresses nearly every aspect of Wiccan ritual. It is a "food for thought" reference, stimulating more questions than it answers for those who are introspective, and answering questions that are commonly glossed over in Wiccan publications.

Bright Blessings!

121 of 140 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Excellent theory and philosophy, but horribly narrow-minded., November 7, 2003

By 

GOD OF CHEESE "9;2;2" (Bumfrak, Egypt) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Elements of Ritual: Air, Fire, Water & Earth in the Wiccan Circle (Paperback)

The Elements of Ritual is a great buddy to Wicca primers. It's about freaking time the elements and know-how have been explained. She goes through the four elements and spirit, why they are what they are, why we use them, and how we can use them effectively in life. She also explains why rituals are set up the way they are, etc. At first, it looks like another primer, but it isn't; where most Wicca books explain ritual and the elements in 1 or 2 pages, The Elements goes through a thorough examination that brings about a complete and total understanding of one of the most important systems of magick. And yes, the four elements + spirit can be found in magickal traditions other than Wicca.

Now, on to what I don't like. In this book, Deborah Lipp is *horribly* narrow-minded. She falls under the trap of the one-way-only attitude. The first example I spotted was found at the bottom of page 35: "... I have seen covens using four candles (appropriately colored) to represent the four elements. This strikes me as silly, lazy, and uncreative. Water should represent Water, not something fiery. This is a case of people forgetting the meaning behind the symbol."
How *insulting*. Not only insulting, but childish, and short-sighted. The author seems to overlook the fact that candles are lights. They LIGHT the four elements, they don't FIRE them. Candles are traditional, and easy to see in the dark. I don't think anyone wants to be tripping over bowls of water in the west when it's totally dark. Also, it's immature to nitpick over ritual details, and make a big deal over them. Calling people lazy, uncreative, and silly, just because they do things differently. She seems to have lost a bit of her focus on magick. She tries in the next paragraph to backpedal, but that doesn't change her childish insulting. Grow up.
On page 38, she talks about idols. "You'll still have to choose *one* way to represent them [the Gods] on your altar - otherwise your altar will be hopelessly crowded, and your ritual hopelessly confused." Mrs. Lipp, the Gods aren't confined to ONE method of representation, and the practitioner / worshipper doesn't need to be confined to ONE method of representing them. Altars don't have to be prim and proper - the Gods aren't so petty as to care little about the practitioner's habits of cleanliness. The state of the altar doesn't mysteriously doom or redeem a ritual - it's all in the user, not a piece of furniture. An altar is only as hopeless as the useer deems it to be. The same goes for the ritual.
Pg. 39: "Idols aren't gods, but for the duration of the ritual, they become gods, and they retain a bit of that essence the rest of the time. In ritual, we act as if the idol is in fact the deity, just as we act as if the picture or lock of hair is the person in a magical spell."
Has Mrs. Lipp become confused? First of all, idols do NOT become Gods - the Gods are all about us, and in EVERYTHING. We are the manifestation of the Gods, so her statement is pointless and redundant. Secondly, we don't worship art pieces; we worship the divine around and within. Thirdly, a lock of hair / picture of someone is a LINK, a CONNECTION to the subject. Visualizing an object becoming something / someone else is likened to shape-shifting or magickal cloning.
Mrs. Lipp also compares religions numerous times throughout the book. It's subtle, but it's there. At the end of page 47, she compares the good and evil concepts of Christianity to the polarity system of Wicca. After touching on good and evil, she quickly follows up with "Wicca, however, embraces nature and natural cycles in all her permutations...". Comparing religions is nothing more than poking the bleeding wound, so to speak. There are many, MANY Christians who are also lovers of nature. Pagans aren't the only ones in the world. And, the Christian concept of good and evil is also a polarity; it's not wrong, and it's as valid a concept as the Wiccan polarity of male and female. The only difference is, the polarities of Wicca and Christianity don't agree with each other. But that doesn't mean they're wrong.

This is only the surface. I'm not trying to nit-pick, but I want readers to be aware of the good and the bad contained therein. People tend to believe less of the bad, until they're pointed out - which is what I have tried to do.

The book isn't bad. It's very useful, and philosophically extensive. This book IS worth reading, it IS worth spending $16.95. The Elements of Ritual does its job well, and goes further - it delivers tips and techniques that are invaluable. The "Emergency Ritual Toolkit" is ingenious, something my idiotic self would have never thought of: a box full of spare ritual supplies, in case you're in the circle and forget to grab the lighter from the kitchen, or if a candle accidentally gets snapped in two. The arrangement of the books sticks to its elemental theme; each chapter is ordered into sections of Earth (How is this done, what are variations of doing something, what are the practical considerations, etc.), Air (explains the topic, the ideas behind it, and so forth), Water (the mythology behind the topic, metaphors, emotional impact, etc.), and Fire (What is the mystical meaning of blah blah blah, how are the Gods involved, meditation, etc.

It seems as if I've torn the value of the book to shreds, but it really is worth a look. Just remember to think about what you're reading; many people don't do that anymore.