The Pocket Guide to Rituals: Magickal References at Your Fingertips [Paperback]

Kerri Connor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2006

Pagans are familiar with celebrating the eight Sabbats of the Wheel of the Year with rituals, but are often at a loss of how to create rituals to celebrate other special occasions in their lives.

The Pocket Guide to Rituals helps you create these rituals, to honor events from birth, marriage, and death, to seasonal miracles such as the first snowfall or the first spring blooms.

Connor breaks down the process of creating rituals one step at a time to help you create complete, cohesive rituals to perform by yourself or in groups. She covers dozens of different kinds of rituals, eliminating the guesswork while encouraging creativity.

The Pocket Guide to Rituals also shows you the benefits of celebrating with ritual and how to plan a ritual celebration, making the process both easy and enjoyable.

The entry for each ritual includes details on six elements: theme; colors; crystals and stones; incense, oils, and herbs; altar decorations; and a sample of a completed ritual. To celebrate an engagement, for example, you could select the theme of joy and use its corresponding color (yellow), amazonite crystals, neroli and orange oil in a colorful celebration of merry making, dancing and feasting!

The book concludes with a chapter on how to write the words to your ritual and worksheets to record each one.

Covered rituals include:

Rituals of Life • Birth • Menstruation/Puberty • Birthdays • Adulthood • Paganing • College • Engagement • New Car • New Job/Promotion • New Home • Handfasting/Marriage • Menopause • Retirement • Passing Over

Rituals of Nature • Sunrise • Sunset • First Snow • Changing of the Leaves • Spring Blossoms • Summer Warmth • Solar Eclipse • Celebrations of Water • Celebrations of Earth • Celebrations of Air • Celebrations of Fire • New Moon • Full Moon • Lunar Eclipse • Meteor Shower

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Kerri Connor is the author of The Pocket Spell Creator(New Page Books) and former editor of The Circle of Stones Journal. Kerri is the High Priestess of the Sisterhood of Les Feys D'Avalon and has been practicing her craft for 18 years. She contributes regularly to PanGaia and other Pagan periodicals and dances under the moon in rural Illinois.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: New Page Books; 1 edition (April 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1564148629
• ISBN-13: 978-1564148629
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 4.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,289,029 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #52 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Religion & Spirituality > Occult > Alchemy
  • #54 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Religion & Spirituality > Earth-Based Religions > Witchcraft
  • #68 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Religion & Spirituality > Earth-Based Religions > Wicca

More About the Author

Kerri Connor is the author of The Pocket Spell Creator: Magickal References at Your Fingertips (New Page Books), The Pocket Guide to Rituals: Magickal References at Your Fingertips (New Page Books), The Pocket Idiot's Guide to Potions (Alpha Books) and Goodbye Grandmother (Wyrdwood Publications).
Kerri is the High Priestess of The Gathering Grove, and has been practicing her craft for over 20 years.
She has been published in several magazines and newsletters including The Blessed Bee, Sage Woman, PanGaia and New Witch. Currently she runs the website The Pagan Review (www.myspace.com/thepaganreview) on behalf of The Gathering Grove.
A graduate from the University of Wisconsin, Kerri holds a B.A. in Communications.
Kerri dances under the moon in rural Illinois. She loves reading, writing, gardening and the Chicago Bears

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome, May 25, 2006

By 

Charmipoo - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Pocket Guide to Rituals: Magickal References at Your Fingertips (Paperback)

What makes this book so great is that ANYONE can use it. Any path or tradition whatsoever. THe author doesn't preach and tell you it has to be done a certain way. I'm so tired of books that tell you exactly how every little thing should be done as if the author is the only one who really has all the answers -- this book does not do that and it's perfect! The suggestions are excellent and REAL. The poetry is beautiful and not so far out your tongue will get tired trying to use it. This is a down to earth book on rituals that anyone can use and enjoy.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Basic, September 25, 2006

By 

W. Martin - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Pocket Guide to Rituals: Magickal References at Your Fingertips (Paperback)

Kerri Connor believes that celebrating life's little moments are as important as celebrating the 8 Sabbats. In her brief introduction she lists her four distinct reasons to create ritual. 1. Focused attention and energy; 2. Spiritual expression; 3. Show of thankfulness; and 4. Communion with others. Following the explanations for these four reasons, she has a section entitled "How to Use This Book."

Part One of this short volume is for rituals of life, for such life passages as familiar as birth, handfasting and croning, but also some surprisingly interesting events such as getting a new car, new job or new home. Part Two has rituals of nature featuring such things as sunrise and sunset, the seasons, the elements and astrological occurrences such as a meteor shower or eclipse. Each event has listings of herbs, oils, correspondences, suggested themes and colors that can be used to create a ritual. Also included is a sample ritual for each written by the author.

Appendix A explains how to write the words to your own rituals and appendix B is a simple worksheet template to help focus a beginner on the what, why and how when planning a ritual. There is also a useful index for quick location of specific information listed by event.

This book is a good reference source for someone who is just learning to write rituals. It is very basic volume and would be of little use to someone who has been creating rituals for a while. With any volume claiming correspondences for colors, stones or herbs, it is best to double check against other sources.

I am currently searching for menarche rituals to share with my soon-to-be-a-woman 12 year old, so I was hopeful of finding something of interest here. Personally, I found the sample rituals to be rather bland and generic. I would hope that someone using this book would create something much more personal and meaningful for their own specific needs.

Kerri Connor is also the author of The Pocket Spell Creator, another reference guide for creating your own spells that is similar in structure to this book.

W. Lyon Martin, author/illustrator of An Ordinary Girl, A Magical Child.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Perfect Guide!, June 26, 2006

By 

Karen Szabo "Karen Szabo" (Johnstown, NY, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Pocket Guide to Rituals: Magickal References at Your Fingertips (Paperback)

Like Kerri's other book, The Pocket Spell Creator, this is a book you will wish you had found when you started on your magickal path. Diverse, unique, and beautifully written, newcomers to Pagan ritual as well as the experienced are sure to find gems of wisdom and inspiration in this book. The extensive lists of correspondences for ritual, and the wonderful arrangement of the material, make this an invaluable reference as well. It has earned an honored place on my bookshelf and I'm sure you will feel the same.