Intention
Helen Lehrer
The creation of ritual is a universal human impulse. Ritual is the direct human intervention of belief through action. For many centuries, western culture and religion has been devised by men. In religions such as Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, men alone claim the right to invent, teach, or lead religious ritual. These prescribed, overly-serious, structured rituals lost the sense of wonder and fun that surrounds feminine worship. Feminine ritual is not about praying to something that is outside of our reality, but to celebrate the sacredness of the real and the natural: body, earth, daily living, and human relationships. The sense of holiness of the present moment is characteristic of women spirituality opposed to the typical patriarchal separation of body and spirit, earth and heaven.
My intention for these rituals is not to reject Mother Earth but to love, honor, and protect her. I am exploring this rediscovery of a spiritual relationship that is more in touch with the feminine divinity. My ritual includes building a sacred space by honoring the four cardinal directions along with the four elements through sense-oriented ritual loaded with feminine symbology and personal associations, honoring my ancestors through the use of a Jewish havdalah candle, and using a self-made wand to draw a pentacle, a strong symbol for the divine goddess.
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