Public ritual can be brilliant: Empowering for the organizers, those who attend, and the campaign you are focusing on. But to do it right takes a little preparation and care.

A few ground rules:

Be prepared for drunks, fools, trouble makers & psychologically vulnerable people. Obviously, this depends on how open the ritual is & the context.

Be very clear about the intent and structure of the ritual. Carefully explain before the ritual what is going to happen and why. Try to ensure that everyone knows what is going on; being in the middle of a working without a clue as to what is happening is not very empowering! You may need to run through the ritual two or three times before people feel comfortable.

Keep it simple and avoid monologues or long potentially dull sections. If you have a circle of 30 people and you spend 30 seconds carefully smudging each one you will have a very bored circle standing doing nothing for nearly 15 minutes! So, keep each part of the ritual brief and involve everyone wherever possible. The Dragon basic ritual is a good start.

Be careful to ground everyone properly before they leave, especially if you are planning a powerful working.

Ideally have people who are prepared to act as watchers & can keep an eye out for anyone likely to freak out or cause trouble.

Don't let all this put you off! Groups have been doing public workings for years, & there are rarely any problems.

Also see the Eco-magic Course notes on Ritual.

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