Looking for a pagan view

amazingemmet

I've practised magic for along time now since, i was about ten, i didn't start that young out of choice it was nesscity but thats unrelated. but recently a friend of mine gave me a few books on paganism one on general paganism (pagan paths very informative) and two others on wicca.
And when I've needed to perform magic all i have to do is think about it summon up the power and then it is done, From what i've read there is alot of ritual involved when you cast spells and i'm just wondering if anyone has experimented with skipping the ritual component and just letting their mind do it?
Just from what i've been reading some rituals and spells are made up to fit their purpose but to me it seems their more about focusing the mind at the task at hand.
Emmet

Rothen

amazingemmet wrote:

And when I've needed to perform magic all i have to do is think about it summon up the power and then it is done, From what i've read there is alot of ritual involved when you cast spells and i'm just wondering if anyone has experimented with skipping the ritual component and just letting their mind do it?
Emmet

Ritual magic is, for the most part, called ceremonial magic, the brand you practice would most likely fall into the chaos brand. It all works the same, just different ways work for different people.

And sometimes a lot of it is just for show.

Talliesin

Rothen wrote:

Ritual magic is, for the most part, called ceremonial magic

The majority folk magic is based around ritual, quite different ritual to that in ceremonial magic, but ritual none the less.

I'd say "skipping" ritual is probably a good thing for people that rely on on ritual to try and doing rituals is probably a good thing for people that normally don't to try too

NeilJ

Ritual as you said is largely to focus the mind. But it is also a way to raise energy that you are going to use in spellwork. For those who practise chaos magick this isn't a neccessary step, but for others it is quite useful. For myself I've found that as I've gotten more experienced I've needed to use ritual less and less to get effective results. However some times it's nice to have ritual just for comfort's sake.

Neil

faecircle

Absolutely. I sometimes just sit and think about something willing it to happen and it works (sometimes). However ritual can give a spell a great deal of extra oomph which is needed if it is something important.

amazingemmet

I've been reading a bit more (dangerous) and i've come to the conclusion that ritual is just to focus the mind and also the emotions. I find in the rare times that i do magic i need my emotions to be as focused as my mind. Do people agree with that?