The 4 seeds of ritual
The purpose of ritual is to connect us to our own essence, to help us tune into the collective spirit, or to mend whatever is broken, whatever wires have been pulled out of one’s life, so we can start anew. Ritual is to the soul what food is to the physical body. ―Sobonfu Somé: healer, the Dagara people of Burkina Faso
👥 Serves: 1 person, 11-25 people, 2-10 people, 26-40 people, 41+ people
🎚 Difficulty: Medium
⏳ Total time: 11-30 minutes
🥣 Ingredients: “Rituals for Life” book by Isla Macleod (if you’re curious to find out more about it!)
🤓 Wholebeing Domains: Community, Positive Emotion, Ritualising
💪 Wholebeing Skills: Aligning with the cycles, Belonging, Celebration, Gratitude, Intention-setting, Kindness, Nature kinship, Reciprocity, Ritualising
The 4 seeds of ritual
📝 Description
A balanced framework for rituals.
Isla Macleod has identified Four Seeds that help create a simple and balanced framework for your rituals. They act as a container within which you can follow your intuition and express your creativity. The Four Seeds are:
- Intention
- Creativity
- Gratitude
- Kindness
This recipe briefly presents each of them based on Isla Macleod’s book Rituals for Life. If you are curious to discover more about this topic, we invite you to read our Substack on The skill of ritualising.
🌟 Steps
Step 1 – Intention (5’)
We have spoken of the power of intention in other recipes, such as “4 steps to choosing your guiding word for the year” and “Morning intention setting”. Start by reflecting and stating your intention, the guiding force of your ritual:
- What are you hoping to do and achieve with your ritual?
- What do you imagine to be a positive outcome?
Isla explains that by stating your intention, you “begin the process of gathering in the supportive energies you need to help you fulfil what you wish for”. You can go on a Medicine walk or journal or hold a natural object in your hand or write a letter from your older self to your present self…
Step 2 – Creativity (5’)
As Isla points out, “[c]reativity is the fundamental quality inherent in nature that is responsible for all life coming into being…”. Brainstorm creative ways to enrich your ritual, such as sculpting a clay vessel, creating a Nature mandala, painting a mask, dancing and singing, weaving an altar or story, etc.
Step 3 – Gratitude (5’)
We also have more than a dozen recipes on cultivating gratitude, from the “Appreciation shower” and “Gratitude walk” to the “Gratitude bingo” and “Unexpressed gratitude letter”, which speaks of the value of gratitude. When you experience a sense of connection with the wider web of life, gratitude flows through you, as well as a “deep trust in the process of living, creating and loving”. Isla mentions that the other side of gratitude is grief – “as you mourn for the loss of what you love you are also giving thanks for what was”. By expressing gratitude (or grief) in your ritual, you create ripples that radiate through you and outwards. Also, give thanks to all the beings and energies that support you during the ritual.
Step 4 – Kindness (5’)
Close your ritual with blessings, offerings, or acts of kindness as a way to pay it forward. Isla observes that “[k]indness has gracious eyes, giving freely without wanting in return,m unconcerned with status or competition”. Similarly to gratitude, by sharing your blessings, you create ripples of goodwill out into the world.