Most of you are aware that I compose a rite each month for my Inner Circle membership (first month free in case you want to check them out). Each one is timed for a particular day in the planner but can be repurposed and adjusted for other days, and each one uses my Do More Magic framework to varying degrees.
The framework was developed from my many decades of doing magical practice, and noticing certain repeating components in magic rituals and rites across cultures and times. I noticed that they I worked those elements into my magic, I got better results.
I have some metaphysics about why this is that I go into in my little course on the topic (the course is also free to my members, fyi). But I have had a new revelation about it that I wanted to share.
This past week, I participated in an online intention / vigil for Gordon as part of a group of parimarily OG RuneSoupers.
We started with a group intention to support Gordon in the next step on his journey. For those of you out of the loop on this, this is a process that a bunch of RSPM modified based on Lynne McTaggart’s Power of Eight process, and beginning with a PGM invokation to the Agathos Daimon.
We then took turns, one by one, sharing our rememberances of him. During the process, I noticed that we almost uniformly fell into the same pattern: Sharing how and when we met Gordon, talking about what we received / gained / learned from knowing him, and finally speaking to his best qualities and what we appreciated about him. And I couldn’t help but notice how these seemed to align with some of the elements of my magic framework (the positioning, calling, etc.)
The act of sharing in this process – speaking and witnessing others speak; holding space and attention for the group – was MASSIVELY healing. It moved me from active grieving to a place of gratitude for my connection with Gordon and deep understanding of the invincibility of our souls… all of our souls.
Beyond any cultural, spiritual, or religious differents, this is the death rite. The sacred holding of space, the prayers/intentions for safe passage of the soul, and the celebration and rememberance of life.
In 2020, my husband’s Grandmother passed and, because of Covid / Chemo we attended the funeral via zoom. This was a Catholic funeral with Rosary prayer and a graveside service. However we did not attend the wake afterward because it wasn’t practical via zoom, which means that while we participated in the first part of the rite, we missed out on the second one (the sharing with wider family of rememberances).
In 2022 I lost both my parents. Because of the circumstances around my family system and their passing, this process was broken entirely for the family. No prayers and little sharing. I had to perform my own solitary death rite for them later.
But participating in a complete rite showed me the power of it (yes, even online). The process moves grief and sadness out of the interior, into the ritual space, out into the world, and then back into the body to be integrated.
My seeing this was likely due to both the comparison with other personal experiences of death and the fact that I was not in the deep and very immersive grief of, for example, losing my mother.
And this understanding was so powerful for me that I’ve been sharing it through my week.
Every time I speak with someone who knew Gordon, I ask them to share a rememberance and I also share one of mine. A mini part of the process. Closing the loop.
I’m also hosting an in-person intention rememberance at my house at the end of June (details in the RSPM Mighty, let me know if you need more info). I will be leveraging the same process, an intention for his soul’s passage and then both sharing and celebration (I’m hosting a marathon of LoTR and hope there will be more laughing than crying).
And in the end, the death rite is fundamentally a magical rite. Potentially the very oldest, the first, the Ur rite from which all other magic flows. And that’s why the magical framework… works, because it is a shadow of (and in the shadow of) the death rite.
Death rite: grief and sadness >> out of the interior >> into the ritual space >> out into the world >> back into the body to be integrated
Magic rite: purpose or goal >> out of the interior >> into the ritual space >> out into the world >> back into the life to be integrated
I didn’t expect to learn more about results-oriented practical enchantment through mourning my friend Gordon, but honestly, maybe I should have.