This approach to ritual design has, no doubt, been done before. My own involvement with it started as a sarcastic comment during a "beginner's magick" ritual design class.
For those not familiar; the game of "consequences" involves building a story of stereotyped form by multiple people; each writes down one story element on a piece of paper, then folds over what's just been written and passes the paper on to the next person, who writes the next element. These "elements" could be along the lines of: a male character; a female character; where they met; what he said to her; what she said back to him; end consequence. Alternatively it can be played with pictures of a figure of roughly humanoid outline, the first person drawing the head, the second the shoulders and upper torso, the third the lower torso and arms, the fourth the hips and hands, the fifth the legs, the sixth the feet (the result is likely to look like something created using Golden Dawn rules on Telesmatic Images).
Applied to ritual design, the first step is to agree on a general purpose and structure for the ritual, then to break it up into as many points as you have people (or if you have less than 5 or 6 people, a multiple of the number of people). For example:
Using the traditional "Consequences" format, the heads would be written down the left marging of a piece of paper; each person in the group in turn would write something next to one of these points, fold over the paper and pass it on. The process could be speeded up by cutting the paper into strips and giving one to each person in the group, then re-assembling when all are done.
For best, or at least strangest, results, this is better done in eclectic groups where those present have between them backgrounds from a variety of different traditions; so for example we might end up with the Star Ruby in point 1, a Wiccan circle casting in point 2, neo-Druid calls to the quarters in point 3, and so on, concluding with old-skool Chaos Magick banishing with laughter, or possibly cheese.
This game has also been called "Ritual exquisite corpse" after the surrealist art technique, although the only time I've seen it done it seemed far too structured for that.
For those not familiar; the game of "consequences" involves building a story of stereotyped form by multiple people; each writes down one story element on a piece of paper, then folds over what's just been written and passes the paper on to the next person, who writes the next element. These "elements" could be along the lines of: a male character; a female character; where they met; what he said to her; what she said back to him; end consequence. Alternatively it can be played with pictures of a figure of roughly humanoid outline, the first person drawing the head, the second the shoulders and upper torso, the third the lower torso and arms, the fourth the hips and hands, the fifth the legs, the sixth the feet (the result is likely to look like something created using Golden Dawn rules on Telesmatic Images).
Applied to ritual design, the first step is to agree on a general purpose and structure for the ritual, then to break it up into as many points as you have people (or if you have less than 5 or 6 people, a multiple of the number of people). For example:
- Preliminary banishing (if appropriate)
- General opening / circle casting.
- Invocation of quarters / elements / directions of space.
- Statement of working ("The Oath" of MTP)
- Invocations / power raising.
- Climax of the working.
- Closing.
- Concluding banishing (if appropriate).
Using the traditional "Consequences" format, the heads would be written down the left marging of a piece of paper; each person in the group in turn would write something next to one of these points, fold over the paper and pass it on. The process could be speeded up by cutting the paper into strips and giving one to each person in the group, then re-assembling when all are done.
For best, or at least strangest, results, this is better done in eclectic groups where those present have between them backgrounds from a variety of different traditions; so for example we might end up with the Star Ruby in point 1, a Wiccan circle casting in point 2, neo-Druid calls to the quarters in point 3, and so on, concluding with old-skool Chaos Magick banishing with laughter, or possibly cheese.
This game has also been called "Ritual exquisite corpse" after the surrealist art technique, although the only time I've seen it done it seemed far too structured for that.
Addendum to the reference to Telesmatic Images: one could also work the process backwards and use the rules to work out the name of a being drawn by "picture consequences." -- T.S.
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