Khairete!
Today we had our first virtual ritual using Zoom for Eiarinia. We’ve talked about videoconferencing people in for years, and with the current need for social isolation, we videoconferenced everyone in!
Hiereios Timotheos and Hiereios Peregrine Ursano set up the altar in our usual ritual space and hosted the ritual from there. We utilized the free version of Zoom to connect, and our ritual included extra thanks to Hermes for helping with that. The ritual is linked here. As far as how this was set up, this is the view participants had from the laptop that was perched facing the altar.
Today’s divination was particularly apt:
Do not sow into the wind, nor plant seeds in hard stone. Do not sail on deep oceans during the storms of winter. Contemplate quietly and remain unaffected by all this. (Dervenis, 2014).
So while this is a ritual of Spring and growth, it was all very much in the context of the changes we’re all experiencing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Incidentally, we also included a prayer to Apollon Iatros, which is in the ritual linked above.
All in all, this new way of practicing ritual together went well. If your group has done remote ritual, whether using a similar approach or something completely different, please, share below!
Some lessons learned:
- Not everyone’s technology setup will allow for either printing out the ritual in advance or switching between screens to find the prayer they are meant to be speaking. Having one of the priests send the text in private chat within Zoom, however, worked. One thing for the future will be to ensure there is a copy-pastable version handy for that purpose.
- Another thing we’re thinking of for the future for this is taking pictures of the various parts of the altar, including them in the slide with each prayer, and using screen share. That way, not only do all participants with a video connection have the text visible, but everyone with a video link can also see the image(s) of the God(s) being addressed. That said, not everyone will necessarily have a video link and may still need the prayers sent to them via chat.
- Which leads to the part where having two people on the “hosting” end was definitely a big help. One could be performing a ritual action while the other prompted the next person who would be reciting a prayer or invocation or handled the technology. Obviously, this is not always a possibility.
- Using the free version of Zoom means there is a 40 minute limit on “meeting time,” but that was easy to plan for. We had a pre-ritual conversation meeting, a main ritual meeting, a theoxenia meeting, and a post-ritual conversation meeting. We were able to simply exit out (or get booted) and reconvene, but…
- The free version of Zoom randomly generates new rooms/codes each time you set up a meeting, so if you are going to split your ritual into multiple sections like this, have a “mailing list” ready to go to send everyone the new link as soon as the host has it.
We kept it pretty simple today, but we talked a bit about how to incorporate things like gaming (Hiereios Peregrine is already well-versed in remote gaming) and Pagan Arts and Crafts (TM). The arts and crafts bit may take a bit more planning to ensure participants either have time to obtain needed materials or else to include materials likely already in most homes. For festivals in which watching a movie together as a group is appropriate, it seems some of the streaming services may be making “virtual watch parties” more manageable while still honoring the artists’ copyright.
That’s it for now. Again, please do share in comments if your group has been trying ways to practice ritual “together” while required to be apart.
Stay safe, stay well, and may the blessings of the Gods be with you.
Items referenced in the ritual document or this post:
Temenos Oikidios 