Continuing on the road through the Core Order of Ritual, today we'll talk about purification.

Purification can take place at many points through the ritual, and can take various forms.  The most common places are as part of the initiation of the ritual such as at the end of the procession, or after hallowing the hallows.  There are advantages and disadvantages to both.

When doing it as part of or at the end of the processional, you get everyone as they enter the rite.  You also end up prolonging the processional if you do each person individually.  If this involves singing and/or drumming, and it is a large group, this can make things boring for those at the end of the line, and they may start off with less interest.  There is a remedy to this though, and that is to create an "entryway" where the folk cannot avoid the purification and have them walk through it.

Doing it after the hallowing of the hallows has a nice advantage of using the same tools as the hallowing of the hallows.  The water is usually going to be connected to the well, the incense is going to be connected to the fire... and you don't need to light more incense, so it is slightly economical.  We again face the issue of individual vs group.  If we have a large group, individual purification takes a long time and you need to find some way to fill that void.  A nice way of doing it group wise is something I first encountered with Stone Creed Grove.  What they did was with the incense and water hallow the space, and people inside it, after hallowing the hallows by walking around the outside of the ritual space sprinkling and censing while reciting "By the might of the water and the light of the fire, this grove is made whole and holy".

So, what do we use for purification and what is their purpose?  Well the common tools are incense and water.  The water is usually connected to the well water in some way, be it actual well water, or a few drops of the well water being put into the water used for sprinkling.  This water is usually about washing away the impure and the bad stuff.  The incense is then used to perfume and make the person smell "pretty" and "acceptable" to the spirits we are calling in.  So this really means in reality the purification is the washing with water.  We see this use of sacred washing in many cultures, including non-IE cultures, indicating that this is really a base common belief or practice.  One thing to be very conscious of though are allergies people have.  Some people have issues with sage specifically, but other floral incenses are also common allergens.  Ask people if they have any issues with fragrances, and what fragrances they are.  Outside, it probably won't be a big issue, you can cense from behind and they can quickly walk away and usually not have an issue.  Indoors though, we don't have the ventilation and they will have a more difficult time with the fragrances.

Now there is one other thing that I have seen done, and my grove does a variation, and this occurs with processional based purification.  The general idea is to leave behind all personal hangups.  I first encountered this explicitly at Sonoron Sunrise Grove at one of their old Desert Magic Festivals (curently not being held any more).  Here when entering the ritual everyone was asked if the "left all ill will behind".  Everyone of course answered yes, not sure what would happen if you answered no, probably not allowed into the ritual.  The point of this though was to make you consciously set aside any interpersonal issues between yourself and anyone in the ritual, or the beings that are called into the ritual, and join in the spirit of the ritual.  My grove does something I first saw with the old Healing Story Grove (I think, possibly stone) that was in Ithaca when I was in college.  Here, you were asked to put your ego into a skull shaped mug and join the ritual as equals.  My grove has adopted this concept with a different vessel.  Overall either of these methods work well.