{"id":9877,"date":"2018-10-11T10:33:13","date_gmt":"2018-10-11T16:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=9877"},"modified":"2018-10-13T09:10:45","modified_gmt":"2018-10-13T15:10:45","slug":"9877","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=9877","title":{"rendered":"“The Importance of Rituals to the Hunt”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

One of my camera traps captured this bull elk in late August 2016, four years after that hillside burned. Now look at the thick grass!<\/p><\/div>\n

I have written a little about the intersection of hunting and ritual, but today I would ask you to read Jeremy Climer’s blog post “The Importance of Rituals to the Hunt<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Before we go any further, we should define both \u201ctradition\u201d and \u201critual\u201d because people often use them interchangeably.\u00a0\u00a0Although traditions can be religious in nature, ritual is more specific to spiritual matters.\u00a0\u00a0So, for the sake of clarity in this article, we will use \u201critual\u201d to describe spiritual matters and \u201ctradition\u201d to describe non-spiritual matters.<\/p>\n

Most rituals, even for Christian hunters like myself, originate from our pagan ancestors.\u00a0\u00a0Some of these rituals are pre-hunt and some of them are post-kill.\u00a0\u00a0As humans, we have always asked for blessings before the hunt and given thanks for our success after it.\u00a0\u00a0This is not so different than the pre-planting rituals and the post-harvest rituals in our agrarian history.\u00a0\u00a0We need food to survive, so we ask for assistance and when we\u2019re full, we express our gratitude in hopes that our appreciation will be looked upon kindly when it comes time to ask for assistance again.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And then he quotes me saying something fairly blunt about ritual and taking life.<\/a><\/p>\n

Climer lives in northern Colorado, but he was kind enough to rendezvous in Florence, a southern Colorado town that I visit weekly. (Try the Pour House coffeehouse<\/a> if you are there.)<\/p>\n

My first writing on Craft hunting ritual was published in 1992, in the chapter “Witches and the Earth” in Witchcraft Today, Book One: The Modern Craft Movement<\/em><\/a>, that being a four-book series that I edited for Llewellyn in the 1990s. It included a description of pre-hunt ritual performed by my hunting partner and myself.<\/p>\n

The essay Climer cites, “The Hunter’s Eucharist,” is something that I am still proud of. It made some money too, winning an outdoor writers’ essay contest sponsored by Winchester, as well as being printed three times. Its first publication was in Gnosis: A Journal of the Western Inner Traditions<\/em><\/a>, while a shorter version, differently titled<\/a>, appeared in Colorado Central, a regional magazine, and then was reprinted in David Petersen’s excellent anthology, A Hunter’s Heart.<\/em><\/a>((David Petersen was also a founder of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers<\/a>, a rapidly growing and effective conservation group.))<\/p>\n

Climer’s “three popular rituals” are a pretty good argument for “Pagan survivals” on their own, even given that one is Cherokee, at least in his heritage.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have written a little about the intersection of hunting and ritual, but today I would ask you to read Jeremy Climer’s blog post “The Importance of Rituals to the Hunt.” Before we go any further, we should define both \u201ctradition\u201d and \u201critual\u201d because people often use them interchangeably.\u00a0\u00a0Although traditions can be religious in nature, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[214,68,23,270,7,298,29],"class_list":["post-9877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-animals","tag-animism","tag-colorado","tag-hunting","tag-publishing","tag-ritual","tag-witchcraft"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s6xQTg-9877","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1515,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1515","url_meta":{"origin":9877,"position":0},"title":"Survey on Pagan Coming-of-Age Rituals","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 15, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Sociologist Gina Oboler has done good research in the Pagan community before\u2014I used some of her work on Pagans and environmentalism in Her Hidden Children: The Rise of Wicca and Paganism in America. Now she is looking at coming-of-age rituals, and if you can offer some experience-based responses, please fill\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8678,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8678","url_meta":{"origin":9877,"position":1},"title":"Large-Group Ritual: Magic, Worship, or “Just What We Do”?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 26, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"A friend in Poland sent a link to this music video, adding that it looks a lot like the Midsummer celebration in his village but needs the volunteer firefighters, more kielbasa, and more vodka, except, \"Our river\u2019s a fair bit wider, too.\" He describes the St. Nicholas Orchestra as \"Pagan-friendly,\"\u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Paganism\"","block_context":{"text":"Paganism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=paganism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2031,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2031","url_meta":{"origin":9877,"position":2},"title":"More Pagan than the Pagans","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 18, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Two videos that surprised Pagan bloggers by their Pagan feel, despite their sources. 1. Via Hecate of Washington, DC, a link to a Vimeo slideshow of the \"Rappahanock Halloween Festival\" sponsored by the Summerisle Old Dominion Hunt in northern Virginia. She comments, \"How many Pagan Samhein [sic] events have you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Halloween\"","block_context":{"text":"Halloween","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=halloween"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8654,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8654","url_meta":{"origin":9877,"position":3},"title":"What Is Wrong with Large-Scale Ritual?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 18, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"When it comes to large-scale ritual, the traditional Wiccan circle does not scale up well. It was made for a small-group mystery religion, where twelve or thirteen people really is the maximum.((OK, maybe up to twenty or so, but that is more than enough, especially if they are skyclad and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Christianity\"","block_context":{"text":"Christianity","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=christianity"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/maypole4-crystalize.jpg?w=576&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/maypole4-crystalize.jpg?w=576&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/maypole4-crystalize.jpg?w=576&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12879,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12879","url_meta":{"origin":9877,"position":4},"title":"Little Bulgarian Girls Can Chase Demons Too","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 26, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"A photographer goes to a village in Bulgaria to photograph the Kukeri ritual, a \"druidic-oriented ritual,\" which \"many consider being one of the only remaining practiced pagan rituals in Europe today.\" OK Is tract an phenomenon? Over two medications, the variety become about 800 medications and interesting India women triggering\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Bulgaria\"","block_context":{"text":"Bulgaria","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=bulgaria"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Kukeri-10-1024x672.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Kukeri-10-1024x672.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Kukeri-10-1024x672.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1246,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1246","url_meta":{"origin":9877,"position":5},"title":"Organizing Halloween Ritual","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I said that I was not going to post any more Halloween items. I take that back. Here is one more. One decision we've made is to rebuff curious friends who ask to join our Halloween rituals. It seems like half the people I know want to be pagan on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Halloween\"","block_context":{"text":"Halloween","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=halloween"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9877"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9892,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9877\/revisions\/9892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}