Discussion: Rituals - Origins & Inspiration

Witchcraft, sigil work, spellcraft, rituals, etc.; all of these have the potential to be expanded under the heading of our own ideology, re-imagined and reinvigorated, can become fixtures of it, bodies of work in their own right. With no overt, overly derivative connections to other traditions, groups, or works outside of the Sith.

Each of the areas of esoteric practice mentioned can be fully appropriated.

Consumed. Possessed.
Owned. Digested. Integrated.
Here we’ll begin that process.

Rituals

I’ve spent a good few years exploring the nature of rituals both in the lore our ideology sprang from (that in some respects it originated in) and the nature of rituals in occult works, traditions, and groups in the world we actually occupy. All rituals require an intention. To use a ritual as a means of reaching your objectives, or as a means of bolstering other more mundane or conventional efforts, you must have a specific objective and apply the concept of ritual practice to it. Intention goes beyond the specific goal in mind, too; it also relates to what purpose one has in mind for rituals themselves, what reason one has in resorting to them as opposed to other means of achieving objectives. There are usually more direct alternatives, so why opt for ritual work?

As it’s defined in the dictionary it’s impossible to ignore the insistence on its ties to religion. It doesn'T have to retain those ties though, as other variations of the definition begrudgingly make clear: "a series of actions or type of behavior regularly and invariably followed by someone" and "[of an action] arising from convention or habit." In the primary definitions it’s also alluded to (in the inclusion of “a religious or solemn rite” and “a religious or solemn ceremony”) that it can be looked at apart from religion, especially the specific organizational strictures or institutional strictures they may initially be a fixture of. And the reason it needs to be – for those unfamiliar with our values, teachings, or orders over time – is that Sith ideology isn't a religion.

There are no deities, no strict dogmas, and no one powerful enough among us to enforce those dogmas across the board even if they did exist. It's been both a strength and a weakness so far throughout our history. A strength in the sense of individual Sith – without external guides, masters, or dogmas – being forced out of necessity to look within themselves for their passion, strength, power, victories, freedom, and creations.

A weakness in the sense of Orders, Academies, and other organizations failing to gain, build, or directly influence anything as a group, except perhaps the group itself. That’s probably the highest degree of enforced dogma that’s been achieved in the context of an Order, and I’m rather proud to say the only one that achieved that much was mine. We had no agenda pertaining to the world at large, no grand plan to take over a national government, or to form a subversive shadow government nationally or internationally, no other groups to target or victimize or bring down… we focused on ourselves. As individuals and, consequently, as an Order.

None of those grandiose notions, straight out of a Star Wars novel, served any of our interests individually; and as individuals we more or less seemed to have a consensus that they wouldn’t serve the interests of the Order as an entity in itself either. We never failed at achieving a collective goal because we never saw the need for one, at least not any goals beyond the Order functioning as an effective tool, battleground, etc. for each of us individually, for own own growth as individuals - because the group isn't important; the individual is.

We were, and are, members of a group as a byproduct of (mostly) shared values, but that’s not to say the Order itself ever operated as a collective will towards any external goal. The wills were individual, and directed inward. Just as in our own individual lives, the Order I created cannot look outward for the fuel it needs to thrive, those who exist as its members must look within (its membership, past and present, including old works) the thing for the source of its power; what those who looked would find: individuals. Maybe we’re beginning to reach a point, or will reach it in the near future, in which we’ve progressed, grown, and cultivated the ideology enough that it evolves beyond that mode of operation, but as we’ve existed up to this point…

We all are, have been, and mostly remain too self-centered, to selfish, and to grounded in reality for cartoonish ambitions of global domination. This inward focus is imo partially why our ideology isn't religious so much as spiritual; you can adhere to a religion and be a Sith, religious doctrines of any kind can (in theory) be warped to purposes of your design and choosing, and can be incorporated into your way of life, as some have done in the past with Christianity, Satanism, and even Buddhism, but you do not need a religion to be a Sith.

Dogma, religion, worship, compulsory and senseless traditions, customs… they can be trappings or tools.

Given the nature of our lore, a set of undeniably fictional but nonetheless magical stories continuously and expertly added to until Lucas sold off the franchise, there are plenty of sources of inspiration to draw on for customs, tradition, even culture, but there’s far less risk of those becoming trappings. In asserting the Bible as the “word of God”, divinely inspired (or dictated or guided) by a supreme being, or the Koran, or any other “holy” document... it quite deliberately asserts and takes on a greater significance, a greater authority, and a far greater likelihood in trapping its own believers into obedience. No such demand is or even could be made on the basis of the fictional material we’ve derived our values from. In seeking to craft uniquely Sith rituals...

The “religious” element inherent in the concept of rituals is impossible to ignore but it doesn't need to be a problem. Understanding their use, and familiarizing oneself with the various practices as they exist in different religions and traditions helps to inform you of how to craft them on your own terms - rituals constructed and engaged in by Sith don't need to belong to or remain tied with any other spirituality, religion, or way of life.

The core components of what makes a ritual a ritual can be stripped out of one (or several) different sects or groups or paradigms but that’s a process of individualization, of integrating them into your personal practice as a Sith. Select, individualize, externalize. Consume, digest; integrate what's comparable and cast aside the shit that's not. If you’re a Sith, they’re of the Sith as a byproduct. Engaging in that process, you can produce rituals of your own and if it's a serious practice, you can build a 'portfolio' of them over time. And I'd frankly like to take it further; for that we need the lore, the inspiration, the fictional customs, the fictional events throughout the history of the Sith, the individual characters that stood out, the rituals used by certain practitioners in their respective eras, and so on. I need the structure and context of the sorcery, alchemy, magic, rituals, ceremonies, etc. as it exists in the fiction as a foundation and framework to apply the principles of real world rituals to - and vice versa. Until they're universally, distinctly, indisputably recognizable as Sith.