Since our practitioners are so varied, you can bet that our rituals and services are too. We draw on a wide variety of earth-centered religious traditions.

Many of our rituals allow for different levels of participation. This means that if you are a beginner who has never attended a ritual before, a practicing solitary interested in trying out a group experience, or an experienced open group practitioner, we hope that the rituals we hold will be meaningful for you. Since every ritual is different, often with different leaders, we ask that you please be on time to receive instructions particular to that ritual.

We are often asked about whether there is a special clothing requirement. Although sometimes people dress up or wear garb, it is not necessary. A number of folks who attend always wear street clothing. It is your choice. However, we do not do clothing optional rituals - so please wear some clothes!

Since we are affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Athens, we often give back to that community by organizing and holding Sunday morning services.

We believe that it is important for the congregation to have some type of experience with Earth-centered spirituality in active participation, and every effort has been made for that to occur. We traditionally host three Sunday morning services a year - a Samhain Memorial Service, a Yule Service and the Mayday Service. We have been known to do others as well, depending on our other time commitiments.

UU elements have been melded into the services whenever possible, without watering down the Pagan or Earth-Centered content/flavor. Use of the UU Hymnal serves to remind some UU's that we're part of the diversity too!

The Samhain ritual was written for a congregation of around 30 - 50 people. If you want to use this with a larger group, then modifications probably will have to be made.

The Memorial Rite for Samhain
This Sunday morning service has been done at the Fellowship for the past ten years. It takes an absolute minimum of four people to do (recommended -  at least 6 to 8, not including musicians) and more parts can be assigned so that many people can participate.

This ritual requires practice in order for it to work properly. Participants need to coordinate movements. This is very important!! Our service space is very open for the rearrangement of chairs, and for this ritual the particular setup is for a central altar, chairs in concentric circles around the altar with aisles at each of the the quarters.

Download Memorial Service Script (pdf)

All of our evening rituals are open, which means they are open not only to those within The Circle of Gaia Dreaming and friends and members of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Athens, but also to members of the community as well. We advertise in the local newspaper and therefore have a wide varying mix of people at each ritual. With that in mind, our rituals are made up of groups as small as six and as large as 45. Usual participation is generally in the teens or twenties.

We try to make our rituals as participatory as possible. The ritual planning group scripts out rituals ahead of time, and often there are many parts available for people to do, in addition to just participating generally. If you are interested in having a part at an evening ritual, announcements are usually made at planning meetings and on the Gaia Dreaming e-mail list as to what is available at a given ritual. You do not need to be a member to take on a part. We welcome your participation at whatever level is comfortable for you.

When we get really creative, we sometimes incorporate mystery plays into our rituals - as well as having some rituals that are fairly complicated. For those types of rituals, there is often one or more ritual rehearsals. Also, some parts require setting up particular altars, and so you will need to be to the ritual site earlier than normal. Don't worry though. Whoever is coordinating the ritual will let you know the amount of time needed for any particular ritual, before you make a major commitment.

Spring Equinox - Pentacle of Balance Ritual
This ritual was first performed on Spring Equinox 1999. Like most of our better rituals, there is a bit of preparation in the setup and it is helpful to have the element people go through their part ahead of time. Luckily it is not too complicated, so you can just go through it before ritual participants show up. We like this ritual so much, that we do it every year, and we haven't gotten tired of it yet.

Download Spring Equinox Ritual Script (pdf)

Download Magickal Oil Ritual Script (pdf)

As a part of a ritual or a Sunday morning service, we have used mystery plays. For us, a mystery play is a theatrical performance which tells a story about the Gods or nature, perhaps explaing how and why things work from a mythological perspective. We have fun doing these. The amount of rehearsing, costume - production - of each play really depends on the participants and time constraints.

Since there aren't very many scripts around, we have had to create our own. The exception to this is the play that we did during the Yule service in 2003. We used a script from John Matthew's book, The Winter Solstice.

The Marriage of the Sun and Moon by Krystal
(Adaptation from a story in Sun Stories by Carolyn Edwards)
This play was used as the opening of our Mayday Service.

Download Marriage Script (pdf)

Creation Play by Krystal
This play was used at a winter solstice service to explain the birth of the sun. However, it also talks about creation in general, so this could be used at many times of the year.

Download Creation Script (pdf)