My first real ritual, many years ago, was to empower some pieces of rose quartz to give to several people who were going through different health problems. I had a few jitters, to say the least. First, at the time my parents were only mildly tolerant about my choice of religion. They were coming around, but pretty slowly. (The summer before we went to Salem as part of our holiday, and my mom loved the huge occult shop there, so that helped.) I was afraid they would interrupt me, unknowingly, or tease me, or something. Of course, they didn’t. 🙂

Secondly, I was afraid I was going to do the ritual wrong. I wanted these stones to help and comfort these people, not hurt them. What is I screwed something up? I had prepared myself ahead of time, and researched all the substitutions I wanted to make to make doubly certain they would work. When you are just starting out as a teenager and have very little funds, sometimes you have to find interesting substitutions for things. Sandalwood is your friend. In fact, I think I still have the bottle of Sandalwood oil I bought for this ritual.

The third worry was my pets. Both were exceptionally behaved animals, but they were curious. It turns out they showed up almost as soon as I began, but they were content to watch my every move from the bed.

Fourth, I was concerned about how these stones would be received by the people I was making them for. You see, I didn’t do the ritual to heal these people. Each one was suffering from something completely different – cancer, M.S., and depression, if I remember correctly. I knew no one ritual would help them all, nor did I want to do one without their permission. Instead, I wanted to create something that would be a focus for them, and perhaps a little token to remind them that someone cares about them. They were only people I knew from work, and who I actually lost touch with many years ago, but at the time they meant a lot to me. I actually still think about them occasionally because I am a big softy. Each one accepted the stone, and told me that it meant a great deal to them. I’m not sure if they were being polite or not, but if my gift helped just one of them, then it was worth it.

So, all those things worried me when I did my first ritual. But, I really didn’t need to worry about any of them. No one is going to make fun of you. If anything, the Lord and Lady will laugh with you if you make a mistake. They’ve got to have a good sense of humour, I think. And a good bit of study on actions, correspondences, myths, or what-have-you before you being should help with any worries about things not working out. And if they don’t, big deal. Try again the next time everything is right. It’s a learning process.