Why I won't post a video of my personal practice

Every now and again, I get asked to share what, exactly, I do in my daily devotionals. I always, respectfully, decline, but I would like to take the time to share why I say no. The short answer is that I'm simply not comfortable sharing my personal--private--practice. I will gladly share an overview with you, either in writing or in video, but I won't put a camera on my time spend with the Theoi.

The biggest reason is that I'm simply not willing to put The Truth™ out there. I'm fine with giving a general indication of procedure, as taken from the various resources that are out there, but my personal practice is not the One True Way™. It's my way, influenced by the time I have, the place I live, the level of privacy I have (or don't have) and a mountain of other factors that have led me to this point. How you practice will be influenced by all those factors as well. We can both take the general way to prepare khernips and offer libations, but we will always do certain things differently. I encourage that, and feel that in putting my practice out there, I'm limiting you in finding yours.

Here, I must share that I'm not against someone video taping or photographing my rituals. I've performed public rituals where pictures were taken, and I've even held ritual for the sole purpose of getting pictures taken. In the latter case, a student from Belgium contacted a friend of mine with the request to photograph a witch's rite for an assignment. After a few e-mails with the student--who seemed genuinely interested and respectful--my friend contacted me and two others to do a ritual together that the student could photograph. We all agreed. One of the women got sick, but the other three showed up. While we drove to the location, I listed some clear instructions:

• We do our rite, and you get to take any shot you want, as long as you don't step into the circle
• After the rite, we will pose for you, if so desired, but during the rite, you need to be quiet
• No do-overs

The student agreed and as soon as the circle was drawn--this was in my Eclectic time, obviously--we forgot all about her. That was the key; we performed a beautiful and powerful ritual for the God and Goddess, and someone was there who took photographs from a distance. The focus was on the God and Goddess, not the camera. It's the same for the public rituals I've led; those who came weren't students, they were people who mostly came for the potluck lunch and the chance to talk to other Pagans. Most of them weren't even some flavor of Neo-Wiccan/Eclectic. There was no danger of spreading The Truth™.

I don't feel a camera takes anything away from the ritual at all; it's not some 'the energy will be sucked from the rite'-thing, but if I worry more about my posture and explaining what the heck I'm doing than about properly petitioning and thanking the Theoi, something is most certainly taken away from the rite.

I care about intention; if you're just going through the motions, it doesn't count in my book. That's why the ritualistic things I do in front of the camera do not count. As such, I can't show you more of my practice, because when I engage with the Theoi, I engage. I can't worry about a camera then, and I will if the sole purpose is to post it online. Going through the motions while involving the Theoi goes against my principles... and so I won't. 

That having been said, if I ever host a public, Hellenistic, ritual, I'll make sure someone tapes it for everyone to see. I'll be back with a video tutorial soon. I got sick and most certainly did not feel up to it. With life slowing down and my health returning, I'm good to go again. If you have any requests other than my step-by-step personal practice, I would love to hear it.