Special jewellery and a ring ritual

2015-03-15T18:58:29Z

Posted by: angelinflight

We were reading Dyscalculia, which is an interesting web-zine by the Desired Constellation about plurality, and discovered the notion of system-mate specific jewellery. The idea is that each person can have a piece of jewellery that only they wear, and it helps the stay focused on their presence in front, as well as helping others who know the system to identify who is in front.

I bought myself a ring yesterday at a market, and today, Fuzzy and I performed a small ritual to try to give it a little extra staying power. I cannot always stay in front reliably, so it would be nice if I could simply wear a ring and solve that problem. :)

The ritual feels a little personal to post online, but I will say that it involved a thematic altar cloth, an item from each of us, a candle, a singing bowl, and statements of trust and responsibility. I suppose I will update later about how well it worked!

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Shallow co-fronting

2013-10-23T06:19:22Z

Posted by: fuzzyjayling

I struggle a little with coming up with a term for this topic I want to write about today, but perhaps that's a good enough approximation ("shallow co-fronting"). Today's post is all about the this-world end of things, with borrowing/sharing. My language here will be plural-heavy, because that's what I'm familiar with. I should also preface this with a larger than normal "this is just how it works for us, hope it helps"!

What do I mean by shallow co-fronting? Well, let me back up for a moment.

What do I mean by co-fronting? (Or "normal" co-fronting.) In general, co-fronting is when two or more people are very close to front (see above, re: borrowing/sharing). This is like when you are viewing a YouTube cat video, and several people are standing to the side or behind you, looking over your shoulder. They may be commenting to you or to each other, laughing at what you are laughing at (or sometimes things you aren't laughing at, and vice-versa). In the case of co-fronting, the people near you are your guides/Others/headmates. Say you're web browsing, sometimes you might type a comment for them (or they for you), choose a different thing to look at based on their interests, and so on. Just like many people sitting around a computer.

For some, I think co-fronting is the only term here, and it means what I'm about to talk about. For us, there is a distinction, though, which I'll explain below.

For us, when switching, we start out in that place. When we actually want to switch, it moves to something that's a lot like co-fronting, but even closer. In that situation, we are occupying the same "physical" space. Each of us feels as though it's our body, but only one of us is actually controlling it. I call this shallow co-fronting, because of how close everyone is to the surface of this world, in front. And it has a variety of potential uses in ritual!

There will be a lot of analogies following :) because I hope everyone can find something that resonates with them.

An important property of shallow co-fronting is that, with a little practice, all of the people who are candidates for switching to front may hold themselves there. A little like switching, interrupted.

If you've ever had a still basin of water or something similar, and just touched your hand to the very surface of it (but not pushed through), then you have a notion of what this can feel like. If you haven't done that, I recommend it. It is a unique feeling to touch the surface of the water, literally the barrier between the air and water itself, and it may help with understanding.

Other analogies that may resonate with some people better, like toeing a line, or the sun just almost ready to peek over the horizon. Or, to go with my computer analogy above, everyone sitting around a swivelable keyboard and mouse.

For the person in front, going with my water analogy, they probably have a hand plunged into the water. What they will do is the equivalent of backing their hand out of the water until just a few fingertips are pushed through. Anyone else who wants to participate will metaphorically put their hands just hovering over the surface like I described above. If there are several of you along a line, perhaps you will step back to where you have only one foot over the line, and everyone else is toeing it. Perhaps there will be just one person with their hands near the keyboard and mouse.

Once you're there, you and at least one Other hanging out in the same space, everyone but you just hanging on the very edge, the fun can begin! This is like "normal" co-fronting, where you can type something for them, but instead of just doing something for them, let them reach forward and do it. Typing is a good exercise for this. It's not you typing, it's them typing. Then they can draw back again. Different fingertips in the water, the keyboard and mouse moving around to different people. Except it's their presence in this world.

For us, this is a unique sensation, not really the same as "normal" borrowing/sharing. No one becomes anyone else's Other, but rather, we are all here. We all feel present in this world. Because everyone is here, actual switching becomes very easy and fast. We could have a conversation with us and others all interacting at once. This is a pretty fabulous thing if you all want to participate in a conversation or activity happening out here.

And this is, for me, where this crosses over into being very useful in ritual and/or magic. Dove wrote about a ritual she participated in here. She was the main participant, but each of us (myself and Sparrow) all came forth briefly to read a quote in the ritual. Just one or two sentences. It worked pretty well. You could also do things like swapping out who is calling which quarter, or even do a multi-person "solo" ritual. We've used this in the past too, with some things where one of us was a "recipient" of the ritual, and someone else was more of an "officiant". Basically any kind of thing where you could have multiple physical people in a ritual who aren't acting at once, you could do it this way. Or even where multiple physical people would be active, though only you and your Others will hear/see it, probably. (Depends on the magic.)

What does it feel like? Besides my analogies above, it can be an interesting sensation like this body's sense of self melting between several identifications of feeling and appearance. I see myself with darker hair, and Dove sees herself with white hair, and switching between us, there was an almost palpable inner-eye feeling of hair colour melting down from top to bottom, as well as personal energy.

(I should also impart a warning here: This sort of thing has been known to cause headaches until you are used to it. And it's hard to tell whether it's an "ache so good" kind of issue. Please be careful and proceed with caution and sound judgement.)

I hope this helps, and I'd love to hear about other perspectives of how it works/feels or its uses in magic.

For some, this may come naturally, but for me, it's moving a little past "plural 101". :D I'll still file it there though.

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Another ritual, and a thought on limitations.

2013-09-22T04:38:28Z

Posted by: angelinflight

Tonight I was able to participate in another ritual with the three of us, this time (for the first time) actually being the main participant among us.

When your people (or Others, if you like) come from another place, they often have their own sense of skills and interests, talents and abilities. For me, I consider singing to be one of mine. It's a magic kind of singing that is typically intended to calm and heal.

The ritual tonight involved a lot of singing, but because of the limitations of Fuzzy's body, it was difficult to really get to it. There is a difference between idea and execution in this meaty world. :) It was really interesting, too, working with others with actual sheet music and practice. I don't think I've ever done this sort of thing. So instead of worrying about it, I simply rolled with it. What a neat experience!

I suppose that's what I was really trying to get around to saying: things do work differently here. I recommend using it as a tool for learning, humility, and enjoying it for what it is. Relaxed and in a positive mood is almost always the best way to do meaningful magic.

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Plural Magic

Special jewellery and a ring ritual

Shallow co-fronting

Another ritual, and a thought on limitations.