I created this Earthseed ritual, drawing on texts from Earthseed’s “Book of the Living”.  It also draws on the Five Elements motif that is common to Neo-Pagan ritual. 

Adaptation is at the heart of Earthseed, so please adapt this ritual to suit your needs.  For example, you may choose other elements to represent change, or choose other texts from the “Book of the Living” to correspond to each element.

Preparation

Gather together a piece of clay, a bowl and a cup of water, and candle, a scrap of paper, a writing utensil, and matches or a lighter.  Find a quiet place to meditate.

Opening

To open the ritual, recite the following (change “I” to “We” if done in community):

All that I touch
I Change.
All that I Change
Changes me.
The only lasting truth
Is Change.
God
Is Change.

Meditate for a while on Change.

The Elements

Set the clay, the cup of water, and the candle before you.  Recite the following:

Create no images of God.
Accept the images
that God has provided.
They are everywhere,
in everything.
God is Change—
Seed to tree,
tree to forest;
Rain to river,
river to sea;
Grubs to bees,
bees to swarm.
From one, many;
from many, one;
Forever uniting, growing, dissolving—
forever Changing.
The universe
is Godʼs self-portrait.

Meditate for a while on the idea of God as Nature.

Earth/Clay

Take up the clay and mold it in your hands.  Recite the following:

God is Power—
Infinite,
Irresistible,
Inexorable,
Indifferent.
And yet, God is Pliable—
Trickster,
Teacher,
Chaos,
Clay.
God exists to be shaped.
God is Change.

Meditate for a while on the kind of change that is slow and yet inexorable, change that happens over years, over lifetimes, like the slowly churning earth.

Air/Wind

Put down the clay and turn your attention to the air around you, the air that you breathe.  Recite the following (change “I” to “We” if done in community):

I do not worship God.
I perceive and attend God.
I learn from God.
With forethought and work,
I shape God.
In the end, I yield to God.
I adapt and endure,
For I am Earthseed
And God is Change.

Meditate for a while on the kind of change which is caused by agents which are invisible to us, change that blows through our lives like the wind.

Water

Take up the cup of water and pour it into the bowl and back again.  Recite the following:

Chaos
Is God’s most dangerous face—
Amorphous, roiling, hungry.
Shape Chaos—
Shape God.
Act.
Alter the speed
Or the direction of Change.
Vary the scope of Change.
Recombine the seeds of Change.
Transmute the impact of Change.
Seize Change.
Use it.
Adapt and grow.

Put down the cup and meditate for a while on the kind of change that is rapid and hard to hold, that slips through our fingers like water and flows through our lives like a rushing river.

Fire

Light the candle with the matches or lighter.  Pass your hand over the flame and feel the bite of the flame.  Write something on the paper that is important to you, then burn it in the fire.  Recite the following:

A victim of God may,
Through learning and adaption,
Become a partner of God,
A victim of God may,
Through forethought and planning,
Become a shaper of God.
Or a victim of God may,
Through shortsightedness and fear,
Remain Godʼs victim,
Godʼs plaything,
Godʼs prey.

Meditate for a while on the kind of change that consumes as it transforms, the kind of change that is painful, and yet necessary.  Extinguish the flame.

Life

Turn your attention to your body.  Recite the following (change “I” to “We” if done in community):

I have lived before.
I will live again.
I will be silk,
Stone,
Mind,
Star.
I will be scattered,
Gathered,
Molded,
Probed.
I will live
And I will serve life.
I will shape God
And God will shape me
Again,
Always again,
Forevermore.

Meditate for a while on the changing nature of your life and Life.

Closing

When you are done, recite the following to bring the ritual to an end:

As wind,
As water,
As fire,
As life,
God
Is both creative and destructive,
Demanding and yielding,
Sculptor and clay.
God is Infinite Potential:
God is Change.

 ∞ = Δ