What language do you prefer for rituals?

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[cele1989]

Hello, I was wondering, how this is for others and how I should do it:

What is your native language? mine is Dutch
What other languages do you know? I know English and a little bit French
What language do you prefer for your rituals, books,...

I would like a language that other persons don't understand (or at least no one around)
I don't want my mom or other persons reading my texts in my room. Hearing me speak it,...

Most people here speak all Dutch, English and French. I don't want other people who don't (want) to understand it, bothering me with the content of my rituals. I think it is to hard to learn a complete new language and use it, never the less some people might understand it. Maybe it is an option to make up an own language, but it is pretty hard to do so.

When I might have a daughter one day, I might pass my book of shadows to her, if she wants...I don't know what to do. Using Dutch is otherwise having respect for my roots...*sigh* I'm stuck

[Firaza]

Hello, I was wondering, how this is for others and how I should do it:
What is your native language? mine is Dutch
What other languages do you know? I know English and a little bit French
What language do you prefer for your rituals, books,...
I would like a language that other persons don't understand (or at least no one around)
I don't want my mom or other persons reading my texts in my room. Hearing me speak it,...
Most people here speak all Dutch, English and French. I don't want other people who don't (want) to understand it, bothering me with the content of my rituals. I think it is to hard to learn a complete new language and use it, never the less some people might understand it.
Maybe it is an option to make up an own language, but it is pretty hard to do so.
When I might have a daughter one day, I might pass my book of shadows to her, if she wants...I don't know what to do. Using Dutch is otherwise having respect for my roots...*sigh* I'm stuck

I speak English fluently, can understand home-centric Ilonggo vocabulary, and am conversational in Japanese. All of my practice, though, is in English, because I have a hard time expressing the complexities of my rituals and prayers in any other language.

I know that some practitioners write in an alphabet that they make up, so you could always do that. It's not as hard as making up your own language. As for other people hearing you speak, well, you don't necessarily have to say anything. In order not to disturb my roommates or make them suspect I'm praying, I say it all in my head.

[Fagan_the_Pagan]

What is your native language? mine is Dutch
What other languages do you know? I know English and a little bit French
What language do you prefer for your rituals, books,...

My native language is English.  I also know some Spanish and Irish Gaelic.  If I am working with other people on ritual, I use English, since no one else is likely to know Gaelic.

On my own, since I have Celtic influences, and my Patroness is Brighid, I try to compose poems in Gaelic if I feel I can adequately present my thoughts in the language. If I cannot, the message is more important than the language, so I may revert to English. 

[Lovesdalionking]

Hello, I was wondering, how this is for others and how I should do it:

What is your native language? mine is Dutch
What other languages do you know? I know English and a little bit French
What language do you prefer for your rituals, books,...

I would like a language that other persons don't understand (or at least no one around)
I don't want my mom or other persons reading my texts in my room. Hearing me speak it,...

Most people here speak all Dutch, English and French. I don't want other people who don't (want) to understand it, bothering me with the content of my rituals. I think it is to hard to learn a complete new language and use it, never the less some people might understand it. Maybe it is an option to make up an own language, but it is pretty hard to do so.

When I might have a daughter one day, I might pass my book of shadows to her, if she wants...I don't know what to do. Using Dutch is otherwise having respect for my roots...*sigh* I'm stuck

My native language is English, and sometimes I use English in my rituals.
My second language is Latin American Spanish.
My third is Mandarin Chinese,
My fourth is Russian.

I'm thinking for my rituals however to use Inuikuik (the Inuit's native language) for my rituals and Swahili. For some reason it has a bit more "omph" to the rituals then English.

[Horizons Calling]

What is your native language? mine is Dutch
What other languages do you know? I know English and a little bit French
What language do you prefer for your rituals, books,...

My native language is American English. I don't speak a single word of anything else. I'd like to learn Latin but suspect the odds of that actually happening aren't good.

I refuse to use any words I don't know the exact meaning of, so I do everything in English.

[NibbleKat]

Hello, I was wondering, how this is for others and how I should do it:

What is your native language? mine is Dutch
What other languages do you know? I know English and a little bit French
What language do you prefer for your rituals, books,...

I would like a language that other persons don't understand (or at least no one around)
I don't want my mom or other persons reading my texts in my room. Hearing me speak it,...

Most people here speak all Dutch, English and French. I don't want other people who don't (want) to understand it, bothering me with the content of my rituals. I think it is to hard to learn a complete new language and use it, never the less some people might understand it. Maybe it is an option to make up an own language, but it is pretty hard to do so.

When I might have a daughter one day, I might pass my book of shadows to her, if she wants...I don't know what to do. Using Dutch is otherwise having respect for my roots...*sigh* I'm stuck

I use English, which is my native language.  I figure the gods aren't stupid, and would more than likely learn new languages pretty fast.  As for having other folks hear you or read your stuff? Yeah, that's a really tough one. I agree with saying stuff in your head, or even -whispering-.  Writing things down is harder.  The Book of Shadows might just have to be kept under lock and key.

When a former friend of mine did a ritual at a river to her patron Roman deity in Latin... it just sounded strange to me, and I felt like I couldn't participate, since I don't know Latin. It might be the same later for your daughter, if you have to decode what you had to write in secret. Then again, it could be a great bond between the two of you.

[soccerfan31]

Hello, I was wondering, how this is for others and how I should do it:

What is your native language? mine is Dutch
What other languages do you know? I know English and a little bit French
What language do you prefer for your rituals, books,...

I speak Anglish, Scottish Gaelic, and have been studying some Welsh and German.

I used to speak French, but I haven't used it in quite some time.

Within a year or so, I'll have five languages that I'll be comfortable speaking in.

I prefer Gaelic for my rituals.

[RedLori]

What is your native language? mine is Dutch
What other languages do you know? I know English and a little bit French
What language do you prefer for your rituals, books,...

My first language is English (though you would never know it!  ) and my second language is French.
I kind of alternate between the 2.

I speak a litle amount of Japanese.
I also learned a bit of Hungarian at one time, but its quite rusty now  but I still think it's a beautiful language!

mostly I prefer to use english or french in religious practice though.  just becuase otherwise I could easily get confused and that takes focus off the ritual,or be concentrating too much on something else.

[Marilyn (ABSENTMINDED)]

What is your native language? mine is Dutch
What other languages do you know? I know English and a little bit French
What language do you prefer for your rituals, books,...

I speak six languages with varying levels of fluency.  English (my native language), French, Spanish, German (high from school, Mennonite from my husband) Russian, and Polish.

I usually just use English, since most of the others are rather rusty (uni was almost 30 years ago now).  The only exceptions are when I do something on my husband's behalf that he feels needs to be 'hexen-like', and when I want my primary deity to pay special attention. 

In the second case I generally just say his name in Anishinaabemowin.  I am less than fluent in it, but it is part of my heritage.  I would never try to do a whole deal in it, unless I wanted to disarm the old dog by having him rolling around laughing, but I feel that when I use it it reaches past his modern life and makes his ears perk up, so to speak.  It is a signal that I am deadly serious, which in itself is unusual in our relationship.

I feel there is something similar on his end, a sense-name that signals something important.  It's not anything I could pronounce, but part of me comes to complete attention when I feel it.

Absent

[TisiphoneSeraph]

Hello, I was wondering, how this is for others and how I should do it:

What is your native language? mine is Dutch
What other languages do you know? I know English and a little bit French
What language do you prefer for your rituals, books,...

I would like a language that other persons don't understand (or at least no one around)
I don't want my mom or other persons reading my texts in my room. Hearing me speak it,...

My native language is English which is what I use for pretty much all of my practice.

My mom speaks fluent French and Spanish so I speak a bit of both, though thanks to my Spanish classes in school, being in a heavily Hispanic community, and having traveled to Mexico, I speak the later with much more ease. Neither are really useful in a ritual setting though.

I'm learning Esperanto (I can hold basic conversations in it now) but that again is not much use. As is my Welsh and Scots Gaelic both of which are very rusty and irrelevant for the most part to my practice.

I would love to learn Old Irish or Egyptian but mostly for the research possibilities and I'm not recon, at least not at this point, and so it would be kind of useless.

As for using a language for the sake of secrecy, I have used codes to record information but that was very early on when I was paranoid about my parents getting a hold of it, a fear that has so far been unfounded so I've stopped. If you are going to pick a language for secrecy, I would make sure you love it and that it has meaning to you. That way you're more likely to stick with it and pass it down to your kids.

I wouldn't worry a whole lot about your kids though. Your practice is for you at this point in your life. If your starting out, don't let the future get in the way of the now. Once you have a more established path and you're closing to having kids, then worry about recording it all nice for your possible daughter.



Edited for spelling errors.

[Bleh, bleh!]

What is your native language? mine is Dutch
What other languages do you know? I know English and a little bit French
What language do you prefer for your rituals, books,...

My native language is English, but I'm also fluent in Italian and know a bit of Hawaiian.

I have recently started using Italian in my rituals and it has been somewhat of a challenge to get across the intricacies of what I could more easily express in English, but I have friends in Italy to consult with and the end result is so very rewarding. It's far more meaningful to me. It's sort of indescribable, the difference between when I use English and Italian. Chanting often plays a large part in my rituals so I love using Hawaiian for that. It's a more archaic language, but I grew up there, and luckily I have a cousin who is a Hawaiian language professor on the Big Island.

I would say that the only way you should go about working and writing in another language is if you are pretty fluent and comfortable with it. So, if you have any interest in learning another language, (perhaps try to pick a more uncommon one) choose one that speaks to you. But only if it speaks to you, and you feel drawn to it. I took Japanese in high school, but Italian called to me and I studied that in college and fell in love with it.

It's more difficult to pick up a new language on your own but there are definitely resources, maybe just pick up a college language textbook at a supplier, if there's a college near by you. If not, just hit up the library (I've found the children's section has some great picture-type vocab books that are really helpful, even as an adult!) and the internet. If you can find any books that interest you in that language, it's a great way to learn dialogue as well as vocab, but it can be somewhat tedious translating everything at first.

[Aescrof]

Hello, I was wondering, how this is for others and how I should do it:

What is your native language? mine is Dutch
What other languages do you know? I know English and a little bit French
What language do you prefer for your rituals, books,...

I would like a language that other persons don't understand (or at least no one around)
I don't want my mom or other persons reading my texts in my room. Hearing me speak it,...

Most people here speak all Dutch, English and French. I don't want other people who don't (want) to understand it, bothering me with the content of my rituals. I think it is to hard to learn a complete new language and use it, never the less some people might understand it. Maybe it is an option to make up an own language, but it is pretty hard to do so.

When I might have a daughter one day, I might pass my book of shadows to her, if she wants...I don't know what to do. Using Dutch is otherwise having respect for my roots...*sigh* I'm stuck

The only language I speak fluently is English so I tend to use that, although I did French, Latin and ancient Greek at school that was few years ago now.  I have found some rituals in books presented in different languages but as I don't speak them I use very few in case I mispronounce them (in some languages that can seriously alter the meaning so I'm told).
As for writing the easiest option to stop someone from reading them is to encrypt them, which needn't be that difficult or simply use an unfamiliar alphabet.
If by texts you mean books other than personal journals/book of shadows then there is a problem that can only be solved by keeping the books where no one will find them unless you want them to.

[UlsterYank]

What is your native language? mine is Dutch
What other languages do you know? I know English and a little bit French
What language do you prefer for your rituals, books,...

My native language is English, I took 4 years of Japanese in high school(very rusty now), and I'm also an Irish speaker. I'm friends with a few native speakers, and have attended classes at An Chultúrlann for a few years now. It's Ireland's biggest culture centre staffed by Gaelgeoirí here is Belfast, Ireland's biggest Urban speaking district with it's own Ceathrún na Gaeltachta. I use English and Irish in my rites, and will adopt other phrases in other languages depending on the ritual.

[Randavian]

Hello, I was wondering, how this is for others and how I should do it:

What is your native language? mine is Dutch
What other languages do you know? I know English and a little bit French
What language do you prefer for your rituals, books,...

I would like a language that other persons don't understand (or at least no one around)
I don't want my mom or other persons reading my texts in my room. Hearing me speak it,...

Most people here speak all Dutch, English and French. I don't want other people who don't (want) to understand it, bothering me with the content of my rituals. I think it is to hard to learn a complete new language and use it, never the less some people might understand it. Maybe it is an option to make up an own language, but it is pretty hard to do so.

When I might have a daughter one day, I might pass my book of shadows to her, if she wants...I don't know what to do. Using Dutch is otherwise having respect for my roots...*sigh* I'm stuck

My native language is English and it is the only language that I speak.  Took other languages in school, but as I had no reasons to use them, I lost them. 

When ever I used to perform a ritual (been on a hiatus for about 2 years now, but feeling the need to restrengthen my faith) I always performed them away from anyone that wasn't a part of it.  Therefore no one could over hear me or, more importantly, distract me.

As far as compiling a book of shadows, like others have said, coming up with your own alphabet is a good choice.  You can even get a font creator program so that you can type up you BOS. 

And as far as other texts that you have.  Like someone said earlier, lock them up.

[meown]

Hello, I was wondering, how this is for others and how I should do it:

What is your native language? mine is Dutch
What other languages do you know? I know English and a little bit French
What language do you prefer for your rituals, books,...

I have an additional question. Most religions have their "own" language. Jews have hebrew, Roman catholics have latin, muslims have arabic,...

I was wondering if their is such a language typical to witchcraft. Where was the origin of witchcraft anyway?

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