RE: ritual garb

[haptalaon]

My husband said - and I thought it was important enough to add:

He always feels wary of wearing his ritual garb around others, in case certain colours or styles are limited to certain grades or qualifications. At least, initially. He doesn't want to imply knowledge or seniority he doesn't have. I think that's a very wise thing to take into consideration wrt your local scene - of course, one can never be eternally aware of what symbols every grove and coven use. But you probably can learn the language for the scene(s) you primarily interact with, and I'd agree that it's worth doing.

Comments

[jenett]

Definitely a sensible approach - I think it also depends a lot on context. People wearing stuff at a public or at least broad invite ritual is really different than something in a specific group context. But I also think it's incumbent on groups who do more specific restrictions to give guidance with their invitations if it's relevant.

(My usual advice to people is 'ask first if there are things you should avoid, if possible and they don't say, the usual issues are ritual cords and some kinds of jewelry - amber, jet, or the two in combination can give the wrong impression in some cases, for example'. But I mostly am in situations where most people wear a variety of colours of robes or clothing, and it's the cords, jewellery or stuff on their heads that's a signifier.))

We did have a Dedicant at one point who turned up wearing the pendant in my tradition that is the one given at first degree (available from a well-known US seller, Quick Silver Mint, so getting one wasn't hard). She was taken aside and had it explained to her.