Outdwellers

Within ADF, the concept of outdwellers has often been a concept that has confused some people. After this past Wellspring I had someone discuss with me how they felt the way they were dealt with during the main ritual was offensive, that was until the it was explained to them which of the various concepts of outdwellers was being used. People have taken vastly different approaches in how they are dealt with and I hope that what follows will prevent more misunderstandings in the future.

What is an outdweller?

This is a persistent question within ADF. The first way we can define them is by restricting to the fewest beings possible. This would be any being that could or would want to cause harm and/or disruption to your ritual work. In general, that would be any of the “evil” beings within a culture e.g. the Fomorians, Frost Giants, or Titans of the Celts, Norse, and Greeks respectively. Because these beings are known to work against the gods that we worship, they are considered disruptive forces that we almost universally do not want to have invited to our rituals. Within this category we can also include deities within the culture that we know don’t play well with the beings we are calling by name. As an example if we were doing a ritual to Loki then Heimdall would be considered an outdweller.

Another definition that is commonly used can be equated with the Germanic idea of ingardh and outgardh. The general idea of this is those outside of the community’s boundaries (outgardh) are not invited, but anything within them (ingardh) are welcomed. The question that arises here is what are we calling our boundary? That is really up to those present in the ritual. A common definition is “beyond the light of this works fire”, or if you are indoors, beyond the walls of the room/building. By using this definition, we are usually allowing in whatever beings are in that place and those that come with all participating in the ritual regardless of their culture. We usually add in a second part when defining outdwellers along the lines of: “all you not aligned with the purpose of this rite”. This helps prevent the technically welcomed, but disruptive, beings from attending.

The third definition is the most restrictive in who is allowed in. This is where we say that any beings that are not part of the culture we are working with for that ritual are now considered outdwellers. This prevents any cross-cultural issues, but it also can make attendees not feel that welcomed if their deities are not in the ritual’s culture. It was this definition that was being exemplified at the Wellspring ritual I mentioned at the start. The culture we were celebrating was all IE cultures. When the Native Americans were called out by name as outdwellers, it was because they are not part of the IE cultures and hence asked to stay away from the ritual.

How do we deal with outdwellers?

There are many ways that the outdwellers are dealt with throughout ADF. One way is to have a warrior deal with them and comes out of discussions with Ceiswir Serith. The idea is you don’t want to form any kind of relationship with these beings, so you have a warrior go and forcefully tell them to stay away. The evolution of this became that all the non-warrior participants of the ritual turn away when the offering is made.

Along this same line of thought, another method I have seen is to again try to avoid making any relationship with them. The example I recall is the person made the call to the outdwellers, and then walked out of the circle, put the glass of beer down, faced the circle again, and kicked the beer over behind them. There was no requirement that the people in the ritual not look in that direction. The key though was the person making the offering did it in such a way they they were least likely to form any kind of relationship with them.

If we don’t worry about forming a relationship, then we are able to be more polite to them. This evolved initially in my grove as a reaction to the warrior method. Here what is done is make it an offering like all the others in the ritual. Be polite, ask them to stay away, and then make the offering as you would for any other being, just outside of the ritual area. In essence you are saying, “Here’s some beer, you party over here with this beer and leave us in the ritual alone” This too has evolved to our current practice which is to make it more of a bribe. What we currently do is open the beer, show them and tell them that they will get it at the end of the ritual ifthey don’t disturb us. This forces us to acknowledge them twice during the ritual and affirm that they behaved.

One final method that I have just recently learned about comes from Anna Sowell. It involves the person making the offerings to the outdwellers stay outside of ritual and be in the liminal space and work with them to keep them out throughout the ritual. This does a few things. First, the person that stays outside the ritual becomes in essence a sacrifice to the outdwellers in that they are giving up the ritual to keep them at bay. They are also acting as a warrior because they are guarding the entrance to the ritual, however you define it. They are also forming some kind of *ghosti- with them through being with them for the duration of the ritual. As I examine this method of dealing with outdwellers, I can see a parallel of sorts to the peace formed between the Vanir and Æsir in the Norse lore with an exchange of some gods between the groups.

When do we make the offering?

This too has many variations. The most common one I have seen is mostly related to the layout of the ritual space. Many groves have an outdwellers area on the way into the ritual space. For practical reasons, the offerings are made on the way in. This works wonderfully well when you have a ritual space set up in such a fashion. If you don’t, it can still work, but you have to remember to do it before you get to the ritual space.

Probably the next most common place is somewhere before the hallowing of the hallows and/or purification of the space/folk. When it is done here, the offering becomes in essence part of the purification. We ask the bad stuff to stay away, then wash it all away from our bodies as we are purified. This also works well as it combines the energy and mindset of purification and coming into the rest of the ritual without these negative attributes, and keeping things out that would disrupt the ritual.

The latest that this can be done is just after opening the gates. The idea is that if we need to open the gates in order to have clear communications with all the other worlds, then logically we don’t have such clear communications before that point. Therefore, if we call on the outdwellers before we open the gates, they could theoretically not hear the call. If we do this after we open the gates though, we should have clear communication and there should be no reason for them to disturb us, assuming the offering is accepted. This is done after we have called a few beings in, and that could be seen as an issue depending on the beings. The other tricky part of doing it here is that the person making the offering can be considered polluted after the purification is done resulting in the need that they be purified once again.

With the bribe method of making the offerings, you need to remember to make the offering some time after you receive the blessings. As many of us prefer that our rituals are symmetrical in how beings are called in and thanked out, you can put them in the appropriate slot there. My personal preference is to thank them right before the Earth Mother so we get through all the thanks before taking the chance they will come back in. As long as you don’t forget to make the offering, even if it’s a few minutes after the ritual when cleaning up, you should be fine.

If you are having someone sit outside the ritual as in the fourth method, you need to re-integrate the person into the group. They have just spent the entire ritual warding your space both physically and magically. They have set themselves aside for a larger purpose becoming part of the sacrifice. The group as a whole needs to welcome this person back, thank them for the job they have done, and show them that they are once again one of us.

Forming relationships, or not?

Ultimately, no matter what we do, once we call attention to ourselves and make any kind of offering, we are forming some kind of relationship with the outdwellers. The question is to what extent, and how adviserial do we want the relationship to be. This is something that you and whatever group you work with need to discuss and determine. Most people and groups tend to fall on making as little of a relationship as possible, and often in an adversarial fashion. My grove and myself on the other hand go the other direction.

What my grove does is relatively unique within ADF. For our spring equinox ritual, we have developed the tradition of doing a chaos, or outdwellers ritual. We specifically call the outdwellers into the ritual as our honored guests. As we are doing a Norse ritual, this involves us calling the Jotun (Frost Giants) as a group into the ritual as our beings of the occasion. We do this while reminding them that we expect *ghosti- relationships with them for this ritual. Much to my surprise the first few times we did this, they do respect the relationship. The other part of this ritual is the goal we have. We are inviting them in and forming a relationship with them. In return, we ask that they don’t wreck havoc on our lives the rest of the year. Over the last 15 or so years this has worked well for us.

What kind of relationship you develop is ultimately up to you and any group you work with. A good default is to deal with the outdwellers in such a way that the group as a whole creates as little relationship as possible. As you and/or your group gets more comfortable with the outdwellers, you can slowly change to forming more of a relationship if you desire.