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Worship
When it comes right down to it, the things most closely associated with any religion are its practices. Ours are simple, and deeply rooted in meditation. Our services are called twice a week, usually at night after everyone has had their dinner and their fun for the evening, and lasts for an hour. This may seem like a bit much, but our days are 36 hours long, and our weeks have 8 days.
We have no sermons as such, but on the first service of the week the scriptures are sung, and the second service of the week is divided between meditation and ethical debate. The first is to get in touch with the spirit of The Mother, and the second is so that we might go about our business with a fresh perspective on how best to deal with the universe. The first of these services is lead by a cantor, an individual who must have a good sense of empathy, the ability to sing well, improvise, and read the scriptures, which are written in Song (though frequently with translations in the form of lyrics). The second service is lead by a member of the SehRasheme. The are no pulpits, or pedestals. The temple is a very simple building, much like a mosque, with the following circle inscribed on it's floor, and "the path" drawn around it.
The circle represents the entrance/exit of the Goddess's womb, and "the
path" around it signifies our progression towards spiritual
birth. "The Path" may be depicted in any number of ways, the most common
is a series of runes, which are the embodiment of various virtues which
the soul must acquire before birth. The temple is open constantly, and those
who are feeling out of sorts with the universe frequently take this symbolic
walk to remind themselves of why
they are here.
Magick
The universe as we perceive it is but a dream, and the Goddess is always listening closely to those growing within her. While it is always best to accept what lot is handed to you, so that you might learn from it, rather than chickening out and trying to get rid of the problem through supernatural means, the Goddess is also more than eager to reveal to Her children the dream-like nature of everything around them. With proper persuasion, and the right mind set, acts of magick can be performed. The Goddess is not interested in the imaginary sacrifice of figments of her own imagination, She is, however, greatly impressed with her dreamers who are willing to see the dream for what it is. In other words, our only magick is prayer, meditation, and a change of mind set. Faith and imagination are all that is required. (Earth practitioners might go so far as to say that their own rituals are only a focus for a marriage of their energies, and that of whatever they call their divine force) It's not of much use to those who do not have faith in our philosophy, but we find it amazingly effective.
Healing
While our magickal ritual is near non existent, we do have a relatively well developed system of holistic healing. It is, in fact, the only medicine we practice. It's not so much that we don't believe in other medicinal forms, we simply believe that our own approach is best, and have put our scientific efforts into other fields. It is usually the SehRasheme that practices this medicine, and teaches it to whoever wishes to learn it.
We believe that every ailment has three aspects; a physical, an emotional, and an etheric cause. In each cases, one is dominant, but all are present. For example, a bout of depression is primarily emotional, but can have it's chemical causes, and it's etheric repercussions. Lethargy is primarily etheric, but has it's emotional causes, and it's physical repercussions. Even a broken leg has emotional and etheric side effects which must be carefully treated. One cannot be truly healed until all three aspects are taken care of. Physical symptoms and causes are treated with herbal medicine, and etheric symptoms and causes are treated with crystal singing, for emotional symptoms and causes are treated with a prescribed course of meditation and reflection.
Gardens
Herbs for medicines are grown in the SehRasheme's "monastery", (a building separate from the public temple) in a garden, which may be indoors or outdoors, depending on the particular city, the the crystals are kept in a crystal garden (very similar to a Japanese rock garden) which is tended, and meditated on by initiates. Surprisingly, not all of the SehRasheme have the talent for crystal singing and crystal gardening, it requires a particularly calm and tranquil mind, to a degree which not even decades of meditation can produce in the most devout, and the audient sense. Each crystal type has a certain tone that is resonates to, according to it's use and "personality". It is no coincidence that many cantors, who may not even be members of the SehRasheme itself, are selected for the duty of crystal singing.
Crystal Singing
It is believed that the various parts of the Etheric body resonate to their own peculiar pitch when healthy, and an entirely different one when injured or sick. Those with the audient ability can, with practice, close their eyes and hear where a person's etheric body is in need of repair. The particular crystal with a tone matching what the injured part of the etheric body should be is held over the area while the crystal singer chants on that particular pitch. Very talented crystal singers can use various types of crystals to "tune" the etheric body before it is in need of repair.
"What Are You Sick Of?"
Any SehRashem will tell you that if you are sick, you are probably sick of something. We sometimes go so far as to take a play-on-words approach to divining the psychological cause of a given ailment. Frequently, if someone has a seemingly causeless pain in their neck, we ask ourselves who or what is that pain in her neck? Obviously, this takes much trial and error, but it does give us a starting point. Emotional wellness, we believe, is at the core of maintaining a person's over all health.