HAUNT Guidelines for Community Ritual Facilitation

A calling to facilitate a community ritual is a personal journey. Never to be done out of a sense of obligation or to fulfill a requirement on a spiritual path, instead, it is an opportunity to share with a larger group the joy and divine fulfillment from your own personal spiritual experiences. It is a personal something that is so amazing for you it wells up from within and inspires you to share. Call this divine directive, or inspiration, or calling. All spiritual paths, traditions, and lifetimes are different, so each will arrive at this point when they are ready. There is no set timeline or measure of days which could define when you are ready to facilitate community ritual, but it is never the task of a novice.

While exceptions can be made, HAUNT requests that anyone called to community ritual facilitation attend HAUNT for 1 year, volunteer to assist others who facilitate for 1 year, and then on the third year of community involvement can volunteer to lead community ritual. This allows time for integration into the community and to develop the relationships and experiences needed to facilitate for the community. Apart of assisting other who facilitate will be mentorship and some community integration work to help guide and prepare you for this calling.

As a cooperative, HAUNT never dictates dogma nor practice, but we do have a collective obligation to ensure the peace of our community. To do this, we have tried to outline some foundational tenants of ritual we request all facilitators to consider when crafting a gift of ritual for community.

Ritual should cultivate an atmosphere of reverence, creativity, authenticity, and provide a meaningful and transformative spiritual experience for all participants, focusing on community connection, self introspection, and shared purpose.

Rituals should honor universal constructs, so regardless of all individual spiritual paths, they can follow along and participate. Draw from universal experiences such as the cycles of nature, the power of intention, and the shared experience of being human. Emphasize shared values, human connection, and the awe of existence.

Rituals should be held in a space that is inclusive, accessible, and enables participants to engage with the ritual in a way that resonates with their individual beliefs, needs, and ability to engage with the world.

Rituals should include key elements of engagement: a clear intention or theme, sensory and symbolic actions that evoke reflection and connection (such as guided visualizations, symbolic offerings, or communal actions), and a structured yet flexible flow that moves participants through preparation, enactment, and closure. Participants should not be passive observers but active co-creators, with opportunities to reflect, contribute, or connect meaningfully to the ritual’s purpose.

Above all, the goal is to create a space where every participant feels seen, included, and spiritually nourished, leaving with a sense of connection to themselves, the community, and the greater web of life.