Everything Under the Moon

Hi everyone,
I'm starting to feel a bit more confident in my abilties and I have practiced faith, secrecy, will and imagination quite well. It's about time I start thinking about some sort of dedication ritual where I can begin working on spells and I will finally feel I can call myself a witch
So, I was curious not only about things I could do for myself, but things generally accepted by the Wiccan community and your own personal views on dedication and the like.
Since I'm non-deitic, I'm unsure what sort of ritual I can do that doesn't involve deities. I'm also unsure when I know I'm "ready" or what things it should involve. I was considering doing it on a certain day such as the soon-coming Beltane or if I should just go ahead and do it on any day.

So, what are your thoughts? Did you have a dedication ritual, and if so, what did it involve? Thank you in advance for your responses!

Merry meet, springsgrace!
I've never had a dedication ritual and am honestly quite confused as to what it is. So, could you clarify?

My suggestion is to start by reading and studying some of the self-dedication and initiation rituals in books. From there, you'll get an idea of some of the basics and then be able to write your own ritual. Once you have the basics down, you'll be able to find ways to leave out any parts of the ritual that you don't want, such as any deity invocations and the like. Your studies might also give you ideas if you wish to do something in place of an invocation. For example, some ceremonies include communing with deities. You can instead, if you wish, spend some time meditating, or doing another enjoyable activity that will raise positive, happy vibrations. I suggest writing your own ritual, not only to add personalization to your ceremony, but also, to be quite honest, I don't think I've personally read about dedications that didn't involve the gods. Well, wherever there's a closed door, there's an open window nearby.
If you visit our WITCHCRAFT & WICCA 101: TABLE OF CONTENTS, you'll find links to threads about self-initiation and self-dedications. Creating a Simple Ritual - A Guide may also be of help.
Best of luck.

I have had a dedication ceremony but it is not necessary, unless you think it is. There is no right or wrong way so to speak, but like others have said most initiation/dedication rituals I know involve deities. I would suggest (as others have) to look into some dedication/initiation rites that are out there and see what appeals or calls to you. Even if you are only working with the forces of nature and no real connection to a specific deity there is plenty you can still do and incorporate into your personal ritual. After looking at other rituals, I would suggest some meditation and introspection. Think about why this is important to you, and what you want to clearly define as your path. (It is always okay to change your mind at any time because we are not static beings.) As far as when to do it, that is completely up to you and what you feel is right and comfortable. I know some people that would stomp their feet and say it must be done while the moon is waxing, others on a full moon, others on (insert Sabbat or Esbat here). But it comes down to what you feel is right, no one else can tell you when it is time, if you are ready and so on. That only comes through study, and asking yourself the tough questions. Good luck.

I wrote a dedication and worked on it for weeks, when I was preparing for that. I used ancestors, listing the maternal line as far as I could go, which was only to my great grandma. It went something like: I N, daughter of N mom, daughter of N grandma, daughter of N great grandma do hereby declare ...etc. the N was the name of each ancestor. I got the idea from one of Silver Ravenwolf's books. I didn't have a patron deity yet so didn't use one.