1<br >BEGINNING THE TRAINING<br >Children are the most prolific users of ritual. One only has to<br >watch them in a playground using time-honoured methods of<br >choosing sides， or chanting the old rhymes used in the same<br >way for hundreds of years to，see the truth of this. For the most<br >part children follow the herd instinct when very young and<br >copy their peers in manneris~s， usage of words and games，<br >and some quite strange and even ancient beliefs and habits.<br >(There are， of course， always exceptions， and some solitary<br >children show highly-developed psychic tendencies that may<br >or may not persist after puberty.) Ritual comes easily to them<br >and unlike adults they have not yet had time to build a barrier<br >against belief in the unseen.<br > By the age of four or five most children are able to join in<br >a celebration and both enjoy the occasion and understand its<br >basic meaning. There is no need to overburden them with<br >long-winded explanations; a simple outline is enough. Little<br >girls will enjoy the idea of dressing up in a simple white dress<br >and wearing ribbon crowns in the Spring， gathering flowers<br >and binding them into long ropes to dance with in the<br >Summer， or helping to glean for corn in the Harvest fields and<br >learning to make corn dollies as their great grandmothers did.<br >When Winter comes it is time for the ce~ebration of the return<br >of the Sun Child and the excitement of watching for the first<br >star to appear.<br > The learning of basic herbal lore will stand children of both<br >sexes in good stead， and the ancient ways of Albion will sink<br >deep into their memories to be passed on to the next<br >generation in their turn. Teaching the art of meditation to<br >t~i~6~en is giving them a means to combat stress and its<br ><br >