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The purposes of rituals are varied; they include compliance with religious obligations or ideals, satisfaction of spiritual or emotional needs of the practitioners, strengthening of social bonds, demonstration of respect or submission, stating one's affiliation, obtaining social acceptance or approval for some event — or, sometimes, just for the pleasure of the ritual itself. Rituals of various kinds are a feature of almost all known human societies, past or present. They include not only the various worship rites and sacraments of organized religions and cults, but also the rites of passage of certain societies, oaths of allegiance, coronations, and presidential inaugurations, marriages and funerals, school "rush" traditions and graduations, club meetings, sports events, Halloween parties and veteran parades, Christmas shopping, and more. Many activities that are ostensibly performed for concrete purposes, such as jury trials, execution of criminals, and scientific symposia, are loaded with purely symbolic actions prescribed by regulations or tradition, and thus partly ritualistic in nature. Even common actions like hand-shaking and saying hello are rituals. In any case, an essential feature of a ritual is that the actions and their symbolism are not arbitrarily chosen by the performers, nor dictated by logic or necessity, but either are prescribed and imposed upon the performers by some external source or are inherited unconsciously from social traditions. HISTORY OF RITUAL For centuries, indigenous cultures have gathered in ritual circles around camp fires to communicate with divinity and each other; to laugh; sing; dance; negotiate marriages; deal with violations of tribal law; share stories and conduct ritual. The ritual circle was associated with the idea of a protected or consecrated space, a ceremonial place where all participants were equal. Anthropologists tell us that civilization began when prehistoric people began to bury their dead. There have been many archaeological findings of ancient graves that clearly show that the deceased was buried with ritual. The bodies were not carelessly thrown into a hole in the ground, but obviously placed with reverence and provided with what were considered essential needs in the after life. No matter how grand or simply it was done - it was ritual. Ritual, for the earth based religions could be defined as the medium through which the art of magic is practiced. It consists of an action or series of actions, which may be entirely mental, or mental and physical, by which the power of magic is released and directed towards the fulfillment of a specific desire. Magic ritual is not some strange, exotic beast difficult to approach and apt to scamper away when touched. It is a common occurrence in everyday life. Ritual is all around us. Look into your daily life and see how many things you do are ritual. From the time your alarm goes off in the morning until you go to bed at night you have performed many little ritual activities. Can You list them? When you go to church on Sunday next, look around you and see if you can identify the many forms of ritual there. You might be surprised. Sacred ritual is a symbolic enactment with a spiritual focus that is performed by a person or a group of people. Ritual is a process whereby we may connect consciousness with spirit using the psychic tools of invocation, symbol, symbolic action and clear intention. The invocation is an invitation to the relevant divine aspect - the deity - asking them to attend and participate in our ritual. A simple symbolic act is the lighting of a candle, with the symbol being the flame itself - a symbol of inner illumination. Through the process of ritual we bypass the analytical mind and connect directly with the conscious mind. This is where communication takes place with symbol, intent and desire. Symbol is the nourishing food of the psyche and ritual is nourishment of the spirit. |