For the Good of All: The History and Use of Ritual
Noted anthropologist Margaret Mead states in her groundbreaking text Ritual and Social Crises that “throughout human history man has employed ritual behavior,” that ritual is an important part of the socialization of our species. In his excellent Magic of Ritual, author and ritual scholar Tom Driver states that “everything points to the supposition that our remote ancestors were ritualizing before they became human. This activity became a pathway to our human condition.” Other great thinkers like Ludwig Wittgenstein agree with Driver’s theory, but also emphasize the importance of ritual in human history with a link to the expressive and performing arts. In addition, there are interesting theories that rituals honoring the gods and goddesses were the progenitors to the arts. Ritual is a source of culture for the religions of the world as well as for speech.
Medieval historian J. Huizinga claimed that ritualizing play provided a foundation for culture. Huizinga is most noted for his seminal text, The Autumn of the Middle Ages, in which he asserts that ritual and play were given an important role in the Middle Ages and kept people connected to each other. “Every event,” he writes, “every deed was defined in given and expressive forms and was in accord with the solemnity of marriage, death—by virtue of the sacraments, basking in the radiance of the divine mystery. But even the lesser events—a journey, a labor, a visit—were accompanied by a multitude of blessings, ceremonies, sayings and conventions.”
The great academic Roy Rappaport undertook some of the most thorough studies of rites and ceremony among the tribes in Papua, New Guinea. Based on extensive research, he found that ritual stemming from the marking of time in the context of cyclical celebrations is based on the natural world, and creates and maintains order in societies. Rappaport calls this “context making” and states that “annual rounds of festival” surely distinguish the seasons from each other more clearly than the weather does. Rappaport goes so far as to say that the seasonal festivals and their accompanying ceremonies created the foundation and ordering of our lives and communities. He states most emphatically, “I take ritual to be the basic social act.”
We are experiencing a renaissance of ritual at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Perhaps a new society is emerging from the creative kiln of ritual. Ritual processes regulate our lives, individually and as groups. Anthropologists, psychologists, and other students of the human race have shown that ritual has existed since the dawn of humanity and has always played an important role in culture. Scholars of the psyche, including Freud, who eloquently addressed the role of ritual, speak of the power of ritual and how it brings people together physically and emotionally. Ritual creates “communities” from which spring a sense of unity, harmony, and belonging. Rituals are outside of time. In ritual, we are in a moment when we can shed the normal conventions of behavior. We all have habits or idiosyncrasies that are not generally accepted—clapping hands, shouting out with joy, ululating, ecstatic dancing, and talking to spirits to name a few. None of this is shocking within the context of a shared ceremony where everybody has stepped out of the routine of ordinary day-to-day behavior and is embracing life itself.
Ritual is work, play, song, dance, and an embrace of the spirit. Ritual is change and forward movement, an affirmation of life. Ritual is a set of symbolic acts that represent a higher state of being. It is a raised consciousness and the glue that binds people together. It is time spent with the sacred, elevating us above our workaday duties to a holy place within and without. Rituals are freedom, the power of love, and the joy of release through participation. From Haiti to India to the Vatican, ritual is a vital part of people’s lives. The benefits of ritual are many: aesthetic, moral, personal, and communal. Being conscious of the power of ritual offers many benefits on an individual level, for groups and communities, and even globally. Our contemporary culture is in urgent need of spiritual renewal, and ritual can replace the void of meaning in people’s lives. Ritual can even relieve the modern symptom of isolation that has so many people spending so much time alone and feeling lonely. In troubled times, ritual can heal hearts and restore peace and harmony. We can enact rituals that liberate our souls, open our minds, and transform our lives and communities.
The human heart longs for ritual. To be fully alive and whole, we need to engage creatively in ritual. We should be active participants in rituals, whether they are rites of passage for birth, adulthood, marriage or death; ceremonies of healing, grieving, or celebrating; or political performances aimed at changing society.
This book is intended as a tool for you to engage more creatively in ritual than you have in the past. The lore and lessons have come to use from history. The Witch’s Guide to Ritual can guide you down the path until you feel ready to take that leap of faith and begin to design rituals of your own.
I have listened to and learned from many masters of the craft of ritual, and the message is clear: Rituals are the rhythm of life When you design your own rituals; you are designing your own destiny.
While this book focuses largely on rituals for the good of all, it also reminds us of ritual’s power to do harm. Harm can be avoided, however, with mindfulness to intention and awareness of the short and long-term effects of the energy being raised and managed.
We have all read frightening urban myths about “ritual abuse,” where well-intentioned folks fall victim to the manipulation of a misguided ritual leader. This “danger zone” cannot be glossed over. Sadly, ritual abuse can occur not only in cults and covens, but history has shown that it has also taken place in churches, synagogues, and temples. As people crave ritual for the sense of connection and spirit, ritual can be used to influence and control. Keep this in mind, and if you feel uncomfortable with any aspect of a group ritual, excuse yourself and leave that circle far behind you.
The creation and performance of rites and ceremonies are some of the very best activities human life has to offer. Rituals are similar to works of art in that their power may not be in sync with morality. Keeping this awe-inspiring strength to move the human spirit in mind and being aware of the potential downside of power will go a long way in preventing trouble.
Ritual has been used to change the world in dramatic ways. Mahatma Gandhi used ritual Hindu meditation to help gain India’s independence. Gandhi applied his ritual fasting, the labor of his hands through the art of weaving, and his devotion to utter truth to help further his revolutionary goals. The Reverend Martin Luther King’s civil rights movement consisted of rituals, songs, and chants that started in southern black churches, where people were called upon to turn the tide and create reforms in civil rights. King and his followers used spirituals as a shield, chanting their gospel songs while facing down the police and soldiers. Nelson Mandela, born into the Xhosa tribe in the Cape Nguni region of Africa, ousted apartheid in South Africa in an equally inspired way. In his biography, Mandela recollected about his childhood that his “life, and that of most Xhosas at the time, was shaped by custom, ritual, and taboo. This was the alpha and omega of our existence, and went unquestioned.” Recently, we have seen suppressed traditions such as Wicca and other traditions of Witchcraft becoming popular. Wicca has a wonderfully straightforward approach to the subject of ethics through a strong code based on moral and personal responsibility. A brief outline of the three principles of the Wiccan way follows.
The Wiccan Rede
In his book, The Meaning of Witchcraft, Gerald Gardner states, “An ye harm none, do as ye will.” This statement encourages the individual freedom to do as you see fit so long as it does not affect anyone negatively. While you pursue your own interest, that is, think of how what you do affects others. This applies to all aspects of life, but especially with ritual and spell work because you are working with energies that have wide-ranging powers. This rule requires real attention and a high degree of consciousness in terms of assessing the repercussions of any action in regard to all the possible physical, spiritual, emotional, and psychological consequences as a result of all ritual work.
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