From Practices to rituals
As long as I still have my memory, I’ll never forget when I first saw the Kecak ceremony. Baraka was projected large onto a blank wall at my neighbor’s pad in San Francisco. The stunning narrative-free 90’s documentary employed incredible large-format cinematography, time-lapse photography, and a rich tapestry fusing images of nature, humanity, and technology. My kind of flick.
The ceremony itself is a Balinese trance ritual also dubbed the Ramayana Monkey Chant. After getting blessed by a priest, a dancer playing the Hindu god Hanuman enters a trance state and commences a fire-kicking shuffle—feeling no pain from the flames he prances upon.
Years after I saw the movie I was lucky to attend a ceremony in Ubud. While it was more performative from its origins and long since popularized as a tourist attraction - the chant still mesmerized.
The infectious energy fuelled my ongoing interest in ritual technologies.
Rituals vs. rituals
Uppercase ‘R’ Rituals are typically more formalized and larger in scale - think marriage or the Super Bowl. Often these rituals are rooted in community and have been shared or performed by others in the past like the Kecak above. These Rituals could be a part of an organized religion, include a rite of passage, and be ceremonial.
Lowercase ‘r’ rituals can carry symbolism simply because you color them that way.
I believe anything can be turned into a ritual if your intention is pure — your morning coffee, clipping your toenails, feeding your guinea pig. Or maybe you journal at sunrise, brush your teeth while uttering a mantra, or immerse yourself in nature walks (stripping out or adding in a dog and/or podcast as you wish).
A small ‘r’ ritual can be massaged to bear significance and hold meaning to you in whatever way you choose.
Discipline vs. Devotion
It’s relatively straightforward to set rituals and yet much more challenging to seize and sustain them.
A fun way I think about it is that a dormant ritual is waiting at bay - (like Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story) - eager for you to pick it up. It’s yearning to stretch its legs and is over the moon that when you at long last activate it!
Another way to discern between a practice and a ritual is through the energy that you bring to it. The distinction between discipline and devotion may be subtle but it’s significant.
For example, you may be disciplined in your practice of running three times a week. You are consistent and committed and you even get creative and leave your runners at the door as a gentle reminder.
But you could also be devoted to a ritual around running. Same activity but with a different intention and energy. Here, you enter into an annual marathon, travel to the destination, and run in tandem with your bestie and another 50,000 joggers.
When we intentionally design a ritual - we afford ourselves the space to be fully present and establish a different relationship with time. We allow ourselves to feel reverence.
Today vs. Tomorrow
When is the right time to design a ritual? In difficult times like we’re currently in the time is ripe. But really, the power of rituals cannot be overemphasized. And so the best time to begin is right fucking now.
Through rituals, we can become better regulated, more alive to possibility, and capable of meeting others and the world with more care and vitality.
I think a better question to start with is what’s the change you seek?
Understanding your underlying motivation can shine a light on what you‘re willing to commit. The attitude is not that you have to do anything in particular but that you get to perform something that serves you - maybe it’s sacred.
When rituals are part of your identity they move beyond a non-negotiable and become part of the fabric of your world.
Rituals provide scaffolding for our growth, redefine our relationship with time, and help us make meaning. Indeed a single ritual can change the trajectory of your entire life.