Real Life Rituals Section for Ancient Wisdom Online
You are a spiritual being having an earthly experience; it’s true. There are many ways to be ushered into the feeling state that we all long for….our oneness with our Source. We call it heaven, nirvana, bliss, transcendence, and a “high”, among other descriptive words. We all know it when we feel it.
Because you chose to spend part of eternity here on earth, there must be something within you that imagined you could achieve the spiritual insights you long for by spending time in this earthly plane. If you let them, the elemental aspects of earthly life can help take you to your spiritual center. Earth, air, fire, water, the rolling of the seasons, the birth of a baby, the death of an elder and all of the transitions in between can be special times of enlightenment.
Because the ultimate spiritual experience is beyond words, deeper than the linguistic layer of mental thought, you need something beyond words to get you there. This is where ritual comes in. The act of ritualizing the events in your life allows the inner parts of you, the deep soul parts, to keep pace with the outer changes.
A very ordinary example illustrates this truth. Imagine someone retiring from an office job where they have worked for 40 years. Imagine this person packing up the photographs from his desk, returning the coffee cup to the kitchen area, walking out of the door to his office and closing it for the last time. That’s it. No wonder so many people sicken and die within a few years of retirement.
Now imagine the same person having a retirement party, which is a very normal ritual. If it is done with love and awareness…if the deep life gifts that were given and received over the years are acknowledged…if the retiring person is inspired to feel that he has enhanced the lives of countless other people, not only his colleagues, but people his colleagues know and generations to come….if he knows that lives are better because he walked with those people…then his retirement becomes the coming home of a hero. He is changed at depth because of this ritual and the sacred truths that were revealed. Such is the power of ritual.
Successful rituals take you to a place deeper than words. Rituals link elements of the earthly world with deep truths at your soul level, thus nurturing your earthy self and your eternal self. They satisfy in ways your spirit understands, often bypassing your intellectual logic.
A ritual can be elaborate or humble, planned or spontaneous, personal or public, for the very young, the very old, and all ages in between. The underlying significance of the ritual is its sacred meaning; it makes the ordinary - holy. It’s primary purpose can be to initiate, create, dissolve, merge, celebrate, heal, praise, surrender, witness, change, greet or say good bye; and there are as many more purposes for a ritual as there are holy moments in a lifetime.
Ancient Wisdom Online Offers Rituals
Included here are five free rituals:
A ritual for establishing a learning environment in a classroom
A Mother’s Day Ritual
A New Year’s Ritual
A ritual for preparing a child for their first day of school
A ritual for starting a business
You are encouraged to modify these rituals to fit your purposes. With a little practice you can give the gift of a well-constructed ritual to help an individual, a family, or a group enter into sacred time and space for important inner work.
You are also invited to order my book, Real Life Rituals, in which there are twenty-three rituals and many more suggestions for constructing and celebrating your own. These twenty-three rituals are also available for individual purchase. |
