What is Ritual?

What is it exactly, that comes to mind with the use of the word “ritual?”  Is a ritual a daily habit? Are the words “ritual” and “habit” interchangeable?  Ritual seems to me, to be a more eloquent word than habit. To have a habit, is to have something so ingrained that I no longer have to think about the habit while I’m doing it.  My attention can be elsewhere because my actions are automatic.  Ritual, however, is focused attention.  Not only am I focused on myself, I am focused on the present moment and how that moment affects what is beyond myself.  Ritual attends to more than the individual.  Ritual speaks to the soul or to the spirit.

The word I use for spirit, is “Asha.”  There is neither an article for Asha, nor is there any possession – it doesn’t belong to anyone individually.  Asha simply is.  It is all-encompassing.  I am a part of Asha, and Asha is beyond myself.  Unlike the word spirit, Asha is far less limiting.  It describes all that has ever been, all that might ever be, and all that currently is – in and beyond everything.  Ritual is to me, the celebration of Asha. 

In ritual, so many elements of myself are moved.  I am moved literally in a physical way, and also in a figurative sense because even my consciousness, my understanding of something has been picked up and transported to somewhere new.  I move physically, my emotions are in motion, and spiritually I am moved because that all-compassing Asha is in motion.  I am moved to see the perspective that I am a piece in the greater workings of all that is.  And not only am I a piece, but I, myself, am an important part of that working.  I have usefulness.  For me, to find use is to find meaning.  I could almost use the words “usefulness” and “meaningfulness” interchangeably.  If I know where I am useful then I have found a purpose for that moment, and that is incredibly meaningful and fulfilling. 

There is a profound feeling of respect that is invoked when I use the word ritual.  A ritual captures me in the present moment and shows me my place in context to everything around me.  Ritual shows me my possibilities and demands that I take responsibility for those possibilities.  I am a part of Asha and I have my place.  I can make a difference if I make the choice to do so.  Even the smallest of choices that I make have an effect, because everything is connected.  Everything is Asha. 

Habits have their place in Asha, but a ritual is special.  It is a time to pause and focus on all that is in motion in and around me and show respect for all of the possibilities. 

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I will be hosting two rituals in the month of June:

Art Ritual: Come Play With Me! at Life Force Arts Center
Wednesday, June 1, 2016 at 7:00 PM



Summer Solstice Celebration with Chicago-land Pagan Circle at Dawes Park in Evanston
Saturday, June 25, 2016 at 2:00 PM
Purchase Tickets

Council Oak Montessori Renaissance Art Faire

Photographs courtesy of Byron Rivers Photography

Art Thoughts: Art, Play and Ritual at Life Force Arts Center

The current show at Life Force Arts Center is called Art, Play and Ritual.  It opened Friday, May 6, 2016 and will be running until September 20.  The very nature of art allows it to speak individually and this particular theme of Art, Play and Ritual allowed the featured artists a broad interpretation of what the words art, play and ritual convey to them and how it influences their work.  

Kumar & Nicole Javvaji collaborated on the piece Dancing with the Stars.  Nicole related that they were both very surprised with the results of the final piece.  They weren’t really sure what to make of it at first, leaving it up to the audience to have their own connection.  To me it was like a great adventure of Baron Munchausen perhaps on one of his escapades to the moon.  It is a fantastical piece full of wonder, adventure and just enough chaos to draw you completely within its story.   

Elijah Thompson paints in pure energy.  Cake in particular captures a childlike hunger for sweetness, the desire for fulfillment found in adulthood, and the final transcendence of acceptance which may in fact be sweeter than sugar laced giggle inducing cake.  

 Cake by Elijah Thompson 

Mary Burton was simply “drawn to the goat” in a study of pyrography.  It reminded her of her Aries mother.  When she was finished with the goat himself, she just decided “he needed a garden” and designed a frame to complete Goat Craft.

John Henderson studies ancient art and his drawn to creating his own unique pieces with reflections of the ancient works that move him.  His work is fully sensory.  It’s not a static two dimensional pieces, so before a work is finished John dances his dances over the work with his hands making sure that the piece doesn’t just look right, it has to feel right as well.  Poseidon’s Trident shows the flow of his work.

Christopher Bednash is another sensory artist on a mission to raise human awareness.  His giant globe is currently displayed at Life Force but is usually on a matrimony tour so that people can celebrate loving intimacy with our planet Earth.   

 Earth Wedding with Christopher Bednash

Beatriz E. Ledesma is showing two of her twelve series of mandalas.  A native of Buenos Aires, Argentina is an artist inspired by indigenous pieces and drawn to use her own creative voice to create modern and unique works.  

Lorraine Moretti was inspired by Venus to create a three dimensional tribute using stones, shells and sea sponges.  

Anna Applegate’s piece Berith Rides to the Sabbat really demonstrates the idea behind the Art, Play and Ritual.  She related that she created a ritual space and opened herself to the Goetic Spirits.  When she felt that the painting was finished, she discovered through research that the colors she had chosen, the horse partner, and the sigil design accurately depicted the ancient spirit of Berith without her having any fore knowledge of Him.   

Berith Rides to the Sabbat by Anna Applegate

Art is a discovery and that in and of itself is often a ritual.  Art moves emotion with us and allows a story to emerge from within.  

On Wednesday June 1 at the Life Force Arts Center I will be using these and the other works on display to lead an Art Ritual invoking the child spirit.  We will use the artwork as inspiration to tell the story, and in the process, discover our own story within. 

Book Thoughts: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

In her Best Selling Book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Marie Kondo has written the manual for the art of being tidy.  Readers are introduced to the simple notion that the art of tidying is a skill that must be learned.  This alone should instill a huge sense of relief, many people blame themselves because they feel that they “should be” organized.  However, if you’ve never been taught how to turn on the stove, the likelihood that you will become a great cook is fairly limited.  Tidying, having an organized space, these are things that are valued, and yet at the same time, no one seems to provide the training for this valued skill.  It’s assumed that one will figure it out for themselves. 

Marie Kondo would argue that it isn’t that simple.  Most people will be organized for a finite period of time, and return to the more constant state of chaos.  It all goes back to training.  Being tidy is something that first must be learned, then practiced and ultimately is an on-going process.  Being tidy is a mind-set and in order to get there, we really need to examine the way that we are currently thinking.  Marie Kondo proposes the drastic, “get it done,” approach.  She believes you can’t go at being tidy little by little, you’ve got to attack your lack of tidiness with gusto!  That way, you have a clear "before" and "after" picture.  In her experience, her clients never revert back to chaos because the drastic results manifest a life changing moment that is firmly etched in the memory forever. 

Like most skills, tidying can be broken down into just a few basic components.  The skill of tidying requires only two:  the first is making a decision whether or not to keep something, the second is to decide where to put it the thing you are keeping.  The keeping of things is actually the biggest challenge.  Many people store similar things in several different spaces.  That’s where Ms. Kondo comes to the rescue with a clear step by step manual.  If you go about tidying and organizing room by room, you will simply be spinning your wheels.  The process won’t adhere.  She recommends that you gather up all similar items in one place and attack it with gusto.  It is the only way you will experience the mental shift, by seeing all that you actually have and contrasting that by your actual needs.  

And that’s the rub of it isn’t it?  What do you really need?  How do you decide what items to keep?  Marie Kondo throughout her beautiful manual on tidying, keeps referring to items as almost sentient beings.  We put a lot of extra little attachments into our possessions, and that’s really the root of the problem.  All those possessions, all those things distract us from our own truth.  Being tidy isn’t about storing thing away.  You cannot organize clutter.  Storage is just a temporary means of hiding your disorganization.  If you want to truly embrace a tidy life, you have to be willing to address your own feelings towards your possessions.   You have to be willing to let go.  

Letting go is the most important part.  You can’t even think of putting things away until you have finished with discarding the things that you no longer need.  You have to have a picture of what you want for yourself and your life if you want to really know what you need.  It seems hard, but Marie Kondo states that it’s actually very simple.  The ultimate goal in every life is the same – to be happy. For your possessions to contribute to that goal, they too, need to make you happy.  

That’s why Ms. Kondo makes it clear in her manual, that tidying really needs to be a solo process.  You really can’t involve other people in your life because what makes you happy is ultimately your business.  Especially parents can have trouble watching their children let go of toys and mementos from the past.  The past may have been shared but the burden of responsibility for the possessions usually falls on only one person’s shoulders.  Often those toys and mementos are given as “gifts” to younger siblings or the parents.  Unless the item brings them useful joy, you are not giving a gift, you are giving a burden.  Likewise you cannot under any circumstances assume the responsibility for disposing of someone else’s things.  You cannot ever really know what brings happiness to someone other than yourself.   Especially when you have trouble knowing what brings you happiness!

Of one thing that Ms. Kondo is sure, the process of tidying will bring you happiness.  Particularly when she lays it out for you step by step.  Start with the simple category of clothes, then books, papers, those pesky sundry items and then the sentimental items and all those mementos.  Most people would think it would make the most sense to start with the hardest first, but not in this case.  Tidying is a skill that must first be learned and then practiced.  You can’t expect it to be a working on-going process if you haven’t given yourself an opportunity to learn how to do it by allowing practice and letting yourself make some mistakes.  

Not that I would know anything about tidying mistakes…hmm…

What I can tell you is that I myself now have eight bags of clothes for charity.  And…folding socks makes me expressly happy!