Is Ritual Unthinking?
How Prescribed Action Can Be Relevant To Your Life
Too often, ritual becomes atrophied and mechanical, no longer related to the person seeking contact with the world of spirit or speaking directly to that individual's heart. Doesn't the very definition of ritual include set forms and prescribed conduct repeated without variation? How can prearranged ways remain fresh and dynamic?
One way to address context and meaning is through the involvement of other people, even a temporary community. Howard Silverman, M.D., describes how when he was an overworked resident, he was invited by Carl A Hammerschlag, M.D. to accompany him to the Hopi Reservation which was part of his practice with the Health Service. Bill Tyner, the medicine man, invited Silverman to attend a Native American sweat lodge, the ceremonial practice aimed at helping participants stay healthy and balanced in all ways. Tyner may have recognized in the doctor a bit of awkwardness in being there. He asked Silverman to check his blood pressure in the sweat lodge which the doctor thought was Tyner's way of giving Silverman a rational reason for attending.
During the ceremony, Silverman gave thanks for being invited and wished to heal himself and to learn many ways of healing so that he could make a difference for his patients. He felt deeply moved when the other participants, whom he'd never met before, treated him as a relative and prayed for health, strength, and wisdom for him and his family. The Native Americans' responsiveness provided significance and support, freeing him from fear, rigidity, and attitudes of detachment that had accumulated during his medical training.
Native American author Lewis Mehl-Madrona, M.D., describes how ritual has the power to bring in an energy that is not our own. In order to do this, however, there are several requirements:
• The physical location of the ritual should be carefully situated.
• It should be understood by everyone involved that ritual is for the sake of transformation.
• The specific purpose of the ritual should be clearly stated.
Mehl-Madrona believes that ritual done sensitively rekindles faith. He tells of his own experiences in working with patients where, after a ceremony, a previously immutable problem becomes transformed literally overnight.
Dr. Mehl-Madrona's personal struggle to synthesize Native American and Western paradigms might not be that different from the artist's struggle in our culture. Their respective status on the edge of conventional society reflects a lack of cultural connection. Similarly, both the Native American healer and the artist have a strong appreciation of how symbols can arise naturally to contribute to healing. We are fortunate to be living in a time when imagery for healing is finding its way back into our culture.
Why should ritual need to be dynamic? When a ritual is practiced only for its form without openness to other levels of possibility, it is like a logo, the designed name for a product or company. It's meaning is static and lacks the flexibility that allows it to be relevant to many people and situations. A symbol, on the other hand, always stands for something more than its immediate meaning.
As psychoanalyst Carl G. Jung said in Man and His Symbols, "Symbols, moreover, are natural and spontaneous products." Arising from the subconscious, symbols are involuntary expressions, sometimes appearing to emanate from collective origin. They imply perceiving beyond the concrete ordinary senses. Mike Samuels, M.D. in his book Seeing With the Mind's Eye describes it this way, "The effect of a particular symbol is different for each perceiver of that symbol; but there are generalizations that link most people's experiences." Shared recognition also strengthens communal appreciation.
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