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Indian Rituals - Part Two
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Having as a way of living.
Corporate systems, driven primarily by profit, have generated human beings that view
their humanity as a handicap for their social advancement.
Modern person has turned his back on his soul in order to succeed.
The Hopi Indians described this state of life long ago.
It was the time of Koyaanisqatsi: Life without balance.
During this time, a particular force would grow to unprecedented
proportions. Like with all ancestral prophecies, the one of the Hopi
tells us that our way out of this mess is our return to balance:
To discover our essential unity with each other;
to listen to the earth;
to cultivate peace:
To return to ritual.
This social character, so in tune with
capitalism has taken us to the edge
of consumerism and human survival.
There are not enough resources for
humanity to lead a life like the one of
industrialized nations, nor a need for
people to live as they have been
living in Western civilizations.
We will do well to listen to our ancestors.
The elements of ritual:
1. The opening -
The ritual has either a structure known to its participants,
or an explanation by a facilitator.
2. Participation -
Participation is done according to rank or order, in which participants perform
similar of different activities during the ritual.
3. Act or re-enactment -
Participants are to express themselves or infuse previous expression
with their lives.
4. Meaning -
The ritual has either collective meaning or personal relevance for those participating
in it. In ritual every act is meaningful.
5. Relevance -
Each participant is relevant to the process of the ritual and as such is equal to other
participants.
6. No time -
The ritual takes place beyond conventional time.
7. No place -
''Dream-time'' as indigenous groups call it, is the land of ritual,
a space that defies our conventional space.
8. Soul -
The soul is the main activated element in each participant of the ritual.
9. Spirit -
The spirit is the transcendental aspect of every ritual.
10. Story -
Story either surrounds the ritual or emerges in it. But there is always story in ritual.
11. Order -
There is a sense of order in the ritual and chaos is at times part of this order.
12. Vision -
There is a clarification of perception, a conscious dream with ritual.
13. Mystery -
The unknown is always present in ritual.
14. Intuition -
Intuition is awakened in ritual.
15. Sound -
Words, chants, sounds of musical instruments, and even when the ritual is one of
silence, there is a distinct sound to indicate its beginning.
16. Air -
The air is purified for the ritual either by aromas, or by earth, water, sound or fire.
17. Creativity -
A ritual allows us to drop into the creative flow of life.
18. Conductor -
The conductor is someone who carries the ritual to its completion.
19. Sacredness -
The ritual is a manifestation and connection to the essence of life.
20. Closure -
The ritual comes full circle and reaches formal closure.
21. Generativity -
The ritual, like an original cell, contains all of the basic code of rituals in it.
22. Holotropic -
The ritual reflects back what the participant needs to see at that particular time in his
or her life.
23. Synchronicity -
The ritual brings forth co-incidence between the inner and the outer world.
24. Expansion of consciousness -
Ritual enhances one's consciousness into either lower or higher states of
consciousness.
25. Otherness -
Aside from putting the participant in touch with their uniqueness, rituals also bring
awareness as to the life and experience of others.
26. Shadow -
Rituals enhance our awareness not only of our own light, but also of our own shadow,
made of repressed or unconscious elements, particularly the ones that cannot find
expression into ordinary life.
27. Transpersonal -
The ritual puts the individual in touch with emotions and ideas that go beyond
personal life, either family lineage, ethnicity, generational, racial, gender, religious,
national or collective. This flow of material cannot be contained by the ordinary
personal consciousness, and the ritual provides a vehicle for them as well as a
protection for the individual psyche.
28. Transformation -
Rituals have the potential to transform psychic energy, releasing the individual from
stagnation and into the flow of life.
29. Integration -
Rituals are inclusive by design, systems of wholeness, where opposing elements
find their way into a balance whole.
30. Purpose -
Rituals aim at having the individual continue his or her growth course, giving birth
regularly to his or her sense of purpose in life.
31. Remembrance -
The participant in ritual is to remember him or herself that state of knowing without
thought or past, but by mere being.
32. Beingness -
Rituals shift the mode of the participant from ''having'' to ''being.''
33. Grace -
Even when there is effort and sacrifice by the participant, the ultimate realization that
comes from ritual is experienced as grace and not as the result of one's action.
34. Universality -
The ritual is not only contained in the universe. It also contains the universe, in the
same way that a seed that comes from a tree also contains a tree.
35. Journey -
A ritual is a departure from our ordinary existence,
a journey into awakening and realization.
So much in just a ritual?
One can answer that much is there, already,
in a seed, small as it may be.
Ordinary mind is but one filament of the seed, and as
such cannot contain it nor comprehend it. It may
describe it and classify it. Label it, but its actual life
will escape it. This totality of the seed can only be
made known to the totality of our life. We must learn
it with our entire being. Thus, rituals put us in touch
with our totality, giving us much relief of our sense of
isolation from the one life that is the essence of our
being and our community.
This text was gratefully provided by Indian Country Today
