The Power of Ritual and Ceremony

A ceremony is a unified ritualistic event with a purpose, usually consisting of a number of artistic components, performed on a special occasion. Ritual and ceremony are an essential and basic means for human beings to convey to themselves and to others the necessary messages which enable them to maintain their humanity. They communicate acceptance, love, esteem, a sense of identity and purpose, shared values and beliefs, and shared memorable events. Every ritual contains tender and numinous moments. And in those moments of transcendence we are taken out of the normal flow of life, and out of our routines. We are then in an event that is unique, irreplaceable and sacred. In ritual we participate in something deep and significant. They are moments which move our heart and touch our soul.

Ritual and ceremony are essential for a healthy and balanced personal and communal life. Many persistent personal and social problems can be linked to the lack of ritual and ceremony. The late Joseph Campbell, one of the great mythologists of the twentieth century, asserted that the level of civilized behavior in a society is directly linked to the practice of ceremonies and rites of passage. Rituals and ceremonies reduce tension, anxiety and stress, produce deeper self-awareness, and connect us to our community. They are a vehicle for belonging--to a family, to a people, and to the land. Both reconnect us with our deepest core values and our highest vision of who we are and why we are here. 

Ritual and ceremony nourish our spirits and our psyches. They heal the deep wounds in us that are unseen and unspoken. Ceremonials offer us a deeper healing solution to complex dilemmas that plague modern life, those problems that lie beneath the surface, waiting to erupt. When the soul is in a state of discontent, conflict and discord, these conditions manifest in our daily life's events as dissonance, confusion, ill health and misfortune. Conversely, when our soul is in a state of peace and harmony, these qualities manifest in our life as ease and acceptance, caring and accord with the world around us. From an shamanic perspective, the restoration of one's soul contributes to the restoration of the collective soul of humanity.

Ritual vs Ceremony

Ritual and ceremony are two distinct practices used to engage the powers of the unseen world to effect specific changes in the visible world. Ceremony is a formal act or set of acts designed to celebrate, honor or acknowledge what is. Ceremony is used to strengthen or restore the status quo, grounding people in the natural order of things and/or deepening communal relationships. Ritual is a formal act or set of acts designed to cause a change in what is--to change or transform the status quo.

Ritual and ceremony are a universal way to address the spirit world and provide some kind of fundamental change in an individual's consciousness or in the ambience of a gathering. They may involve prayers, chanting, drumming, dancing, anointing, as well as rites of passage. Both are designed to engage the spirit world in helping us to do what we are unable to do for ourselves. The power of ritual and ceremony is they marry the mundane to the sacred. Without the connection to the powers of the spirit world, neither is an effective tool for initiating change. By creating effective ritual and ceremony, we can skillfully engage Spirit in the processes we are involved in like healing, therapy or actualizing our goals.

Changing the World

Whether you realize it or not, you are creating your reality all the time. Your reality is the perfect, exact mirror of your thoughts and what you consistently focus upon. Every thought, idea, or image in the mind has form and substance. Everything that we perceive began with a thought. The structure of our universe is thought, mind and consciousness. Consciousness determines the form of our experience. Consciousness is the "theater of perceptual awareness." It is the collective consciousness of humanity that shapes physical reality. We are the universe made conscious to experience itself. We are mind. We live in a universe of mind. From photons to galaxies, life is conscious intelligent energy that can form itself into any pattern or function.
 

Metaphysically, the ultimate nature of existence is that there is but one consciousness which presides over a singular, yet multidimensional, field of energy that it can form into any patterns it desires by the exercise of its thoughts and intentions. And these patterns encompass everything seen and unseen. This consciousness has been referred to as source consciousness, universal consciousness, or cosmic consciousness. Moreover, cosmic consciousness not only creates patterns of energy, it can also perceive and experience them.
 

There is only consciousness, information and the perception of information, and this facilitates the creation and experience of multiple realities. The world that you believe exists outside of you is basically an illusion--it is a purely perceptual experience. Your experiences are real, but the outer world is imaginary. Your reality is only information that was imagined into existence and is essentially just imagery that your consciousness perceives. Perception is an illusory product of consciousness. The world around you is nothing more than a very convincing perceptual illusion.
 

If consciousness creates reality, then change starts within. It starts with the way you observe the outer world from your inner world. You can change the outer world by changing your inner world. The world is your stage. The stage that collective reality plays out on is just there to create a context within which to play out the story of your personal reality. You can create anything you want in life, and it is not limited to what already exists in the collective reality, but it does provide a host of options to select into your life. However, they are all optional--they cannot enter into your experience unless you invite them in with your thoughts. In fact, the collective reality can be a distraction that lures you into focusing on "what is" instead of "what can be."
 

Quantum physics points out that this is a participatory universe in which the power to change reality is literally in our hands at every moment. Modern physics is describing what indigenous shamans have long known. Shamans know that the creative matrix of the universe exists within human consciousness, enabling humans to participate in creation itself. For the shaman, changing reality is not just an ability, but also a duty one must perform so that future generations will inherit a world where they can live in peace, harmony and abundance.
 

Shamans access the creative matrix through techniques of ecstasy such as drumming. Rhythmic drumming is a simple and effective way to induce an ecstatic trance state. Shamanic drumming transports you to the creative matrix within. It is an inward spiritual journey of ecstasy in which you interact with the inner world, thereby influencing the outer world. Ecstatic trance enables you to participate directly in the work of encountering and transforming your inner structure, which mirrors your reality. Structure determines how energy will flow, where it will be directed, and what new forms and structures will be created. Through the transformation of your inner landscapes, you transform the external landscapes. You create new forms, new structures that are not based on hierarchy, estrangement and exploitation. You renew the Sacred Hoop of life on Earth.