Quotes About Ritual

Alexandria and its scholars […] never mistook the true nature of the past; they knew it to be the source of an ever-shifting present in which new readers engaged with old books which became new in the reading process. Every reader exists to ensure for a certain book a modest immortality. Reading is, in this sense, a ritual of rebirth.

Orgy-porgy, round and round and round, beating one another in six-eight time.

modo de hacerlo por sí mismo. Ése es el sentido, supongo, del ritual tibetano: alguien que esté ahí sentado todo el tiempo y diciéndonos qué es qué.

El servicio había empezado. Las tabletas de soma consagradas fueron colocadas en el centro de la mesa. La copa del amor llena de soma en forma de helado de fresa pasó de mano en mano, con la fórmula: «Bebo por mi aniquilación».

What old, earthy, Panic rite came to extinction here? he wondered.

The nails from a suicide's coffin, and the skull of the parricide, were of course no trouble; for Vesquit never traveled without these household requisites.

Any act, if in accordance with the will, is an act of magic.

26. These slay, naming your enemies; & they shall fall before you.

Il resto del suo tempo lo consumava in una liturgia di abitudini che riuscivano a difenderlo dall'infelicità.

El resto de su tiempo lo consumía en una liturgia de costumbres que conseguía preservarle de la infelicidad.

It was time for tea as it so often was.

Tea, thought Mma Ramotswe—no matter what was happening, no matter how difficult things became, there was always the tea break—that still moment, that unchangeable ritual, that survived everything, made normal the abnormal, renewed one's ability to cope with whatever the world laid before one. Tea.

This is the Tree of Forgetfulness. All the headmen here plant one of these trees in the village. They say ancestors stay inside it. If there is some sickness or if you are troubled by spirits, then you sit under the Tree of Forgetfulness and your ancestors will assist you with whatever is wrong'.

a true magician always knows the exact meaning of every word and action of a ritual.

The parading of a sacred image through the streets is an opportunity to consult the gods as oracles. Questions can be asked or presented in writing as the procession passes by. An accidental, intentional or perceived nod or tilt of the cult image can be interpreted as a 'yes' or 'no' answer, which might decide some very important issue in one's life. 'Should I marry so and so?' 'Was I overcharged for those sandals?' or, perhaps, 'Should I go home now?

the murmuring priests

Greek men developed a rather curious custom. Upon meeting another man, they clasped each other's right lower arms and touched their own testicles with their left hands. This was probably a symbol of honesty.

the dance ritual never ended, The small children just sat down one by one as they got tired.

Jesus never put up a tree and exchanged gifts, or left cookies out for Santa. He never made a harried last-minute trip to the mall, or spent Christmas Eve cursing at a toy that he couldn't put together. He celebrated Passover. So, if you want to be more like Jesus, pass the matzo.

The function of ritual, as I understand it, is to give form to human life, not in the way of a mere surface arrangement, but in depth.

We smoked the way other American families would have wine with dinner. For us, it was our sacrament. It was something that made a great life sweeter in every possible way.

Habits are the invisible architecture of everyday life.

Religious ritual is a way of structuring time so that we, not employers, the market or the media, are in control. Life needs its pauses, its chapter breaks, if the soul is to have space to breathe.

Where do we live symbolically? Nowhere except where we participate in the ritual of life.