Quotes About Ritual

Superstition is a part of the very being of humanity; and when we fancy that we are banishing it altogether, it takes refuge in the strangest nooks and corners, and then suddenly comes forth again, as soon as it believes itself at all safe.

Why did St John baptize with water from the Jordan River? Why does the Church use water as baptism even now? What role has water played in the history of salvation?

How do you do that?" I asked. "What do witches eat?" "Witches loves pork meat," she said. "They loves rice and potatoes. They loves black-eyed peas and cornbread. Lima beans, too, and collard greens and cabbage, all cooked in pork fat. Witches is old folks, most of them. They don't care none for low-cal. You pile that food on a paper plate, stick a plastic fork in it, and set it down by the side of a tree. And that feeds the witches." The

Compare the cinema with theatre. Both are dramatic arts. Theatre brings actors before a public and every night during the season they re-enact the same drama. Deep in the nature of theatre is a sense of ritual. The cinema, by contrast, transports its audience individually, singly, out of the theatre towards the unknown.

In some ancient cultures, elder rituals helped men shift from warriors to elders. What kind of ritual might allow you to surrender instinctual masculinity for the elder's spiritual consciousness? Could you create your own ritual?

The general reason why Christ received baptism was, that he might   render full obedience to the Father; and the special reason was, that   he might consecrate baptism in his own body, that we might have it in   common with him.

The one thing I remember about Christmas was that my father used to take me out in a boat about ten miles offshore on Christmas Day, and I used to have to swim back. Extraordinary. It was a ritual. Mind you, that wasn't the hard part. The difficult bit was getting out of the sack.

I do this because we have always done this. I do this in a way beyond religion. I do this in a way of culture

Habit is the strongest thing in life.

We don't have too much ritual in our life anymore. And these life symbols which people rely on to keep their feeling of well being, that life is not too bad after all are required more and more.

Nothing in life is ritual.

Life for the Italians was what it was, no more and no less, an interlude between meals

If there was anything any Radchaai considered essential for civilised life, it was tea.

. . .there is an element of Play that is almost ritualistic in Black folk life. It serves to mediate the tensions, stress, and pain of constant exploitation and oppression.

we are simply not well adapted, evolutionarily, to be able to consume alcohol safety outside of the traditional context of ritual and social controls.

A religion without the element of mystery would not be a religion at all.

anthropologists speak of ritual leadership and ritual space.

Los empleados municipales lavan la sangre en la Plaza de los Sacrificios. • Octavio Paz

Broke the tassels from the birch-trees, Steeped the foliage in honey, Made a lye from milk and ashes, Made of these a strong decoction, Mixed it with the fat and marrow Of the reindeer of the mountains, Made a soap of magic virtue,

Watching a woman make Russian pancakes, you might think that she was calling on the spirits or extracting from the batter the philosophers stone.

E ho proseguito sul molo con passi pausati e lenti, cercando di non calpestare gli interstizi del lastricato, come quando ero bambino e con un ingenuo rituale provavo a regolare sulla simmetria delle pietre la mia infantile decifrazione del mondo ancora senza scansione e senza misura.

Perché in fondo l'abitudine è un rito, si crede di fare qualcosa come se fosse un piacere e in realtà si sta ubbidendo a un dovere che ci si è imposti. O anche uno scongiuro, pensò, forse l'abitudine è anche una forma di esorcismo, e poi la si sente come un piacere.

He who dances on his wedding day has lost all his senses.

A friend of mine has a ritual: He writes a poem every day with his morning coffee.