Quotes About Rituals

It's too bad that the idea of witchcraft and sorcery is a taboo subject matter.

I don't believe in God, in prayer, in going to temples begging God to give me and my family happiness. I am not asking everyone to be an atheist, but good thoughts are not spent in a temple.

When an orthodoxy decays, the old dark gods, the savage gods, win back their burnt offerings.

She was a great cook, but she cooked more for herself than for other people, not because she was hungry but because she was comforted by the rituals of the kitchen.

how to set up an altar, give offerings and prayers, and what to place on altars. Choosing deities is one thing, connecting and putting in work is another. Combine the two, selecting and connecting, and you have a powerful kinship.

circumambulation

Das ist es, was ich an der mosaischen Religion nicht ertragen kann: ihre Weigerung und Unfähigkeit, unzählige seit Menschengedenken existierende, aber längst sinnlos gewordene Gebote und Vorschriften abzuschaffen oder zumindest zu reformieren. [...] Schon sehr früh, ich muß es unmißverständlich sagen, habe ich am Verstand jener gezweifelt, die derartige Gebote streng erfüllten.

She knows the rituals, she knows how we're supposed to be behaving...But I think these things are impenetrable and fraudulent, and I can't do them without feeling I'm acting.

On the way home from school we go to the record store... [Cordelia] expects me to roll my eyes in ecstasy, the way she does; she expects me to groan. She knows the rituals, she knows how we're supposed to be behaving, now that we're in high school. But I think these things are impenetrable and fraudulent, and I can't do them without feeling I'm acting.

And what is religion, you might ask. It's a technology of living.

Every place is a place to practice. Every time is a time to practice. Zen is concerned with the thought we have this moment rather than with rituals or rules of behavior

My mother served me wine and water from the time I was 3 years old.

Surely an American doesn't want to get it wrong; if there is anything that England stands for, with its quiet central squares, its tweeds and twin sets and teas, the tight-lipped precision of its speech, it is that there is a right way to do things. This is where the right way has its ancestral home.

without honor and kindness there are no rituals in the world that make any difference

That without honor and kindness there are no rituals in the world that make any difference," he replied. "The rest is detail. Do whatever seems beautiful or of comfort to you.

Traditions are seldom lies; traditions reflect people's deepest beliefs and customs. They have their own truth

I knew all things were symbols of other things! I knew that all rituals were enactments of other happenings! I know out of our practical human minds we devised these things with an immensity of soul that would not allow the world to be devoid of meaning. And this statue represented love. Love above injustice. Love above loneliness and condemnation. That was what mattered, that single thing.

Amanda said, "Isn't it interesting: people never seem to bring liquor when somebody dies, have you noticed? Why not a case of beer? Or a bottle of really good wine? Just these everlasting casseroles, and who eats casseroles nowadays?

Everybody prayed; everybody lied about it. Even atheists prayed on airplanes and bingo nights.

I grew up going to church three times a week in my family. It's been a center of my life.

I'm not very good at being domesticated. I've tried. The domestic life I find claustrophobic - the rituals and habits and patterns.

Traditions are a common part of our lives. They can be good, and not all traditions are wrong, but sometimes they can take the joy out of life.

I propose that a scientifically sound set of hygiene rules could explain why the Jewish God was a jealous, monotheistic God: He could brook no compromise with the filthy practices of rival gods. Famously faceless, abstract, and unsuperstitious, the Jewish God was science.

Here's a good rule of thumb: Your own rituals are okay as long as they don't interfere with your responsibilities in daily life, or make you the subject of teasing or ridicule. Rituals become a problem whenever they prevent you from doing the stuff you're supposed to do, or when they get you in trouble.