Quotes About Rituals

Religion arose out of celebration and its opposite, bereavement, both of which cry out for collective expression.

Writers are said to have superstitions and little rituals. Readers have them too.

I have had it up to here with my wedding, I said. The other day Andrea tried to explain to me that apparently I am supposed to have a new thing, an old thing, a blue thing, and something stolen. Borrowed, Kate, Barabas murmured. Who the hell even makes up those rules?

The key to forming good habits is to make them part of your 'rituals.' I have a morning ritual, afternoon ritual, and Sunday ritual. It's one way to bundle good habits into regular times that you set aside to prepare yourself for the life you want. Rituals help you form habits.

Religion is like magic. It is all about tricks.

We grew up devout Catholics, so my trips to San Juan always include going to the churches that we used to go to and lighting candles and everything. Everything I do in San Juan is what I used to do with my mom, kind of as a tribute to her.

In the past, rulers led their troops into battle and, even in peacetime, called themselves fathers of their people. And modern politics retains abundant masculine rituals. Prime minister's question time in Britain, for instance, is a stylised duel and tournament redolent of testosterone.

In my world, the dressing room was sacrosanct. The only time anyone was permitted to take pictures in there was when we had won a trophy.

Can monks, even if they are free of desire, cultivate rituals designed to cater to laypersons' attachments and longings and still remain immune to corruption? Or, should questions raised about compromise in the name of a standard of incorruptible purity be set aside as the unrealistic expectations of an idealism that is not appropriate to observing Buddhism on the ground?

Ancestor worship must be an appealing idea to those who are about to become ancestors.

Some people put their faith in violet-leaf tea, goose-grease poultices, garlic buds, castor oil, salt water snuffed up the nose, or hot coals sprinkled with sulphur or brown sugar and carried through the house accompanied by clouds of billowing smoke.

Men were worshipped in Caradore.

Many dark rituals have been conducted to drive you along your path.

Light was provided by baskets of burning bones. Skulls grinned from niches in the wall, presiding over offerings of braided, hairy plant-roots, which suggested the temple was still in use for all its appearance of neglect. On the far side of the chamber, bowls of lighted oil on the floor illuminated a ragged curtain, which was drawn across an alcove. Ays experienced a deep feeling of recognition. He knew that he was in the home of a god, and that he had been here before.

Just about every system magic advocates the use of a magical diary. It is important to record the results of exercises, workings and rituals, not only so you can see a progression in your work, but also as a reference book should you need to look back and repeat anything.

Invoking ancient entities is bad for the bones!

The thought of sex conjured murky, flickering memories of dark rituals he had performed, debasement, torture, unspeakable defilement of spirit and flesh. Despite his claims of indifference, he could not disassociate himself from those events.

superstition is remarkably powerful. The word 'shaman' itself is a creation of the Evenks, the native Siberians who live in the forests.

Sharing food has always had a central place in civilized societies; it's no accident that so many of our cultural, religious and patriotic rituals are involved with eating.

The great help of being in the Army is to understand why are the armies clever in what they describe as emotional intelligence, making soldiers come to terms with the death of comrades by certain rituals.

As a kid, there are some things you looked forward to. You looked forward to Charlie Brown during Halloween and you looked forward to Monday Night Football.

I have always thought that the place where you sleep or the place you share with your partner should be separate from the place where you write. The domestic rituals and details somehow kill the imagination. They kill the demon in me.

Without conscious rituals of loss and renewal, individuals and societies lose the capacity to experience the sorrows and joy that are essential for feeling fully human. Without them life flattens out, and meaning drains from both living and dying. Soon there is a death of meaning and an increase in meaningless deaths.

Thus, for example, all the aspects of the culture of Jericho would deserve a religious commentary. It is perhaps the most ancient city on earth (ca. 6850, 6770 B.C.),31 though it is ignorant of ceramics. However, the fortifications, the massive tower, the large public edifices—at least one of which seems to have been built for ritual ceremonies—denote a social integration and an economic organization that are the prelude to the future city-states of Mesopotamia.