ritual
the power of rituals
Sarah Drinkwater and
ritual
Patterns of Transformation: Designing Sex, Death, and Survival in the 21st Century
patternsoftransformation.com
The magic circle, a term I have borrowed directly from game studies, is the invisible perimeter between everyday life and an experience where different rules of engagement are at play. (Anthropologists call it the “ritual frame” and contemporary mystical practices call it the “container”.) The magic circle describes the limits of both the formal rules of an experience, and the informal norms that an experience allows for. It can literally feel like magic to be inside one thanks to the seemingly inexplicable shift in logic for how things happen and what is meaningful.
"We need regular rituals that compel us to turn & face the difficulties, the failures, the woe, the underside of things; spaces where we're obliged to confront & work through what we might otherwise avoid. Our lives and health would improve vastly if we did such things." — James Davies
Insights from Byung-Chul Han:
The rise of narcissism, the emphasis on authenticity, and shallow technological experiences are eroding essential societal bonds
We need daily and lifelong rituals to help bring narrative structure into our lives
In the past, people had time to contemplate information, consider its place within a larger narrat... See more
The word “practice” is such a wonderful word because it has time built into it: you can only practice if you practice
In a survey of 1,000 adults, it was found that 30% of people were eating dinner on the couch, and 17% of people were eating it in their bedrooms—two places where there is likely a screen and likely no conversation or interpersonal gathering. Remember that rooms have rules, and when we change the room, we create a vacuum of norms.
Jasmine Bina • A Time to Build Tight Brands in the Chaos of Loose Cultures
Even if you know what it feels like to be completely open to where your curiosity wants you to go, like Grothendieck, it is a fragile state. It often takes considerable work to keep the creative state from collapsing, especially as your work becomes successful and the social expectations mount. When I listen to interviews with creative people or re
... See moreCultivating a State of Mind Where New Ideas Are Born
We still instinctively long for this kind of belonging, as our sacrifices to sports teams, fraternities, or churches demonstrate.
Sarah Perry • Gardens Need Walls: On Boundaries, Ritual, and Beauty
sometimes the most destabilizing chaos isn’t on the world stage. Nor is it a public outrage or even a shared experience.
It’s found instead in the quiet chaos of our everyday lives: making a home, raising a family, putting a meal on the table. These mundane corners of the human experience are also where we find the loosest pockets of culture today:
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