The definition of Rituals

Rituals are like big stones in a stream around which the water meanders, grass, plants and insects become home. 

They slow down the flow of life, let moments become slower and thus more sensually conscious, and stimulate a changed direction of flow.

Rituals break up the same processes of everyday life, give us support, security and limit us to the essentials in this moment.

Rituals value phases of development in our lives and anchor them for the future. The communion / confirmation, the wedding in "white", these are rituals that are important in our society and in which the appreciation of the moment becomes recognizable. Transitions in life can be anchored in this way. The old lost can be said goodbye with thanks; the new that is before us is to be accepted and welcomed with all its magic.

Rituals allow us to feel and to go out with these healing feelings. So the grief, the pain and also the anger about the lost has its place in a funeral ritual.

Rituals lose their value when they degenerate into empty shells, when they no longer allow us to experience sensually, when they become a limitation. For this reason it is important to become aware of the meaningful experience of a ritual and to consciously install it in everyday life.

The word "ritual" exerts a great fascination and arouses imagination and curiosity. In it we intuitively feel the encounter with the archaic, with what is deeply rooted in us, the unfamiliar and the unpredictable. When we let our minds wander, the word "ritual" leads us to dream-like images, sounds and worlds of the unconscious.

There are only a few papers on this subject in the literature. At the same time, rituals have been known to us for thousands of years; were and are used in a religious / spiritual and healing context. This alone shows that rituals have a high impact.

Studies by Huxley (1923), Eibl-Eibesfeldt (1967) and Konrad Lorenz (1950) show that ritualization and the rituals arising from it play a striking and important role in animal behavior. Rituals are therefore older than mankind.

In consulting, I am constantly looking for new methods to initiate effective change work for my clients and to accompany them in difficult life situations. Consciously used and designed rituals are an ideal medium for my work.

Rituals are a potentially powerful tool for dealing with emotionally explosive situations. They are particularly effective in anchoring change in the preconscious, in the symbolic, in the routine of everyday life, as well as in affective life.

I would like to dedicate future blog posts to the concept of ritual, its modes of action, forms and demarcations.