The Art of Ritual: Chapter 2: Myth, History and Symbol

Ritual has existed as long as there have been creatures to perform it. Mankind’s earliest rituals were sacrifices to Nature, to ensure a good hunt and the tribe’s continued existence. And do not mistake the concept of primitive for being stupid. Primitive man may not have had computers or Versace clothing, but they certainly had a lot of sophisticated concepts about life. The Neanderthal relics depict a people who had a belief in an afterlife, who had a deep connection with Nature and the animals around them, and a society that required of its members much of the same things that our modern society does. Do your job, gather the wealth that you can, find a mate, perpetuate your genetic information. That hasn’t changed in hundreds of thousands of years.

Frankly, neither have a lot of our rituals. We may have butane lighters and store bought wax candles, but Neanderthal would recognize the burning fat for what it was. And for many, we are still sacrificing (something) in order to ensure a good hunt. (A better job, a raise, winning the lottery.) It’s interesting that the three types of primitive society as identified by Joseph Campbell in his book, “Primitive Mythology”, are still visible in our modern world. He described them as one, the totemistic hunters, who are male dominated and use hunting as their main source of food; two, the hunter-gatherers, where the work load and the social status is evenly divided between the sexes; and three, the tropical gardening cultures, where women hold the power.

Oh yes, the women of the Stone Age. The earliest relics thought to have religious significance are female figures, round with the promise of pregnant abundance. The early peoples worshipped Nature; the sun, the earth, the animals that gave them meat and clothing, the wind—all the world around them was a mysterious and awesome place and they were very much at its mercies. So ritual was a way to appease these spirits, to placate the forces of Nature so that there would be food and shelter, to ensure a good life for the tribe. These rituals were tied to the seasons, tied to the cycle of planting and harvesting, and from them come our own celebrations and holidays.

Early man used symbols instinctively. They had no understanding of science as we do now and so their comprehension of the world was simply this: it was magic. Within their rituals, they used symbols that would make the desired magic happen. There are two types of magic: spatiotemporal connection or “sympathetic magic”, such as consuming the part of an animal to gain a specific power (drinking ox blood to gain the animal’s strength) or phenomenal similarity, known as “imitative magic”, like drumming to mimic thunder in order to cause rain.

They used specific symbols in their rituals to create a reality that everyone in the tribe understood and agreed with which then became the basis for their daily life. They maintained tribal bonding/cohesion by using the participation mystique as the driving force to give their symbolic and actual lives its spiritual quality. Humans still think in magical terms and this innate quality is what allows symbol, ritual, myth and religion to manifest in our lives.

“In times past man’s religion provided the link with the world of the unconscious. The inner realm of man was taken into account by man’s religious outlook, and his mythology and cosmology were like charts of the soul. Once man lost this dimension to his religion he also lost contact with the unconscious. Rejected and separated from consciousness, the unconscious turned hostile and in our century has erupted in barbaric wars, crime, and the sickness of soul so characteristic of our times.” John A Sanford, from his book, “Healing and Wholeness”

Part of the premise of this book is that we have lost touch with our inner beings; that our modern society splinters us and we cannot find the connection to each other. We lose connection with our own soul and are lost, sick and wandering in the chaos of modern life. We are encouraged to seek for mental and physical satisfaction: buy this, read that…keep up with Joneses and life will be good. As an industrialized and technologically advanced society, we should have more time for creativity of all sorts and yet somehow, we don’t. The labor-saving devices aren’t. Having more stuff doesn’t fulfill us and we don’t know why. Or how to find that which will fulfill us.

I would suggest that this hunger for connection, the seeking of a spiritual path and the associated rituals that will give us that fulfillment, help us find that connection, is the reason Paganism is one of the fastest growing religious groups in the US today. We have tired of urban lives, with sterile and meaningless jobs; tired of concrete and steel, tired of feeling…alone.

So what can we do to find that connection? What lots of people are doing, what the folks who no longer find satisfaction in traditional religions or who want to increase the spirituality of their established rituals are doing: we create new rituals or we update the rituals we have with more meaningful content.

Part of that content is the symbols we choose. Symbols carry two levels of meaning: the one for the entire community/society, and the other meaning that of our own personal interpretation. Symbols are the language of the unconscious mind—the individual as well as the collective unconscious. We begin with our personal unconscious, the things that we hold in our minds and then it broadens out to unconscious mind of our family, our tribe, our culture and keeps broadening right out to the worldwide collective unconscious and then out to the Universal unconscious. It is from the larger collective unconsciousness that our archetypal symbols are derived.

One of the specific archetypes that pervades all of mankind is the Goddess, or feminine energy. Tied into the natural world with its cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth, the idea of sacred womanhood is easily identified and understood by anyone. Even cultures that do not have a specific Goddess symbol have some representation of the creative forces that honors this particular archetype. The snake is a good example for how any symbol can have a collective meaning (transformation, creativity, temptation) and a personal meaning (your mother hated them, you got bit by one) and these two paradoxical meanings can create a myriad of connections for you whenever you think about snakes. This is probably true of a great many of our symbols, to have that dichotomy of meaning between our own interpretation and the collective understanding of any particular symbol. I would suggest that the very conflict in the meanings is what opens our minds to greater comprehension of a symbol, to explore more of it than we might if our personal meaning matches the collective.

Of course you know that a symbol is something that stands for, or means, something else. Within a ritual, the symbols we use serve as the gateway to “make the magic work”. It creates a group mindset that is in unison, working towards the same spiritual goal; it gives us a vehicle to reach that feeling of fulfillment we are seeking. According to Paul Tillich, in “Theology and Symbolism”, “…this is the great function of symbols: to point beyond themselves with a power greater than the symbols themselves, to open up levels of reality which otherwise are closed, and to open up levels of the human mind of which we otherwise are not aware.” A familiar ritual that offers us this experience is that of Communion. Whether it is the ritual consumption of Dionysius or the Last Supper of Jesus Christ, it is a spatiotemporal connection with the Divine. You know, sympathetic magic: eating a part of the god to make him part of you. It occurs in many religions and gives us the opportunity to experience something not found elsewhere. The symbol is the vehicle that takes us from the ordinary to the sacred.

We each of us have our own personal symbols, things that hold meaning only for us. It might be something from our childhood that brings back memories of afternoons at Grandmom’s, or perhaps it’s our team uniform from that championship season. And the meaning may be more than what other people see because we know what the “back story” is for that symbol. We also have family symbols, which have a particular meaning for our relatives. For my family, cardinals are inexorably linked to my grandmother who loved them. When I think of cardinals, I think of her—not the state of VA, for which they are the state bird, or Catholic cardinals. The first and strongest meaning is the cheeky red birds that my grandmother fed peanuts to. Our family symbols create connection and maintain a bond that increases our sense of unity.

All groups use symbols to create this sense of unity within their members. Logos and trademarks are a prime example of this. We recognize the symbol, we understand its meaning and feel like a part of its group…so we buy a particular brand, shop at a specific store, drive that one kind of car all because we associate ourselves with that symbol. How many people buy a Mercedes because of its symbol as a sign of status? What kind of sneakers are you wearing? Does it have a “swoosh”? And are they really better because of that logo, can you “fly” like Michael Jordan just because you’re wearing the same kind of shoes? No, but the hope for sympathetic magic is there.

Ritual symbols have the same effect. We choose our symbols to create a sense of connection, to give us a way to access the sacred. Whatever name you use for your concept of the Divine, the reality of it is so far beyond our human minds to comprehend that inadequate symbolism is the best we can achieve. Even atheists who do not believe in a Supreme Being have rituals and worship which use symbols to carry their souls to a place of spiritual fulfillment. Our symbols will have personal meaning (or why use them?) but they will also tap into that collective unconscious, generally without our realizing the connection until later.

Our ritual symbols also represent fundamental concepts of the Universe as well as common ideas and feelings from the whole of human existence. They put us in touch with the sacred in a way that nothing else can. What is the meaning of life? How about the mystery of life? “Because the moment you are most in awe of all about life you do not understand, you are closer to understanding it all than at any other time.” (from “The Search For Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe”) It is the moment at a concert, when the music moves you, and you turn to the person next to you and see your wonder reflected in their eyes; you feel that unity of the common experience and you are expanded, you go beyond yourself.

More than just moving us, sacred symbols also teach us. They are the components of mythology and form the underpinning of each culture. The various pantheons of gods and goddesses served as sacred beings, worthy of honor as well as being archetypal symbols of our own humanity. We could see ourselves in them and so their battles were ours, as well as their strengths and wisdom. We can then find the connection between our soul and the sacred Universe.

Chapter 2: Myth, History and Symbol -- Self Exploration:

Reflect on the following questions to better understand the symbols that are part of your life. Note your thoughts and feelings in your journal.

1. Personal symbols: Different symbols hold different energies and possibly different meanings for us during our lives. Think about the symbols that have been active in your personal history. Write or draw the symbols, what they meant to you, and how you used them.

2. The Function of Symbols and Understanding Symbols: Which of the symbols still have meaning for you? Is the meaning the same or different?

3. Sacred Symbols: What makes a symbol sacred for you?
Is there a sacred symbol that will help you in your present transition?
What does it signify to you?
How can it be of assistance?

At the end of the week, read over your journal entries. Write what you learned and anything new you notice from reading through your experiences this week.