Continuing our examination of Ronald Grimes’s mapping of rituals, from the second chapter of his Beginnings in ritual studies. : Ritual identity : What ritual roles and offices are operative—teacher, master, elder, priest, shaman, diviner, healer, musician? How does the rite transform ordinary appearances and role definitions? Which roles extend beyond the ritual arena, and […]
Continuing our examination of Ronald Grimes’s mapping of rituals, from the second chapter of his Beginnings in ritual studies. : Ritual objects : What, and how many, objects are associated with the rite? … Of what materials are they made? … What is done with it? … What skills were involved in its making? This […]
I highly recommend, if you are interested in the inner workings of ritual, Beginnings in ritual studies, by Ronald L. Grimes. It’s introductory, nicely analytical, and clearly written, unlike that other pillar of ritual studies, The ritual process, by Victor W. Turner. Also useful and readable is Liberating rites, by Tom F. Driver. (This is […]
Ritual is an often-misunderstood term these days. To too many people it means “an empty gesture,” or “sequence of actions meant to effect a quasi-magical (or even magical) result.” But to those of us who study such things, ritual is very much a living process. Ritual offers Order, Community, and Transformation to its participants; those […]
I know, Marc is salivating already. (Well, he’s drooling, let’s put it that way.) As noted elsewhere, I am at a standstill in my creative life. Not only am I not working on anything, I have no impetus to work on anything. It’s very curious. This is despite the fact that I do have the […]
Okay, this one I do not get. That has to be because either I was at a fairly advanced spiritual state to begin with or I’ve never advanced beyond some kind of larval stage. What does it mean? When I was young, it would have meant “growing in Christ” or a “deepening relationship with God.” […]
Warning: long post ahead The Lichtenbergian Society’s impending Annual Meeting has me all aquiver, and I am at some pains to figure out why this is so. The mere whimsy of the association is one thing, the whole grown-men-forming-their-little-club aspect of it, complete with seal and charter; but that’s not enough to account for the […]
Ten years ago I was ABORTIVE ATTEMPTING my way through designing/planning for my first burn — which I thought was going to be Burning Man but ended up being Alchemy. (The blog posts detailing that process are actually excellent philosophizing, if not outright rationalization.) My theme camp, 3 Old Men, started out looking like this: […]
On the road to Canyonlands National Park, our final destination. The usual diary of our planet’s checkered past… The La Sal Mountains being a bit ominous. The drive into the park only hinted at the nature of the place. Across the street from the visitors center, large expanses of bare rock… …huge tracts of land. […]
After a hearty breakfast at Four Queens, we hit the road to Utah. First, we owe Avis a bit of an apology. Not a complete apology, mind you, because the scenario at the airport was unforgivable, but because at the Four Queens, Avis has a booth, and our intrepid leader (my Lovely First Wife) went […]