Several years ago I downloaded an app called Sundial onto my iPhone, and it has created a lovely little ritual for me. What does Sundial do? It tells you everything you’ve ever needed to know about the movements of the sun and the moon: rise, set, peak, phases, length of day/night, solstices/equinoxes — you name […]
I’ve been reading Daily Rituals, by Mason Currey, as my bedtime reading. It’s a very simple read: brief descriptions of the daily working habits of scores of writers, artists, and composers. They don’t seem to be in any particular order, and a great many of them were already known to me, but it is nonetheless inspirational in […]
Every summer, I would go to the eastern entrance to the campus, and I would begin to draw the circle. Walking to the front arch, I would stand there with the great lawn at my back, facing where the sun would rise, and consider the element of air: the mind | intellect | breath | inspiration | creative […]
: Ritual action : [original post here] What kinds of actions are performed as part of the rite, for example, sitting, bowing, dancing, lighting fires (!), touching, avoiding, gazing, walking? In what order to they occur? … What are the central gestures? … What actions are not ascribed meaning? What actions are regarded as especially […]
: Ritual sound & language : [original post here] What is the role of silence in the rite? … Do the people consider it important to talk about the rite, avoid talk about it, or to talk during it? Are there parts of the rite for which they find it difficult or impossible to articulate […]
: Ritual identity : [original post here] 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 which are confined to it? … Who initiates, plans, and sustains the rite? Who is excluded […]
I’m revisiting my explication of 3 Old Men in terms of Ronald Grimes’ Beginnings in Ritual Studies. : Ritual time : [original post here] At what time of day does the ritual occur—night, dawn, dusk, midday? What other concurrent activities happen that might supplement or compete with it? … At what season? Does it always […]
I’m revisiting my explication of 3 Old Men in terms of Ronald Grimes’ Beginnings in Ritual Studies. : Ritual objects : [original post here] 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? […]
Back in March, I blogged a lot about the theory and practice of the 3 Old Men ritual troupe as I prepared to head out to Burning Man. This was before I found out that we were not able to go this year. We did, however, go to Alchemy, the Burn-like event in north Georgia, […]
Finishing our examination of Ronald Grimes’s mapping of rituals, from the second chapter of his Beginnings in ritual studies. : Ritual sound & language : What is the role of silence in the rite? … Do the people consider it important to talk about the rite, avoid talk about it, or to talk during it? […]