Portable Ritual

You may be getting tired of hearing about Curiosity Stream, but it truly is a lovely application. Nature, art, science, history. Nuggets of just about wherever, whenever, and whatever you desire. Recently I have been using it as a portal to the past, mostly to times and places either neglected or forgotten in my travels and education. A couple of threads, the Monarchs of Asia - Brunei, ancient Japan, etc., ancient Mayan kingdoms, and some recent excavations in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings have got me thinking about the place of ritual - not only in those rather distant civilizations steeped in history and mystery - but also in those examples more common in my “Western Civ” classes: Greeks, Romans, Persians, Nubians, etc.

It struck me that “ritual” in virtually all of these examples consisted - at least in part - as seeking “permission to pray.”  Sort of like the nautical notion “permission to come aboard?” Ritual placed you in contact with, or in communication with, the deity whose support or favor you were seeking. The problem came, as is often the case with our consistently fallible species, from our belief that anything worth doing is worth overdoing. Build a bigger cathedral, a more impressive mosque, a more beautiful temple, put a little more gold on your dome, memorize more prayers, say them more often to more deities, demonstrate why your faith is more faithful than other faiths, perhaps by wiping out those foolish other folks praying to strange deities. "Holy Wars" Crusades, etc., became all the rage. Or self-inflicted bloodshed. Just saw a piece on human sacrifice in a part of the ancient Mayan kingdom in what is now Columbia - sacrificed a dozen children and their accompanying llamas. If that is what you need to get the deity's attention I think I'll pass.

Now don’t get me wrong. Lurking behind the four tenets of Distilled Harmony is my firm belief that Harmony is the natural state of existence and it didn’t occur by accident. There is a Watchmaker behind this incredible watch we are living in, experiencing, newly discovering, and are still so very far from understanding. The four tenets are merely guideposts designed to keep us from straying too far from the path to the Watchmaker's Harmony. I admit I often lose sight of the path myself. Sort of a trees and forest kind of thing. Sometimes the trees are just so awesome!

But back to ritual. My Mother gave me a book she had enjoyed as a girl.  The Harvester by Gene Stratton-Porter.  Published in 1911. It is a novel, probably a "romance" if anything, but a very proper 1911 romance. Given that Stratton-Porter was a a naturalist and nature photographer it should not surprise us that she presents a very different take on ritual. One I am more comfortable with than those suggested by the rituals and sacrifices from palaces and holy cities, past and present.

As the title indicates, our protagonist, the Harvester, made his living cultivating "medicinal herbs" - 1911 remember. The book never references him attending any kind of formal religious ceremony - except when he finally marries his "Dream Girl" - remember, 1911 romance. But in explaining his views on life and the universe to her, he explains that whenever - in the midst of all his planting, harvesting, and feeding the little creatures of the woods - he encountered something of exceptional grace or beauty he would pause and say a quick two line prayer of thanks to whatever entity was responsible for its existence - ta da! Portable Ritual!

The exact words of the Harvester's prayer are unimportant - that way lies palaces, holy wars and human sacrifices. What is important is acknowledging the Harmony, grace and beauty of an existence yet a bit beyond our understanding, while still affirming our efforts to increase that understanding. My own Portable Ritual also differs from formal ritual in that I employ what I think of as "colloquial conversation." The notion is that "ritualized formal language" actually disrupts your dialogue with the universe. There becomes a "right way" to converse, failure to follow the right way leads again to palaces, holy wars, sacrifice, yadda, yadda, yadda.

So I do pause - as indicated by tenet number two, Enable Beauty, - when I encounter anything of exceptional beauty; rock, flower, song, sculpture, sunset or rise, face or form. I try to still myself, slow my breath and simply say, "Thanks! Beautiful. Excellent work!" And then I tuck my portable ritual back inside my heart and move on with life.