Make the Rituals Great Again
We all do rituals every single day, some of them in our individuality, some others in our communities, and since the arrival of our lives in the digital realm, the cyberspace, or the soon-to-be Metaverse… We also do rituals with our hardware devices, in the best-verified faith that they will connect us to a reality effectively made by 1 and 0s (that deeply are just tiny electrical pulses or just the absence of them) that are then manifested in shapes and symbols that our human brain has learned to read, process and even learn and reply back.
Every time we dedicate our attention and even devotion to a specific act, we commit a ritual. Do you roll and smoke a cigarette? Ritual! Do you play PS5, Ritual! Do you gather with your friends to watch the football match on Sundays? Ritual! Do you trade cryptocurrencies or stocks? Yep, you are still doing… Rituals.
We can define rituals as symbolic techniques of making oneself at home in the world.
- Byung-Chul Han. The disappearance of rituals.
Rituals serve as a means of connection—whether with oneself, a partner, the community, or even the globe. Humanity has used them for this purpose since becoming conscious of our own existence, perhaps even before. Oh… consciousness! Yes, that little spark that can turn the ritual experience to a whole different level. Think about it! Be aware of it!
How can we cultivate awareness about the habits we form? If even playing GTA can be considered a ritual, why do we not always feel elevated or transformed by such activities? The essence of ritual lies not just in the action itself but in the consciousness and intention we bring to it. It's perplexing how the most mundane activities have the potential to be rituals, yet we often find ourselves feeling disconnected or like an out-of-place fragment in the grand tapestry of life rather than experiencing the divine glory and peace that fully embracing ritualistic living can offer.
This dichotomy invites us to explore not just the actions we label as rituals but the depth of engagement and presence we bring to them. It's one thing to mechanically perform an action, even with a superficial label of 'ritual'; it's entirely another to imbue that action with a depth of presence, intention, and consciousness that transforms it into a genuinely sanctifying experience. The challenge, then, is not in the act itself but in how we approach and internalize it. How do we bridge this gap between the mundane and the sacred, ensuring that our daily rituals truly connect us to the divine peace and belonging we seek?
Attention and Intention: The Alchemy of Rituals
In our day-to-day life, where actions often blur into the background of habit, the concepts of attention and intention emerge as the alchemists capable of transforming the mundane into the sacred. Attention is the act of directing our focus, our sensory and mental faculties, toward a specific object, action, or thought. It is the spotlight that illuminates what would otherwise remain unseen in the shadows of our awareness. Intention, on the other hand, is the guiding force behind our actions, the 'why' that imbues them with purpose and direction. Together, attention and intention are the twin pillars that elevate our daily routines into rituals, infusing them with meaning, connection, and a touch of the divine.
Consider the act of rolling and smoking a cigarette, a seemingly mundane activity. When performed absentmindedly, it is merely a habit, perhaps even a harmful one. However, when approached with attention and intention, the same act can become a moment of pause, reflection, or even meditation. The focus on the rolling paper, the tobacco's aroma, the flame's flicker, and the first inhalation can serve as a ritual of grounding, a brief connection to the present moment and one's sensory experiences. This doesn't negate the health implications but highlights how consciousness can transform the nature of our actions.
This principle applies equally to our digital interactions. The ritual of checking social media, for example, can quickly become a mindless scroll, disconnecting us from our surroundings and ourselves. Yet, with attention and intention, this same activity can be a ritual of connection, allowing us to consciously engage with communities, share meaningful moments, and even support causes we care about. The key lies in our approach: Are we lost in the act, or are we fully present, aware of our motivations and the impact of our engagement?
It all starts with a breath
René Descartes said, "I think, therefore I am," but… for real? I mean, can't we "be" even without thinking? I'm not sure about you, who's reading this piece, but the most incredible experiences I've had in my life have been entirely free of thought! From the deepest of meditations in which I could feel merged into the Universe, to the most sublime act of making love to a beloved woman, where I experienced not only the "I am" but the "We are, "not a single thought passed through my mind; instead, the common denominator was the (you can follow the experience right now!) air breathing in… (still going in) and breathing out (and now releasing it…) to and from my lungs, connecting and intertwining my individual being with the environment surrounding me. I breathe, therefore I am….
https://x.com/anujdasgupta/status/1752992319937114155?s=20
Spiro ergo sum
That's a connection; this means to be, to live, to belong, and to recognize your individuality as part of everything surrounding you, as part of everything surrounding your environment, the Earth, and as part of the whole cosmos.
But of course, we are complex beings, we have further needs than just breathing… we eat, we work, we like the beauty of things, we relate to others, we dress up, we party, we dance, we connect... If you wonder how to make a ritual out of your day-to-day activities, just take a deep breath and call out the intention and attention you are giving it, and of course, place an intention to repeat it and do it! Repeat it, repeat it, repeat it…
The challenges within Rituals
We all have an energy within ourselves that's just love the comfort zone that disconnection from others can bring, right? Have you ever felt bored by other people's words, offended by their lack of empathy or attention to you? Would you feel silly in making a ritual around blessing your food before eating and thanking the whole supply chain that allowed you to have that meal at your table? Have you ever felt shy at a party, not willing to dance because you worry about what other people would think or say about you?
Although it is fair to have some sense of protection so we can preserve our energies, and avoid being impacted by external elements that might affect our inner calm and emotional well-being, it is also true that all these negative feelings might come from an unconscious overprotective shell that is just preventing us to grow, to expand our consciousness and connection to ourself or the community around us.
Our mind can be tricky; our mind tends to be very skilled in manipulating us to diminish ourselves, and it's natural, every time we break down that overprotective shield (we might find infinite of those in our lifetime), a part of our personality dies, and the whole function of our ego is to prevent us from that death. But as an old shaman once said: "How would I be reborn if first I don't die?". Please take these quotes easy; they are all metaphorical, and they actually refer to the ego (or some of its psychological components).
A general prompt to overcome these challenges is first to be in a listening state about your thoughts and emotions; yes, they might be challenging and painful, and we might even be willing to leave, to stop doing the ritual, and that's ok, we must accept that thought, but we shall not obey it. If we want to consecrate that ritual, we shall reconnect with our breath, the intention, and the level of attention we give to the act we are doing, connect with the eternity of the present moment, and forget about any other disturbance.
The Shadow Side of Rituals
However, not all rituals serve our well-being. Some, especially those performed without conscious intention or those that become compulsive, can indeed connect us to our shadows. These are the rituals that, instead of elevating us, tether us to cycles of behavior that drain our vitality and dim our inner light. The ritual of consuming news obsessively, for instance, can keep us informed but also sow seeds of fear and anxiety, connecting us to a world of shadows where hope struggles to find its footing.
The cost of such rituals to our well-being cannot be overstated. They can lead to stress, disconnection, and a pervasive sense of being lost in our own lives. The antidote? Consciousness. By bringing awareness to our rituals, questioning their purpose, and realigning them with positive intentions, we can transform even our shadows into sources of strength. It is not about discarding our rituals but about choosing them wisely and performing them with full awareness of their impact on our inner landscape.
Making Rituals Great Again
To 'Make the Rituals Great Again,' we must start with ourselves. We must sift through our daily actions, identifying those that serve us and those that do not. This process is not about judgment but about recognition and realignment. By infusing our rituals with attention and intention, we can ensure they connect us not only to the deeper parts of ourselves but also to the wider world in meaningful, enriching ways.
In conclusion, rituals stabilize life, and every act can be a ritual. Every ritual holds power to connect us with our inner and true selves as long we transfer its symbolic meaning into an intention of safety and belonging. The choice lies in our hands, or more precisely, in our minds and hearts. As we navigate the complexities of modern life, let us choose to engage in rituals that bring light, connection, and consciousness into our world. Let us make our rituals great again, not by returning to some idealized past but by moving forward with intention, attention, and an unwavering commitment to the well-being of ourselves and our local and global communities.
From I to Us: Introduction to Community Rituals
We can only create peace in our external environment if we learn to make peace within ourselves. The Regeneration space needs leaders who are able to transform the illness and dirt from society, from the MetaCrisis [add link], into integrative and sense-making actions that inspire the integration and embodiment of values and narratives that are aligned with Mother Nature, as well as with us as individual, collective and global beings.
One of the gravest problems of our day is the lack of commitment to common symbols.
- Mary Douglas
That's a challenging task, such alignment can't be found in a workshop, neither in a Twitter space, in a YouTube tutorial, classroom nor in listening few hours to a guru or a teacher. This is an alignment that doesn't need mental attention more than what it needs attention from our body and emotions… We need to give attention to our souls, separate ourselves from our Egos, and re:connect with our inner and authentic selves.
Deep within ourselves, we find divine guidance, love, and harmony that invite us to connect with others, to weave webs of inter-individuality that form one collective, and the only way we can follow this innate need to connect and become one from our individuality is through the magic of community rituals.
Sharping an eye on community rituals
As we mentioned before, a ritual is an action that implies intention, attention, and repetition, but might also imply symbols and devotion. To enact a community ritual, besides making these collective, we need to add some form of coordination around it. A coordination that might imply prescription, an invitation, a delimited space (physical but also digital), and time to be and share our practices together.
There are thousands of rituals we can do, but we just need to find those that better suit our communities and intentions. For example, if our intention is to celebrate life or maybe just bond with our community differently, a dancing ritual seems to be the most indicated ritual to perform. But If I party a lot, does that mean I'm a ritual expert? Well, it depends; if you have a clear opening and closing, if you keep your attention on the dancing (instead of chatting around with people you encounter), and there's a presence of the intention to it, then you are very likely doing it right! If you are a traveler web3 geek like me, you might meet BlockRavers. If you are looking for more intentional dancing rituals, then Biodanza and/or Ecstatic Dance are the rituals for you. Discopunk experiment is in the middle of both, a punk spirit movement using disco grooves to regenerate and heal human fragmentation by unveiling emergent cultural codes to revive the masculine and feminine through music, grounding, and dance.
If you like other embodiment rituals, where we lead our consciousness to our body, its sensations, and emotions while our mind just disappears in its transition to a state of just awareness, there are a lot of somatic practices we can embody. The most common and probably ancient practice present in today's liminal society is Yoga, which literally means union in Sanskrit, a harmonic mind-body practice that aims to merge the individual consciousness with the One consciousness of the Universe. Although it's not necessarily a community practice, group rituals are still an excellent way to get initiated in it and share jointly that experience.
Playfight, for example, is a practice of connection to our own body and other people's bodies in a safe and secure environment; it invites us to purposely shift our consciousness to the fight-or-flight state, allowing us to explore (again, in a safe way) all our individual and collective feelings that tend to hide in a society that is fakely driven by politeness and fear of harming each other (kudos to Ameen Soleimani for bringing playfight into the web3 community).
https://twitter.com/0xzak/status/1761850900472012969
There are also more sensual practices that we might do in communities, like sex-positive workshops, where we might be invited to go beyond the sexual standards or tabus of society and explore what sexuality actually means to us, to our body and heart without the induced limits of society, rituals where we are invited to expose us and sensually interact with new partners as long a mutual consent in built upon them. Remember tho, there's a shadow side of rituals (see section above this article), and bringing compulsion and ego into these practices could turn beautiful sensuality found in magical seductions among lovely and humble beings into narcissistic pornographic pleasure derived from the availability of a naked body being objectified.
Sharing circles are another amazing opportunity to bond and connect a community; they are intended to enhance the quality of the communication within a group of people by assuring they might flow from the integration of mind, heart, body, and spirit from every single member of the collective to the others. The ways of councils, in particular, is a way to strengthen community relationships by enabling a sharing circle experience for enhancing empathy and trust within a group of people by opening a space of spontaneous communication that follows the guidelines of the heart instead of those of the mind allowing vulnerabilities to be shared in a safe space of care, good intentions and healthy connections. Tamera, a healing intentional community in Alentejo, Portugal, a collective that has been granting their own regeneration through the practice of their community rituals, have developed Forum, a ****social technology for practicing honesty in community and relationships through **the embodiment and mirroring of their individual and collectives stories.
Just sitting up for group meditations can be a fantastic way to connect with your community; the unspoken language of silence might inspire our fellows to connect and regenerate in ways we could not achieve if we just kept talking from our minds. Bloom Network is inspiring digital communities to share these moments of quietness, grounding, and connection to the inner self while recognizing the own culture and sovereignty of the lands they are sitting on.
Humanity has been sharing stories while sitting in circles for thousands of years, giving the proper worth and reverence to symbols as common as a bonding fire, a magnetic element of attention and intentions for so many, a reference that inspires a sacred spirit to bond our souls. Of course, singing circles can also be the best vibrant representation of the embodiment of a community ritual, an opportunity for a group of people to connect among the sounds, frequencies, and resonances within our separate bodies to experience the collective embodiment that shared vibrations, meaningful content, melodies and rhythms that merge together into medicinal harmonies can provide.
There might also be exciting, deep, healing, and meaningful experiences we could live through experiencing medicinal plants and other psychedelic substances together as a collective ritual, but these are realms in which the experience might be too strong, depending on the capabilities of our minds, souls, and bodies. Do your own research (DYOR) and listen to what your intuition tells you before deciding in taking or not any substance. Psychedelics might be just a window for us to experience our own inner and cosmological existence, but that involves the risk of getting access to information we are not prepared to deal with, which might lead to counterproductive inner and collective development journeys.
If you want to access digital ceremonies, where the power of connections through sharing introspections is consecrated, Religio DAO is following the lunar cycles to set intentions and celebrations during the days of the new 🌚 and full 🌕 moon to engage people who want to bring sacredness to their lives into our Community Rituals (you can subscribe to our calendar Luma invitations).
Rituals as a gateway to the unseen
Once we deeply experience rituals, with the right intention, attention, and repetition, we start to realize how we are connected in a different way, a more integral and nurtured awareness and experience product of the individual and collective programming that rituals enable. When we focus on the details, the symbols, and the metaphors behind each of the elements within our rituals, we empower our subconscious to behave in a different way that is more aligned with our intentions.
Probably the most curious example is the ritual of praying or reciting mantras, a process of communication with the inner (our outer, depending on your beliefs, although some believe it's actually the same) divinity among ourselves. Rituals can be the most reliable (if not the only) way to connect to the flow of life, to navigate a sea of synchronicities that keep our lives better, more accessible, and, of course, more aligned with ourselves and our intentions.
Building Trust Networks based on Rituals attestation
Crypto technologies are enabling new ways of verification that people are getting together, few examples are out there that show how this can be designed and developed, leaving cryptographically secured and immutable digital traces of the happenings of these events among the individuals who participated in the basic idea.
A persistent collection of the traces of the individuals within a community (or actually a Meta-Community) that are integrating rituals into their common practices will evolve into a Mycelial Network of human trust built through rituals and the peer-2-peer attestation of people validating each other participation. Here is a single and fundamental example of the first Religio DAO ritual hypercert. We aim to create a meta-standard for people and communities to design and integrate their own ritual standards.
And what is the aim before tracing this data? Why should we worry about developing these primitives (and, therefore, the smoothest possible UI for integrating them into IRL experiences)? We can just imagine so many possibilities for this; the main and most possible one is just the Trust Network itself. The proper management of this data (by respecting the privacy and sovereignty of the data owner) would be the possibility to signal to the network how trustworthy an individual can be for participating and/or hosting a particular ritual, or maybe people might trust more someone for a specific task by understanding their records of rituals.
Not only can the data we can collect from these ritualistic mycelial networks serve other types of purposes, but is that the best-case scenario? We might build global community currencies that reward human empowerment and recognition of the sacred, but we might also use them as a governance primitive for, for example, these global standards/platform of ritual attestation we want to design.
Wanna help in the building? Get in contact with the author, or just donate to our Giveth campaign.