The Importance Of Ritual

Short Papers Competition 2009 © 2010 Internet Lodge and the author Paper 5/2009 Title The Importance of Ritual Author Bro Darren Lorente – England Slaves as we sometimes are to the unnatural demands that today’s world makes on us we have lost touch with some of our spiritual essence. Ritual is a path to that essenc e and traditionally, it was religion and folkloric festivals that made use of this formidable mind- and soul- enriching tool.
But today, consumer society, with its cold and calcul ating precision, marks our da ily routine: productivity and the excesses of a narrow utilitarian outlook are attached to each and every part of human life.
Religion seems to be at the heart of international conflict and a divider of men and for many people seems to have lost its relevance.
But what is ritual? The dictionary defines it as: “A religious or sole mn ceremony involving a series of actions performed according to a set order”.
We could add that apart from being a religious or solemn ceremony, it is the door which allows us access to the myths, and in Jungian terms to the archetypes on which we have based our respective cultures and social systems. Trough ritual we perpetuate our ideas of birth, death and resurrection as well as our hopes and aspirations, encompassing both the past and the future.
Ritual is at the heart of Freemas onry: it is the basis and the foundation of the Craft and is its most important aspect. The fact that Fr eemasonry is “veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols” makes it a journey of epic proportions and in this sense learning the ritual is a ritual in itself.
The Delphic oracle exhorts “Know Thyself” and ritual is a tool that enables us to do so, for what is human existence if not the produc t of mystery? Science too is extrem ely helpful, but as an ontological and metaphysical tool, has its limitations. We must resort to something else and ritual could be that something else.
Through Masonic initiation, the c andidate is totally removed from his mundane surroundings, partaking in a spiritual quest or journey of self-discovery. The conc lusion of this journey may lead to the discovery of God, but on another level, it will also lead to self-improvement- hence th e Masonic analogy between building a temple and building the self-and does so prec isely through ritual, through the repetition of those actions arranged by a set order. Isn’t ritual akin then to magic? By affirming the words of the ritual over and over again, we are highlighti ng our wishes and desires and implanting these i deals and morals in our subconscious and thus giving them form and expression.
Of huge transcendence is the fact t hat Masonic ritual is charged with meaning and significance: where else do grown men talk about Brotherly love, Relief and Truth freely and with the appropriate degree of solemnity? We are exposed to many negative images and messages during our daily lives and ritual restores the balance providing us with lost values and ideals.
Only by knowing ourselves first can we ever hope to know what is beyond and above us.