Some Thoughts on Ritual and Spirituality

I remember reading somewhere that ritual (spiritual as opposed to daily rote activity) has its roots in childhood pretend and roleplay.  Perhaps that is why spiritual or religious ceremony does absolutely nothing whatsoever for me.  I’ve never been able to understand why reciting silly words and performing exaggerated actions, for example, is supposed to help one become more in-tune with the numinous or spiritual.  On a psychological level it makes sense– the use of certain cues or programming methods that trigger the brain into experiencing gnostic states.  To me these methods would be useless, and to be honest many I find to be quite ridiculous.  I still try to be respectful however, and keep out of discussion on things involving pagan or occult ritual, or I’ll remove myself to another area if I find I am about to lose my restraint and laugh out loud.

I also never quite understood the common fad with exposing the intimate details of one’s spiritual practice on the internet.  To me, one’s spirituality is a very intimate and personal thing, and I don’t think all of it was meant to be shared.  Somehow it seems to lose meaning when one shares it with a number of people.  It also seems to me like too many people are keen on turning their spirituality into their fandom.  When I see some of this stuff on the internet, my mind already begins to draw parallels with dominionist Christianity–the hype with injecting the spiritual into every iota of their lifestyle.  I never understood this line of thinking, and I probably never will.

I realize that in writing this entry I may get a number of people who will disagree with me, or rapidly lose interest in reading this blog, as I don’t tend to approach the topic of spirituality and spiritual practice with the extreme enthusiasm that some do.  That’s fine.  My purpose in writing this is not to criticize, but to merely voice an opinion and observation.  What people do is their business, but I still have a right to my opinion, especially if it is in a public arena such as the internet.