Allow me, first, to post Ms. Lawless’s thoughtful response to some of some of my talk on ritual:
This probably has nothing to do with what you’re interested in but I couldn’t help but notice that you’re interested in re-imagining meaningful ritual. What about un-meaningful rituals? And have you fully defined what the word meaningful really means? This might not be at all helpful but for a moment consider the word meaning. Stay with me for a moment: I think that if I don’t brush my teeth twice a day, I’m going to die. I also think that if I don’t have 2 cups of coffee in the morning I’ll die. If I don’t have these things, I feel like the world is falling apart. Then if I don’t check my netflix queue once a week and if I don’t check my email once a day I’ll die. Let me define “I’ll die.” “I’ll die” means the following: “The world will come crashing down. The things that I, a professed atheist, hold true will no longer have any meaning and the world won’t exist. It’s kind of like how I used to think of doggy style sex: “If I can’t see it. It’s not happening.” This is either Shopenhauerian or Spinozean, or whatever. You find out who that philosopher is and that’s how I see the world.
Other rituals I have are making sure the gas is off on the stove, checking 2 times to make sure my door is locked, when I mail things checking double to make sure my mail has gone down the shoot, checking the weather even though I’m inside, watching the simpsons or some other worldview-verifying show, checking my phone when I’m feeling a little bored, when people don’t laugh at my jokes to repeat it because I’m funny and they would have laughed if they’d listened properly. Basically, I like things to repeat themselves and they will. Because God is in fact, dead and Friedrich Nietzsche is really the author we should be pouring over. But none of my rituals are unique to me. I’m just woman enough to admit.
An eloquent point. But how can these rituals not be unique to you, if you yourself describe one of them as “world-view verifying,” others life or death (or at least in the sense of a perceived notion that a change in your pattern of reality will leave you in defeat)? I will kneel to the idea that the title of my web log is flawed soon enough. And the following is tricky, because it may seem as though I am splitting hairs (and I feel as though I may do much of it in this post). But allow me this: It is inarguable that these rituals you speak of are, on the surface, meaningless. But I wonder if this is a matter of philosophy or a matter of psychology. That is, are such things ritualistic, or are they habitual, compulsive? I don’t care for the notion that in our current society we do such and such things because we all have ADD or ADHD. Rather, I think that humans are creatures of habit. I also think, as Freud does, that many of our compulsions are projections of anxiety (though not all of it sexual anxiety, to be sure). Ritual, I think, transcends habit and enters into a more spiritual realm. And as I have said, I know that we can have spiritual experiences without a spirit world.
On the meaning of the word “meaningful?” I fear getting lost in an argument of semantics. Let’s go with the American Heritage dictionary’s definition:
1. Having meaning, function, or purpose.
2. Fraught with meaning; significant
This will work for what I’m talking about, because significance is key here (i.e. What is significant in the rituals we so commonly practice?) But I’ll go deeper into my own use (and/or) misuse of the word, and my own rhetorical tics a bit later in this response.
My own view of ritual is similar to that of Wittgenstein’s. I strongly oppose dogmatic ritualism- painting blood on doors for protection, slaughtering lambs, et cetera. The inherent problem with these examples is that there is a superstitious element. Yet I have a sentimental and reformist view of our own naturally occurring need for ritualistic behavior. I will concede that kissing a rabbit’s foot before embarking on a lengthy car-trip is as much a compulsion as it is ritualistic. And yet I find a marked disparity between Luck God ritual and Netflix queue-checking. I am not sure if anyone would argue that Netflix queue-checking could ever be significant. A calming reminder of things to come, sure. But a spiritually gratifying ritual? I can’t say I agree.
In an earlier post I spoke on the minor rituals of which we partake on a daily basis. I stated with some evidence that these little paganistic tics were rooted in superstition. Superstition is rooted in nothing and it is idiotic to be superstitious. We know this because we know there is no evidence for—first and foremost—the supernatural. If this tic is not rooted in superstition, and if it is, as Ms. Lawless has said, “meaningless,” than it is, most likely, a compulsion, which I think begins to transcend the philosophical world-view of benign habit and enters into a more psychological spectrum. That is, when the ritual is so thoroughly meaningless, there ceases to be a spiritual aspect (even some light sentimental undertones), and becomes more like a mental compulsion.
I would certainly consider myself a compulsive person. I do not fear I will die if I do not exercise within about an hour of waking up, but I will live a slightly sluggish day if I miss my morning work-out. So let’s talk about where compulsion transcends into ritual (or at least ask ourselves the question): Once a week I take a bath. I do not light candles, nor do I put on Lady Day and smile like a contented fool. But I do my little ritualistic preparations: I leave a towel near the bath so that I may dry my hands once getting in- this way I can read. I use various solutions of salts, perhaps weird soaps, that have a rather calming smell (though I do not necessarily believe in aromatherapy). I sit in the bath, read, and get out. I usually brush my teeth afterwards. This is a fantastic break from showering quickly, then hopping into clothes. I soak for an altogether different reason than hygiene (here’s where things get cloudier), though it does benefit that. I soak because it calms me. I would consider this a ritualistic practice, but there is no god commanding me, no doctrine, and I would never tell anyone who didn’t take a weekly bath that they were wrong and probably going to hell. It is essentially a ritual I designed to allow me to “get away,” albeit briefly, and I believe it is, for that matter, a vaguely spiritual endeavor, in that it brings me peace, and the peace achieved can approach a spiritual experience. It’s comparable to taking the family to Red Lobster every Wednesday night, I think, and I think that’s what I’m getting at.
When I first started this web log I called it “Re-Imagining Meaningful Ritual.” Then I wanted to call it more simply “Re-Imagining Ritual.” As I found that this title was far more apropos, I also found that I was sort of off-topic in many of my posts even for the broader title. Ms. Lawless raises some interesting points. After all of this thinking on Ms. Lawless’ comment, I tend to want to change the title to the domain name: “Re-Imagine Ritual.” It’s a bit more lucid-sounding, and it’s even broader, as in: Think about what you’re doing. Alas, I can’t change the title of my web log, or at least don’t think I can. If someone knows how, please let me know. Because I have spoken as much now of “meaningless” ritual as I have of ludicrous ritual, meaningful ritual, and ritual sans adjective. I worry I’ve dodged the overall question. If anything I can rest assured that we can agree upon what I mean when I say “meaningful,” and move on from there.
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