One function that religious ritual fills is quite simply social. Human beings like to do things together celebrate, rejoice, lament, and remember things gone by. And collective activity reinforces a sense of group solidarity, whether it is a matter of a Roman Catholic Mass, a municipal parade, or a group of women who get together to sew or make pies.

Another fact of life is that human beings like repetitive, familiar activities. Anyone who has ever been around a small child recognizes how she takes a strange delight in the familiarity of certain repetitive occurrences such as the reading of a favorite book that she has heard any number of times before. Adults are not so different. In ourselves we may recognize it in the desire for a cup of coffee at a certain time of the day, going to a favorite restaurant and ordering the same dish every week, or visiting friends and spending the evening in a completely predictable yet enjoyable way.

The part of the mind that likes this sort of activity is extremely important. It has many names in many traditions: in Hebrew, it is called the nefesh; in Arabic, the nafs; in Hawaiian, the unihipili. In today’s English we tend to call it the subconscious or the "right brain." It is the part of the mind that doesn’t understand words very well but responds extremely well to gestures and actions. And it is intimately connected to the physical body.

The subconscious is in its way rather childish, but it holds the key to a person’s vital energy. You will not be able to accomplish much without its consent. If it doesn’t like what you’re up to, it will make mistakes, forget, or if all else fails will simply get sick.

Ritual is a way of making contact with this somewhat primitive but extremely powerful part of the mind. Indeed much of religious rites are can be simply understood as a means of getting the subconscious to take the spiritual life seriously. One of the most interesting cases is that of Freemasonry, a fraternal lodge that embodies some very ancient and profound spiritual traditions. The Masonic rites do not involve any doctrine; each Mason is free to attach his own meaning and significance to them. Instead they accomplish their purpose in ritual; the Mason takes part in a carefully contrived mystery play, where he performs certain actions and recites certain lines.

Rites of this kind are called initiations: they are a means of welcoming someone into a group. Many indigenous tribes perform such rites — sometimes accompanied by excruciating ordeals — on children who reach puberty. It is a way of bringing them into adulthood.

Not all rites are initiatory. Some are seen as having cosmic functions. In ancient times and often enough today these rites were closely tied to the seasons. Major events in the year, like the solstices and the equinoxes, have often been the focus of religious celebrations.

Originally this probably had a pragmatic aim. People did not know why the seasons came and went; they tended to attribute these changes to the sometimes capricious whims of the gods, whom they had to appease. The ancient Egyptians, for example, performed extensive rites to ensure that the Nile provided its annual flood that was so crucial to their crops. In this century, the great psychologist C.G. Jung was once told by a tribe of Indians in the southwestern U.S. that it was their nation’s job to make sure the sun kept its course in the sky. In other instances, such as in many Hindu rites, observances are made at specific junctures in the yearly cycle not because they are believed to affect the course of the seasons, but because they are thought to be more beneficial and auspicious at this time.

Over the course of history, however, rituals have tended to focus more on the commemoration of great events in history. Usually these are the defining moments of a religion’s existence. Anyone who has gone to a seder at Passover, for example, will understand how the remembrance of the liberation of the children of Israel helps Jews reconnect to their faith. Although Judaism is extremely ancient, generally speaking one could say that the newer the religion is, the more it focuses on commemoration of specific events: the birth or death of the founder, for example. But there are exceptions. In Neopaganism and Wicca, for example, which are attempts at reviving the "Old Religion" of ancient Europe, rituals are highly seasonal as a way of encouraging a more harmonious connection with the earth and the way of nature.

And yet, in the end, all these aspects of religious ritual are somewhat secondary. For there is one central point to all of them that goes beyond seasonality, commemoration, or speaking to the human subconscious. It is quite simply this: all religions teach that there are invisible as well as visible aspects of the universe, and that is part of the job of the human race not only to be aware of these different dimensions but to help connect them. (The very term "religion" is derived from a Latin word meaning "to bind or link again").

Ritual is, at its core, intended to make this connection. One of the most vivid examples is in Voudun (Voodoo) and Santería, which are transplanted versions of West African religion brought to the New World. Many of the rites of this religion are intended to generate a state of possession, where one of the gods literally comes down to inhabit the bodies of one or more devotees. But there are more familiar examples as well. What else is a Catholic priest attempting to effect when he causes the host to transubstantiate into the body and blood of Christ?

The rituals of a religion are in effect tried and true methods for this uniting of heaven and earth, of making God or the gods a little closer to the realm we see every day. If they are carried out with serious devotion and intent, they will leave an impact not only on the participants but perhaps on the larger world as well. But if, as often happens, they become matters of mere repetition, formula, and habit, they gradually lose their vigor, as does the religion itself. And then slowly they fall into disuse, and another impulse with fresher energy and livelier spirit comes to take their place. In this way the religious expression of humankind is itself constantly refreshed and renewed.




Copyright © 1999 by Richard Smoley