The Power of Rituals

When I feel depressed I write poetry by candle light.  The act of writing down
my emotional feelings symbolically draws out the pain, sorrow, or anger I'm
feeling.  Writing down my feelings in a poetic way also allows me to think of
and analyze past or current events in an intellectual way, and how best to
address the changes occurring around me in the real world.

Sometimes changes can be distressing, as with the loss of a job, divorce, or
the death of a loved one.  At other times, we urgently want to change and to
let the world know we are no longer who we once were.  Making our way through
these powerful transitions can be difficult, but more and more people today are
discovering how rituals can help heal deep wounds, bring effective
transformation, and affirm their truest selves.

The power of ritual is enormous: it can alter a state of mind, solve a problem,
or heal a wound by bringing something buried deep in the subconscious out into
the open.

There are two kinds of ritual: one kind comprises the traditional secular and
religious rituals surrounding holidays, weddings, or funerals.  The second kind
of ritual is individually created  to give expression to personal loss, anger,
joy, or sorrow.  These rituals often consist of sets of formal, symbolic acts
that are performed in a certain way and in a certain order.  They may include
the use of letter-writing, poetry, song, journal work, playacting, and myriad
other inventive symbolic forms, which not only mark but also make transitions.

When I feel as if I have a lot of emotional "baggage" or there are a lot of
changes I want to make, I go to a river or stream.  There I gather some leaves
and on each I write what I want to get rid of; perhaps a thought that keeps
troubling me or a past mistake I regret.  On some leaves I write what my dreams
and aspirations are and what I want to change for the better.  Then I slip, one
by one, each leaf into the water.  As a leaf floats away I watch it and think
about the message I write on it.  I think of the water as a healing source of
energy to wash away negative things and carry forward positive changes.  Then,
when I can no longer see the leaf, I launch another by reading its message
aloud, slipping it onto the surface of the water, and meditating on what is
transpiring here in symbolic terms.

In self-created healing and identity rituals, symbolic actions are often used
to help people "let go" of ideas or events that have hurt them.  People can be
as sisted in moving beyond traumatic events by burning, flushing, freezing,
burying, or otherwise disposing of all kinds of symbolic items like
photographs, candles with appropriate inscriptions, letters, voodoo dolls, and
cloths.  This works because symbols have the capacity to touch us not just on
an intellectual level but on a behavioral and emotional level as well.

No one can create a ritual for another.  Rituals must come from one's own heart
and experience, because symbols do not mean the same thing to everyone.
Whatever the symbol, it should create extraordinary emotional force if it is to
work as a healing device.  Sometimes symbols are so powerful they can bring
relief to people who have been burdened for years with depression.  In ritual,
the physical act of doing something engages our senses, our muscles, our nerve
fibers, sending a lot of different messages to our brain and therefore to our
channels of thought and spirit to activate change and transformations.

Ritual brings emotional and spiritual healing.  Ritual experiences can enrich
our lives.  Ritual can help us to honor and celebrate the uniqueness and
importance of our lives.

--Natasha Volgavolkhy