Ritual Function and Meaning: The function of any given ritual is important because it is doing something for someone (The ritual leader, Those gathered) and Because it is doing something (In a general way, In a specific way, In as yet to be known ways). The meaning of any given ritual is important: Because of the common guidance and direction it offers, Because of the specific and personal guidance and direction it offers, Because of the common and unexpected awakenings and connections it can make to other knowns and unknowns in human life.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1uFfxgkl_F1pQ7KgBVBTvY0cYX-c1RkCUC4l20rHT4pE/edit?slide=id.p#slide=id.p
Symbolism: “A symbol is an object, form, idea, or action that “stands for something else”” providing a source of cultural or individual meaning. Symbols, such as the cross, can act as portals. (15) “In other words, ritual can be used to bring unconscious processes that have been repressed and automized, into consciousness. (21) [ use this for function]
Ritual Framing: Framing refers to how the ritual is set apart from everyday life. It is used to generate a sense of formality and intensify the ritual. Examples of framing include a special room or building, a specially marked place, or holding a ritual at a special time. Framing helps to determine where the ritual space begins and ends - which helps determine appropriate behavior. Ritual participants often describe a feeling of spiritual power that surrounds and/or enters them during a ritual. “Power” here refers to normally invisible energies that may be tapped and utilized through ritual means. Framing is essential because energy generated by the ritual is much more palpable when it’s contained within a defined space. The smaller the frame, the more focused and intense the energy generated within it - frames work like lenses to focus energy and attention. Because altars and shrines are typically small in size, they are effective focal points. - Davis-Floyd and Laughlin chapter 6 AND CHAPTER 5 OF ORR
This can involve the use of time: full moon vs new moon. Also as a bottom to top form of driving could alternatively do it based on the menstrual cycle.
Expression & Shaping: The ritual expresses the hearts and minds of those gathered and The ritual shapes the experience (which includes hearts, minds, bodies) of those gathered. Expressing: What we value (Abstracted values–key words of the tradition, Symbols of what we value, Myth and story, Credal, covenantal and oath texts, Memories., Traditions). Three ways of SHAPING: 1) Content (prayers, ritual actions, blessings, readings, the very vocabulary that we use, and the way it is written), 2) Use of Space (tools, how will the furniture be set, SETTING, how do we honor space?, 3)Representation of Voices (who are the leaders? Many or just one and why?Voices are embodied sound, and the bodies who stand before us using their voices have an effect, a shaping effect, on those of us participating).
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1bfVH9nADigRfwND5_elUv_Q6VIrTHr_-dxP7LgWjCq0/edit?slide=id.p#slide=id.p
Ritual Drivers and Altered states: These cognized and labeled categories of experience, and their underlying neurocognitive structures, are what anthropologists and others call states of consciousness (SOCs). SOCs other than those that occur in waking consciousness are referred to as altered states of consciousness (ASCs). The points of experiential and neurophysiological transition between SOCs are called warps of consciousness (WOCs). Ritual drivers are recurrent elements in ritual that have strong and predictable effects on participants and that drive the penetration of the ritual’s symbolic messages. For maximum effectiveness, either within or across SOCs, a ritual will concentrate on sending one basic set of messages that will be rhythmically repeated using different procedures and various codes. [pp. 80-81] 2 types of driversr: intrinsic (inside the body) and extrinsic (outside the body) [81-85]. Ritual drivers work in 2 ways: Top-down is where symbols and rituals shape our body and mind. Bottom-up is where body states like hormones of gut feelings rise up and influence our thoughts. (96) — FRAMING can create PORTALS, A portal is any point of entry or passage. A liminal marker that signals, “You are leaving the ordinary and entering the sacred.” It is psychological and symbolic. (97)
Helpful notes: Monophasic is a belief in only one real state of mind (awake). Polyphasic is a belief in multiple real states of mind (awake + dreams + trance + visions). Writing down your dreams can actually make lucid dreaming easier, as it gives your mind a bit of structure as you shift from an ASC back into waking life, helping you carry pieces of that dream state into your everyday memory. Fragmented memories of ASCs are especially common in societies that lack ritualized ways to carry experiences across these warps and that do not pass down a culturally shared, polyphasic world view.- RITUAL 95
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