Andrey
Jedi
Hello.
This has been on my mind as of late, and I felt like sharing my thoughts about it here and maybe get some feedback to gain better perspective. I know this place's stance on rituals, but I wanted to play devil's advocate a bit regarding the psychology behind the performance of rituals from a "western esoteric tradition" and "western magic" mentality and the psychology of rituals as performed from a traditionally rooted societal perspective.
I feel like rituals performed from a traditionally rooted societal perspective, as long as it isn't taken too seriously and done for the sake of general blessings or good luck from deity with a more or less pure intent (non anticipation) doesn't cause harm. I say this because I live in India and I've attended many hindu rituals in my life. While some of the people get overzealous with their religion and hold an intent of manifesting something concrete from the universe out of their rituals (which I think is not good), most people I've observed who do these traditionally rooted rituals aren't that emotionally attached to them and do it for the sake of family tradition and culture. These people aren't very religious about these rituals (some are which I think isn't good) and the psychology behind doing these rituals is similar to tossing a penny in the wishing well for a general and ethereal sort of good luck in life. What that looks like or making demands on how the universe should manifest this "good luck" isn't on most of these people's minds unlike western people who are into ritual magic who go into these rituals with a demanding tone.
In the grand scheme of things, maybe all rituals are bad (I personally don't hold this perspective as from my sum of experiences and personal observations I feel like rituals can be performed with little to no negative effects if the mindset and psychology behind it is leaning on the purer side of things, i.e. with little to no anticipation on how the universe manifests reality), but I think most people especially in the non western Christianized world who do these traditionally rooted rituals aren't bringing harm to themselves and if God or the Divine Cosmic Mind knows their intentions, it can either have somewhat beneficial effects or little to no effect, but I don't think it will have negative effects if the participant has pure intent which is usually the case I've noticed with many of these people. I don't think these people will be punished for performing these traditional rituals. Sure, some people will like people who are overzealous and make concrete demands, but most people I've noticed just do it either for the sake of tradition with little to no attachment to any spiritual implications or do it for the sake of general good luck.
This kind of psychology and perspective is vastly different from Western Christianized mindset who get into ritual magic and look at ritual simply as a means of getting what they want from the universe. This I agree can have detrimental effects on the participants. Though even among these I think if the intent is on the purer side of things, maybe there won't be too much negative side effects, especially rituals of a more celebratory nature or adoration of deities and things like that.
Anyways this is my current opinion on the matter. I know it differs from the general stance on rituals this forum has, but I've seen many posts on this forum talking about rituals in a positive light and some articles on shamanic rituals on SOTT that make me think that maybe this stance is not so rigid. I agree that for channeling the C's and gaining knowledge any sort of ritual would have been completely inappropriate, and overly religious people who go into ceremonies and rituals with wrong intentions may bring harm upon themselves, but as mentioned above I think if the intentions are more or less okay and non-anticipatory, there isn't a hard and fast rule where "any kind of ritual = bad", no matter the intentions.
I made this post, because my family recently did a sort of temple inauguration and there were rituals involved. It was mostly my dad's idea, but he isn't religious in any sense of the word. Just wanted to do it for the sake of family tradition. Our house is over 300 years old, and the courtyard/temple area where they used to do rituals and ceremonies was damaged beyond repair for well over 30-40 years and nothing ever happened there, so my dad reconstructed the whole area and we recently held an inauguration celebrating the rebuilding of this temple/courtyard area and many people from the community came and celebrated with us. Again, I know my dad's intentions behind this was mostly for the sake of family and tradition and not really that spiritual or religious, though I'm sure he did the rituals with hopes for a better life in the future in a non anticipatory manner.
Since the inauguration, I've been thinking about this issue of rituals and these are the things that have been running through my mind. Just wanted to share my thoughts here. What do you guys think?
Thanks for reading.
This has been on my mind as of late, and I felt like sharing my thoughts about it here and maybe get some feedback to gain better perspective. I know this place's stance on rituals, but I wanted to play devil's advocate a bit regarding the psychology behind the performance of rituals from a "western esoteric tradition" and "western magic" mentality and the psychology of rituals as performed from a traditionally rooted societal perspective.
I feel like rituals performed from a traditionally rooted societal perspective, as long as it isn't taken too seriously and done for the sake of general blessings or good luck from deity with a more or less pure intent (non anticipation) doesn't cause harm. I say this because I live in India and I've attended many hindu rituals in my life. While some of the people get overzealous with their religion and hold an intent of manifesting something concrete from the universe out of their rituals (which I think is not good), most people I've observed who do these traditionally rooted rituals aren't that emotionally attached to them and do it for the sake of family tradition and culture. These people aren't very religious about these rituals (some are which I think isn't good) and the psychology behind doing these rituals is similar to tossing a penny in the wishing well for a general and ethereal sort of good luck in life. What that looks like or making demands on how the universe should manifest this "good luck" isn't on most of these people's minds unlike western people who are into ritual magic who go into these rituals with a demanding tone.
In the grand scheme of things, maybe all rituals are bad (I personally don't hold this perspective as from my sum of experiences and personal observations I feel like rituals can be performed with little to no negative effects if the mindset and psychology behind it is leaning on the purer side of things, i.e. with little to no anticipation on how the universe manifests reality), but I think most people especially in the non western Christianized world who do these traditionally rooted rituals aren't bringing harm to themselves and if God or the Divine Cosmic Mind knows their intentions, it can either have somewhat beneficial effects or little to no effect, but I don't think it will have negative effects if the participant has pure intent which is usually the case I've noticed with many of these people. I don't think these people will be punished for performing these traditional rituals. Sure, some people will like people who are overzealous and make concrete demands, but most people I've noticed just do it either for the sake of tradition with little to no attachment to any spiritual implications or do it for the sake of general good luck.
This kind of psychology and perspective is vastly different from Western Christianized mindset who get into ritual magic and look at ritual simply as a means of getting what they want from the universe. This I agree can have detrimental effects on the participants. Though even among these I think if the intent is on the purer side of things, maybe there won't be too much negative side effects, especially rituals of a more celebratory nature or adoration of deities and things like that.
Anyways this is my current opinion on the matter. I know it differs from the general stance on rituals this forum has, but I've seen many posts on this forum talking about rituals in a positive light and some articles on shamanic rituals on SOTT that make me think that maybe this stance is not so rigid. I agree that for channeling the C's and gaining knowledge any sort of ritual would have been completely inappropriate, and overly religious people who go into ceremonies and rituals with wrong intentions may bring harm upon themselves, but as mentioned above I think if the intentions are more or less okay and non-anticipatory, there isn't a hard and fast rule where "any kind of ritual = bad", no matter the intentions.
I made this post, because my family recently did a sort of temple inauguration and there were rituals involved. It was mostly my dad's idea, but he isn't religious in any sense of the word. Just wanted to do it for the sake of family tradition. Our house is over 300 years old, and the courtyard/temple area where they used to do rituals and ceremonies was damaged beyond repair for well over 30-40 years and nothing ever happened there, so my dad reconstructed the whole area and we recently held an inauguration celebrating the rebuilding of this temple/courtyard area and many people from the community came and celebrated with us. Again, I know my dad's intentions behind this was mostly for the sake of family and tradition and not really that spiritual or religious, though I'm sure he did the rituals with hopes for a better life in the future in a non anticipatory manner.
Since the inauguration, I've been thinking about this issue of rituals and these are the things that have been running through my mind. Just wanted to share my thoughts here. What do you guys think?
Thanks for reading.
