We yearn to experience a natural world where every living thing is seen as interconnected, interdependent and sacred. Yet many of us feel disconnected and isolated because of information overload in the digital era. This is a stark contrast from our collective roots as indigenous beings. Luckily we can take pieces of our past and incorporate them into our modern world. Ceremony and ritual help us restore a healthy sense of connection.
In this article I use the words ritual and ceremony interchangeably. A ritual is defined as something that happens regularly and involves symbolic acts or gestures. Meanwhile a ceremony is meant to mark a meaningful occasion.
Ritual and ceremony have been with humanity since long before there were formal religions. It is fun to explore new ways to integrate them, personalize them and make them contemporary.
A Return to Wholeness
Media technology can leave us divided, isolated, and polarized. It also has the capacity to help us in unifying the scattered fragments of our shared humanity. It really comes down to how we use these modern tools.
Ceremony and ritual help us connect within ourselves and with nature. These are powerful practices for healing our ubiquitous pattern of disconnection and dissociation. They are profoundly healing when invoked within community. When we use media technology to amplify feelings of connection and community the results are profound.
“A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.” -John Lennon
A Simple Practice of Presence
You can create a personal ceremony as a means to connect, reflect inwardly, and expand your sense of presence. For example, 15 minutes of uninterrupted quiet-time while drinking tea can bring you back to center. Solo-time helps you to see life from new perspectives. This is how to cultivate important feelings like gratitude, inspiration, connection, joy, or meaning.
Life is filled with deep feelings. The loss of a loved one, a new job, or an unexpected visit from a friend are impactful. Yet people often forget that our feelings are vibrations that have the ability to attract our circumstances. If you have poor self esteem you will attract people who treat you poorly.
Having a heightened sense of self awareness allows us to become more confident and manifest our desires. We can create a magnetism that allows us to draw forth a reality that matches our internal state.
Ask Yourself
How does it feel to be free from worry? Imagine feeling totally supported by the universe, by your job, by your community. Feel the sensation of connecting to your center. This is true presence. Cultivate your connection to the land or your purpose. There is an energetic source of life that permeates through all beings. Take some time to feel it!
Allow time to experience with these feelings. This will increase your ability to manifest circumstances that match and amplify these feelings of connection.
Ceremony and ritual are powerful ways to practice raising our mood, our vibration and the circumstances we wish to manifest. Community shapes and validates these sentiments into values, beliefs and shared goals. This is how new worlds are created.
It really comes down to intention, imagination, and practice. A simple abundance ceremony can be the act of making a delicious meal. Let yourself fully experience the smells, flavors, and the feeling of nourishment. Self-love can be practiced each day by taking 10 minutes to lay on your back and focus on gratitude. What are you grateful for and how does it make you feel inside?
Modern Ceremonies
There are modern forms of ritual theater with ancient roots. During carnival celebrations people dress in spectacular outfits to embody their highest self. This role-playing and pageantry allow us to be free of social restraint.
Visionary festivals like Burning Man and Lightning in a Bottle also create a ritual environment for attendees. People gather to explore other worlds of possibility getting lost in the music and festive atmosphere. Neurologists now recognize that play, in children and adults, allows us to grow new neural connections. These sorts of gatherings and celebrations open the creative mind.
“Through remembering our divine nature, and creating a ritual way of life, we dedicate our workings to building a legacy for many generations to come.” – Academy of Oracle Arts
Visions can Become Reality
This information is both practical mystical. Before building a house there is a blueprint and this shows the builder what is needed. A vision is a map of what you want to create. It invokes our creative brain in the act of problem-solving and helps us find a path towards our goal. This is why effective individuals and teams create vision boards.
UNIFY is celebrating 10 Years of Globally Synchronized Meditations, Events, & Ceremonies
Online Global Ceremony
Unify started in 2012. A group of friends came together utilizing social media and streaming video to host the world’s first globally-synchronized sunrise ceremony. Through their popular Facebook Page they collaborated with individuals around the world.
People in places like The Pyramids of Giza, Stonehenge, Tulum, Sedona, Chichen Itza, Hawaii and others joined in. As the sun rose moving east to west, individuals live-streamed on their phone. Unify broadcast all of it to their audience via Facebook.
It was a beautiful expression of reverence, connection and global community. Unify has continued this work for 12 years bringing awareness to issues like water, peace, sustainability, and spiritual awakening. This is how we bridge the ancient and the modern to create a global community.
“We have forgotten our true nature and how to be a beneficial presence in our greater ecosystem. There is an illusion that we are separate from nature. As a result we have mistreated our earth and all it’s beings.” -Ritual Community
Streaming video, social media and Zoom conference calls have become standard aspects of community. With these platforms many creative innovations have flourished. We see online talking circles that resemble traditional council fires. Online ancestral healing workshops help people connect with each other and explore their lineage. Unify has also hosted full/new moon virtual gatherings where prayers and intentions are shared across the globe.
Spiritual Beings in a Technological World
Our ancient past continues to rebirth itself into endless forms that remind us where we come from. It is our job to fit this wisdom into contemporary technologies and culture. This is a good thing. It gives us an important reflection about who we are as a species. We are storytellers, culture-creators, dreamers and mystical beings eternally seeking community, meaning and connection.
Despite the concrete jungle filled with skyscrapers and airplanes we are still spiritual beings experiencing a mystical realm. We are still indigenous to our planet that is spinning through the cosmos. It is time to remember.
Magic is still all around us yet we spend most of our time distracted by human-made novelties. We have departed from our perennial roots to gain great vision and insight about who we are. Just like a rites of passage we will return again to our place in the natural web of life.
Ritual and ceremony will always be with us. They are tools to help us make sense of our journey. This is how we reflect on where we have been and to dream about where we are heading. Hopefully this short article will inspire you to incorporate and create these practices in your personal life.
By honoring what is sacred, mysterious and profound in our lives we can amplify these things. When we do this together as a community we can create new worlds.
Spiritual Technology
Even the most complex technology like an airplane or a smartphone started as an idea, dream, or vision. From that came a blueprint, a practice of trial/error, reflection, problem-solving, and community collaboration. Eventually the original abstract idea becomes a physical form. This is the process of creating reality. There is a reason that humans have practiced ritual and ceremony since the beginning of time.
The highest use of these technologies is to help us reconnect to ourselves and to each other. We can leverage these tools to heal our disjointed world and restore our ecosystem. Let’s continue exploring the ways that people are cultivating communities online. What are some ways that you use ritual and ceremony in your life?
