isthmus nekoi
My attitude towards rituals have always been like this: they're supposed to be conduits, and they're supposed to help you get where you want to go. Rituals and symbols can be very powerful, but if they stop giving you that numinous connection, or if they start overshadowing the very thing you are trying to connect to... they've lost their usefulness!
Which is why I *never* wanted to 'ritualize' things. I wanted to get to the heart of the issue, not conflate it with symbolic actions.
That was before I started using tarot. I read a lot of books that said to keep things similar, so I thought, why not? and formed a reading ritual of sorts; sitting in the same place, dimming the lights to concentrate, that sort of thing. Truth be told, I think the repetition really helped and for awhile, I could really *read* my Vertigo deck.
Flash forward to this week. I took the deck to my appt and tried to read in an entirely different setting, breaking the ritual if you will. Now, I didn't think it would make a real difference; afterall, it's the same deck, it's the same brain doing the reading... but when I looked at the spread it was like I couldn't see the connections anymore. Usually those will really hit me hard and I don't really have to think those intuitive interpretations; it's been like this consistently for over a year. But w/this week's reading I was really struggling and I thought... maybe there is more to this ritual thing than I've given it credit for. But you know, the last thing I want to be is *dependent* on a ritual, I think that's like worshipping an idol. It's not the idol that's divine... the idol just *represents* divinities.... which one holds the power?
The strangest thing is, I never formed a ritual w/my Rider Waite deck, never felt the need to. It will do anything, anywhere, anyhow; it has never let me down. Curious, no?
Which is why I *never* wanted to 'ritualize' things. I wanted to get to the heart of the issue, not conflate it with symbolic actions.
That was before I started using tarot. I read a lot of books that said to keep things similar, so I thought, why not? and formed a reading ritual of sorts; sitting in the same place, dimming the lights to concentrate, that sort of thing. Truth be told, I think the repetition really helped and for awhile, I could really *read* my Vertigo deck.
Flash forward to this week. I took the deck to my appt and tried to read in an entirely different setting, breaking the ritual if you will. Now, I didn't think it would make a real difference; afterall, it's the same deck, it's the same brain doing the reading... but when I looked at the spread it was like I couldn't see the connections anymore. Usually those will really hit me hard and I don't really have to think those intuitive interpretations; it's been like this consistently for over a year. But w/this week's reading I was really struggling and I thought... maybe there is more to this ritual thing than I've given it credit for. But you know, the last thing I want to be is *dependent* on a ritual, I think that's like worshipping an idol. It's not the idol that's divine... the idol just *represents* divinities.... which one holds the power?
The strangest thing is, I never formed a ritual w/my Rider Waite deck, never felt the need to. It will do anything, anywhere, anyhow; it has never let me down. Curious, no?