Rituals help me to access personal and universal meaning through the use of symbol and metaphor. I need this meaning, this device through which I can make order out of chaos or sense out of apparent senselessness, in order to give voice to my human experience and to ground my inner world in a larger context. Ritual is the language of the collective and the individual soul. It calls forth truth and meaning and links the ordinary experience of day-to-day living with the transcendent life of the soul.

I respect ritual in my life.

Upon reflexion, is it not odd that human beings, in all societies, everywhere and in all ages, have engaged in the making and performing of rituals. Why have they done this, when life is full of dangers and challenges that would seem to require more practical kind of activity? . . . they seem to be born out of necessity . . . and the people who best know that life is difficult are the ones most likely to cleave to ritual and make it work for them.
Tom F. Driver