The Importance of Ritual

by James Doone

James Donne explains why tradition ensures the eternity of a people.

Ritual, this word brings all sorts of connotations to the minds of people. For some it brings images of traditional Catholic masses in Gothic cathedrals with red-robed cardinals chanting in Latin in the darkness of candlelight, or it brings images of First Nations tribes dancing around a campfire while celebrating their ancient festivals, or maybe it brings images of the Muslim praying five times a day towards the city of Mecca while he performs the salah. Ritual is as natural to man as air in his lungs or blood in his veins. Man cannot and should not cast off ritual, for in these old practices much wisdom of the ancients is stored. First I must state an important caveat. There is a difference between something that is irrational and something that is non-rational; as an example, being petrified that a tiny spider is going to eat you as if it were Aragog of the Dark Forest outside of Hogwarts is clearly an irrational fear, whereas having a love of Father Christmas wearing red rather than the original Odinic green purely for the reason that him wearing red has always been your experience is a non-rational reason. There is no rational reason why red is better than green, but there is clearly in this case a non-rational, but not irrational reason for holding higher value to red rather than green for Santa’s cloaks. Non-rational reasons are valid, if not more so. I think I heard it said, but I cannot remember by whom, that Evola said when science and myth conflict, jettison the science — Evola right once again.

Today in our hyper-rationalistic, empiricist, and scientistic world, non-rational things are under attack or scorned or viewed as somehow lesser than things which have come about through empirical observation. The reason for this phenomenon is the supremacy of the axiom of materialism: the philosophical position that all existence is fundamentally composed of matter, that is to say, atoms. One can see this play out in the discussion on the scientific theory of Intelligent Design (ID), which is supported not only by monotheists but also agnostics and non-religious scientists, for the world certainly does contain strong evidence of design and the only reason mainstream science refuses to acknowledge the legitimacy of ID is because of their presupposition of naturalism and materialism, which have not been proved, either by empirical or rational grounds. Rather it is held as a philosophical axiom avant l’autre. Famous examples of ID scientists are Dr Michael Behe and Dr Stephen Meyer.

Ritual gives one a sense of belonging, a connection between the now and the past, between those of your ummah with the ummah of the origin time. Take as an example, the azan that blares across the Islamic world, calling the faithful to their daily prayers. The Muslims of today perform this 1400-year-old ritual as all have done since the days of Mahomet and the founding of Islam. When a Muslim in Herzegovina prays, he is performing what the Muslims of the 1500s of the Ottoman empire did, as the Muslims of Egypt did in the 900s before them and so on. There is a connection, a lineage, a passing down, in the same way a priest lays on hands onto a man who then becomes a priest after the completion of his ordination service. Or take the lamas of Tibet, who chant their mantras in their old stone temples high in the mountains, speaking and reading the sutras as followed by the Buddha, or take the Platonists who study with religious zeal the collegium of works of the wise Plato. Traditions and ritual can be at the level of nations, such as how England celebrates the defeat of the Catholic plot that tried to kill King James I, immortalised as the Gunpowder Plot and on Bonfire Night, an effigy of Guy Fawkes is burned and fireworks released into the night sky to celebrate the overcoming of conspiracy and the preservation of his majesty. Many today do not know the story of the plot nor the principal characters. All they know are the basics, but that is beside the point. The point is that it is a celebration handed down and followed by the people of England and it is widely practiced and enjoyed as a time of national celebration and unity.

The Shia of Iran remember the death of Husayn ibn Ali during their holiday of Ashura, in which they whip themselves bloody to remember his martyrdom. Though for the Sunnis, Ashura is to remember Moses crossing the Red Sea to escape the King of Egypt. Orthodox Christians, every Friday fast from all non-vegan products to remember the crucifixion of Christ the Lord by the Jewish and Roman authorities, for the salvation of the world. As a father hands down a gold watch to his son, or a ring, and then the son hands it down to his son, the connection not only of blood but of bond is made manifest by this act and gives humans a sense of grounding and connectivity that is important for their happiness and well-roundedness. This is the error of the Communists, who seek to do away with the four olds: old customs, old ideas, old ways of thinking and old culture. Mao’s destructive revolution in China destroyed 3,000 years of tradition and true culture, which he replaced with Westernism. The Communists seek to start at year zero, to create a new world based on theories of the mind, rather than wise old practices handed down from antiquity, which through the centuries have proven to be true and to work, compared with the ideas of the pixies of the Bolsheviks. Why do so many non-religious people, even atheists, get their children baptised in churches? Is it due to the dogma? No, God? No. It is because it is the societal and tribal custom of Christendom and it is expected and it is a chance for people to celebrate the birth of a child. It is non-rational but it should be followed as it is tradition.

Tradition — that which is handed down and then passed on, the eternal chain of being, connected forever. So should it be.