the ritual lens: ritual and the gate to meaning

the ritual lens

The Ritual Lens is the catch-all phrase I concocted to serve as an umbrella for my various publications, interviews and field research into ritual.

At the time of making this page, the next edition of the Ritual Lens will be dedicated to an investigation into the relationship between Cults and Rituals with an emphasis on practical ritual application.
Currently in the development pipeline after the Cults edition, we have explorations into the relationship between Rituals and Robotics, Ritual and its portrayal in film and my bonkers Ritual Vortex Theory as developed and presented to a live audience during my MA in ritual performance back in 2012.
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Ritual and the Gate to Meaning is available for purchase here.

Ongoing research into the nature of ritual by ulysses black

Following on from my Joseph Beuys ritual essay published in 2019, I finally managed to finish this edition, which was actually intended to be the first, and was the edited transcript of a public talk I gave in 2019 as part of an event by the Brighton Death Forum within the famous Brighton Festival Fringe.

This small booklet gives a short examination to a range of interrelated qualities that arise within general ritual practice: - Appropriateness - Time & Place - Indoctrination - Metaphor - Sensation - Immersion - Symbols - Composition

And through this, explores how these different elements conspire within ritual to direct, promote and even create meaningfulness. It is a central conclusion of this piece of research that not only are rituals effective mechanisms for creating meaningful experiences within themselves, but that furthermore, they help train their practitioners to make meaningful connections between wider elements in their lives, and that through more meaningful lives might be inculcated.

This small 20pp illustrated booklet (b/w throughout) is filled with ritual considerations, suggestions, anecdotes, insights and encouragement. If you wish to support this research or just are curious to read this text, it can be purchased from Midian Books.