But when we allow this heavy feeling of judgment, self-critique, and regret to seep through the pores of our bodies, we can ensoul the pain. By entertaining the pain consciously and purposefully, leaning and moving into the sorrows born of missteps, and then going deeper into the tightness and restriction, we’re presented with the opportunity to become what we’re fleeing from. Then, as a next step, we may find a way to process our inner pain. And a portal may open to the mysteries of the life of soul. 

But can this pain be ritualized? Campbell states about ritual, “Just looking at it from a purely academic point of view, a ritual is an action that puts the individual not only in touch with, but in the place of, being the agent of a power that is not out of his intention at all. He has to submit to a power that’s greater than his own individual life-form.” (223)

This is a profound truth. And it’s why our interior journey is often enhanced through a ritual of periodic submission to a presence and power that is greater than ourselves—a sacred presence and power that assists us when evoked. The idea of such a ritualized inner journey leads us to ask the most personal of questions, namely, “Where is the sacred thread of ritual in my life? Where is the self-guided emotional alchemy? And where is the vessel to contain the shattering?” The latter question is crucial because venturing into the psyche’s unknown depths comes with a demanding cost. 

 The purpose of ritual is to invite the presence of the sacred into our lives and to dwell with it (even if only occasionally). To appreciate this sacredness— meaning here the reverent human life and all that is holy, both within and around us—we can’t rush rituals. A slow birthing path is to be traveled. This is because, as Campbell reminds us, “The whole idea is that you’ve got to bring out again that which you went to recover, the unrealized, unutilized potential in yourself.” (223) And as many of us know, and have learnt from grueling experience, this isn’t achieved through an instant, quick fix, weekend seminar version of transformation. Usually it’s painfully slow, and in fact at times, an incredibly arduous, inner odyssey, one that doesn’t align with western culture’s present expectation of Amazon Prime delivery speed.

In relation to the “unrealized, unutilized potential” in ourselves, perhaps it could be said that within the intimate interiority of the human being, there is also the nucleus of the macro cosmic divine—at least as a holy potential waiting for our recognition and cultivation. In this regard, we could borrow the biblical text: “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are gods?’” (Gospel of John, chapter 10, verse 34) Or at least, in the fullness of time, we might so eventually become. 

We must lose who we’ve once been so that we can give birth to who Life wants us to become. The old restricting identity patterns are to be dissolved away, or rather: they are to be transmuted into higher states of themselves. Rituals assist in this adventure because they help us surrender our critical self-judgments, sense of powerlessness, and idolatrous notions of self-perfection. Through such rituals, we do indeed lose ourselves to become ourselves. It’s a continuous and progressing process.

I will finish with the following thoughts: We don’t single-handedly design reality. In a sense, we show up for it. And when we’re out of alignment with the cosmic powers of the universe, which of course are within us too, we begin grasping for the false, shadow power of the wounded ego. Rituals remind us to dismiss the lure to identify with the spurious, transient powers within or outside of us. Then we can journey towards the eternal, inner power—the power of our sacred selves. In this way we may align and integrate, not detach and fracture. We unite with ourselves by melding our disparate parts. And we quit giving allegiance to what has too much egoistical authority over us.

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Kristina Dryža is recognized as one of the world’s top female futurists and is also an archetypal consultant and author. She has always been fascinated by patterns for feels we are patterned beings in a patterned universe. Her work focuses on archetypal and mythic patterns and the patterning of nature's rhythms and their influence on creativity, innovation and leadership. Find out more at her website or watch her TEDx talk on "Archetypes and Mythology. Why They Matter Even More So Today."