Criteria for Ritual

So. I found a neat piece of Margaret Mead stuff on Ritual:

She says that part of what makes a repeated action Ritual instead of Habbit is the fact that there's a sharing/communication/relationship going on. Whether between the human and a particular deity/spritit/what-have-you or between multiple humans who are sharing something together AND it's that sharing, and the antisipation there-of, that makes the event/action a Ritual.

I like it. :-)

I think it was Durkheim (though I could be wrong -- I'll have to check my notes) who said that rituals happen at specific times, whether that time is a particular time of day or a particular time of year, or a particular time of life, to be a ritual, it has to have a specific time when it's supposed to happen.

So... To combine those two definitions (or criteria, I suppose):

Having dinner when you can, with however many family members are available, is not a ritual.

Having dinner, at six o'clock sharp, with everybody present, no matter what: That's a ritual.

Does that make sense? :-)

BPAL Order Confirmation.

So. I got my order-shipped confirmation yesterday.
Soon, soon, I shall have imps of the following:

O: Honey, Amber, Vanilla.
Blood: Dragon’s Blood, Myrrh, Cherry, and Clove.
Queen of Sheba: Honey, almonds, and spices.
Dragon’s Milk: Dragon’s blood, honey, and vanilla.
Eden: fig leaf, fig fruit, honeyed almond milk, toasted coconut and sandalwood.
AND
Wrath: dragon’s blood, black pepper, cinnamon & cloves.

(Sadly, Tell Tale Heart was a limitted edition and so is not available in imp, or any other, form. Alas. :-)

Here's hoping that they all work gorgeously on me. :-)


In other new: my husband is doing his defence today. :-) Whee! :-D

Here is a link to his website. The squash in the back ground is in our garden. :-) Go see. :-)


Lastly, thanks to a phrase spouted by Namaah_Darling -- "the woozy throb of honey" -- and the image it called up in my mind, I am now writing a wierd and erotic (well, duh, this is me we're talking about) version of Snow White. I am not even close to getting to the seven dwarfs bit. To be honest, I'm not sure how she's going to end up with them.
I'm sure I'll think of something, though. :-)


- TTFN,
- Amazon. :-)