The ritual of healing
2001 08 06
|
etc
no date
2024 +
2025
entries
home
A friend reminded me of ritual yesterday; personal rituals. He did, in fact, talk of the very same ritual that I always believed had a lot of power too.
The ritual of burning is one I've suggested to many a person over the years. It is something very basic and symbolic; completely destroying something in flames, to burn off the excess of whatever it is you are trying to remove from yourself and your life.
Many times people burn old letters, diaries, things that carry personal weight and personal power.
I suggest it because it's a simple, yet important, manner of letting go of the past. It allows you to attach a physical "going away" with something that was not physical. It gives you a definite point from which to stop holding on, and to begin letting go.
I am a born sentimentalist, and though I keep a lot of things, I do not have anything I can burn in this manner; at least nothing that still causes me hurt by its existance. I think that's a large part of why things dog me so much and for so long; I have no tangible way to get rid of them, so they pile up in little boxes inside.
The ritual of burning is a ritual of healing, a ritual of cleansing, of burning off - as I said - the excess. It cleans old wounds, turns bad memories into unrecognisable cinders and ash.
By burning it off, you are free of it; by it not existing physically, it has less hold on you. It may sound too simple, and perhaps it is; but sometimes the simplest things are the most powerful and effective.