Caring for yourself in pleasure and play
The Cosmic Carwash
In a course I took in seminary called The Ritual Experience, I wrote a paper on Ritual: Reordering Self inspired by a paper we read in Clinical Pastoral Education on The Task of the Church and Role of its Members.
I entered seminary after many years in systems engineering, where I made good use of process descriptions and studied information flow. It all came together in Ritual: Reordering Self.
Simply put:
“As humans, we engage ourselves in Ritual first in our own self-interest, to
fulfill a need, to provide ourselves with some benefits that only Ritual can provide. I suggest that the primary function of Ritual is to move the Self from an uncomfortable, disordered state to an ordered state more in line with that unique Self’s most treasured values and ideals.”
Ritual is one example of a refuge we might enter in Play. Like the refuge of theater, we live for a time in the reality it presents. Like role-playing games or the scene, we act, react, and engage actively in the reality we find. It is only our conscious and mindful attention that determine how much and how deeply our Inner Reality will be affected by the experience.
This is the power of Ritual that we seek in our spiritual self-care — we invite and allow change to Inner Reality that will survive return to Outer Reality.
This is a refuge that has power to harm when we venture into it without due care as to who will be providing the experience and what experience they will be providing.
Our Play can be healing only when it is Safe, Sane, and Consensual. And that means Informed Consent.
Aftercare
Returning to Outer Reality from any refuge can be a bit disorienting, and we owe it to the rest of the world to be mindful of what we bring back with us. After all, we learned as children to wipe our feet when coming in from the playground. And we learn as Witches not to summon anything we can’t banish.
Are we oriented x 4? [knowing who we are, when we are, where we are, and what the current situation is around us]
Are we safe and ready to drive?
One time-honored way of managing a graceful return to Outer Reality is to gather for a meal with friends, as a help for grounding and centering.
Self Help gleanings
Psychiatrist Daniel Amen Answers Brain Questions From Twitter
WIRED
RedBird at Belle’s End