Ritual

In addition to its ancient origins, part of the traditional mysticism about wine relates to its euphoric effect. Certainly this would have seemed magical in earhest times. It contributed to involvement of wine in religion, in rituals and in celebration. This fact today is still reflected in the special rituahstic place accorded wines. 

The new data obtained on the elemental content of the ash from ritual censer confirm the hypothesis, which was postulated in earlier researches, about that possibility of the human copper-poisoning during the ritual narcotic inhalations. 

Courtship rituals in fish can involve a complex communication between males... 

The cocktail was a ritual that included even children. My preference at six—a boyhattan. Hold the whiskey, extra cherry. Who knew it was an early career move ... 

Mr. Wong s bar is the soul of the new machine, for a cocktail culture entering its next, very different golden age. It is characterized by the quality of a casual experience, not social ritual cashmere replacing silk. 

Computers have become an accepted part of our daily lives both at home and in the work-place. This has been made more bearable by the fact that they have become unobtrusive. One now uses many computerized appliances or laboratory instruments without a conscious awareness of dealing with a computer. The mystique and ritual surrounding computers has dissipated and if frequent reference to the user s manual is necessary, it is an indication that one should probably look for a better system. The computer has become a tool and a good tool is expected to perform useful functions in an uncomplicated manner. We are no longer awed by the computer and the wonders it can perform, we have simply come to expect these "wonders". 

The alchemists Zosimos and Stephanos, writing in Alexandria during the first Christian centuries, had described the chemical process in the form of a story of ritual sacrihce incorporating priest and initiates. In a well-known study, Mircea Eliade sought for the origins of such bloody accounts in ancient shamanism and metal-smithing. The materials of the stone, like the human body and soul, died and underwent purihcation, prior to their resurrection in a glorious body. 

In a manner comparable to Christian eschatology, alchemical literature insisted on its own purificatory rituals that involved the preliminary torture, death and dismemberment of the prima materia. The canonical Catholic depiction of Christ s sacrificed body was a primary source for sixteenth and seventeenth century illustrations of the tortured body in anatomical and alchemical publications. In eflfect, the practice of Paracelsian alchemical medicine and surgery had a sacramental connotation, since the physician acted on the human body in the same manner as God worked on the great universal Macrocosmic Body. In like manner, the Paracelsian physician introduced the universal panacea, a liquid form of the philosopher s stone, into the alchemical alembic that was the Microcosmic human body. This alchemical medicine was permeated with the starry virtues of the heavens and the grace of Christ s Spirit, redeeming the body and soul of the patient by granting him not only an extended life on earth, but even eternal salvation. 

The baptismal font in the fourth engraving is labelled Der Brun des Lebens, but the image is probably a reference to a personal transformation, rather than to the institutional ritual. 

But I can t think what he thought as he rode, or feel what he felt. He was a man of—no, not piety, that s too smug and narrow a word, and faith too weak. He had a belief that s hard for us to feel, perhaps impossible a structure of absolute certainty that transcended faith, a knowledge as much part of him as his own bones, clothed in words and rituals that had clad him since the chrism-cloth first wrapped him, since he was borne to church, to be baptized with holy water to bless him and salt to scare away the Devil. 

King, Francis, ed.Astral projection, ritual magic and alchemy. Wellingborough Aquarian P, 1987. 

It is generally agreed that the study of chemistry in the classical world originated in Hellenistic Egypt. But how it arose, for what purpose the chemical experiments were performed, and what sort of legacy these left to the European West, are matters that have never been fully understood. In this new examination of the evidence, particular attention has been paid to the apparent ritual use of experiments in what became known as the Divine and Sacred Art, and to the transmission of the recipe literature."... 

Treloar, F.E. Ritual objects illustrating Indian alchemy and Tantric religious practice. Isis 58, no. 3 (1967) 396-397. 

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