The Disappearance of Rituals.
Neoliberalism and the inexorable force of production have produced a 21st century crisis of community: a narcissistic cult of authenticity and mass turning-inward are among the pathologies engendered by it.
Modern power operates not through direct coercion, but by manipulating the psyche and exploiting freedom.
We are individuals afloat in an atomised society, where the loss of the symbolic structures inherent in ritual behaviour has led to interaction that lacks the binding power of collective feeling, leaving individuals vulnerable to exploitation by neoliberal “psycho-politics,” where they turn themselves into projects.
This crisis of community is caused by neoliberalism’s pressure to produce and consume, which forces us into a state of “unrestrained activity” that destroys the quiet, shared rituals that once brought meaning and stability.
– Byung-Chul Han
As part of my journey and attempt to trace lost ancestral histories and stories erased and fractured by colonisation. I began exploring the ancient significance of ritual and ceremony to bind people together around key life events and transitions.
Collective grieving, coming of age ceremonies, rights of passage and honouring losses not typically spoken about, such as suicide, estrangement, loss of a job or home, miscarriage, abortion and working with the life shifts within menstruation and menopause; are all profound ways we can restore balance, wholeness and dignity to our journeys here.
It is part of my ongoing healing and practice to study and revitalise these ways of honouring the natural cycles of life that touch us all.
I often facilitate space for full moon fire rituals and new moon sharing circles, to honour the natural seasons and cycles together.
I have been working with healing and harmonising my cycle, since I was told I had a hormonal imbalance, for over 10 years now and have found profound shifts and positive results with attuning my life to my menstrual cycle phases, based on the lineage of teachings from the brilliant Jane Hardwicke Collings
Here is a short film I made about honouring the beauty of a menstrual cycle, called ‘Life Blood,’ in collaboration with Rachel Hardwick & Peter Nichols who is the initiator of the incredible Thames Estuary Sunken Slave Ships Project:
I developing ways to bring ritual and ceremony into my live performance work, supporting collective healing, restoration and unity through communal acts shared around the medicine of a story, poem or experience.
Myself and the brilliant storyteller Danielle Free, are currently exploring the possibilities for collaboration on oral storytelling of untold and suppressed histories of women; delivering these in themed outdoor live events on the land in Wales.
