“The Masonic ritual is not a ceremony, but a life to be lived. Those alone are truly Masons who, dedicating their lives and their fortunes upon the altar of the living flame, undertake the construction of the one universal building of which they are the workmen and their God the living Architect.”
- Manly P. Hall: The Lost Keys of Freemasonry
For many prominent Classics Professors and authors like Gregory Nagy and Kevin MacGrath, "ritual is as if doing things in a way that is considered sacred". Let's insert now one more important element... myth! "Myth is saying things in a way that is also considered sacred". In fact, the ritual frames the myth and well now... what is actually a ritual? A ritual is a performance and a performance is a re-enactment!
While myth serves as a narrative which, explains and legitimises aspects of the masonic (in this case) tradition, the ritual is forming the path; is the path that conveys knowledge and experience from a distant past and at the same time it serves as a tool of forming conscience!
The ritual is the re-enactment of the myth and consequently is the re-enactment of what was once a ...reality. So, myth represents a reality and ritual reproduces that reality!
As myth provides an aetiology which motivates the ritual, it results - if I may say so - an epiphany... a striking realisation, an experience which is not just aesthetic but practical, because it addresses human qualities that are essential to be met on what is moral and what is not!
... And God? Searching a little more in my books, Elizabeth Evans, in The Encyclopaedia of Cultural Anthropology defines ritual as any activity that identifies “formal, patterned, and stereotyped (public) performances”. Durkheim and Lévy-Strauss both emphasize that its purpose is to ensure social solidarity. Durkheim also talks of the "collective effervescence" that comes from the performance of ritual.
None of these definitions includes a requirement for “a way that is considered sacred”. However, Durkheim resolves this by saying that "society makes things sacred" (...). That is where the significance of Manly P. Hall's statement lies.
Bibliography:
Douglas Ayling: “What use is ritual?”, ayling.com
Elizabeth Evans: “Ritual”, The Encyclopaedia of Cultural Anthropology, ed. David Levinson, Melvin Ember (New York, Henry Holt and Company, Inc., 1996)
Manly P. Hall: “The Lost Keys of Freemasonry”, TarcherPerigee; Illustrated edition (August 17, 2006)
