I just landed back in India – a place that never ceases to amaze me with the sheer diversity of rituals performed here. For the turning of the seasons, new beginnings, blessings, cleansing, initiations, worshiping nature and the divine. Rituals are everywhere, bridging generations and backgrounds.
Rituals are beautiful. They give meaning to our lives. They connect us – to ourselves, others, the Earth, and the Universe. They enable us to slow down, become present, and take our right place in Life.
Rituals remind us we are a microcosm of the macrocosm.
They are essential to create harmony.
And yet, in the hustle of modern life, we’ve stopped to ritualise our actions.
Rituals ask us to be conscious of what we’re doing. To be intentional.
And that’s dangerous to the system – because if we truly became intentional with our everyday actions, how much of our current way of living would remain the same?
This blog is an exploration of what ritual really is, why it matters, and how you can (re-)introduce ritual into your own life – in a way that feels real, nourishing, and aligned to who you are.
What Ritual Means to Me
In our Wisdom of the Feminine course, we recently had a module about reclaiming rituals. We were asked the question ‘What does ritual mean to you?’. For me, rituals help:
✨ To become present, to find a moment of stillness and wonderment in everyday life
✨ To connect with my deeper Self, with others, with nature, and that what’s bigger than us
✨ To set intentions or reconnect with those I already set
✨ To let go of what’s no longer serving me
✨ To welcome change & newness into my life
✨ To be reminded that we are teeny tiny, yet limitless
✨ To be reminded that we are here to live & enjoy life
✨ To support me in being a more authentic, balanced and radiating version of myself
🌀 Reflection prompt
What does ritual mean to you?
What Makes a Ritual a Ritual
If you look at the Merriam-Webster dictionary, ritual is defined as “an act or series of acts regularly repeated in a set, precise manner.”
This would mean that brushing your teeth or putting on your underwear could be rituals. And in a way, they can be – if we infuse them with intention.
Intention is at the heart of ritual.
A simple definition could therefore be: repeated actions infused with intent.
I also appreciated this definition – coming from the book Wild Feminine, which I’m currently reading with my girl squat book club. Highly recommended resource!:
Ritual is a creative movement with a specific intention. It is a form that holds and moves energy. When repeated, a ritual has more physical and energetic structure, and therefore more power to assist the movement and transformation of energy.
It adds the sense that we are creators. We are not just repeating actions with intentions, we are actually creating, crafting, manifesting.
🌿 These intentions can be endless: worshiping, healing, grounding, supporting, connecting, aligning with natural cycles, manifesting, giving thanks, letting go, honouring, calling for peace, etc.
🌿 The rituals can be for ourselves, in support of others, for nature, our ancestors, or for the Universe.
🌿 The action itself can take very different shapes, from physical to very subtle.
🌿 The performance of these actions can be done by ourselves individually, or in community.
Whether we do them alone or together, rituals are always relational.
Now, why would we want to add intentions to our repeated actions, to our habits and lifestyle?
Why doing rituals?
The Importance of Ritual
Humans have been practicing ritual since the beginning of time. From the first recorded burial rites more than 400,000 years ago, to ceremonies marking seasonal shifts, to rituals for healing, fertility, purification, and honouring nature’s elements – ritual has always been a part of life.
For our ancestors – and in many indigenous and non-Western cultures still today – ritual wasn’t separate from “normal life.” It was life.
We gave thanks before eating. We cleansed our bodies and homes with intention. We gathered as communities to mark the moon’s phases or the turning of the seasons. We celebrated initiations such as menarche, marriage, and motherhood.
At its core, ritual is relational. It exists to tend to the bonds that sustain life: human to divine, body to Earth, water to moon, living to dead, self to Self. Ritual was – and still is – a way of bringing harmony to these relationships. Ritual is a form of care.
In the modern Western world, this thread has been severed. We’ve lost touch with the Earth, and in doing so, we’ve lost touch with vital parts of ourselves.
In the Anthropocene, humanity has crowned itself the ruler, placing itself “above” nature. But this illusion of superiority is the very reason the system is collapsing.
When we distanced ourselves from the Earth, we also distanced ourselves from our own essence. We forgot that we, too, are sacred – worthy of care, of honouring, of celebration. This forgetting slowly pulls us away from our inner strength, our beauty, and our authority. It deepens the illusion that we stand apart from the web of life, when in reality we are woven into it. And when we lose that truth, we not only harm ourselves – we also disrupt the balance needed for the Earth to thrive.
Rituals help us restore balance. As my teachers beautifully put: as we tend to the garden of our inner world, we remember how to tend to the garden of the outer world – and vice versa. Ritual reminds us that caring for ourselves and caring for the planet are inseparable.
This is why rituals cannot be reduced to a “self-care activity” squeezed into a busy calendar. They are essential to reconnect, to live truthfully, to stay humble in the face of something vast.
Here in India, I feel that humility alive. Despite modernisation and pollution, people still place themselves within an immeasurably large universe and timeline. They acknowledge that all is connected, impermanent, and divine.
That perspective holds within it a profound sense of acceptance, liberation, and meaning.
Finally, rituals are rarely just for ourselves. Their effects ripple outward – touching our families, communities, and environments. Each intentional act expands beyond the moment, nourishing the wider web of life. And in today’s world, that makes ritual not only meaningful, but necessary.
So, how can these rituals look like?
Rituals from my life
Ritual doesn’t have one fixed form. It can take endless shapes — from the simple to the elaborate, from deeply personal to communal. If you’re new to it, it can help to see some concrete examples. Here are two rituals I witnessed & practiced recently:
House Pooja
When we moved into our new home in Delhi, we marked the beginning with a Pooja/ceremony. We were 6, joined by my partner’s mother and a dear friend who feels like family.
The altar was brought to life with fruits, flowers, fragrant resins, fire, and offerings like ghee, seeds, wood, and even cow dung. Each element carried a prayer and a purpose. Mantras were chanted to cleanse the house, invite prosperity, and honour the sustaining forces of life. Intentions were set.
The Pooja was not just “for us” – It was in dialogue with the gods, the land, the energies that hold us. It reminded me: rituals rarely serve the individual alone, their energy naturally ripples outward.
Full moon ritual
On the full moon, a friend & me took time to celebrate life and ourselves.
Nothing was planned, yet it unfolded with ease. We collected rose petals, let them steep in a bowl of water beneath the moonlight, and carried it with us to the sea.
After our final swim, we washed our faces and hair with the fragrant, silky water, now infused with the petals’ essence. Then, as the sun danced on the waves, we released the petals into the sea, each of us whispering our intentions into the sparkling surface.
It was simple. Natural. And utterly magical.
It reminded me: Ritual doesn’t have to be elaborate. It lives in the small things, the pauses, the way we choose to give meaning to what is already here
Two ways to Ritual
As I’ve been writing this blog and reflecting on my own journey with rituals, I realised I distinguish between two kinds::
- Cyclical rituals — performed for nature’s shifts (s.a. seasonal changes & moon phases), for our inner cycles (s.a. menstruation), for rites of passage (s.a. motherhood & puberty ) and for milestones (s.a. moving places & graduation).
These rituals help us mark thresholds: to welcome new beginnings, prepare for transitions, release what no longer serves, pause, give thanks, and surrender to the unknown - Everyday rituals — performed in every step we take, every act we do, every thing we create. The way we wake up, eat, walk, breathe, speak, or create.
These rituals can support us to live more mindfully, purposefully, present, balanced, energised, and truthfully – on a daily basis. They are what transform our days into sacred ground. They make life itself the altar.
Looking back on the last few years, I see how much space I’ve created for cyclical rituals — for myself and for the people around me. They’ve become almost second nature and gifted me beautiful moments of connection, wonderment, gratitude, presence, and creation.
Everyday rituals, however, I’ve given less attention. Of course, I have daily habits I love: cuddling my partner before getting out of bed, drinking lemon water and moving on the mat, journaling, brewing teas that support my cycle, pausing to breathe. They are beautiful practices, but sometimes they slip into autopilot or multitasking mode.
Yet my intentions for these habits & actions are very clear:
🌻 to start my day in a calm, loving, aligned way
🌻 to nourish my body on different levels,
🌻 to listen to what my cycle and honour what it asks of me
🌻 to feel grateful
🌻 to stay connected to my bigger purpose, and
🌻 to send out energy to those who need it.
So, here’s my intention
🌱 to bring intention back into these beautiful daily habits – so they can become rituals again, enriching not only my life but also those around me.
🌱 And, because I notice how easily intention fades as the day unrolls, I also set myself the challenge of choosing one ordinary daily activity and exploring how to ritualise it – whether that’s eating a meal, taking a shower, or the way I engage with my phone.
🌀 Reflection prompt
What about you?
- How would you like to welcome rituals into your life, going forward?
- What is one cyclical ritual you'd like to perform in the upcoming weeks?
- What everyday ritual would you like to integrate?
Inviting Ritual Back Into Your Life
Every act we create with attention and intention, is a ritual.
A few gentle doorways to help you on the way:
- Infuse the everyday with meaning. Before eating, pause. Offer thanks to the sun, the rain, the soil, the farmers, and all the hands that brought food to your plate.
Look at the daily acts you hardly question anymore: putting on your shoes, commuting to work, greeting someone, …- How could they become more intentional?
- Who or what are you serving?
- What do you choose to support with your attention?
- What do I choose to support with this?..
- Create an altar. Dedicate a small space in your home to what feels sacred. Place there stones, flowers, photos, feathers, food, symbols, scents – whatever reminds you of beauty and meaning. Return to it regularly. Let it be a place to ground in your vision, your intention, your connection to what is greater than you.
- Mark the thresholds. When something ends or begins, honour the shift. A conscious closing. A clear opening. A moment to breathe and acknowledge what is changing.
- Work with the cycles. Let the rhythm of the moon, the seasons, or your inner cycle guide you. These natural pulses invite us to pause, reflect, set intentions, and release what no longer serves.
- Tend to your temples. Your first temple is your body. Your second is your home. Care for both with reverence. Choose what you consume and surround yourself with as if they matter – because they do.
As you create your own rituals, and return to them over time, they will serve you as a source of support, connection, manifestation and transformation.
To close,
Ritual is not something outside of us. It lives in our breath, our gestures, our attention.
Every sip of water, every step on the earth, every word we speak has the power to become sacred.
When we choose to meet life this way, the ordinary will glow with meaning.
Our bodies become temples. Our homes become altars.
And life itself – a prayer in motion.
Let us remember. Let us return.
One breath, one moment, one simple act at a time 🪷
With love,
Stéphanie 🌞🌙
Awareness. Embodiment. Alignment. Transformation.
