Ritual allows us to express subjunctive, would-be, could-be states of mind. Through ritualing we make the unknown known. In today’s world, this is often the realm of the scientist, or the artist, although the virtual universe is filled with true, lifestyle-changing individuals. (And there are charlatans, too, but they are focused entirely on the human landscape, catering, as they do, to our Big Dopamine dreams and desires.)
The great ritualers — scientific, artistic, eccentric — come at their work from a different perspective than most of us. Such minds as theirs have an understanding that does not quite square with the paradigmatic rituals of the day.
But ritual belongs to all of us; we come by it naturally, and genius does not have exclusive rights to it. Just as the sap in a tree must rise from its roots to nourish the leaves, so do coarse, ignorant and even vulgar qualia rise up from “the great unwashed” to give life to the most staid, elite traditions.