Across cultures, over hundreds of centuries, humans have created rituals. For many of us the inflection points in life—at birth or death, graduations, and weddings—are defined by elaborate ceremonies, with proscribed traditions that have been passed down from one generation to the next. These events have a way of grabbing us, allowing us to bond with those closest to us and move into the next phase of our lives. Aside from these we also have rituals for leading us through life: cleansing rituals, setting resolutions for each new year, navigating breakups, manifesting goals, or even simple everyday magical practices. What makes us gravitate towards rituals and how do they enhance our magical practices? Looking into our own brains and understanding how we are actually wired for rituals may help us retrain ourselves to become better at them and make them more powerful.

In many instances, rituals involve a rigid set of rules that must be followed in a specific manner, which accomplishes a couple of things. Our lives are usually in flux with uncertainty. We are always looking for the other shoe to drop. Following a set of instructions or having someone tell us what steps need to be followed allows us to rest our minds a bit, and relax into a state of just being in the moment. Especially when life-changing events are involved, this respite is a way for us to ease our constantly thinking brains. This sense of structure, especially when following a ritual that we have performed before, gives us something to hold onto, a saving branch to grab when swimming in the turbulent river of life. This sense of certainty that you know what to do next, or that someone can instruct you to do, also allows negative emotions to ebb, by providing comfort thinking: "At least I know what to do in the next 5 minutes."

Many rituals involve steps that have no real connection or logical explanation. Consider these two sets of instructions to cook your food.
1. "Heat up the water, and add a pinch of turmeric." Or,
2. "Place the pot on the stove. Add water in a stream three times, until the pot is half full. Take a spoon of turmeric. Sprinkle some water in it and circle the pot with the spoon, three times clockwise and three times counter-clockwise. As you do so, chant, 'With this I heal.' Add the turmeric to the water."

Both of these recipes have the same ultimate effect, of creating a warm, turmeric potion. But the latter has very detailed, specific steps, with no real logical reasoning. This makes the brain engaged. Our brains start thinking, "Hmm. I need to do this, three times? Both clockwise and counter-clockwise? Why? This must be important." In our daily life we do so many things mechanically, without any thought or intention, that creating a ritual, focused on specific steps makes the brain add value to the action. When you then tie it in with magical purpose and action, it becomes quite powerful.

Another aspect of this example, that is also true in many rituals, is the physicality of it. Many magical practices involve drawing circles, laying out candles in specific shapes, using elaborate hand gestures, or tying knots, all with repetitive movements that allow our bodies to be a part of the practice. When we bring our bodies into the ritual, especially with repetitive action, we bring in a form of entrainment of the part of the brain called the basal ganglia. This is creating new pathways as we train in the practice, telling our brains of the added importance of this thought. Over time, when the ritual begins, our hands will automatically move into patterns from memory, and bring up emotions and memories from past ceremonies and practices as well. And soon, if you begin the ritual without certain actions or steps, you may feel that something is wrong. This is how rituals gain potency and can become inculcated into traditions.

As we perform ritual acts, we elicit a holistic response within us. It is not just a cerebral exercise, but a whole-body experience. We may feel excited, or breathless with anticipation. We may feel a sense of awe. This is because we are invoking our hypothalamus, which is suffusing our body with a cocktail of hormones targeting a myriad of organs from our heart and lungs, to our pupils and muscles and stomach. Sometimes these bodily changes can evoke novel memories of the ritual itself. Some studies have even found that not just the main participants in the ceremony, but the social group around them that are helping or even watching the ritual, show hormonal changes and respond to the ritual. They feel a close bond with the active participants. This is why many ceremonies and practices involve covens or circles and we feel an affinity to the people in them. Next time you are performing a ritual for your magical practice, notice your body. Where do you feel constrictions or expansions? This body scan will help you especially if you are feeling stuck in your practices. Maybe you are blocking some energy flow, or a different position will allow you to enhance your magic.

However, no matter how elaborate our rituals are, they are useless if we do not believe in them. There are two ways to deeply infuse faith and belief in the ritual so that the intentions behind the magic or spell have potency. One is to use the prefrontal cortex to tie the ritual practice with emotions and purpose. Going back to our turmeric potion example, as we move our spoon around the pot, and chant the healing mantra, we need to imagine what it would be like to feel the healing energy, and think about what it would mean for us. This added emotional context will create a mental picture of what it means to be healed. This is adding the belief. The other aspect of the brain that is needed is the anterior cingulate cortex, which helps you suspend disbelief. We live in a society and work in areas where logic and reasoning are paramount. So, our brain is always checking for a reason for an action. If, as you work on a magical practice, you have a voice saying, "All this is BS," and you give credence to that, the ritual will lose value. In effect, we need to suppress this center a little—and allow ourselves to connect the dots beyond logic, so that we can purposefully believe that the ritual will work.

Sometimes rituals have the ability to transport us. As we focus on the task at hand and follow along with the steps, our unconscious mind is allowed to let go and wander. We may be drawing an intricate mandala or sigil, and as our bodies and muscle memories take over, our minds can flow. These flows can take us on journeys across space and time, transporting us from where we are. Many people inside the ritual don't have recollection of how long it has been and can even experience a form of transcendence. If you think of wearing a set of headphones, and locate the area where they sit on top of your head and slope down towards the ears, these are the areas of the brain activated in this spaceless-timeless experience, the parietal and temporal regions. Use them, especially if you are activating magic for playing out the future, re-jiggering the past, or planning for places you have never been. The trick is to be so involved in the movements and instructions of the present that other parts of the brain are allowed to wander with intent.

Growing up, a lot of my rituals involved being a part of Hindu ceremonies and invoked deities. Simple objects like coconuts would serve as sacred objects for the ceremony and sit within the magical circle, and these would serve as the conduit or embodiment of the gods or goddesses for the duration of the ritual. In your own magical practices, you may invoke or invite deities, call upon the energy of the universe, or speak with the elements. We have this capacity to engage with and provide agency to entities beyond ourselves through the use of our theory of mind centers, which we constantly use as social animals. Place your hands on the tips of your ear lobes and gently move halfway up the skull. The tempero-parietal junction (TPJ) is what we use to attribute agency to people around us, allowing us to understand that they have ideas, thoughts, and the ability for action. We co-opt this same area to invoke the supernatural or elemental, making our magical rituals sacred and infused with powers beyond our own selves. This becomes even more potent if you have faith in your deities or energies, and especially if your faith in your own powers is a bit depleted.

I will leave you with a simple recipe to make your rituals more powerful.

1. Set the stage for your ritual: Set aside a location (a desk, a corner of your room, your kitchen counter) and time (early morning, late night, etc.)
2. Ground yourself: Plant your feet on ground and breathe deeply three times.
3. State your intention.
4. Make the brain excited: Weave the intention as a mantra or spell into an embodied practice with some elaborate steps. Write them down.
5. Make it a holistic experience: Repeat these to entrain your brain. But make sure you notice how your body responds.
6. Add in belief: Envision how your body will feel when the intention is manifested and allow yourself to experience that future emotion. Try and suspend disbelief that this cannot work with self-affirmations like, "I can do this" or, "I trust in the universe."
7. Travel in time/space: Visualize when, where, and what your intentions bring to you. Even if you cannot picture it visually, think about sounds, smells, or feelings to transport you to that space.
8. Add sacredness: Add power to this whole ritual by invoking entities outside of yourself into the practice. You can bring in an object that you cherish, or re-imagine a simple item or symbol and infuse it with agency to help you manifest your intentions.

Remember, you are wired for this! I wish you all well on your magical journeys.