Ritual is necessity. As the lungs breathe, so does the soul ritualize. Ritual has an essential role in tending relationships, families, communities, and even workplaces. Our ancestors knew that life is unbearable without ritual. The origins of art and religion are in ritual; to ritualize is to make sacred. This workshop explores the creative and transformative uses of ritual in our everyday lives. Potential themes for the day include:

• Ritual as imaginative participation in mystery
• Ritual in times of conflict, crisis, and illness
• Psychotherapy as a way to ritualize suffering and healing
• Awakening the creative ritualizer within
• Ritualizing as play
• Ritual and sexual experience
• Ritual and “temporary madness“
• Ritualizing our relationship to food

Aftab Omer, Ph.D. is President and core faculty at the Institute of Imaginal Studies. His work has focused on the emergence of human capacities within transformative learning communities and has included assisting organizations in tapping the creative potentials of conflict, diversity, and chaos. Born and raised in South Asia, he was educated at M.I.T. and Brandeis University. His article entitled "The Spacious Center: Leadership and the Creative Transformation of Culture" has recently been published in Shift: At the Frontiers of Consciousness, the Institute of Noetic Science's quarterly publication.

Melissa Schwartz, Ph.D. is Academic Dean and core faculty at the Institute of Imaginal Studies. Formerly a faculty member in both the Psychology and Counseling departments at Sonoma State University, she is in private practice as a Licensed Psychologist and Marriage & Family Therapist. Her interests include the psychology of women, couples therapy, and the Enneagram in psychotherapy.