The Joy of Family Rituals - Softcover

Biziou, Barbara

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1616404671 ISBN 13: 9781616404673

Publisher: Cosimo Books, 2010

Synopsis

FAMILIES PERFORM RITUALS each day without knowing it. Celebrating birthdays, eating a meal together, taking daily walks to the park, making French toast on Sunday mornings, donating to the homeless during the holidays; all are examples of the rituals families use to become closer and strengthen their bond. The Joy of Family Rituals is a recipe book for families who wish to enrich their lives with rituals by reflecting on their significance and making them a part of daily life. Rituals can help a family communicate, foster spiritual connections, and provide a secure foundation for growth. The Joy of Family Rituals makes it easy to incorporate rituals into family life. Barbara Biziou explains the meaning and history of each ritual, many of which date back to our ancestors, and gives advice on purpose, timing, ingredients and follow-up. Biziou encourages readers to adjust the rituals and introduce their own traditions to suit the family's needs. Finally, each ritual contains a true-life story of how it has affected a family, providing a template for ways in which your family's life might also be enriched and strengthened. "Consciously creating rituals can work miracles in our lives. The Joy of Ritual tells you exactly how to get started."-Christiane Northrup, M.D., author of Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom "The Joy of Ritual is a road map to celebrating life. This book will be a great companion on your journey to attaining clarity, balance, and calmness amid the chaos of life."-Donna Karan

About this title

About the Author

BARBARA BIZIOU is an internationally acclaimed teacher of practical spirituality and global rituals. She is a life coach, voice dialogue facilitator, interfaith minister, and motivational speaker. She has lectured and taught around the world. She currently resides in New York managing her company, Blue Lotus Productions. You can visit her online at www.joyofritual.com.

Review

The book will have a familiar ring to readers of her recent bestseller, "Joy of Ritual," in which this guru of ceremony tells us how to ritualize even our morning sips of coffee and make the everyday sacred. Her new tome, though, is singly focused on the family, offering advice on tools of the trade and counseling ritualists-in-training to stock their ceremonial pantries with items that read like a New Age pilgrim's shopping list. To equip a household for oncoming ceremonies, you'll need candles, says Biziou, "to welcome the Spirit and to symbolize a connection with inner light." You'll also need colors--found in fabric scraps, flowers, or any object you choose--to evoke feeling. (If you're after healing or harmony, go for green. If you're craving clarity, choose turquoise.) Add some scents and sounds, food and drink, objects and artifacts, and images or figurines of animals. Then, you're ready to rumble with Biziou's New Age take on rituals that, for the most part, have their roots in ancient practice.

Biziou's point is not to prescribe rituals; it's simply to inspire them. So, if you're truly planning to use this guide, you should approach it the same way a master chef approaches a cookbook: alter each recipe to suit your own tastes. Better yet, read the book to whet your appetite, then put it aside and concoct your own particular ritual brews for your family. (Beliefnet, May 2000) -- From Beliefnet

Edition details

• Publisher: Cosimo Books
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1616404671
• ISBN 13: 9781616404673
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 196