Rituals for social justice: Pathways to new directions, visions and ways of being

Rituals are any special practices or routines we use to ground ourselves or make meaning with other people. They can be spiritual or secular, simple or complex. Rituals that we do more formally or in groups we call “ceremonies”.

When infused into social and climate justice, rituals can create powerful shared, even transformative, experiences. But in the grind of make-or-break campaigns, fundraising proposal deadlines and back-to-back meetings, the time to slow down for ritual and ceremony can be fleeting. We at Spring love to work with ritual and wanted to share our experiences in harnessing its power for your own well-being and your social justice impact.

What do we mean by rituals for social justice?

On the one hand, rituals can be rather simple daily practices that keep you nourished, balanced and connected (like your first cup of tea or coffee in the morning). On the other hand, ritual can bring in more soulful ways of being present with yourself, more authentic ways of living your values and more intentional ways of honouring the sacred (whatever that means to you). Both forms of ritual can create the conditions for building meaningful relationships, cultivating trust and belonging, and forging spaces for self- and collective transformation.

Ritual and ceremony can open people up to what can’t be conveyed through words alone. They can be generative, connecting us with something larger than ourselves and setting the tone for contemplation. They can help you grieve and process losses. They can be part of celebrating wins or co-creating new stories. Sustain your motivation and build collective power by slowing down in the midst of urgency.

At Spring, our collective of facilitators, creators, activists and dreamers think a lot about shaping transformative collaborations. Ritual is often a bridge we build at the start of any training to allow people from diverse geographies, backgrounds and worldviews to get to know each other.

Put it into practice:

🪄 Register for our October Reimagining Collaboration program and discover how we at Spring use ritual in facilitation.

🪄 Explore the collective virtual and in-person practices below, collected from the Spring community (and beyond!).

Rituals for connecting with other people

Make the most of meeting check-ins:

Start your team meetings with check-in questions to help colleagues get to know each other and show up as their whole selves at work.

Try a "Rose, bud and thorn" check-in to start off your next team gathering. Each person can share the following short reflections with the group:

A “rose” or something positive in your life right now
A “bud” or something you are looking forward to in the near future
A “thorn” or something you feel stuck with or need support with

Honor your ancestors, others who have passed or absent colleagues:

At the start of a gathering, acknowledge the people who came before you, and who inspired and influenced you, as well as colleagues who can’t be present, by setting out photographs or lighting candles.

Sharing meals together:

Like the team at feminist incubator Akili Dada, set up a regular time for your team to eat lunch together or to get together for one-on-one tea or coffee dates. Food and drink are easily accessible ceremonies you can harness for more authentic and resilient work relationships.

Six-word poem:

At the end of a gathering, invite everyone to share in a few words about what they’re feeling. You can also bring poetry into the room by asking people to answer the question, “How was today in six words?”

Objects as symbols:

Invite each member of the group to choose an object that represents the people or causes they deeply care about; for example, this could be a flower, a feather or anything else. Bring these together on a decorated table as a powerful reminder and tangible connection to your shared purpose. You can also do this by passing around a basket with flowers or leaves and asking people to take one, hold it, think about the people and causes close to their heart, and then deposit it on a table in the room, or in a bowl.

Dancing on behalf of (DOBO):

After listening to a person's story, you can use movement (dance) to share with them “what you heard”. It’s a powerful way of using your body in a way that honours something meaningful to another person. This practice was adapted from InterPlay and you can find the instructions here. You can do this in pairs, after having listened to the story, or in a group, all dancing at the same time.

Ritual for imagining new possibilities

Give yourself permission to build new worlds:

Create a table on a Google Doc listing each meeting participant’s name. Set a timer and play music while everyone fills out this sentence as many times as they want: "I want a world where…" When time is up, read through everyone’s responses for a chance to imagine and express longings together. You can also do this on your own as part of your personal visioning and intention-setting.

Rituals for letting go and expressing grief

Grief and loss are unavoidable. But it can be tricky to find resourceful ways of dealing with them in groups. Here are some rituals you can try for letting go and dealing with grief. Make sure to prepare participants well; for example, ask them to take a breath, ground their feet or bodies, and settle into the space before sharing the instructions.

Facilitate a ceremony for letting go:

Version 1: Before participants arrive in the space, ask them to write something on a piece of paper that they want to let go of. During the gathering, light a fire and ask people to drop their papers into the fire. This practice allows for a cathartic release and a lifting of a burden that may not otherwise be possible.
Version 2: As a team, brainstorm and identify the things that extinguish fire at the organizational level. This could be dynamics that interfere with the mission, values or a thriving culture of working together. Start a fire, stand around it, and let one person read the list made by the collective and throw it in the fire. (Find more ideas in Healing through rituals: A guide for sustaining wellbeing and activism.)
Version 3: Set up a real bowl and stones in person or on a collaborative Miro board with an image of a bowl surrounded by stones. At the end of a gathering, ask participants to move one of the stones into the bowl while thinking about what they want to let go of. Like exhaling together, this is both a deeply personal experience and a profound collective practice for setting intentions, marking transitions, and releasing some of the burdens we carry. You can make a copy of this Miro board for your own use.

Cairn of mourning:

A practice from The Work That Reconnects, the Cairn of mourning is a ritual that allows people to acknowledge and express more personally their grief for what is happening in the world. Participants have the opportunity to find an object or draw an image that represents a loss – a loss of place, of home, of a living being — express their feelings about it, and formally say goodbye to it as others in the group serve as witnesses. Out of this collective pain also comes the fertile ground for moving forward towards collective action.