Ritualistic Beauty: How Sacred Acts Shape the Soul and the Self

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From ancient temples to digital filters, humanity has always worshipped at the altar of beauty. But beneath the surface of fashion, art, and aesthetics lies something older — a sacred impulse to order chaos through meaning. In this episode, George Monty unpacks how ritualistic beauty connects psyche, culture, and spirit, revealing why our obsession with the beautiful is really a longing for the divine.

In this episode:

• The psychology of ritual and the neurochemistry of awe
• Why beauty and symmetry are language before words
• How modern culture distorts ancient sacred aesthetics
• The difference between performance and presence
• Beauty as rebellion in an age of noise

Transcript:
https://app.podscribe.ai/episode/59345621
Speaker 0 (0s): Right.

Speaker 1 (8s): Yeah. Good morning everybody. How are you guys doing out there? I was supposed to have a, a, a, a live interview four, you today at seven 30 with a motivational speaker, but I blew it because I didn't realize that Colorado time was more than two hours. I thought it was just like California time. So I kind of spaced at right there, but that being said, you know what? I didn't want to deny everybody the opportunity to get to a, I don't want to deny myself the opportunity to get the hang out with anybody.

So I thought I had walked out of the park. So you guys are a little sun, a little sunrise. Well sunrise here in Hawaii on a wahoo. And I wanted to tell you some things I was thinking about specifically, some things that I think are beautiful and of course, you know, that's my wife and my mom and my sister and my cousins and all my family. And of course all you, you know, you're beautiful, but you know, in times of crisis it seems like it's also a time of opportunity. And I bet most of you so much like me, I have been, maybe he had a little bit of extra time to think about life and think about what you're doing with your life and how your family is doing.

And, you know, I, I had a really good friend of mine. What's up, my friend, Bernie man, you know, him and his family have been affected by COVID whether you have it or you don't have that, or whatever you believe you probably been affected by. And so all of these things together just kind of got me thinking about stuff. And I had a, what I think is a pretty beautiful idea. And maybe some of you have had this idea as well. And I think the older you get, the more you'll understand this idea and is the idea of, of, you know, maybe looking at life in a different way.

One way is one way I have been looking at it is that instead of coming into this world, you come out of it. You know what I mean? Like, just like, just like to use pine trees, how, how pine needles, like a pine tree grows, pine cones. So does the earth grow people? And if you can humor me for a minute and just think about it from that perspective, that means that everybody you meet is kind of like a different version of you.

And I know it sounds kind of crazy, but let me give you an example. I was talking to this young kid who I worked with and he's really smart. He was kind of arrogant and he was kind of like wanting to show everybody how smart he is and that's pretty annoying. Right? And then I started thinking about it and I'm like, man, this kid's like young version of me kind of annoying sometimes kind of thing that I'm a no at all, sometimes. And then it kind of dawned on me. It kind of clicked like everybody you meet is going through something that you've been through or is going through something you might go through.

And that means that you have an opportunity to maybe help that person. But the first thing that you have to do is be able to identify what it is about that person that they were going through. And if you can think like that, if you can just take a few moments to really listen to people when they are, when you meet them and, and try to understand what they're going through, I think you can have a lot better communication with them. And I think you can have a lot better interaction with them, you know, for me anyways, I, I know sometimes when I'm talking to people, sometimes I get, instead of listening, I just, I'm waiting my turn to talk.

So this strategy of just thinking about other people as a different version or at a different spot in their life than I am, But knowing where are the same has really helped me communicate better in it. It's just kind of seemed like a beautiful strategy and you guys should try it, see what you think. Let me know. And then I had another idea. I was thinking about education, right? Because a lot of our kids or stuck at home and they're, you know, they're, they're being bombarded by just different information, whether it's from teachers or I don't know, wherever that wherever we are, maybe your kids have been running on zoom or, or whatever it is.

And there's so many different opinions out there. You know, in some ways when societies get in trouble or some ways when we get in trouble, it's always a good strategy to look back to a time when we were not in trouble to look back to a time where we were doing something right. And one thing that I think that we could reenter into the world of education that I'm going to try with my daughter and some kids in her school is this is this story I heard in a myth.

And I'm going to, I'm going to tell you the myth. And then I'm going to try to tell you how it applies to our kids in how we can use it. So I think this particular myth is, is from Madagascar and the indigenous people in met a gas card. They have this tradition or this ritual, if you will. And from a young age, all the kids are, are exposed to the, all the kids are exposed to the forces of life.

And, and a lot of the people in the tribe, they wear masks, right? They wear masks at her, like just painted. You may have rattles. And you know, one mask is like jealousy. And one mask is like anger. And one mask I would ask is fear. And so, you know, through there throughout the night, the, when they come and they were going through our days every now and then, you know, one of the, one of the men from the tribe or one of them, it's usually the older men, usually the older man from the tribe will come through and they will have this mass and they will scare the bejesus out of these kids.

And that happens until the kids were about maybe 10. So in between T 10 and 14, what do you say? 14 So then at the age of 14, after the children have been conditioned to be exposed to the different forces of nature, fear and anger and anxiety, all of these people dressed up in different masks, you know, late one night when the kids 14, the men from the tribe, they come in to the house with a kid lives and they go into the kids room And and they go in and they know that sounds kind of, it sounds kind of sneaky But they go into the room and they grab the kid and they're all wearing their mask.

Anger has his mask on and anxiety has his mask on. And then they have like, you know, fear has his mask on. They grab the kid and the kid is just frightened. Like, Oh, I'm gonna die. You know? And he tries to run to his mom. Then of course the mom's in on it. She tries to protect them, but the middle of wrestled the kid away and they take him ...