An English Version is available here : Ceremonial Wisdom
Qu’ai-je donc à faire d’avoir ‘l’air sage’ ?
Me revêtir des atours de la sagesse ?
Voilà bien un objectif saugrenu.
Pourtant, je le sais bien, il n’y a rien de plus simple : Il suffit pour cela d’opiner aux discours de celui que les années de complaisance ont entouré de disciples opinant.
Tic en haut, toc en bas, au bon moment, en fronçant un peu les sourcils.
Un certain sens du contexte et le tour est joué.
Mais la sagesse ne saurait être un but.
Cadeau ultime et toujours évanescent, elle parachève la quête de celui qui n’attend plus le parachèvement de la quête.
La liberté, la vérité : voilà ce qui me guide et me maintient en solitude.
Sans la première, la seconde ne saurait émerger.
Je comprends qu’il faille que je m’excuse de bousculer vos poupées, vos nappes et vos babioles. Mais, en ne le faisant pas, je trahirais la vérité.
Aussi, je vous laisse à votre sagesse d’apparat, et au confort de l’entre-soi.
Notes & Silence 
I have read the English version.
Ceremonial wisdom. I take it you mean the wisdom that stands on ceremony and seeks plaudits. in whatever sphere. But is has also a meaning within « religious » circles.
I was, once, participant in the rites of the Anglican Catholic church Wisdom and power concentrated in the words and supposed magic of the man before the altar.
I have seen the repeated practices of those who maintain a disdain for ritual in their gatherings – and find the hypocrisy of denial of ceremony where it clearly exists worse than the overt ceremony of the cleric.
I have been on the fringe of pagan ritual. It was more raw, more personal in my case, without spectator, but there are those who invest in the positions of so called high priests and high priestesses.
I have long since abandoned these things. They are the masks and screens that hide the ignorance of those who cannot let their minds know freedom. Prisons of the spirit
The ceremony of professional circles is no better. His Honour the judge is not necessarily honourable. The man he judges may have the greater reality.
He is truly wise who knows his own ignorance, and does not make pretense, or display pretension.
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Hi Simon,
I made a mental note to myself to proof read the English version but, as often, I forgot it.
I hope you did not find a semantic heap of unruly terms.
You are very right to note that hypocrisy and search for plaudits, as well as pretension hides at least as much in claiming to have escaped ritual frames.
I have seen this a lot in Zen circles and now reach the same conclusion : « abandon these things ».
Leaving the Catholic CHurch must have required a lot of inner fighting against the feeling of betrayal.
(Until you realize Christ is so much broader than what this church claims?)
I hope you can tell more about those pagan rituals some day. Here or on our diaspora one-to-one interface.
Have a nice week end
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I noticed no obvious issue with the wording of the English
Regarding ritual, there is not a lot to tell. It was an experiment at the time, before I had really worked out which way I was going. A process of declaring a clean « sacred space » in which to mark the cycles of nature, based on the moonphase mainly. A few symbolic ritual items, none of which have any current meaning. It was « raw » in the sense of being entirely self-created, the nearest thing to a personal symbolism.
I recall a « darkmoon » ritual which seemed almost to create a sense of gathering dusk, for want of a better term. Visualisation was the main part of it.
It’s all just a way of creating a symbolic framework through which to see the world. A form of meditation in itself, but unnecessary, ultimately, and constraining once the novelty had worn off. I did not continue with this for long – maybe a year, give or take.
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