I like this passage a lot about how sometimes thinking about information is not enough to really provide understanding.

When I was first teaching, I took my students through several ceremonies and rituals. This was a challenge for many of them, especially if they had spent years in the university system where you learn mostly by thinking and reading about the world. Although ceremonies broadened their perspective and challenged the limitations of their minds, they still had two questions: “Why work in ceremony or ritual?” and “Can’t we just learn by talking about the information?” The answers here are mixed. We can and do learn through our minds, by taking in and sharing information, but there is a point at which our minds are no longer the best way to learn. Simply put, there are places our minds cannot go and things we cannot talk about or even think about, but, fortunately, we can experience them. This is where the special symbolic language of ritual can help us participate in a larger world and heal beyond what we currently understand. Ritual also slows us down and can hel p us work through things that we cannot address only with our minds.

And also this later one’s very good…

First, they take us out of our ordinary day by creating what we call sacred space, a place away from our daily lives and activities. Ceremony and ritual allow us to walk through a myth and symbolically enact our problems and pain as well as our gratitude and joy. If we can first find the symbolic dimension to our situation, then through simple action, we can put our thoughts, ideas, and intent into motion. In the end, ritual enacts a symbolic resolution to our life situations and problems