ritualists
Devotees of rites
Ritualists are people devoted to or insistent upon ritual—the prescribed forms and ceremonies of religious worship or other formal proceedings.
The term often carries a slightly critical edge, suggesting excessive attachment to ceremony over substance: The ritualists in the congregation opposed any modernization of the service.
In sociology and religious studies, ritualist may describe someone who performs rituals mechanically, going through the motions without inner conviction.
Formal observances with ritual
- liturgyFormal worship structure
- priestsOrdained religious leaders
- sacramentsSacred Christian rites
- devoteesPassionate adherents
observances · clergy · worship · temples · incense · vestments · altars · chanting
Spiritual healers and intermediaries
- eldersSenior community members
- tribesAncestral social groups
- traditionsLong-established customs passed down
- ethnographySystematic study of peoples
customs · indigenous · ceremonies · ancestral · taboos · initiation · sacred · practitioners
Practitioners of sleight-of-hand
- practitionersPeople who perform a discipline
- covensWitch assemblies
- invocationsAppeals to higher powers
- grimoiresBooks of magical instruction
adepts · ceremonies · esoteric · initiates · occultists · séances · spellcasters · ceremonial
Established sequences of actions
- compulsionsUncontrollable urges to act
- repetitionAct of redoing
- creaturesAnimate beings, especially animals
- habitsRegular repeated behaviors
patterns · superstitions · meticulous · obsessive · schedules · methodical · predictable · systematic
ceremonies
Formal observances with ritual
- liturgyFormal worship structure
- priestsOrdained religious leaders
- sacramentsSacred Christian rites
devotees · observances · clergy · worship · temples · incense · vestments · altars · chanting · processions
shamans
Spiritual healers and intermediaries
- eldersSenior community members
- tribesAncestral social groups
- traditionsLong-established customs passed down
ethnography · customs · indigenous · ceremonies · ancestral · taboos · initiation · sacred · practitioners · offerings
magicians
Practitioners of sleight-of-hand
- practitionersPeople who perform a discipline
- covensWitch assemblies
- invocationsAppeals to higher powers
grimoires · adepts · ceremonies · esoteric · initiates · occultists · séances · spellcasters · ceremonial · summoning
routines
Established sequences of actions
- compulsionsUncontrollable urges to act
- repetitionAct of redoing
- creaturesAnimate beings, especially animals
habits · patterns · superstitions · meticulous · obsessive · schedules · methodical · predictable · systematic · adherents
- occultistswitches, wizards, sorcerers, sorceresses, warlocks
- habit typessmokers, gamblers, nail biters, procrastinators, coffee drinkers
- tribal peopletribespeople, tribesman, clan member, clan leaders, clan elders
ritualistscharismatics
People with compelling appeal
Pentecostals · Quakers · evangelicals · nonconformists · revivalists
ritualistsimprovisers
Those creating spontaneously
iconoclasts · innovators · free spirits · nonconformists · pragmatists
- ritualistic murderCeremonial taking of life
- ritualistic sacrificeCeremonial killing for divine favor
- ritualistic behaviorFormalized, repetitive symbolic actions