Parabola's Fall 1982 issue: Ceremonies The ceremony is a reminder of our possible relation with the sacred, and no ceremony can do more than help the celebrant to remember himself in all his possible dimensions. But this is quite enough; indeed, it is all the help and all the blessing that could be asked. For a relationship re-membered is revitalized, brought to life, like Osiris delivered from Set the Divider. Then giving and receiving become one, as the words were once in the original Indo-European root (ghabh). We call a religious ceremony a "divine service" without thinking that perhaps the title means literally what it says. People closer to life sources than we are, the Native Americans for instance, understand this and know that their ceremonies are needed by nature and by the earth their mother, by the Creator as well as by themselves. --from the editorial Focus Cover: Detail from Voodoo Ceremony by Gerard Valcin In this issue:

• "Becoming Part of It" by Joseph Epes Brown
  - Native American sacred values as models for our own
• "Nobility and Style" by Robertson Davies
  - Ceremonies as archetypes of order and degree
• "Ceremony for a Dying Planet" by Doris Lessing
  - From The Making of the Representative for Planet 8
• "Tennessee Heritage" by Francelia Butler
  - A firsthand account of the religious ways of mountain people
• "Setsubun: Ceremony of Renewal" by Frederick Franck
  - Ancient ritual in contemporary Japan
• "A Pillar So Straight" translated by Barbara Nimri Aziz
  - From the epic poem sung at a Tibetan wedding
• "Name and No Name" by P. L. Travers
  - The mystery and power of identity
• Arcs: "Ritual Action"
  - The efficacy of sacred patterns
• "Making Magic" by David Abram
  - How is it done?
• "The Uses of Ceremony: Two Views"
  - from the works of Aldous Huxley and P.D. Ouspensky
• "Two Poems" by Joseph Bruchac
• "Holy Ground" by Brother David Steindl-Rast
  - The sacramental life

Tangents - Reviews

• "Ritual and Performance" by Rob Baker
  - The question of sacrilege in modern theater and dance
• "The Paradox of Conquest" by Thomas Buckley
  - The influence of Native Americans

Epicycles - Traditional stories from around the world

• "White Buffalo Woman" / Lakota (Native American)
• "The Two Hunchbacks" / Irish retold by Paul Jordan-Smith
• "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" / English retold by Paul Jordan-Smith
• "The Teasing of the Bride" / Finnish retold by Paul Jordan-Smith