What Is Ritual?

Patrick Hanlon
3 min readMay 2, 2024
Using Midjourney AI is a ritual not used by the incredible artist/illustrator @hannainaiah

Rituals are one of the seven pieces of Primal Code® identified in Primal Branding. The other pieces of Primal Code are Creation Story, Creed, Icons, Sacred Words (or Lexicon), Nonbelievers (or Pagans) and Leader.

Icons and Rituals work closely together.

Like this. You’re staring at this post, which is a ritual, and you’re looking at it on your computer or smartphone — which are iconic. You drive to work which is a ritual, and your automobile is an icon that, thanks to generations of automobile positioning and marketing, tells us a lot about who you are.

Rituals are our beliefs in action. If you want a good ritual get a hug; if you want a bad ritual, call your credit card company.

Success means building positive experiences within your community that not only attract people, but keep them coming back for more.

This buzzy connectivity within your community helps drive word of mouth and advocacy.

Think about what things you celebrate.

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Patrick Hanlon

Author of “Primal Branding,” “The Social Code,” writer on Forbes, Medium, Inc., East Hampton Star. Founder primalbranding.co