Most propitiously, for I was casting about for something interesting to write about, I came across another moment of Peak 2024. It’s not Pride Month yet, my dears, but we’re getting closer. If you have been on Twitter, sorry X, in the last twenty-four hours, you may have come across a TikTok of a lot of white women in the woods, banging sticks on the ground and screaming. Why would I want to see that, you are probably asking. And you would be right—you don’t want to. Except that the women in the clip apparently all paid four thousand dollars for the privilege of whacking the ground with their sticks and screaming.
It’s called a “Rage Ritual,” and it is extremely uncomfortable sounding:
Two-and-a-half years ago after her divorce, [Kimberly Helmus] the cybersecurity engineer embarked on a retreat to Scotland with Mia Banducci − an author and self-described "Spiritual Fairy Godmother," better known online as Mia Magik. As part of the retreat, Banducci held a rage ritual: a ceremony in which participants scream and beat large sticks on the ground in the woods. Participants are encouraged to think of people and experiences that have wronged them and to scream and swing the sticks for at least 20 minutes, or until they can no longer move their arms. Rage rituals have garnered attention on TikTok, where they've resonated, particularly with women. In comments, women describe how moving it is to see other women embody their anger − an emotion experts say society often discourages women from expressing.
Bear with me, is this an emotion that “society”—such as it is—encourages anyone to indulge? I don’t want men to express this either.
"There's no place where you can see women be able to be angry like that and it not be condemned," Helmus says. " 'She's just hormonal. She's just unhinged. She's just crazy. She's just on her period. She's just, whatever.' This was a place where you were, probably for the first time in a really, really long time, if ever, able to scream out loud things about how you felt."
I’m seeing women being able to be angry like this all over the place. And, while it is deeply unpleasant, I don’t think one needs to limit the consideration of source. It could be hormones and being unhinged and also the total loss of God from our cultural imagination, and also probably a whole conflagration of demons.
Banducci has led rage rituals for several years and began doing them first for herself, then for friends and, eventually, as part of her days-long retreats, which include other activities and can range in price from around $2,000 to $4,000. Her one-day version, she says, costs $222 per ticket.
Wow Wow Wow. You know, I think I’m in the wrong line to work. I might just chuck it all and go out in the woods and charge people for whatever reason. My goodness, what a scam. Anyway, what are these things? What happens at them?
The process of a rage ritual is pretty simple. First, Banducci says, participants gather large sticks while conjuring to mind "every person who's ever crossed you, who's ever hurt you, who's ever ignored your boundaries or taken advantage of you or abused you in any way." After some warm-up breaths, the screaming and swinging begin’. The ritual is held in the woods so participants can make noise without fear of bothering people nearby. Banducci isn't the only person who leads events dealing with rage. Secret Sanctuary will host a "Sacred Rage Ceremony" in Alberta, Canada in July, and Jessica Ricchetti − an author and self-proclaimed mystic − will host a "Sacred Rage" women's retreat in North Carolina in June.
Isn’t it creative how completely the opposite of Church this is? It’s like Anti-Church. In church you go, sit down in a pew or chair, conjure to mind all your own sins, the way you’ve hurt other people, the ways you’ve hurt others, ignored them, and taken advantage of them.
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