Instead of learning how to overcome the inevitable hurts and sorrows of life in a healthy way, women are being encouraged to indulge their inner rage by attending screaming ceremonies where they beat the ground with sticks and shriek at the top of their lungs.USA Today is reporting on what has come to be known on social media as “rage rituals” which have become popular among women in particular as a way to vent their anger and frustration at life by engaging in a “ceremony” involving screaming and beating the ground with large sticks.
“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,” explains USA Today’s Charles Trepany.
For example, a woman named Mia Banducci (aka Mia Magik), a self-proclaimed “intuiwitch” began hosting these ceremonies for friends several years ago, but they have morphed into overnight retreats costing up to $4K.
Banducci, who likes to run around in a witch hat, refers to herself on her website as “an ambassador for the ancient magikal way returning home to our modern day” whose mission it is “to reclaim our unique and eternal inner wisdom, what makes us a ‘Witch’, to bring our visions to fruition. My life is dedicated to reawakening the power of the feminine Divine Nature for us all to reconnect with the unconditionally loving Great Mother Goddess on our planet.”
She offers courses such as “Money Magik” which contains “my most powerful abundance rituals” and a “Witch School” where students are taught to awaken their “eternal magik and superNatural powers” while learning how to “speak the language of the Universe and live your most magikal, mystical life.”
Another purveyor of these women’s retreats is Jessica Richetti, who refers to herself as a Priestess, Mystic, Energy Alchemist, and Author. Her retreat, entitled, “Sacred Rage: Alchemical Women’s Retreat” is being held in Asheville, NC this month.
As Richetti explains on her website, “Our ability to connect with the energy of Rage is directly proportionate to our ability to connect with our life force energy, our ability to create and manifest, our embodied joy, and our Power.”
Women of social media are applauding the rituals. "[A]s a now middle aged woman with even more rage, I need this!!" said one TikTok user.
Kimberly Helmus, an attendee at a rage ritual, told USA Today, "There's no place where you can see women be able to be angry like that and it not be condemned: '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," Helmus said.
Today’s rage rituals are actually a throwback to the primal scream therapy (PST) promoted by Dr. Arthur Janov, a celebrity psychotherapist whose practice boasted the likes of John Lennon and Yoko Ono.
Janov believed that psychological neuroses in adulthood was the result of repressed childhood trauma which he referred to as “primal pain.” If a person regressed back to the source of this pain and dealt with it, such as crying and screaming under the guidance of a therapist, the person could find relief.
However, as Prof Sascha Frühholz of the department of psychology at the University of Zurich states, Janov’s theory about scream therapy just doesn’t add up.
“PST [primal scream therapy] also rests on the, partly wrong, assumption that traumatic early life events are stored as mental and bodily complexes – like a prison – that can only be resolved by ‘busting out’ during screaming,” Frühholz told The Guardian. “There is no scientific evidence for this.”
In addition, PST uses screams of anger - which could be counterproductive.
“We know that such consistent expressions of anger as a therapeutic method have no or even negative effects on the therapeutic outcome,” he said. “Our own research shows that positive screams – joy and pleasure – are much more relevant for humans, and they induce social bonding as a positive effect.”
Psychotherapist Stephanie Sarkis told USA Today that there is no one-size-fits-all method for people to deal with anger and advises caution for anyone wishing to attend a rage ritual.
"When you do something like that, it's important to know, does it exacerbate your anger or does it decrease it?" she says. "That's something that's on an individual basis. It depends on past experiences. It depends on your own make-up. It depends on just brain chemistry."
This explains why experts today regard Janov’s treatment as largely ineffectual and perhaps even harmful, even though some therapists still use it – as do some witches and New Age priestesses.
The bottom line is that there are far more effective ways for women to deal with anger than employing questionable “rituals” that might only make matters worse. Besides the various proven therapeutic means available, deepening one’s spiritual life by drawing closer to God has led countless women to inner peace through forgiveness and genuine healing of traumatic wounds.
This year’s Women of Grace retreat, entitled "Divine Mercy: Crucible of New Life," offers just such an opportunity to women of all ages who are seeking rejuvenation by exploring the miraculous power of the mercy of God. Click here for more information!
To be encouraged in the development of their interior life, women are invited to the Benedicta Enrichment Seminar, entitled, “Women Mystics and the Divine Live Within, led by Kim McGregor. This seminar precedes the retreat. Click here to learn more!
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