Wild Rituals: 10 Lessons Animals Can Teach Us About Connection, Community, and Ourselves

A short book with a big message, Wild Rituals: 10 Lessons Animals Can Teach Us About Connection, Community, and Ourselves by Caitlin O’Connell is the kind of engaging, immersing read many of us could use this year. Over more than thirty years of studying wild animals, O’Connell has drawn some amazing parallels between animals’ behavior and our own. In this work, she explores ten rituals lost to modern society that can teach us to be more connected to one another and to the world around us. She argues that this is critical to society and the planet.

A consummate storyteller, O’Connell paints a vivid picture of the natural world, enough to make you want to throw down and do some ritual dancing on the spot. Her keen observations of animal behaviors are delightful and insightful, drawing captivating parallels with the natural world. Whether its through greeting rituals, mating rituals, or grieving rituals, O’Connell makes you recognize the importance of these lost aspects of society and clearly articulates the need for such interconnectedness in the modern world.