Rituals.  Are they necessary to do your spiritual practices and to connect more fully?  Not at all.  You are already and always connected to Source and your guides. Rituals serve a most beneficial purpose, however.  They help you to maintain focus, to be present, and to prolong your awareness of your connection with All That Is.  Perform your rituals, but not because they are required or necessary.  Do them for the pleasure they bring, for the sense of connection and the sacredness — the extended reminder, if you so enjoy it—that you are a part of something so much greater than this human role you are playing and the earthly realm in which you are playing it.  You are so very loved!