What's your spiritual goal?

[Sacred Fool]

Can one become adept without rituals?

I just posted this in another thread, but what the heck?

The purpose of ritual is the tuning of your being to your deepest and highest self, such as you are able to engage them.

The principle behind any ritual of the white magical nature is to so configure the stimuli which reach down into the trunk of mind that this arrangement causes the generation of disciplined and purified emotion or love which then may be both protection and the key to the gateway to intelligent infinity.

 
If you read the transcript of session 64, you'll see that the reason the Ra contact group was instructed to use the chalice, etc. was that these symbols were important to "the instrument" and helped her tune, or move into alignment with her deeper/higher self.

One key--and oft overlooked--element is the purifying of emotions.