The purpose of this contribution is to add the anthropology of Roy Rappaport to the theoretical mix of mathematics education research (MER). I will show that mathematics education (ME) and MER can be seen as parts of an overarching ritual, each in its particular way fitting Rappaport’s definition of the ritual form. The seemingly objective properties of mathematics, of mathematical knowledge and of mathematical learning can thence be interpreted as what Rappaport calls a canonical message, transmitted, by the enactment of this ritual. While the very possibility of producing, having or using mathematical knowledge belongs to this canonical message, the term self-referential message is used to refer to the distribution over individuals of realizations of these possibilities. To exemplify the usefulness of Rappaport’s terminology, I will show how ME in conjunction with MER establishes mathematics as a holy presence in the world, how it makes mathematical knowledge into an occult power, and how it thus contributes to the constitution of a modern cosmos. I conclude by indicating how the concepts employed here can be fruitfully combined with some of the many interesting lines of thought presently explored within MER.