Ah ok, I see where you're coming from. For me 'ritual' has a more restricted or literal meaning, and of course there are such literal rituals in Taoism. (Try crowning an emperor without one!)

FWIW those pure-thinky Taoists seem to be on the decrease now. I don't know whether you've found that. Because modern western philosophy is all think and no do, so that was the door through which the academic translations of Lao-Tzu et al came originally. But now there is serious scholarship into all the phases of Taoism, and a great variety of true practices available too. Westerners going into the Lungmen sect etc.

There's a great academic called David Palmer (author of Qigong Fever if you know that one) who's currently co-writing a history of the modern worldwide spread of Taoism I think. What I like about him is he is a very gripping and entertaining writer -- unlike many of his ilk. So I'll get that when he's done it and see what the story has been. I guess we've had various waves -- the discovery of the texts with Legge and Waley was one wave, the boom of people like Mantak Chia through qigong was another...