WORSHIPFUL THINGS

Summer Solstice sunrise

(c) 2016 earrach

Worshipful Things

A personal inventory...

I am not a monotheist or panentheist, nor am I in agreement with any definition that would end up positing a Universal-Godhead separate from This World, nor even of “One” utterly permeating it.

Nor do I believe in a "Creator" or a Creation.

I believe that there is a spectrum of Worshipful Things: 

- - things to which I reflexively feel a profound need to render my reverence.

They are not all "spirits".   Nor would they all qualify as "beings".

Note here that I am actually more comfortable worshiping THINGS than beings...

We are trained by Western Culture to assume that “worship” is

            (a.)       for “God” (only.)

            (b.)       who is an entity…

            (c.)       who is of a discarnate, transcendental, nature.

I do not feel constrained by those criteria in the least.

As a matter of fact, I find them particularly offensive to my religious sensibilities.

It might actually help to cite a couple of the things I worship…

( Listed here in descending order; the greatest first, followed by the successively lesser...)

1. The Earth, Our Ultimate Mother (Land/Sea/Sky).
(The Thing; not the "idea"...)

2. The Sun
(The Thing; not the "idea"...)

4. "Bliadhna" - The Seasons
("blee an-uh" Scots.Gaelic for The Wheel of the Year )

3. The Great Way of Things / -a.k.a. "The Wyrd"
The great virtually ineffable and interconnected Fabric of Existence.

5. "The Kindred"
-An ADF term for the IndoEuropean set of the three kinds of Spirit-Folk, inhabiting the Three Worlds (Middle, Lower and Upper realms) recognized in the IE lore:
            i.   The Wordly Spirits: the others, dwelling along-side us in the World of Form:       
                 The Creatures/ The Fey/& certain genius locii(Spirits of Place).
            ii.  The Ancestors: in the Underworld Realm/Eternity
            iii. The Blessed Ones: in the Celestial Realm/ the Ideal- or Perfected Ones/ 
                 certain ancient Gods and Goddesses; including ehumerized Heroes 
                 (the undying oversouls of certain superb once-mortals).

To me, these things are worthy of veneration.

            There's a start.
                                                -Earrach
                                                ( False Gods "R" Us ® )

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The following is an excerpt from my essay "Neopaganism and Belief"...

" Ok, ok, but what do you REALLLY believe?? "

In case you've read this far and aren't aware, like most of my essays, this is an opinion-piece. I just wanted to check-in with you on that before I proceed to my next point. For a start, I shall hereby submit an admission of my general SKEPTICISM toward most persons' ( all persons' ?) statements-of-belief as not being truly representative of their personal "reality-constructs." I suppose that makes me somewhat of a cynic, but I believe that this is a terribly important idea, no matter how bitter a pill it seems.

Perhaps a logician could show us an equation illustrating the "reasoning" behind each of the various contemporary "faiths"... yet even if these people have achieved logically-valid systems of "belief" –in my opinion, the fact remains that most people internally sustain numerous conjectural models, sorting them and finally grooming a current "preferred" model to "bind" themselves-to ( re-ligio: "to bind").

Initially an intellectual choice and later an obligation to one's personal history and self esteem, they do NOT always (or even "often") represent the basic reality-construct that the person employs reflexively to apprehend the world from moment to moment. No, I do not have a lot of facts to support this notion; just a very strong intuitive conclusion based on careful observation of others and as objective of an analysis of my own behavior as I can muster.

The ordinary "statement of belief" springs from the reflective realm, not from the reflexive. More a matter of politics, they all too clearly resemble press-releases: public statements to others, and to ourselves, of

(a) how we'd like to think of ourselves… -and-

(b) how we'd like to be thought-of by our peers.

This is why, in the Glossary, instead of saying "the theist believes in god" I've chosen to use the phrase "the theist asserts a personal faith in the existence of a deity."

Don't get me wrong, I think statements of belief are wonderful things; I think everyone should sit down and write one out right now. And then write another one tomorrow. And another one the next day... So yes, I'm taking the position that it's more useful to discuss statements of belief as being simply what people choose to say about themselves, today, and that we should always reserve judgment on knowing what it is they actually "believe", regardless of what they say.

(end of excerpt.)

A BLESSED LAMMASTIDE TO ALL

painting by Winslow Homer

My LUGHNASSADH / LAMMAS  essays HERE...