Writing Prompt #2 - What role does religion/spirituality play in your life?

[silveradept]

alphaviolet asks: "[W]hat role do[es] religion and/or spirituality play in your life? (in the present, that is)?"

The short answer is the same as if you had asked me "So, Whad'Ya Know?", namely "Not much, you?"

The longer answer is probably a litle more nuanced than that. In terms of active practice of any religion or spirituality, I have just about none in terms of regular practice, occasional practice, or Christmas and Easter attendance. The optimistic excuse is that I haven't yet found one that clicks, the pessimistic one is that I'm fundamentally lazy about practice and thus would need a serious and swift kick in the backside (or a regular group nearby) to get me moving, and the truth is probably that both of them are true.

My history is fairly colorful. Raised in a People of the Book tradition, read the book, saw the social ramifications of the religion of the book, decided it was not a good fit, kept the good stuff and discarded the bad. You can probably tell which tradition by which version of the Book I quote and what parts of the ritual I refer to, if I ever do refer to the ritual. Found there was a religious practice behind the idea of making magic - this appealed, and thus I read, and have been still wondering which, if any, deties/thoughtforms in that religion I should be working with. I don't feel like I have an affinity for any of them, excepting perhaps Spider, and I'm still ambivalent about whether I fully want to embrace the idea that I have an affinity with someone who is a Trickster according to his stories. That said, I've never actually been to any group meetings of said faith, and now I'm not entirely certain the ritual structure of the religion I read about is right for me. But, took the good stuff with me. Having taken several courses in Eastern philosophy at university, I found some of the ideas appealing, and so I have rummaged through some of them for good-looking ideas and possible praxis, although still rather rubbish at actual practice, mostly because I have not yet been able to convince myself that I need to carve out time for it in my day. But many of the core concepts have appealed, including the one about "effortless action", the one that encourages "just sitting", and all of them that talk about the idea of the importance and potential sacredness of all lifeforms and objects around. So eh, I'm a mismash of ideas of various sorts, undecided about whether any of them will actually be followed-upon or followed. Mostly, that information comes in handy when talking to other people about what their beliefs are and how they work.

So, I'm still looking for something that I will practice, aware that many of the things that will appeal only do so after practice and community. So, yeah.

So the answer to that question, I guess, is either, "not much, you?" Or "Plenty, but not in any visible practice way."

Comments

[alphaviolet]

You've given this a lot of thought, even if it's not something you're acting on now.

[silveradept]

As I was writing out the entry, I realized that there was more to my answer than just the practice part, which is where I had started, so I changed the end a bit to take that into account. Yeah, I've done a lot of thinking, and probably will continue to do lots of thinking about things. I don't know if there will be a practice component in the future.