notreallystars (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
notreallystars) wrote2019-08-29 04:14 am
notreallystars) wrote2019-08-29 04:14 am
Entry tags:
Advices and queries, 7
Time for another one of these! Brought to you by being wide awake at a time when none of the important life stuff that I need to do is possible.
7. Be aware of the spirit of God at work in the ordinary activities and experience of your daily life. Spiritual learning continues throughout life, and often in unexpected ways. There is inspiration to be found all around us, in the natural world, in the sciences and arts, in our work and friendships, in our sorrows as well as in our joys. Are you open to new light, from whatever source it may come? Do you approach new ideas with discernment?
- Quaker Faith and Practice, Advices and Queries
The first religious -ism I embraced because I had thought about it, rather than because I had been told it was true, was panentheism. This developed into a polytheistic animism that remains despite my increasing distance from regular personal spiritual practice. It feeds well into the notion of the Light at work in ordinary things. I've talked before about how I don't like to use the word 'God' in relation to the thing that Quakers worship because it is so distinct, in my mind, from any of the other ways in which that word is used. Now, as I am rediscovering Quakerism, I find that the two can be complementary in a way that I would have struggled to reconcile before.
I am a hard polytheist, which for those unfamiliar with the term means that I believe in gods who are fully distinct from one another and not simply faces of a single deity. The only discussion I have ever seen about the compatibility of polytheism and Quakerism concluded that while soft polytheism could be compatible with Quakerism, hard polytheism could not. I am about to disagree. The conclusion reached is entirely reasonable if one assumes that polytheistic deities are fundamentally the same sort of entity as the thing that Quakers worship. That is not the assumption that I make. On the basis of my spiritual experiences at Quaker meetings, and my spiritual experiences of polytheistic deities, the entities concerned are not comparable. I have seen polytheistic deities described as humans 'writ large'. They have commonalities with us; they have likes and dislikes, strengths and flaws, emotions and personalities. The thing that Quakers worship is not like that. I call it the Light because that best reflects my understanding and experience of it. It is a vast, impersonal constant, existing beyond everything and within it. It is timeless, ageless, and entirely inhuman.
Ultimately, I believe that polytheistic gods are as distinct from one another as humans are. I just also think that humans are slightly less distinct from one another than most people do. If the Light exists within all people, as Quakers believe that it does, then it may also exist within gods. That is how the two are reconcilable, to my mind.
I've gone off on a bit of a tangent with this one, but after all "Spiritual learning continues ... in unexpected ways".
7. Be aware of the spirit of God at work in the ordinary activities and experience of your daily life. Spiritual learning continues throughout life, and often in unexpected ways. There is inspiration to be found all around us, in the natural world, in the sciences and arts, in our work and friendships, in our sorrows as well as in our joys. Are you open to new light, from whatever source it may come? Do you approach new ideas with discernment?
- Quaker Faith and Practice, Advices and Queries
The first religious -ism I embraced because I had thought about it, rather than because I had been told it was true, was panentheism. This developed into a polytheistic animism that remains despite my increasing distance from regular personal spiritual practice. It feeds well into the notion of the Light at work in ordinary things. I've talked before about how I don't like to use the word 'God' in relation to the thing that Quakers worship because it is so distinct, in my mind, from any of the other ways in which that word is used. Now, as I am rediscovering Quakerism, I find that the two can be complementary in a way that I would have struggled to reconcile before.
I am a hard polytheist, which for those unfamiliar with the term means that I believe in gods who are fully distinct from one another and not simply faces of a single deity. The only discussion I have ever seen about the compatibility of polytheism and Quakerism concluded that while soft polytheism could be compatible with Quakerism, hard polytheism could not. I am about to disagree. The conclusion reached is entirely reasonable if one assumes that polytheistic deities are fundamentally the same sort of entity as the thing that Quakers worship. That is not the assumption that I make. On the basis of my spiritual experiences at Quaker meetings, and my spiritual experiences of polytheistic deities, the entities concerned are not comparable. I have seen polytheistic deities described as humans 'writ large'. They have commonalities with us; they have likes and dislikes, strengths and flaws, emotions and personalities. The thing that Quakers worship is not like that. I call it the Light because that best reflects my understanding and experience of it. It is a vast, impersonal constant, existing beyond everything and within it. It is timeless, ageless, and entirely inhuman.
Ultimately, I believe that polytheistic gods are as distinct from one another as humans are. I just also think that humans are slightly less distinct from one another than most people do. If the Light exists within all people, as Quakers believe that it does, then it may also exist within gods. That is how the two are reconcilable, to my mind.
I've gone off on a bit of a tangent with this one, but after all "Spiritual learning continues ... in unexpected ways".