wtf?

[arethinn]

I am not believing what I'm reading here. As far as I can tell, plutoinlove is saying that a study of history has no relevance to practicing or constructing a spiritual tradition, and that she feels her time spent thus was wasted. I agree that details of civil wars, succession of government leaders, etc. is probably not directly meaningful, but I find myself just flabbergasted at the suggestion that studying the history of a people is irrelevant to practicing a spirituality that you claim takes elements from their cultural milieu. Note that I am not saying you must justify your religion's existence (as she seems to think I am), but that I flat disagree that there is no connection and that time so spent was ill-used.

Comments

[blackthornglade.livejournal.com]

Of course it doesn't matter, Tass. She can be a realio, trulio Irish Celtic Witta without understanding the people or culture that stuff has been ripped out of, glommed on to, and folded/spindled/mutilated.

They're *DEAD* after all....they don't care.

*coff*

[starlightforest.livejournal.com]

mumble-mumble-Land-mumble-Ancestors-mumble...

[blackthornglade.livejournal.com]

*blinkblink* You don't *really* believe in all that ghost and ancestors stuff, do you? *blinkblink*

Ow. That hurt. :)

[chryssaliss.livejournal.com]

and that she feels her time spent thus was wasted

I think it is very hard to argue with someone about what they feel or to discount a statement based on an individual's personal experience.

Similarly, I can't always convince a student that studying the events leading to, the events of, and the events after the American Civil War might be useful in understanding the Civil Rights Movement as well as the state of race relations in the here and now....studying history often doesn't become relevant until much later when a person has need of the knowledge and connections that were planted years before.

Understanding the history of religions and of people has been very helpful to me in figuring out what I do NOT believe, but to be honest, it really hasn't done much for helping me figure out what I do believe. The things I choose to believe come from a deeper, more primal instinct and intuition. History and Science and Literature can help me confirm that in my own mind or speak it more eloquently when I am sharing it with others.

Of course, I don't claim to be making any effort to reconstruct the religion of any other group of people, although I readily enough borrow symbols and stories that are of interest and have meaning to me.

[dreamfall.livejournal.com]

o.O

But how can you feel a deep resonance with a belief system and NOT want to truly understand the cultural experience of it's native practitioners?

I also rather debate the idea that you can understand the spiritual beliefs native to a region without understanding it's history. Spiritual beliefs have, until very recently (late 19th century) powerfully driven most cultural aspects of a civilization's art, music and architecture. How can you appreciate Christianity without understanding how Mozart's greatest works were paens of joy to his God, and how the great gothic cathedrals of Europe were inspired NOT by the rich Church but rather by the spiritual visions of the stonecutters who designed them? How can you appreciate the beliefs of the ancient Greeks and Romans without understanding how their pre-Christian religions shaped their political structures? How can you appreciate the Egyptian spiritual entities without understanding how their beliefs shaped the very structures they built?

I know, I know... you see it the same way I do. Just... I mean ... if she can't see something as simple as the relevance between Irish Celtic spiritual mindsets and how they affected the country's later clashes with England, how can she even BEGIN to claim an understanding of something as highly esoteric and with such complex philosophies concerning life and death as of all things Celtic paganism??

I mean even if you gain no spiritual insight from reading the history of a country, I just don't see how you can claim a true spiritual resonance and not WANT to, even feel COMPELLED to know as much about the people who formed that spiritual tradition as you can possibly get your hands on, for the love if nothing else. That just boggles me.

[metaphorge.livejournal.com]

Human-type-creatures seem to have a really hard time with the concept of connections....