💾 Archived View for skylarhill.me › posts › adding-spiritual-practices.gmi captured on 2024-08-18 at 17:09:38. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Adding some Spiritual Practices

I recently played Journey for the first time and just absolutely loved it. It inspired me to revisit my (largely inactive) spiritual practice and make some additions.

The main thing I'd like to add, I think, is some form of ancestor veneration. Feeling connected to the past has always been an important part of religion for me, in hindsight. The most beautiful part of Communion for me was knowing that basically every Christian (or at least everyone I would have considered Christian) had followed the same ritual. I was sort of united with the whole Christian community and its history through that one act. Honoring my ancestors -- or "saints" (respected historical figures) -- could serve a similar purpose for me now I think.

The only real obstacle here is that I don't know who my ancestors were, and of those recent enough for me to remember, there are only a few that I intend to pay any real honor to. My maternal family is mostly still alive, and they're not the kind of people I want to honor. My paternal grandmother, on the other hand, passed away when I was still pretty young, and she was an amazing woman.

I might also introduce a few fictional characters that I hold as role models into the mix. Uncle Iroh deserves all the honor in the world. Beyond that I might invent a few "ancestors" to mark particular periods in human history, as a way to remember where I came from.

Another small ritual element that I'd like to add is crossing myself. I picked up the habit while I was Catholic, and with some meaning changes I think it could still be a meaningful and satisfying part of my practice. I've adjusted the accompanying prayer to "In the name of truth, love, life, and light," to match the "head, heart, shoulder, shoulder" pattern.