{"id":318,"date":"2009-07-26T11:52:57","date_gmt":"2009-07-26T11:52:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/apagansblog\/2009\/07\/spirits-all-around.html"},"modified":"2009-07-26T11:52:57","modified_gmt":"2009-07-26T11:52:57","slug":"spirits-all-around","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/07\/spirits-all-around.html","title":{"rendered":"Spirits All Around"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

“Ex-Pagan” managed to get a lot of confusions and errors
\ninto a short snark in the ancestor thread, but by doing so raised an
\ninteresting issue. Ancestors are not Gods in any tradition to my
\nknowledge.  <\/span>But they are
\npotentially important spirit powers.<\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n


\n <\/p>\n

Most Pagan traditions, and not just NeoPagan ones envision
\nand often experience the universe as filled with a great many of what might be
\ncalled “spirit beings.”  <\/span>A kind of
\necosystem exists at the subtle levels of reality, o<\/span>ne perhaps every bit as complex as our own more tangible
\none.  Perhaps this is one of our biggest distinctions from modern
\nProtestantism in particular, where there either are no such beings, or
\nthey are bad.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Greek philosopher Thales<\/a> wrote “everything is full of
\nGods.”  <\/span>In doing so he obviously
\nused the ‘g-word’ differently than anyone in our society.  <\/span>He seems to me to be referring to the
\nsame insight Rabbi Zalman Schachter said in my favorite interfaith book, The
\nJew in the Lotus<\/i><\/a>: that every blade of grass has its angel urging it to
\ngrow.  <\/span>Most Pagan cultures have
\nspirit taxonomies that range from relatively minor spirit beings to quite
\npowerful one, the most powerful usually being called “Gods.”  <\/span>Add to that thought forms, ancestors,
\nand perhaps powers that are in no sense individuated, and quite a complex
\nnetwork presents itself.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Some might say this is all imaginary. Based on my own
\nexperiences, I do not have that luxury. 
\n<\/span>But many people do ot have experiences such as mine.  <\/span>That being so, how important are what I
\ncall the “intermediate powers” really?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As our society proves, we can get by up to a point with
\nignoring this eco-system.  <\/span>But this
\nsociety also ignored our terrestrial one for a long time, much of it continues
\nwillfully to do so, and the jury is very much out as to what that will
\nmean.  <\/span>Certainly there is no
\nshortage of examples worldwide of societies which ignored their terrestrial
\necosystem, and collapsed as a result.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I wonder whether the same point may apply to spiritual
\necosystems?  <\/span>That is, a society
\nthat ignores the values and relationships underlying those spiritual realities
\nwill also ultimately undermine the conditions for its own survival.  <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Obviously if this is true, it does not require ‘getting it
\nright’ as to what is going on. 
\n<\/span>Traditional societies had very different views than ours, and often from
\none another, and did fairly well for a long time.  <\/span>But what they had in common, those that survived, was a
\nsense of respect for the world around them.  <\/span>A sense that the world did not exist solely to fulfill their
\nwishes, as some New Agers claim.  <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Just as respect often substitutes for lack of knowledge
\nabout others when we meet them, so I suspect respect substitutes very sell for
\nlack of knowledge about these other powers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Ex-Pagan” managed to get a lot of confusions and errors into a short snark in the ancestor thread, but by doing so raised an interesting issue. Ancestors are not Gods in any tradition to my knowledge.  But they are potentially important spirit powers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pagan-spirituality"],"yoast_head":"\nSpirits All Around - A Pagan's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/07\/spirits-all-around.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Spirits All Around - A Pagan's Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"“Ex-Pagan” managed to get a lot of confusions and errors into a short snark in the ancestor thread, but by doing so raised an interesting issue. Ancestors are not Gods in any tradition to my knowledge.  But they are potentially important spirit powers.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/07\/spirits-all-around.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Pagan's Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-07-26T11:52:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gus diZerega\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Spirits All Around - A Pagan's Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/07\/spirits-all-around.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Spirits All Around - A Pagan's Blog","og_description":"“Ex-Pagan” managed to get a lot of confusions and errors into a short snark in the ancestor thread, but by doing so raised an interesting issue. 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