Spirituality,Religion,Existential Crisis,Supernatural,Mysticism,Morality,Consciousne

[Preety_India]

 

Trying to learn about Voodoo through this documentary. 

Some people say it's spiritual possession. 

 

Spiritual possession just as demonic possession must also be a phenomenon. 

 

Edited August 24, 2020 by Preety_India

[Preety_India]

 

1 One pillar is religion 

2 One pillar is consciousness 

3 One pillar is witchcraft 

4. One pillar is Satanism and exorcism 

5 One pillar is Animism 

6 One pillar is philosophy and psychology 

7  One pillar is soulism 

8 One pillar is Occultism 

9 One pillar is theism 

10.One pillar is shamanism 

11 One pillar is Mysticism 

12 One pillar is morality 

13 One pillar is tantric and Tantra 

14 One pillar is romanticism 

15 One pillar is esoterism 

16 One pillar is supernatural 

17  One pillar is insight work and shadow work  self inquiry and Visualization 

18 One pillar is art 

19 One pillar is rebellion and renunciation - of the material world and materialism 

20 One pillar is communing and balance 

21 One pillar is paganism 

22 One pillar is mindfulness 

 

 

[Preety_India]

 

The word voodoo, which has many different names and spellings (like vodun, vodou, voudou, vudu, vodoun, vowdown, vooodooo, vundun) is the name of a West African animist, spiritual folkway. Some class it as a religion. However, Voodoo is more a way of life. It is a supernatural ancestral connection, passed from generation to generation via oral tradition, rituals and routine spiritual practices. Voodoo evolved across the centuries, and has variations from tribe to tribe. Religion, the faith mode of White people, on the other hand, is based on formal organization, myths and dogma encoded in texts, buildings constructed for worship, and an hierarchy of ordained leaders.

Voodoo is animism or spiritism. That is, all aspects of the natural world are seen as having spiritual identity immune to physical death. Animism includes]] belief in each person's spirit surviving the death of the body. Ancestors' 'spirits' are called upon for inspiration, protection or other influences over the material world. In the New World, most voodoo believers became Christian in order to enhance their welfare under the control of Christian owners. Now most of those Christian-Voodoo faithful identify (at least publically) as Catholic. The roots of voodoo in the Americas come from the Fon, Ewe, and Yoruba people of Africa.. The word vodún is the Fon-Ewe word for spirit.[1]

In voodoo many gods and spirits are prayed to or called on. Both spirits of nature and of dead people are important. The spirits of family member who have died are especially important. Voodoo often has rituals with music and dancing. Drums are used to make most of this music. In voodoo people often believe that a spirit is in their body and controlling the body. Having a spirit come into is wanted, and important. This spirit can speak for the gods or dead people you love, and can also help to heal or do magic.

Vodou in HaitiEdit

Another word for voodoo is vodu, used in Haiti where the creole language is based on French language. African voodoo often has animal sacrifice (the animal is killed for the spirits), but this is not common in Haiti. Voodoo in Haiti and America has also added some Catholic ideas that were not known in African voodoo. Though a contested subject amongst scholars of Vodu, the use of Catholic saints/iconography is theorized to have developed as a means of not only adaptation, and survival, but as a decision to incorporate new forms of magic. 

Voodoo is an important religion in Haiti. When Haiti beat the French in a war and became its own country, the people of Haiti believed that voodoo had helped them win. Also, in Haiti there are both good priests and "dark" sorcerers (called bokor). The bokor acts like a kind of religious policeman, and may curse bad people.

[Preety_India]

While I'm trying to dig into spirituality I have found that certain aspects of life are important spiritually. 

I'm trying to incorporate new forms into my spiritual corpus. 

These aspects are found in the physical world but they strangely resonate with the spiritual world. 

These aspects are voice and speech and hearing and vision. 

I have seen a lot of ghost encounter videos and they carry EVP machines to record the voices of the dead/deceased. 

This tells me that voices remain despite physical death of the body. 

I always believed that a certain part of ourselves always evaporated and existed post death, that everything did not die with death, something remained. That something is what I'm after. 

If the voices of the dead can be heard, it means that our senses of speech and hearing are very important spiritually. 

Now, the spirits can also see because without seeing how would they speak to those who wish to hear them. 

How are telepathics able to see things without them actually happening in front of them. 

This means the sense of vision also has spiritual significance to some extent. 

To me this means that the collective senses of speech, hearing and vision are absolutely spiritually important. 

These senses guide us in the material world. 

But in my opinion, I think these senses follow us into the afterlife as well. They don't cease to function even after death. They accompany the spirit of the deceased individual into the world after death, which is called the afterlife. 

 

Now we have the 5 senses. 

Sight smell touch sound and taste. 

But not all of these are necessary. 

Smell and touch and taste don't mean much in the spiritual sense. 

But another sense which is usually not considered among the 5 senses is the sense of feeling. For example feeling an emotion 

 

Often when people used to describe their paranormal encounters they have described the facial features or demeanor of the spirits they encountered. For example some people would say that the spirit appear depressed or worried etc. This means that spirits are capable of chanelling emotions 

 

So the capability of feeling an emotion is also carried into the afterlife. 

 

Thus I can say that the physical senses or attributes of vision, hearing, speech, and feeling are absolutely spiritually significant. 

 

Edited August 25, 2020 by Preety_India

[Preety_India]

 

I think since these 3 senses of sound, vision and feelings are so important then the arts associated with these senses must also be equally important. 

Let me think of the arts associated with these senses. 

With vision, I can think of visualization, imagination. Painting. Creating an object, example sculpture. 

With sound or hearing I can think of music. 

With speech or expression or voice I can think of words and singing. 

With feelings, I can think of poetry, because whenever people feel something they would write it down than speak about it. 

These arts I will consider as spiritual. 

Singing 

Music... As usual music is generally accompanied by dance 

Painting 

Sculpture 

Words..... Vocabulary. Articulation

Poetry 

 

If you carefully observe these specific arts you will find that they existed as Supremely important in almost every ancient culture. 

These arts almost defined those cultures. 

 

 

 

[Preety_India]

 

Afterlife, spiritism, Mysticism 

 

Indian spirituality or Hindu based spirituality is more about Mysticism 

 

What is Mysticism? 

 

Mysticism is a spiritual belief stating that a connection can be obtained with God or the spirits through thought and meditation. An example of mysticism is believing that a direct connection can be made with God through sitting and thinking.

Indian spiritual practices focus more on Mysticism. It focuses more on contemplation, meditation, thinking, yoga, breathing, etc etc. It's less emotional and more thought and Karma based. I will call this Indian Mysticism. 

Whereas African spirituality focuses more on animism, raw spirituality and spiritism. 

 

African spirituality focuses directly on invoking a spirit. 

Even communication with a spirit. 

 

Edited August 25, 2020 by Preety_India

[Preety_India]

I don't have any tools to study spirituality other than my own mind. 

Which is very discouraging. 

There is no tangible way of studying spirituality which is very frustrating to be frank. 

 

In the material world, that is the present world, we can study anything. I can study a plant cell under the microscope. I can sit in the jungle and study animal behavior with binoculars and recording equipment. 

 

But how do I study a spirit? 

 

 

 

 

[Preety_India]

 

 

One thing that I wanted to make clear. 

I do hate the world a little bit especially after all the negative experiences with people in my life. 

 

But I need to be clear here. I do hate the present materialistic Generation very much. 

I hate what humanity has come to. 

I do  sense cheapness, degradation and depravity in the present world. Because people are more concerned about money more than anything else. 

I wish money and materialism never existed. But nothing can be done about it other than wishful thinking and wanting it to go away.. 

 

But I don't hate the world without humans. I mean the raw physical world like mountains, nature, you know, I don't hate that. 

In fact I love the raw physical beauty of creation. 

I love nature, I love animals, I love the rain, the wind, the mountains, the ground, the plants, the forests. 

It's not boring at all. We cut it down and make it boring. 

So a puddle in the street or a bush in a nearby open space, I mean that's not exciting. Because that landscape has been designed by man for occupying. And so it doesn't look good, more shabby. 

What is really attractive is that which is  without human interference,, untouched by humans. It has raw splendor. 

Like mountains. Deep forests. 

Snowy regions.. Beaches 

Places where human habitation is scant. 

And I have also sensed that some sort of spirituality also exists in nature as well. 

For example, if I went outside now and walked down a windy path surrounded by trees on both sides of the road, I would feel absolutely enchanted with the wind touching my shoulders and sweeping across my face, the delightful touch of the moist wind would energize my spirit and I would be home back feeling better and more upbeat than how I feel now. 

There is a spiritual quality to nature as well. 

Often times we miss it because we just don't pay attention to it 

 

But if you look carefully at nature and pay attention to your feelings when you are in nature, you can intuitively feel its spiritual essence. All you have to do is be aware and pay attention. 

It's the human world that makes me sick. 

Because humans are repulsive. My hate doesn't come from natural reasons. It comes from experience and interaction with humans. 

In my personal experience, humans are the least capable of experiencing spirituality of all creatures 

We are only guided by our vapid needs. 

Had animals the intelligence that we have in gathering resources and ensuring dominance, I'm pretty sure that animals would have done a wonderful job of restoring peace to earth 

 

We only have faculties of the brain but not faculties of the spirit. 

I have seen enough greed and shallowness in humans to be totally repulsed by it. 

I have almost given up on humanity 

The only hope for present humanity is spirituality 

 

 

Edited August 25, 2020 by Preety_India

[Preety_India]

 

The human world is characteristically deficient in spirituality. 

Yet we still have some remnants. The remnants of ancient cultures left behind. 

The remnants of people who lived in nature and lived by nature and therefore knew more about a world different from the materialistic world today. 

Of course their wisdom must have been superior to ours. 

 

[Preety_India]

So I had been talking about how nature also inspires spiritual forces. 

Some of the things in nature are so pristine, they just can't be corrupted. 

For example, the wind 

Think how mighty and strong winds can be 

We can't corrupt the wind.

We can pollute the sea because it's like a container, but we can't destroy something that comes suddenly and goes suddenly 

We can't destroy rains. 

We can't destroy the sun.. Because certain things are just out of the reach of humans. 

Can we change the composition of water? Well, we can pollute the quality of a water body by mixing dirt or chemicals but we can't change what water is. 

Water is H2O.  We can't change that. 

 

Nature is made in such a manner that we can throw dirt at its beauty but we cannot corrupt its beauty. 

In other words you cannot make it become something that it is not. 

Even human art is like nature. 

Take for example a beautiful sculpture. 

Very beautiful 

It has beautiful arms and torso. 

You can, if you want to, break the arms and destroy the features of the face of the sculpture 

But it remains what it was..Maybe it is not very good to look at anymore, but even then, whatever remaining parts of the sculpture, like the legs still look beautiful. So to destroy its beauty, you will need to destroy the sculpture itself. 

Similarly a rose, whose beauty is enchanting, yet even if you plucked out some petals to make it look less beautiful, the remaining petals still have the beautiful colors and shapes, and so you would need to destroy the rose completely to destroy its beauty 

 

Here what I wanted to say is that only a physical aspect can be destroyed or corrupted. A spiritual aspect cannot be corrupted. It remains what it is. Either you have it or you make it gone, that's your choice but when you see it or have it, it is Incontaminable. 

 

In order to destroy the spiritual aspect, you will need to destroy the thing itself entirely and remove it from existence. 

You cannot remove the beauty of a rose and still have a rose. 

You cannot remove the beauty of a sculpture and still have the sculpture 

 

You cannot remove H2O  out of the water molecule and still have water. 

In short you can't corrupt it. 

This is the  nature of creation. 

Anything that is created beautifully carries the essence of the artist. The quality of the artist now gets transferred to the object. This quality cannot be removed. Removing it means destroying the object itself. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 25, 2020 by Preety_India

[Preety_India]

 

Spirituality is an innate quality. 

The inner defines the outer. 

A rose is beautiful because it carries the innate quality of beauty in its shape. 

A sculpture is beautiful because it carries the beautiful essence transferred to it by the artist in the process of creation. 

The outer gets influenced by the inner. The outer can get destroyed and withered but the inner stays as floating energy 

Now this floating energy can transform itself back into matter 

The thing is whatever is material is only a showcase. It's an exhibition of the inner that makes it. 

Whatever you see is so because it is fashioned by its inner state. 

The outer material is just temporary and will fall or wither or break. 

A sculpture made out of metal can melt. 

A sculpture made out of glass or ceramic can break. 

What doesn't break is the inner. 

The quality or skill of the artist doesn't break. 

Because spirituality is Eternal. Whatever is spirit is eternal. This is what differentiates spirit from matter, energy from mass, intangible from tangible. This is what differentiates eternal from temporary. 

The artist dies. But his creation lives. 

His quality has been immortalized in his art. 

His quality and spirit has been preserved in eternity through his art. 

What is gone is material. What is left is spiritual. 

 

 

Edited August 25, 2020 by Preety_India

[Preety_India]

The greatness of the Universe. 

 

If you stood at your place, completely solemn and gazed around, and thought of all the big mountains and valleys and removed every single human out of your view and every single human creation like a hotel or a building out of view, you will suddenly feel odd but also enchanted. 

Just try it. 

You will suddenly feel the beauty of the universe wrapping around you. 

You would be gobsmacked. 

That's how man must have felt when he first saw mountains. 

The universe is not just a caricature or a play pen. 

Just look at the universe. It's all around you. The beauty has been ignored for too long. 

The universe is not just the outer cosmic space. 

The universe is also the mountains, the valleys, the streams, the plains, the coves, the trees, the birds and the jungles 

The universe is literally all around you. 

This was not by any means created by humans. This was created by innate forces. 

Now I don't believe in Creationism despite having adopted Christianity. Because I don't believe that God creates 

I would rather say that Godliness creates, not God 

I believe what we call God is godliness or "God likeness"... Some force that is beautiful and eternal creates the universe. This force or quality which is God like runs through the veins of the entire universe. 

What im trying to suggest here is to focus on the qualities of the artist rather than the artist himself 

Because it's his qualities that make him great. This quality could be in anyone. 

Similarly focus on sainthood rather than a Saint.. Because worshipping a Saint is blind worship. But worshipping a quality is embodying that quality. 

There is a quality which is godly in state that runs through every creation in the world. 

This quality is responsible for making the universe look beautiful. 

 

God is simply a personification of this quality. An image. A symbol. 

 

 

 

 

[Preety_India]

 

The greatness of the Universe. 

The universe is already great by its presence. 

Forces that we see in the universe are not simply vague things but have a certain meaning to them 

 

For example, I talked about going for a walk in the  earlier posts. Feeling the wind sweep across my face. 

We know that the universe is showing us love when we feel a gentle breeze. 

Well the same cannot  be said during a hurricane. The universe is showing its wrath. 

Spirituality can be intense like karma and gentle like love. 

It can be destructive and violent like Kali or it can be nurturing like Christ. 

It can be the Swan or it can be the Wolf

Yet in every instance, it's not fake. It's true to its nature. It has no objective of faking itself. 

Everything in the universe happens for a solid reason 

A hurricane is created by a set of climatic factors 

Everything is interconnected. 

Nothing happens in vain or without reason. 

If a lake dries up, it's because of heat. 

Everything in the universe is cause and effect. The basic principle of karma. 

 

 

[Preety_India]

 

The greatness of the Universe.

I am trying to see spirituality through the garb of the universe. 

In my opinion the universe reflects spiritual aspects both through its beauty and destruction 

It's waxing and waning of the moon. 

Through its Beauty and destruction, the universe is only complying with the Great law of Dualism. 

If you look at almost anything in life, we see dualism. 

Masculine and feminine forces. 

Light and dark 

Wisdom and foolishness 

Love and hate 

Growth and degradation 

Truth and illusion 

Oneness and Separation 

 

The universe thus is also dualistic. It creates both good and bad. 

This is its metaphorical way of saying that nothing is complete without the other. 

Everything exists in pairs. The energy created by this pair is the force or fuel for continuation and sustenance. 

When two people fall in love, the energy created by both their synergy and friction leads to mutual growth and wanting to continue with determination. In other words, passion is created by dualistic forces. This romantic energy then drives everything forward. For romance you need two complementary opposing things. Magnetic attraction is not created between two similar charges but two opposite charges. 

Similarly romantic attraction is not created between two similar types but between two opposing types. Both are archetypes of the opposites. The dominating is attracted to the submissive. The submissive is not attracted to the submissive, it's attracted to the dominant. 

 

The universe also follows the same principle of dualism, of balance and chaos, of growth and destruction. 

The cycle continues eternally. An eternal source of energy created by two wheels scratching against each other. 

Like energy or heat  created by two rubbing hands. 

 

 

[Preety_India]

 

The greatness of the Universe 

Now. 

I want to see spirituality through the different forces of the universe. Because I have this inner need to tie in things together and not keep any loose ends 

I want to incorporate every nook and cranny in my spiritual corpus 

And I'm slowly building my kitty, my spiritual corpus. 

So let me think of the different things that I see. Whatever my eyes can get their eyes on. 

What do I see in the universe. 

First I see the living and the non living. 

The animal and the non animal. 

I see fire 

Right now in the news they are talking about wild fires in California near Smokey mountain. My friend Nadia lives there. She told me she is safe. 

I see wind 

Right now they are talking about Hurricane Laura and Marco. 

Storms and winds 

 

I see water 

Water can be nice or it can be rowdy. Think of a flood

I see the sun 

 

I see the rain 

 

It was raining last night 

 

I see trees. Big beautiful trees. 

I see thunder. I hear thunder 

 

It's like the skies are roaring 

 

I see lightning 

It feels like light touching the earth 

I see the moon. It represents passivity and sublime nature 

I see animals. 

Yesterday I saw a lizard near a bush 

I see birds 

I saw and heard the coucal this morning near my window

 

I see the earth. It was nice musky wet soil after the rains 

 

I see air. 

It's polluted and I don't like it. But a fresh breeze is welcome 

 

I see stars 

They are too far 

 

I see mountains 

They look untouched and majestic 

I see snow 

It looks playful and serene 

I see desert 

It looks peaceful and empty 

 

 

[Preety_India]

 

5 hours ago, Preety_India said:

 

1 One pillar is religion 

2 One pillar is consciousness 

3 One pillar is witchcraft 

4. One pillar is Satanism and exorcism 

5 One pillar is Animism 

6 One pillar is philosophy and psychology 

7  One pillar is soulism 

8 One pillar is Occultism 

9 One pillar is theism 

10.One pillar is shamanism 

11 One pillar is Mysticism 

12 One pillar is morality 

13 One pillar is tantric and Tantra 

14 One pillar is romanticism 

15 One pillar is esoterism 

16 One pillar is supernatural 

17  One pillar is insight work and shadow work  self inquiry and Visualization 

18 One pillar is art 

19 One pillar is rebellion and renunciation - of the material world and materialism 

20 One pillar is communing and balance 

21 One pillar is paganism 

22 One pillar is mindfulness 

 

 

 

[Preety_India]

 

 

 

[Preety_India]

So I created the above chart to suit my needs for my spiritual practice. 

I couldn't find a ready made chart so I altered some chart from the web and created a chart that will represent different facets and elements of the universe that we see in every day life. 

I have decided that I will group all the pillars stated above into all the universe elements and facets to create my own unique chart of spirituality. 

This is my last journey in exploring spirituality and this is my last attempt. Because I'm somewhat tired. 

And I think this is all encompassing so it doesn't leave out anything at all 

The chart shows a bird, desert, earth, star,air, deer, thunder, rain, snow, fish, wind/storm, sun, mountain, snake, moon... 

Nearly 15 elements. These are all distinct and uniquely chosen. 

The center shows spirit 

 

I'm going to use this chart from now on as my compass for spirituality. This is my spirituality chart. 

And it will include all the 22 pillars I described before 

 

So for example you can simply mix and match 

There's no specific rule in categorizing these pillars. 

 

Ok I just remembered that I forgot to add fire in the image. 

So I have the corrected picture here showing fire symbol 

 

 

Now I have 16 elements and 22 pillars.. 

Of course I can have more but I think these are enough. 

Future pillars can be added to these same categories. 

 

 

Edited August 25, 2020 by Preety_India

[Preety_India]

 

Categorizing the pillars into the elements of the chart 

22 pillars and 16 elements 

 

For example I can put Witchcraft into the category of Fire. 

I can place shamanism, Occultism, soulism in mountain 

I can place witchcraft  Satanism and exorcism  Animism under fire. 

I can place mindfulness under earth 

 

I can place tantric, tantra, romanticism under star. 

 

Philosophy and psychology under desert 

 

 

 

[Preety_India]

 

 

1 One pillar is religion  - sun 

2 One pillar is consciousness - rain

3 One pillar is witchcraft - fire 

4. One pillar is Satanism and exorcism - fire 

5 One pillar is Animism - fire 

6 One pillar is philosophy and psychology -  desert 

7  One pillar is soulism - mountain 

8 One pillar is Occultism - moon 

9 One pillar is theism - sun 

10.One pillar is shamanism - mountain 

11 One pillar is Mysticism - wind 

12 One pillar is morality - fish 

13 One pillar is tantric and Tantra - star 

14 One pillar is romanticism - star 

15 One pillar is esoterism - snake 

16 One pillar is supernatural - bird 

17  One pillar is insight work and shadow work  self inquiry and Visualization - wind 

18 One pillar is art - snow

19 One pillar is rebellion and renunciation - of the material world and materialism - air 

20 One pillar is communing and balance - rain

21 One pillar is paganism - deer

22 One pillar is mindfulness - earth 

23 one pillar is Karma - thunder