Spiritual Community

Convictions, morals, other societies and religions.
Mars
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Joined: Wed May 15, 2013 1:54 pm

Spiritual Community

Post by Mars »

Are you or have you ever been a member or a frequent visitor of a spiritual community apart from the Star of Azazel? A church, a meditation group, a temple, anything? Do you think it is or would be important to your spiritual life and development?

Personally I haven't apart from the Lutheran Church from which I've resigned nineteen years ago and which I never visited frequently. There was also a yoga group, but the membership there was obviously diverse and even though some people were seriously interested in spirituality, I suspect most weren't. I feel that the shared energy of a spiritual community would be very beneficial, but there are quite obvious pitfalls in this. What do you all think?
Gangleri

Re: Spiritual Community

Post by Gangleri »

From the Lutheran Church I tried to resign at the age of fourteen, but my (very secular) parents wouldn't let me, so I had to wait for the day I turned eighteen. The next day of my birthday I went to the community centre and resigned with a notice "false faith", and I have never looked back to Lutheranism other than in dismay and contempt. SoA was my community from its start to my
"ex-communion", and after that we had a small group called Pohjankehrä that ended in my second psychosis in 2017. In that time I also contemplated joining the Orthodox Church and went to their services and vigilias; my journey with them ended with the first catechumen class in which I realized that the priest and the church was in reality quite mundane, and I also realized that Christianity is wholly alien to my spirit and "traditionalism" is a school of anachronistic conformism. Now I have contemplated about becoming a solitary monk, but yet I sternly yearn for a spiritual community in which I could find my brethren and sorors of the same spirit; I think this forum is that place for now until and if I find a brotherhood that I can join.

I think the benefit of spiritual community is that it forces one to contemplate one's own personal errors and delusions in a friendly atmosphere, but there is also a danger of becoming a blind servant to a cause that is ultimately not ones own if the community has some veiled dogmatism in its creed or if there is some kind of secular / political agenda involved (modern politicized Freemasonry for example).
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Nefastos
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Re: Spiritual Community

Post by Nefastos »

When I turned 18, I resigned from Lutheran Church and joined my home town's local lodge of the Theosophical Society. At the age of nineteen or twenty I was also a frequent visitor of the local Orthodox church; we didn't have a Roman-Catholic one in my home town, which most likely would have been my choice if we had. After coming to my adulthood's faith in spiritual Satanism when I was 21 I have not yearned for any other occult society. I still respect the same things in Theosophy and non-iconoclast forms of Christianity I did in my teens, but the bad things outweigh the good ones so heavily that I am happy giving that respect from distance. My love for the religions of the East has never thirsted for their outer cultural forms and thus not their related exoteric groups either. For example, I take the Buddhist sangha to mean the universal brotherhood under the spirit of Buddha's (or Buddhas') teachings, not shaved people wearing orange or red robes.
Faust: "Lo contempla. / Ei muove in tortuosa spire / e s'avvicina lento alla nostra volta. / Oh! se non erro, / orme di foco imprime al suol!"
Mars
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Re: Spiritual Community

Post by Mars »

I'll broaden the subject a bit. What do you think is the importance of one's culture and geographical location in choosing a religion? Frithjof Schuon wrote that if one wants to join a religion other than the religion one was born into one should make peace with God beforehand. Blavatsky wrote that we should try to purify our own religion. Jung warned of Westerners about practicing yoga. What do you think, can a Westerner be a Buddhist or an Indian a Christian, for example?
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Nefastos
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Re: Spiritual Community

Post by Nefastos »

Mars wrote: Wed Jun 30, 2021 1:19 pmI'll broaden the subject a bit. What do you think is the importance of one's culture and geographical location in choosing a religion? Frithjof Schuon wrote that if one wants to join a religion other than the religion one was born into one should make peace with God beforehand. Blavatsky wrote that we should try to purify our own religion. Jung warned of Westerners about practicing yoga. What do you think, can a Westerner be a Buddhist or an Indian a Christian, for example?

This is a very good question. Personally I would say Yes; people can, and sometimes should, move from one cultural religion to another. While it is very true that Christianity will be something else for the one who was born and raised as Hindu, and vice versa, this can become an asset also. A convert may see things to which others have become blind; one gives new nuances, a bit different emphases for things whether one would like to or not, but that enriches rather than dilutes the religion. This is especially true concerning religions which have strong literal presence (sacred texts and written theologies), which means most of the modern forms of religion.
Faust: "Lo contempla. / Ei muove in tortuosa spire / e s'avvicina lento alla nostra volta. / Oh! se non erro, / orme di foco imprime al suol!"
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Polyhymnia
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Re: Spiritual Community

Post by Polyhymnia »

Mars wrote: Sat Jun 19, 2021 10:11 am Are you or have you ever been a member or a frequent visitor of a spiritual community apart from the Star of Azazel? A church, a meditation group, a temple, anything? Do you think it is or would be important to your spiritual life and development?

Personally I haven't apart from the Lutheran Church from which I've resigned nineteen years ago and which I never visited frequently. There was also a yoga group, but the membership there was obviously diverse and even though some people were seriously interested in spirituality, I suspect most weren't. I feel that the shared energy of a spiritual community would be very beneficial, but there are quite obvious pitfalls in this. What do you all think?
I went to an Alliance church for a bit in my twenties in an attempt to feel something for God. The pastor was a lovely man, and I enjoyed our weekly discussions about religion. I was clearly an atheist, but he was very open to my thoughts and questions and very big feelings. I had a similar experience as you with yoga groups. I never really could shake the feeling that most of the people there were just performing superficial spirituality, and that their "enlightenment" came from stroking their egos.
The SoA is the first place I've ever felt spiritually at home.
"Limited love asks for possession of the beloved, but the unlimited asks only for itself." -Kahlil Gibran
Seferoth
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Joined: Sun Jun 27, 2021 12:18 am

Re: Spiritual Community

Post by Seferoth »

I was a Jehova's Witness(not baptized), Christadelphian(Baptized), Fundementalist Lutheran and part of several Lutheran Revival Movements in the past(Viidesläisyys and Rukoilevaisuus). I also wanted to become an Anglican at one point too. So, lots of spiritual places and communities that i have been a part of. If anyone is curious why i left all these here are the reasons: JW: Cult mentality and exclusive salvation doctrine, Christadelphian: They don't believe that Satan or demons exist, Lutheran: Doctrine of Hell and exclusive salvation to Christianity. At one point i started to feel empathy and sympathy towards other people in other religions and cultures, when i was full fundementalist i really did believe that everyone who was not a Christian deserved hell...well that's changed now and that was the final nail in the coffin that pushed me away from traditional Christianity.
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Medeia
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Re: Spiritual Community

Post by Medeia »

Gangleri wrote: Sun Jun 20, 2021 11:01 am I think the benefit of spiritual community is that it forces one to contemplate one's own personal errors and delusions in a friendly atmosphere,
This, as I see it: the voluntarily added extra sense of responsibility, is one of the main reasons for me being formally connected to SoA.

Without some structure of belongin with others, the fact that: every action and refrainment from action has a meaning and consequences, somehow becomes too abstract to me really comprehend → that much harder to live by, and as SoA being esoteric community, the word e v e r y action[…] indeed has heavy emphasis. Significant portion of need for self-critisim would also cease, for my day-to-day social circle is very limited and not too demanding in that sense.
The problem for me is (was) that anywhere I’ll always feel outsider/far from others/being with one foot elsewhere. Within SoA, first time ever this everpresent stance don’t feel like a bug but a feature that I’m able to actually appreciate, “actually” meaning: not as in the cynical and gritty 'lone wolf' romanticization coping-bit.
Feeling of not being accepted has the ability of either bind excessive amount of energy to simply being or to let it loose in the most harmful manner. Happily, the bar for being accepted/connected to/with SoA is - in essence - incredibly low ("just, even try to do the right thing...")
Being a formal member of any community certainly isn’t obligatory nor final answer to anything but for me it sure has been a help. Sorry it may be, but I kinda need this to be a decent person. It's not impossible that I could get the benefits (to put it dirty) as mentioned from being a member of any secular group, that is if I could be a member of any, while remaining true to myself and the group.
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Smaragd
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Re: Spiritual Community

Post by Smaragd »

Medeia wrote: Fri Aug 20, 2021 4:35 pm
Gangleri wrote: Sun Jun 20, 2021 11:01 am I think the benefit of spiritual community is that it forces one to contemplate one's own personal errors and delusions in a friendly atmosphere,
This, as I see it: the voluntarily added extra sense of responsibility, is one of the main reasons for me being formally connected to SoA.

Without some structure of belongin with others, the fact that: every action and refrainment from action has a meaning and consequences, somehow becomes too abstract to me really comprehend → that much harder to live by, and as SoA being esoteric community, the word e v e r y action[…] indeed has heavy emphasis. Significant portion of need for self-critisim would also cease, for my day-to-day social circle is very limited and not too demanding in that sense.
The problem for me is (was) that anywhere I’ll always feel outsider/far from others/being with one foot elsewhere. Within SoA, first time ever this everpresent stance don’t feel like a bug but a feature that I’m able to actually appreciate, “actually” meaning: not as in the cynical and gritty 'lone wolf' romanticization coping-bit.
It is easy for me to find myself from these thoughts. Finding SoA, I rediscovered the firm back bone of mine which I had in childhood, and which I had been bending around and finding a new, more individual (i.e. not following ready set moral), grip on during the rebellion of puberty. Alchemical language seems fitting to me when taking such retrospective glances, and I'm thinking finding SoA was like reinforcing the athanor to get much better base for the flame and more pure combustion.

I remember having this semi secret hope that maybe here the Azazelian desert dweller role could ease a bit, but after years the role seems to have found its deeper meanings. The goat in the desert seems to have an important quality that defines an occult fraternity in the Rosicrucian sense, that it is not a social circle per se, although it may have those elements, but a circle that seeks to follow greater laws than mere social structures and power plays.
"Would to God that all the Lord's people were Prophets”, Numbers 11:29 as echoed by William Blake
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Polyhymnia
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Re: Spiritual Community

Post by Polyhymnia »

Medeia wrote: Fri Aug 20, 2021 4:35 pm Being a formal member of any community certainly isn’t obligatory nor final answer to anything but for me it sure has been a help. Sorry it may be, but I kinda need this to be a decent person. It's not impossible that I could get the benefits (to put it dirty) as mentioned from being a member of any secular group, that is if I could be a member of any, while remaining true to myself and the group.
I am so glad to hear that becoming a formal member has been helpful for you. I think that real connection is vital to mental and spiritual health and we are all made better people by being able to connect to others on deep, genuine levels.
"Limited love asks for possession of the beloved, but the unlimited asks only for itself." -Kahlil Gibran
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