For me, growing up as a human being is synonymous with spiritual struggles. Finding one's identity includes finding one's belief, or lack of it, and everything in between... As children, our developing intelects find gaps and mysteries everywhere, and often we are presented with the mystical as a way to fill such gaps and unravel the mysteries of our existence. Spirituality is our heritage as humans ever since the first people rose their gaze into the sun and started worshipping it.
I consider myself a very spiritual person, even though I don't align with any kind of institutionalized faith. However, growing up was hard for me in this aspect. I come from a household with very strict catholic principles, and that can be hard to deal with when it comes to asking questions and doubting all that is presented.
My grandfather gifted me with a great library that included several occultism volumes that my mom tried to keep out of my hands as much as she could (unsuccessfully, I must add); and books are gateways to so much ideas which don't often get along well with rigid dogmas as those of religions.
I jumped from a deep belief in the church to sympathy for the occult to paganism to sheer atheism while I was finding my identity. In my late teenage years hatred against religion grew on me, and I loathed even my mom for believing in "such nonsense".
But I've grown and learnt that life and truth have many ways, that everyone copes with their hardships in their own way. So I made this collages some time ago to celebrate that I finally developed enough empathy to understand my mother and her belief. I used these as covers for a notebook that I gave her as a gift
Nowadays I enjoy very much reading Joseph Campbell, and identifying and deconstructing the myths around me. It has given me the opportunity of seeing that the myths of the catholic church, those of cleansing through suffering, of surrendering to a higher power, of love and submission, of being born defective, longing for sanctity; still linger within me.
Myths have this filthy habit of hiding in our subconscious minds, driving our actions, but bringing them forth and acknowledging the power they can have over us is the first step to breaking free of their chains, leaving behind the toxic aspects and taking with us only what is positive to our desired ways of living.
Lovely collages @aminarani, i liked that you expressed your feelings through creation, it is the therapeutic side of art:) Unfortunaly religion and organized church are 2 different things. At some point of my life i hated both but as time passed i ve learned to tolerate religion, as many of my loved ones believe and i dont want to hurt their feeling. Of course i still hate organised church it is full of filthy power hungry people that are even less religious than me who i am an atheist.
PS: I am waiting for a post presenting the occult books at your grandfather's library:):):)
I'm sorry I missed this entry when you first posted it. I, too, quite like Joseph Campbell.
If I might add to your reading list:
Crossing and Dwelling: A Theory of Religion by Thomas A. Tweed is an excellent meditation on the ways in which religion orients us in the world. His inspiration came in 1993 in Miami, Florida, during his attendance at the feast day of Our Lady of Charity, the national patroness of Cuba.
Tweed himself is not Catholic, and the politics of those Cuban Catholic exiles was certainly far to the right of his own, but he felt overcome in the moment by the power of ritual, belief, and practice. It really is an excellent read (and, yes, I shamelessly stole his title for the subtitle of my recent short story chapter because I wanted to evoke the spirit of orienting oneself cosmically, spiritually, and interpersonally).
Another (but much longer) work that significantly shaped how I came to view Christianity in particular was Raymond E. Brown's An Introduction to the New Testament. It is a scholarly, critical examination of each book of the NT, and Brown, a Catholic, takes a moderate (as opposed to liberal or conservative) approach in his discussion.
I grew up in a Southern Baptist family who interpreted the Bible as the literal word-for-word transmission from the mind of God--a view I now recognize as foolish and actually a product of the Age of Reason and science. For the longest time, starting in my teenage years, I rejected that notion of the Bible as the literal word of God and was in fact bitter toward religion, especially Christianity, but I lacked the critical framework to more complexly and completely engage with religious texts and thought.
Brown's book taught me ways in which I could better understand the New Testament critically and as a work of literature (it's actually quite literary!). He taught me to think of the various authors' audiences. For example, John on the Isle of Patmos composed Revelation, and while I had always been taught it was a prophecy for our age and for our future, it was naive of me and my religious instructors to not also think of John's contemporary audience. He didn't just write this for people living 2000 years in the future. Small insights like that broadened my perspective and helped me gain a better appreciation of what religion is and what religion does for people.
Now I must apologize for writing a small manifesto on your blog.
I love the gifts you've shared in this entry, and I'm glad you've found a means of pulling the positive aspects of myth/religion for use in your own life. They can be quite powerful, if only we allow ourselves to be enriched, rather than imprisoned, by them.
Don't dare apologizing! A million thanks for your input. I will add these titles to my behemoth of a to-read list! haha! So much quality material and so little time in our short human existences, right?
The first book "by" Campbell I had the delight of reading was a compendium of talks on myth, dreams and religion named Myths, Dreams and Religion. Found it on my uni's library and absolutely fell in love with it... Now I'm not a big fan of digital formats (maybe a bit silly of me), so I had just read small fragments of The Hero with a Thousand Faces, but my girlfriend, who's visiting from the States, brought me it as a gift, and I'm making it my end of year read... It is all I had expected and more. It so helps me dig deeper into the figures used by religion, understanding more and more with each page of our existence-long quest for the divine, for that which is there but we can't fully perceive, for filling the gaps that exist in what the senses can grasp... It is also magnificent to observe the dynamics binding the stories we tell with what's in our psyche.
Now I'm looking to get my hands on one of those Golden Boughs Campbell so often cites.
Once again, thanks for your kind comment and for the suggestions : )
I recognize myself in what you say about yourself. I went a similar way and I reconciled with my mother before she died two years ago. Already some time before her death. Such a beautiful gesture that you have prepared here for your mother. I am happy to be shown this example and congratulate you on the wisdom you have acquired.
When you start to think about yourself and life and really wonder how it comes to being alive, it becomes very strange. Quite odd. As a teenager this thought struck me and every now and then I have this very weird impression of existence. But it is the mysticism of life that cannot be explained and the secret is that we will never fathom. If we did it, it would probably all be over in one fell swoop and a new Big Bang would have to be there for the game to start all over again. The magic of the inexplicable is given by birth and death. If we did not die and new children were born who would always remind us older people that life is an exciting mystery, we would soon wish that immortality would not please be.
Thank you again. A joy to read such here.
What a beautiful comment ;_; I really appreciate your contribution as it adds so greatly to my post. I've not much to say, I'm sincerely happy that someone has found meaning in my words, and that we can account that the roads we go through are not all that different in the end.
So sorry about your loss, but at the same time glad to read that you could reconcile with her before it was too late. Grudges with the dead are a heavy burden, and do well to nobody.
Thanks for reading and for such a wholesome comment :}
Don't be sorry for my loss. I have my mom in vivid memory. She taught me so much through her presence and role modeling that I cannot lose her. She became 86 and had lots of time to establish herself in her children's hearts. I think almost every day of her and only rarely I miss her that it hurts. Mostly, I do not. She was for me a shining star. She went through many many challenges throughout her life.
She received only 4 years of school education. That made her a very special person as she was not so self concsious of everything. Missed that whole Freudian stuff and never had a concept of blaming her parents. LOL! Though of course, she had a dark side as well. It was her lose tongue once in a while which made her looking ghastly. But then she made me laugh that I almost had to pee!
One sentence: "Frieda loads and Oswald shoots."
Which is a reference towards my aunt and uncle. He was a very loud and preaching-type guy. But my mom saw the female influence as a silent grey figure behind him: his wife. She could describe a very complex situation in one simple sentence. Quite a skill that was. The old proverbs often make me laugh.
Bye for now:)
Lovely lil’ post here. I like all the Xtian iconography here and the differing artstyles between the two. Also of the talks about of yer religious journey and religious exploration is coolio. (Hast thou ever read On Fear and Trembling by Søren Kirkegaard?) Otherwise, like yer lil’ talk of myths and unconsciousness.
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