| Lots of secular humanists here I see. I've been on a spiritual quest for most of my life - at least since I read Bernard Shaw's 'Why I am not a Christian' when I was 13. As a personal philosophy I settled on Zen Buddhism a long time ago now - 1980 to be exact. My favorite maxim from that is 'First thing we do is kill the Buddha'. Fits in with my Plebiscitic, republican anarchy form of anti-authoritarianism. The above is probably fairly ho-hum in this forum, but lately I've been exploring a sense of unease I have had for some time about the practice of Zen. Zen really hit its heyday in the 1980s in the US, due particularly to some Soto Zen masters moving there. Note that Zen is still in its infancy in Europe and elsewhere. This coincided with a strong Japanese economy - remember the song from about then - 'I'm turning Japanese'? The Japanese lifestyle and art / culture are certainly impressive and elegant, but much as I try, I am not and never will be Japanese. In the last 4 years I have realised what the close connection between being Japanese and Zen is. In Japan, there really are two spiritual paths - Buddhist and Shinto, and the Japanese have no problems with using whichever one is appropriate in any given situation. I.e. for births, weddings etc, Buddhism, which celebrates life, is the preferred mode for ceremonies. Death and divorce and all other such rituals is where Shinto comes into play. So what is Shinto you may ask. Basically Shinto has developed from the old (very old) animist belief system, and is typified by reverence for ancestors and the old ways. Basically the Japanese tribalistic and shamanistic beliefs. It got me to thinking about what we have in the Anglo/Northern European derived world that fills that need in our psyche. Now I've been cynical about various Judeo-christian systems of belief for some time, so started researching what existed prior to christianity being imposed at the point of the sword just 1,000 years ago in Northern Europe (including England). Not surprizingly what predated this last gasp of the Holy Roman Empire's hegemony, was an animistic based, community focused ancestor worship. Over the next 1000 years, the dislocation between the eastern mediterranean 'desert' religion, and the old tribal beliefs of the northern germanic peoples, caused a large uptake of old comfort rituals (Christmas at or near the winter solstice, Lent aligned with the feast of Easter etc). Basically the gut need for tribalism and a sense of community could not be denied.
So where does that leave us now? Christianity and the old ethics of the Holy Roman Empire seem to have lost their oomph and their moral high ground. A good excuse for a war perhaps (witness Iraq), but not something you can really believe in and be satisfied by. So what's an old viking derived person like me to do to feel like I'm satisfying my gut need for connection and continuity with my tribe? Well, it seems I'm not alone in seeking answers to this conundrum. Popping up all over the US and northern Europe, are various versions of recreated northern community-based, and tribal belief systems. With lots of fanciful names and varying degrees of attachment to the religious aspects of the old heathen belief systems, they are attracting growing numbers of people to their get-togethers.
So personally, I have found a great deal of reaffirmation of my own sense of where I came from, by integrating the tribal aspects of this belief system into my life. I see it as a natural complement to my own personal spiritual development via Zen, and I don't have to grunt 'hai' every few minutes to feel like I'm really getting it. In fact, drinking ale and mead sure does feel like a spiritual experience and always has done to me. I'm not ready to get into god belief as some do, preferring to view the old heathen gods (Odin, Thor, Freyr & Freyja, and my personal favorite, Loki) more as avatars. I.e. When I feel the need to work on my sense of honesty and personal integrity, then I spend time thinking and paying homage to the concept that Thos, the avatar, embodies. But thats getting a little esoteric. The main benefit I get from being a neo-heathen (and a Zen, yet), is the natural and unstrained way in which I can identify the coda for community based spirit and action.
For anyone wanting to lcheck this stuff out, I recommend doing a web search for Asatru and Northvegr. A criticism that has sometimes been leveled at this stuff is that Hitler was a big fan and therefore it must be a racist, neo-Nazi belief system. To counter that, I like to also point out that he was also a somewhat rabid christian, as were Cortez, the pilgrims and all those other wipers-out of aboriginal cultures.
Ves Heil! |