Rehab Center's Weekly Prompt (2/6/10)

[Shearaha]

TeaDidikai

Do seasonal shifts directly influence your religious practices?

Yes (generic neopagan). The season affects what foods I prepare for feasts, how I cook, when I cook, where I cook. Evne who I celabrate with. I'm hoping to get things a bit more formalized which will have the seasons making even more of an effect on what/how I do things.  

[Fiddlers Green]

TeaDidikai

Do seasonal shifts directly influence your religious practices?

Absolutely.
Considering we use the stars as guides to divine messages, it's almost a given.
Certain Amesha are simply not available outside of their appointed season (some Rahib argue whether they even exist outside of their season). Many of our most prominent festivals hinge on seasonal change. Even the general prayers are different by season as they must be changed so that they might reach the intended recipient, depending on whether they are currently ascendant or not.
Also, time of day shifts, year shifts, moon phase shifts ect...
These are also important. 3nodding  

[AvalonAuggie]

TeaDidikai

Do seasonal shifts directly influence your religious practices?

In my case I have to call it indirect influence, as I don't have a formal season-derived religious calendar to work from.

However, seasonal shifts exert an influence on my state of mind, which can vary from general observance of the season to planning (though perhaps not executing) religious activity, to bouts of SAD around February where I sit under the OTT-lite in the morning before work and knit, willing the sun to come back with the sheer force of my frustration at all the damn cold.  

[Cranium Squirrel]

TeaDidikai

Do seasonal shifts directly influence your religious practices?

Buddhist contingent weighing in.

If they do, I'm probably doing it wrong. 3nodding Dharma should be lived always, not changing according to seasons. Though to be fair, there is an allowance for monsoon season - during that time, monks and nuns shut themselves up in monastic retreat. They still do that, and you can actually go stay with them...but it's pretty much the same as usual, aside from the fact they don't go outside as much. Meditation, discourse and teaching. biggrin  

[The Lord Arsenic]

TeaDidikai

Do seasonal shifts directly influence your religious practices?

Yes, because the shifting of seasons is one of nature's many beautiful traits. I do not honor one season above any other, because they are all equally important.  

[AvalonAuggie]

ooh, new question. Thanks, Tea!

TeaDidikai

Does your practice include the use of sacramentals?

How are you defining sacramentals? Freely admitting my ignorance of the term before reading this post, I turned to Wikipedia (yes, yes, I know) for clarification, and the idea that a sacramental is intended to excite pious dispositions jumps out as quite intriguing, and perhaps the pertinent criteria when considering various Pagan traditions rather than the Catholic church.

Those from more structured traditions where you have established orthopraxy, such as recons, would have a more absolute concept of a sacramental than eclectics, whose concepts would vary depending on the belief system or deity concept they choose to adopt. However, I find it interesting that a lot of the sort of Outer Court turned Llewellyn-published Wicca 101 ritual elements have a sacramental feel about them. The use of holy water, for example, dressing tools or oneself with oil, creating sacred space, etc.

In this case what I'd consider a sacramental would be a ritual element which actually does excite genuine pious disposition rather than feeling rote (or fluffy).

My short answer: Yes, sometimes. I find it comforting to have a material way to connect to my ancestors. Lately that means including food and/or blood in ritual.  

[Cranium Squirrel]

TeaDidikai

Does your practice include the use of sacramentals?

My specific practice? No. But then, I'm not a Buddhist big on rite and ritual, due to my personal readings and understandings of Pali canon stuff, wherein it's stated pretty specifically that we shouldn't depend on such things as a method for leaving the cycle of samsara - it'd just be another attachment. One must be ready to let go of things at any time.

That being said, I do know of some Buddhists who attach special sacramental meaning to things like prayer flags, certain oils, altar foods, candles...all sorts of things. 3nodding  

[Loona Wynd]

TeaDidikai

Do you separate or integrate popular culture within your religious practices?

To the one that I serve

As I practice a Modern American tradition of witchcraft a lot of popular culture is in my practice. Most of my practices while they may have European origins, the practices are interpreted by American's. So popular culture does play into my path.

I will give my all

 

[Fiddlers Green]

TeaDidikai

Do you separate or integrate popular culture within your religious practices?

I catch myself doing so. How odd some of my turns of phrase seem to the geni who have only a bare grasp of English. Also, there are certain facts about the modern world that, love or hate them, I must acknowledge. Popular culture is the culture of the populace, and that can affect the world greatly. Case in point, some plants are sacred to certain Amesha based on what they are. Other plants are sacred because of what they represent. Representation changes over the ages and areas.  

[Tikat]

TeaDidikai

Do you hold any spiritual traditions regarding the New Year?

If my partner and I have company, we do fondue, the white meal symbolizes the potential within the new year.

We also keep the cork from the bubbly, in order to fashion a lucky charm.  

[TheDisreputableDog]

TeaDidikai

Do you hold any spiritual traditions regarding the New Year?

Not really. January 1st never really seems like "the beginning of the year" to me, even before I was pagan. Because I have always had an August/September—May/June school schedule (well, except when I was homeschooling as a young child), I've organized my memories around what grade I was in. My birthday is near the beginning of the calendar year, but near the middle of the school year, so "I was in 6th grade" has been a more intuitive memory landmark than "I was 12 or 13 years old." Then I got into Kemetic Orthodoxy and their new year is in August, which meshes really well with my school year organization but is less relevant to my geographic location because I don't live near a yearly-flooding river on whom my survival is dependent. The most relevant one to my location's seasonal patterns would probably be Winter Solstice.

So no, I don't really do anything spiritual for January 1st, although I do sometimes go to parties.  

[Loona Wynd]

TeaDidikai

Does your tradition hold elements as sacred, and if so- which elements?

To the one that I serve

The 5 elements (earth, aire, fire, water and spirit) are sacred to my tradition. Each of the 5 degrees is related to an element and the mysteries of that element.

I will give my all

 

[Cranium Squirrel]

TeaDidikai

What kinds of compensation do you feel is appropriate for services rendered by clergy?

I suppose it'd depend on whose clergy, but generally donations of time in temple/lodging upkeep, feeding and taking care of daily tasks for them work well for those of my faith. Failing that, donations of actual food are usually welcome, as are ones of building materials for the temple, cloth for robes and the like. All these things are needed, but since monks generally have no other job aside from the dharma, they rely on outsiders to render them. 3nodding  

[Bastemhet]

TeaDidikai

This Week's Question:

Does your tradition hold any dietary restrictions?

Interesting question...I don't think for the practitioners themselves, but there are some really inconsistent food offering taboos that differ depending on the time period and nome which we're talking about. A lot of the information we have comes from the Ptolemaic period which might have something to do with cultural perceptions of impurity. Other reasons might include difficulty in keeping certain foods fresh, like fish, or perceived dirtyness, like pork. I don't consider this a problem anymore because of modern conventions like use of the refrigerator or FDA standards for cleanliness of sold meats.  

[Cranium Squirrel]

TeaDidikai

This Week's Question:

Does your tradition hold any dietary restrictions?

Depends entirely on if you're a monk or a layperson, and who's doing the interpretations of scripture.

As it stands, monks and nuns are generally supposed to be vegetarians in order to lessen their impact on things with faces at large, but some still eat meat based on the Buddha himself having pretty much said 'you eat what you're given, don't make people cook special things for you'. Mahayana will be as strict vegetarian as they can, Theravada don't seem to care as much.

That last line tends to go for lay followers too - Mahayana teachings place an emphasis on vegetarianism as an aid to universal love and compassion, and as such, many lay followers won't eat meats. Or at least they'll claim to not eat it, but given the booming meat markets in some Mahayana places, I'm inclined to think it's a bit more lip service than actual practice in many cases. Theravadans, from what I gather from the ones I have spoken with, don't generally care overmuch, unless they're on an observance day. Then they may not eat at all, if they're following all the rules.