Relevence and Context of Culture in Spiritual Practice

[TeaDidikai]

I want to leave this very open ended as a topic and invite people to talk about how culture influence their practice.

Nuri and I have often observed an attitude amongst many people of different religious backgrounds- the idea that culture is something other people have, not something we all have.

I don't blame folks. When you contrast something exotic with something familiar, it's easy not to see the forest through the trees as it were.

I also am exploring how overlaping cultures influence me. When working on my deck, I had some Roma mythology built in. But there were also references to the Pacific NW, and books I read as a small child.

Super-cultures, sub-cultures and personal experiences influence us on different levels. Some cultures we participate in are more important then others.

The crafting of personal tools is the first and most important thing that comes to my mind when I think of how multiple culture influences my practice, but that's likely because of how hard I am working on my projects now.

Language is another good example for me. Some of it is in English. Some of it is in Vlax and other dialects.

With that- I invite folks to make observations about how they have seen the different cultures they belong to meld in their practice and which elements of their cultures influence them the most.  

[Wrath of Ezekiel]

Haha, I've had sort of a similar experience. I'm Indian, but since there was so many South Asian people moving into my particular area when I was growing up, I've sort of become slightly apathetic my own culture sometimes, just because there's too much of it at once. Especially when your school has a Asian cultural event and 90% of the performances are South Asian in origin, you start to get bored, easily.

What I do like is gleaning the tiny unique stuff out, but also discussing it with people who aren't familiar with it, because you get a different opinion and view of it. I guess with our first Hindu temple, it being hard polytheistic compared to most of the other Hindu temples that arisen since then (it used to be one of maybe three in the GTA, now there's more than a dozen with at least 4 in my home city!), influenced and shoved me towards more polytheistic faiths and exploration of them, especially as Hinduism encourages that it isn't the only path out there.

Which is different in a sea of pagans and converts who many convert out because they dislike their base faith and seeks escape; I'm seeking more complements.

However, of course, my parent's generation is bit a silly and ethnocentric. "White people have no culture and that's why you should learn more about ours!" gonk  

[Synnthetika]

The biggest influences on me, as a person, so far as culture has been my mixed heritage and my location. I lived in Colorado until I was 3, so I don't remember much, if anything. Though I have always wanted to move back because I love it there every time I visit. Since then I have lived in New Mexico.

I think tools and scents are a big part where I have cultural overlaps. There are things I do that are purely culturally related to the area I am from. The chile harvest, luminarias, and the local folklore have all influenced me. I wanted to get into Curandismo for a while, but just settled on learning about it a little bit.

As Asatru, I think that it is extremely important to understand the various aspects of Germanic culture (including the Norse, Icelanders, Teutons, etc.). If for no other reason than it's respectful to not totally screw up something which another culture felt was sacred. I feel honored that I am able to learn about and practice Asatru, so I don't want to turn around and dishonor those whose beliefs and practices I am reconstructing.

As far as connecting the two, I feel like I may have separate things to honor both cultures. The group I am attending unanimously decided not to celebrate Winternights on the "official" day, but rather waited until it was seasonally appropriate (on the "official" day, it was still nearly 60 degrees out). I'm not sure how to think about this yet. Part of me thinks that if Winternights was celebrated on a certain day, it should be celebrate on that day. But then I think about Australia; do they celebrate Winternights on it's prescribed day or do they wait until it is seasonally appropriate?

This guy from New Mexico, Bill Linzie, celebrates the chile harvest with a Heathen flair. Though while I don't agree with everything the guy does (like calling Thunderbird Thor), I think he has some good ideas about meshing culture. Not melting it together, but finding where it might fit together. He's also big on experiential anthropology to experience locally what another culture may have experienced.  

[ShadowCatSoul]

I'm a mutt...I don't have a particularl culture that I know of. I know nothing of my ancestral background nor do I have anyway of knowing, so in order to compensate for my lack of inherited culture, I study as many as I can and try to learn about all different types.  

[maenad nuri]

ShadowCatSoul

I'm a mutt...I don't have a particularl culture that I know of. I know nothing of my ancestral background nor do I have anyway of knowing, so in order to compensate for my lack of inherited culture, I study as many as I can and try to learn about all different types.

Culture isn't just your anscestry, it's the world you live in. You have a culture - it just doesn't feel like one because it is literally the way you understand things to be.

For instance, it is part of the predominate western culture that you will marry for love, not for political or to advance your family fortune reason, nor to purchase rights to the other persons reproductive offspring. This is a rather recent development.  

[AvalonAuggie]

(apologies in advance, this is probably going to be a long post)

This is something I've struggled with most of my spiritually-aware life, and the influence of culture takes a lot of different forms. Part of the struggle has just been acceptance of who I am, and how I as an individual relate to the "parts" of which I am made. I remember the day I first learned what liminal meant, because in a cultural context it applies so well to my experience.

Getting into specifics, the drive for knowledge and acheivement is an influence from both sides of my family, driven by both race and class. the "American Dream" culture in my case takes an intellectual slant. In a religious context it's a fascination with understanding, with deep understanding of the Whole of things, and a desire to investigate anything that at first glance doesn't ring true to me. But of course it's colored by my own perspective, so I have an unfortunate habit of overlooking the possible faults in my own beliefs.

The last time I was active on this board I was having a bit of a crisis when confronted with the ideas of Recon paganism and cultural appropriation. I had to ask myself if my childhood fascination with certain mythologies was a spiritual calling or the American/Victorian obsession with the exotic. If, as a middle-class American, I had any right to base my spirituality on ancient foreign cultures to which I had no blood connection. If I should instead base my beliefs and practice on pre-Christian religions of cultures to which I do have a blood connection. (And how the hell am I supposed to figure that out, anyway, because the slave trade really throws a monkey wrench into genealogy.) If, as Nuri said above, culture isn't just ancestry but also the world you live in, if therefore my muddled genetic heritage didn't have any bearing on what I should or should not believe and practice.

Now, my world has grown a little smaller. I'm focused much of the time on my home, my neighborhood, the aspects of the place I live which give it its character and energy. Fortunately we seem to be living in a time where enough of middle-class America is interested in "going green" and urban homesteading and eating locally that there are resources readily available that help me learn about this stuff, since these were things that already fit into my spiritual views.

And while I haven't solved my cultural appropriation crisis, I've diverted my fascination with Ancient Stuff into an interest in human genetic ancestry. And quantum physics. But it's more of an armchair historian interest than a degreed professional interest, so I'm not sure if my belief structure stands up to serious scrutiny. I feel rather ashamed of that, since it's coming from a sort of privilege of believing that the purpose of religion is to give you individual spiritual satisfaction, and accepting things the way they are without examining them.

meh! this has wandered off-topic.  

[Recursive Paradox]

I hate to say this, but I'm at a loss. I've been struggling with what to write in here for a few days now. But I honestly don't know which cultures have influenced my work.

I've been trying to look back and analyze, but I keep on running into doubt inducers that make it tough to know how much is my own culture, how much is other open cultures and how much is free from influence.

>.<

I'm stubborn though, so I'm gonna keep on trying to figure it out.  

[TeaDidikai]

AvalonAuggie

(apologies in advance, this is probably going to be a long post)

Nothing to apologize for.

Quote:

Now, my world has grown a little smaller. I'm focused much of the time on my home, my neighborhood, the aspects of the place I live which give it its character and energy. Fortunately we seem to be living in a time where enough of middle-class America is interested in "going green" and urban homesteading and eating locally that there are resources readily available that help me learn about this stuff, since these were things that already fit into my spiritual views.

That's really cool.

Quote:

And while I haven't solved my cultural appropriation crisis, I've diverted my fascination with Ancient Stuff into an interest in human genetic ancestry. And quantum physics. But it's more of an armchair historian interest than a degreed professional interest, so I'm not sure if my belief structure stands up to serious scrutiny. I feel rather ashamed of that, since it's coming from a sort of privilege of believing that the purpose of religion is to give you individual spiritual satisfaction, and accepting things the way they are without examining them.

meh! this has wandered off-topic.

Can you cure the sense of shame with acceptance that you are giving it intellectually honest examination and view it as a stepping stone?  

[aoijea23487]

In the past, the commodification, watering down, and PC-izing various spiritual traditions has influenced my spirituality. I was a culturally misappropriating neo-pagan. I think this comes from a sort of American "right" to capitalize on just about anything, even if it is intellectually dishonest and incorrect.

I've grown since then, but I still deal with cultural issues today. For example, my coven and a neighboring coven of Gardnerians (with lines from New York and Minnesota; both moved to the PNW) are very okay with eclectic neopagans calling themselves Wiccan. Some have argued that language changes with time, words are created by societies, and what Wicca was in the past isn't what Wicca is today. This perplexes me, because I've heard them say in passing that they worship "specifically Gardnerian deities," but when I tried to probe further, I couldn't get any more information without trespassing on oathbound material. I'm not really sure why dissimilar things are lumped together.

When I first started my seeking, I took an M&R and A&J stance on what is Wicca and what is not. Although I am not initiated and cannot look at the issue from the inside, anything other than the M&R and A&J stances don't really make sense to me.

The PNW seems to be a lot more accepting of Outer Court and other non-initiated folk calling themselves "Wiccan." I feel like an odd one out. Though some prominent A&J members that take the list's predominate stance do live in and around my city.

I do not think that the difference between my opinions and that of my coven's on this issue is significant enough to stop studying under them. I guess I could always ask around if there are other covens in the area who are picking up students...  

[patch99329]

Cultural appropration is an important part of my practice.
It is important for me to belong in communities, I have little interest in the idea of living on the fringes of society; I want to be a valid member!

Perhaps one of the reasons I like hellenic polytheism so much, is that it does not take too much effort to adapt ancient practices to suit the modern world, without taking them completely out of conext. My religion is not from a 'tribal' culture, for example.
In addition to ensuring that my practices make sense within my own culture; I try my best to understand the original culture that my religion comes from. Wherever I can, I try to adapt the original cultural mindset (once again, this isn't really a big stretch in many cases).

Finally, I make the effort to understand; and participate within the generic pagan subculture. Much to the disgust of a handful of other recons (they use the tern 'neopagan' like a slur).