Comments | the_moogie: Fear

the_moogie

Fear

Nov 09, 2013 11:27

Back at the end of October I made an appointment to see Geraldine Standish, an elder at the Anishnaabe Health Centre. A nice man named Rod Michano met me, asked if I had my tobacco (I did) and if I was "on my moon time" (which always makes me giggle inside). As I met with her and explained my situation (stress, facing a lot of big decisions) Mr. ( Read more... )

stress, indian

Comments 3

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tera_gram November 10 2013, 13:16:46 UTC

Totally. If 19 years of theological training has taught me anything it's that I can enjoy understanding the logistics of a spiritual worldview without feeling like I need to adopt it.

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tera_gram November 10 2013, 13:15:06 UTC

When meeting with an elder it's traditional to bring tobacco, tied up in a red cloth square made of material that hasn't been used for anything else. This is usually burned or sprinkled into a body of water, carrying my request to the spirit world. Generally we're supposed to use raw tobacco, but some people have used cigarettes in a pinch. Sometimes people leave cigarettes at grave sites as a prayer offering.

misslynx November 13 2013, 05:02:55 UTC

There was also some discussion about spirituality, which I'm still chewing on. Aboriginal culture seems to put a lot of stock in issues of spirit. What's an atheist Aboriginal to do?

I think a lot depends on how you define spirituality, and how you define atheism. Spirituality doesn't necessarily have to be theistic, and there are also a wide variety of shades of belief and disbelief.

I've known people who consider themselves atheists who still find experiencing ritual of one sort or another fulfilling; people who consider themselves "non-theistically spiritual" (usually by way of a sort of diffuse pantheism); people who do involve deities or other spirit-beings in their spiritual practice but consider them metaphor rather than literal reality; people who identify as agnostic or atheist but say they're not necessarily convinced deities don't exist, they're just not convinced that they do and remain open to being convinced otherwise if they were ever to have a spiritual experience; people whose answer to the whole question of ( ... )