Keeping the Sacred Flame

A place to discuss the religion and philosophy of the Sacred Flame, HeartShadow's personal religion. Also random other thoughts of HeartShadow's as she feels like posting them.

Monday, August 28, 2006

Trappings against the center

It is so very easy, with whatever we deal with, to get overcome with the trappings. We focus on the things that don't matter because they're the things that are easiest to deal with. When facing parenthood, it's easier to focus on booties than the lack of sleep. When dealing with religion, it's easier to focus on the candles and the clothing than it is to focus on the personal changes and the hard work involved.

The problem is, trappings are empty. They're easy, but they're empty. One can have every bootie in existence, and you're still no more ready for motherhood. One can have memorized every meditation of FlameKeeping, have candles of every type and shape, and blather on about the Divine, and yet have absolutely no clue about what FlameKeeping is.

The core of FlameKeeping is the Divine and that we are part of It, as is everything else. It is the Flames, Bright and Dark, and balancing and growing them. It is ourselves. Trappings would be things like the mechanics of the meditations (which are important only in what they teach you, not in the mechanics themselves), the poetry, the essays themselves. They lead you to the core, if they're done well. But the core isn't the essays, the core is where the essays lead you to.

Questions:
Do you tend to get caught up in the trappings of things? Do you find the core? Does it depend on what it is?
What happens when you get caught up in trappings? What does it do to you?
What is core to your beliefs? Why? What does that core mean?
Personal thoughts

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Religiously completely off topic!

HeartShadow, your faithful religious blogger, has started writing a novel online at http://www.warriorsofthesungod.com and she'd like everyone to go and read it. (and why am I talking about myself in the third person?)

Anyway. Everyone go read it. Go love it. It's wonderful. And if you don't read it, you won't know what everyone else is talking about, so there.
Personal thoughts

Monday, August 21, 2006

Faith in Humanity

An integral part of FlameKeeping is that we are all part of the Divine. But what does that mean, really?

We are capable of many things, us humans. We can use tools to see things beyond the reaches of our galaxy, to guess at the beginning of time, to speculate about the future. We can conceive of worlds that probably never exist or speculate on the inner workings of an atom. And we are of the Divine.

It is easy, really, to have faith in a separate God that things are going to work out for the best. It requires faith, but not in the people you live with every day. FlameKeeping requires faith in humanity.

This doesn't mean to close your eyes and jump, assuming someone will catch you. FlameKeeping is very much about pragmatism: if it's not going to work, it's a bad idea. But it does mean that we need to both have a basic faith in humanity's decentness (for we are the Divine) and to be people that one can have that faith in, as well. We are of the Divine, and we must take that seriously. Be someone others can take faith in, and find others to take faith in.

When we cannot have faith in each other, there is something wrong with humanity. It is not the Divine one must have faith in, for the Divine exists regardless of the faith. It is humanity in which we must find faith, and humanity which must prove worthy of it as well.

Questions:
Do you have faith in other people? What does that mean to you?
Are you someone other people can have faith in? Why or why not?
What does believing in humanity mean to you? Is it meaningful? Scary? Empowering?
Personal thoughts

Monday, August 14, 2006

Self-Destruction

We all do it a little. There are activities which we know are bad for us, but we justify them because they feel good, or because they are the only way we can spend time with our friends, or a host of other reasons. So we hurt ourselves a little here and there, nibble at the edges of our lives, and justify it with the idea that we're hurting only ourselves, so it doesn't really matter.

But we do not exist in isolation. While we have every right to engage in self-destructive behavior, it's still not a moral act. What we do affects the people around us. When one person engages in damaging behavior, the effects ripple outwards. One person's self-destruction affects their friends, their family, their work.

We are of the Divine. What we do affects that Divine, even if no one else ever knows that we've done it. When we act in ways that are self-destructive, we deny that Divine.

Questions:
In what way are you self-destructive? Why?
How do your self-destructive habits affect other people? The Divine?
How have you been affected by other people's self-destructive behavior? Can self-destruction happen in isolation?
Personal thoughts

Monday, August 07, 2006

Mindsets of Hope and Despair

Mindset is an important part of life. How we view the world does change how the world reacts to us. Have hope for better, and we will find the better. Expect only worse, and we will find worse. The same event will be viewed differently, and reinforce what we already expect to have happen.

Even more, however, hope and despair is a statement of faith. (I do not speak here of clinical depression. If you've got a medical problem, get thee to a doctor!) When you fall into despair, you say that the Universe is limited and the Divine has abandoned you. But you are of the Divine, and to claim the Divine has abandoned you is to abandon yourself.

Hope and despair are how we view the world. They are lenses which color everything else we look at. And while it is reasonable to try to have lenses which match the world, there will always be a bias. Being pessemistic is not "just being honest." Refusing to see the good in the world because it is transitory is not "protecting yourself." It is so very easy to close oneself off from all the Universe has within it because it's too much work to reach out, or because we're afraid, or because we've been hurt before.

We won't always get what we want. Sometimes we succeed, and sometimes we fail, but the point is to have a mindset of hope. When we refuse to believe options exist, we remove them from our lives. When we see nothing but destruction, destruction is all we're left with. Despair says that destruction is the best we can expect, and that denies the Divine.

Questions:
What is despair? Why is it so harmful?
What is hope? What do you hope for in your life?
How do you balance seeing clearly with being optimistic? Do you think optimism is actually the best way to go?
Personal thoughts