Spirituality Guide

When it comes to Western astrology, things can get a bit complicated when you talk about charting down to the precise degree, what planets are in what houses, what ascendants are, what your lunar sign is… There are quite a lot of components to learn about.

For the sake of simplicity, I’m going to give you some terms and definitions you should know. Call them astrology basics (even though I will probably miss something that another astrologer considers basic but absolutely necessary to know).

Your Chart: Your personal chart is a circle mapping out the position of the planets (plus the sun and moon) in particular houses at the time of your birth. The 360 degree circle is split into twelve 30 degree houses…

Houses: Each 30 degree ‘slice’ of your chart is a house, and each house has its own meaning. Houses are what lie behind our urges in life. In astrology there are ten planets and twelve houses, so the houses with no planets are the areas of life you aren’t particularly interested in. The more planets you have in one house, the more focused on that area of life you are going to be.

Signs: The signs are probably what you already know about. There are twelve signs, including Capricorn, Aries, Saggitarius, etc, and each of these signs, like the houses, have their own meanings and basic personality traits.

Aspects: Aspects are the relationships between planets. There are different categories planetary relationships fall into. For example, if you imagine your chart as a clock and have one planet at 9.00 and one planet at 3.00, these planets are in opposition. As you can imagine, the urges associated with the planets in opposition ‘battle it out’ in our personalities.

Of course, things definitely get more complicated than that, but I’m just here to point out the basics. If you want to learn more, that’s up to you.

The standard view towards intuition is one of wariness or outright scorn because intuition is equated along the same line as psychic or ‘sensitive’. However, if you use the word ‘instinct’ instead, then you are far more likely to get an attentive and accepting audience.

It’s interesting how two words can mean basically the same thing and yet the connotations attached to those words can influence how you think and feel.

I’m not saying that intuition and instinct are the same thing, but I am trying to point out the similarities. Both come from places other than our conscious minds and both are things we react to even though we may not realize what it is we are reacting to.

Intuition is defined as “direct perception of truth, fact, etc., independent of any reasoning process; immediate apprehension.”

Whereas instinct is defined as “an inborn pattern of activity or tendency to action common to a given biological species.”

I feel the need to make this distinction because, while instinct is a commonly used word mainly without negative feelings attached, it’s often mixed up with intuition, which I feel is a more spiritual experience.

When I write for this site, I let my intuition guide me. I had fully planned on starting my exploration of the major religions, but something in me compelled me to talk about intuition and instinct. Intuition is something that has been influencing me lately. While I don’t want a lot of my personal life and beliefs to come to play on this site, it seems they have anyway.

Despite the negative attachments to ‘intuition’ I will be talking about it on this site. Whether you feel guided or inclined to feel the same about it as I do is completely up to you, and I certainly won’t judge you for it.

Last week we talked about how to break down religion into four main groups: Theism, Deism, “Ever-Present” and Nontheism. I then broke theism down into its various categories.

Today I’m going to do the same thing with deism, ‘ever-present’ and nontheism.

Deism is the belief that yes, god(s)/being(s) does exist, but god/gods does not interfere with the world/universe. The break down of this category is similar to the breakdown of theism but without quite the ‘black and white’ definitions.

In pandeism, you have the belief that the creator came before the universe, created the universe, and is now on the same level as or is the universe.

In polydeism, many gods came together to create the universe, but after it was created, they stopped interacting with it.

“Ever-present” – a term I made up – describes the broader belief that gods/beings are present in everything. This category can be broken down into four subcategories:

Pantheism takes away the division between god and the universe, making them equally one.

Panentheism, similar to pantheism, also believes that the universe and god are joined together. However, this belief puts god as greater than the universe.

Cosmotheism is a combination of both man and creator. This belief is that the cosmos and man are essentially one. What man wants, the cosmos want, and vice versa.

Animism, put simply, is the belief that everything has a soul and is thus important at some level.

Nontheism is broken down into Atheism and Agnosticism, which I have talked about before here

As you can see, there is a lot to religion even at a broader level than individual religions. That’s why I wanted to explore the broader categories before getting into the individual religions. In future posts, I will begin exploring individual religions.

In the last post, we broke down religion (or rather, religious belief systems) into four main categories: Theism, Deism, “Ever-Present”, and Nontheism. Today I am going to break down theism further into subcategories of identification
You’ll recall that theism is the belief that gods/beings exist and they also interact with the world/universe.

Theism can further be broken down into monotheism and polytheism. If you look at the prefixes ‘mono’ and ‘poly’, it’s easy to keep their definitions straight.

Monotheism is the belief that there is one and only one god. This is a fairly well known line of belief and is the current state of what you could call the evolution of religions being primarily polytheistic and moving to monotheism over time.

An interesting belief falling under the monotheism category is ‘misotheism’ which encompasses the belief that there is one god but that one god is evil instead of the benevolent good god of many other religions.

Where mono means one, poly means many. Those who have polytheistic beliefs believe that there is more than one god/being wandering around in the great ‘out there’.

The subcategories of polytheism are mostly to do with leaning towards one god in one area or another.

Henotheism, while believing in more than one god, believes that one god is supreme above all others.

Monolatry doesn’t believe so much that one god is supreme as it believes only one god should be worshiped.

Lastly, the one with the fun name – kathenotheism – is more of an equal opportunity worshiper. It believes in more than one god and worshiping one of the many, but the difference is that each god will get their turn in supremacy.

In future posts, I’ll break down the remaining three categories of religion.

When it comes to religion and spirituality, the subjects within the main subject are often more widespread and complicated than people realize.

Coming up on this site, I will be exploring individual religions and the basics in their beliefs. Before I do that, however, I would like to explore religion just a bit more.

To make it easier, I think it’s best to start in the broadest senses and then narrow down to specifics. When it comes to religion, the broadest category would be if you believe something or not, but I am going a bit narrower than that with some definitions in the realm of belief.

The first way to break down religion is into four categories: Theism, Deism, what I call “ever-present”, and Nontheism.

Theism is that yes, gods or like beings do exist and they interact with the world/universe.

Deism is like theism in that the belief is that gods/beings exist. However, in deism, the belief is that they do not interact/intervene with the universe.

“Ever-Present” – a term that has no official status and is something I’m probably using incorrectly – is the category of belief that encompasses a diety in everything. There are sub-classes of exactly what has a soul or is a diety, but I will explore that later.

Lastly, we have Nontheism where we have Atheism and Agnosticism. This gets a little tricky when you break it down because some Agnostics have a personal faith, but we’ll talk about that later.

And there you have your Intro to Religions 101. In future posts I’ll be breaking these categories down before exploring individual religions groups.

You’re walking down the street and see a small shop. It’s painted with blues, golds, and purples – much different to the mostly drab shops around it. Curious and with some spare time, you walk inside.

You immediately smell one or more of the incense or candles burning. You see candles, rocks, jewellery, books, clothing, candles, incense, and much, much more.

You have entered a New Age store.

So what is New Age and when did it start? What is it all about?

There is no concrete definition for what New Age is. However, it can be broadly described as large movement towards spiritual exploration and adding on additional beliefs to traditional religions.

New Age encompasses a lot of beliefs, ideas, and activities. It can also touch on a lot of subjects from astral to psychic to even new spiritual movements. Thus New Age isn’t probably something that should be easily disregarded.

The lovely thing about New Age beliefs is that they can often mesh easily with commonly held beliefs of the major religions. ‘New Agers’ often practice mainstream religion along with some of the ‘out there’ practices of New Age.

True, some beliefs go directly against others, but there is no denying a feeling of flexibility and acceptance.

New Age often incorporates some form of the mind-body-spirit awareness. Whether it comes in the form of alternative (or ‘natural’) medicines or the use of meditation for strengthening and focusing the mind, New Age beliefs and practices can offer a lot to any person without causing people to ‘betray’ their religion.

Start with the basics. When you walk into the store, look around. The first step to becoming more open-minded and informed is to not generalize or assume.

It is easy enough to throw around words like ’spirit’ and ‘Self’ when talking about matters of both religious of spiritual natures. However, what are they and what do they mean? What does it mean when spirit is Spirit versus spirit?

Unfortunately, three terms – Spirit, spirit, and Self – can be confusing. Because I will be using them on this blog, I will explain how I will use them to make things clearer.

Spirit as spirit (lowercase) is often associated with the soul and matters of spiritual growth and desires. The Spirit can also refer in the spiritual sense to the unified, universal consciousness.

The Spirit (capitalized) is often in reference to the religious holy spirit or deity. Mother Spirit and Mother Goddess sometimes mean the same thing.

However, the Spirit (capitalized) is also used in the same way Self (capitalized) is used. Self is in reference to you and not your body. The you, Self, that controls the physical body you are in.

Unfortunately, Self is sometimes interchanged with spirit (lowercase). It can get confusing, but confusing is usually what you get

For the purposes of this blog, I am combining the Spirit/Self (both capitalized) into one category. In my personal beliefs, these two words are for the most part interchangeable. When I refer to a god/goddess/deity/universal consciousness, I will refer to it as such.

(If this doesn’t make you frustrated with the English language, I don’t know what will.)

Please don’t try to read too hard into my decision. I like simplicity. That’s all.

As long as we are on the subject of definitions, I would like to define to other words that are easily interchanged and, in this case used incorrectly.

Atheists and Agnostics are often grouped together – most often under the Atheist label – as being of one belief when it comes to the disbelief of God or gods. While they are similar, they are still different.

Again, I am using definitions from Wikipedia.

[A]theism is the absence of belief in deities, alternatively called nontheism.

Agnosticism is the philosophical view that the truth value of certain claims—particularly metaphysical claims regarding theology, afterlife or the existence of God, gods, deities, or even ultimate reality—is unknown or, depending on the form of agnosticism, inherently unknowable due to the nature of subjective experience.

Put simply, Atheists firmly believe there are no deities while Agnostics are either unsure about the existence of deities or believe that deities are unknowable.

It’s easy to see why interchanging these could lead to trouble and unintended insults.

When it comes to people’s systems of belief, many people can be very sensitive. Just imagine a Christian being called a Mormon or a Muslim being called a Jew. People are often proud of their beliefs. People choosing to believe there are no deities is still a belief and you shouldn’t be surprised if you get the name of their belief system wrong.

Given the similarity in both the titles and the range of belief, it’s understandable how these two can be mistakenly switched. However, if you expect people to know the correct title of your belief system, you should do the same for others.

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Picture from HubbleSite.org

In my introductory post, I wrote that you can be spiritual without being religious, religious without being spiritual, or both spiritual and religious. Today people often connect the two, interchanging one for the other.

I thought defining the two terms would be the perfect place to start for this site.

According to Wikipedia: A religion is a set of beliefs and practices generally organized around supernatural and moral claims, and often codified as prayer, ritual, and religious law.

That definition covers my personal definition of religion: a set of beliefs, organized, centered around a being or beings.

Also according to Wikipedia: Spirituality, in a narrow sense, concerns itself with matters of the spirit. The spiritual, involving (as it may) perceived eternal verities regarding humankind’s ultimate nature, often contrasts with the temporal, with the material, or with the worldly.

I put up the Wikipedia definition of spirituality as well because it encompasses my personal definition of spirituality.

Of course, both can be a lot more complicated when applied personally, but in general definition I believe these definitions are a good place to start.

You can easily have one without the other, despite how much people today interchange the two. To be spiritual, you do not need a god or goddess. To be religious, you do not need to be concerned what’s beyond the material and the nature of humankind. (Though to not be concerned about those while religious seems somewhat strange to me.)

Many people are made to feel guilty and wrong for not identifying with one religion or another, and yet many of these people are still concerned with what is outside the material scope of their reality. Feeling pressured to label oneself can change or stop one’s personal growth and education in spirituality.

Likewise, many people find peace and belonging in identifying with a religious group but feel uncomfortable with what lies beyond what is dictated in their religion. Sometimes they feel like they are viewed as being close-minded.

When you realize the differences between spirituality and religion, you can begin to explore your personal Truths without having the ’shoulds’ in life directing your path. The perceived ’shoulds’ in your life will deter you from your Self faster then almost anything else.