Multiple Temples

[qos]

I am a priestess of several temples.

They do not all have to connect or form a coherent whole externally.

I am not returning to "The Wandering Path," but acknowledging that my path is braided. I need to go deep in each element -- not to the same depth in each, but giving each focused attention. I've been fretting about the fragmenation of my spiritual life, but this new, relatively simple concept, is helping.

I'm still working this out, but this is the first conceptual framework that's even started to feel right since I started wrestling with this.

Still need to sit with it and meditate on it, but it's a start. . .

Comments

[oakmouse]

Good. Yes.

[stiobhanrune.livejournal.com]

Bravo! *applauds*

[rainstardragon.livejournal.com]

Interesting thing is that I recently realized I've been serving in more than one temple, and trying to come to terms with the "is it one, or is it that I serve in more? Why do I feel trapped only offering particular services in one venue, and feeling flattened, but not daring to offer others that do not correctly take place in a Buddhist shrine? Is it ok if, to feel whole and to meet the mutual needs of myself and my deities, to choose other places as well, given that for space, time, and safety constraints the bulk take place in cyber space other than weddings/handfastings, and funerals?"

I didn't really have the need to look at this until in the last few months though, since before then I've served comfortably in my own home for the most part, with excursions to the outside for things the public called on me to do. Izanami and Izanagi are comfortable in the same homeshrine as Amaterasu, Kwan Yin, Shastayama, guardian kami, Seiryuu, Susanoo, and others. The bulk of things in the home take place at the same main kamidana, including the ancestral rites. When I found a place to facilitate some Buddhist meditations and take part in others, it catalyzed things because I had actually been looking for other Shinto practitioners to have regular interaction with besides my family.

Thank you for sharing your own realization. It's nice to know that I'm not alone, and not wrong in having a braided path.

[shadowandstar.livejournal.com]

I've met several folks through LiveJournal who are dedicated in service to more than one deity -- and in fact, have dedicated relationships to deities in more than one pantheon. Unlike some of these brethren, I don't have a sense of my deities being in conversation with each other (although They could be having animated conversations to which I am not a party), and it's been hard for me to balance the energy and effort going in what feels like very disparate directions. Ereshkigal, Freya, and Magdalane may not mind sharing me, and might even be content to sit down to dinner together -- but I can't see that the rites in honor of one would necessarily be exapndable to include the others.