Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Pagan
Context For Being Yourself

Context For Being Yourself

Last updated on: November 3, 2016 at 6:00 am by John Beckett

Context For Being Yourself 2016-11-02T19:36:37-06:00 John Beckett

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

There’s a post going around Facebook this week titled Spiritual People Don’t Say F*… or do they? It’s over a year old but I’m just now seeing it, and from the dates on the comments so are a lot of other people. Blogging can be odd like that. Anyway, it’s getting rave reviews from the people who are commenting. I think it has some very good advice and I agree with about 85% of it.

But that other 15% can be critical.

Here’s an excerpt from the post. I’m editing a certain four-letter word not because I don’t use it but because using it in a casual manner like this drains the power of profanity for when you really need it.

It starts with the silly F Spiritual. Be You.* picture in the sidebar.

So why is that so shocking?

Why should that, of all things, make any difference to anyone?

Because we’re all afraid to reveal who we really are.

And because “spiritual” people don’t say f*.

We’ve been handed this idea of what it means to be spiritual… Peaceful. Transcendent. Free from emotion. Free from ego personality.

It’s easy to be “spiritual.” It’s easy to be pleasant and peaceful and unaffected.

It’s easy to pretend.

It’s easy because it’s safe; and it’s fake; and it comes with a roadmap.

All we have to do is follow the stereotype and project the right image. (When in doubt, just smile placidly and say Namaste.)

Being authentic is scary.

The post is from Zach Herbert, a “spiritual coach” who’s promoting something he calls “open source spirituality.” He had what strikes me as a genuine, life-changing spiritual experience, he doesn’t like organized religion, and he ridicules New Agers (something I may have done a time or two). And he’s very fond of one-sentence paragraphs.

“Spirituality” is one of those words that no one can define but everyone knows what it means… or at least we think we do. We have ideas about what a spiritual person is and does, and many times those ideas are unrealistic and even harmful. They tell us that if we were just spiritual enough (or magical enough or devoted enough) bad things wouldn’t happen to us, or if they did it wouldn’t bother us. Those are two pernicious lies of religion and spirituality.

Herbert is right to rant against this kind of upper middle class, Whole Foods, pop culture faux spirituality. He’s right to advise people to be authentic and not what someone else tells them they’re supposed to be. And he’s very right when he warns that being yourself is hard and scary.

But there’s a major problem in his approach.

Discussing his life-changing experience, Herbert says:

I developed a savant-like ability to perceive consciousness as a stream of shifting geometric patterns.

These patterns helped me look past the conflicting beliefs of the old spiritual traditions. And I could see that the sacred experiences of every faith fit together like separate movements in a single symphony.

I could see which practices worked, which didn’t, and why…

We’ll skip the question of whether claiming “savant-like ability” and speaking of “consciousness as a stream of shifting geometric patterns” belongs in the dumpster with the rest of the New Age lingo Herbert derides. The problem is when he claims “the sacred experiences of every faith fit together like separate movements in a single symphony.”

No. No they don’t.

The foundational experiences of Buddhism are very different from the foundational experiences of Christianity. The sacred experiences of the devotional polytheism I practice are very different from those of Humanistic Pagans. What works and what doesn’t depends on what you’re trying to accomplish. Trying to transcend the world, trying to be a part of the world, and trying to be saved from the world are three very different goals.

More importantly, raw experiences are literally meaningless – they’re a combination of occurrences and interactions. They only gain meaning when we interpret them: when we locate them in the context of a worldview and a culture and decide what they mean.

A Pagan, a Baptist, and an atheist can view the same sunset in the same place at the same time. They will all have the same experience but they will interpret them in very different ways, based on their beliefs about Gods, Nature, and our place in the order of the universe.

Deep down it’s not all the same. All paths don’t lead up the same mountain. Our religious diversity is a beautiful thing to be celebrated and respected, not melted down into meaningless mush.

We need religious beliefs and traditions to provide the context for interpreting our spiritual experiences. Otherwise, we will interpret them in the context of the only culture we know: the mainstream, materialist, consumer culture we see on TV; the very same culture that produced the upper middle class faux spirituality Zach Herbert rightly ridicules.

Since I was a small child, I’ve heard adults complain about teenagers who say they “want to be themselves” but end up copying all their teenage friends. The details have changed over the past 50 years, but the concept hasn’t. When teenagers say “I have to be myself” they really mean “I want to be different from my parents” – that’s a normal and healthy part of growing up. Not being like their parents is easy. Figuring out what to be instead is hard… which is why most teenagers (but not all, as many readers of this blog can attest first-hand) grab on to what they see their friends doing and wearing and listening to.

Zach Herbert has rejected mainstream religion. He’s rejected New Age spirituality. But when it comes to an alternative, all he’s got is “be yourself.”

Now, that’s been good advice ever since γνῶθι σεαυτὸν (“know thyself”) was carved over the door of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. Know yourself, be true to yourself, do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. Learning who you really are and how to truly be that person is good and necessary work, and as Herbert points out, it’s hard and scary.

But it’s only the beginning.

“Who are you?” is an important question, but so is “whose are you?” Where do you belong? Who do you belong with? These are questions our communities – religious and otherwise – help us answer.

What do you want to be? Who do you want to be? Our mainstream culture constantly tells us we aren’t good enough, so it can prey on our insecurities and sell us stuff we neither want nor need. But accepting and even celebrating that you’re good and fine just the way you are doesn’t mean you don’t want to be something more. Stagnation is death – how do we keep learning and growing all our lives? Our religious and spiritual traditions help us with this.

Most importantly, what does it mean to be you? What does it mean to do the things you do and to have the experiences you have? What does it mean to live in relationship with the Earth and all her creatures? What does it mean to interact with Gods and spirits? These are the questions of context that our various Pagan and polytheist traditions help answer… and that our mainstream culture is woefully ill-equipped to address.

So, should you be you and not try to conform to some New Age idea of what a spiritual person is supposed to be? Of course you should. Be you as only you can be, in all your magnificence and glory.

But John Donne was right: no person is an island – you will be you in the context of something. Make sure that context is in alignment with your deepest values and virtues, and not in the context of what Madison Avenue – or some blogger – is selling.

Previous Post

November 1, 2016

The Pagan Wisdom of King Arthur

Next Post

November 6, 2016 The Veil Is Shredded

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Books Community CUUPS Druidry Foundations and Context Gods and Goddesses Magic Myth Nature Ritual Spiritual Practice Theology Travel Uncategorized Videos

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which Christian denomination practices the sacrament of Confirmation?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Baptist Methodist Jehovah’s Witnesses Catholic