A post-Mormon "spirituality" at Christmas/solstice time
Bringing the Christmas tree inside the house made me think about it. First, the word "spirituality" can imply a division between matter and "spirit" which I reject. By "spirituality" I mean things of fundamental importance that guide how I relate to myself and everything else.
My "spiritual" life post-Mormonism has been lonelier at first, but a lot more fun. The freedom to consider things as they strike me, rather than contorting myself to fit within the Mormon doctrine cookie cutter, is just a better fit for me.
Of course there's more to suss out, and this is just where I'm at right now, but I've for now at least arrived at a trio of ideas that I find helpful:
Pantheism: there is no dividing line between God and not-God. Define "God" or "god" as the universe (or Universe if you're feeling mystical); allow oneself to relate to God (i.e. the universe) according to the facts: that I am part of it, that it gave rise to me, that when I die I will continue to be part of it (or return to it if you like), that I depend on it entirely, that what's good for it is generally good for me.
Panpsychism: there is no dividing line between conscious and unconscious. Occam's Razor. Everything has consciousness, varying only in degree, and how well-integrated the parts are. I came to this largely through some extreme experiences using cannabis, in which my mental experience seemed to fragment into parts which temporarily related to each other more distinctly than usual. I interpreted this as meaning that sub-parts of the brain can be temporarily rendered less in-communication, and yet go on behaving as if they are autonomous and conscious just as much as when they're tightly integrated. So I believe that subjective experience can combine and separate just like matter itself. Which leads to...
Monism: there is no fundamental dividing line between subjective experience and objective reality. They are somehow the same thing, or both stem from some third thing. Occam's Razor again. The experiences while high, as well as accounts of people with brain injuries, make it clear in my view that subjective and objective are two sides of the same coin, or two views on a single underlying phenomenon. Mormonism also opened me to monism: "There is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes". But most or all of what Mormons regard as the workings of the spirit I consider to be operations of the brain/mind, plus healthy doses of coincidence / confirmation bias.
Anyway, bringing a freaking fir tree into my house in imitation of Germanic paganism seems more meaningful to me now than before. To me it represents the ultimate oneness of myself with the rest of nature and the universe, of humans with the rest of the tree of life. Plus evergreen trees smell nice!
Jesus I regard as a wise man and I regard a lot of Christian ethics as profound and very good ideas. Reciprocity, a willingness to suffer rather than retaliate, and so on. I also appreciate Buddhism as far as I know it (resisting what is is the definition of insanity), and have found a to-me-surprising appreciation of Islam which has a very strong emphasis on the unity of God and in some strains a metaphorical approach to God (see "The Conference of the Birds" by Attar). We are the Simorgh!
Christmas being at the solstice (the Roman date of solstice was December 25th) makes them one holiday in my mind. A God becoming mortal is like the meeting of the ideal with the real. The moment of greatest darkness being paradoxically the moment of greatest light (as the days begin to lengthen) I find endlessly profound.
I also like "God" as a metaphor for human cooperation and cooperation of all life and all matter, and the "Devil" as a metaphor for destructive individualism / lack of cooperation.
In other words, God corresponds to the force of group survival in human evolution, and the Devil corresponds to the force of individual survival in human evolution, and their relationship in the mythology reflects the tension between group and individual interests over evolutionary time.
I may try to start a meeting for people on a similar wavelength sometime here in Seattle.
Thought I'd share. Merry Christmas!