The second of our accounts of the journey so far….
Spirit y’all?
by Stuart France
‘Our own journey is entirely imaginary: that is its strength’ – Louis Ferdinand Celine
I grew up in a religiously tolerant family which knew a thing or two about love and faith. Nan left the Catholic Church to marry Gramps and their eldest son, Uncle Geoff, my mum’s little brother eventually rejoined the Catholic Church in order to marry Aunty Cath which meant that when we went to spend holidays with Little Geoff and Janet and Mandy we went to their Church with them which was Catholic and when Little Geoff, Janet and Mandy came to spend the holidays with us they came to our church which was Church of England. It didn’t seem odd to do this and it came as something of a shock to realise that in olden times people had lost their lives for less.
Anyhow, I eventually grew suspicious of a Church which required me to stand and proclaim my belief in something that is seemingly physically impossible and so I ceased frequenting on Sun Day’s although I still liked to rock up around Christmas time to sing Carols and even at the height of my teens I could be found attending Midnight Mass of a Christmas Eve.
My Religious Knowledge teacher at senior school was a good sort, Mr Whalley by name. He taught that all religious systems essentially referred to the same ‘thing’ which he called Spirit and he stressed the personal nature of the contact which could be enjoyed with this thing. I liked the stories too, and not just the Christian ones. I liked all the stories because it felt like they were trying to tell me something if I would only listen… It wasn’t though an immediately obvious thing and it wasn’t historical either because it went beyond history although I liked historical stories too. I would have liked to study Religious Knowledge at ‘O’ Level but the selections were not set up right so I couldn’t.
I suppose really I came to spirituality through literature and philosophy which I studied to degree level. One shouldn’t really be putting pen to paper unless one has something communal and good to impart and philosophy, properly, is the ‘Love of Wisdom’.
The Spirit is infinitely wise…
Knowing that though is a lot easier than living it… so really my spiritual education was only just beginning when I joined and studied with a series of Spiritual Schools, first OBOD, The Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids which teaches love for the Spirit of Nature, then AMORC, The Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis, which teaches love for the Spirit of Mysticism, and finally, SOL, Servants of the Light which teaches love for the Spirit of Magic.
Can anyone conceive a well lived life without a love and reverence for the spirit of nature, and the inherent magic, and mystery of existence in some form or another?
I know I can’t.
I don’t think it is necessary to belong to a Spiritual School in order to be spiritual, quite the contrary because life itself can be regarded as a school of the Spirit which of course it is, but joining a Spiritual School can certainly help because what these schools really teach is a series of techniques which enable us to access our natural abilities in order to attune with the spiritual dimension of the world around us in a meaningful and productive way.
Our School, the Silent Eye, in that respect is no different from any of the others, we just have a different set of techniques and, perhaps, a slightly more modern approach.
‘The easiest way to approach spirituality is through stories, they are common to every tradition on earth and rather than demand belief all they ask is a willing suspension of disbelief…’
– The Initiate
…Y’all come back now… you hear?
Sue Vincent's Daily Echo 
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yes, stories tell it all….
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There is a lot in a good story 🙂
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I love the stories too. 🙂 @Stuart, Where did you get your degree in philosophy, what did you focus in? I’m hopefully graduating this year with a Ph.D. in philosophy myself, am writing a dissertation in virtue ethics about interdependent living containing within it a new virtue for human flourishing. About learning as well as living the love of wisdom, it shocked me to find out many philosophers don’t do both: I try to live Socrates’ words, “An unexamined life is not worth living.” I’m also currently in OBOD. I’d love to talk philosophy and spirituality with you if you’re interested, oh yes and of this mystical and exciting life here on earth! 🙂
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From Stuart: As ‘a starter for three’… I studied Philosophy and Literature at the
University of Warwick between 1989 and 1992…
My final year dissertation was on Celine’ s – Journey to the End of the
Night, which proved a controversial choice…!
I found that very few philosphers practiced what they preached and were not
actively seeking to ‘live well’ just intellectualise well, or better than
the next fellow….
I would be very interesed in learning more about virtue ethics… virtue in
Greek is from ‘arete’ I think which also tanslates as ‘quality’…
but that may be from ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’…
Quality of living was sought by the greek Philosophers who I now think of
as very similar to our Druids… most notably perhaps Socrates and Plato
but also some of the Pre-Socratics… Socrates’ (in)famous daimon was
interesting from a ‘contact’ point of view….
I remember being devastated when reading ‘the death of Socrates’ a state
assisted suicide by hemlock, sentenced to death for, ironically enough,
‘corrupting the morals of the youth.’
It is tempting to think things may have been pretty much down hill ever
since…
but hey, we’re still here… to tell the story…
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Hi Stuart, I have not heard of Celine, but would be really interested in learning more about her and what she wrote. Controvercial why? You’d think philosophy departments would be full of open-minded people, who put their egoes and pet projects aside to grow and learn and not dismiss outright what they do not understand or fail to appreciate. Alas it seems it is in such places you will most of all find quite the opposite. I’ve had a miserable time of it in grad school for that reason. I’ve had to live a double life as at the University of Arizona one must come out of the Christian closet– i.e. if you are not atheist, and also unrelatedly libertarian, or able bodied, you are not taken seriously. Oh well, I escaped to writing my dissertation in Berkeley where I grew up and there is only one direction in this world in which time is going… into the future… and so I make my way there. 🙂
I was quite devistated by Socrates’ death myself. I remember thinking also, every great movement has its martyr, sadly. I made philosophy my religion for a while as an undergrad which proved extreme and not that healthy. Perhaps that was because modern versions have lost touch with reverence for instance of the natural world or even in many American departments of an appreciation of literature. Our druids are remembering and practicing the spirit of ancient philosophers and those gone before more than many professional philosophers do themselves. Still, I wish to think that I might make a bit of a difference teaching at university if that is in fact where I’m needed. 🙂 Arete is as you’ve said the word for virtue, the exact translation is not “quality” but “excellence.” So in ancient Greek, a bridle, a sheep, a game, and the character of a human being can all have a particular arete. It’s what makes a thing or a person the best of its kind, kalon, or fine/noble. 🙂 Yes Plato and Socrates were some of the most influential virtue ethicists, along with Aristotle, and my dissertation takes more of an Aristotelian approach than anything else as I find his position most compelling. There were also the Stoics, and Epicureans, and the preSocratics as you pointed out already. Oh incidentally if you go on the OBOD website and look at their ethics section, you’ll find an excellent example of a modern virtue ethical theory. I was a virtue ethicist before I found OBOD, and have now also learned that not only the Greeks, but also ancient Islandic and Celtic people lived according to virtue and have learned quite a bit from my own ancestors who it has been an honor to get to know in the present. If you ever want to be in touch off the blog comments I’d love to chat philosophy and other things! My email I send out on blogs is truthagainsttheworld3@gmail.com, (the 3 wasn’t random.) 🙂 Slainte!
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Hi Éilis,
Emailing shortly 🙂
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