The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum

Hello everyone, and jumping right here.. I was wondering .. how you, personally, would define the difference in pagan religion vs. pagan spirituality.. . I was trying to decide where to post a question and got to thinking.. and that's never good.  Still, I am interested in the answers.

I think for me i'd have to drop the "Pagan" facet for the path name doesn't really matter when speaking of Spirituality / Religion.  So it becomes a simple question of difference if any between Spirituality and Religion.

So for me Religion is the visible bells and whistles of the pathwalk.  It's the dogma, the rules, the somewhat tangible things one can hold in thier hand.  It's the way of viewing things and the guage through which one looks and evaluates their world and their place within it.

Spirituality is the non-tangiable facet of it.  It's the inner sensations and emotional facets of things.  It's the non-tangiable facet that allows us to "Know" and "Connect" with the divine influences.  Divinity being seen as both humanoid in form as well as the other people's of the world.  Spirituality is the way it makes us feel when we think about a certain god / goddess and the fire that burns there because of it.

Spirituality is the creative energy and force that allows us to take a leap of faith.  It's the ability to stand in support and belief of a thing even when there is no tangiable or solid evidence one can point to and say there he / she is as proof.

It's like I could stand at Lagina and know it is a place where Hekate / Hecate was worshipped and honored by the masses.  A place where religious ceremonies, rituals, actions where all carried out in her name.  A place where events where driven by date, by time, by some religious reasoning and the steps clearly identified and endorsed as the dogma of her worship.

Yet none of that reveals the charge that would go through my chest just from being there.  The many emotions that would roll over my being as the energy of the place filled my spirit and soul as it washed upon and crashed over my body.  Of the thoughs it would inspire within my mind, of the fantasies and realilities that would be triggered or initiated by being there.

Religion is the visible and tangible of my practice, Spirituality is the internal and hidden that has to be experienced and felt.  One is the day to day actions and movements of living it as a pathway while the other is the the mystery of moving within it and it within me.

Of course that is my own way of looking at it.  Yet I also know that the Religious facet via the visible is in many ways the same whether it be Artemis , Hekate / Hecate, Bastet, Pahket, Sekor or the Huntsman I honor and make offerings and libations to.  Yet no one can know the spiritual facet within my soul and spirit that each touches me with and through and the mystery and emotion of that contact and connection fills me with.

Hello everyone, and jumping right here.. I was wondering .. how you, personally, would define the difference in pagan religion vs. pagan spirituality.. . I was trying to decide where to post a question and got to thinking.. and that's never good.  Still, I am interested in the answers.

 
I would just echo what monsnoleedra and Randall said. I would add that Religion tends to bring in very human tendencies like ego, greed and selfishness. Not always of course but whenever you get people organizing things into anything at all there will be politics and those dynamics have a better chance of rearing their ugly head.

This does not in my experience distinguish it meaningfully from spirituality.

 
Thats cool, my experience has been different for the most part however. Perhaps I could word it better by saying it can greatly diminish the spirituality that is supposed to be the basis of religion. Personal agendas become much more of the focus than actual spiritual growth. But like I said that is just the majority of my experience with religion up until I found where I am at now.

Given what I know of Darkhawk's experiences, I don't think she was disagreeing that it happens, just with the implication that it's sufficiently inherent to religion to make it a meaningful point distinguishing religion from spirituality.

 
Bingo.  More than once I have run into people who have chosen to pursue "spirituality" rather than "religion" because it frees them to pursue their own personal agendas - as there is no structure for them to be accountable to unless they choose to make one.

Bingo.  More than once I have run into people who have chosen to pursue "spirituality" rather than "religion" because it frees them to pursue their own personal agendas - as there is no structure for them to be accountable to unless they choose to make one.

QFT. Spirituality can be abused like this just as easily as religion can -- unfortunately.

Hello everyone, and jumping right here.. I was wondering .. how you, personally, would define the difference in pagan religion vs. pagan spirituality.. . I was trying to decide where to post a question and got to thinking.. and that's never good.  Still, I am interested in the answers.

 
I don't think this will go against anything already pointed out, but I'll toss my answer in.  I've always thought spirituality and religion were different but not mutually exclusive.

Spirituality is your path in a relaxed, very personal way.  You go your own speed, make any turns or use whatever tools you wish.  It isn't restricted to being focused on a Higher Power, but if you think of it in that way then spirituality is like your personal relationship with your higher power.  

Religion is your path in a framework.  It's structured and you are guided by set steps.  It's much more formal and very much like the difference in walking a paved, manicured path versus the one that is uncharted.

I believe it's entirely possible to have spirituality without religion.  I know many people who have both to varying degrees.  And, sadly, I know too many people who have religion but no spirituality at all.