Imagine sitting in a church dating back to 12th century, having your prayer with god or goddess, whoever you feel like most connected to, and suddenly a lad approaches you telling you to obey the rules of the church and wear a headscarf.
My first, second, third reaction was smiling. I didn’t want to wear a headscarf because I don’t think all rules written by humans have a meaning and are worth following. More clearly, I believe that I need to follow those rules, which stem from the need to protect our and others safety and wellbeing. Who is going to be harmed by the fact that I don’t wear a headscarf in the church? After all humans often make wrong rules and laws, and that is why they often revise and rewrite them. Yet this hardly happens in religions.
Anyways, I wasn’t going to wear a headscarf, and so I told the guy that I also read spiritual books and I like having my interpretations on various issues. I just felt this wasn’t the place and time for me to speak to him longer on the issue, otherwise I do like talking on spiritual themes, especially with people who are open to listen and discuss.
So I just closed my eyes and continued my conversation with the goddess. It’s a long story as to why goddess. Also I know I don’t have to go to a church to pray, feel spirituality etc. But especially old churches for example in Armenia, which, as I’ve learned, were most often built atop old pagan temples, do have special energy, which I love feeling. That’s why I sometimes go to old churches for charging my energy. Another way of charging it is spending weeks in the mountains (or elsewhere in the nature).
But this clash has now pushed me to start this conversation about spirituality vs. religions. I often think about these issues. It must be about two years that I am reading academic books about myths, gods, spirituality, women’s important role in old times, humans’ connection with nature, etc. All of these books have come to redefine a lot of my world views. In the past I believed in spirituality, cosmic energy and nature. Yet, I only started reading these books when I started realizing that a lot of problems in the world could be solved if spirituality, not religions dominate humans’ world, which could let people live in harmony with each other and the nature. Yet what we have is a lot of religions and little spirituality.
I think this is particularly the reason why nature suffers too, because the more humans lose their spirituality, the more they distance themselves from the nature which results in destruction of it. There are many reasons for such distancing, but one of these is that religions do not satisfy spiritual needs of most of the humans, because for centuries religions were a political tool, rather than a food for soul. And for a person who believes that nature is a paradise, finding the first lines in a religious book on how god drove people away from paradise, is not only disheartening, but also it explains why humans treat the nature the way they do.
Moreover, patriarchal norms were an indivisible part of religious systems, as a result of which women suffered too at homes and in public. It’s enough to remember women’s subordinated roles at homes prior, during and after medieval times (the latter I think was the peak of women oppression and rise of religious dominance); witch hunting against women who were particularly linked with spiritual practices and who would run away from persecution for their knowledge and abilities; ban of women from social-political life etc. This type of treatment of women cannot be limited to one geographical location as this was and sometimes continues to be the situation in various parts of the world.
And now in this church I was again witnessing religion linked with patriarchal norms clashing with my freedom and spirituality. This clash didn’t make me angry, yet it made me realize that there is need in this world to speak more about spirituality and why not, practice it more openly. While faith has little to do with publicly demonstrating it, yet openly expressing gratitude for example to nature can attract not only looks but also question some of the adopted norms and even start a discussion on the issue, which I think is a must to start feeding our spirituality again.