(no subject)

[sophiaserpentia]

akaiyume has done the blessed task of calling on me to face what exactly it is that I really think of as "spirit," or what "spirit" really means to me. In her last response to my post in darkpaganism she wrote:

This bit means of tying in the workings of the human animal with subtler aspects of existence confuses me greatly. Our animal body contains all the aspects of existence that it is possible for us to experience; the body, the mind, the emotions, the will are one and inseperable. Any "subtler aspects of existence" we can experience originate within the human body.

One way I can answer that is that I think of "spirit" as a kind of codeword for the string we pull on that unravels into a paradox.

On the one end of this paradox is the fact that at times "spirit" seems to be distinct from matter. It is something that I sense the presence of, a single "flowing" or "interconnectedness" shared by all things that moves just under the perceptible surface of reality -- the "spark" of unity by which it is possible to experience things.

On the other end of this paradox is the fact that at other times I am incapable of perceiving any distinct "spirit" at all. It is at these moments of mindfulness that I am actually experiencing the interconnectedness of things, the fact of "interbeing." When you try to close your fingers around spirit you get nothing, because following the perception of spirit, like Alice down the rabbithole, you arrive at this state of mindfulness.