I think often we hear “Don’t complain,” “Suck it up,” and my favorite, “Get over it,” when we voice a concern, particularly anything that troubles us deeply.

But I’m particularly fond of the lament, one of at least four types of psalms. Laments describe the physical or emotional anguish of the lamentee (a word I may have just made up) and the silence of god. I would expect that no one told the lamentee to get over it. Laments were a valuable type of prayer.

Many (at least 70) of the psalms, including psalm 22, are attributed to David, around 1000 years before the common era and birth of Jesus of Nazareth. Like all powerful writing, you will probably notice that some of these words, particularly the verse line, are familiar. The new testament gospels used parts of the psalm 22 to describe Jesus on the cross.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
by night, and am not silent.

Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
you are the praise of Israel.

In you our fathers put their trust;
they trusted and you delivered them.

They cried to you and were saved;
in you they trusted and were not disappointed.

But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by men and despised by the people.

All who see me mock me;
they hurl insults, shaking their heads:

“He trusts in the LORD;
let the LORD rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
since he delights in him.”

Yet you brought me out of the womb;
you made me trust in you
even at my mother’s breast.

From birth I was cast upon you;
from my mother’s womb you have been my God.

Do not be far from me,
for trouble is near
and there is no one to help.

Many bulls surround me;
strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.

Roaring lions tearing their prey
open their mouths wide against me.

I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart has turned to wax;
it has melted away within me.

My strength is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
you lay me in the dust of death.

Dogs have surrounded me;
a band of evil men has encircled me,
they have pierced my hands and my feet.

I can count all my bones;
people stare and gloat over me.

They divide my garments among them
and cast lots for my clothing.

But you, O LORD, be not far off;
O my Strength, come quickly to help me.

Deliver my life from the sword,
my precious life from the power of the dogs.

Rescue me from the mouth of the lions;
save me from the horns of the wild oxen.

I will declare your name to my brothers;
in the congregation I will praise you.

You who fear the LORD, praise him!
All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!
Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!

For he has not despised or disdained
the suffering of the afflicted one;
he has not hidden his face from him
but has listened to his cry for help.

From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;
before those who fear you [e] will I fulfill my vows.

The poor will eat and be satisfied;
they who seek the LORD will praise him—
may your hearts live forever!

All the ends of the earth
will remember and turn to the LORD,
and all the families of the nations
will bow down before him,

for dominion belongs to the LORD
and he rules over the nations.

All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;
all who go down to the dust will kneel before him—
those who cannot keep themselves alive.

Posterity will serve him;
future generations will be told about the Lord.

They will proclaim his righteousness
to a people yet unborn—
for he has done it.

for the Middle Ages was The Book of Hours. It’s a set of devotional prayers to Mary.

I went to an exhibit about the Book of Hours at the Getty today. Apparently there are thousands of books of hours that exist from Medieval days and rich people can buy pages or the entire book (and apparently then they take photos of them that are not in the public domain, because I can’t find one illustration for this). Other than a calendar, prayers for every three waking hours to Mary (and some before 6 a.m.!), the book of hours could contain several pslams and a litany of prayers for the dead.

If you owned only one book in the middle ages, this was it! Take that Publisher’s Weekly!

Often I become tethered to semantics because I believe words are important. What is spirituality? What is a philosophy? What is a religion? Is a religion the same as a way of life? If religious practices are fully integrated into one’s life will a religion then become a way of life? Is that then more of a philosophy?

Buddhanet has some answers to the question: Is Buddhism a Religion?

To many, Buddhism goes beyond religion and is more of a philosophy or ‘way of life’. It is a philosophy because philosophy ‘means love of wisdom’ and the Buddhist path can be summed up as:

(1) to lead a moral life,
(2) to be mindful and aware of thoughts and actions, and
(3) to develop wisdom and understanding.

from A Five-Minute Introduction to Buddhism

I’m often struck by how seemingly random comments can change our lives, how one remark, one action can change the direction in which we travel. In the summer of 1991, I took at class at UCSB with Ines Talamantes, a greatly esteemed religious studies scholar and Mescalero Apache.

She said:

a. There is no “Native American spirituality.” This is a term left over from conquest when all Indian peoples were seen as one people and often referred to as, “The Indian.” There is Navajo spirituality, Lakota spirituality, Iroquois spirituality, and so on. Even within a tribe, there are many religious traditions depending on the nation or clan.

b. For many Indian peoples, spirituality is so much of a way of life that it cannot be distinguished from everyday life. Spirituality in this sense is entirely cultural.

I shy away from appropriating of rituals and traditions, but I do think there is something to pay attention to here. One of the challenges I face (and many others face) is finding ways to fully integrate spiritual practices and beliefs into my own life so that it isn’t a Saturday thing or a Sunday thing or a holiday thing. It isn’t even a workday break thing–it’s just who I am.

In many senses, our culture encourages us to partition our lives into categories: work time, break time, play time, family time, food time, church time. It is these categories which are slowly eviscerating us. Because as much as compartmentalizing seems to help us partition our lives into neat little categories that can be checked off in our Franklin planners, it also denies us the pleasure, the wisdom, the life-force that yearns to make connections. It is deeply important to connect how you earn money to what you believe in, how you eat to what you think is important, and how you play to your ethical schemata.

David Cornfield, a therapist specializing in helping people with their search for meaning, writes in an essay:

The problem with secularism is that it protects religious freedom by disemboweling it. Spirituality loses its significance when it is treated as something separate and apart from the actions we take in the world. A compartmentalized spirituality that is acknowledged on weekends and holidays but not recognized in the day to day living out of our lives, is a spirituality that is empty and hypocritical. And a world cut off from spirituality becomes a wasteland where our daily lives feel devoid of meaning.

I might be hard pressed to identify the most misunderstood religion in the United States, but Wicca/Neopaganism would be a top contender. Many Christian sources in North America link Neopaganism to Devil-Worship. This is wildly incorrect.

The Wiccan religion, also known as “The Craft,” “Wicca,” “Benevolent Witchcraft,” and “The Old Religion” is a diverse and decentralized religion that is part of contemporary Paganism. Today, there are thousands of individuals and groups practicing various forms of the Wiccan religion and other Pagan paths throughout the United States, Canada and around the world.

There are many forms of the Wiccan religion. Hereditary, Shamanic, Gardnerian, Alexandrian, Celtic, Traditionalist, Dianic, Faerie, and Eclectic are just some of the variety of Wiccan traditions, or paths. In addition to Wiccans, Contemporary Paganism includes Pantheists, Goddess spirituality folk, Druids, Animists, Gaians, Eco-feminists, and other Nature Spirituality practitioners. Within most Wiccan and other Pagan traditions, there are a variety of types of groups as well as individual practitioners. Groups differ widely in size, structure, purpose, orientation, symbology, ritual practices, and other ways. There is even more variation among those practicing Wiccan/Pagan spirituality on their own without being part of a group that meets regularly. Some Wiccan and Pagan traditions are initiatory; others are not. Initiatory practices vary from tradition to tradition and include initiations by deities and spiritual helpers through dreams and vigils/vision quests, self-initiations, and initiations by teachers and groups.

Although there are many differences, there are also some spiritual practices and philosophies that Wiccans and other Pagans tend to have in common. They love and respect Nature and seek to live in harmony with the rest of the ecosphere. Many have personal communication and friendships with various animals, plants and other lifeforms. They honor the cycles of Nature. Many do rituals at New and Full Moon times and also at the eight seasonal Festivals, called Sabbats, spaced six to seven weeks apart throughout the year and coinciding with the Solstices, Equinoxes and midpoints between, usually called the “Cross Quarters.” Samhain, popularly known as Halloween, is the New Year in most Wiccan traditions.

excerpted from Selena Fox at Circle Sanctuary

History of Wicca

Graphics courtsey of Abby Willowroot and the Goddess Project

Gantan-sai or Shogatsu is a New Year’s festival celebrated in Japan. The holiday lasts seven days and involves praying for renewal of the heart and of health, including visits to shrines.

A family celebrates Shogatsu here.

A Hajj is a pilgrimage to Mecca that all Muslims are required to perform at least once in their lives. The Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam. This year, the Hajj can be performed around January 18.

Su’ad Abdul-Khabeer, a twenty-two-year-old recent college grad, kept a journal of her Hajj, her pilgrimage to Mecca.

Khalid Latif is a Muslim Chaplain at New York University and is also performing a Hajj this year.

What is a Hajj?