Four Questions

[bcholmes]

Story 1: A student goes to their local Sosyete and wants to learn how to serve the spirits. At one point, the student is told "After the Priere Ginen, the first song we sing is to Legba. He opens the gates and lets the spirits come into the ceremony."

Student says, "Yeah, that's good and all, but I've always felt more in tune wih Ezuli. I think I'll do my first song to Ezuli."

To which the teacher responds: "No, no, no. You don't get it. The first song should be to Legba. If he takes offence, no spirits will show up."

"Naw," says student, "I'd rather start with Ezuli..."

Question 1: Is there any part of your spiritual practice that's fixed/unchangeable?

Story 2: Someone I know through my annual trans spiritual retreat gets up at 5:30 every morning to call the directions. It's a practice of her own invention, and she believes that it helps her give thanks to the spirits.

Question 2: Are there any regular, repeated practices that are a part of your spiritual path? What are they and what are their purposes?

Story 3: Back in 2002, after returning from my kanzo ceremony in Haiti, I had certain food restrictions for a period of time afterward. The trans spiritual retreat of 2002 fell during the period of food restrictions. One of the things that makes the retreat amazing is the food. Turns out, I couldn't eat most of the food that was served.

Question 3: Are there any parts of your spiritual practice that are inconvenient, and is that okay?

Story 4: I've taken to playing poker recently. After pretty much every game, I reflect on it and try to figure out what I can do to play better. I realized only recently that I never really think of doing any magical workings to improve my game. For some reason, in my head, poker seems to live outside of the space where spirituality applies. I'm not really sure why.

Question 4: Are there boundaries, in your mind, between the part of your life that involves spirituality and the parts that don't? Can you talk about some of the ways that spirituality plays a role in contexts that aren't obviously spiritual?

Comments

[elphie.livejournal.com]

*blush*

Hi, nice to remeet you!

Wow, you are into poker *and* spirituality, that automatically makes you a hottie in my book. I thought you were my kind of geek when I first saw you, but don't really tend to talk to folks much at the table.

It's strange because I started playing in 2004, and to me the games were always like they are now. I've never had my raises not be called by a whole mess of donks. :) If it doesn't happen I assume the game is bad and leave.