Talk:Outline of spirituality

Categorization of spirituality-related topics:

Possible Designations: Religious, Mystical, Spiritual, Occult, Esoteric, Magickal, New Age, Western, Eastern, Native.

Analysis of Designations:

SPIRITUAL: The most general designation. Used as an umbrella-term, not in its Mystical-NewAge sense.

WESTERN: Related to Europe, America, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Ancient Egypt, Babylon, Israel, etc. Not suitable for New-Age topics (New Age combines Eastern and Western ideas). Theosophy can be listed as a WESTERN movement, although it contains lots of Eastern-ispired ideas. Examples: Hermeticism, ancient egyptian mythology and egyptian mystery schools, Rosicrucianism, Alchemy, Ritual Magick

EASTERN: Related to Asia, China, Japan, India, etc. Examples: Yoga

NATIVE: Related to parts of the world where indigenous population lives. For example certain people or parts from Africa, Australia, South America, North America, Siberia, North Polar regions. Examples: African tribes, Native Americans (Indians), maybe some Shamanic traditions. I think Santeria and Hoodoo and similar topics can be categorized under the designation NATIVE.

MYSTICAL: This designation may be applied to any topic, organization or person which has some Mystical elements. Mysticism is defined as the pursuit for a higher goal in life and union with a higher consciousness (God, Higher Self, whatever). Can be mixed with the designations Western, Eastern or Native: so we have WESTERN MYSTICISM, EASTERN MYSTICISM, NATIVE MYSTICISM. Usually, Mysticism is right-hand-path. for left-hand path topics use the designation OCCULT.

Mysticist and Mystic: Mysticism is someone who is studying or practices Mysticism, with or without results. A Mystic is a mysticist who has achieved a mystical state of consciousness or is believed that he/she has done so.

ESOTERIC: Very similar to MYSTICAL. WESTERN ESOTERICISM is very similar with WESTERN MYSTICISM and INITIATORY TRADITION, but I place the following differentiation: MYSTICISM can be occult/closed/initiatory or open, while ESOTERICISM is usually only occult/closed/initiatory. INITIATORY TRADITION is always closed. So ESOTERIC is something which manages hidden knowledge. Examples of WESTERN ESOTERIC organizations are the Freemasons and the Rosicrucians. EASTERN ESOTERICISM refers to Eastern groups (usually Tantric or Tibetan Buddhist) where a teacher passes occult (hidden) knowledge to selected students. For more open Eastern groups, like most gurus etc, prefer the designations EASTERN MYSTICISM or EASTERN SPIRITUALITY.

INITIATORY: Use for groups like Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism, etc. Use the designation as a sub-categorization for WESTERN ESOTERICISM.

OCCULT: Seems similar with ESOTERIC. Use this designation for persons or groups which place emphasis on Metaphysics (Paranormal phenomena) such as Magick and Divination. How to tell whether to list an organization under the designation MYSTICAL, ESOTERIC or OCCULT? -> Use OCCULT when the organization does not care much about the usage of the knowledge it passes or when the emphasis is on practical metaphysics and not on philosophy/spirituality/morality. Left-hand groups may be listed under a LHP subcategory of the OCCULT designation.

MAGICKAL: Subcategory of OCCULT. Divided into WHITE MAGICKAL (for good) and BLACK MAGICKAL (for destruction) and RED MAGICKAL (for sexual magick), CHAOS MAGICK (eclectic), PAGAN MAGICK etc etc. Use this designation for magickians and magickal organizations when their primary purpose is to study and use Magick but they don't place much emphasis on Spirituality/Mysticism. The purpose of a MAGICKAL ORGANIZATION may be to help its members understand and learn how to use Magick, without any consideration about its usage (black, white, etc). Religious etc groups which practice White Magick or Theurgy should be listed under another designation (Mysticism, Esotericism etc). Illusory "magic" has nothing to do with paranormal magick.

NEW AGE: Special designation for New-Age organizations. Only for modern movements (>1960). Theosophy, Thelema etc are not NewAge. Modern Alternative Medicine and especially ENERGY THERAPY can be listed under this designation.

QUESTION: Should we include UFOLOGY and UNEXPLAINED PHENOMENA (crop circles, cattle mutilations, fortean phenomena) under the label SPIRITUALITY?

QUESTION: Where to put PARAPSYCHOLOGY and related subjects?

Optim 02:11, 20 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Write your comments here:

Thank you for the invitation to participate. At this stage I don't know if I have much time to devote to the idea though I see that there is much merit to it, I already spend an excess of time on Wikimedia related tasks. It is unfortunate that there are many who, in the name of science, relegate many of these topics to the dustbin of pseudoscience without ever having studied the subject. Good luck