Sunday 26 May 2013

Welcome!

Greetings all, and welcome to The Ways of the Force; a blog intended to help shed light on the Pagan and Jedi paths and what they mean (to me at least)! This journey has not been a simple or quick one, and I realize that many people will sneer when they hear me refer to myself sincerely as a Jedi. I can imagine such a conversation going something like this:

Person: But you can't be a Jedi!

Me: Why not?

Person: Because its fictional! It doesn't exist!

The thing is though, that while the Star Wars universe is most definitely a fictional place, some of the ideas George Lucas used for his movies are age-old and originate from some of the most ancient schools of thought in human history. The Jedi philosophy itself is a mix of Buddhist, Pagan, Christian, Taoist and Samurai concepts packaged neatly in a way that most movie audiences would find accessible. The Jedi path is therefore a distillation of several different belief systems which exist in our modern day. It is therefore entirely plausible to refer to oneself as a Jedi, and its core beliefs are actually quite sound. Many belief systems have put forward the idea of a universal energy which surrounds, binds and is created by everything in the universe, and that we are all one within it. Pagans refer to this as Magick, Pantheists refer to it as the Universe, and Jedi, of course, know it as the Force. Whatever you want to call it, however, the fact remains that the concept is an ancient one. No, real life Jedi do not wield lightsabers, wear robes in public or possess the ability to use telekinesis (though I will go into great depth about energy work later on in this blog!) nor do we profess to be able to do the things that the fictional Jedi can. The Star Wars movies are a modern mythology of sorts, and within those stories, some of us have found a framework upon which to hang our beliefs and ideas on the workings of the universe.

After all, as Master Qui Gon has famously said, "Your focus determines your reality." Will you all join me in exploring this new reality together?

1 comment:

  1. Very thoughtful and intriguing. I look forward to learning more and seeing how it compares to my own belief structure.
    Brightest Blessings and May the Force be with You

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