ndf8th wrote:
So to ask if these gods exist is to not understand
that believers have inner motivation to make believe that God exist.
I agree with part of what you are saying. Both, a creative ability for make-believe, and a desire to believe in these fantasies, are required for a successful spiritual experience. Although the former may actually be waived if a person is willing to believe in someone else's fantasy. In fact, this is what most religious people actually do. They seek out fantasy that are already well-defined and have already been created.
It's also true that it's more fun when other people share in the fantasy. This is another reason why social religion are more meaningful for people. In fact, some people can't even understand why anyone would want to make up their own fantasy, because for them it wouldn't seem as "real" as a fantasy that had already been made up and has been around for a very long time.
This is one reason why people prefer ancient fantasies. The older the better because the longer its been around the more secure it is in having been believed by more people.
But yes, fantasy is the key to spirituality. There's no question about this. One of the greatest things that helped me was when I read a book on Wicca by a woman who was explaining how to perform a circle ritual. She said that it must be done with the innocent of a young child. Precisely the way a young child would have an imaginary tea party with imaginary friends. That is where the real magick come from.
This is actually a really interesting topic for me. I would love to teach classes on this particular subject. I've studied it and feel that I have a lot to offer people who are beginning to understand how this works.
I'll take a stab at dissecting the technical talk below:
ndf8th wrote:
Edit 2
if you are good at logic and English then please translate this to less abstract words
(1) a system of symbols which acts to
(2) establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by
(3) formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and
(4) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that
(5) the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic" (Geertz 1966)
It's not about logic and English. It's about understanding how psychic archetypes work and how to construct them so that they will come alive for you.
(1) a system of symbols
There are two different aspect here. One is the
system also known as the
paradigm. The paradigm is the overall storyline of the fantasy.
Who are the characters?
What do they represent?
Is there a creation story with this fantasy?
Is there a purpose?
The list goes on. This is the
system or
paradigm
In Christianity for example you have the characters. The Father God, The Holy Spirit, Jesus, The Virgin Mary, Satan, Angels, Saints, etc. Clearly they each represent different things. There is clearly a creation story in the beginning too. I'm not sure of the actual purpose, the purpose in Christianity seems rather vague, other than the God wants humans to be in his heavenly Kingdom for some reason.
In Wicca the paradigms differ somewhat between various witches because Wicca is far more open and flexible. Still it typically has the following structure: There is a God and Goddess. The Goddess is typically of more interest in Wicca, not necessarily more important than the God, just more
center-stage for a number of reasons. Typically, just like Christianity has angels, saints and demons, Wicca too offers a wide variety of characters to choose from for those roles.
The idea is not to get too bogged down on the importance of the characters. The characters are only
symbols that help the system work.
In fact, I wanted to address
symbols next, although this is a really deep topic. But the characters in any religion are the symbols often called "archetypes".
For example in my own personal system of Wicca, I have four pixie fairies that act as the gentiles or gate-keepers to the four gates of consciousness. These four gates are also associated with the compass directions, North, East, South, and West, as well as the four spiritual elements of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water.
These pixie sentinels open these gates of psychic consciousness and bring them to life. The four pixies in my Wicca paradigm are named, Assiah, Yetzirah, Atziluth, and Briah.
Once the four gates of psychic consciousness are open I call upon the four archangels, Arial, Raphael, Michael, and Gabriel. Again, each one associated with the four compass direction. Then I call upon the four Goddesses, Gaia, Cerridwen, Hecate, and Artemis. Finally I call upon for God archetypes. These aren't really Gods but they represent an aspect of the God. They are Cernnunos, Merlin, Taliesin, and Eros, along with psyche (she comes with Eros naturally).
So that's basically my overall paradigm. That's just the basis.
(2)which acts to establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men
Now that a paradigm has been created the next thing is to actually use it. And that is done via psychic journeying. You can also think of it as shamanic journeying. These are very similar psychic techniques.
In short, if you build it they will come.
If you create this paradigm in your mind the spirit will come to life. For this reason many Christians have brought their psychic visions of Christianity to life in their minds. Christianity can work as well as any other fantasy.
I think it's important to like the fantasy you work with.
I personally do much better with Wicca than I ever did with Christianity. But that's just me.
(3) by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence
Your psychic paradigm is your way of organizing your reality. It's not a cop-out from reality, it's a psychic enhancement to reality. I particularly love Wicca, because it has so many wonderful things to explore. In addition to the psychic paradigm I outlined above I also use Tarot cards, a Celtic Qabala, A faery well, and many other psychic tools.
How powerful it becomes for you is entirely related to how deeply you become involved with it on both a psychic an emotional level.
(4) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that
(5) the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic"
Yes, these psychic journeys become as real as dreams with the difference that you are actually awake and aware whilst dreaming and interacting with the characters in your dreams.
Is it make-believe?
Well, yes, it starts out that way. That's the very best way to get started.
But then the experiences become real. They become realistic experiences.
These experiences can also reflect back to you the inner workings of your own subconscious mind. Although some people think of this as being the mind of other spirits, or even the mind of God. It's really exciting when you feel that you have truly contacted totally separate consciousnesses from yourself. Whether this is actually happening or not is anyone's guess. Some people can be more easily fooled by their on imagination than others.
I have had some profound experiences myself. And sometimes it really felt like I was meeting with other entities. But in truth, I cannot say with certainty that any of the entities I've ever met in my psychic journeys were anything other than my very own consciousness. No spirit has yet giving me tomorrow's lottery number.
When that happens I'll be convinced.
But even so, psychic journeying is a whole lot of fun even if it's only sophisticated day-dreaming to gain introspection into my own being.
It seems to me that it even has secular value. I mean, even if we are nothing but biological computers, it can still be fun exploring the depths of our own biological computer.
So whether it's actually spiritual or not, it still has practical value.
So this is something I would love to teach. I feel that it's something worth learning too.
So much appreciated 
