Many of us were raised in religious traditions that, while preaching for expression of faith in all aspects of our lives, actually reinforced the compartmentalizing of our beliefs and faith life. God (or whatever we knew God to be as children) was the omniscient, all-powerful patriarchal Creator of everything, every place and everyone.
However that omniscient,
all-powerful patriarchal Creator could, and would, only be available through certain “ordained” individuals or in spaces that those ordained individuals could consecrate as “sacred.”
So, even though God created everything, only certain people, in certain places, using cryptic texts, through mysterious rituals, could actually commune with, or experience God.
Now the majority of us were not ordained clergy living in churches, mosques or synagogues, trained in the specific languages and rituals that God insisted be used when invoking him. So it became pretty easy to “catch the God-wave” on those designated days of worship when we gathered in our respective isolation chambers of “worship” to affirm our understanding of The Creator and Creation as the ONLY understanding. This, of course, would bring favor of the Creator to us, and he would save us from the eternal damnation that everyone else would certainly suffer for not being us! Doesn’t matter that everyone else, according to just about all of our ingrained religious traditions, was also created by God. We loved the idea of “our father” God favoring US as his creations because WE were the well-behaved ones that deserved it. To hell with the rest…literally.
Over the last century, however, the dogmatic discipline of traditional western religious traditions has been dissolving in slow, subtle ways. The concept of the Higher Power, and our relationship with that Higher Power, has been shifting and evolving. We have begun to discover our own agency as creations of that Higher Power, claiming our own direct connection to it that needs no special intercessory, or consecrated space, or complex ritual.
As creations of the Higher Power, we have direct access to it — anytime, anywhere — because we ARE it…The only thing keeping us accessing it is our own outdated ideas that we can’t.
Part of that integration of, and access to, Spirit and Spirituality in daily life has been its gradually-increasing presence in our popular culture! We are beginning to understand that Spirit and Spirituality is expressed throughout all of Creation, in all living beings. And spoiler alert —we don’t have to do anything to get there, or be there — because we have always been there!
A great awakening is happening, and it is being told through many stories in our mainstream world. In books, in music, podcasts and poetry. And yes. Movies! Who doesn’t love the movies? And guess what? You can find spiritual insight and principles in soooooo many of the movies we are seeing today. Some might seem overwhelmingly obvious, some might be sweetly subtle. But they are there, in the big-budget blockbusters and in the low-budget independent films. Stories, both true and parable, about human beings striving to be the best they can be, fight the “good fight,” and prove that yes, love conquers, and heals, all.
Tales as old as time.
My spiritual super-pal Hilary Loewenstein and I wrapped our our second season of Spilling the Spirituali-TEA with a fun discussion about metaphysically-themed movies. We shared our faves, and if you listen to our chat, you may be inspired to view them yourself! Or to share with us movies that you felt revealed spiritual truths that you embrace. This conversation is the first of what we hope to be ongoing discussions about how spirituality appears in our pop culture.
I believe that the awakening happening with metaphysically-themed movies and other media offers us a way to move beyond those ancestrally-designated days or times to be spiritual, and to activate those principles that uniquely resonate with us each and every day.
And don’t forget the popcorn!
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