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Numenism has been likened to being an “open source” religion or a “wiki” religion where there is a core understructure, but the adherents develop everything else according to their own needs and individual preferences. In both cases, what is added on has to mesh with the core understructure or the edifice erected on it will be unable to sustain itself without changing that core part – and when that happens, it’s no longer Numenism, no matter what the people living it may say.
For those who have never heard of Numenism before, a brief, very brief, overview: Numenism is a religion that was created in 1946 as a response by some soldiers and their families to the after-effects of WWII and the Atom Bomb. Initially it was a study group attempting to make sense of what happened and how a kind God could allow it to happen. By 1956, it had diverged so far from its Christian roots it could no longer be considered Christian, and had developed the rudimentary foundation that became the core understructure of Numenism. By then, the founders knew they were no longer seeking answers to their experiences in WWII; they were actively creating a new religion that was meaningful to modern Americans. The early focus was in creating the core understructure of connection with divinity and what place adherents held in the spiritual and physical world. Once the core was built, the religion was left to grow or not, as the adherents chose. This is pretty much how and why it became an open source, wiki-esque type religion. Some of us embraced Numenism, and some tinkered with the core and became something else.
I have been a Numenist since 1956. In 1985, I finally accepted priesthood in Numenism, and in 1999, I was trained to become an Elder. Because Numenism is still a new religion, even though I am third generation Elder, there is still a lot of groundbreaking to do – that open source aspect of Numenism.
Here in this blog I hope to present the core understructure of Numenism.
I will start with the most commonly asked questions.
What is Numenism? Numenism is a religion of divinity, community, and family accessible on multiple levels from the personal to the spiritual. The most important aspect of Numenism is that it is an open invitation to engage in the most significant issues of humanity and society; to doubt and question and test our beliefs and knowledge so we know they are solid and strong, capable of withstanding adversity and challenges.
What God or Gods do you worship? This is the second most common question we are asked, and as phrased, it's virtually unanswerable by us. We don't worship any God or Gods as we feel the word "worship" is not the correct one for how we interact with divinity. We also have an issue with the phrase "God or Gods" because divinity isn't personafied in Numenism, nor do we attempt to define if it is singular or multiple, or possesses gender. Divinity is all-encompassing to us. It is everything. Some people have tried to classify it as "animism" but that doesn't go far enough for us. In animism, everything is perceived as having its own individual spirit. In Numenism, divinity is the state of being for everything. We may choose to perceive each corporeal thing and being as separate and individuated and may choose to interact as if everything is distinctly apart, but the core of our belief tells us that our perceptions are limited by the corporeal bodies we inhabit. We, and everything about us, is divinity - and we chose to use "is" rather than the grammatically correct "are" to emphasize that as far as we can tell, divinity is so pervasive we may as well consider us and it and all as one. When we speak of divinity in toto as we perceive it, we refer to it as Dea Nutrix: the "Great Good" or the "Good Nourisher". Because of our physical limitations, we address sections and pieces of Dea Nutrix as Gods and Numena and grains of sand and parents and children and us and them and me and we and so on, divided for our convenience, but whole and complete beyond our abilities to sense any actual division. Dea Nutrix is.
I know Gods and grains of sand and all that, but what is "numena"? Numena are individuated, non-corporeal, divine energies. They may have been birthed from the death of a loved one, may be ancestral spirits we've kept alive in our hearts, may be forces of nature, may be strong emotions (usually love or fear), may be any non-corporeal force with which we interact. We create these distinctions. The more powerfully we create them, the more people who interact with them, the longer they exist as individuated energies. Some become small gods. Every now and then, one becomes a God of a monotheistic belief system. They are real and they do interact with and affect us because we are them as much as they are us, no matter how many degrees of separation we create between us and them. Some people think of numena as ghosts, others look to religions that had small spirits like the ancient Roman beliefs in lares, penates, pales, and manes, or the Greek religion's cabiri, or Shinto's kami for comparisons. They are close, and indeed, in the early days of Numenism, we saw them as very close in nature to the Shinto kami. As we developed into a religion and soldified our core concepts, we moved away from relying on the perceptions of other religions and so we named these individuated, non-corporeal, divine energies "numena" to distinguish them from the cabiri, the kami, the lares and penates and so forth. Not everyone interacts with any numena at all. It is a matter of personal choice.
How do you communicate with Dea Nutrix? Since we are Dea Nutrix, all that is, was, and will be, Dea Nutrix doesn't need us to set aside a time or to separate out words and thoughts. We do this for our own need, and because it is for our individual, individuated need, how we do so is a matter of personal choice. Thinking or speaking is sufficient most of the time. Sometimes, we want the communication to be more formal so we create a Celebration or set up a shrine or an altar where we can go to leave messages. Celebrations are designed to be done as a group.
So, if you have groups, you have a priesthood? Yes, we do. Numenists can choose what level of knowledge and participation they have in Numenism, from Celebrant to Minister or Priest to Elder. There are requirements for each level, but no one is barred from pursuing any of them and completing the requirements. Everyone in Numenism is a Celebrant, even if they also choose to become a Minister, a Priest, or an Elder. We default to the masculine form of these titles because they are short and easy to remember, but among Numenists, they can be any gender, gender orientation, age (assuming they complete the requirements), or any other differentiator. A Celebrant is someone who adheres to Numenism by accepting our core infrastructure. A Minister is someone who chooses to take spiritual care of other Numenists - performing rites of passage celebrations, keeping track of membership, making sure everyone communicates, teaching about Numenism, maintaining any required paperwork, hospital visits, and so on. Since our Ministers may provide spiritual counseling, we require that our priests obtain a spiritual counseling certification from an accredited agency - Cherry Hill Seminary is our agency of choice. Our ministers also officiate at legal rites of passage such as marriages and those Ministers who wish to perform legally recognized marriages must meet the local requirements and keep the required paperwork. It generally takes several years to become a Minister. A Priest is someone who creates the Celebrations, helps develop the religion and compares new additions to the core infrastructure to see if those should be incorporated into Numenism. Most of our Priests hold theological degrees, philosophy degrees, history degrees, sociology degrees, or some combination thereof, although we do have Priests who have hard science degrees in physics, chemistry, math, and/or computer science. It takes longer to become a Priest than it does to become a Minister. An Elder has been either a Minister or a Priest for many years and has moved into a mentorship position for other Ministers and Priests. Elders are the final word on what does and doesn't get added to the canon of Numenism. Celebrants, Ministers, and Priests may all contribute to the body of lore and canon and even incorporate it into their Houses, but the Elders are the ones who decide what actually goes into the core and gets disseminated as the basic infrastructure of Numenism.
Do Numenists have churches? No. Maybe. Sort of. That depends upon the House. Some Houses choose to support a community center - a home that all the House members use as their meeting place, where Celebrations are held and records are kept, as well as supplies and equipment. If a House chooses to have a community center, all the members contribute towards the rent/mortgage and utilities while one adherent actually lives there to maintain the property and set things up for Celebrations and keeps the bulk of the community center (except for their own private room) open and available to all the House members. In lieu of a community center, the House may rent a room, rotate among members' houses, or reserve a park or outdoor facility for Celebrations, community building activities, and meetings.
What is a House? A House is a group of Numenists who live near enough to one another to meet regularly and share many of hte same views of how to customize Numenism for them. A House can be a single family (parent(s) and child(ren)), a group of families, or a group of friends who've all decided to be Numenist together. Numenism works best in groups of 2 or more people, up to about 100. Much more than 100 and it gets complicated and unwieldy and schisms form and people start feeling left out. So far, the average House is about 5 people, which is a good size unless you want to maintain a Community Center. A minimum of 30 people are needed to support a Community Center.
How do I become a Numenist? You become a Numenist by accepting our core beliefs and living them. That makes you a Celebrant, the default membership of Numenism.
Our core beliefs are:
1. There is a generative creative force.
2. We are individuated corporeal beings limited by our physical bodies and at the same time we are Dea Nutrix.
3. Community is important.
4. Celebrations should be frequent and shared with as many people as possible.
5. Everything we perceive is composed of patterns.
6. As individuated corporeal beings, we serve our purpose in this world as a part of the pattern-making.
7. Suffering is a natural part of life.
8. Death is the price we pay for spending part of our existence as an individuated corporeal being.
9. Betrayal is evil because it takes an act of will.
For those who have never heard of Numenism before, a brief, very brief, overview: Numenism is a religion that was created in 1946 as a response by some soldiers and their families to the after-effects of WWII and the Atom Bomb. Initially it was a study group attempting to make sense of what happened and how a kind God could allow it to happen. By 1956, it had diverged so far from its Christian roots it could no longer be considered Christian, and had developed the rudimentary foundation that became the core understructure of Numenism. By then, the founders knew they were no longer seeking answers to their experiences in WWII; they were actively creating a new religion that was meaningful to modern Americans. The early focus was in creating the core understructure of connection with divinity and what place adherents held in the spiritual and physical world. Once the core was built, the religion was left to grow or not, as the adherents chose. This is pretty much how and why it became an open source, wiki-esque type religion. Some of us embraced Numenism, and some tinkered with the core and became something else.
I have been a Numenist since 1956. In 1985, I finally accepted priesthood in Numenism, and in 1999, I was trained to become an Elder. Because Numenism is still a new religion, even though I am third generation Elder, there is still a lot of groundbreaking to do – that open source aspect of Numenism.
Here in this blog I hope to present the core understructure of Numenism.
I will start with the most commonly asked questions.
What is Numenism? Numenism is a religion of divinity, community, and family accessible on multiple levels from the personal to the spiritual. The most important aspect of Numenism is that it is an open invitation to engage in the most significant issues of humanity and society; to doubt and question and test our beliefs and knowledge so we know they are solid and strong, capable of withstanding adversity and challenges.
What God or Gods do you worship? This is the second most common question we are asked, and as phrased, it's virtually unanswerable by us. We don't worship any God or Gods as we feel the word "worship" is not the correct one for how we interact with divinity. We also have an issue with the phrase "God or Gods" because divinity isn't personafied in Numenism, nor do we attempt to define if it is singular or multiple, or possesses gender. Divinity is all-encompassing to us. It is everything. Some people have tried to classify it as "animism" but that doesn't go far enough for us. In animism, everything is perceived as having its own individual spirit. In Numenism, divinity is the state of being for everything. We may choose to perceive each corporeal thing and being as separate and individuated and may choose to interact as if everything is distinctly apart, but the core of our belief tells us that our perceptions are limited by the corporeal bodies we inhabit. We, and everything about us, is divinity - and we chose to use "is" rather than the grammatically correct "are" to emphasize that as far as we can tell, divinity is so pervasive we may as well consider us and it and all as one. When we speak of divinity in toto as we perceive it, we refer to it as Dea Nutrix: the "Great Good" or the "Good Nourisher". Because of our physical limitations, we address sections and pieces of Dea Nutrix as Gods and Numena and grains of sand and parents and children and us and them and me and we and so on, divided for our convenience, but whole and complete beyond our abilities to sense any actual division. Dea Nutrix is.
I know Gods and grains of sand and all that, but what is "numena"? Numena are individuated, non-corporeal, divine energies. They may have been birthed from the death of a loved one, may be ancestral spirits we've kept alive in our hearts, may be forces of nature, may be strong emotions (usually love or fear), may be any non-corporeal force with which we interact. We create these distinctions. The more powerfully we create them, the more people who interact with them, the longer they exist as individuated energies. Some become small gods. Every now and then, one becomes a God of a monotheistic belief system. They are real and they do interact with and affect us because we are them as much as they are us, no matter how many degrees of separation we create between us and them. Some people think of numena as ghosts, others look to religions that had small spirits like the ancient Roman beliefs in lares, penates, pales, and manes, or the Greek religion's cabiri, or Shinto's kami for comparisons. They are close, and indeed, in the early days of Numenism, we saw them as very close in nature to the Shinto kami. As we developed into a religion and soldified our core concepts, we moved away from relying on the perceptions of other religions and so we named these individuated, non-corporeal, divine energies "numena" to distinguish them from the cabiri, the kami, the lares and penates and so forth. Not everyone interacts with any numena at all. It is a matter of personal choice.
How do you communicate with Dea Nutrix? Since we are Dea Nutrix, all that is, was, and will be, Dea Nutrix doesn't need us to set aside a time or to separate out words and thoughts. We do this for our own need, and because it is for our individual, individuated need, how we do so is a matter of personal choice. Thinking or speaking is sufficient most of the time. Sometimes, we want the communication to be more formal so we create a Celebration or set up a shrine or an altar where we can go to leave messages. Celebrations are designed to be done as a group.
So, if you have groups, you have a priesthood? Yes, we do. Numenists can choose what level of knowledge and participation they have in Numenism, from Celebrant to Minister or Priest to Elder. There are requirements for each level, but no one is barred from pursuing any of them and completing the requirements. Everyone in Numenism is a Celebrant, even if they also choose to become a Minister, a Priest, or an Elder. We default to the masculine form of these titles because they are short and easy to remember, but among Numenists, they can be any gender, gender orientation, age (assuming they complete the requirements), or any other differentiator. A Celebrant is someone who adheres to Numenism by accepting our core infrastructure. A Minister is someone who chooses to take spiritual care of other Numenists - performing rites of passage celebrations, keeping track of membership, making sure everyone communicates, teaching about Numenism, maintaining any required paperwork, hospital visits, and so on. Since our Ministers may provide spiritual counseling, we require that our priests obtain a spiritual counseling certification from an accredited agency - Cherry Hill Seminary is our agency of choice. Our ministers also officiate at legal rites of passage such as marriages and those Ministers who wish to perform legally recognized marriages must meet the local requirements and keep the required paperwork. It generally takes several years to become a Minister. A Priest is someone who creates the Celebrations, helps develop the religion and compares new additions to the core infrastructure to see if those should be incorporated into Numenism. Most of our Priests hold theological degrees, philosophy degrees, history degrees, sociology degrees, or some combination thereof, although we do have Priests who have hard science degrees in physics, chemistry, math, and/or computer science. It takes longer to become a Priest than it does to become a Minister. An Elder has been either a Minister or a Priest for many years and has moved into a mentorship position for other Ministers and Priests. Elders are the final word on what does and doesn't get added to the canon of Numenism. Celebrants, Ministers, and Priests may all contribute to the body of lore and canon and even incorporate it into their Houses, but the Elders are the ones who decide what actually goes into the core and gets disseminated as the basic infrastructure of Numenism.
Do Numenists have churches? No. Maybe. Sort of. That depends upon the House. Some Houses choose to support a community center - a home that all the House members use as their meeting place, where Celebrations are held and records are kept, as well as supplies and equipment. If a House chooses to have a community center, all the members contribute towards the rent/mortgage and utilities while one adherent actually lives there to maintain the property and set things up for Celebrations and keeps the bulk of the community center (except for their own private room) open and available to all the House members. In lieu of a community center, the House may rent a room, rotate among members' houses, or reserve a park or outdoor facility for Celebrations, community building activities, and meetings.
What is a House? A House is a group of Numenists who live near enough to one another to meet regularly and share many of hte same views of how to customize Numenism for them. A House can be a single family (parent(s) and child(ren)), a group of families, or a group of friends who've all decided to be Numenist together. Numenism works best in groups of 2 or more people, up to about 100. Much more than 100 and it gets complicated and unwieldy and schisms form and people start feeling left out. So far, the average House is about 5 people, which is a good size unless you want to maintain a Community Center. A minimum of 30 people are needed to support a Community Center.
How do I become a Numenist? You become a Numenist by accepting our core beliefs and living them. That makes you a Celebrant, the default membership of Numenism.
Our core beliefs are:
1. There is a generative creative force.
2. We are individuated corporeal beings limited by our physical bodies and at the same time we are Dea Nutrix.
3. Community is important.
4. Celebrations should be frequent and shared with as many people as possible.
5. Everything we perceive is composed of patterns.
6. As individuated corporeal beings, we serve our purpose in this world as a part of the pattern-making.
7. Suffering is a natural part of life.
8. Death is the price we pay for spending part of our existence as an individuated corporeal being.
9. Betrayal is evil because it takes an act of will.
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