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What are your spiritual values?". I think you need to know this before you know the answers I have to the other questions. This gives you a benchmark by which to measure my future responses.
Just remember, these are my answers based upon my commitment to my beliefs as a Numenist priest.
To that end, let's start with a few basic Numenist Maxims, in no particular order of importance, and certainly not written in any kind of cutesy code, although, I've been tempted to set them to some sort of rhyme to make them easier to remember:
Know yourself
Nothing in excess
Aid friends
Acknowledge the sacred
Praise virtues
Cultivate kinsmen
Accomplish your limits
When you err, repent and recompense
Respect and accept age
Only death is inevitable
Wealth unused is wealth wasted
Decry unjust acts
Continue learning
Now that you know this about us, you can derive from this what some of our values are.
Because we believe everything is sacred, it all deserves acknowledgement as such. This doesn't mean it is all good or beneficial. There are many things which are sacred which are downright baneful to us as individuated corporeal beings, but that doesn't mean it is less sacred, only that we view it as evil or harmful. Some people have difficulty wrapping their minds and hearts around this simple value. Some take it to mean that we can then commit acts of deliberate harm or set evil acts in motion, but that isn't so. That, however, is a topic for its own post, after I'm done with these questions.
We value education, or perhaps, learning might be a better word choice. Formal education isn't a requirement among us, but using what intelligence we have and absorbing information and holding knowledgeable discourse is important to us. Sure, we talk about the trivial things in life - clothes, food (I have proudly earned the title Food Porn Star - if you're going to be a Porn Star, that's the best kind to be, I think. I earned it over some cookies, which are my weakest cooking skill), and House gossip - who's dating, who's jobless, who's been promoted, who needs help picking out a new wardrobe (usually me, I dress frumpy - turtlenecks with everything), and that sort of thing. But we also like to discuss theology, and philosophy, and literature. We like talking about scientific discoveries and how that information fits our cosmology. So far, very few scientific discoveries have been difficult for us - if they don't fit our cosmology like a kidskin glove, they at least don't contradict it. This means either our founders were more long-sighted than their average neighbors, or they truly were tapping into DN. To be able to keep up with much of our discussions, others need to be widely and well-read, everything from Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl books and fairy tales to the latest editions of the JAMA and New Scientist with the classics and more along the way.
Self-help books are often seen by us as a waste of time because the information they offer is usually so obvious and superficial as to be useless. Although, perhaps, some people need that sort of superficiality to jumpstart them into a true in-depth exploration of themselves. So few people know who they are - what motivates them, what went into developing their attitudes and reactions and feelings that they have little control over what happens to them. They "drift" and feel helpless for it. We ask that committed Numenists spend time analyzing the whys and hows of their lives, and then using that knowledge to connect with their inner spirituality (which is why Numenism is interpreted in so many different ways - each of us approaches it from our own unique experiences and selves) and with their neighbors and friends and family. We feel it's sad when other people know you better than you know yourself - and it's really not that hard to get to know oneself. The hardest step is honesty - being honest with oneself. It's so easy to lie to oneself, to blind oneself to what is really there. That's why the first thing we teach are observational skills - when one observes what is happening, it's much harder to lie about it. Sure, one can still lie, and many new Celebrants continue to cover up and hide from their truth for a very long time. Knowing oneself allows us to achieve beyond what we thought or were told we could accomplish - our limits expand. Yes, as individuated corporeal beings, we do have limits, but knowing those limits doesn't restrict us, it frees us to exceed them in areas where we wish to ex el, and it allows us to focus on areas of greater interest or need with us. Areas where we are more limited (I happen to be short, and even though I remedied that in my 40's by growing an additional 4 inches, I'm still short - I compensate with step ladders and reaching aids, and because I know my height limits, I am not abashed to ask taller people for help in height areas. The same applies to other areas of limitation, and when we know the other person knows their limits, it makes it more fun and reasonable to assist them when they reach those limits and need help. I accept all the teasing for my lack of height when I ask for tall help, and others laughingly reach the tall spots for me without resentment or rancor.) Plus, when we are honest with ourselves, we find we are more honest with others - that's when we have to remember our manners and learn the skills of tact. That's a harder lesson - how to be honest without being rude or cruel.
That's where praising virtues and cultivating kinsmen come in. Kinsmen aren't necessarily related by "blood" - they can develope from the slightest acquiantanceship and blossom into the closest ties of love and family. That's why we don't define family by biology. "Family" are the people one helps, depends upon, and remembers.
I know money is a sore spot with many people, but we truly and deeply belief that wealth hoarded is wealth wasted. Savings are one thing - one saves for a goal (retirement, a house, a car, medical bills, etc.), but there is a point where all of that is covered, and there's an excess. Keeping that excess is a waste. We begrudge no one their SUVs and 60 room mansions if that's what it takes to make them happy or what they need to conduct their lives. On the other hand, the person who lives in a constant state of deprivation and denial so they can save for "later", and accumulates a great deal of wealth while their family and neighbors go in need, or who accumulates more wealth than they'll ever be able to spend in 3 lifetimes, is wasting the fluid that keeps society flowing. They are the dams in the river. Dams are good when the blockage provides pooling and the overflow continues on, benefitting the beavers, the fish, the bugs, the plants and soil and all. Dams are bad when they completely stop the flow, starving the downriver inhabitants and flooding the upriver, and others rightly seek to dismantle that dam. That's how we view wealth, as the river that benefits us all to one degree or another, and the source of the river is our imagination - the symbol of money we created to stand in the place of goods and services.
Now, reneging a bit on what I said above about acknowledging the sacred in all things, I'm going to say one of our values is to decry unjust acts. This is because unjust acts are caused usually by people, and we've interpreted our role in life to be to make life more amenable and just for other individuated corporeal beings (ICB) - whether that ICB is a cat, a tree, or a human. To acknowledge the sacred doesn't mean to overlook the act and let it play out as it will or in an unjust fashion. We can say, "This is sacred, but it is not right." and go from there.
Just remember, these are my answers based upon my commitment to my beliefs as a Numenist priest.
To that end, let's start with a few basic Numenist Maxims, in no particular order of importance, and certainly not written in any kind of cutesy code, although, I've been tempted to set them to some sort of rhyme to make them easier to remember:
Know yourself
Nothing in excess
Aid friends
Acknowledge the sacred
Praise virtues
Cultivate kinsmen
Accomplish your limits
When you err, repent and recompense
Respect and accept age
Only death is inevitable
Wealth unused is wealth wasted
Decry unjust acts
Continue learning
Now that you know this about us, you can derive from this what some of our values are.
Because we believe everything is sacred, it all deserves acknowledgement as such. This doesn't mean it is all good or beneficial. There are many things which are sacred which are downright baneful to us as individuated corporeal beings, but that doesn't mean it is less sacred, only that we view it as evil or harmful. Some people have difficulty wrapping their minds and hearts around this simple value. Some take it to mean that we can then commit acts of deliberate harm or set evil acts in motion, but that isn't so. That, however, is a topic for its own post, after I'm done with these questions.
We value education, or perhaps, learning might be a better word choice. Formal education isn't a requirement among us, but using what intelligence we have and absorbing information and holding knowledgeable discourse is important to us. Sure, we talk about the trivial things in life - clothes, food (I have proudly earned the title Food Porn Star - if you're going to be a Porn Star, that's the best kind to be, I think. I earned it over some cookies, which are my weakest cooking skill), and House gossip - who's dating, who's jobless, who's been promoted, who needs help picking out a new wardrobe (usually me, I dress frumpy - turtlenecks with everything), and that sort of thing. But we also like to discuss theology, and philosophy, and literature. We like talking about scientific discoveries and how that information fits our cosmology. So far, very few scientific discoveries have been difficult for us - if they don't fit our cosmology like a kidskin glove, they at least don't contradict it. This means either our founders were more long-sighted than their average neighbors, or they truly were tapping into DN. To be able to keep up with much of our discussions, others need to be widely and well-read, everything from Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl books and fairy tales to the latest editions of the JAMA and New Scientist with the classics and more along the way.
Self-help books are often seen by us as a waste of time because the information they offer is usually so obvious and superficial as to be useless. Although, perhaps, some people need that sort of superficiality to jumpstart them into a true in-depth exploration of themselves. So few people know who they are - what motivates them, what went into developing their attitudes and reactions and feelings that they have little control over what happens to them. They "drift" and feel helpless for it. We ask that committed Numenists spend time analyzing the whys and hows of their lives, and then using that knowledge to connect with their inner spirituality (which is why Numenism is interpreted in so many different ways - each of us approaches it from our own unique experiences and selves) and with their neighbors and friends and family. We feel it's sad when other people know you better than you know yourself - and it's really not that hard to get to know oneself. The hardest step is honesty - being honest with oneself. It's so easy to lie to oneself, to blind oneself to what is really there. That's why the first thing we teach are observational skills - when one observes what is happening, it's much harder to lie about it. Sure, one can still lie, and many new Celebrants continue to cover up and hide from their truth for a very long time. Knowing oneself allows us to achieve beyond what we thought or were told we could accomplish - our limits expand. Yes, as individuated corporeal beings, we do have limits, but knowing those limits doesn't restrict us, it frees us to exceed them in areas where we wish to ex el, and it allows us to focus on areas of greater interest or need with us. Areas where we are more limited (I happen to be short, and even though I remedied that in my 40's by growing an additional 4 inches, I'm still short - I compensate with step ladders and reaching aids, and because I know my height limits, I am not abashed to ask taller people for help in height areas. The same applies to other areas of limitation, and when we know the other person knows their limits, it makes it more fun and reasonable to assist them when they reach those limits and need help. I accept all the teasing for my lack of height when I ask for tall help, and others laughingly reach the tall spots for me without resentment or rancor.) Plus, when we are honest with ourselves, we find we are more honest with others - that's when we have to remember our manners and learn the skills of tact. That's a harder lesson - how to be honest without being rude or cruel.
That's where praising virtues and cultivating kinsmen come in. Kinsmen aren't necessarily related by "blood" - they can develope from the slightest acquiantanceship and blossom into the closest ties of love and family. That's why we don't define family by biology. "Family" are the people one helps, depends upon, and remembers.
I know money is a sore spot with many people, but we truly and deeply belief that wealth hoarded is wealth wasted. Savings are one thing - one saves for a goal (retirement, a house, a car, medical bills, etc.), but there is a point where all of that is covered, and there's an excess. Keeping that excess is a waste. We begrudge no one their SUVs and 60 room mansions if that's what it takes to make them happy or what they need to conduct their lives. On the other hand, the person who lives in a constant state of deprivation and denial so they can save for "later", and accumulates a great deal of wealth while their family and neighbors go in need, or who accumulates more wealth than they'll ever be able to spend in 3 lifetimes, is wasting the fluid that keeps society flowing. They are the dams in the river. Dams are good when the blockage provides pooling and the overflow continues on, benefitting the beavers, the fish, the bugs, the plants and soil and all. Dams are bad when they completely stop the flow, starving the downriver inhabitants and flooding the upriver, and others rightly seek to dismantle that dam. That's how we view wealth, as the river that benefits us all to one degree or another, and the source of the river is our imagination - the symbol of money we created to stand in the place of goods and services.
Now, reneging a bit on what I said above about acknowledging the sacred in all things, I'm going to say one of our values is to decry unjust acts. This is because unjust acts are caused usually by people, and we've interpreted our role in life to be to make life more amenable and just for other individuated corporeal beings (ICB) - whether that ICB is a cat, a tree, or a human. To acknowledge the sacred doesn't mean to overlook the act and let it play out as it will or in an unjust fashion. We can say, "This is sacred, but it is not right." and go from there.
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