MyDoorsAreOpen
Bluelight Crew
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2003
- Messages
- 8,542
Would it be too much to ask to keep this conversation A) semi-serious, and B) not denigrating to any specific religious groups? Thanks.
My understanding of Rastafari is that it's more an everyday spirituality for transforming the individual practitioner's everyday life, than a highly structured religious community. Rastafari aim to see the world a certain way by using certain terms to describe everyday phenomena, and seem to want to infuse every waking moment with their very minimalist spiritual vision, and a sense of connection to certain important historical people in their movement.
Therefore, I have a hard time seeing Rastafari making rules about when you can use ganja and how much you can use, since they seem pretty skeptical about rules and structure to begin with.
As I see it, identifying as 'Rastafari' has more in common with identifying as 'Punk' (or another subculture) than identifying as 'Christian'. As in subcultures, image and use of language matters a lot, and one is a member by being recognized by established members as such. Knowing the history and idolizing and relating to the important figures is pretty key too, as it is in a lot of youth subcultures that span more than one generation. These are definitely the marks of a very decentralized movement, designed for passing along a simple portable message of solidarity and empowerment. So long as my smoking leads to I and I seeing through the lies of Babylon, and being able to communicate this to fellow Rastas, I'm doing it right.
And no, in case you were wondering, I do not, have never, and most likely never will self-identify as Rastafari, no matter how much I smoke, no matter how much I enjoy dub and ragga jungle, and no matter how much I respect the personal and middleman-free connection to God that Rastafari champion.
My understanding of Rastafari is that it's more an everyday spirituality for transforming the individual practitioner's everyday life, than a highly structured religious community. Rastafari aim to see the world a certain way by using certain terms to describe everyday phenomena, and seem to want to infuse every waking moment with their very minimalist spiritual vision, and a sense of connection to certain important historical people in their movement.
Therefore, I have a hard time seeing Rastafari making rules about when you can use ganja and how much you can use, since they seem pretty skeptical about rules and structure to begin with.
As I see it, identifying as 'Rastafari' has more in common with identifying as 'Punk' (or another subculture) than identifying as 'Christian'. As in subcultures, image and use of language matters a lot, and one is a member by being recognized by established members as such. Knowing the history and idolizing and relating to the important figures is pretty key too, as it is in a lot of youth subcultures that span more than one generation. These are definitely the marks of a very decentralized movement, designed for passing along a simple portable message of solidarity and empowerment. So long as my smoking leads to I and I seeing through the lies of Babylon, and being able to communicate this to fellow Rastas, I'm doing it right.
And no, in case you were wondering, I do not, have never, and most likely never will self-identify as Rastafari, no matter how much I smoke, no matter how much I enjoy dub and ragga jungle, and no matter how much I respect the personal and middleman-free connection to God that Rastafari champion.
Lockity-lock.