I am a hot pink heretic: I worship god as the Madwoman in the Attic
For many people, faith and spirituality evolve over time, often through our interaction with new-to-us ways of experiencing and understanding the world, its cultures, and other people. I find this is especially true for folks who identify as "spiritual but not religious" or those who simply "practice being a good person." My writings on this site and in my blogs illustrate much of my spiritual path. The statement above is a snapshot of what I believe, how I practice those beliefs, and my current spiritual identity, today.
"in the attic"
locked in men's words, creeds, doctrines, canon,
"Madwoman"
feminine and other than anthropomorphic
"the Madwoman in the Attic"
Bertha Rochester from Jane Eyre and Bertha herself from Wide Sargasso Sea, an archetype, a narrative of the divine in a relationship with humans, a woman colonized - a divinity colonized, how do we decolonize god/faith/souls/minds/lives...?
"god"
the ineffable, sacred in the ordinary, intuition, inspiration, connection, synchronicity, wisdom, conviction, mercy, higher selves and higher powers,
"worship"
growth and change to embody my essential Jenni-ness, service to others, facilitating justice, accepting and extending mercy, challenging prevailing power structures, practicing habits to hear and heed the Madwoman,
"heretic"
resisting and refusing the authority of religion as it is, resisting and refusing conventional Christian religion's conflation with the powers that be culturally and politically, choosing and bearing witness to something else, rejecting the contemporary Christian canon, choosing in-real-life over spiritual salvation and a ticket to Heaven, honoring a nonviolent atonement, emphasizing the union of action with faith, elevating actions that benefit others - especially the "inconvenient" people - over private bedroom morality
"hot pink"
bright, visible, bold, on purpose/intentional/deliberate, playful rather than rule-based, feminine rather than conventionally masculine