Don’t Confuse Your Values With A Spirits Values

The other day I mentioned that on the Feast of the Assumption I made a pact with Mary (yes, that Mary) for some unforeseen house problems to be fixed speedily, efficiently, and affordably and that if she did this I would buy a large stone statue ( at least 3 feet) to place in a small area on my property that is very scenic between the house and a stream. I then set a timer to see how long someone would tell me to do something charitable instead of buying a statue. It took about 2 hour before someone commented that I should feed the children and that Mary would like this more than another statue. I hear this a lot. “Can’t I offer to a charity in the name of the spirit rather than leave an offering on my altar? Wouldn’t they like it better?”

I used to say this myself when I first got involved in Tibetan Buddhism. I would meet Lamas who serve people in areas of crippling poverty yet put all their effort into raising money for Stupas and Buddhas. The same arguments get made about Churches and the Vatican as well.  When I brought my concern up to Lama ShallNotBeNamed, he pointed out that the resources used would barely make a dent in feeding the poor even for a day, and then when its done, its all gone, whereas stupas and statues will be there long after the builders are gone, embodying spiritual principals (and spirits) in material form and hopefully inspiring greater deeds all around. Maybe you buy that argument, maybe you don’t – I give it a raised eyebrow myself…

There thing about statues or offerings is that they embody the spirit, giving a foothold into the world. Spirits desire this. 

Donating to the poor is good. I do it, and I hope you do it too. The only person that I tell is my accountant because that is why we do charitable acts: to help make the world a little safer, a little happier, and a little more like how we would like it to be. Sometimes a spirit does want you to make a donation to charity in their name as an offering, but its not often the case. When people insist on it rather than food offerings (how wasteful!) or some small monument (couldn’t that money be better spent) I often wonder if they actually believe in or have any experience with spirits at all. If you are not sure, I can tell you that if the spirits you are talking to agree with you on everything and fit perfectly into your universalist civic-minded spirituality, the only spirit you are probably talking to is you.

So do I think that we should give spirits everything they want? No. I am strongly against that and have written on it elsewhere. Do I think that we should make offerings to spirits rather than to those in need? Of course not. But these are not mutually exclusive things, and the less you conflate them the better. Your desire for a egalitarian humanist civic religion and actual magical practice will rarely be perfectly aligned.