Re: Animism\t rituals

From: Chris Lemens <chrislemens_at_Ne7tnd3fLRzGJxCPsjgxEm2yGi1kItEtzM56Z-SGZQtZMVEW1OjXgTowyA24aFa9>
Date: Fri, 29 Jan 2010 11:35:04 -0800 (PST)

Julian:
> Well, I've no idea if this will be any help at all, but theist rituals basically involve the worshipper
> sacrificing some form of individuality in return for power, whereas I think that an animist worshipper
> would instead try to positively *affirm* his/her own personality in order to gain a spirit's (hopefully
> beneficial) attention.
>
> This would suggest (to me anyway) that theist rituals are focused on the (mythic) past,
> whereas animist ones would instead be focused on the present.

Nice distinctions. I agree with everything else you said, down to here, where I'm not sure:

> I can't see any reason why the weaker spirit shouldn't be manifest as a lingering benefit
> (the benefit *is* the spirit), [snip]

I don't think I understand. If you beat up Mallia's little disease spirit, and the benefit you get is use of the spirit, how does that protect you against other disease spirits? Can the question only be answered with specific reference to the type of spirit? For example, do we have to import modern notions of innoculation to answer the question as to disease spirits? Or is the answer common to any kind of spirit?

Questioningly yours,
Chris

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