Spiritual Devotion for the Non-religious | Virgo New Moon Musings
The passing New Moon in Virgo, and the presiding Virgo season, invite us to devote ourselves. But, to what, to whom, and how? Let's talk about it.
Devotion. When it’s religious, it looks like worship, prayer, attendance at church or temple, making offerings to deities, taking communion of one kind or another, engaging in whichever pious or enlightened acts are suggested by the religion, et alia.
When it’s not religious, devotion looks a lot like commitment — giving yourself and your time to a cause, a hobby, the building of a skill, a project, or a person.
But, what is spiritual devotion? What does that look like? Is there a place for the concept of ‘devotion’ in the secular spiritual realm? Or, is devotion (like doctrine) better relegated to the “organized” religions?
Do spiritual people have an alternative to devotion?
I went looking in the first place I ordinarily would: the linguistics of the matter. Devotion pulls up the following definitions which were looking pretty religious upfront — and while that’s fine, it’s just not mine.
I dug further into the latin roots to look for clues of where the word “devotion” really comes from. Is its origin religious, or was it just adopted for use by religious groups or teachers?
Let us see.
So, I found out the Latin roots of devotion come from /devovere/ and /devoto/ which essentially mean “to consecrate” so of course, I pulled the definition and etymology of consecrate, too:
As it appears, to consecrate something just means to make it sacred, to make it religious, to make it divine. I looked up sacred — to see if it had any meanings that weren’t inherently religious.
What I found is that sacred basically just means “religious.”
So, the etymological rabbit hole ends us here: Devotion means consecration and consecration means sacred devotion and sacred means religious…
Does that mean that those without deities, theologies, or religions are excluded from devotion?
Before giving up on the concept of spiritual devotion, I decided to revisit the initial definition of the word — the one that doesn’t come with any religious subtext:
Devotion: Love, loyalty, or enthusiasm for a person, activity, or cause.
Under this definition, spiritual devotion could look like any activity, action, practice, performance, ritual, exercise or habit that makes you feel love, that shows your loyalty, and that demonstrates your enthusiasm — right?
To figure out how you personally show up in a state of devotion, ask yourself:
How do I show up in love? What does love look and feel like channeled through me?
How do I show up as my most loyal? What does my version of loyalty look and feel like?
How do I express my enthusiasm? How could someone tell I’m feeling enthusiastic about something?
So perhaps your answers are: I show love through written poems, love letters, and song lyrics. I show loyalty by showing up every single week, even when I don’t feel like it. I demonstrate enthusiasm by bringing positive energy and electricity to any project.
This is now the blueprint for YOUR flavor of devotion and the approach you can take, to add more devotion to your life.
You might take this devotion and apply it to your romantic relationship, your health goals, your career, your home life, a project, or a cause.
Applying Devotion to Spirituality
And then, if spirituality is the ultimate cause to which we’re ascribing our devotion — you’ll need to define “spirituality” for yourself, too. Here’s the broad definition:
With a rise in contemporary usage and popularity since the 190s and beyond, spirituality is now active in the mainstream. So, more and more people are talking about it, more often, but…
That definition is a bit vague, isn’t it?
I like that, in a sense, because it allows you to further make space for your OWN definition of spirituality. But, it also leaves us all wondering:
How do I *DO* spirituality?
How do *I* want to practice, experience, or live with spirituality?
What does it look like in action, and
what would it look like if devoted myself to it?
Why I’m talking about devotion, anyway:
The recent New Moon in Virgo marks a threshold within the calendar year, and in this chapter of our human experience, there is an increased energy around devotion — not just in Virgo, but in Libra, in Scorpio, and along the transition line into Sag season. At the end of the year, we will pump the collective brakes — but until late November, you would do well to devote yourself to something, or at least set a thoughtful intention and give it your attention however you can.
It doesn’t have to be spirituality by any means. It should be whatever practices, routines, hobbies, projects, or initiatives mean something to you. But, take a pause and define what devotion looks, feels, and behaves like in your life. How do you define it?
This 10-12 week period asks us to focus our sights on an intention and follow through with solid plans, action, consistency, and — if you’ll have it — devotion.
How I personally practice devotion (spiritual and otherwise):
I have an altar — I’m not religious but I do have a reverent connection to the Buddha, so I have them in my home. I am not a practicing Wiccan/Pagan but I do have an altar. No other deities present, but I do visit the altar often, change out and light my candles, perform my witchcraft or other spiritual work for self and students/clients often. I will commit this fall to a clean altar.
I do rituals — I also create custom rituals for clients & students - and these often include meditations, tarot or other divinity work, crystal & other energy healing work, herbal practices, candle practices, somatic movement, thinking prompts / journaling, intention setting, and more.
I do make offerings — usually just to the collective good. So this might be an offering to Earth, to animals, to specific people, to humanity, to a specific cause, et al. I also keep a money bowl for myself, and make a small offering to /The Universe/Spirit/Source/Energy/ et al. in my altar space.
I meditate - try to have a near daily meditation practice and — as often as possible - I am including outdoor time in this practice. I’d like to increase my devotion to this practice by adding walking meditations and longer, more frequent sessions of yoga, moving meditation.
I care for Earth - Speaking of the outdoors, I’m also expanding my devotion and stewardship of Earth. Part of my personal spirituality is a love of, reverence for, and devotion to Earth and the flora, fauna, and fungi that survive to thrive here. I’m picking up more litter, feeding more birds (safely), constantly scattering native seeds like a little rebel, and doing what I can for Earth in my area. More on this in a future issue.
I’m a devoted artist - I want to devote a bit more. I will be committing to more time writing poetry, painting and drawing (especially NOT digitally — I’m called to work IRL more) and doing more collage / paper art.
I’m also a devotee in study — right now learning more about semiotics and symbol studies, plant medicine & plant magick/foraging, and always expanding my understanding o other cultures, geology/geography/paleontology, the energetic field, human body/human psych, et al. I want to devote more time to study.
There are a thousand other small ways that I — and you, and everyone — can pursue devotion in our lives without feeling bound, forced, pressured, or else becoming obsessive. This is a snapshot of where I’ll be focused this fall, and I’d love to know what’s capturing your devotion, if you’ll let me know!
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Thanks!
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