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causticusQuick list outline:
Upper section (Cosmopolitan): Universal Ideals, philosophy, any ideas really that can be applied to humans, planet earth and even the cosmos as a whole. In it's pure for, the upper section lends itself toward the development of cosmopolitan doctrines; and here I mean cosmopolitan in the true sense of the word, i.e. citizen of the cosmos.
Lower section (Telluric): Fixed land-based attributes, i.e. aspects of a religious tradition that derive from a specific geographic location and all the various characteristics associated with that location. This section includes any and all folklore based on this land/place-based criteria.
Left section (Personal): Individual spiritual and religious practices, generally used for the purposes of self-development, initiation, knowledge-acquisition, personal wellness and other forms of spiritual attainment.
Right-section (Communal): Group spiritual and religious practices; generally anything involving prayer and worship in a group setting; also group rituals and communal holiday observances; family and religious congregation activities are included in this category.
***
As we can see, some religions surviving to this day tend to overemphasize one or more of these sections, and likewise neglect some of the others.
Generally, religions which are all about group conformity, behavioral compliance, following an exhaustive list of seemingly-arbitrary rules, excess ritualism, ect., tend to leave the Personal section out in the cold and skew too far toward the Communal. This sort of dynamic creates an imbalanced system and more often than not, retards people's personal spiritual development and attainment. Usually this imbalance persists in service of maintaining and perpetuating a religious/ideological power structure that would surely lose its ideological monopoly if the religion in question were to allow too much of a variety of different teachings, interpretations and practices to exist under its umbrella.
And then of course, there are systems of spiritual practice which are almost wholly within the Personal section and thus are only useful for an individual's spiritual and ethical development. These systems usually manifest as very exclusive groups of spiritual seekers and thus are rather useless to laypersons and the untrained in general. Such systems are incapable of serving larger groups or communities. A good example of this in the modern age would be various occult and esoteric groups existing in the Western world; most have teachings and practices that are far divorced from the everyday affairs and experiences of the average Westerner. Another example might be the various forms of Eastern practices which have become trendy among some spiritual seekers in the West. In this case, it's the Lower section (i.e. folklore and place-based attributes) which are quite alien to Western experience and thus require a steep learning curve for the Western practitioner to properly apprehend. In this sense, a Westerner can never fully become a Hindu, but they can surely incorporate the philosophical and practical teachings of the Hindu tradition into their own spiritual worldview. And of course, Western-friendly Telluric themes (i.e. Hellenic or Norse godforms, as an example) could easily accessorize such teachings.
Neglect of the Telluric section can become quite problematic. We see this the most with religions that have become wholly scripture-based and thus portable. We see traditions that were once firmly rooted in a specific place become spread wide and far and exported to new locales far remove from the religion's core mythos. People convert to this new "foreign" religion and as a result become quite alienated from the folklore traditions of their own culture-place of upbringing. This is essentially how people become cut off from the land, so to speak. When Europeans adopted en mass a Semitic ideology rooted in a warm and arid environment, the fissure between the Telluric section and the three others first begun. And perhaps it was this kind of rift which set us Westerners off on the path to materialism in the first place. When religion becomes little more than abstract ideas and principles and countless pages of dead letters, there is no longer local-experiential "magic" to any of it. To the average person, they are just going through the motions every day partaking in dry/lifeless rituals and utterances cut off from their own intuitive impressions.
Many tribal religions can be said to be rather lacking in the Cosmopolitan section. Few, if any universal ideas are expounded upon; the whole tradition is simply the carrying on of an old torch, just because that's how things have been done since time immemorial. We could perhaps say that the "Neopagan" revival efforts in the West tend to eschew the Cosmopolitan section and can even be downright hostile toward philosophy and the very notion that firm ethical principles should have a solid home in one's religious practice. Such an endeavor in this era is often little more than a fetishization of what its practitioners imagine (quite inaccurately, in all likelihood) to be an ancient folklore tradition; there becomes too much of a focus on mythic and aesthetic elements, and a neglect of abstract principles and ideals.
Upper section (Cosmopolitan): Universal Ideals, philosophy, any ideas really that can be applied to humans, planet earth and even the cosmos as a whole. In it's pure for, the upper section lends itself toward the development of cosmopolitan doctrines; and here I mean cosmopolitan in the true sense of the word, i.e. citizen of the cosmos.
Lower section (Telluric): Fixed land-based attributes, i.e. aspects of a religious tradition that derive from a specific geographic location and all the various characteristics associated with that location. This section includes any and all folklore based on this land/place-based criteria.
Left section (Personal): Individual spiritual and religious practices, generally used for the purposes of self-development, initiation, knowledge-acquisition, personal wellness and other forms of spiritual attainment.
Right-section (Communal): Group spiritual and religious practices; generally anything involving prayer and worship in a group setting; also group rituals and communal holiday observances; family and religious congregation activities are included in this category.
***
As we can see, some religions surviving to this day tend to overemphasize one or more of these sections, and likewise neglect some of the others.
Generally, religions which are all about group conformity, behavioral compliance, following an exhaustive list of seemingly-arbitrary rules, excess ritualism, ect., tend to leave the Personal section out in the cold and skew too far toward the Communal. This sort of dynamic creates an imbalanced system and more often than not, retards people's personal spiritual development and attainment. Usually this imbalance persists in service of maintaining and perpetuating a religious/ideological power structure that would surely lose its ideological monopoly if the religion in question were to allow too much of a variety of different teachings, interpretations and practices to exist under its umbrella.
And then of course, there are systems of spiritual practice which are almost wholly within the Personal section and thus are only useful for an individual's spiritual and ethical development. These systems usually manifest as very exclusive groups of spiritual seekers and thus are rather useless to laypersons and the untrained in general. Such systems are incapable of serving larger groups or communities. A good example of this in the modern age would be various occult and esoteric groups existing in the Western world; most have teachings and practices that are far divorced from the everyday affairs and experiences of the average Westerner. Another example might be the various forms of Eastern practices which have become trendy among some spiritual seekers in the West. In this case, it's the Lower section (i.e. folklore and place-based attributes) which are quite alien to Western experience and thus require a steep learning curve for the Western practitioner to properly apprehend. In this sense, a Westerner can never fully become a Hindu, but they can surely incorporate the philosophical and practical teachings of the Hindu tradition into their own spiritual worldview. And of course, Western-friendly Telluric themes (i.e. Hellenic or Norse godforms, as an example) could easily accessorize such teachings.
Neglect of the Telluric section can become quite problematic. We see this the most with religions that have become wholly scripture-based and thus portable. We see traditions that were once firmly rooted in a specific place become spread wide and far and exported to new locales far remove from the religion's core mythos. People convert to this new "foreign" religion and as a result become quite alienated from the folklore traditions of their own culture-place of upbringing. This is essentially how people become cut off from the land, so to speak. When Europeans adopted en mass a Semitic ideology rooted in a warm and arid environment, the fissure between the Telluric section and the three others first begun. And perhaps it was this kind of rift which set us Westerners off on the path to materialism in the first place. When religion becomes little more than abstract ideas and principles and countless pages of dead letters, there is no longer local-experiential "magic" to any of it. To the average person, they are just going through the motions every day partaking in dry/lifeless rituals and utterances cut off from their own intuitive impressions.
Many tribal religions can be said to be rather lacking in the Cosmopolitan section. Few, if any universal ideas are expounded upon; the whole tradition is simply the carrying on of an old torch, just because that's how things have been done since time immemorial. We could perhaps say that the "Neopagan" revival efforts in the West tend to eschew the Cosmopolitan section and can even be downright hostile toward philosophy and the very notion that firm ethical principles should have a solid home in one's religious practice. Such an endeavor in this era is often little more than a fetishization of what its practitioners imagine (quite inaccurately, in all likelihood) to be an ancient folklore tradition; there becomes too much of a focus on mythic and aesthetic elements, and a neglect of abstract principles and ideals.
