Much of what contemporary societies take to be ‘spirituality’ - rituals, talismans, practices, etc – have either been imported from elsewhere, appropriated from earlier forms, or become atrophied, frozen into symbol and peddled as emotional stimuli. Does this sound harsh? Well, what is often the case is that many once-legitimate spiritual practices have lost their functionality as they have been removed from their original context. When such precise tools are used in a haphazard way they are in danger of becoming incantations at best, or worse as conditioners. When such [...]