Note From The Author: With the release of Labyrinths of Jediism today, I thought I’d talk a little bit about the journey I experienced in writing It.
When I ventured away from my home order, to see what other Jedi groups were discussing, I found my way onto the JediChurch.org message board. At the time, I noticed the administration had largely left the messageboards to their own devices and took up residence on Facebook.
As I read through the various posts, I noticed a growing number of people asking how they co have a Jedi Funeral or Wedding. Some wanted one because they were Star Wars fans. As I asked around the community, however, it became more and more apparent that there were followers who wanted something unique.
“Unique” is a hard thing to create. In the early Jedi Community, there was an abundance of influences we could draw from. Jedi and Sith spike of adapting pre-existing systems to pursue using and interacting with the Force. Vishwa Jay was, perhaps, the first to propose utilizing a Lightsaber for ceremonial purposes- and worked hard to create a one. Unfortunately, I have only been told it exists, and have not seen the write up for it. Others were more curious about an Energy Healing System that could replace the popular Reiki and Qigong traditions. To this day no one has presented a system for review.
As I kept working at the project, I learned that “unique” simply wasn’t going to happen. so instead, I focused on the idea of adapting pre-existent traditions myself. I ran into issues with this as well.
I first worked with Rivan Elan of Jedi Coalescre. He and I worked on the Jedi Funeral and Wedding ideas. But between the two of us, the only real variance we could come up with were the speeches. Having been in the military, this just didn’t settle right with me. Most people I know hate to hear droning on, and don’t really listen when someone is speaking ceremonially. It’s just a formal at that point. Since speech doesn’t stand out, something had to be introduced that engages the senses.
While in Japan, I took note of the stark contrast of how people participate in ritual ceremonies in 2 different Pagan groups on Kadena Air Force Base. Some rituals had members going-through-the-motions, but others engaged the people involved. After being invited to an Imbolc ritual in 2009, I started going to their meetings in hopes that if a Jedi were to surface on Okinawa, they might actually attend and I could meet them. But I also found myself studying the way they crafted rituals and tried to find a way to build something similar for the Jedi.
My major glitch was in Circle, where spirits of the quarters are called. Jediism is both a “Western-borne” religion and synchronistic, as such we do have an abundance of Christian Jedi. By virtue of being Christian, they cannot call the quarters. Admittedly, we had some that argued the Bible could support the concept, but that belief is shaky at best.
So I looked to an earlier example of something that could be used, and has recognition across both Pagan and Christian lines: The Labyrinth. The first ceremony I attended in Okinawa was actually built around a Labyrinth. It was engaging and the facilitators of the ceremony really brought the whole thing together.
So this brings the whole of this article back full circle. In truth, I cannot claim the 5 Labyrinths of Jediism which Gabriel Calderon and I have worked hard to craft are “unique“. In fact, they are adaptions to the original 2009 Imbolc ceremony I attended. But what I can say, is that no other system I have personally seen (to date) or written embodies the values of Jediism more.
If I learned one lesson in all of this, it’s that spiritual traditions are nothing to scoff at. True masters of a tradition have to put forward a lot of work to build themselves within the system before they can truly embrace the value within.
To purchase a copy of Labyrinths of Jediism, follow the link below-https://www.amazon.com/dp/1790665477/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_ppxbCbSPJ9QVK