I am sad that this is the end of the class because this has been my most favorite class that I have taken here. It was awesome learning about how all the religions actually work. You always hear about a certain religion and people joke about how this is all they do or they practice this. But to really learn what really is involved in a certain religion but also learning what it means to be a religion is amazing. I really wish this class was year long because I feel like we barely scratched the surface on these religions and there are countless ones out there that I would love to learn about. After taking this class I feel like I know a little bit more about the world and I can now respect it the way I should.

At first I thought maybe Elvis religion was an actual religion, but after reviewing it in our group and as a whole class I am sure it not a religion but in fact a pilgrimage. Yes it does have some aspects of the Turner and Eliade model but it does not meet enough of the requirements that we said a religion has to have. There is just not enough to the trip to Graceland and what people do there to make it a religion. It is a ritual that they only do once in their life or once every year, and after leaving Graceland most people probably do not practice anything to do with Elvis again except maybe play his music every once in a while. I am on board though to say that this is a pilgrimage.

Goddess Pilgrimage is performed not out of duty but out of a more sacred purpose.  The follower ends up experiencing their body as sacred, themselves as divine. The Goddess religion is a lot about nature and wanting everything to be equal especially between the sexes. They also believe in circular views. In Goddess Pigrimage written by Kathryn Rountree she explains this pretty well it was somewhat of a difficult read but she did use the turner model to explain the pilgrimage that one takes who believes in the Goddess religion. She talks about how you get a “sense of being in a liminal otherworld connected to another time” and all the sisters that you meet on your pilgrimage become your new communitas. Using the turner model helped me to understand how this is not only a religion but also a pilgrimage.

Now you might be wondering why call it a non-western religion and not eastern religion. Well not all religions are specifically mapped. Non-Western religions originated in China, Japan, and India.  The various religions from these areas would include Taoism (China), Confucianism (China), Shinto (Japan), Buddhism (India), and Hinduism (India).  Three commonalities of these religions include that they are monistic which is being one and having a non-personal ultimate reality, nonlinear is a circle or a cycle belief like we are born, die, and then are reborn, and are praxis is Latin for practices. Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva are the gods of Hinduism. I was happy that I knew about Shiva and what she stands for which is destroyer of worlds, death, and sex. Vishnu is the god who keeps the chaos at bay. Last but not least there is Brahma who is the creator of the universe.

To be honest when I heard we were going to be performing the Hajj I was really excited but a little bit nervous as well. I was glad that we were going to be able to actually participate in one of the many religion rituals we have discussed. The Hajj has many steps to it and the first one is Purification.  This is the washing of the hands and feet.  Next you circumambulate the Ka’aba.  You do this 7 times counter-clockwise.  Next you have to run between two hills like Hagar did for her son, Ishmael, when they were in the desert looking for water.  We ran back and forth seven times and finally reached water.  The fourth step is to stand on Mount Arafat and reflect on death and existence.  We then move on to casting stones at the three pillars.  The person is to throw seven stones at each pillar. Then we circumambulate the Ka’aba seven more times counter-clockwise and then comes the last step.  The last step is the Eid.  This is when a blood sacrifice is made and then eaten.  The animal must be drain and prepared as Kosher to be consumed by what we now call a hajji, a person that has completed the hajj. To be apart of this ritual was unexplainable because it was amazing to be apart of something that people try to do their whole lives because of how important it is to them. Granted I did not really do the actual Hajj and we only did our mini version but this ritual not only helped me to understand how important it is but it is one of the best learning experiences I have ever had

I was very surprised at this book in a good way but still very surprised. I could not believe that Kevin was so fascinated with this college that he would abandon everything he knew and was to understand it more. I related with him in the fact of crossing a limin and having a new communitas because of how far away from home I traveled for school. I am still in aw of how far he went to understand this new “world” and to gain knowledge on it’s function. He best performed the pilgrimage that follows the Turner model. He crossed the limin when came to Trinity, and the collapse of the anti-structure is apparent as he went from his world of partying and friends and family to this very religious strict college. He gained a new communitas with the friends that he made in his dorm. His metaphorical death is when he actually let the experience have an impact on him which inevitably changed who he was. Finally he returned home after his pilgrimage was done but a whole different person

Eliade believed that everything went to a point using ladders and steps to get closer to heaven. He used the term Axis Mundi which he translated as the center of the earth to which the ladders went to heaven and hell. At first I did not understand what he was thinking, lots of building and churches have points on them but I always figured that it was just the style of design. After hearing examples in class and then thinking about it later on there are too many things that go up to a point or are up on a hill that are religious of some sort to be a coincidence. It amazed me to now look at something like a church and know why they put it on top of a hill or that there is a certain element to it that points up because now I know it is trying to be closer to heaven.

I was surprised to learn about the Judaism yearly holidays and how all the conceptions we have about them are actually misconceptions. I cannot believe that we think that all religions holidays revolve around the ones that we celebrate here. The holidays that we celebrate are not even what we think they are about so how can we assume that other peoples holidays are about us.

I understood Frazer’s point of view on how we have evolved from magic into religion, but my problem with his concept is how we ALL are supposed to move on to science. I understand from a view point today that we use more and more science in everyday life, but I also know that there are people who are very firm in their religion and I know that there are some religions that do not accept most if not all technology. I can understand the majority of us to accept science more easily than others, but how about the Amish for example. So I guess my question is how did he ever think that every person will accept science?