In the last post I asked the question whether my experience of photographing two Canada geese coming together on a spring morning could be described as ‘spiritual.’  People use the term spiritual in many different ways so before going much further it would be useful to have a working definition of the term.

Canada geese at dawn

What the word “spiritual” means for you is unlikely to be exactly the same as what it means for me for a very good reason – we are different people.  Start with this definition of spiritual identity:

‘the pattern of beliefs, attitudes and feelings about the Sacred and the world – a pattern that defines who you are at the profoundest level.’ (From Skylight Paths, Who Is My God?: An Innovative Guide to Finding Your Spiritual Identity, Skylight Paths Publishing; March 2004, p5)

Beliefs, attitudes, feelings about the Sacred – a defining pattern.

This definition looks very much like the definition the American Psychological Association gives for personality:

‘the unique psychological qualities of an individual that influence a variety of characteristic behavior patterns (both overt and covert) across different situations and over time.” (From http://www.psychologymatters.org/glossary.html#p)

The APA definition explicitly ties personality to behavior, the definition of spiritual identity implies behavior.

Some could go on for years making finer and finer distinctions between these two definitions but at a practical level they strongly overlap. Work the term “Sacred” into the APA definition and the definitions are indistinguishable in a practical sense. Our spiritual identity and personality, to the extent they are even different from one another, are entwined and an attempt to pull them apart would do damage to both. Our personalities are all different, our spiritual identities are also different. An attempt to offer a more precise definition for spirituality that works for everyone is not a fruitful exercise because the form spirituality takes depends so heavily on the individual.

Our definition describes spiritual identity.  I am going to treat spirituality as the way that identity manifests itself.  Here is where things get a bit complicated because spirituality is just one of the factors contributing to the choice of what we photograph and how we photograph it.  A shooting agenda (I’ve got to get a picture of sunlight dappling the leaves in fall color), responding to the influence of other photographers  (I’d like to do one like Freeman Patterson does it), other things being on our mind (my 401K is going down the tubes) and other factors contribute as well.  We will have more to say about this in future posts.

This is all wonderful stuff but what does it mean for us as photographers?

Here are some implications:

• If you and I go out to shoot within the same two acre plot, we will come back with different images.  We are different people, we see the world a bit differently and our photographs are different.
• Whatever we do, whether it is eating breakfast or looking for that next great photographic inspiration, will involve our spiritual identity to one extent or another.  After all, it is part of who we are.
• We often aren’t even aware of the spiritual component in our everyday lives, let alone in our photography.  It may be crowded out by agendas and other competing factors or we might not even be aware of a genuine spiritual impulse.  By tying spiritual identity to the Sacred and not God, the door is open for people who aren’t religious or perhaps don’t believe there is a god to be included in this discussion.  Just about everyone holds something sacred and that may be the touchstone for those peoples’ spiritual life.  In a later post we will talk about ‘The Little Book of Atheist Spirituality’ by Andre Comte-Sponville.  Comte-Sponville provides a fresh understanding about how atheism, for some people at least, can be compatible with a spiritual life.
  

  Reflection, Fall Creek Gorge, Indiana

I don’t know that many will agree with my definitions of spiritual identity and spirituality, I offer them here as a place to begin and as a reference point for what, at least, I believe.