┌─╷─┐ ╵┌┼┐╵ polyphanes.smol.pub ╷└┼┘╷ by polyphanes └─╵─┘
return to homepage
return to post index
───╢※╟───
One of the things I pray for so much for myself and others (and likewise recommend others to pray for) is relief. It's an interesting word, where the etymology of it comes from Latin "relevare", "to raise, to lift up, to lighten", but specifically in the sense of burdens or troubles, which provides the notion of providing assistance or alleviating distress. On the other hand, while this might seem superficially similar in etymology to elevation (literally to lift something up or to raise something), there's an important difference, which also plays out in what one might pray for.
Within a spiritist context, one commonly engages with various spirits of the dead, their own spirit guides, or other spirits of the world to educate them and elevate them into "higher states", for whatever that might mean for a specific spiritual context. Although it's common to pray or work for this in such a context, I think I prefer the framing of offering relief to spirits rather than helping them "elevate", especially since I also think that the process of elevating spirits is also made possible by simply helping give them ease and relief to ease them of what weighs them down, too.
Besides, we also find various bits of scripture or prayer, like Psalm 51:9:
Purge me with hyssop till I am pure; wash me till I am whiter than snow.
Or in an Islamic supplication for the dead:
Wash them with water and snow and hail; cleanse them of their transgressions as white cloth is cleansed of stains.
Life is hard. We all fuck up and get fucked up at times; we all eventually grow bitter, cold, heavy, dirty, and blackened from the burdens and baggage we carry. Purity of spirit isn't just about righteousness, but far, far more than that—purity is a kind of relief unto itself, a relief from that which drags us down into the toil and muck of worry and grief. And, like, sure, the candles we burn and incense we light and water we offer and all the rest are all good to honor the dead and spirits with, but they have other needs, too, and part of the work is to resolve those needs and literally help them "rest in peace", to help relieve them so that they can rest, same as we might take care of our own business so we too can go to bed at night without being kept awake by concerns or anxiety.
Besides, like…who are we to elevate spirits? Blind and dumb mortals we, with at least as much baggage as them? Sure, the work of spiritism is to elevate spirits from our mortal position as much as spirits elevate us from their immortal ones, which gives us each an important and vital role in the process of mutual elevation, but this is as much a cooperative venture between us both, and isn't something we can just, like, do without it being that. Yet, regardless of that, we can still certainly offer relief to spirits and help lift their burdens, and thereby help lift them up as we hope they will for us in life.