Category: Primitive Ground

“Primitive Ground” explores ancient spirituality and culture in themselves, and as they live on today. My “philosophical” approach uses direct, non-fiction content. We show you what’s hidden right in front of you, without your being misled, confused, or distracted. We aim to give you a way of looking at things. We hope you give you a world to step into, like a world you’d enter in a novel, a movie, or a journey.

Primitive Ground, Rite Thinking

Easter Spirits and Spirituality

Steven Quevedo

Spring Springs Early There’s the calendar on my workday desk which marks time passing with boxes and lines and numbers. Then there’s the calendar Nature keeps. Spring came a little early in March this year. The birds of the huerta began to sing, common swifts and Eurasian blackbirds and magpies and collared doves, monk parakeets and even house sparrows– just a little too loud! Like kids who been couped up in the car on a rainy road trip suddenly sing when their favorite song comes on. I was struck by the marvel of the world suddenly growing warmer, and brighter, … Continue reading Easter Spirits and Spirituality

Primitive Ground

The Spirituality of Home: the Original Sacred Space

Steven Quevedo

In our last post, we explored the magical, powerful, safe feelings conjured by being “home.” That home feels somehow more real than what’s around it. That our family home fills us with nostalgia. That your home feels like the center of the world. We explored how, when you lose a sense of home and place, you feel emptiness and loss of meaning, a sense of roaming and chaos. Today, we talk about how these feelings of home are related to home, as a sacred space– perhaps, as the original, and perhaps, the last, truly sacred space. A Spiritual Sense of … Continue reading The Spirituality of Home: the Original Sacred Space

Mestizaje

Spirituality in Daily Life: a Sense of Home

Steven Quevedo

Introduction This post is about a sense of home, a fundamental aspect of human spirituality. This post begins with an exploration of the sense, or feeling of home as a lived experience which we all share. A second post will look at the object of this sense, home as a spiritual reality. We begin in this case with the sense that I had coming home from All Saints Elementary to our little house nestled into a hillside in El Sereno. I’ll describe that sense of home in a way I hope you can relate to, different than me though you … Continue reading Spirituality in Daily Life: a Sense of Home

Primitive Ground

The Reality of Ghosts and Spirits

Steven Quevedo

Ofrendas and the “Reality” of Ghosts and Spirits Today’s topic is the reality of ghosts and ancestor spirits, as encountered in our ritual lives. I wrote in a post about ofrendas about the how their meaning relates to “ancestor worship.” Ofrendas allow our ancestors to live on, to inform and enrich our community, to preserve its moral and spiritual traditions and way of life. Today, speaking of the basis for these rituals, let’s talk about the “reality” of spirits. My purpose is to protect, and so further inspire, the practices of Day of the Dead. I do this by arguing … Continue reading The Reality of Ghosts and Spirits

Rite Thinking

Spirituality in Rites and Rituals: Day of the Dead Offerings

Steven Quevedo

Ofrenda Ritual Offerings to The Dead This column, Rite Thinking, will explore human spirituality in rites, rituals, holidays, and other spiritual practices. The question we’ll focus on is, what do these rites mean? What is their purpose and intention? I will explore, both here and in the column Primitive Ground, why this is the fundamental question. Without further ado, we’ll begin with the Day of the Dead (Día de Muertos) altars and offerings known as ofrenda. Spooky Spiritual Harvest Rituals Each year at harvest time, the ancients of the older cultures of the world say, the veil between the worlds … Continue reading Spirituality in Rites and Rituals: Day of the Dead Offerings

Mestizaje

Days of the Dead: My Aunt Grace, Part I

Steven Quevedo

Latino Days of the Dead Musings The Day of the Dead, and other days of Death, awakened in me a sense of Death, as a spiritual presence. Death can be present and color the world. Then, we are in Death’s world for a while. Death in this way is a godhead, or “of a god,” or part of God, or like a santos (saint). Death as its own day, of course. So it gets special offerings as it manifests in different forms. The forms are, that death stands related to loved ones who have passed. But the dead, and Death, … Continue reading Days of the Dead: My Aunt Grace, Part I

Primitive Ground

Spirituality and Culture On Primitive Ground

Steven Quevedo

Welcome to Primitive Ground. Our topic is spirituality in a living, cultural context. Our focus will be ancient, and indigenous world views– both in themselves, and as they live on in us. I begin with a story. Barrio Bubble World I was formed, like so many Mexicans-in-America– or Italians, or Poles, or Irish– in one of those always vanishing, always forming ethnic neighborhoods of great richness, depth and insularity. Our immigrant parents or grandparents came to this country full of hope for a better life for themselves, their families, and their cultures. Their little villages each and all grew and … Continue reading Spirituality and Culture On Primitive Ground