Jediism. It’s not a phrase I enjoy. Sithism less so. Sithism sounds like a cruel joke played on someone with a lisp. I’m not a fan of organised religion, on the whole. I enjoy the slight chaos of brotherhoods and folk groups, rather than organised, churchy stuff.
I personally believe creating more ‘isms’ is the last thing this world needs at present. Jediism is an unnecessary mouthful, as well as making clear, dogmatic definitions of something that should largely remain part of your personal interpretation: The Force. I view the Force with LaVeyan Satanist eyes: I am the Force, you are the Force. The Force is within the individual, giving them their spark, their potential. However they use it is up to them. Everything begins and ends with choice, no matter how hard the choices are, or whether or not they make sense.
Paganfolk see the Force as the power of nature, Christians as the divine spirit, Easterners as ki energy and other such life-force concepts. In creating a religion, we run the risk of making rules and concrete definitions. From there, we get schisms and arguments on definition. It is the same as the Sith and Jedi Codes; they require personal interpretation to make them work, were people to take them serious, Jedi would be dull, librarian automatons and Sith would probably be sociopathic, chain-breaking gymgoers.
There’s nothing wrong with the word Jedi. I feel that Jedi’ism’ is an attempt to make Jedi sound more socially acceptable, less nerdy, and more sanctified. Adding the ‘ism’ makes it sound like a religion, thus closing it to acceptable criticism. Which doesn’t work. The same goes for Sith’ism’. And while Jedi’ism’ is the preferred term for some, I wonder why they’re using the word. To me, it sounds like hiding from the truth. But hell, to each their own.
A slight update on things? I’ve created a series of works as a definition of my approach, and ‘path’, as such. It is called the Path of Heresy and is a companion piece to the Codex Chaplain. It is available to view in the Dark Lecture Hall at the Force Academy. I’m currently stuck as far as studies go; I’m not sure what to do right now. I’m torn between following my own study, or doing the Order of the Sith assignments. Ah well, time shall tell. It always does.
