When speaking on the subject of Spiritual Privacy there are many factors that have to be discussed and taken into account. This one broad subject can lead into several narrow but deep subjects that are crucial to the collective that is your spiritual state and progression of it. We have to start with the origins of a lot of spiritual beliefs and their safekeeping via privacy, we should also discuss the differences between practices and their usage of privacy to help and protect practitioners. There are even certain usages of privacy that have been part of spiritual protections. These aren’t even all the aspects where privacy plays roles just the immediately obvious ones that should really be known by everyone.

Most spiritual traditions and African Traditional Religions have long histories with taking privacy very seriously. Some would say that privacy was a newer addition to the traditions that came to be added right around where slavery entered the picture but they would be mistaken. When slavery was thrust upon the practitioners of these African Traditional Religions, the need for privacy was just emphasized but it was already a prevalent and understood concept. This is because there have always been levels of initiations, including priesthood. Priesthood is not something that should be taken lightly, the mysteries of being an elder come at the cost of a high degree of devotion coupled with extensive ceremonies. This high degree of devotion bestows upon a priest certain secrets that should be preserved because it is the role of a priest to guide, teach and protect others. As part of their role, they are supposed to know certain things that go well beyond the understanding of an average devotee of these traditions. A lot of this wisdom is kept private for the purpose of keeping the average devotee from having to carry any undue burdens as well as to keep the boundaries and roles between a devotee and a priest or elder clear and concise. When the slave trade was thrust upon practitioners of these African Traditional Religions, the need for privacy became even greater than before. This is due to the prevalence of persecution of religious beliefs that also came with slavery. In other words, they weren’t allowed to believe in whatever they wanted. So they had to use privacy to hide their beliefs behind whatever beliefs they were told they must have. But as we stated earlier, this was not the first time historically that these practitioners saw the necessity of spiritual privacy.

The differences between practitioners and their understanding privacy as well as their enforcing of privacy standards are different from one to another. This can also be greatly impacted by what exactly it is that they practice. It is important to note that while many people position themselves as spiritual leaders, some are firmly believers of the saying “spiritual not religious” and so their definition of spiritual privacy would be completely different than that of a practitioner of an African Traditional Religion that actually takes the religious beliefs to heart. It is important to note that if someone is not practicing a religious belief, there is no legal backing for their definition of spiritual privacy and they can be legally compelled to testify in court. Where someone that does in fact practice an actual religion as a priest or elder has a legal backing for their definition of spiritual privacy and they cannot be legally compelled to testify in a court. Due to this big difference and the fact that one is a structured and understood religion while the other is more of a free-for-all anti-religion, people who tend to lean towards “spiritual not religious” practices do not have a set standard, they come with a mixed bag of beliefs and so their definitions for concepts from one to another can be greatly different, even if both of them use the same terminology. This is not to say someone that is not a practitioner of a religious belief cannot hold your privacy to a high standard, this is to say that they don’t all automatically do it and even if they do, there is only so much privacy you can have because their beliefs as well as yours are not religious and so they do not have any legal protections. It is important to know these differences as they can mean the world to you and you wouldn’t even be are of these differences.

Even further there are concepts where privacy is actually used as a form of spiritual protection. You have to understand that the more people know about you, the more they know about how to bring you harm or cause you misfortune. This is a belief that is shared among many different African Traditional Religions. The response to such a thing is naturally to remain as private as possible in spaces and with people of whom you do not have enough trust. This creates a barrier that makes it so that not every stranger in the world has the ability to just randomly find all the information of your life so easily. They would have to search and move and hop over so many hurdles just to find what they need, which is basically like creating a barrier for entry in which only the people that are truly motivated and have experience can even proceed to cause misfortunes. It is important to note that some people, like ourselves, even go as far as requiring signed Non-Disclosure Agreements before we reveal anything sensitive. This is an added layer of protection that has become a necessity in the fabric of modern times because there are many people who would seemingly wish to partake in religious beliefs and may not be the right fit for the Temple. There have been many such cases where people are expelled from religious Temples for their bad deeds, their inability to stay within the rules of the religious beliefs, their poor moral character or a list of other reasons and are seemingly distraught by the rejection. Which would lead them to not only slander against whole religions and Temples but also to reveal sensitive information about practitioners, which is yet another bad behavior further proving that they were not meant to be part of those Temples or religious beliefs.

Seeing as how we use privacy as a form of protection, a person that is unable to keep with privacy standards is a person that is exceedingly unfit for the spiritual path and even more so when discussing African Traditional Religions. If you hear unverified rumors and gossip about spiritual people or priests and elders of African Traditional Religions from someone spiritual and close to you, the very first thing you should question is the person next to you and their capacity to actually be spiritual. You should also understand that their behavior goes directly against African Traditional Religions and some other non-religious beliefs as well. This is because back in the days, these kinds of behaviors could have been a death sentence and in more modern times can be used a weapon to persecute entire Temples and religions. It is also important to note that these behaviors when done against actual religious organizations can hold actual value of losses, such as damages and can lead to legal consequences, which you would want to stay away from. This is to say that gossip and slander are not acceptable behaviors or reasoning for exposing private information of others and never have been but someone that has a genuine issue and addresses the issue seeking help is completely normal. The line is in the difference between someone slandering, gossiping or genuinely seeking help. When someone approaches you making accusations and providing private information about others that they may have obtained due to their spiritual proximity to others but there is nothing to their claims, you should question how long before you have your private information being discussed by the same person because they are not capable of holding to the concept of spiritual privacy and once upon a time they were close to the persons or people they are now speaking about, just as they are now close to you.