Discovering Jediism

Star Wars. From the moment I saw the yellow text crawl and John Williams' legendary score flooded the room, I was hooked. I've watched and loved plenty of movies since, but none have captured my imagination quite like George Lucas' epic space adventure.

I wanted to wield a lightsaber, and be wise and courageous like my hero Obi-Wan Kenobi. I wanted to be a Jedi Knight.

The first push for Jediism to be recognised as a religion came in 2001. Since then, several Jedi churches have been established.

Of course, I knew most people listing "Jedi" as their religion in the census probably weren't serious... and I knew the stereotype of those who WERE serious: balding, middle aged nerds living in their mother's basement and playing with plastic lightsabers and figurines. I didn't conform to that stereotype at all, but what Star Wars fan doesn't secretly want to be a Jedi or Sith? :P

When people ask me what my religious views are, I generally reply that I'm agnostic, having never been brought up with any organised religion and holding no firm beliefs about the existence or otherwise of a God or Gods. But Jediism certainly fascinates me. Still in its infancy and largely developed over the collaborative medium of the Internet, part of Jediism's appeal for me -- other than the Star Wars connection -- is that it is not a rigid system. According to The Jedi Sanctuary "the Jedi Code is malleable and is not meant to be scripture". We saw evidence of this in the films, where Qui-Gon Jinn's views were considered radical by the Jedi High Council but it was he who eventually discovered the path to immortality or enlightenment and trained Yoda and Obi-Wan. Arguably the most high profile of today's Jedi churches also says "You don’t have to change your religion or drop a certain belief to become a part of the International Church of Jediism".

Sounds like my kind of religion. At the same time, to quote Qui-Gon:

"It will be a hard life; one without reward, without remorse, without regret. A path will be placed before you. The choice is yours alone. Do what you think you cannot do. It will be a hard life, but you will find out who you are."

Intriguing.

So when my Web Publishing unit required me to pick a topic of focus for a series of writing tasks, I was keen to explore Jediism a little further and how it might work for me