Adam Blatner

In another world, they recognize that spirituality involves a confluence of spiritual images that work for the unique sentient entity—and there are billions of them, just like here on Earth. That is to say, they’ve passed the historical evolutionary period when people presumed to know what the Divine “was” and how it should be properly “worshiped.” (That official clergy and churches were established to reap what might be called a tax—they called it a tithe or voluntary contribution—goes with that period. It was quite complex.) Different religions did happen but they competed with each other over which object of worship, and name for that object, was proper, and all the others were dismissed as foolish if not actively combatted as evil.

On this planet, people find they’re attracted to certain poems, music, art, people, and other objects of their perception. The attractions vary and there are many of them. It is understood that the Divine Spirit (as they conceive it) “shines” through that which they naturally are drawn to love. Each person comes of age and goes through a process of identifying his own combination of evocative symbols, as shown above. These in turn are gentle reminders of the kinds of things—including plants, nature areas, people, stories, etc.—that evoke love and that draw out tenderness, nobility, and other positive values. (Pronouns such as his, her, it, etc. are so, um, anthropo-centric.) Anyway, here’s a sampling, as the creation of a symbol that would indicate each person’s, uh, “brand,” is part of their spiritual path.