There is a misconception of what religion really is. Most commonly understood and accepted about religion, is that it is about devotion and the belief in and worship of a divine power or powers. Often a religion is recognized as strict dogma, defined beyond its set of morals, by its worship and religious traditions. However, instead of identifying religion as something that is absolute and unambiguous, religion can be better understood as an enigmatic response to humans’ ontological condition.
S. Brent Plate argues in his book, A History of Religion in 5 1/2 Objects: Bringing the Spiritual to Its Senses, that religious experience cannot be mandated by a belief system, rather, sensory reaction acts as the foundation from which people build their religious experience off of. Plate emphasizes the importance of the senses and their role in the religious experience, stating “…[humans] are sentient beings, and religion is sensuous…The senses guide and shape one’s religious experience” (Plate 7). It is, therefore, the utilization of the senses that fosters a transcendental state beyond the bodily and which connects the spiritual with …show more content…
The March equinox reflects the values of eternal life as “[the] synchronization [of the center of the Sun and the Earth’s equator] has an esoteric interpretation in the Ismaili tradition as the Sun – the Imam, can light the believer’s (Momin’s) soul for the journey to eternity” (“Nowruz Persian New Year”). The technology of the calendar enables the connection between celestial and the physical not only through the human connection with the divine through the Haft Seen, but also through the March equinox which indicates the beginning of the