This year, we took the opportunity to reflect on the human state: woman, child, the body and God. We raised questions of some life experiences, exploring which perspective to adopt to better understand them.

We shared thoughts about the process of incarnation that is found at the beginning of everyone’s life cycle: from the stage of creation (In Spirit: Letter to my child) to birth (In Spirit: Woman and God). It is a period of life that is so important that we are given to live twice in our lives: when we are born and when we become parents. Far from a stage anchored in material life that prevents any kind of connection to spirituality, it is, on the contrary, a moment when the spiritual aspect within us takes root in the fundamental archetypes of life.

We also discussed the traditional vision discussed with Éric Baret. A perspective that looks at the world from a global vision (In Spirit: About Tradition, discussion with Éric Baret). It is through this “traditional” gaze and a feminine sensibility that we speak of God by transcribing the words of Lalla (In Spirit: Lalla la Yogini), or with Nathalie Delay, we address the mechanisms of anxiety linked to the pandemic, and more broadly that which we encounter in everyday life (In Spirit: Anxiety and insecurity in times of pandemic, discussion with Nathalie Delay).

In this momentum, we questioned the tools that one can adopt to face tomorrow’s world. Therefore, we met with Dax Dasilva around the theme of spirituality (Lecture III spirituality), one of the four pillars that he describes in his book Age of Union: Igniting the changemaker (In Spirit: The four pillars).

The world needs food for the soul, and it is found as much in spiritual reflection as in art. It is at the crossroad of these two aspects that photography appears: it engages like a journal which documents, which observes around and within, and that allows answering certain questions by the silence it bears that is sufficient to itself (In Spirit: The body in art). Away from all logic, photography invites to introspection, to be present to the moment, and let the world be and love it deeply as it is (In Spirit: Self-portrait across India).

We don’t know what will happen for 2021, but certainly, we will continue this exploration that the journey of a lifetime prompts us to have. If this year we have been talking about birth, next one we will talk about the other end of the cycle: old age and the reflections that this stage of life brings. Articles for the next few months will continue to talk about culture, art and the environment, including thoughts of various spiritualities, from the Bhagavad Gita to the First Nations’ wisdom. But I won’t say any more so as not to spoil the surprise… See you in 2021!

About the Author

Mariette Raina has a master’s degree in Anthropology. Since 2015 she has been teaching yoga and photography that she approaches like self-reflective and introspective mediums. She joined the Never Apart Center team in 2016 as a monthly columnist. She is also currently working as head of research for Dax Dasilva’s Age of Union project.

Follow Mariette on Instagram.

Return to December magazine →