Why call yourself a Jedi?

be a part of something more without making me compromise my own morals or philosophies.

Some might argue that's not really being "a part of something" so much as "parallel with, until there's a corner"


Funny thing about Loyalty and Service, it's not really about you

Of course, that's much of the attraction of many forms of Jediism, the doctrine is wishy washy, so you're not really called into a situation where you either have to "be true" or "compromise".

I can see this place having less members if it required veganism


(I'm not a dogmatic TotJOist by any stretch, I'm just making the argument)

JamesSand wrote:

be a part of something more without making me compromise my own morals or philosophies.

Some might argue that's not really being "a part of something" so much as "parallel with, until there's a corner"

you know that's a fair point and I definitely see what you mean. I think the main thing for me, in how I feel as being a jedi, may have kind of a circular logic at the end of the day. I identify as a jedi therefore I identify as a jedi. Like, I consider myself part of the jedi realism movement as a whole and now part of TOTJO in particular, as opposed to just saying like "those guys are great because we share opinions." I believe no one could be an enthusiastic member of a group or organization without it fitting cohesively with their own ideals. Being with the jedi, instead of along side it is my attempt be a part of something both bigger and other than myself.

The short answer is, I call myself a Jedi because I am a Jedi. I will always be a Jedi, it seems hardwired in.

I was a Jedi before I knew the term and long before I knew of the Temple and community growing around it.

I have always believed in the morals and lessons of most established religions but can't accept that any are 'the right path' and formed my own beliefs by amalgamating teachings from various sources.

My bosses were very religious so my lack thereof came up often and when trying to explain I often used Jedi and the Force to illustrate what I believed so others could identify easily. Then I found out about the Temple and that there is this community of similar thought and so rather than answering 'it's complicated' I can now say 'i am a Jedi'.

For me, Jedi is a title given to you. You do your best to live up to the Jedi Path, and others will determine whether or not you are such.

For me.

To me, Jedi isn't something you get to simply claim, which makes it different from other religions/philosophies. I base my pursuits as a Jedi on the Jedi Compass (the document, not the book- which is merely an expansion on the concepts within the document) because that's what the community determined was within the bounds of their order's definitions in 2013 of the Jedi Path.

But this is me. I recognize that some see the Jedi Path as something that you can simply claim based on their pursuit of living on the Jedi Code. But to me, I can't claim I am a Jedi, unless others see me as such. I cannot claim a rank such as "Knight" or "Master" without others recognizing it as such.

Respect the person, not the rank/title. If you see someone that matches that rank/title, then by all means, bestow it upon them. And if not, it is how you view them.

So, ultimately, the question I prefer isn't "Why call yourself a Jedi?" it's "Why do you call me a Jedi?" And if the answers line up with the Jedi Compass, then I have accomplished living by the Jedi Path.

After all- what is in a name, but the value assigned to it.

I actively resonate with, and believe in, the values and principles in the Doctrine and have realized that those values and principles have been present in me for a lot of my life well before I found the temple. Whether or not I call myself Jedi, what matters is that I naturally IDENTIFY with what a Jedi is (or strives to be) according to the Doctrine.

The title Jedi is not a real title. It was made up for a movie. Its the philosophies behind it that make the difference. So what are those philosophies? Well they are as diverse as human emotion can make them. So how does that bind any one of us to another? Well that is done through doctrine. Otherwise disparite peoples come together under a common title because of shared belief in a set of rules that define a philosoohical world view. But in the end these rules are as meaningless as the concepts that define them. We strive for this artifical veneer of commonality because it comforts us but in actuality we are all totally and completely alone. We are born and live and die alone. This journey is ours alone. Of course we make connection with others following a similar path and we can secure a certain comfort in that but ultimately the responsibility and experience is ours alone. There is no actual thing as a Jedi, there is only the process of experience.

The title Jedi is not a real title. It was made up for a movie. Its the philosophies behind it that make the difference.

So what makes the title "not real" then?

It means nothing to you to be a Jedi?

The word implies nothing of the philosophies that have meaning and make the difference?

That separation, is in my opinion, a lot to do with what makes being a Jedi, and living those philosophies, sub par.

There is an actual thing as Jedi, and not just for movies....Unless you all find the name of the site you are under irrelevant, which, if you care nothing for the name, but only the philosophies, why use it at all and make it an officially recognize church?

How much more real does it need to get for you exactly?

I call myself a Jedi for Oh so many reasons. I was raised in a predominately Mormon area, and the LDS church was pretty much stuffed down my throat.
I attended a few various churches in my attempt to avoid LDS services, but none of them really clicked with how I felt about a higher power. By the time I was in my early teens I was deep in witchcraft. When I say witchcraft, I don't mean wicca. I started off by getting initiated into the Revised Order Of the Golden Dawn. I was looking for power, mostly because I had been so powerless up to that point. Golden Dawn didn't work for me either, but it felt closer so I started down the pagan path towards wiccan and druidism. I enjoyed the art and beauty and poetry of the paths, but the still didn't click.
So one day I sat down and thought about how I feel about a "Higher Power". Not God, I decided. It didn't feel right to me to assign this creation/life energy with the kind of personality that most religions assigned to it.
A force, perhaps a natural force of nature, or a natural force of the universe, that is of course beyond our comprehension. It IS life, what some would consider a soul, but not one that is possessed by a single being, but by all living things collectively.
About this time I am reading a star wars book and I get to a part where Luke is CRITICALLY wounded, at deaths door and no help near. As he lay there feeling his life slip away, he noticed a small frog, and it seemed that he "heard" the frog say, "A Gift." And the frog lent him some of it's life energy, and then the grass, and the mosses beneath his body, and they said "Our gift." and gave of their life force.
And The Force started to flow into him, first just drops, then a trickle, then a flow and then a stream of Force, healing him so that he may stand against the decay of the Dark Side.
And I said to myself, "That. That is what "GOD" is, The Force. "It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together." "Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us."
Of course there are no such thing as "Force Powers", other than maybe a bit of intuition, but the base teachings are sound. I knew that many were based on Buddhist teachings but once I started looking for Jedi teachings specifically I figured out quickly that not all of them were Buddhists. That Lucas, and other writers, had borrowed heavily from many philosophies. So I decided to be a Jedi. That was 2007. I studied solo since that time. I found TotJO in 2009 and joined.
I have a couple different "Ministry Licences" from online so I was "Legally" able to weddings, and I could write a Jedi ceremony for it if I wanted, but I thought it would be WAY cooler to actually have a Jedi Ministry Licence, so I went ahead and started working on the program.
Currently I live in Oregon, where I am make "Jedi Healing Balm" and other herbal medicines for patients ranging from PTSD to Stage 4 cancer.

Thanks for that Karr. I have a differnt narrative, yet I identify strongly with the path (or calling) you describe. My strong religious environment was one of no religion. I consider atheism to be as dogmatic as most organized religions or often more so. I just worked out what LDS is... I came across LSD when I was 16. I recently said to a girlfriend that I considered LSD the pennacillan for a bad dose of religion (or non-religion I guess). My idea of God (or the universe) is going with the flow.

Naturally, all the building blocks of our development contribute to a structure that we build and build so we can go beyond it and fluently express ourselves

This is all my own view, of course, and there may be quite a few holes in thought and eager jumping to conclusions, but that's how I "feel" my way through the world anyway...

When I was a teenager, my particular interpretation of Catholicism rendered me miserable. I was constantly depressed, weighed down by this internal "voice" saying I was a sinner, I was unworthy, I could never be good enough, and I did not own my life... I was supposed to wait for my divine revelation to charge me with some sort of life mission.

Why exactly I twisted Christian faith in this direction, I'm not sure. But though thinking of Jesus and his life inspired me, put me in a mental place where I felt an extra "push" to being good at times when I could've taken destructive choices instead, I never completely felt like I fit in with Christian faith. I was unsure (and frankly a bit apathic) whether Jesus or not was historically real. I did not accept the Bible as divine revelation. I couldn't really call myself a Catholic, or a Christian, even if I wanted to, it no longer rang true.

As I discovered this, I started to read about other religions: neo-paganism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Thelema. All of these religions held some great pearls of wisdom within them, but embracing any of them felt untrue because accepting the "core" truth within them came with accepting all the other aspects of it. For example, the Four Noble Truths and Eightfold path of Buddhism can only make sense if you accept reincarnation, which I am unsure of. Neo-paganism and it's God/Goddess ritualistic nature does not appeal to me, despite respecting the duality of male/female, light/dark and other polarities through which the world seems to express itself. They were all misfits though.

By the time all of this was happening, the original Star Wars trilogy had been out for over two decades, and despite owning the movies in VHS, I had never paid attention to them whenever my mom watched them. This time, however, I watched them, really paid attention, and I saw it from another perspective. Sure the Jedi knights were cool, their neat Jedi tricks, using the Force to move objects, lightsabers and all. But what really spoke to me was that moment when Luke Skywalker refuses to kill his father and drops his lightsaber saying:

"You've failed, your highness. I am a Jedi, like my father before me."

At that moment I saw what being a Jedi was all about. It is the ultimate fight against the machine, overcoming the fear of certain death, and choosing to live according to what you truly desire and value, and not based on what is expected of you, or based on outcomes alone. It was the ultimate statement of self-ownership "I will die, but I will be who I am".

What I find in the Jedi way is a call to own my life, to "unlearn what I have learned" and pursue a life consistent with my values, with my will. And the way towards this is through disciplined focus, knowledge, fearlessness, emotional intelligence and other traits exhibited by the movie Jedi, and summed up in the Jedi code:

There is no emotion, there is peace. (Introspection / Emotional intelligence)
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge. (Intellectual knowledge, skill development)
There is no passion, there is serenity. (One-pointedness / Focused Will rather than random whim)
There is no chaos, there is harmony. (Recognizing interconnectedness and cause/effect)
There is no death, there is the Force. (Fearlessness / Faith in oneself)

I do not, at least for the moment. But if I do reflect any kind of image no matter how small or abstract of what others may recognize as being related to being a Jedi or like wise quite the opposite of what they consider and recognize not to be a Jedi, the same purpose is served, and that is fine with me.

Khaos wrote: So what makes the title "not real" then?

Can anyone here, or anywhere else for that matter, tell me I am not a Jedi? What are the basic empirical requirements that one must fulfill in order to be considered a Jedi? An acceptance of the whole of the doctrine unmodified in its entirety? A belief in a defined “Force”? A belief in “The Force” at all? Must one be in service to others or have a desire to be in service to others?

As a parallel one can go to a Christian church every day and can even call themselves Christian but until they choose to go through the singular universal ritual of honestly accepting Jesus into their heart they are not Christian. From there it’s about accepting the doctrine of the bible in its unmodified entirety.

If you ask any two people what it means to be a Jedi you will get two different answers. In fact the required training at this temple encourages independent thought, the questioning of training materials and the examination and subsequent modification/addition of doctrine as the individual sees fit. When there are no set hard and fast requirements then everything becomes optional and if the definition of the term is one that can potentially encompass anyone, then that term becomes meaningless.

The required process of becoming a Jedi Knight comes closer to fulfilling a basic set of requirements that is reviewed and accepted by a community of peers as having satisfied the fundamental criteria obligatory to calling oneself a Jedi. However beyond the standardized initiate program even this is arbitrary at best. The temple calls this apprentice training a “degree scheme” but then sets forth no standardized coursework to complete this scheme. Everything is an elective.

Khaos wrote: It means nothing to you to be a Jedi?
The word implies nothing of the philosophies that have meaning and make the difference?
That separation, is in my opinion, a lot to do with what makes being a Jedi, and living those philosophies, sub par.

Of course it has meaning to me. But for me, that also only applies to me alone, here, in this place. Outside of that and my current mentor, I have never been given even an inkling that any other Knights have ever taken even the slightest interest in who I am and what I am undertaking in my training outside of a brief obligatory review of my initiate coursework or that the "community" in general has any designs on truly finding a place in service to others. I find this rather sad since the possibility exists that one day I may be counted among their number. It’s issues such as this that make it apparent the current general Jedi community, which includes the internal workings of this place, is a fragmented cliquish set of sub-clans whose self-interests overrides any sort of comprehensive community service. Maybe they are all secretly sith? :silly:

In any event that’s OK for me. I’m not here for community. I’m here for the personal Challenge. That is why I am undertaking the training here at the temple. It is for my own personal journey, my own experience that I get from the challenges presented to me from a worthy mentor I have found in Alan. Had I not found that, I don't know if I would still be such an active member here. I probably would have moved on to find that challenge someplace else. That is the difference in my journey. I don’t pretend to be something I am not because it does not really exist beyond these virtual halls. I am not a Jedi. I am simply a seeker of knowledge and wisdom through experience. This is my Syncretism – one where the experience of “Jediism” is not the focus but simply an equal component of my otherwise diverse spirituality. “Jediism” is just the current single practice that I have added to the rest.

Khaos wrote: There is an actual thing as Jedi, and not just for movies....Unless you all find the name of the site you are under irrelevant, which, if you care nothing for the name, but only the philosophies, why use it at all and make it an officially recognize church?

How much more real does it need to get for you exactly?

I did not name the church or the site and I did not decide the membership would be called Jedi. That was someone else’s doing so I have no input as to why other than to possibly say it was the easiest thing to do at the time. People are lazy and the tendency of humans for pattern recognition make it easy to use a fictional term to define something they themselves cannot otherwise define. The funny thing is that beyond the title itself the practitioners of the religion have little similarity to their fictional counterparts.

For me it wasn’t the name but the philosophies that attracted me to this temple. It is the blending of aspects of Shinto and Bushido and Chivalry that interested me, not the name Jedi. Would it have been better to call this "new religion” something completely differently and then describe it as:

A religion based on the syncretic blending of the philosophies of knighthood chivalry, paladinism and samurai bushido in feudal societies as well as Hinduism, Qigong, Greek philosophy, Greek and Roman history and mythology , Confucianism, Shintō, Buddhism and Taoism, including the works of the mythologist Joseph Campbell that all helped to inspire the creation of the fictional Star Wars Jedi order.

I don’t know? What do you think? Would this movement exist if its practitioners would not have gotten to call themselves Jedi - The fictional hero’s they had fallen in love with and aspire to be like?

I think there is something to be said for "accepted by a community of peers" that has been mentioned a few different ways in this thread. I consider myself to be Jedi based on my active participation in the training here and my desire to live my life according to the Doctrine of TOTJO, but if nobody else considered me worthy of the title, it wouldn't matter if I shouted it from the rooftops. We can be judged by our age, wisdom, experience, training, and rank, but ultimately what makes me a Jedi is whether or not my actions will stand up to scrutiny from others who I consider Jedi. When we collectively agree that someone does not take any of the philosophy or training seriously, together we will determine that they are not Jedi.

Senan wrote: I think there is something to be said for "accepted by a community of peers" that has been mentioned a few different ways in this thread. I consider myself to be Jedi based on my active participation in the training here and my desire to live my life according to the Doctrine of TOTJO, but if nobody else considered me worthy of the title, it wouldn't matter if I shouted it from the rooftops. We can be judged by our age, wisdom, experience, training, and rank, but ultimately what makes me a Jedi is whether or not my actions will stand up to scrutiny from others who I consider Jedi. When we collectively agree that someone does not take any of the philosophy or training seriously, together we will determine that they are not Jedi.

I agree with your thinking. Near the end of my initiate training I was asked to write about why I wanted to be a Jedi Knight. I basically said I don’t want to be a Jedi Knight. I want the experience of a spiritual journey in search of even a glimpse of some form of universal enlightenment in the pursuit of self-knowledge that never ends. If, as a consequence of that journey, my peers, at some point in my journey, deem me as manifesting the qualities worthy of the title of Knight, then so be it.

For me, the same goes for the title of Jedi. It’s not something to claim or proclaim of yourself. Instead it’s something to be earned by living a lifestyle worthy of what the name represents in society. If, as a stranger, you can walk into a room of people or interact with the membership of a community in such a way that, when you leave that room or environment, the participants of that body are changed in such a way as say among themselves, “That girl or guy was amazing! They were just like a Jedi!” that is when you have “earned that title”. Even then the title does not exist exclusively as a discrete definition of a specific, characteristic behavior but simply as one descriptor among many such similar descriptors in common usage among human populations. These are things that can never be taken or even claimed once earned. They can only be given.

Kyrin Wyldstar wrote: I basically said I don’t want to be a Jedi Knight. I want the experience of a spiritual journey in search of even a glimpse of some form of universal enlightenment in the pursuit of self-knowledge that never ends. If, as a consequence of that journey, my peers, at some point in my journey, deem me as manifesting the qualities worthy of the title of Knight, then so be it.

For me, the same goes for the title of Jedi. It’s not something to claim or proclaim of yourself. Instead it’s something to be earned by living a lifestyle worthy of what the name represents in society. If, as a stranger, you can walk into a room of people or interact with the membership of a community in such a way that, when you leave that room or environment, the participants of that body are changed in such a way as say among themselves, “That girl or guy was amazing! They were just like a Jedi!” that is when you have “earned that title”. Even then the title does not exist exclusively as a discrete definition of a specific, characteristic behavior but simply as one descriptor among many such similar descriptors in common usage among human populations. These are things that can never be taken or even claimed once earned. They can only be given.

Be the change you want to see. If the title of Jedi is irrelevant, then start more posts that are relevant to your spiritual journey of universal enlightenment and self-knowledge. You certainly are astute. Go for it.

Well...Jedi isn't usually the first thing I tell people about my spiritual beliefs. I'm a "Hellenic" polytheist before anything else really.

As far as whether or not I'm a Jedi...well I'm sort of with Alethea on that one. I think it's more about whether other people bestow the title upon you. It just wouldn't feel right for me to claim the title myself. That's one problem I've always had with the Creed the claiming that "I am a Jedi." I feel like if someone wants to claim the title they're more than welcome to do so but I don't know that it actually makes them a Jedi. Not that I would ever tell someone they are NOT a Jedi if they believe they are...

In any event, I do not know that I am a Jedi. I strive to live up to the ideals put forth here and live by the Jedi Code, but I don't know if that's really enough. I feel like I could be doing a whole lot more. I could definitely do more service to others...I haven't been so good on that score.

Perhaps its because of the nebulous "You pick your own Jedi path" that makes this such a hard question for people, or at the very least, why people cannot claim it so easily.

You see, this is what comes from not having some sort of base, at least a foundation of what makes a Jedi, certainly, everyone will develop their own idiosyncracies, what they bring of themselves to the path. This is inevitable, unless you are a robot, but at the same time, everyone pretty much gets to start by well, just doing what they have always done and throwing Jedi on top of the pile.

What real meaning could the title have when you have made it as vague and ambiguous as possible?

This in itself strips meaning because it has not, and does not need to be earned.

One thing the fiction had that I liked was that is was implicitly stated that being a Jedi is hard, and will require trials, and sacrifice from the individual, in essence, it was earned, but here at TotJo, it is simply a given, no one cares if it is claimed, or for what reason, or even if the persona claiming it is truly doing anything even remotely Jedi-like.

The funny thing about something being so free, is that people do not appreciate it as much.

This thread exemplifies that.

You treat it like a piece of toilet paper.

Khaos wrote: What real meaning could the title have when you have made it as vague and ambiguous as possible?

A very personal meaning, and indeed therefore the most powerful!

@ go
I associate my self with what and how I believe. That's pretty much why I call myself a Jedi.

The funny thing about something being so free, is that people do not appreciate it as much.

This is irritatingly true in many cases.

One thing the fiction had that I liked was that is was implicitly stated that being a Jedi is hard, and will require trials, and sacrifice from the individual, in essence, it was earned, but here at TotJo, it is simply a given, no one cares if it is claimed, or for what reason, or even if the persona claiming it is truly doing anything even remotely Jedi-like.

I guess the difference here is that it is the individual who is accountable, they are required to keep themself "honest" assess themselves against their trials, and sacrifice where necessary.

It's not plausible, in this situation, to really police it anyway.

I can rock up here and type "Today I gave a cold person the shirt off my back, turned down a promotion for someone who needed it more, and worked until midnight, in the rain, repairing a local school. Oh, and I live on a diet of organic brown rice, with no sauce. Am I the Best Jedi Ever, or what?"

And no one can prove whether I'm lying or not.


But, no one gets a Pay Rise from calling themselves Jedi, so it's really no skin off a "Good Jedi"'s nose for some internet weed to use the term freely.
Heck, I could steal your username and avatar and join all sorts of websites and forums.
Does it detract from your identity any?


That sort of humbleness about the title might be a good thing that separates TotJO Jedi from many other cults (Jedi and otherwise). (It also may be a bad thing, I have some thoughts on traditions and earning your position, and doing the "hard yards" before you can call yourself a peer)