Religions? They don't exist in any way we can usefully measure.
We live, in my opinion, in a
multiverse of myth, shared with other minds. There is only the layer-cake of reality and our limited attempts to understand and interact with it. Each human culture forms mythic systems based on its value system, history, and environment to interact with what we can call the Numinous.
So instead of "egregores," I see the various religions as forming mythic, weak-to-strong Sheldrakian morphic fields that create specific reality levels as clusters of synchronicity. All of this happens in the high-fidelity MMORPG we are playing called
Life on Earth, forming various universes you can move into. And speaking as a game designer: itβs supposed to be fun!
If you want to have a Wiccan experience, you can! If you want a grim magician experience, you can. Or a Catholic one - same thing. Or an Internet shaman - you can do that, too. If you want a universe of seemingly "scientific objective laws," you can have that as well. I see them all as networks of sympathy, values, exchange, and ritual engagement. Some are better than others depending on where you are, both locally and personally.
Each of these is a cluster of aesthetics combined with a value system that will attract its own spirit court, minds, some with bodies, and somewithout, some human, some non-human Some are more useful than others. The more minds you have joining your cluster of thoughts, values, feelings, and symbols, the more shared reality is "true" for you and them.
In some universes like mine, demons exist and can come hang out. I switched to this universe from one where they don't exist pretty early on. In others, they only have aliens. In others, only pagan gods. Others are magical atheists, and quantum physics exists for them. And some are running a "Magical Marvel Movie" where they all exist in the same mythic room. All good, but it looks messy to me. In game design, I call that Art-barf.
Speaking more personally, while I see them all as networks of minds tied to aesthetic choices and a value system, you have to ask: "What do I value?" and "What kind of experiences do I value?" Eventually, you might even ask, "Why do I value those kinds of experiences?" And that is the beginning of what we used to call "wisdom."
Sorcery without a nuanced metaphysic is just Sandbox design busywork without much of a point. After getting in a virtual truck and running over all the virtual pedestrians, there is only so much left to do.
Then you might engage with the more philosophical and religious systems of thought. After sorcery, the more philosophical schools of Hermeticism, Neoplatonism, and an esoteric Catholicism are my main lenses for looking at the world. The other option is the internet, which is all by itself trying to cobble together a philosophy and mystical theology out of scraps. Not recommneded.
