Words: Spirit
Harvey Gillman continues his series on the meaning of words
Spiritus in Latin is breath. Several religious traditions use the image of human breath to depict the life-giving force of the divine. The atman of Hinduism, variously defined as the true individual essence or self, likewise derives from an ancient root meaning breathe. The Hebrew, ruah, is wind, and breath both human and divine. It is sometimes masculine and sometimes feminine. In late Jewish biblical texts, it is associated also with wisdom, seen as the feminine, immanent aspect of the divine. One advantage of this image, with its free-floating connotations, is that it is not as laden with patriarchy as is the word god. In this way it fits in more closely with an ecological view of the world, a world of interconnectedness, a world not separated into nature and supernature, not fallen but called always into greater mutuality, which is why some people are happier with the word spirituality than with religion.
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