Contents

1. Definitions
2. The Creed of Estamo
3. Questions and Answers
4. Symbols
5. Practices
6. More

This page is a quick overview of Estamo. To understand Estamo in a more meaningful way, please read the Skribaĵoj.

"We" refers to Estamo as a community and a living concept. "I" refers to Michaelə, the writer of Estamo.

Definitions:

Estamo: from Esperanto "esti" (to be) + "amo" (love); 1. (common noun) experience of balanced unity, where the connection creates and is created by a whole greater than its parts. Backformed from "Estami." 2. (proper noun) The worldview and associated practices centered around the concept of Estamo.

Estamanto: someone who does estamo; someone who is devoted to Estamo as a worldview/lifestyle.

Estami: Estamo-as-being, Estamo-as-movement; the unified, self-aware, natural force which balances and unifies all things through estamo. Can fill the same role as "God" but is not limited to that concept.

Iluzio: literally "illusion" in Esperanto; the conscious experience of separation, as we experience during our lives in the physical universe. Is created by, and creates, estamo.

The Creed of Estamo

1. Everything is one thing
• Oneness contains and extends beyond our experiences
• Oneness is both a force and a consciousness
2. Oneness forgets itself, creating the illusion of division
• Oneness re/creates itself by experiencing all things, and all contradictions, while consciously choosing to be absolutely unified as one
• Oneness can only be “remembered” briefly within the illusion; this can be cultivated through practice
3. Everything is experience/d by Oneness
• All things that exist, in reality or in concept, as well as non-existence, are experienced by Oneness
• All things that exist, as well as non-existence, are absolutely unique and absolutely singular through Oneness

Questions and Answers

Is Estamo a religion?

It can be, but it is not limited to that. Estamo has creed, code, and cultus, which means it fits within a certain definition of "religion." However, Estamo has little interest in conforming to the expectations of a "religion."

A good definition is that Estamo is agnostic spiritual philosophy: it states that there is no way of objectively proving whether or not the supernatural is real (agnostic), gives advice on the meaning of life and how to live a good one (philosophy), and has an interest in cosmic/mystical experiences and emotions (spiritual). The ideas of Estamo come from a mix of philosophical contemplation and mystical revelation.

Belief in Estamo is not defined by whether or not a person literally believes in things which can never be objectively proven. Instead, Estamo is concerned with being self-fulfilling: the goal of Estamo is to create a worldview that promotes unity and harmony between all things. If it can accomplish this, it does not care whether or not its stories are made up; their value comes from what they can do for us.Essentially, a complete atheist can be a devout Estamanto if they love the stories and find them useful in making meaning out of the world they find themself in.

Is Estami God?

It can be, but it is not limited to that. "God" is a messy word! Estami can certainly fill the roles we in the West tend to associate with God: creator who generates the world and all things within it, and conscious being invested in the goings-on of the world.

But Estami is also indivisable from the goings-on of the world. Estamo can be considered panentheistic or even transtheistic. Estami is able to be invested in the goings-ons of the world because they are the world, but also see beyond it. Estami is also a force: it causes the world to take a certain shape, simply because that is what it does and will always do as a result of its nature. Estami is unity, but it is also change. Humanity is not separate (or fallen) from Estami. Estami is us turned outside-in- us from a higher vantage point, whether it can see at once all the things we see as individuals.

While Estami can be spoken of using any pronouns, we use "it/its" as a way of emphasizing it as something outside the bounds of what we think of as "God." This is a big part of doing Estamo: unsettling our understandings of what it means to be holy. Estami is hard to explain without getting very abstract and poetic, because Estami is unlike everything we experience regularly. We only know how to relate to the world through division: this thing in that box, that thing in this box, and the two boxes cannot exist in the same place at the same time, nor can either things be the other. Estami walks through those walls. It becomes contradiction in order to bring all things together without destroying the uniqueness of any. We can say that Estami feels, that its a person, but the way it "feels" is fundamentally at odds with all of our understandings of feeling. How can we really understand what its like to be One, absolutely singular, while also being infinite diversity, and being at peace with all this? This kind of cosmic paradox, surpassed by loving unity, is how Estamo defines "the Divine."

To return to the agnostic perspective: Estami is real for Estamo, and it is real in my heart. But more than anything, Estami is a sweet story. It is the idea of oneness that does not sacrifice uniqueness. It is the idea of something which has endless understanding, devotion, and wisdom for each thing that has ever been, even the most insignificant rock or a tiny bug that dies after only a few days. Estamo easily dabbles in worship, but the real point of any praise given to Estami is to cultivate, within ourselves and each other, the hope that this story is possible. If you have ever had the thought: "I don't believe in God, but this person/place/thing is as close to that as I can get," that is the essence of what we're talking about. Estami is our Northern star. We choose to believe in It because we love what It represents and where the story can take us.

What is the afterlife like in Estamo?

First, its important to understand that the afterlife is not central to Estamo. This is largely because of its beliefs about it. Estamo holds that, upon death, the consciousnesses of living beings reunite with Estami. We go through disŝirado, where we experience the true impact of all actions taken in life. This allows us to put our lives into the context of Estami and remember our oneness.

This is part of a cycle of reincarnation. Its important to understand that, "outside" Iluzio, Estami experiences all of time and space at once. Lives, deaths, and rebirth all happen at once. Certain lifetimes may have connections to others, but past lives are not of any real concern for Estamo at large. There is no punishment, eternal or otherwise. Disŝirado is a painful, but always loving, experience. It is never gone through alone, because it occurs as our consciousnesses are melted into Estami's. We will understand every harm we did, accidental or purposeful, forgettable or severe, because we will experience what it was like to be harmed by ourselves. And we will understand the story of every harm done to us. And we will intimately understand every pleasure, too, and everything else in our lives. And through this process, we experience Estami and estamo. From what I have experienced, this is a profound experience of deep, soothing love with profound agony of healing a deep wound. It is literally "the tearing-apart." Ultimately, what the afterlife is like is beyond the scope of the living to understand.

What is the purpose of life in Estamo?

First, to experience being alive. Second, to choose unity.

There is no apocalypse in Estamo. If and when the physical universe ends, something else will take its place. When and how that happens is not our concern. Iluzio is not a punishment. It is not dirty or a place we should escape. Estami creates Iluzio because it must unify contradiction in order to be Estami. To be Estami is to be one, which means Estami needs to become One with not-Oneness: that is why Iluzio exists! It allows Estami to experience what it is to be something else, while still being Estami.

This is why Estami is so devoted to every little thing in Iluzio. All of this matters so much, and equally, to Estami. Every thing which exists re/makes Estami whole. Simply being makes something worth being; there is great and equal value in all existence.

Which is not to say that every experience should be pursued or suffered. The second purpose of Iluzio is using a thinking mind to choose unity from a place of division. Living beings are not the center of the universe, and thinking beings aren't either. Thinking beings are those whose bodies have developed in ways which allow the consciousness of Estami to recognize itself in a divided state. The world was not made for humans, and we are not superior beings of any level. But thinking beings do have our place among all the experiences of the world. Our role is storytellers. We use our unique brains to take all these visceral experiences and try to make some sense out of them. Estami is not just concrete, objective stuff. Abstract, subjective things like ideas are also Estami. Thinking beings mold Estami-in-ideas in the same way we mold Estami-in-Earth. We have the ability to tell stories which guide us towards the experience of unity.

It is vital that this is not simply a gut choice. Learning about the world of bodies (science) and the world of ideas (philosophy-spirituality) means we have to confront the depth of division. Division means death, because the laws of the divided world mean all things tend towards entropy. Division means fear, because our bodies don't let us feel the infinite wisdom of all things at once. There is bodily pain as a result of evolution and spiritual pain because we do not know why it hurts or what we can do about it or if anyone will be with us through it all. Division means fear turns to hatred, greed, and apathy, and anyone is capable of hurting others in terrible ways by just choosing to do so. That is a weight we all have to bear: hurting and being hurt are inevitable. And then nature just destroys things anyways because of a long chain reaction of little things that built to infant deaths and great die-offs. It is through understanding the depth and breadth of suffering that we can make a fully-knowing choice to seek estamo. Because there is also an insane amount of reasonable and unreasonable happiness in the world. Sometimes things just happen in ways that are wonderful. We have bodies that experience so much pleasure, and minds that can create even more. We can choose to try not to hurt others, and we can choose to help them heal when we do anyways. We are always capable of re(creating) estamo with our choices.

Who is an Estamanto?

There is distinction between an Estamanto and a vaganto (one who wanders). A vaganto is someone who dabbles in some of Estamo's ideas and practices. An Estamanto is someone who aligns themself with Estamo as a whole, and is devoted in some way to its core ideals.

People can be either while also identifying as Jews, Sikhs, polytheists, atheists, etc. Estamo is pluralistic and quite comfortable with people combining it with their other traditions. The only requirements to be an Estamanto is to agree that the Creed of Estamo describes your worldview (or what you would like your worldview to be), and to participate in the practices of Estamo (such as the Nau Fajroj and the Trikodoj, vital parts of Estama ethics. See Practices). Worldviews and lifestyles must fit the needs of the people shaping them, so do not be afraid to explore different stories. Diverse perspectives, when done with respect, can be the most healthy and Estama things!

Why Esperanto?

As you have likely noticed, Estamo is expressed largely through the use of Esperanto, a constructed language by L. L. Zamenhof. Esperanto was intended as an international auxiliary language, meant to foster harmony and unity. The name literally mean "one who hopes." This is very much in the spirit of Estamo. Esperanto is easy to learn and easy to use. This is extremely important for Estamo, because it is trying to communicate ideas that do not exist in English. Many English words already have too many other associations which could lead to misunderstandings in what Estamo is trying to say. Esperanto helps because brand new words can be made with ease. "Estamo" is one of these words, named by Estami itself.

Those interested in learning Esperanto can start their journeys here.Those with experience in European languages will find it easier than others, but it is overall a wonderful language and culture that deserves respect.

Symbols

This symbol, which you have likely noticed around the site by now, is the Estamaĵo. It combines the symbols of the three natures of Estami:

1. The eight-pointed star, or Oktagramo. This represents the unity of Estami and our interpersonal relationship with them throughout our lives. Each point represents a way Estami is present in our lived experiences, as they all extend from the center. This is "Dio," god.
2. The spiral, or Spiralo. This represents the flow of Estami as a balancing force which causes eternal change. The spiral is two opposing points which go back and forth over and over until they reached an equal, unifying point. This is "Ekvilibro," balance.
3. The triangle, or Triado. This is "Vero," or truth. Vero is the understanding of how the natures fit together. Oneness draws all things towards unity, meaning Dio-creates-Ekvilibro. And balance is what creates absolute unity, meaning Ekvilibro-creates-Dio. Contemplation and devotion to this abstract concept is the core of Estama spirituality/mysticism.

More

Estamo and this website are far from finished at the moment, so please bear with me. If you really are curious, you can send an ask to estamo.tumblr.com.

Who are you?

The name I use in religious contexts is Mikayel! I started forming Estamo after beginning to have mystic experiences in January of 2020, and began formalizing it in 2021. I have been spiritually inclined from a young age and engaged in various religious traditions throughout my life. I have dedicated myself to Estamo and consider it my life's work. I use any pronouns.

While I will make no efforts to obscure my own humanity and unique personhood, I don't want to be the center of Estamo. It is a part of me, and it would not be the same if someone else were weaving its narrative, and I will not ignore this. But I want it to exist outside of myself, and I do not want to be glorified or made the focal point. I am fallible, human, and very mortal. I want this to be something which does not rely on my personality to sustain itself and do good for others. As a result, I try not to involve too much of my own life in this site or in LLdE.