With mainstream religions dominating news coverage, smaller religions and spiritual teachings are often left with little to no voice to explain their views in today’s society.

Jainism is one such religion.

According to Dr. Robert Menzies, a religion professor at the University of Winnipeg, Jains make up only one per cent of the population in India, even though the religion has been around just as long as Buddhism.

“The one primary belief that colours everything else (in Jainism) is ahimsa, or non-violence,” Menzies said.

Followers are so dedicated to this tenet they will not take jobs in the military or police, manufacturing weapons or even as farmers.

Their dedication to non-violence is so great that they will not eat root vegetables such as potatoes, onions or garlic.

“Because they can sprout by themselves they are understood by the Jains to have two sense capacities,” Menzies said. “So you are doing more violence to complicated beings by eating potatoes.”

Also with a small voice in the spiritual community are the Unitarian Universalists. Their belief is monotheistic, rejecting the idea of the trinity of God, and Universalist, which essentially is a faith that believes that God would not send any of his children to hell.

“One of the strengths of our faith is that we draw wisdom from all the world’s religions and from many holy texts,” Reverend Millie Rochester of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Winnipeg said.

She believes that acceptance of all faiths and spiritual beliefs are ways to end our fear of each other and heal our relations.

This may be the reason why so many different backgrounds attend their services.

“You could come out on Sunday morning and be sitting next to a Buddhist, an atheist, a pagan, a Christian, a Jew,” she said. “The possibilities are practically endless.”

Not having an outside governing body like other religions or church denominations allows them great freedom to believe whatever they choose.

“We believe that there is more than one path to the truth,” Rochester said.

Denis Prairie also believes that everyone has their own road to travel.

After his marriage fell apart, he left Catholicism in search of deeper meaning. He looked for acceptance in his own path, part of which includes witchcraft.

Owner of Shifting Sands Metaphysical, a store dedicated to helping people understand and follow their spiritual path, Prairie believes that his belief is at the centre of all others.

“All religion ... comes down to witchcraft,” he said. “Witchcraft started first.”

He feels that most people misunderstand witchcraft. White witchcraft is using healing energy, while dark witchcraft is exploiting destructive energy, he explained.

Part of white witchcraft is in the use of candles. Prairie says he always burns candles in the store to heal energies.

“It’s healing the negative energies within us,” he said. “It’s candle magic, it’s white magic.”

Published in Volume 65, Number 9 of The Uniter (October 28, 2010)