...Because nobody wins.
As a matter of fact, I don't think it's possible TO win. It's one thing to argue, say, gravity. Everyone who hasn't floated off into the sky can pretty much agree that gravity is, 'ya know, a thing. Ask them who created gravity, and you may as well strap yourself in for a friendly, (or not so friendly) discussion on Deity. Who created the world, and why? How should they be worshipped? What do They expect? What rules need to be obeyed, and what happens when you don't?
I think it's funny, because no one, beyond a shadow of a doubt, can say for sure. No one can say that they know, one-hundred-percent, Who created the Universe. They cannot give you infallible, factual evidence as to WHY their beliefs are right. That's why it's called "faith." So. All the discussion becomes, then, is whether or not their understanding of God is better than your understanding of God. Whether or not your understanding is even a valid concept to be brought to the table. (Which first of all, is pretty insulting.)
The whole point of the argument is to prove somebody wrong about their own experiences by saying your perceptions are the only ones that are correct. What's so amusing is, at that point, you're really not trying to prove them wrong:
You're trying to prove to yourself that you're right.
Yet here's the thing....you don't need someone else's validation or agreement to be correct about how YOU relate to God.
Joe says, "I think of God like a mountain." Bob says, "No, God is definitely an ocean."
Why can't God be both? But here's a more interesting question:
Does it really matter?
"Well of course it matters!" Says Bob. "If everyone walks around thinking that God is a mountain, they're all going to perish in a horrible rockslide!"
....Says the fuck who??? To begin with, the rockslide is an intangible theory within the construct of your own belief system, Bob. It doesn't mean that mine has to have one.
The reason people have these arguments is because their understanding of reality is threatened, (and therefore their spiritual way of life,) when an idea is presented that challenges the way they think. What I want to know is:
Why is it so scary to think?
You can never put yourself fully in the shoes of another person. You cannot see the world with their eyes, live inside their unique mind and experience life as they've done. Why do other people have to think like you, for you to relate to the world in which you live? Personally, I think the fact that there are so many ideas about God is a testament to how our Creator is bigger than a single Human idea. Notice that every face of God in history has an identity based upon something that's ALREADY in creation, and that the ideas about it only ever come from Human minds. The various personalities given to God(s) are resonant within our OWN idiosyncratic traits.
God can only be angry because we understand what it's like to feel anger. God can only be jealous because we know what makes us jealous. God can only be loving because WE have the capability to be loving. It is my belief that every Human emotion, value, hope and dream is part of God because it's part of us. If God didn't have some Human qualities, we wouldn't be able to relate to Deity. (Because, we're Human.)
Athena spoke to people thousands of years ago. She still does. (People built a city in her honour for a reason.) To a Christian, this would have to mean that their belief in Yaweh/Jesus was false.
Unless....
Yes, of course!!!
She's a Demon in disguise. Deception! Straight from the Devil himself to mislead the people of Greece into worshipping a false God!
How do you know Athena doesn't exist, just because you haven't decided to talk to Her?
How do you know that God doesn't also exist outside of the way you've been taught, (or chosen) to think?
I didn't ask what you believe.
I asked how you KNOW.
If a system of faith doesn't resonate with you, doesn't move you or reforge you--here's the thing, it doesn't NEED to.
That doesn't mean it shouldn't do that for someone else.
I don't think the form or facet of God's existence matters more than the fact that God DOES exist. (Or so I believe.) Why?
Lemme put it this way. If everyone on the planet liked cake, we would have no pie.
And I fucking LOVE pie. Moreso than cake, actually.
Diversity is present in every single aspect of life. When you argue against diversity, you argue for a uniformity that is simply not found on this planet.
Is it possible that Jesus is the only way to God? It is possible. Do I believe that's true?
Not remotely.
Is it possible that Mohammed really was the Prophet meant to lead people to the truth?
Also mighty fucking possible.
Even more probable to me is the idea that Jesus and Mohammed both lead people to God based upon the spiritual needs that draw people to both Islam and Christianity.
Trying to tell me that my experience is wrong because you like your experience better doesn't make you right.
It doesn't mean you're smarter than me.
It doesn't mean you've secretly won, even when I don't acquiesce to your philosophies.
It just makes me think you're a dick.
You know what they say....
You are what you eat!
(I guess in that case, I'm pretty well fed.)
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Saturday, January 11, 2014
It's not as if this blog has enough Cern'osian influence or something.
But really, I have way too much fun searching for artistic representations of Him. Few images I find look exactly the way I see Him, but this is pretty close.
Harmonic Dissonance.
I am gaining much more from my meditations than I ever thought I would. Aside from relaxing my body and mind, it is in those quiet moments that I am most able to hear the voice of my God. During the bustle of daily life, my mind is in constant overdrive. If I have ever had a shallow experience, I don't remember it. Everything that happens in my life effects me very strongly. And because of the analytical way in which I process everything, I spend about as much time living inside of my own head as I do living externally...which can be kind of exhausting. Needless to say, this makes turning off the "brain chatter" for about an hour incredibly challenging. Yet also just as rewarding. Introspective by nature, it allows me to sink deeper into the nature of what's really driving my thoughts. An invitation to take a closer look at myself on a spiritual level, that turns my mind into the best tool for actualizing the nebulous concepts in my head into practical applications for living in a new state of awareness.
Last night, I woke up at about 3am, randomly. I was dreaming about Cernunnos, although I don't remember what He was saying. I have these dreams often, where I'll see Him apparently out of nowhere. Protective. Watchful. He will be a running theme or presence in my dreams, even though they don't necessarily pertain to Him at the start. Sometimes we will have conversations and I won't remember the things He says, yet I'll wake up in the best, most positive mood. Last night, I skipped my meditation. I was tired, and I kinda just wanted to fuck around on Facebook and stuff before going to sleep. I had the incense ready, the candles were set out. I apologized, and told Him that tonight, I just wanted to relax.
That familiar wave of warm energy washed over me, making me shake with the intensity of it. His reply was blunt, but well intentioned. As is His way.
"You either want to be a Witch, or you do not. You possess much potential, but you will not be an expert at using it overnight. There will be times you do not feel like doing the work involved...yet if you cannot muster enough will to discipline yourself on a small scale...how can you hope to do so on a larger one?"
Ever the wise instructor. The only way I can describe how He "talks" to me, is through sensation. Often I hear His teachings in words. Filtered through emotion. I "feel" what He has to say. This may seem a strange concept to some people, and once it may have sounded a little crazy to me. If someone told me they heard the voice of God in their head, I'd probably raise my eyebrows and just nod. But ever since I first met Him, this is simply how the connection has been. How He has revealed Himself to me. A case could be made that psychologically, I'm merely connecting with my own sub-conscious, and I would agree. However, not in the way that most people understand it.
I believe that when you connect with Deity, you ARE also delving into an aspect of your own personality. So on that end, yes, I am listening to my own inner voice. However, I also believe that there is no part of us that ISN'T resident in God. So. This archetype of myself also has definition in the form of an external entity. I can say this because I have experienced Cernunnos on an external level as well, what I would say is tangible evidence of His presence.
But I digress. Nevertheless, He was right. But I went to sleep anyway. Only for Him to wake me up with an insatiable desire to journal. (I should've just stayed awake in the first place. He's rather insistent with what He jokingly calls my "homework," and I've noticed that if I don't do it, there ends up being some circumstance that compels me to.)
I would definitely say that He's the facilitator of my rebirth. A new outlook; a deeper understanding of life, with a magnified sense of hope and ambition. Yet in doing so, He is exercising His "dark" aspect of Death in a figurative way. Destruction of one thing, to generate new life. He forces me to acknowledge my deepest doubts and unanswered questions. My fears as well as my dreams. For me to grow--to evolve, I am having to die to the parts of myself that are holding me back. His lessons right now focus on my freedom from inhibition. Healing my spirit of the damage I've done to myself. How the cycles that take place in nature; life, death, and rebirth--are also an internal process at work within my own soul.
I am so used to thinking from an Abrahamic mindset, that I sometimes worry about the fact that this path fulfills my spirit in a way that encompasses my whole being. There are times when I worry about being "wrong." I have been geared to think that there is only one way of connecting with God. And so, much of this journey thus far has been me letting go of the pain and frustration I had with Christianity. It first began with me admitting to myself that I didn't agree with the teachings of the Bible, or that I even found the Abrahamic concept of God to be a moral one. It then led me to ponder, "What if God exists outside of the bubble I've been inculcated in?" It is there that Cernunnos met me at the crossroads. And the Old One has been a fast friend ever since.
A problem I had as a Christian was self-expression. There were "earthly" or "worldly" things, (which were of course "bad.") And then there was the mold you were supposed to fit into on a spiritual level, which involved estranging yourself from any mode of thought, pleasure, or experience that did not fit with what the Bible SAID you should believe. It then became a struggle of being myself, or following the teachings of others out of fear. And I couldn't do it anymore.
This is not a transitory experience; this life. I am not here as a passenger, on my way to somewhere else. To imply such is to say that nothing on this world matters. When the whole fact of its existence matters. If one is to say, "Well, this world is doomed anyway, the only thing that matters is what's on the other side," you throw out every Human struggle, every element of diversity, and it becomes easy to engage in an attitude of cynicism toward anything that DOESN'T have to do with Christian teaching. At best, this life is seen as a testing ground for one thing: Whether or not you accept Jesus as your savior. Why involve yourself in making the world a better place if it's ultimately fallen? Why invest yourself in ANYTHING? It's not realistic. This is where we are NOW. The things of this world are not evil, nor is the "spiritual" more important than the physical. There is no physical experience, that is not a spiritual experience. Christians say, "Not of this World." I proudly declare that I am.
I believe that God is both immanent, and transcendent. That is to say, that God exists both outside of us, and within all of Earthly creation. I do not believe that there is a disconnect between Man and God; a separation. Why? Because I see no evidence of it being so. How can a Creator that is omnipresent in all things be separate from itself? I see God in the trees. I see God's face in the sun, and hear His voice on the wind. In the smiles of my friends, and in the roar of a waterfall. The whisper of a breeze, and the songs sung by birds. All is sacred. But Humans do not always treat it as such. And therein lies the disconnect. (If one were to exist.)
The only reason we appreciate light is by understanding darkness. I believe we were designed to learn, that our module of life was never intended to focus solely on the things that are "good." Christianity teaches that the world is intrinsically disordered. That nature is out of balance. Yet perection is not balance. Permanent light is not balance without a foil. Life without death has no meaning. We would not appreciate happiness if we didn't know what it is to feel sad. We wouldn't have dreams and goals if there were no adversities to rise above. Things are exactly as they are meant to be: for eternal bliss and comfort are not necessarily good things.
It is when you are drawn out of your comfort zone; when you are confronted with things that make you unhappy, that you are given the chance to grow. Living in harmony with this natural balance of life grants an equilibrium, whereas pretending it does not (and should not) exist, is useless. Because this is the only way the world has, and ever will be. I'm not saying people shouldn't strive for happiness: rather that we wouldn't, if it were merely granted to us.
The challenge then, is shaping your reality by defining what sort of experience you wish to have. This is our gift, and the freedom we've been given. To use our powers of creation to shape the world before us. I believe we were put on this Earth simply to be. And for some, that isn't enough, but it is more than enough. For it can be whatever we will it to be. We just have to dream a little bigger. I think it much more probably that after creation, our Creator had no ulterior motive other than existing alongside us in this simulacrum for the sheer pleasure of it. The concepts of good over evil did not exist until we realized there was something to choose other than what positively affected the lives of others.
To me, that which is "good" are the things that honour, perpetuate, and generate abundance of positivity. Generosity. Kindness. Love. Treating others the way you wish to be treated. The only reason I can say this, is because I know how poorly it makes me feel when I'm living in lack. Regardless of whether they've been penned in a holy book, or by the government, Human morality is given definition and boundary solely by the Human mind. This world is not broken. And that scares some people.
Because the way this world is?
Is the only lens of life that we will ever see through.
"Look at the world around you. To see God, you must know that God is in everything. part of every person. Every animal. Every plant, and tree. God is everywhere. Therefore, when you understand yourself, and the world you live in...you understand God."
-Cernunnos
Last night, I woke up at about 3am, randomly. I was dreaming about Cernunnos, although I don't remember what He was saying. I have these dreams often, where I'll see Him apparently out of nowhere. Protective. Watchful. He will be a running theme or presence in my dreams, even though they don't necessarily pertain to Him at the start. Sometimes we will have conversations and I won't remember the things He says, yet I'll wake up in the best, most positive mood. Last night, I skipped my meditation. I was tired, and I kinda just wanted to fuck around on Facebook and stuff before going to sleep. I had the incense ready, the candles were set out. I apologized, and told Him that tonight, I just wanted to relax.
That familiar wave of warm energy washed over me, making me shake with the intensity of it. His reply was blunt, but well intentioned. As is His way.
"You either want to be a Witch, or you do not. You possess much potential, but you will not be an expert at using it overnight. There will be times you do not feel like doing the work involved...yet if you cannot muster enough will to discipline yourself on a small scale...how can you hope to do so on a larger one?"
Ever the wise instructor. The only way I can describe how He "talks" to me, is through sensation. Often I hear His teachings in words. Filtered through emotion. I "feel" what He has to say. This may seem a strange concept to some people, and once it may have sounded a little crazy to me. If someone told me they heard the voice of God in their head, I'd probably raise my eyebrows and just nod. But ever since I first met Him, this is simply how the connection has been. How He has revealed Himself to me. A case could be made that psychologically, I'm merely connecting with my own sub-conscious, and I would agree. However, not in the way that most people understand it.
I believe that when you connect with Deity, you ARE also delving into an aspect of your own personality. So on that end, yes, I am listening to my own inner voice. However, I also believe that there is no part of us that ISN'T resident in God. So. This archetype of myself also has definition in the form of an external entity. I can say this because I have experienced Cernunnos on an external level as well, what I would say is tangible evidence of His presence.
But I digress. Nevertheless, He was right. But I went to sleep anyway. Only for Him to wake me up with an insatiable desire to journal. (I should've just stayed awake in the first place. He's rather insistent with what He jokingly calls my "homework," and I've noticed that if I don't do it, there ends up being some circumstance that compels me to.)
I would definitely say that He's the facilitator of my rebirth. A new outlook; a deeper understanding of life, with a magnified sense of hope and ambition. Yet in doing so, He is exercising His "dark" aspect of Death in a figurative way. Destruction of one thing, to generate new life. He forces me to acknowledge my deepest doubts and unanswered questions. My fears as well as my dreams. For me to grow--to evolve, I am having to die to the parts of myself that are holding me back. His lessons right now focus on my freedom from inhibition. Healing my spirit of the damage I've done to myself. How the cycles that take place in nature; life, death, and rebirth--are also an internal process at work within my own soul.
I am so used to thinking from an Abrahamic mindset, that I sometimes worry about the fact that this path fulfills my spirit in a way that encompasses my whole being. There are times when I worry about being "wrong." I have been geared to think that there is only one way of connecting with God. And so, much of this journey thus far has been me letting go of the pain and frustration I had with Christianity. It first began with me admitting to myself that I didn't agree with the teachings of the Bible, or that I even found the Abrahamic concept of God to be a moral one. It then led me to ponder, "What if God exists outside of the bubble I've been inculcated in?" It is there that Cernunnos met me at the crossroads. And the Old One has been a fast friend ever since.
A problem I had as a Christian was self-expression. There were "earthly" or "worldly" things, (which were of course "bad.") And then there was the mold you were supposed to fit into on a spiritual level, which involved estranging yourself from any mode of thought, pleasure, or experience that did not fit with what the Bible SAID you should believe. It then became a struggle of being myself, or following the teachings of others out of fear. And I couldn't do it anymore.
This is not a transitory experience; this life. I am not here as a passenger, on my way to somewhere else. To imply such is to say that nothing on this world matters. When the whole fact of its existence matters. If one is to say, "Well, this world is doomed anyway, the only thing that matters is what's on the other side," you throw out every Human struggle, every element of diversity, and it becomes easy to engage in an attitude of cynicism toward anything that DOESN'T have to do with Christian teaching. At best, this life is seen as a testing ground for one thing: Whether or not you accept Jesus as your savior. Why involve yourself in making the world a better place if it's ultimately fallen? Why invest yourself in ANYTHING? It's not realistic. This is where we are NOW. The things of this world are not evil, nor is the "spiritual" more important than the physical. There is no physical experience, that is not a spiritual experience. Christians say, "Not of this World." I proudly declare that I am.
I believe that God is both immanent, and transcendent. That is to say, that God exists both outside of us, and within all of Earthly creation. I do not believe that there is a disconnect between Man and God; a separation. Why? Because I see no evidence of it being so. How can a Creator that is omnipresent in all things be separate from itself? I see God in the trees. I see God's face in the sun, and hear His voice on the wind. In the smiles of my friends, and in the roar of a waterfall. The whisper of a breeze, and the songs sung by birds. All is sacred. But Humans do not always treat it as such. And therein lies the disconnect. (If one were to exist.)
The only reason we appreciate light is by understanding darkness. I believe we were designed to learn, that our module of life was never intended to focus solely on the things that are "good." Christianity teaches that the world is intrinsically disordered. That nature is out of balance. Yet perection is not balance. Permanent light is not balance without a foil. Life without death has no meaning. We would not appreciate happiness if we didn't know what it is to feel sad. We wouldn't have dreams and goals if there were no adversities to rise above. Things are exactly as they are meant to be: for eternal bliss and comfort are not necessarily good things.
It is when you are drawn out of your comfort zone; when you are confronted with things that make you unhappy, that you are given the chance to grow. Living in harmony with this natural balance of life grants an equilibrium, whereas pretending it does not (and should not) exist, is useless. Because this is the only way the world has, and ever will be. I'm not saying people shouldn't strive for happiness: rather that we wouldn't, if it were merely granted to us.
The challenge then, is shaping your reality by defining what sort of experience you wish to have. This is our gift, and the freedom we've been given. To use our powers of creation to shape the world before us. I believe we were put on this Earth simply to be. And for some, that isn't enough, but it is more than enough. For it can be whatever we will it to be. We just have to dream a little bigger. I think it much more probably that after creation, our Creator had no ulterior motive other than existing alongside us in this simulacrum for the sheer pleasure of it. The concepts of good over evil did not exist until we realized there was something to choose other than what positively affected the lives of others.
To me, that which is "good" are the things that honour, perpetuate, and generate abundance of positivity. Generosity. Kindness. Love. Treating others the way you wish to be treated. The only reason I can say this, is because I know how poorly it makes me feel when I'm living in lack. Regardless of whether they've been penned in a holy book, or by the government, Human morality is given definition and boundary solely by the Human mind. This world is not broken. And that scares some people.
Because the way this world is?
Is the only lens of life that we will ever see through.
"Look at the world around you. To see God, you must know that God is in everything. part of every person. Every animal. Every plant, and tree. God is everywhere. Therefore, when you understand yourself, and the world you live in...you understand God."
-Cernunnos
Thursday, December 19, 2013
My belief in God.
Changing religions is not an easy process. (Not if your former religion had any importance or presence in your life.) I think it's one thing to go from believing in no higher power at all, and then finding the spiritual outlet that best suits your beliefs. It's entirely another to question everything you once knew, (or thought you did,) and realize that it leaves you feeling not just empty, but in a constant state of pain.
Quite simply, I lost my connection to the Christian concept of God. I realized that unless I adhered to, believed in, and acted upon the teachings of the Bible, I had no right to call myself a Christian. Not if I was being honest, and not if I wanted to have inner peace. I HAD put my faith in Jesus Christ. But the cost was to divorce myself from my own insight, my own thoughts, my own experiences, and anything that existed outside the spectrum of one idea. And that was a cost I simply could not live with.
At some point, I am going to write about what I DON'T believe about God. This post, however, is about what I DO believe.
I believe that there is One Creative source. But I believe it manifests itself differently for everyone, depending upon their ability to relate and understand it. I also think that, no matter the face it has, (or the face we put on it,) at the end of the day, all concepts of God are simply that: concepts. Ideas. Unable to be separated from the Human elements of our OWN personality. And that when we're connecting with Deity, we're also really connecting with a part of ourselves.
I think that for one religion to claim absolute truth, all religions outside of it must be provably false. Because this cannot be done with faith, (which is belief despite an ABSENCE of scientific/factual evidence,) the only thing that makes a religion valid for ANY one individual, is whether not it satisfies the spiritual needs of the adherent.
Christianity claims to be the only road to God. Yet if that were true, I don't think it would be possible to connect with Deity in any other religion. But people do. Their beliefs and religious practices fulfill their need to commune with God, regardless of whether or not they're Christian. Let's break that down even farther, to the literal handful of denominations within each religion. You can talk to a Catholic, and a Lutheran, and both have entirely different interpretations on the character and expectations of God, to the point where He's almost a different person in totality.
I think if one religion was meant to be the only path to God, everyone would come to that path because it spoke to them, and not because people shove it down their throat. But some people feel absolutely no connection to Christianity. If it was a religion meant for all, then all would feel at home there. Yet not everyone does. Because we're all different.
And I think that's exactly as it should be.
Quite simply, I lost my connection to the Christian concept of God. I realized that unless I adhered to, believed in, and acted upon the teachings of the Bible, I had no right to call myself a Christian. Not if I was being honest, and not if I wanted to have inner peace. I HAD put my faith in Jesus Christ. But the cost was to divorce myself from my own insight, my own thoughts, my own experiences, and anything that existed outside the spectrum of one idea. And that was a cost I simply could not live with.
At some point, I am going to write about what I DON'T believe about God. This post, however, is about what I DO believe.
I believe that there is One Creative source. But I believe it manifests itself differently for everyone, depending upon their ability to relate and understand it. I also think that, no matter the face it has, (or the face we put on it,) at the end of the day, all concepts of God are simply that: concepts. Ideas. Unable to be separated from the Human elements of our OWN personality. And that when we're connecting with Deity, we're also really connecting with a part of ourselves.
I think that for one religion to claim absolute truth, all religions outside of it must be provably false. Because this cannot be done with faith, (which is belief despite an ABSENCE of scientific/factual evidence,) the only thing that makes a religion valid for ANY one individual, is whether not it satisfies the spiritual needs of the adherent.
Christianity claims to be the only road to God. Yet if that were true, I don't think it would be possible to connect with Deity in any other religion. But people do. Their beliefs and religious practices fulfill their need to commune with God, regardless of whether or not they're Christian. Let's break that down even farther, to the literal handful of denominations within each religion. You can talk to a Catholic, and a Lutheran, and both have entirely different interpretations on the character and expectations of God, to the point where He's almost a different person in totality.
I think if one religion was meant to be the only path to God, everyone would come to that path because it spoke to them, and not because people shove it down their throat. But some people feel absolutely no connection to Christianity. If it was a religion meant for all, then all would feel at home there. Yet not everyone does. Because we're all different.
And I think that's exactly as it should be.
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Lord Cernunnos.
(Art by Dahamion of DeviantArt.)Lately I've been keeping a journal. This is an entry from a few weeks ago.
"Cernunnos is a good mentor. At every opportunity, He builds me up, identifies areas of improvement without condescension, helps me to use my own logic in finding the truth, and shows me how to find the way along a winding path. This is what I have needed. Not people telling me how and what to think, but rather asking "WHAT do I think?" He may be Lord of the Wilds, and of animals. But he represents change. Challenge. Growth. Clearance of the old for new life to flourish. Sacrifice. Survival. He represents, (to me,) the balance of nature, as well as the balance within ourselves.
He is more complex than I'd imagined. Though He is warm and friendly, there is also a rugged, darker side lurking there under the surface. Not dark as in "evil," but dark as in the fact that he knows how life can be harsh, and that sometimes life is a struggle. He is an interesting paradox of laughter and sadness. Primal and logical. Predator and prey. The lessons we learn in the dark as well as the light. To me, he is that inspired, aggressive, projective energy that "gets things done." His energy is very active as opposed to being more nurturing. And, (though I've come to see that side of Him more often these days,) I would say He is more encouraging than nurturing. He demands that you not wallow in self pity, (He has little patience for it,) and instead urges you to live with intent, in order to solve problems and be empowered in your own self.
He's that quiet, masculine confidence, and has a protective nature. He is the father, brother, and son. Love and lust. Ferocity and restraint. I feel like I'm identifying with these parts of Him through my own personality, and that's why I have this connection with a God I never believed in before. What's more interesting is, I've discovered His personality almost entirely through relational interaction. And then, when I eventually read bits of lore on Him, I'm shocked to the point of chills to discover the level of consistency my experiences have, with information surrounding His character.
This reinforces my belief that you don't need a book of law to teach you how to interact with God. I think that God is all around us, and within us. If we are to hear His/Her voice, we have only to listen. I connected with Cernunnos simply thinking of Him as the "nature God," and the male aspect of the One.
I found so, so much more."
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