There was a time when I shunned all discussions about religion and faith. The reason for this is that my own spiritual worldview was still evolving, and I didn't want any outside influences coloring my understanding of God and my connection to Her. (I say "Her" because God usually appears to me in the image of a young and yet old woman.) My spirituality is still evolving, and probably will be for the rest of my life, but I've reached a point where I've discovered enough that I feel comfortable enough to pass along the insights I have gained in the process.
Recently, I began a comparative study among world religions, looking for the common threads running through each system which can tie all of humanity together. The first result of that was my post, "War Is Not Normal for the Human Condition." I've spent most of my time since collating the information I gleaned, focussing on the Abrahamic religions which form the spiritual basis for the majority of humanity. And I've discovered some pretty interesting and, I hope, eye-opening co-relations.
The primary aspect of all the Abrahamic religions -- and indeed of most religions across the world -- is the inaccessibility of God. The concept of God as an omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient being is an incredibly difficult concept around which to wrap one's mind. Imagine having the ability to hear the thoughts of every person on Earth simultaneously, to see and alter, if desired, the behavior of every particle of which the universe consists. The average human worldview consists primarily of what is immediately in the person's field of vision with thoughts extending to places, individuals and events within that person's field of influence and into the immediate future. In that view, God is infinitely larger than any one of us. To bridge that gap, early religious adherents devised idols as "focus items" by which they could focus on one or several aspects of God and thus achieve some limited connection between the human soul and divinity. The tribal tendencies of humans drew together people who had similar conceptions of God and, by extension, separated them from people having different views.
Strife arose almost immediately, as the limited Godviews vied for supremacy as "the one true faith," or the "actual" concept of God. To a great extend, however, each Godview is correct, even if they seem to be contradictory. (Rule #1: Contradictions do not exist.) Think of yourself and your various moods. I, for example, have a tendency to express my love freely, which leads some to assume that I am a kind person. I also have a strong sense of justice, leading others to believe that I am cruel. These two views seem to contradict one another, yet they are merely different aspects of my personality expressed in different ways to different people in a diversity of situations. And the worldview of the person witnessing my personality expressions will color their perception of my intentions -- a stable person will see one of my expressions of love and view me as supportive, while an insecure person may assume that I am weak and exploitable. All these views of me are correct to an extent, but each assumption is made in the absence of evidence of all sides of my personality which make up the totality of my being. In this way, all people of faith have a correct but incomplete perception of God.
Because of this limitation on our ability to grasp the full extent of God, direct messages from God tend to take the form of prophesies. Throughout history, there have existed individuals who have been able to form a more complete conceptualization of God and thus make a greater connection to divinity. Examples of such prophets include Noah, Moses, Muhammad, Bahá'u'lláh, Joseph Smith, and Buddah, among others. There are some who regard these persons as "Ascended Masters," and herein lies the difficulty, and the overall topic of this post. Each of the individuals I have mentioned, and many others, have achieved a level of veneration among some admirers that they have been elevated to the level of divinity Itself, and thus become perceived as sacrosanct and worthy of worship as gods themselves. There is a term for this behavior: idolatry. Idolatry has been commonly misunderstood as the worship of physical objects as gods. In actual fact, people and concepts can also constitute idols if they become the focus of worship in place of God. Idolatry is a natural reaction by the limited human worldview to bridge the perceived gap between God and the worshiper, "but if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul." (Deuteronomy 4:29)
My point is that each of us is capable of making an individual connection with God, albeit in a limited fashion. If you make a true effort, with no evasion and stripped of all preconceptions, then you will truly know God in all of His/Her aspects. No priesthood is necessary, no other limited human to tell you what to expect, no established religion to color your perceptions of divinity. You can become a religion of one, or of two, you and God. There is no need for competition between dueling idols for supremacy in men's hearts. God speaks to each of us, seeks a connection with every individual on Earth, and in this way we are all one, all equal, all worthy of basic human respect.
As a side note, this is why I adhere to the Wicca faith more strongly than any other -- there are no idols. Some witches use objects on their altars as representations of one or more aspects of God, but those are merely focus objects, used as gateways to make the connection between the worshiper and God. (Some of us need help with that.) I'm sure there are some witches who would venerate the likes of Aleistair Crowley, Gerald Gardner, Scott Cunningham, or Raymond Buckland, but the majority with whom I've come into contact regard them merely as men, fellow travelers upon this Earth seeking connection to divinity and willing to pass along the wisdom they have accumulated. May they ever be regarded as such in the minds of witches everywhere.
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