Reminder: these are my personal views. And I in no way expect them to be true for anyone other than me. If there is truth in any of this for you then yay you! If there isn't then that is perfectly fine. Also the Word God for me = The Universe, The Great Spirit, The Buddha, The Tao, The Engery.. all the same. I use the word God because its easier for most people to understand what "power" or "divine power" I'm trying to talk about.
My religious and spiritual views have always transformed, changed, and grown. I'm actually sure its quite common these days for most individual views on faith to shift back and forth and mold over time. With knowledge at our finger tips we are able to access any and every tradition, myth, ritual, and dogma we wish to reach and discover.
I know I'm not an athiest. And honestly my heart goes out to anyone who classifies themselves as one. I have researched Christianity, Catholicism, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduiam, Satanism, Shamanism, Toasim, Wicca, Asatru, Druidism, and most forms or Neo-Paganism. I have found my way in all of them. What suits me and what doesn't. I find truth in all of them, co-existance, formiliarity, and relation. I have come to a personal conclusion that all religions are one religion. All Gods, Goddesses, Spirits, Saints, and Energies spring from the same source. Kwan Yin, Goddess of Peace and Love is the same as The Virgin Mary- The saintly mother of Peace and Love. Buddha, God/Enity of Peace, happiness, and enlightenment is the same as Freyr, Ancient Nordic/Asatru God of peace, love, and joy. Gaia and Uranus, Greek Goddesses and God of the Earth and Sky are the same as Mother Earth and Father sky of the Native American Shamanism .. etc...
I of course know that this is a contemporary view of religion and faith in general. I also know in no way will this idea of all religions being one religion fit everyone's faith. I do personally think to preach a religious view as the "right" or "only" way is absolutely atrocious. Who is anyone to say what they believe is the right way? How can you be absolutly sure? We are all individuals thrown into a melting pot. Faith is a large aspect of individuality. Live and let live. If you want to educate yourself then do so. If you want to educate others in your faith then do so. But please don't preach that your faith is THE faith. Let people make their own choices as to what fits.
"God has no religion." -Ghandi.
What fits me?
There are certain aspects of Buddhism, Taoism, Wicca, Neo-Paganism, and Shamanism that fit me personally as an individual.
I believe in the big bang theory. I believe in evolution. I personally can't understand how any individual can't believe in Evolution. Especially with the carbon dated skulls, full skeletans, fossils, Dinosaurs mapping the evolutionary proccess. But I do understand that most aspects of science and evolution do not fit into most religious views and I respect that.
I also beleive what most of the ancient pagan cultures belived. They believed in what they knew as fact, what they could see happening around them. The sun rises and sets each day. The sun brings warmth and furtile fruits and harvests. The sun is a life giver. The moon cycles from nothing to full over and over again. This cycle relates to the female cycle which comes and goes over and over again. The moon also governs the motion and sway of the tides and water in the human body. Emotional fluctuations/Physical fluctuations. The earth dies and becomes reborn every spring and summer to die again in the fall and winter. Life and death process. Life, death, rebirth. As the earth lives and dies each year, the moon waxes and wans each month, while the sun rises and sets each day. Its quite easy to see why the ancint pagan cultures worshipped the natural rhythms of the earth as well as the life/death/rebirth process.
The sun rises and sets. The moon waxes and wans. The Earth cycles through seasons of life and death. Those are things considered to be factual and common place.
It's easy to see where gender plays a role in these beliefs. The masculine sun who rises in the sky to shower the fertle earth with life giving water and warmth to produce life. And of course the cycling moon. Gods and Goddesses.
Man and Woman. The Man fertilizes the Woman.
A man can embody the feminine aspect of life and lay with another man. As a woman can embody the masculine aspect of life and lay with another woman. To say homosexuality is unnatural is rediculous to me. There is no such thing as unnatural. Homosexuality has been around as long as there has been documentation. It can even be seen in non human animals.
Gender does exist in faith but it is also needless. Man, Woman, Asexual, Hermaphidite.... If "God" created all life, existance for that matter, then "God" must have aspects of both gender or simply neither. I do not believe "God" is a man, nor do I believe "God" is a woman. I believe it is neither and both.
"Ancient Father I hear your laughter, Ancient Father I taste your tears. Ancient Mother I hear you calling, Ancient Mother I hear your song."
The Universe, Life, Matter... is comprised of mutliple elements. Four elements dominate. Earth, Air, Fire, Water. Without these elements there could be no human life, no earth, No universe.
"Earth my body, Water my blood, Air my breath, and Fire my spirit."
The Earth brings us shelter, food, and material gifts such as metal, stone, wood, and soil. The Water brings us life, nourishment, and health. The Air brings us breath, scent, energy, and sound. The Fire brings us warmth, growth, light, defence, and creation. Its quite simple to see why Pagan cultures not only worshipped and honored the Earth and Celestial heavens but also the simple elements which surrounded them.
In Neo-Paganism there is a fifth sacred element which crowns the Pentagram as the fifth point. This fifth element is Spirit. All these elements, all this life came together, the big bang theory, for a reason. "Method to the madness." Spirit. A divine purpose, a divine creation, a divine will. This Spirit of divine creation is believed to reside in all living and non living things. All things in creation. Much as the other four elements reside in all things. Five elements. Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Spirit. The five points on the Most reviered Pagan symbol, The Pentagram or Pentacle.
Energy! All things in life, in the universe are made of Energy! Cells are made of atoms. Atoms, which are the building blocks or nature, are made of mostly nothing. Empty space. Electrons, Protons, and Neutrons. They are made up of energy. So all things, humans, trees, computers, buildings, cats/dogs, etc... are made of of energy. The universe is energy as well. All running on the same code. Picture the matrix if you will, cheesy as hell... i know. But this energy feeds off other energy. Feeding off of other's vibrations. People laughing and happy. Gives off a great vibe. People pissed and hostile gives off a negative vibration. Ever walk into a room where people are upset. It's uncomfortable. These are just examples of how we as human beings are able to physically and emotionally read energy vibrations. Manifest positive thinking and you will manifest possitive energy your way. Manifest negative thinking and you will manifest negative energy. I could go indepth but this is a simple blog rant. And these examples are weak but you hopefully get the idea!?
"The Kingdom of God is Within."- Jesus
This Energy resides in all things as the elements reside in all things. This Divine Spark, this energy, connects us all. Everything. The universe, The earth, the plants, the animals, the cultures, the religions, the people, and all the Creations of humanity- art, music, architecture, and even war. If you consider this energy Holy, this creation process, this connection... then all things are holy as all things are natural. Love/Hate. Night/Day. Peace/War. Creation/Distruction. Life/Death. Good/Evil. Balance. I'm not saying evil, murder, death, and war are good things. I'm simply personally identifying them as natural and necessary for universal/divine balance.
If "God" is truly THE all powerful creator/creatrix of all things and is in fact all things then how can anything ever happen to defy, anger, or disappoint "God"? "Sins!?" I personally think sins are impossible. You can't have love without hate. You can't have Peace without War. You can't have sex without perversion. You can't have life without death. I personally believe "Sins" are a human creation to scare people into a certain mind frame of thinking, to conform people into a certain way of life that at the time of their creation was considered fashionable or moral.
So what did the ancients worship?
The Universe, The Sun, The Moon, The Earth, The Cycles (Seasons, Moon, and Life/Death/Rebirth), Man and Woman, Creation, The Elements, an Unseen Divine Energy, Spirit, or Fifth element which is most commonly referred to now as "God," and our Divine connection to all things.
So what do I believe?
I believe what the ancients believe. I believe in all these things. Because I can see them. I can feel, taste, smell them... Dogma, myths, stories in books about poeple who came and went all over the world at different times I can't truelt grasp onto. Especially when these "holy, traditional" stories have been rewritten and passed down from specific cultures and differ so radically. The only pure non factual aspect of my believes is the existence of the Unseen Divine Energy that connects us all, what I reffer to as "God." This is where my personal spirituality turns to faith. I only have faith in this aspect of my path. Because there is only faith to go on. I have my own idea of what "God" looks like, what "God" is made of, does, says, creates.. etc... But these are my ideas, my beliefs, mine...
I would encourage anyone seeking truth or their path in faith to explore all paths in life. Not just a few. Reach out and see whats out there. See what works for you. Maybe one specific faith, maybe multiple!? I would personally consider the laws and rules in organzed religion and sugest to stray from organizaed religion. I believe there should be no rules when it comes to individual faith or spirituality.
Wouldn't it be fascinating if every human painted what they thought "God" looked like? What an interesting quilt that would make!
What do you believe? What would you paint?