Israel is Real
Part One: The Cosmic Jew
Each of the religions expresses essential universal truths about the human condition. As such, everyone is Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, Taoist, and so on. Dreams bear this out. Dreams do not promote one religion over another. Instead, they use religion to give context to the dreamer's experience. Dreams also interconnect the religions, illuminate their true meanings, and reveal the roots of their misappropriation.
In my dreams, the religion most directly associated with the global collective -- with all of humanity -- is Judaism. The Jewish story -- its exodus from slavery, quest for a Promised Land, eras of stability, and eras of Diaspora -- is everyone's story. It is the story of the collective as well as the individual. To find the Promised Land, every person must wander the desert for forty years.
While the collective realizes wholeness in its global identity, the individual does in his/her cosmic identity -- in self-identification as a Child of God/the universe. Such a Child is a Cosmic Jew.
In my spoken-word, Dr. Seuss-ian dialogue, "God and the Snake," the Snake asks God, "So, who are these people? The Jews?"
God replies: "Well, they really endure. That's for sure.
They make music. They wear cool shoes.
They fall in love and they've got the blues.
They go to work. They come home.
They rent movies about the Terrordome.
The Jews kick ass and kiss ass, too.
Some go to class and some skip.
Some get a piercing in their lower lip.
They free the mind. They need a hug.
They learn a step. They try a drug.
"Jews are all the people of the world,
Each baby, man, woman, boy and girl.
Over all the Earth do they roam
Looking for a place to call their own,
And the most Jewish of Jews has no home."
Where "Jews are all the people of the world," the World itself is the Promised Land. The Cosmic Jew, at home in him or herself, is at the threshold of the Promised Land.
A metaphor for the collective of Cosmic Jews comes in a poem from a dream I had:
Two armies face to face
Accompanied by a third,
In green: Israel, an ancient ocean
Of corn.
The two armies of the dream are groups that fight over any land. Neither sees the third army, which is the abundance of the Earth, rooted, in harmony, its leaves exuberant in the sunshine like the hands of dancers -- dancing long after the two armies have perished.
Being the whole World, Israel is both land & sea, an "ancient ocean" symbolizing the collective unconscious, the reservoir of all the stories there ever were -- not just the stories of the ethnic Jew, but the stories of all, we Cosmic Jewry. The stories of the two armies face-to-face doom their descendents, eternally denying them Israel. Israel is not a state. It is a state of mind.
My first encounter with Israel was in 1998, chronicled in this excerpt from my memoirs:
As the cherubs' laughter pealed out of eternity, the darkness behind my closed eyes went white. A smell began blowing into my nostrils and sinuses. It was the same smell that lingers in the nose after a long cry, but denser and all-encompassing. Intuitively, I knew the smell was called "pneuma," a word I didn't know at the time, but which means "soul or spirit." On ordinary Earth, pneuma could not be sensed because of the soup of mold, decay, body funk, bacteria, pollution, and so forth. Were these neutralized, pneuma would dwell everywhere. As it was, while I rested limply in my seat, there was a pocket of pneumatic purity and peace around me.
The pneuma transmuted into a smell that I intuitively knew was of Israel. It was the richest and most colorful smell I had ever experienced. I had a vision of the place God intended Israel to be. Its geographical location was unimportant. It was a place where people lived in harmony with the freedom, joyfulness and peace of God's spirit. It was so beautiful that I cried.
Part Two: Beyond Judaism
Dreams sometimes use "Jewish" to describe any group that espouses a consensus reality made inflexible by the assumption that its collective beliefs are self-evidently true. In this sense, fundamentalists of any sort, Nazis, and Muslims are all Jews. From the perspective of dreams, everyone is a Jew to some extent. Since all people are God's Chosen People, all people are Jewish.
Diaspora does not apply exclusively to Jews. Any group that is uprooted and cast out suffers Diaspora. Not until there is global wholeness will Diaspora cease. In fact, when the globe is whole, no one will identify themselves as either a "Jew," "Muslim," "Buddhist," "Hindu," "Christian," or "other." Instead, people will appreciate that spirituality is unified -- unified like a diamond whereon each religion is a unique facet of spiritual truth. The diamond is set on wedding rings exchanged between God and the World, cosmic partners mutually sharing all religions. The wedding rings are identical. God's represents reality and the World's represents how reality is perceived. This is the marriage of Heaven & Earth.
Last January 16th, I dreamed:
Amidst a Jewish ceremony, I have urinated in my chair and people can smell it. I return a glass to its proper place. The Jews think I am a Jew desecrating it, but I am not a Jew and have no intention of desecrating anything.
The Jews in the dream are not ethnic Jews. They are any collective with a sacralized consensus reality. In the dream, I am not a Jew because I do not share consensus reality with the collective in waking life. The reason is not that I am a non-conformist. It is that I conformed to God (who is alien to consensus reality). In solitude I was crucified, existentially, becoming so individuated that dreams say I am Christian.
Crucifixion makes whole. Wholeness is more wrathful than man. Wholeness subsumes man's resentments, legacies, inertia and ignorance. The world's inevitable destiny is wholeness -- due to its cosmic origin in the wholeness of God.
When I was callow -- and male identified -- it was empowering to desecrate that which the collective sacralized. Now it is empowering (and self-sacralizing) to be my deepest self first and foremost. If being myself happens to mess with someone's mind, that's what art does sometimes.
It is sometimes the irresistible calling of artists and young people to burn away the past. Usually, young people do not completely forsake their connection to the collective past. They resettle into family life and perpetuate, in some degree, consensus realities they may have once rejected. Others of them don't make it that far. Satiating their appetite for destruction becomes an end-in-itself and they end up babbling to themselves, without children to love.
I was losing myself to the latter fate, but escaped it through spiritual awareness. The babbling became a brook that led to eternity and the children are inside myself. Along the way I had to do some radical things to neutralize how far I had strayed. Referring to the above dream, I had to pee in my chair and sit in it -- an act symbolic of accepting my shit, and the world's shit, in order to get past it. I did this metaphorically and literally in the following excerpt from my memoirs. It was spring 2000. I had come to identify as female weeks before:
In the mirror George saw me clearly beginning to appear through the face. The skin was softer, hands smaller, hips wider, and breasts swollen. George shaved off all the body hair, except from the head and crotch.
In the afternoon, while we were dancing in George's room, he suddenly and urgently had to poop. His flatmate Livia was in the bathroom. George couldn't hold it. He didn't want to shit in his pants. He was afraid to. For this reason he knew he had to do it. It was always like that for us. Doing such things were rites of self-reclamation. "Oh, man," George said to himself.
We stood in the middle of the room and let go. It came out quick and smooth. George felt embarrassment and shame, and said, "Oh, man."
We sat down on it and felt it against us and relaxed. We put the fingers into the pants, got some poop on them, pulled them out, rubbed our brown fingers together and looked at the shit. I told him, "It's just brown stuff. It's not bad."
We rubbed some onto the penis. We brought it up and sniffed it. It smelled healthy. We were eating well. "It's just brown stuff," I told him again.
Then, the bladder let go, wetting the pants through to the carpet - and we were finished.
George envisioned a day when I would offer guidance with these types of things in psychotherapy; helping clients to take back the body from fear and shame.
After George cleaned up in the bathroom, he came back into his room. My mouth opened into an O. God's penis slipped into it and let out a few drops of semen that coursed warmly into me and settled in my stomach. George tried to ignore the crudity of this, and to be with its beauty; with the sense that I was receiving spiritual nourishment, creative power, mana. George thought of the rain of star-semen in the room, and the spray of star-semen onto my face, represented by its embedded colored glass.
Back to the dream:
Amidst a Jewish ceremony I have urinated in my chair and people can smell it. I return a glass to its place and the Jews think I am a Jew desecrating it.
The residue of my "unclean" past is still with me - people can "smell it," which is to say, they can sense it subtly, though I do not run it up flagpoles like when I was male identified. I am trying to return the glass back to its place - trying to give the collective what is its - while maintaining the absolute freedom and power of being identified as an avatar of Rose Mary Pillowwater.
Rose Mary is wed not to the collective as a "Jew," but to existence, as a "Christian." This is not meant to poo-poo Judaism. It is saying that to transcend the collective completely, an individual must be crucified. Individuals must be crucified in order to give the World to the Chosen People.
The glass in the dream alludes to the Jewish custom of breaking glasses at weddings. According to do-it-yourself-weddings.com, no one knows exactly why this is done. Indeed, there are many aspects of consensus reality that self-perpetuate for no apparent reason, other than inertia and that they provide a sense of continuity. The collective knows - deep inside, unconsciously -- that substituting tradition for continuity cannot go on forever. Perhaps this is the real meaning behind why Jews break glasses at weddings. The glasses symbolize the paradigms of consensus reality that will someday be smashed by the marriage of Heaven to Earth.
After the glasses of consensus reality are broken, Rose Mary will help sweep up the shards and empty them in the bin. Then maybe someday God & the World may marry, and the Chosen People will be redeemed.
Image by Iguana Joe, courtesy of Creative Commons license.
Tweet- 4-14-09
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Comments
Twisted?
Abandoning which faith exactly?
Christian,Muslim,Ba'hai,hindu,Jain,hermetic?
I thought RS was one place safe from the judgmental ramblings of CHrIstIaN fundamentalists.
Go Godbother someone who cares.
Nice piece Amy.
Yes Psirider; definitely twisted.
Even though I personally find Amy's theology restricted to the 'good creator/ good creation' variety, trying to make this all-encompassing, it's done in such a way, that there's no inquisition lurking in the background. So well done Amy, even if I don't agree with everything you say.
But not so well done, iLLWiLL.
Cit iLLWill's post:
"The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits ......."I can only join Psirider and comment: Does 'the faith' mean 'THE faith'? iLLWiLL's small bigot and narrow faith? What intolerable and arrogant megalomania.
And does iLLWiLL also have a patent on 'the spirit', it being 'THE spirit' of his choice, and for which he is self-appointed spokesman. How comes? Direct divine and exclusive communication?
If you, iLLWiLL, feel you're attacked by my language, please remember who started using that kind of language (cit: 'hypocritical liars' from your post). Something you've done before in other posts. So be prepared to cut down on the missionary soapbox oration, if you want to be met with even a small amount of respect.
There are internet spaces, where your intolerance and fanatism probably will be wellcomed, even applauded. Here you're at your own risk, and what's worse: You give christianity a very bad name, making it difficult for those christians, who want to distance themselves from 2000 years of christian insanity.
perhaps the hardest lesson
Aaaah, a prophet
Do you froth around the mouth, when your 'visions' turn up? The true sign of an authentic prophet.
Not only do you have intimate knowledge of your god's will, you have also information about righteousness in people, you've never met. Quite impressive.
You're right, because you're right; right? It must be a lonely life, just you and your soapbox and inability to communicate.
Weeeeell...
To Amy:
Growing up in New Jersey, I had friends whose grandparents (and sometimes even parents) had been in the concentration camps. Each had a number crudely tattooed on the inside of their arm, and each visibly bore the weight of that experience. It was never talked about, the Holocaust, yet one knew that something huge and horrific had happened.
Some things burn without ever going out.
To iLLWiLL:
Who is this Creator? Show me!
Faith is the belief in things unseen
Fair enough, for those who need to have a faith. Personally I prefer gnosis.
For me it's not difficult to accept the assumption of 'intent' in cosmos, neither do I shy from the idea of an inner personal experience of a spiritual 'something', which is not based on a purely physical or material premise.
That's not the problem here, as this debate isn't between hardcore 'scientism' as opposed to religion.
The real problem is, when someone starts to insist, that his/her interpretation of 'intent' and spirituality exclusively is THE correct answer. Insisting so forcefully as christianity historically has done (up to and including present time) that even war, genocide, torture, falsification, lying and censorship has been justifiable means to spread the 'good word'.
The experience of 'spirituality' and cosmic 'intent' does not in any way support any claim of christianity as THE religion. It could just as well 'prove' the superiority of Islam, Judaism or practically any religion including a 'god'.
Neither do 'the ancients' prove christianity's superiority. Most religions have their own versions of 'the ancients' telling of the future, and as prophesying goes, christianity is rather low on the list for correct hits. J.C. was supposed to turn up in the lifetime of his disciples, so either are they (they disciples) still alive, or else the prophecy-machine of christianity needs an overhaul.
'Iniquity', as different from righteousness (rather say SELF-rigtheousness). This moral advice coming from someone who denounces other spiritual models as "demonic", "hypocritical liars" or with burned-out consciences.
Onwards christian soldiers; but as the happy days of the inquisition are over, bring glib arguments and demagogy instead of flaming swords.
PS My father actually was in a KZcamp in WWII, as he protested against a system, which could have been modelled on parts of the old testament.
Ahhh! There is the Sacred!
Ahhh! There is the Sacred!
"This summer I was on an almost deserted beach in Sardinia. In front of me there was a little baby girl who had just realised that she could ‘walk’ if, having got up onto her feet, she threw herself forward she could stumble four or five paces before losing momentum and falling down again. She was totally absorbed with this new discovery of free movement. She continued with this cycle of rising, lunging forward, taking some steps and falling again for several minutes.
At a certain point her attention was taken by the marks left in the sand by her hands as she fell. She had made another discovery! She realised that by hitting the sand with her hands, she could make all kinds of fascinating holes and indentations. As she was busy with this new discovery, the waves swept in reaching just to where she was sitting and washed the sand smooth and clear of any marks at all. Another discovery!! What was it that she had witnessed?
She then repeated the whole sequence - running, falling, making hand-marks in the sand - then watching the water come in and erase everything. Amazing!!!
Next she ran a few steps and made more holes. Again the tide wiped all her markings on the world away. She ran back to the previous spot, making holes, watching the water erase everything. Now she ran back and forth between the two points where she was making marks - as if trying to conserve some marks against the erasing of the water.
She continued this experiment for several minutes. Then again something new! A single piece of seaweed was left behind by the waves. She picked it up, gazing at its glistening, shining, colours - waving it back and forth, catching the sunlight’s reflections. This was too exciting!
She ran and fell back down the beach to where her parents were. She demonstrated her exciting discovery, screeching with joy, waving it in the sunlight - but it seemed that her father had already seen seaweed. He took it from her and threw it down on the sand. Then lifted her up and placed her in her new brightly coloured rubber floating ring, and pushed her out into the water for some proper beach activity. As soon as he stopped pushing, she twisted around in the rubber ring, turning back towards the beach, striving forward with a great effort, she arrived back to the sand, threw herself out of the ring, and ran back to where the seaweed had been thrown. She picked it up again, and this time went to her mother to share her exciting discovery. This time her mother took her sharing seriously and engaged with her daughter in the immediacy of her astonishing discovery.
I later asked them how old she was, and they told me she was just 13 months. I tell you this story because I want to leave you with an image of the Sacred in action. This baby girl was in a state of Sacredness, being able to spontaneously live her amazement of being-in-the-world, discovering exciting connectedness between herself and everything around her. Each of us had this capability of living in the Sacred before language caught us and made us into humans-with-conscious-purposes. Thereafter we become blind to the operation of the Sacred within our own being. If we are lucky, we retain the ability to be occasionally amazed, astonished, in awe of the whole system within which our living is embedded." Vincent Kenny
http://www.oikos.org/vinsacred.htm
**********************
"Wanderer, there is no road,
the road is made by walking". Antonio Machado
Pasito a pasito,Todo quiere ser querido.
a children's world more than adults'
Ideas masquerade as the sacred.
Wonder, fascination and pleasure suffice for reverence.
I had a dream where a four year old girl went around to everyone in a restaurant saying, “God accepts you as you are.”
Island of Stability
Thank you to all who have responded to ill-will.
Bogomil, seeing my theology as “good creator/good creation” diminishes it. I feel stereotyped.
Here is a link to a blog entry from last week that sums it that sums it, and here is a follow up entry that expands on some points.
You write “all-encompassing” as if this is a negative. Why is it negative? All-encompassing for me is not limiting in any way. It perpetually evolves…
How is it that you deduce there is an inquisition lurking in the background? Is it because I use the word “Christian” self-descriptively? I use “Jew,” “Buddhist,” “Muslim” and “Hindu” self-descriptively, too. What Christian would do that? If you check out my theology through the links above, you will see that before I am a member of any religion, I am a Stooge.
A dream I had in 1998 we will call “Island of Stability”:
Me and a woman are trying to escape a society that is trying to enslave us. We flee and spend a long time underwater. When we come up for air we're in a new place, but they're after us again. She takes a shotgun blast in the chest and we go under again. Now, I must really take control since she's injured. We follow the base of an island from the bottom of the sea up to the land and air. When we reach this new place it's very beautiful and empty, but I have the sense we'll be found here, too. I think we should find a cave to live in. My heart is sorrowful about all the persecution. She's certain that we'll be looked for here because she saw that the tail of the monoichthiosaurus formed the island at the bottom of the sea. There are very interesting cubelike structures at the top of the hill I'd like to explore. Next to me carved a bit chaotically into the rock are the names of the people who have made it this far. They proclaim that society lied and that this place attests to it. This place is of God and there is no desire here.
Judge and Be Judged
Judge and be judged.
No one speaks with sincere certitude about the doom in God’s ill-will without becoming its target.
You do unto yourself as you do unto others, so regard them respectfully if you want to be treatred with respect.
Parent your children, not your brothers and sisters.
I had a dream about people who force their religious views on others (instead of sharing them and taking up respectful dialogue) they were naked people with guns. Not very Christlike.
I had a dream where a four year old girl went around to everyone in a restaurant saying, “God accepts you as you are.”
Re: Amy
Hi Amy,
thanks for your response. I'm really sorry, if my first post seemed unduly critical in a personal way. As I wrote "well done Amy", I hoped that my comments would be taken more at an 'academic' level, rather than as an attack. For me an 'academic' point can be discussed, it's not something you identify so intensively with, that it can't be changed. That ofcourse also includes my own opinions; it's more important to find truth than to be 'right'.
Probably the word 'inquisition' made you feel, that I accused you of something unpleasant, but I wrote: "....there's NO inquisition lurking in the background..." (emphasis on no this time), and that's exactly, why I liked your article.
Concerning the word 'all-encompassing' I here referred to your using expressions as: "due to its cosmic origin in the wholeness of God", "Since all people are God's Chosen People, all people are Jewish." and " in self-identification as a Child of God/the universe."Personally having an intellectual leaning towards pre-christian strict gnostic dualism (describing COSMOS, as opposite to a postulated 'higher' REALITY, as dualistic and generally imperfect), I can't say, that I consider myself as a part of cosmos or as a child of 'god'. So I beg to be completely excluded from a group defined this way.
But still, I'm not missionary about my ideological base, I can discuss it and I rest securely in it outside cosensus.
Where I get aggressive is when I meet ideologies, which traditionally through fire-and-brimstone, jihads, crusades etc etc have tried to impose their own 'truth-monopol'. If such ideologies are not opposed with strength, I will soon see severe restrictions on my own possibilities of reading what I want, believing what I want and living my private life as I want.
Even today such restrictive cultures exist: The bible-belt, certain muslim countries and some countries having totalitarian political ideologies. But please feel assured, that it never has been my intention to include you in this group. Quite the contrary.
oh jeez, sorry
Sorry, Bogomil, I mis-reacted. I totally misread "no inquisition lurking" as "inquisition lurking." I am prone to anticpate attack rather than civility and appreciation. Plus I was triggered by ill-will's rhetoric, which I found unchristian and "satanic." So the wounded part of me misread your repsonse. Thank you for your civil and thoughtful reply.
The reason my work tends to encompass all is because the "postulated higher reality" is an immediate reality for me, all the time. To cope with it I write about it. A part of the all encompassing for me is respect as part of a paradigm of ethics. I respect your views, and trust our views peacefully co-exist.
This article rocked ill-will's world. His/her island in the sea is his/her ego and it is quaking. I hope he/she is OK.
projections
ill-will, I am not mocking anybody. I don't mock. Your response is precisely the same as in the dream from the piece of all the Jews thinking I have descrated something when I have not. Judge and be judged.
Oftentimes people think they are following God's directions, but they are really following what they expect of God according to the composition of their own personalities. All their own resentments and indgnation get projected onto God. It's a lot safer to deal with their issues if they are displaced onto God.
If you want to read something more "twisted" than this piece, see my essay: Adam Clay, Lazarus Mouse & the Kingdom of Eros
"...I don't want to deal
"...I don't want to deal with my issues. We've all had demons in our past, and I've dealt with mine."
Demons and issues are related. They are basically synonyms. You contradict yourself. It sounds you have a lot of issues. That’s OK, We all do. Please take responsibility for them. Take responsibility for all this rage you project onto God. Let your relationship with God be less about his/your wrath and more about compassion, acceptance, respect, and the heart instead of the head. Instead of getting angry, feel pain, liike Christ. Don’t force other people to be responsible for your rage – as you have done here.
A wise Christian told me, “It’s OK to be angry with God.”
Name-calling – saying people are liars, hypocrites and false – does not make it so, It is juvenile to call people names. Put away childish things.
“Israel Is Real” is meant to celebrate the divinity of Judaism. To see the piece as mockery is to totally miss the point.
I used to randomly open the Bible to receive a Word. It is hard to imagine a saint doing that, and all Christians should aspire to be saintly and good-willed.
Why not change it to “GooD Will”? Wouldn’t that be more Christian?
God does not make his followers look like fools. But all people are fools – regardless of faith. It is arrogant to think otherwise.
Why do you need to believe that Jung was more than a man to believe archetype theory? He was a simply a scientist who made observations and developed theories from them. Are you saying Jung would have to God for you buy into archetype theory?
Personal demons turned universal
iLLWiLL,
have you ever considered, that other people may have experience, information, knowledge and even intelligence outside your very restricted perspective.
Nobody is asking you to change your opinions. But it would be a definite communication-benefit, if you had the slightest idea about what's happening outside of your ego, instead of going on as an egomaniac steamroller.
No
The purpose of you sharing that 'miraculous' coincidence from your past is to show that you believe your god is very real to you.
You believe your god doesnt appreciate his kids cursing him which means that you havent freed yourself from your fundamentalist upbringing.Your olds did a number on you and now you're trying to do it to others.Nice try, bro, but you're on your own with your version of god.
And if you truly followed the book you wouldve heeded the passage in Deuteronomy and given up the tarot and astrology as they are they devil's work according to the fairytale you believe in.
So who's the hypocritical liar now?
I feel like you are a grown child trying to browbeat me into believing into Santa Claus.Your god of the book is just another fairytale...one that has caused immense amounts of damage to countless human lives.
And you can leave the threats and the curses behind....typical fundamentalist brainwashing technique.Make people afraid.Some god.
In the gospels John said it all,'God is love'. Dont feel much of it coming from you with your fire and brimstone judgements with its hellfire damnation overtones.
Obviously you got the inside track John must've missed.
Thou Shall
metaphor swallows zeal like a whale plankton
I had a dream of a naked woman with legs spread whose name was META. Metaphor is the soul of Creation. To be blind to metaphor is to be blind to one's own destructiveness, and to God's presence in the present moment.
Zealous religiosity misjudges cause and effect to match its expectations. It flaunts its arrogance so disrespectfully of people and life and God it brings tears to my eyes. Ill will (as a spirit of intent) hates love.
In the National Cathedral in Washington DC - a temple to the divine feminine principle - there is a chapel with a black statue of a hooded monk with head bowed with an inscription that reads something to the effect of, "Your zeal will be destroyed." Hallelujah.
a shift?
Elephants are a symbol of collective memory, of history, the legavy of history. Standing by and observing these peacefully is not something you were doing at the start of the forum. In the first part you were stampeding. Perhaps the dream foreshadowed the more diplomatic approach you take in the latter part of the forum.
Perhaps you would be interested in my RS elephantine piece: Stampede of Sweetness. I don’t think you’ll think it’s twisted. It’s about "children of God."
Politically correct 'miracles'
I have app. 1/2 dozen friends, who have experienced 'miracles', or as we in our heathen lingo like to call it: Paranormal phenomena.
E.g. I myself, being a reiki-healer, once cured a terminal spinal cancer. Doctors had given the patient 6 months. The tumor disappeared after healing, and when I last time had contact with the patient, six years after his healing, he was still healthy. I'm not actively 'religious', and the patient was a convinced atheist.
How comes? But wait; ofcourse there is a christian explanation. Gospel of John, ch. 3, v. 2: "for no-one can make such miracles as you, if not god is with him".
So OFCOURSE, .... if a CHRISTIAN does it, it's a miracle from 'god', but if a tibetan lama, a sufi, an native american medicine man or I do the same, it's the work of the 'devil'.
It's the same impeccable logic which always has given the 'chosen ones' the right to harass or kill people, who are racial inferior, political dissident or just looked at you in a funny way.
It must have been a great time, when it was possible to put on those white sheets or the swastika, and burn the heretics to clean their black souls from impurities.
Well, burning is the price you have to pay for being heretical, spawn-of-the-devil scum and not one of the pure and righteous.
As I obviously already am destined to burn, I can't make it worse by asking: Who exactly ARE the evil devil-worshippers? 'Misguided' humanitarians or the 'righteous' pyromaniacs.
And the oppressor said: "Be meek".
If you're trigger-happy with your matchbox in connection with bookburnings or bonfires for heretics, is a question I can't answer.
But generally you have manifested here as a typical representative of a long tradition of selfrighteous invaders, who uninvited have forced their way into other peoples' lives. Just as all 'chosen ones' do.
A person can be here either to communicate or to mission. You only communicate, if you're yelled at. The rest of the time you're trying to sell your 'mission from god' stuff. In my opinion only demonstrating the special psychology of those who're afraid to even consider, that the straw they cling to maybe isn't especially wise, universal or attractive to others.
The 'assumptions' implied in my posts, are based upon what I see. And what I've seen is, that you have your personal 'visions' (which can be interpretated any old way) and a rather silly book being enforced on a great part of humanity against its will. Sofar you haven't presented anything except that, and this doesn't make you a prophet, 'guru' or martyr, at best only an object of pity.
But as I'm not one of the 'meek' ones, turning my other cheek when the signs of invasive mission shows, pity isn't an option for me right now. Silence possibly is.
echoing silence
It has been like sport. Each team sees itself as “God” and the other “Satan.” When the game is not being played we are all on the same team.
The game is a process. The team that learns from the process wins (so both teams can win). The team that learns nothing loses (both teams can lose). Being champion of the game is not having to play it.
I dreamed: I’m playing basketball. It’s a next point wins situation. I’ve got the ball and am feeling really aggressive, but for some reason everyone suddenly loses interest and leaves, except for an Asian guy on their team. He says that my name translated from his language to mine is violence, but in his language my name has no sound, i.e., it is silence.
The game gives identity that does not survive the game. All games end.
Yes you should be scared Will,
Cause you are one righteous hypocrite....saying you adore your god before all else yet refusing to obey his laws.
Don't think I didnt notice the way you avoided answering me about the hypocrisy you display when you do tarot and study astrology.The 'arts' of divination are EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN by your god and yet you have no qualms in offering tarot readings and saying how much you get into astrology.
Let me help you,little brother,in remembering your god's laws for you.
Deuteronomy 18; 10 Let no one be found among you who....practices divination....interprets omens...12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD and because of these detestable practices the LORD YOUR GOD (emphasis mine) will drive out those nations before you.
And the punishment for you practicing those 'arts'
Revelation 21:8 But the fearful and the unbelieving....the sorcerers.....shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone,which is the second death.
No wonder you are scared,you did a deal with your god and he came through and you're reneging on the deal.You dont get to change the laws to suit yourself,Will.
Now thats enough attention for you,you've been an an entertaining yet annoying gadfly and as you have friends amongst the moderators you'll get to run your mouth off for as long as you need.
But dont give me the guff that you love your god while you flagrantly disobey his laws.You can lie to yourself as long as you want but not to anyone who knows the book.Which is most probably the reason you are on this site and not a christian one.There is no way they would let you get away with praising the 'satanic' arts and call yourself a true lover of their god as well.
True christians dont use tarot.Dont talk about astrology.
End of story.
End of game. For now maybe.
"...All games end".
But as long as we're part of the wheel, new games, looking much like the old ones, start.
Turning Violence into Dance
The energy sublimated into the game – into survival and sport – will someday be reclaimed by existence and dance. I learned from this game, so I will play differently next time. I will dance better. This excerpt from today’s entry to my dream-interpretation blog Ask the Dream Queen elaborates on what I mean:
...I am handling the negative reception better than I would have in the past – though one comment left me sobbing in the fetal position. Last night I had this dream about how it has gone:
Arab men are teaching us native dance. One singles me out for his partner and teaches me to follow him as we go. I let him bring me down to the ground, and then I continue to follow him, led by the slightest touch of his finger against my forehead.
A second dancer takes advantage of my receptivity and throws me into the edge of a table. No one could see how violent this was because their view was blocked by the man’s back. I return to the group of Caucasian students and explain what happened. An elderly woman among them is indignant and wants to confront him. She turns into a small green creature that is part dog and part lion. I don’t want her to make a fuss about this. I keep telling her, “Respect my will,” over and over, and finally she seems to.
The Arab men are IW & Teleomorph. The dream personifies them as Arabs in part because of the qualitative similarity fundamentalists the world over....Their modus operandi is to force prescribed realities on other people. Though this is inherently violent, in the dream it is symbolized by the dance they lead.
Fundamentalists don’t see their agendas as dance steps. Rather, they are battle plans. The reason I am shown dancing with the men instead of battling them is because my ethical and spiritual sensibilities are sound. I did not do battle with IW. I danced with him. He was pushing and pulling. I let him and stayed centered in myself. I danced well.
Then Teleomorph posted a vitriolic comment (which was deleted by the moderator). In the dream the posting is symbolized by the fellow who throws me into the edge of the table. The comment was too aggressive for the dance to go on. Yet, a part of me wanted to respond to it. This part is symbolized in the dream by the woman who turns into the green dog-lion.
The Green Lion is an alchemical symbol relating to the experience of consciousness being overwhelmed by violent, frustrated desires Typically in alchemy the Green Lion eats the sun, representing how violence devours the light of consciousness. The green coloring of the lion is associated with vegetative, undifferentiated consciousness. Riding the Green Lion, individuals act on violent impulses without reflection or self-control, like small children lashing out at each other.
My dream shows my Green Lion is nearly as tame as a dog. Getting to this point has taken years of mindfulness and impulse control.
Responding to the overall morass, the editor of the memoir I am planning to release this summer, wrote me: “I have to admit my concern and worry for you though baby. You took two/three people's statements to heart and overreacted on one other. Once your book is released you're going to face much much more of the same. Are you prepared for that?”
I answered, “Maybe I am preparing now.”
Dancing with wolves
Hey Amy,
This conversation has echoes of Adam clay but kinda gentler.....some refining in your preparation for the public leagues perhaps?
I must say I really appreciate the way you interact with your posters on the thread....its very real and an authentic kind of communication to each other which is pretty amazing considering how we are spread about the globe.
Awe inspiring actually,when I think about it.
I really enjoy the way you are so in touch with your dreaming life that it communicates with such immediacy about 'real life' situations.It makes compelling reading.
Reality Sandwhich is diamond
Reality Sandwhich is diamond with many unique facets of prespective and whackiness.
Shamans,prophets,poets,writers,artists,sages,seers, wizards,warriors,priests,psychics,dreamers,slackers, hippies,druids,dancers,jokers,gurus and psychedelic freedom fighters. Let this diamond shine without censorship.
Here's a little Dr Seuss-ian nugget I wrote just for you Amy...
Left right up down black white yellow and brown, young old foolish and wise sleeping awake dreaming alive, High low fast slow the future the past the magic window, Stay go say yes or no, thumbs up thumbs down a sage a clown, who's right who's wrong, a dance a song just be yourself.
Censorship is so unamerican. It kills diversity and freedom.
"Not until there is global wholeness will Diaspora cease." Are you saying that when the first amendment is a global practice, the world will become a better place? If so then why are you censoring my comments? I mention the word spin and a jewish survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto named Israel Shanak.
Not interested in politics.
It's Nothing Personal
Who knows? I don't think that using the word spin is uncivil. Lets sniff the stuff we write and say at least it's healthy?
Censorship??
With the enormous scope of RS, SOME regulation is probably unavoidable. E.g. an article I sent for publication here was refuted, because it lacked stylistic quality. Personally I completely accept such a decision, as I have the 'political' opinion, that ownership is possible. This is not MY site, and I must abide by the rules put up by the people directing it.
If I'm discontent, internet is big enough for me to find somewhere else.
Besides it wouldn't be reasonable or functional to have posts containing: "Your mother has been mating with ********, and your opinions are like the final result of a cow's digestive system".
But this said, it's my impression, that the agenda of RS could be a bit more clearcut and out in the open. There's a basic ideology here, not immediately visible, favouring or accepting certain lines of thought through choice of articles and posts.
And honestly; I didn't find the deleted post so abominable, that it needed censorship. I have often said worse myself, only packaged in 'civil' language.
My own initiative to 'defend' Amy's article was my OWN intiative, completely independent of Amy's wish or need for such a 'defense', and my motive was not to support or disprove her methodology and conclusions. My motive was to stop fundamentalistic nonsense, where quite a few hateful and unintelligent remarks manifested. These remarks being 'packaged' nicely, though containing nothing of value, passed the eye of the needle. Why this, but not the deleted post? Does Amy fit in on RS in a special way, ot is the selection done by 'style' rather than content/meaning?
Comments Guidelines for RS
In response to overwhelming requests from our community, we have been asking readers to follow our guidelines and will sometimes remove posts that do not abide by these terms. We encourage questioning and thoughtful critiques but ask that folks do it with a general sense of respect to other members of this community. I've included our guidelines below so that everyone can reference this for future postings.
Comments Guidelines http://realitysandwich.com/comments_guidelines
Reality Sandwich is dedicated to creating a web platform that encourages dynamic thought, lively discussion, and vibrant self-expression for our diverse community. In order to ensure that everyone's voices are heard in a fair manner, we ask that you follow the basic guidelines listed below.
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Warring for Balance (not power)
This post is excerpted from today’s entry in my blog, “Come Skinnydipping with Me”:
My recently published online essay, Israel Is Real, cued the ire of a fundamentalist Christian going by the web-forum username of “iLL-WiLL.” In the past, the fundamentalist agenda cued my own ire. I would mirror it, judging it with the same wrath with which it judged me. This time was different, for me and iLL-WiLL both.
My response to iLL-WiLL was balanced. A dream characterized it as dance. Complementing my integrity was iLL-WiLL’s eventual concession of defeat. The first step toward it appeared to be this post from him, titled, “Warning”:
Take this as you want: I've had a vision from 'God' that there's going to be a trembling of the Earth- "in a city like an Island out at sea." The foundation of the Earth is going to shake and this city is going to crack open. Whoever tries to escape at this sound of terror will fall, and whoever tries to climb out of the pit will be caught.
I don't want this to happen, and I don't want anyone to be hurt. So take it as you like- But when it occurs you will know the Lord God is very real...God Bless You all.
He followed this up the next day, relating that the vision had come to pass in waking-life, that a deadly 6.3 quake had struck Chile. In the psyche, Chile can be symbolic of a kind of hemispheric end and beginning, as it funnels the Americas into the southern ocean. ILL-WiLL’s vision revealed that he was undergoing a hemispheric shake-up. The dire warning he was giving to readers was actually for himself. The Lord God is very much realer than ILL-WiLL’s ill-will.
As the forum proceeded, my character emerged to iLL-WiLL through my responses to him, and through my spectacularly Christian essay Adam Clay, Lazarus Mouse & the Kingdom of Eros, to which I referred him.
Apparently coming to objectify me less, he sought a dream interpretation from me through the forum. The dream went: I was in the desert and there was the largest herd of Elephants storming by me in a rage and I stood watching peacefully.
The dream was back-posted up from the bottom of the thread, so I didn’t come across it till after I had read this later posting from ILL-WiLL
Amy- I do love you and I'm sorry I hurt your feelings. I hope you will forgive my harsh comments and see that I did it out of tuff Love.
You've experienced a life and seen things that 'nobody' has! You are an enormous asset to our Creator! You can help people that no one else would be able to, others that the world turns their backs on - you do have a gift that can save many people!
It was miraculous to hear this from someone who had so recently objectified me so unapologetically. It was a miniature end-of-the-world – or at least the end of the western hemisphere - that an evangelical appreciated me.
I have been seeking a relationship with the Christian community for some time because my experience of Christ has been so rich and dynamic, gracing me with much to share. In this spirit, I have reached out to a number of magnanimous Christian leaders - Jay Baker, Bishop Carlton Pearson, Joshua Grace, and Jamie P. Washam - and I semi-regularly submit my work to Christian publications (none has been accepted and receipt has been unacknowledged). I recognize that there is some absurdity to this since my work is so far outside the Christian box. But it still feels right. Perhaps I do it because my place in the world is as a writer and spiritual personage with profoundly Christian awareness. This provides me reason to force the issue with the religious community – particularly since a group of Emergent Church people was integral to my initial communion with Christ (though they promptly rejected and abandoned me).
Why not force the issue of what I have to offer with Christians? Because they normally reject everything outside of what has been pre-ordained. Normally, they eschew paradigm shifts, are caged in an inflexible agenda, and demonize anything that vaguely diverges from the agenda. But, miraculously, iLL-WiLL had an ear for what I was saying.
As hurt I have been by people who have objectified and alienated me, I wanted to say thank you to iLL-WiLL and give him a hug for his kind words, but it was inappropriate.
He excused his behavior saying his harsh comments were out of “tuff Love.” I am not OK with anyone wielding tough love. The only time to be tough is as a last resort – never as self-introduction! And how can I trust someone so steeped in God-madness? For all I know, he was sweet talking me to draw me in and rape me. ILL-WiLL’s will had been too ill for me to forgive him on the spot. Of course, I forgive him, but forgiveness is an ongoing process…read on at this link..
To iLLWiLL
Let me ask you this iLLWiLL:Do you believe that your "creator" or "god" is infinite?
Everywhere?
Everything?
Every-time?
If so, then by logical extension, you MUST also believe that your "creator/god" is also Satan and everything you cannot come to terms with too. For, if you say that it is impossible for your "creator/god" to be satan, etc... Than by your own voice, you are saying that your "creator/god" IS NOT INFINITE and therefore a limited demiurge at best. Be careful not to focus on only the HEADS side of the coin. For there are (at least) TWO sides to the whole. And any true personal evolution/awakening/salvation must at some point supersede duality to reach the end goal of emancipation of a being's totality.
brothers
This is mainly about my perspectives on Satan, but first:I want to emphasize, iLL-WiLL, that my take on this discussion is not an effort to salvage self-pride. In my eyes you are the prideful one, the foolish one. In yours I am. You judged me first - and you were judged in kind. You step back and say God will be the judge. I say I have already been judged. Who are you to say that I have not been?
In 1997 I dreamed: Jesus shows me some missing books of the Bible that he will allow me to bring into the world. They are connected with Judges.
I hope that part of what this means is that my work will help your cultural collective stop judging God-loving people – like me – because of the unexpected results of our courage to follow our hearts.
The evangelical agenda would rape me of my God-given gifts if it could. So it is not pride I defend from evangelicals, but my right to belong to myself and to God in their eyes. At the same time that I defend my rights from them I defend the same rights for them.
"Logic and reason are mental tools man has developed to try and understand the world. They aren't meant for the Spiritual, although they can serve minute purposes in understanding that realm."
They are no more minute than a man’s partner on the dance floor. Without logic and reason man would never find God. It is folly to underestimate them as it is folly to overestimate them.
A dream I had in 1993: It gets harder and harder to move forward, as if a force like gravity is acting against me. All kinds of different men appear before me, trying to stop me. I force my way past them. Progress becomes so difficult that I have to propel myself forward by grabbing onto fenceposts and trees and pulling with incredible effort. Finally I come to a man I can not get around. His name is Will. I beat him severely and slam him onto the ground. I am on top of him, but I still can't get around him. Into his face I scream over and over, "I want God! I want God! I want God!" He looks at me smugly and tells me snidely that I'll never find God. He tells me he's been battling God for thousands of years. So is Will, Satan? I wonder. My passion burns.
By these terms, will – any will, especially religiously motivated will - is Satan. If a will is not a seamless extension of the divine will, it is Satan’s – and if religion were a seamless extension of the divine will, we would expect it to dispatch Satan in a flash. It has not, so therefore it must evolve instead of rehashing itself indefinitely. If God is to evolve through religion, religious people must subdue their wills – particularly the will to judgment, lest they be judged, and lest they continue to empower Satan.
This dream is from 1991: I live and go to school with Satan and two other guys. Satan tells me that the last time he was loose in the world was in 1912, at which time I was James Joyce's wife. I figure Satan out. He has a second mouth in his neck, with gruesome fangs, which can be seen when he tilts his head back. It is through this mouth that the Beast enters the world. He is not a man with intellect; he is a pocket of reality I refuse to accept. He flows like water to any empty space that is created by my refusal to accept things. As I figure this out and write it down his handwriting appears beside mine in my notebook. In red pen he writes, "Yes, you are absolutely right," as if he were my teacher.
Coming into the world through the neck, Satan is a product of the mind/body split.
Satan is a teacher in that light cannot be known without knowing darkness. Agendas that reject darkness out of hand will never learn its lessons – lessons that God needs the world to learn so that God might dwell in human awareness.
Shouting Satan down and stigmatizing it is cowardly and ignorant. Observing Satan neutrally and without judgment is courageous. Satan has nothing to do with right and wrong. To regard what is satanized with compassion and without condescension is courageous, and it is the first step toward neutralizing and integrating Satan into a whole in which neither good nor bad exists.
This dream is from 1995, when I lived in Budapest: I go to Slovakia. While I'm there an evil man steals my passport by making it disappear. I'm screwed. I try to make a call to the US on a pay phone, but the evil man is behind me making it impossible. I try to duck back across the border, but am sent back by a nice soldier. I now sense that this is a horror movie I'm watching while in it. I must kill the man or he will continue to plague me. Sometimes his skin is red and scaly and his hair is thin. Eventually I see he is Satan.He makes mischief. He's at the scene of an accident he's caused. He can't simply disappear because people are watching and his identity would be revealed. In order to remain undetected he must trick the people with his silver tongue. But in order for him to use it someone must first speak to him. Then he can start talking, sending everyone's heads spinning, rendering us powerless. But then it comes to me, the one and only thing that can be said to him without negative repercussions. I ask, "Who are you? Who are you? Who are you?" over and over and over. As I do this his face recedes into a small round stone, but remains cognizant. He says, "You're doing it. You're doing it." But I can't hold my concentration. Instead of saying, "Who are you?" I say, "Who am I?" This interferes with the spell I'm casting and it is incomplete.
Satan dwells in me and you. Satan exists in gaps in understanding and knowledge. Satan dwells in everyone – especially insidiously in those empower him with their hatred of him. In alchemy Jesus and Satan are brothers. Inside Satan dwells Jesus Christ. God is not Satan, but the way to God is through Satan.
going!
horrible & perfect
Isn’t it like the dream? =D…and then there’s Romania (which I love)…
The relevance of the myth to a complete understanding of evil shows why being limited to one religious tradition is inadequate.
Those of us look purely to the light like the Satan of the myth, are so often “satanized” – e.g., Al-Hallaj, RS members, rock stars. Judy Blume, intellectuals.
Perfection is satanized because it endangers the imperfection relied on for day-to-day survival. I had this dream in 1990 which portended my meeting with perfection (through psychosis) ten years in the future:
My girlfriend is an all-powerful being. On the fourth day of the fourth month, four years from now, she will bring all things horrible and perfect into the world. I say, "Will you remember me?" She says, "I will keep you safe."“Horrible and perfect” are a duality here, like black & white, good & evil, male & female, matter & spirit. Like these "horrible & perfect" are an opposition that awaits union. Perfection is truly horrible because of how it acts on imperfection. God by definition is perfect. The effect of his perfection on our imperfection is horrible, which is no more good than it is evil.
To regard Satan from this perspective, it seems to me that his enmity towards us makes a bit more sense--to see how so many of us are so forgetful of our own source of being, and so ungrateful.Yeah, so he torments us because we are not worthy of God. I would say his torment of us is what makes us worthy – and then so many of us perpetuate him by refusing to appreciate him for what he is, because we cannot think for ourselves, because we let consensus reality think for us…
…being motivated by Satan's possible tortures to remember the Creator, and be humble before both--For me, being humble before the Creator is usually simple gratitude and appreciation. It is bowing down when we have been too prideful, too oblivious of what matters. And being humble before Satan, for me, is not an act of worship, but neutrality toward the darkness. It is not humble to rage against the darkness. Instead, it is cowardly. There is nothing to be up in arms about if God exists - and being up in arms only alienates God. Being neutral toward the darkness gives us the presence to receive the light, and once we have the presence, the light invariably comes forth because it wants to - but first it must be given the opportunity.
…Incessant worship, to me, always turns its object into Satan, into a tormentor.
I think there is a compleixty to the Judeo-Christian God that the Bible puts order to, but which its people has failed to recognize – which is what the “Beyond Judaism” section in my article was about. Christians act wrathfully, like Yahweh, toward what they satanize, and in doing so they are by definition being Jewish – not Christian. Were they truly and purely Christian they would be Christlike, putting wisdom before action. For me, all those who loudly identify as Christian are actually Jews.
Yahweh had to be a big a jerk at first to make himself known - just like parents have to be jerks to their kids sometimes. The divine had to have the Judeo-Christian story of the wrathful God turned peaceful and incarnate to express its nature so that we can come to terms with our condition.
Christianity, I believe, really missed the boat on this issue: they got themselves into an intellectual/spiritual cul-de-sac and...well, would ya look at that--they have too much pride to back down and reframe the matter in any more compassionate way.This is why I admire Emergent Church people. They tend to be sincere about revisionism and getting the culture out of Jesus.
Now we got these damnable concepts of 'eternal Hell/eternal heaven,' which as far as I have been able to find out, no other religion has in that form.They say a lot more about the here-and-now than the hereafter.
3.1415
"Perfection is truly horrible because of how it acts on imperfection. God by definition is perfect. The effect of his perfection on our imperfection is horrible, which is no more good than it is evil." I think that we are all perfect. Perfectly unique in time and space. Perfectly flawed. If nobody is perfect doesn't that imply perfection?
Genesis 3
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"
4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman
5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
Woah there!
Amy and Brian,
May I request that you exercise a little more caution when commenting on the personality and/or assumed motivation of fellow RS members? You are both intelligent, articulate contributors, and I like reading your work, so I was surprised by the following, which I consider to be in extremely bad taste, particularly so when aimed at somebody who you have both characterised as confused, and therefore presumably vulnerable:
Brian: "In addition to this--as I mentioned at the salon--there is something very fishy about "iLLWiLL." He does not seem like a real person, but more like a group disinformation and psychic disruption project. As I said, I had started to respond to him several times, but, after reading his comments backwards and forwards, could not find any trace of a genuine idea. Everything struck me as a theatrical gesture or a stage prop--"
Amy: "When I read his posts I too get the feeling of a “psychic disruption project.” The writing itself is slapdash like the thinking. It is not sculpted and presented. It was hurled like a handful of gravel. The litany – the quake, the rage, the pit, the torment – the lava of a volcanic psyche."
I once asked a well known Irish poet whether he thought there was a quality that all great writers shared. He answered that grace, generosity, and a sense of humour are the most nourishing ingredients in any stew.
Food for thought perhaps.
In wildness is the preservation of the world - Thoreau
Ending This Back & Forth
It seems that the last few comment threads have derailed from the topic at hand and have been in general violation of our guidelines. Please note, any more posts about other RSers personalities will be considered off topic and deleted from the site, since they don't have much to do with the actual article. See guidelines below.
Be Civil: Please respond respectfully to all participants on the site. Of course, you're welcome to disagree and debate people's ideas; we just ask that you do so with general common courtesy. Personal attacks aren't helpful to anyone.
Stay on Topic: Rambling essays or poems about your dog's vegan eating habits should wait until we run a story about dogs,
vegans, and/or eating habits. Also, please refrain from putting up irrelevant public gestures or extraneous "comments graffiti."
“Every thing possible to be believed is an image of the truth.”
"Every thing possible to be beleived is an image of the truth."--Blake
Dear RS Moderator,
If I have made use of an inappropriate literary strategy in my comments, please overlook my temporary insanity. My comments were not intended as an attack upon “iLLWiLL”, but rather as a kind of police action—an analysis of the futility of a dialogue with a person who is not listening. It was for this reason that I addressed my comments to Amy rather than to “iLLWiLL.” This is the first time that I have written “about” rather than addressing a comment “to” a person. These were not rants or “personal attacks”, but were instead carefully crafted exercises, each of which took four to five hours to write.
From the time that “iLLWiLL” posted his first comment, which ended, “Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron...”, I had strongly advised Amy against any confrontation. As you will notice, I let more than 60 comments accumulate before deciding to speak up. I could not imagine why the RS moderators were allowing such abuse to go unchallenged.
At a certain point, I felt that I owed it to Amy to speak up, but did not want to ignore my own advice about “non-engagement”, or to empower “iLLWiLL, by speaking to him directly. This was no doubt a mistake. One thing that you seem to have missed entirely, however, is that I begin with a frank acknowledgment of my own intolerance of Fundamentalists—an intolerance not at all characteristic of my general attitude to the world—and do not go out of my way to present myself in a positive light. Thus my comments were also “about” my own intolerance.
In Part 2 of “Israel is Real”, Amy says, “Dreams sometimes use ‘Jewish’ to describe any group that espouses a consensus reality made inflexible by the assumption that its collective beliefs are self-evidently true.” Thus, rather than having “derailed (the discussion) from the topic at hand”, as you say in your post, my comments—however questionable in their tone or strategy—were still very much to the point.
Be this as it may, in reading back through the forum, I can see that “iLLWiLL” was perhaps engaged in a genuine effort to communicate—however heavy handed. I have little use for his belief system, or rather for the particular way he clings to these beliefs, and then attempts to force them through acts of rhetorical violence onto others; this has not changed. But I will also say: that my own bias led me to exaggerate the shadow content of his gestures, as well as to overlook the wounded sincerity of his voice.
I heard his intensity; my own preconceptions led me to interpret this as dogmatism. Just as easily, one could read it as the sign of someone struggling with a difficult set of experiences, as the aftereffect of a shockwave. This would bring us around full circle—as to how to translate one’s encounter with a mystery into action.
Below, I have posted an apology to him called “The orphans of Babel and the garden where all knowledge flows.”
The orphans of Babel and the garden where all knowledge flows
Dear “iLLWiLL”,
Due to my somewhat mechanical distrust of Fundamentalism, I have perhaps jumped to conclusions about the motivations behind your comments as well as the validity of your experiences.
Please forgive me. We all have our blocks, and must each day struggle to avoid being led around by our preconceptions, as by the nose. If your visions are in fact real, then I would only ask that you respect the mystery that gives birth to prophetic signs, rather than using them as a weapon for the whacking of others about the head.
Anger is perhaps not conducive to the clarity demanded by transpersonal intelligence.
Erupting with great violence from an oceanic depth, such signs speak in the language of ultimatums; the recipient has been marked by the hand of the unknown. He is overwhelmed, and feels a need to give immediate expression to these energies, most often through the communication of his sense of urgency to others. But, in the end, one must still hurry up and wait. The challenge posed by such ultimatums falls, first and foremost, on their vehicle—on their all too human interpreter, on their beloved victim.
It can take one or many lifetimes to learn to speak in the language of archetypes; and, even then, one must still figure out what to do. There is no one to one correspondence between the language of one dimension and another, any more than there is between Hebrew and Aramaic, or between Aramaic and English. Even the best translation of the Ur-Text is approximate.
Lest you think that I am an amateur in these matters, here is an excerpt from a poem that I wrote in 1992. It contains one of a number of references that I made during this period to the destruction of the World Trade Towers. It is from a poem called “Descent”, which is section 4 from a book called “To Akasha/ Part 2”, and reads as follows:
“The World Trade Towers for a 4th time fall. Their shadows stand.
The holder of “hegal’ has launched the 53rd Kirugu. The master of the Abzu, Enki, sails towards Gaia in his magur boat.
There were wheels inside of wheels. Today it came. Each saw the event that long ago they spoke of. Industrial strength sacrifices flash and then repeat before the large eyes of the watchers at the circumference of the Zodiac.”
—Be well. May ecstasy have its way with you.
May the seed of your prophetic energies unfold, and may the living spirit complete the work that it has started.
God is a Nazi
This piece is about a parallel universe - a post-apocalyptic one. What better way to transcend the sins of the fathers than by rendering their nomenclatures meaningless? By turning them upside-dwon? By emptying them of their former meaning - the meaning that perpetuates them? When I reinvent religious nomenclature it is meant to be in a post-apocalyptic context, for realities edifying what comes after the end of the world.
What am I sacralizing? I have my piss-smelling hands all over the sacred glass. The piece intends to be a desacralization of culture. Without that the sacred is unreachable. Maybe you resist the sacred being associated with any words that have informed religious tradition. Death to religious tradition. Death to tradition. Long live spiritual contiuuity in its place.
You have not been enslaved to false ideas only to evolve out them by wandering long and hard like a Jew in the desert? This is individation, what all souls do, if they are lucky enough to be born into favorable curcumstance. Individuation is the Jewish story -- its exodus from slavery, quest for a Promised Land, eras of stability, and eras of Diaspora -- everyone's story
God is a Nazi and we are Cosmic Jews.
Call Me "God"
EL, I am all about elucidating the difference between God and the god people worship. An efficacious way to do this is to reinvent religious language. I received an incredible dream about this for my dream interpretation blog where adults are up in arms because a 13 year old boy wants to call himself “God.”
I have no interest in the God/gods of any religion. I am interested in the divine itself, on its own terms, in how it sees itself. I hope my work conveys this.
I don’t see any immediate connection between the divine and middle-eastern conflict. To me it’s all culture and has nothing to do with God. They may as well be polytheistic warring tribes of prehistory. Each is the others’ Shadow.
There’s no Nazi like a Jew.
Perhaps you are familiar with Wake Forest athletics (university in North Carolina). Their team name is the “Demon Deacons.”
I am glad you don’t feel enmity toward my ideas. Please try not to use f%*# words with me. They hurt even if they are only implied. They don’t feel civil either – not that I have been the mistress of civility in this forum. peace, Amy
whoops
whoops - sorry, my computer freaked out...I would delete this and the following were it possible
double whoops
Enki Returns
Hi Brian, I was really interested to see these two lines from your prophetic poem.
'The holder of hegal launched the 53rd Kirigu.The master of the Abzu, Enki,sails toward Gaia in his magur boat'
Does that mean we can look forward to Enki's return?
That would be something to witness.
And what does kirigu mean? I tried looking it up but all I got were the surnames of some people from Africa.
The return of Enki
Hi Psirider,
"Kirigu" is a typo, and should read "kirugu."
—A few definitions from Sumerian/ Babylonian mythology:
1) “Hegal”: abundance, and the power to create abundance.
2) “Absu” or “Apzu”: can be translated as “unspeakable abyss”, and is the ocean of the underworld that supports and gives form to the visible world.
3) "Magur Boat": like the “Barge of Ra”, the “Ark of Millions of Years”—which ferries the “Enead”, the 9 key Egyptian gods, through the channels of the underworld—the “Magur Boat”, or “Serpent Boat of Heaven”, is easily able to traverse the violence of the Deluge; it is impervious to all shifts in the inter-dimensional weather.
4) “Kirugu”: A “kirugu” is a subsection of a text, of indeterminate length, and could thus be the equivalent of something as short as a paragraph or as long as a chapter. “Kirugu” can be translated as “point of turning”, and the statement of the “kirugu” is generally followed by the antiphonal statement of the “gisgigal.”
—Since I believe that all times are simultaneously present, it follows that I do not believe that Enki—or any of the other gods and goddesses—have ever left. The whole of the story is there at the beginning, before we have opened the first page; and it is only as a matter of convenience that we must read it chapter by chapter.
Intolerance against intolerance
I'm a minor version of a 'Hell's angel'. I have this big, overornamented motorcycle, which is the joy of my life.
Being an average dysfunctional human, I have my share of existential emptiness, which I try to fill by the common method of moderate greed, flashiness and trying to be 'somebody' to notice. But apart from being somewhat environmentally incorrect, my mc really doesn't hurt anybody. Actually I get to talk with a lot of people of all ages, who get a nostalgic look in their eyes, when they see my bike.
But then there are individuals, whose emptiness have almost zombie-like proportions. For them a bike isn't enough, they must needs have a flaming sword to smite the unbelievers into 'the right faith', so that these zombies with flaming swords don't have to feel alone in their own emptiness.
They are 'Heaven's angels' (whether their 'heaven' is political or spiritual), and in their existential illness they do infinitely more harm than me and my bike. I'm just slightly boastful, zombies with flaming swords are ever hungry invasive parasites, seeking safety in enforced numbers.
Considering the recently applied 'moderation' on this site, I must point out, that I as example of above mentioned zombies not am referring to any specific individual on this thread, but rather to phenomena as nazism, stalinism and some varieties of dogmatic religious fundamentalism in general.
It is written, or is it ..... wrotten?
Holy spelling can be troublesome, english isn't my first language.
Anyway:
"If an irrestible need to save others against their explicit will turns up, you're in the long, dark teatime of the soul, facing the wrong direction"The book of Bogomil; letter to the bewildered 2:1
As the book(s) of Bogomil are divinely inspired (honestly), they ofcourse don't need any justification, verification or any other kind of -cation. Especially not any rational or sensible approach, as the divine, god or whatever is above such mundane measurements and can only be understood by faith.
As this could lead to a debate about WHICH faith in WHAT book is correct, don't worry. I, Bogomil, am holier-than-all-of-you-put-together, so MY books are the thing, you have MY word for that. Anybody doubting this only has to ask, and I can present an endless amount of citations, the true sign of holiness.
To potential disciples I regret to say: Sorry, I don't do prayers. But I could give you a hint or two on how to repair a motorcycle or find a girlfriend, thus easing your way through the valley of tears.
Giving Amy's gentle path the respect it deserves could also be a help.
Ever going in circles
I assure everybody, that the books of Bogomil out-holies all the two thousand or so other holy books making the same claim.
How do I know that? Because it's my absolute faith, and who can contest that? By a faithometer? Remember that it's been said, maybe even written, that logic and common sense doesn't count in this connection. Only faith.