Monday, December 15, 2014

SPIRITUAL STATEMENTS - WHAT I BELIEVE by Reverend Steven Cox - Voice of Golden Eagle for those who seek to explore the realities of Spiritual Experience and their relationship to it.

"PREFACE

This document is intended for those who seek to explore the realities of Spiritual Experience and
their relationship to it.  It is a growing testament that continually expands as words struggle to
describe the illuminations contained within.

FOREWARD

In the spirit of communicating that which has been shown to me, I offer these writings as an
explanation of certain Spiritual Truths which seem to have been hidden "in plain view" from most
people. I do not present these Truths as items open for debate, this is simply how things look
and feel to my Spirit from where I am sitting.

If certain things you read here sound familiar, it is because these Truths are being reflected all around us if we just use our eyes and ears. I do not pretend to be the creator of these Truths, just an observer who has jotted down a few things.

I realize that I may even be placing my physical self in possible danger by revealing these Truths
in this fashion, for they contain keys that would free mankind from the chains of his brother and,
if followed universally, would make the spiritual herding of people like sheep an impossibility.

There are many in this world who have a vested interest in making sure this never happens.

To quote one of my favorite philosophical comedians:

“The world is like a ride at an amusement park. And when you choose to go on it, you think that
it's real because that's how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up and down and ‘round
and ‘round. It has thrills and chills, and it's very brightly colored, and it's very loud and it's fun,
for a while. Some people have been on the ride for a long time, and they begin to question - is
this real, or is this just a ride?

And other people have remembered, and they come back to us.

They say 'Hey! Don't worry, don't be afraid, ever, because, this is just a ride.' And we... Kill those people. Ha ha ha. 'Shut him up! We have a lot invested in this ride. SHUT HIM UP! Look at my furrows of worry. Look at my big bank account and family.

This just has to be real!'

“No, it's just a ride. But we always kill those good guys who try and tell us that, you ever notice
that? And let the demons run amok. But it doesn't matter because: it's just a ride. And we can
change it anytime we want. It's only a choice.

No effort, no work, no job, no savings, and money.

A choice, right now, between fear and love. 

The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourselves off. The eyes of love, instead, see all of us as one.

Here's what you can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride. Take all that money that we spend on weapons and defense each year, and instead spend it feeding, clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, for ever, in peace.”

- Bill Hicks

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PREACHERS HAVE A PLACE

As the Elders have told us, a blind man can be the best guide through the forest on a moonless
night, but only until the Dawning. 

In a similar manner, a spirit who is enLIGHTened is not in need of additional spiritual guidance from any intermediary, be it a preacher or a static text. That includes this text, of course.

With this understanding, let us move on.

CHAPTER ONE - HOW IT ALL BEGAN AND CONTINUES

Grandfather (God) is the All That Is. Grandfather Begat the initial forces of the Universe. His will
created the "Original Cause" from which all other effects have sprung.

This initial force brought into life the two balancing polarities of the universe as we know it. A primary duality consisting of Creator and Destroyer.

The true Yin and Yang. All life is a dance between these two poles. Every action in the Universe serves one or both of these ends. There is no escaping it. There is nothing to escape.

For me, there has emerged a central concept upon which all other Spiritual Truths are based:

When Creator made the Universe, what did he use? My supposition is that, if this is TRULY the
"One God" we are discussing, there was nothing else to use but He, Himself. Creator is the
source of ALL things material and spiritual therefore He comprises the totality of all things.

This means that not only is Creator "in" all things, but all sense of separation is an illusion. There is
nothing in this Universe separate from Creator because all things are made of Creator, by
Creator, for Creator. He is the Dust from which all things are formed.

As a way of understanding this “All Is One” concept in terms that we can more easily relate to,
imagine that you have a vivid dream tonight. In this dream we are sitting at a table and we are
talking. My question for you is “which one is me?” The only true answer is that the question has
no meaning. Neither person in that dream is me for everything is you. It is after all your dream!
In a likewise fashion, we are living Creator’s deeper dream.

The mind of any spiritual seeker thinking along these lines eventually comes to the question; but
WHY did Grandfather make the Universe? In the spirit of being created "in God's image" I
ponder the question from my own limited point of view. I ask myself, if I were the Alpha and the
Omega, the beginning and the end and all things in between, WHAT WOULD BE MY BIGGEST
PROBLEM? The answer came to me as if from the core of my heart in the form of one word...
Loneliness. God, in His totality, is alone.

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CRYSTAL SPIRIT STORY

Language is very unsatisfactory for explaining spiritual concepts, but it's the best resource we've
got to reach those lacking direct spiritual experience.

As a wise man once said, "it's like trying to describe an Oak grove to an Eskimo who has never seen a tree." No matter how much you explain, they just won't "get it" because their minds lack the direct experience that makes the words truly have meaning. With these limitations in mind, let's play some word games that "talk around" some otherwise wordless spiritual concepts.

Picture in your mind Creator as a huge multidimensional spirit crystal. An infinite gem with an
infinity of facets that make up the All That Is. Now picture that crystal creating the Universe by
imploding into an infinite number of huge shards, each expressing many facets of the total God
Gem. These "pieces of Creator" fly outward from the Center, until each creates and occupies its
own portion of the material Universe.

Once complete in the creation of their portion of the material Universe, these huge crystal
fragments further subdivide into individual Spirits, each carrying on the business of Creation
within their own smaller spheres.

One becomes you... One becomes me... One becomes a dog, - 3 - another a tree. Each Crystal Spirit is Creator Himself now nestled in the illusion of separateness.

Now able, for the first time, to behold Himself. Now able to play a Universal game of hide and
seek with infinity on the time clock.

The huge crystal that made/makes our portion of the Universe... The Gem from which we all
spring... Is called Jesus by some.

This is the source behind the Spiritual Truth that the only way to find your way back to Creator is through Jesus... There is a piece missing from Jesus that fits your exact spiritual dimensions because it is from whence you came. By melding with the crystal that is your source you again become part of the greater whole. That is your destiny.

Again, this story in no way implies that the nature of God is “crystal”. It is just a way of
describing the wordless in words.
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SPIRITUAL UNTRUTHS FOSTERED UPON US

We have been fed many lies in the guise of truth and revelation. All major living religions started
with Great Spiritual Truths but they have had their core tainted and distorted by those who would
manipulate and control us while we are here in the material world. There is a Dark Age upon the
current Spirituality of man, and it is an intentional one.

In place of true Spirituality, we have been given religion. In place of meaningful rituals and rites of passage, we are taught consumer habits and obsessions. In place of Universal Love, we are given fear of an angry and judgmental God.

The central purpose today behind all major religions is to twist the psyche of the believers into
trusting the religion instead of their own hearts.

"But a short time elapsed after the death of the great reformer of the Jewish religion, before his
principles were departed from by those who professed to be his special servants, and perverted
into an engine for enslaving mankind, and aggrandizing their oppressors in Church and State."
- Thomas Jefferson

“The most preposterous notion that H. sapiens has ever dreamed up is that the Lord God of
Creation, Shaper and Ruler of all the Universes, wants the saccharine adoration of His creatures,
can be swayed by their prayers, and becomes petulant if He does not receive this flattery. yet
this absurd fantasy, without a shred of evidence to bolster it, pays all the expenses of the oldest,
largest, and least productive industry in all history.”
- Robert Anson Heinlein
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THE REJECTIONS

As I was raised in a Christian Society (called by some the Buckle of the Bible Belt), exposed to
the teachings of the Episcopal and Southern Baptist denominations.

I have spent the largest portion of my reflections on religion with these early teachings as my guide and reference. Accordingly, I have reached several heartfelt conclusions regarding many core teachings of Fundamentalist Christianity:

● I reject the notion that we are by nature unworthy of God. How can that possibly be when we
are made of God!? Accordingly, I also reject the notion of Original Sin. My heart tells me that
these two concepts are interwoven, created by man in order to insert intermediaries between
each person and his personal Channel to God.

● I reject the notion of God requiring the "sacrifice" of Jesus for our salvation.

Why would God need to sacrifice Himself to Himself in order to change a rule He made Himself? I feel that this is simply a ploy inserted into the scriptures to serve two ends.

(1) It neatly ties up the insertion of the concept of Original Sin, giving the priesthood the power of declaring who is saved and (2) it absolves man of facing perhaps his most troubling aspect, namely that when the Realized Son Of God walked this Earth, men had the audacity to kill Him instead of listening to Him.

As I have stated in the Crystal Spirit Story, I believe that we are all literally a part of Jesus and
that our never ending journey to re-join with the Core of Creator requires that we “re-meld with
Jesus” along the way.

This was true before Jesus visited this place, true while he was here on Earth, and it is just as true today. Nothing in this beautiful Truth requires the blood of anything, especially the Creator Son!

● I reject the notion that Creator requires worship and sacrifice. Grandfather requires no
cheering section of happy toadies with harps, nor does He require the smoke of burnt offerings
to placate some holy blood lust.

On the contrary, Creator has made a very wonderful opportunity for us to join Him in this business of Creation. And join Him we do, with every thought and action, regardless of our personal unawareness of the process. That ignorance is where things often go awry.

"I cannot conceive otherwise than that He, the Infinite Father, expects or requires no worship or
praise from us, but that He is even infinitely above it."
- Benjamin Franklin from "Articles of Belief and Acts of Religion", Nov. 20, 1728

●  I reject the notion that Creator has “Chosen People” and view with contempt the concept of
God backing any particular country over another.

● I reject the notion that “Thou Shalt Not Kill” has any provision for governments to overrule it.
"He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been
given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully suffice.

This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senseless brutality, deplorable love-of-country stance, how violently I hate all this, how despiseable an ignoreable war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder."
- Albert Einstein

● I reject the notion that God created us to judge us. 

He created us to experience this place as a point from which to embark on the infinite Universal Adventure of re-joining with Him. He created us for Companionship.

● I reject the notion of specific “Holy Ground.” ALL ground is Holy Ground. In the same vein, I
reject the notion of physical resurrection of the body after death. When you are through with
your physical body, your Spirit transcends it and has no further need for it.

There is no reason to venerate the graves of the departed except when it is a symbolic veneration of their memory. This misunderstanding of the Spirit’s relationship to the physical body has created much unnecessary bloodshed in the name of “protecting Holy Ground.”

● I reject the prophesies of the book of Revelation as the vengeful dreams of a downtrodden
disciple but, at the same time I fear them. My fear springs from the certain knowledge that all it
takes is enough people believing this horrible nightmare to make the Earthly aspects of it come
true. - 5 -

● I reject the notion that “God is only good.” There can be nothing in this Universe that is not of
the Creator and that includes all shades of experience, all possibilities of being.

At the same time I believe in “vibrational states” in the sense that the higher vibrations of love, compassion, peace draw one closer to Creator and the lower vibrations of hate, lust, rage, repel you farther away.

This is the core Truth behind what has been often misinterpreted to state “God cannot face sin.”
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DEVIL IN THE DETAILS

I question even the concept of a Devil incarnate. If Satan does exist as a separate being, he too
is a facet of Grandfather. Eastern mysticism seems to have a stronger grip on this issue with their
concept of the two faces of Shiva, Creator and Destroyer. Mythical Christianity misinterprets the
“other side of Grandfather” as an evil being which must be overcome.

A concept which is ultimately as impossible as having light without darkness or wet without dry. A concept which also gives man an excuse to not look for the answers within his own core.

Man, as a species, must rise to the realization that there is not some “outside Devil” making his
paradise less than perfect. That which we call Evil is simply the denial of our own spiritual
responsibility toward ourselves and those around us.

I believe that the sum total of what we define as evil in this world can be explained by the misled
efforts of those beings - both physical and invisible - who lead unbalanced, Spiritually uncentered lives.

The biggest influences working against men are their own powers unharnessed and uncontrolled. In the gospel of Thomas, Jesus says that we MUST bring out that Light which is within us or it will KILL US. Keeping your light under a bushel will burn the basket. That's the core of the sickness... The root angst from which springs all other symptoms.

While there are powerful Spirits at work in this world and the next, alluding to "evil powers that
be" is usually just another attempt at evading personal responsibility... 100% of what most
people experience as evil can be attributed to their own decisions without factoring in any
demons other than those of their own creation. And what you create, you can destroy.

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THE EFFECTS OF GODLESSNESS

Living in a state of Spiritual Imbalance produces effects which magnify over time, like the
increasing wobbles of a slowing gyroscope. The Spirit so encumbered becomes unable to help
himself, which automatically means he’s unable to help others. In the final throes the Spirit often
injures those within reach around him “on his way out.”

If enough people enter such a state of unhealthy disconnection an entire society decays. The
effects of Spiritual Drought become increasingly apparent as the people reach out to sensational
diversions to fill its increasing void.

Passing on the sickness from one generation to another makes it even more difficult to rectify the
effects of unbalanced lives. For example, there is no “root cause” for the mental illness of
someone who grew up in the shadow of an alcoholic parent. They inherit the problems of their
parent’s choices. ***************************

When an assailant lashes out, he’s striking at the shadows in his own Spirit. The victim becomes
caught in a web of co-creation shared with the attacker and all those who failed to feed his spirit
in the past.

The Spirits of violent men are often so afflicted by their stunted development that they grow
instantly hostile when shown any act of compassion, or indeed, any act of kindness that conflicts
with their own illusions of unworthiness.

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SPIRITUAL TRUTHS AND OBSERVATIONS

● There is no one between you and Creator unless you put them there.

● I believe that each of us has a “bell” inside our heart that rings when Spiritual Truth is found. I
believe the only dogma that is truly needed for Spiritual Progress is the simple commandment, “if
it’s not written on your heart, don’t read it.” The tricky part is getting people to quiet themselves
enough to hear it.

● True Spiritual Progress entails taking personal responsibility for your thoughts and actions.
There is no holy book or ritual to absolve you. There is no shortcut to taking the reins of your
own Divinity and riding it Home.

“THE CENTRAL MOUNTAIN IS EVERYWHERE”
- CHIEF BLACK ELK
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FALSE AND TRUE

Here’s how to tell a true prophet from a false one. “By their actions ye shall know them.” True
prophets and spiritual guides lead you to the gates of your own Spiritual Dawning and
enlightenment.

They literally tend to you like a loving gardener, growing you into your own Spiritual Independence. False prophets and teachers train you to depend on them for guidance and instruction, telling you that you are not worthy or perhaps just not ready to trust your own spiritual instincts.

True Spiritual Leader = “Follow your heart, I’ll show you the way.”

False Spiritual Leader = “Follow me, I know the way.”
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●  Spell EVIL backwards and it becomes LIVE.
    And so it is that the truest definition
    of evil is living backwards.
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In my youth, one spiritual reality in particular bothered me and seemed without answer. The
death of the innocents, as in the classic example of a four year old killed under the wheels of a
bus. No preacher or text could give my heart an answer that made sense or eased the pain until,
one Dawn, a revelation came when I put the question to Creator.

The answer came to me as a light upon my heart that soon bubbled into words I could comprehend. “I am only doing it to Myself. I Am the 4 year old and I Am the wheels. I Am all things and I shall experience all things.” This, finally, gave my heart peace.
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SPIRITUAL REALITIES

● In the material world you cannot destroy anything. You can change its state, but you are left
with the same amount of “stuff” as when you started. I believe that this physical law transmutes
to the Spiritual realm as well. I believe that we are all quite immortal, safe and impervious to
destruction in any sense. Our Spirits, being of Creator, are timeless and endless.

● I believe that all spirits are the same dimensions. There are no “small spirits” for we are each a
piece of the all encompassing whole which is without form, restriction or barrier. An ant has no
less majesty or depth than Man. It is simply Creator expressing Himself as an ant.

● I believe that our Spirits give off a range of vibrational states (or “Spiritual Colors”) according
to our state of being. As Red is a lower vibrational state than Blue in the visible light spectrum,
so also are the emotions of anger and rage lower vibrational states than the emotions of love,
compassion and spiritual awareness. By achieving and maintaining these higher vibrational states
of being, we spiral inward on the Infinite Path, drawing ourselves closer to Creator’s Center.

● I believe that locations and places can in some manner “record” the vibrations of events, even
replaying them in a manner perceptible to our senses when the vibrations were especially strong.
The manifestations observable at some haunted battlegrounds are one example of this.

Like rippling water from a dropped pebble, all events send waves through time and space.
Some Spirits are so willful and yet unbalanced that they literally cling to this place after passing
through the veil of death. 

The walk the halls of their former reality, trapped in a nightmare of their own making. If their personal power is strong enough, they can even manifest themselves to certain sensitive individuals. This, I believe, explains the manifestations (“hauntings”) of individual spirits.

● We are all born with an innate capacity to be “psychic,” but our cultures are, for the most part,
ignorant of this capability - or perhaps even fear it. A lack of proper training plus the clamor and
hustle of day-today life makes so much noise and distraction in our minds that most never hear
the faint voices in their heart. Our inner voices have been drowned out by modern media and
the nightly news onslaught.

This psychic capacity - which in reality is just the capability to pick up the inner voices of the
heart - can be discovered at any age, but much like learning music, it would seem that an early
proper foundation is usually vital for true mastery. Without use, our capabilities atrophy.

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PROVING GOD

● For those who require proof beyond their own breath of the existence of God, I believe the
principle of “Original Cause” is our strongest logical verification. This series of processes we call a
Universe (Cause-Effect-Cause-Effect, ad infinitum) must have had a first event, a first motivating
cause… A finger flicking the first domino. That first verb, that Big Bang, was Creator.

● To those who view this Universe as a spontaneously generated anomaly, I simply ask,
spontaneously generated from WHAT? The Something comprising this reality had to have a
source. That source is Creator.

● Beyond this and other logical assumptions it remains an impossibility to test for Creator
because, being the core of all things, no instrument can be devised that is separate from what is
being tested. The eye literally cannot see itself and we have no way to construct a mirror
“outside of God” to reflect God.
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OUR DIRECT RELATIONSHIP TO GOD

Jesus Himself said that we are all “Sons of God”. Look it up in your favorite translation of the
Bible. He did not say we were, "almost as good"... He did not call us "less than but on the same
playing board"... He pronounced you a SON of God... An equal to Jesus Himself. The difference is
that Jesus is a fully REALIZED Son of Creator, free of the shackles created by the illusions of this
world. We are unrealized. And as such, our purpose here is not to learn, but to REMEMBER (remember) who we are.

Just as the younger brother lacks for a time the skills and power of the older brother, we are of
the same direct Spiritual Linage of Jesus, but we have yet to grow into our own Spiritual Maturity
and Awareness.
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WHY JESUS WAS HERE IN MORTAL FORM

I believe that Jesus, as a fully realized Celestial Son and “director of this region of the Universe,”
has the responsibility of experiencing at least one life cycle of every sentient being under his
Divine Guidance.

I believe in the possibility that Jesus has visited this place on more than one occasion.

GOD PRACTICE

I believe that our dreams serve many purposes, one of which is actually a form of “God Practice.”
Tiny personal universes that we create in the same manner that we are created.

The orders of magnitude are vastly different, but there is a perfect fractal relationship between them.
Reality itself is a fractal. The microcosm reflects the macrocosm and perfect symmetry exists
between them. And that same fractal extends to our dreaming.

“ALL of the universe is one, flowing, fractal mind-form - we call it God, Goddess, Brahman, Allah,
Buddhahood, Ahura-Mazda, El-Shaddai, Jah, Manitou, Tao, math, language, chemistry, history,
religion, humor, evolution, and infinitely more.

It is "center everywhere, circumference nowhere - " we are the center of the universe, because it is infinite. And we are also an insignificant speck, a bubble on the cosmic oceans.” - Unknown
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MOTHER MUSINGS

● It will not matter for Mother Earth how many feet walk the Spirit Path unless all the others find
their path as well and that will require a planet-wide epiphany. We are one great Global Being
intertwined. Until each piece is whole, no one piece can be The Whole.

● I believe in the possibility that this place, Earth, is in a continual state of upheaval in order to
allow our individual Spirits to transcend it. Global unity and epiphany is a worthy goal and a much
more fitting mindset than Armageddon, but the possibility exists that this place is not intended to
be anything other than what it is now… A melting pot of spiritual levels, voices and choices.

● Let us remember that Mother Earth is also a facet of Creator and She is that from which all life springs in this place and it is to Her that we shall all return.

● I believe that this planet is one of many in this Universe which supports “higher forms of life.”

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REALITY PLAYGROUND

● I believe that Creator has given us this reality as a safe haven where we are free to experiment
and grow in our own time and at our own pace.

Some of us are immediately drawn to following the Spirit Path while others simply enjoy (and get lost in) the infinite variety of sensations in this place.

The entanglements begin when our co-Creations intermingle and intertwine. Much, if not all, of
what is labeled as “Evil” in this world is a result of this co-mingling.

● I believe that each Spirit chooses much of the reality it experiences, mostly at a level that is
beneath our conscious awareness. Spiritual Maturity means taking the reins of this Creative
Process and becoming aware of our part in the proceedings.

● I believe that Creator doesn’t care what specific activities we engage in and how we choose to
spend our time. Eventually we ALL rejoin the Center and we have infinity to get there.

● Despite all the publicity to the contrary, I believe we are under the auspices of a loving God
who has no trouble relating to us in all our various states of being.

● I personally walk the path toward Higher Vibrational states as an active seeker of Creator in all
His facets. I choose to direct my path instead of just drifting along the sea of sensations.

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ILLUSIONS OF SEPERATENESS

● I believe the teachings of Elders such as Carl Jung, who postulate that any separateness
between us is an illusion, much as the Hawaiian Islands are by all appearances separate, when in
reality they are but the tips of mountains joined together at the common bedrock. When Jung
speaks of a Universal Consciousness connecting us all, I hear simply another description of
Creator.

● I believe in the possibility of reincarnation, but given the premise that we are all God, the
question ultimately has no meaning anyway.

A better way to frame this inquiry would be, “are our Individual Identities (some would say souls) preserved when we leave this place?” I can only answer that my heart tells me it is so. Contemplations at Dawn reveal to me that each of our identities are sacred and equal to Grandfather. We are here to witness Creation and participate in it. The journey truly is the reward.
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BECOMING FREE OF IMPOSING INFLUENCES

As shards of the Sacred Crystal, our experiences are what shape us, at least until we learn to
shape our experiences. All reality begins in thought. All thoughts bring with them realities. - 10 -
Clearing the spirit of outside influences and imposed thoughts is a necessary step if one seeks to
be free of the illusions of this co-reality.

For many, the scariest part of the process is trusting their own heart to know Truth when it finds it. They have been told all their lives that they cannot trust their inner voices for they are tainted and impure when, in fact, their very core is the essence of Creator in all His glory.

The act of focusing our thoughts is crucial to Spiritual progress.

"The one thing that we can say about fundamental matter is that it is vibrating. And since all
vibrations are theoretically sound, it is not unreasonable to suggest that the universe is music
and should be percieved as such."
- Joachim Ernst-Berendt
"A STONE IS FROZEN MUSIC"
- Pythagoras (Mystic and inventor of geometry)
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PEACE MEANS FORGIVING

The road to our inner peace is frequently blocked by our own emotions and the way we cling to
them. There are simple to describe (yet difficult to follow) instructions for dealing with this:

First step... Forgive yourself

Second step... Forgive others

Third Step.... Move on

Most people skip that first step and try to start with the second... But you can't forgive anyone
else until you've truly made peace with yourself. And that, in my mind, includes purging yourself
of the false notions of unworthiness placed upon you by the myth of original Sin.

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AFTER LIFE

● I believe that this Life is but one chapter in a never-ending adventure whose ultimate
destination is an incredible re-joining with the Creator of All.

I believe that Death, as we know it here, is actually a form of Spiritually Puberty where we, as Celestial Brothers, come of age, reaching a new level of Spiritual Maturity… That is except for those who choose to reject the “graduation ceremony”.

● In death, Spirits depart this reality’s “subset” and enter the “superset” of the larger reality that
encompasses this one. To awake from death is as awakening from a deep dream.

● People generally die with their Spirits in one of 3 conditions, with the state of their Spiritual
Development being the determining factor.

Those operating at the highest vibrational levels gather so much Spiritual Power in this place that their passing is like crossing through a thin veil from this reality to the next. If they so desire, their understanding is such that they are able to pass freely back and forth from the subset to the superset.

These are the teachers and guides that assist the rest of us with our own Spiritual progress and transitions. Many of these Spirits have learned how to “pass back and forth” between realities even before their physical death.

For those whose life held to a more middling vibrational level of existence, the experience of
death is more painful, requiring the ripping of their illusions and the stripping of their pretenses
in one fell swoop. For these Spirits the transition of death is an awakening, often rude, which
then prepares them for their next series of experiences. This is the experience often misinterpreted as “Final Judgment” by many religions.

The lowest vibrational levels consist of those who live out their life in this place without
increasing their awareness, those who float lost upon reality’s ocean of sensations and conflicting
voices.

These poor tired Spirits often spend massive amounts of time after this life in a form of
“Divine Unconsciousness,” rebuilding their Spirit Energy from the traumas they carry with them
still.

I believe that this third group presents the best argument for the possibility of reincarnation. For
various reasons these people cling so obsessively to their experiences in the material World that
they reject even the notion of moving beyond it.

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ONE PATH - TWO DIRECTIONS

All paths lead one of two directions, either spiraling inward, toward Creator, or outward, toward
the greater illusions of separation and eventual dissolution.

You have the ability to choose the
direction of your path at all times and there is no standing still. This is free will.

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Just because my understanding may be different from yours,
do not assume I have NO understanding.

We just come from different experiences.
Just because my vision is different from yours,
do not assume I am blind.

We just see things differently.
Just because you disagree with my words,
do not assume you are the only "good person"
in the conversation.
That is called prejudice. The mother of hatred.

_____________________________________________________________________

I pledge allegiance to humanity
And to the Mother Planet on which we stand.

One Earth, under Creator, indivisible,
With liberty, justice and opportunity for all,
Including the generations to come.

Reverend Steven Cox
 Voice of Golden Eagle
 March 15, 2006 "

Source and Full Document
http://ulcmemphis.org/media/ulcmemphis_spiritual-statements.pdf

Posted here by
Reverend Crystal Cox ( no relation)
Mother Goddess Church
Bringing Back Goddess Church
ReverendCrystalCox@Gmail.com 

"The Pythias excerpted from Secret History of the Witches" Max Dashu

"I count the grains of sand on the beach and measure the sea
I understand the speech of the mute and hear the voiceless
— Delphic Oracle [Herodotus, I, 47]

" and waters flowed from a spring. The place was called Delphoi (“Womb”).
In its cave sanctuary lived a shamanic priestess called the Pythia —Serpent
Woman. Her prophetic power came from a she-dragon in the Castalian spring,
whose waters had inspirational qualities. She sat on a tripod, breathing vapors
that emerged from a deep cleft in the Earth, until she entered trance and
prophesied by chanting in verse.

The shrine was sacred to the indigenous Aegean earth goddess. The
Greeks called her Ge, and later Gaia. Earth was said to have been the first Delphic
priestess. [Pindar, fr. 55; Euripides, Iphigenia in Taurus, 1234-83. 

This idea of Earth as the original oracle and source of prophecy was widespread. The Eumenides
play begins with a Pythia intoning, “First in my prayer I call on Earth, primeval prophetess...” [Harrison, 385] Ancient Greek tradition held that there had once been an oracle of Earth at the Gaeion in Olympia, but it had disappeared by the 2nd century. [Pausanias, 10.5.5; Frazer on Apollodorus, note, 10] The oracular cave of Aegira, with its very old wooden image of Broad-bosomed Ge, belonged to Earth too. [Pliny, Natural History 28. 147; Pausanias 7, 25] 

Source and to Download Full Document
https://www.academia.edu/9745250/The_Pythias_and_other_prophetic_women


Reverend Crystal Cox
Bringing Back Goddess
Mother Goddess Church
ReverendCrystalCox@Gmail.com 

Goddess Bless You !!

Saturday, December 13, 2014

Goddess Thealogy; Max Dashu, Sacred Feminine, the Great Mother, Goddess Spirituality, the Divine Feminine, Feminine Divine, The Great Mother Goddess and Goddesses.

"Goddess Thealogy:   An International Journal for the Study of the Divine Feminine  provides the forum for critical exploration and cultivation of Sacred Feminine scholarship as it relates to feminist and post-feminist thealogy, deasophy and praxis.

Goddess Thealogy is interdisciplinary in that it encourages the wide rangeof diverse thealogical and deasophical methods, engagement with the full spectrum of feminist theories andmethodologies, and interaction with the social sciences, social theory, philosophy, psychology, anthropology, criticaltheory, the arts, and the humanities.

Whilst academic in its orientation, the journal is intended to be accessible to a broad spectrum of readers, whether theologically trained or not. Its discussion of contemporary issues and pastconcerns as they relate to the traditions of the Goddess is not narrowly scholastic, but sets those concerns in a practical perspective.

We encourage all kinds of thealogical and deasophical exploration including articles that contain picturesand art.

The journal strives to promote:

Debate amongst Goddess thealogians and deasophists from diverse perspectives

Critical engagement of current thealogies and deasophies that predominate in the scholarly fieldand in the broader Goddess communities

New ways of doing thealogy and deasophy

A forum for practical and theoretical thealogy reflection

A meeting place for multiple academic disciplines

Work by Goddess scholars and practitioners, feminist thealogians, and feminist deasophistsfrom all over the world."

"Goddess Thealogy; An International Journal for the Study of the Divine Feminine."

"The terms Divine Feminine, Sacred Feminine, Goddess, Great Mother and Feminine Divine are all usedinterchangeably within the context of thealogy and this journal."


Download the Whole eBook Below

"Goddess Thealogy: An International Journal for the Study of the Divine Feminine Vol 1 No. 1.1 (A4) December 2011"
https://www.academia.edu/1193748/Goddess_Thealogy_An_International_Journal_for_the_Study_of_the_Divine_Feminine_Vol_1_No._1.1_A4_December_2011


Mother Goddess Worship
http://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Mother_Goddess_Worship


Goddess Spirituality 
https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Goddess_Spirituality

Goddess Thealogy
https://www.academia.edu/1193748/Goddess_Thealogy_An_International_Journal_for_the_Study_of_the_Divine_Feminine_Vol_1_No._1.1_A4_December_2011

Ancient Goddesses
https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Ancient_Goddesses


The Great Mother Goddess and Goddesses
https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/The_Great_Mother_Goddess_and_Goddesses

Max Dashu
https://independent.academia.edu/MaxDashu

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Christianity and Neopaganism, Sophie, Feminine Divine, and Feminist Theology

"Herchurch is another name used for the Ebenezer Lutheran Church in San Francisco. Ebenezer herchurch is part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the Evangelical and Ecumenical Women's Caucus and the San Francisco Council of Lutheran Churches.[1][2]

Stacy Boorn, the minister for herchurch, uses feminist theology in the church's expression of faith, worship, learning, mutual care, and acts of justice.[3]

Megan Rohrer is the Associate Pastor and is openly gay. Rohrer was ordained extraordinarily in defiance of ELCA rules.[4][5] Rohrer is rostered by Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries, which is "committed to the full participation of persons of all sexual orientations and gender identities in the life and ministry of the Lutheran church."[4][6]
Since 2007, Ebenezer Lutheran has annually on the first weekend in November sponsored a three-day conference on faith and feminism, often with a focus on reviving traditions of honoring the sacred feminine as manifested in the Hellenistic and Jewish concept of Sophia, and in the faith-traditions of minorities.

The 2009 conference focused on the ahistorical idea held by various dissenting Christian groups over history that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, an idea featured prominently in Dan Brown's famous novel The DaVinci Code.
Ebenezer HerChurch is a member of the Evangelical and Ecumenical Women's Caucus."

Source

Sophia
"Sophia (σοφία, Greek for "wisdom") is a central idea in Hellenistic philosophy and religion, Platonism, Gnosticism, Orthodox Christianity, Esoteric Christianity, as well as Christian mysticism. Sophiology is a philosophical concept regarding wisdom, as well as a theological concept regarding the wisdom of the biblical God.

Sophia is honored as a goddess of wisdom by Gnostics, as well as by some Neopagan, New Age, and feminist-inspired Goddess spirituality groups. In Orthodox and Roman Catholic Christianity, Sophia, or rather Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom), is an expression of understanding for the second person of the Holy Trinity, (as in the dedication of the church of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul) as well as in the Old Testament, as seen in the Book of Proverbs 9:1, but not an angel or goddess."

"The goddess Sophia was introduced into Anthroposophy by its founder, Rudolf Steiner, in his book The Goddess: From Natura to Divine Sophia and a later compilation of his writings titled Isis Mary Sophia. Sophia also figures prominently in Theosophy, a spiritual movement which Anthroposophy was closely related to. Helena Blavatsky, the founder of Theosophy, described it in her essay 

What is Theosophy? as an esoteric wisdom doctrine, and said that the "Wisdom" referred to was "an emanation of the Divine principle" typified by "...some goddesses -- Metis, Neitha, Athena, the Gnostic Sophia..."

New Age Ascended Master Teachings esoteric interfaith spiritual community currently has its center at what it calls Sancta Sophia Seminary located in Tahlequah, Oklahoma"

More on Sophia

"Feminist theology is a movement found in several religions, ncluding BuddhismChristianityJudaism, and New Thought, to reconsider the traditions, practices, scriptures, and theologies of those religions from a feminist perspective. Some of the goals of feminist theology include increasing the role of women among the clergy and religious authorities, reinterpreting male-dominated imagery and language about God, determining women's place in relation to career and motherhood, and studying images of women in the religion's sacred texts and matriarchal religion."

"Feminist theology attempts to consider every aspect of religious practice and thought. Some of the questions feminist theologians ask are:

How do we do theology? The basic question of how theologians may go about creating systems of thought is currently being reinterpreted by feminist theologians. Many feminist theologians assert that personal experience can be an important component of insight into the divine, along with the more traditional sources of holy books or received tradition. (The relevance of personal experience to the policies of groups of people is a familiar notion to veterans of the feminist movement.)
Who is God? Feminist theologians have supported the use of non- or multi-gendered language for God, arguing that language powerfully impacts belief about the behavior and essence of God.
Where are women in religious history? Feminist historical theologians study the roles of women in periods throughout history that have impacted religion: the Biblical period, the early Christian era, medieval Europe, and any period of import to a particular religion. They study individual women who influenced their religion or whose religious faith led them to impact their culture. The work of these scholars has helped feminist theologians claim historical figures as their predecessors in feminist theology. For example, Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I a Woman?" speech pointed out, "And how came Jesus into the world? Through God who created him and the woman who bore him. Man, where was your part?" Elizabeth Cady Stanton produced The Woman's Bible, excising the traditional Christian text of all references she thought contradicted the positions of women's rights.
Development of theology[edit]
According to Grenz and Olson in their review of Feminist Theology, "it was developed in three distinct steps. They begin with a critique of the past” such that they review the ways women have been oppressed; “they seek alternative biblical and extrabiblical traditions that support” the ideals Feminists are trying to advance; and finally “feminists set forth their own unique method of theology, which includes the revisioning of Christian categories.”[1] Grenz and Olson also mention, however, while all feminists agree there is a flaw in the system, there is disagreement over how far outside of the Bible and the Christian tradition women are willing to go to seek support for their ideals.[2]

It has frequently been said that feminist theology draws on women's experience as a basic source of content as well as a criterion of truth. There has been a tendency to treat this principle of "experience" as unique to feminist theology (or, perhaps to liberation theologies) and to see it as distant from "objective" source of truth of classical theologies. This seems to be a misunderstanding of the experimental base of all theological reflection. What have been called the objective sources of theology; Scripture and tradition, are themselves codified collective human experience"

More

"Christianity and Neopaganism overlap when the beliefs or practices of one religious path influence, or are adopted by, the other. Historically, Christianity sometimes took advantage of traditional pagan beliefs when it spread to new areas – a process known as inculturation. Thus newly established churches took on sites, practices or images belonging to indigenous belief systems as a way of making the new faith more acceptable.[1][2]

More recently, in a parallel process, some followers of modern pagan paths have developed practices such as Christopaganism by blending Christian elements into Neopagan practice"

More


Goddess - Sacred Feminine

Thursday, September 11, 2014

"The Re-emergence of the Great Mother Goddess" by Louis Lagana

Mother Goddess Church;

"Abstract:

Today, great interest in the Ancient Goddess cult is still being revived. With the way the Goddess manifests herself as symbolizing an earthly and cosmic source to the universe, some women have found refuge in the symbolical image of the Mother Goddess.

The impetus towards the Goddess movement came from an archaeologist,Marija Gimbutas. With the return of the Goddess, the new power of the fem
inine is being expressed in all areas of life.

Other major women writers and exponents of the Goddess religion expressed the self-transformation and empowerment and various aspects of feminist social vision of women in their work. In this paper I will also focus on the archetypal image of the Great Mother Goddess which is expressed in rituals, art,mythology and dreams.

In Jungian parlance the Mother Archetype resides in every human psyche and is a symbol of protection and fertility and regeneration. This conceptal so belongs to the field of comparative religion and embraces widely varying types of the mother-goddess.

The discussion of ‘Feminist Archetypal Psychology’ shows that the Great Mother Goddess archetype is activated and is returning to consciousness.

The Great Mother Goddess archetype was very important in the Western world from the dawn of prehistory throughout the pre-Indo-European time periods, as it still is in many traditional cultures today."


"
 International Journal of Arts and Sciences
 3(3)
: 67 - 76 (2009)CD-ROM. ISSN: 1944-6934© InternationalJournal.org
The Re-emergence of the Great Mother Goddess
Louis Laganà
, University of Malta, Malta

Abstract:
Today, great interest in the Ancient Goddess cult is still being revived. Withthe way the Goddess manifests herself as symbolizing an earthly and cosmic source tothe universe, some women have found refuge in the symbolical image of the MotherGoddess. The impetus towards the Goddess movement came from an archaeologist,Marija Gimbutas. With the return of the Goddess, the new power of the feminine is beingexpressed in all areas of life. Other major women writers and exponents of the Goddessreligion expressed the self-transformation and empowerment and various aspects of feminist social vision of women in their work. In this paper I will also focus on thearchetypal image of the Great Mother Goddess which is expressed in rituals, art,mythology and dreams. In Jungian parlance the Mother Archetype resides in everyhuman psyche and is a symbol of protection and fertility and regeneration. This conceptal so belongs to the field of comparative religion and embraces widely varying types of the mother-goddess. The discussion of ‘Feminist Archetypal Psychology’ shows that the Great Mother Goddess archetype is activated and is returning to consciousness.

The Great Mother Goddess archetype was very important in the Western world from thedawn of prehistory throughout the pre-Indo-European time periods, as it still is in many traditional cultures today.

1.1
Introduction - Archaeological Representations of Gods and Goddesses

In the ancient past, we find representations of Gods and Goddesses related to water,like the Bird and the Snake Goddess, i.e. Mistresses of Waters (Gimbutas, 1974). Duringthe Neolithic period, with its wide expansion of vegetation symbolism, we discover gods and goddesses associated with the agricultural cycle and its seasonal progressions,manifesting the eternal archetype of death and rebirth. In Neolithic Malta the most interesting archaeological aspect is the great number of figurines and statues that were found in different temple sites on the archipelago.

Many interpretations were given for these ‘goddesses’ and ‘gods’ and today a definite answer is still lacking for a clear interpretation. Surely, sculptural art was used to express religious conceptions and had also a psychological explanation for the first farmers living on the islands of Malta and Gozo. Here I want to point out that so far I am only looking at one side of certain interpretations of symbols as expressed by groups of archaeologists, historians, mythologists and many feminist groups who are of the opinion that a Matriarchal pastexisted. Most of  them are also attracted to and accept the idea of the existence of aMother Goddess religion in the prehistoric past.Today, great interest in the Ancient Goddess cult is still being revived. There are people, especially women, who have become interested in very old religions, myth,ancient art, archaeology and other subjects, which are related to the role of the female in past and present societies.

This was partly triggered not only by the feminist movement in general – equal rights and the position of women in the private and public sector – butalso by the urgent need to create awareness in the current ecological crises the world is passing through.

With the way the Goddess manifests herself as symbolizing an earthlyand cosmic source to the universe, some women found refuge in the symbolical image of the Mother Goddess. The impetus towards the Goddess movement came from anarchaeologist, Marija Gimbutas. In the 1970’s Gimbutas, in her works, focused on theprehistoric cultures of south-east Europe, and was an authority to the story of the goddess religion (Goodison, Lucy, and Morris, Christine, 1998).

Elinor Gadon commented on thisin her writing about the re-emergence of the Goddess:In the late twentieth century there is a growing awareness that we are doomed as aspecies and planet unless we have a radical change of consciousness.

The re-emergence of the Goddess is becoming the symbol and metaphor for this transformation of culture. With the return of the Goddess, the new power of the feminine is being expressed in all areas of life.

There is a re-evaluation of the female principle in religion, in psychology, in the arts, and in the quality and relationship of humanity to the planet we live on. We are in the midst of a social evolution that will ultimately change how we see everything, as radically transformative as the smashing of the atom (1989, 229-230).Major women writers and exponents of the Goddess religion expressed the self-transformation and empowerment and various aspects of  feminist social vision of women in their work. These include among others Carol Christ, Charlene Spretnak, Mary Daly,Marija Gimbutas, Cristina Biaggi, Riane Eisler, Jean Shinoda Bolen, Christine Downing,and Starhawk.

The Goddess became the centre of a new earth based spirituality invoking the full acceptance of the archetypal female in its positive and negative powers.

For some modern women, a small minority, identification with the archetypal Goddess figures provides insight into inner conflicts and can be healing (1989, 229).

1.2
The Archetype of the Great Mother Goddess

 From a Jungian point of view, the Goddess is an archetypal image at work within the human psyche and finds expression in ritual, mythology, art, and also in dreams (Jung,1959, 9). Without doubt, one of the earliest scholars to work on the idea that the human psyche reveals archetypal patterns related to the Mother Goddess, is C.G. Jung. Hestated:

The concept of the Great Mother belongs to the field of comparative religion and embraces widely varying types of mother-goddess. The concept itself is of no immediate concern to psychology, because the image of a Great Mother in this form is rarely encountered in practice, and then only under very special conditions.

The symbol is obviously a derivate of the mother archetype (1959, 9.)So Jung is of the opinion that the Great Mother Goddess is part of the ‘mother archetype’that resides in every human being and like other archetypes this archetype appears in a variety of aspects.

This archetype is also associated with fertility and productivity. Jungargues that the Mother Archetype is a symbol of protection and is associated with hollow objects such as ovens and cooking vessels and of course, the uterus,  yoni , and anything of a like shape. Added to this list there are many animals, such as the cow, hare, and helpful animals in general (1959, 15).

Hence, the Mother Archetype further provides a better understanding of the Great Mother Goddess. The primordial human has a long history of venerated Goddesses from long before the appearance of Venus of Willendorf (Fig. 01) and theMaltese Mother Goddess (also known as the Fat Lady) (Fig. 02) carved out of limestone.

This long history contains a vast library of rituals from which the modern individual can find out examples of how to directly engage the mother archetype.Jungian, analytical psychologist Erich Neumann elaborated at length on the theme of the Great Mother.

He published an exhaustive book on the subject and explained atlength on how to understand this dominant archetypal symbol of the human psyche(1963). First he analysed the psychology of the feminine in general and then he formed the structural elements of the Great Mother archetype. He observed that the earliest form of creation in myths is that of the circle, the Great Round, or the sphere, the womb of the Great Mother goddess as the universal vessel of the world. 

This contains in itself the entire existence of early man and so becomes the Archetypal Feminine (1963, 42).Neumann refers to the feminine functions as powerful, protective sources to the human being.

Only when we have considered the whole scope of the basic feminine functions -the giving of life, nourishment, warmth, and protection - can we understand why the Feminine occupies so central a position in human symbolism and from the very beginning bears the character of “greatness.”

The Feminine appears as great because that which is contained, sheltered, nourished, is dependent on it and utterly at its mercy. Nowhere perhaps is it so evident that a human being must be experienced as “great” as in the case of the mother. A glance at the infant or child confirms her position as Great Mother (1963, 43).

Neumann continued to give more symbolic meaning to the importance of the feminine.He referred to the woman as the ‘vessel’ in which life forms. Her body is transformed into the safest place where the unborn child is sheltered. Her body is the vessel.

He illustrated that if we combine this body-world equation of early man in its first unspecific form with the fundamental symbolic equation of the feminine: woman = body = vessel,we arrive at a universal symbolic formula for the early period of mankind (1963).Woman and earth both give forth life and as such are sacred.

Their bodies contain new life inside. Both are vessels just as the earth contains new life that springs forth in the summer. The woman and the earth have the sole aim of creating new biological life. Sheis sacred; her body is sacred as well. They are not just myths or historical entities, “but  psychological realities whose fateful power is still alive in the psychic depths of present day man (1963, 44). Mircea Eliade elevates the sacredness of the body of the woman.

Hestated:Woman, then, is mystically held to be one with the earth, childbearing is seen as avariant, on the human scale, of the telluric fertility. All religions experiences connected with fecundity and birth have a cosmic structure

. The sacrality of woman depends on the holiness of the earth. Feminine fecundity has a cosmic model – that of Terra Mater, the universal Genetrix (1957, 144).So the female body is being acknowledged and revered as the holy alchemical vessel of creation and transformation.

The body of the woman becomes as a sacred metaphor of the earth. Lippard wrote: “Women can, and do, identify the forms of our bodies with the undulations of the earth – hills and sacred mountains which were the first gardens and the first temples” (1983, 42).

That is why this strengthens the hypothesis that the Maltese prehistoric temples (and other temples around the world) were built in the shape of a woman (the goddess).The female archetype as expressed in a symbolical way by Neumann, shows its importance and why the early humans depended on the earth for all things, food, shelter,and life itself. They noticed that all life was created within the bodies of females and so it was natural for them to see an all-powerful creator as female too.

The result was that for thousands of years, the majority of our ancestors worshipped a Divine and powerful Mother-Goddess. She was honoured as the Mother of all life. Neumann developed the argument of the Great Mother Goddess into an elaborate theory of human spiritual development, in which the goddess stood for “the archetypal unity and multiplicity of the feminine nature” and even now determines “the psychic history of modern man and of modern woman” (1963, 336). Apart from using a psychological standpoint, he also based most of his arguments on the data assembled by archaeologists who had developed the notion of the Great Goddess."

Source and Full Article
https://www.academia.edu/214064/The_Re-emergence_of_the_Great_Mother_Goddess

Pisces Rising: Return of the Goddess' by Maria Kay Simms

"(From the NCGR Journal - Winter 1987-1988 (Philosophy Issue)) 

What is God? Although some of the descriptive details might differ in the ideas of various religions, one of the most obvious similarities in world view for the past 2000 years is this: God is He-with a capital H-male.It was not always so. In the 200
0 or so years before, God was She - Mother, Creatress, Giver of Life, Provider of all food from Her earthly abundance. Now, in the thoughts of many, the image of God is changing again. 

The Goddess is ascending, and with Her a new movement toward a matrifocal social structure.have you ever thought how profoundly our entire social and political structure is influenced by this one simple concept - God as male, or God as female?

Ancient Goddess-worshiping civilizations were peaceful. 

Primary occupations were gathering, and later agricultural. People were very conscious of their dependence on Mother Earth, and they respected Her deeply. 

Human mothers were the center of society. Lines of descent were traced through the mother line. Inheritance of property and position passed from mother to daughter. Councils of women had the final say on most decisions that affected the welfare of their groups. 

Women were priestesses and healers. 

Their brothers and uncles protected the women - especially when they were pregnant or caring for small children. Sexual activity was considered a natural function - a gift ofthe Divine Mother, meant for pleasure. Since the line of descent came from the mother, it really didn't matter who the father was. 

All children were cherished, protected by the entire clan. 

All this was during the time that we call the Age of Taurus-earthy, sensual, peace-living Taurus. Taurus, we are taught, is a "feminine" sign.

Around 2000 years ago the Age of Aries (a "masculine" sign) began. Slowly, one by one, the culturally developed, urban, Goddess-worshiping civilizations fell under the domination of conquering Aryan (or Indo-European) tribes with a new point of view. 

Their God was masculine, and was symbolized in various forms of fire. Their leaders were men, their social-political structure patriarchal. Because descent and inheritance from the father was important to them, very strict sexual mores had to be enforced for women. How else could the men be sure who fathered each child? Women became the property of their fathers to be sold to their husbands. 

With great religious zeal the Aryans slaughtered the matrifocal societies into submission. This change in world view did not happen overnight, or even in a century. Throughout the entire Age of Aries the migrations and invasions went on. 

By the dawn of the Age of Pisces, though, the transformation was nearly complete. Only a few cultures, like the Celts, still clung to the Goddess. Throughout the civilized world the vast majority of people referred to God as He. That there had ever been another way to think was all but forgotten.

The macho, all powerful, stern, punishing Aryan God, who was given to appearances in fiery pillars or atop rumbling volcanoes, had been modified by emerging Piscean concepts. He was now to be called "Father", and while Father may be stern and just, He was also loving and forgiving. But the social-political structure had become firmly patriarchal. Generations had forgotten that women had ever been more than property. Men made all the decisions.

Nearly 2000 years more have now gone by. The pendulum is slowly swinging back to a matrifocal society. The struggle is much less violent than before, but it is persistent - and inevitable. Why is this so?

As above, so below! That's a familiar concept to all of us. We know so little about how and why it works, yet life on earth does reflect the patterns in the cosmos. Individuals and nations respond to the cosmic clock, even when they have no conscious awareness of its existence. We astrologers know this is true. We prove it to ourselves with every chart we study.

Most of the time, though, like everyone else, our focus is limited to our own lifetime and our current problems. That's natural. Why should we be concerned about where we are in a cycle of thousands of years? 

We have enough to contend with in our own lives. For today, though let's look at the whole, the forest, instead of just the individual trees. 

Let's see how very much we are influenced by our place within the cycle of the ages. Let's see how this cycle has affected our views about ourselves, where we are, where we are going - and even our concepts of astrology.

To summarize: The collective concept of God reflects the cycle of the precessional ages. To say that again, a bit more simply, for emphasis: 

The way people think of God, and of themselves in relation to God, is deeply influenced by the Great Ages. This is true - it happens - even if the people have no idea what a Great Age is - even if they've never heard of astrology.

The peaceful, agrarian, earth-centered, matrifocal cultures of Taurus reflected Taurus not only in their values, but also in their sacred symbols. 

Think of the sacred cattle of India, the bull God Apis of Egypt, the Minotaur of Crete. Throughout the civilized world bulls, cow, oxen - or the opposition Scorpio symbols such as serpents, phoenix, eagles and Selket the Scorpion Goddess, were important religious symbols.

The Aryan invaders of the Age of Aries introduced a competitive, warring, patriarchal culture. God was represented in fire. Apis of Egypt was supplanted by Amon the Ram God. Athena, born of her father, wore a helmet with ram's horns. The Hebrews escaped from Egypt, sacrificed the bull as a sin offering, and consecrated their altar and priestly vestments with the blood of a ram.

As the Age of Aries drew to a close the Lamb of God was sacrificed to atone for sin, and rose to introduce the Age of Pisces and a new religion. Pisces is a 'feminine" sign, and the god- concept softened to a compassionate, forgiving, parent figure who loved everyone unconditionally. The followers of the Fisher of Men identified themselves by the sign of the fish. The leaders of the new religion adopted fish-head hats, and their supreme pontiff is said to wear the "shoes of the Fisherman". 

The status of women had sunk to an all-time low in the dawn of this age, but still the virgin mother of Jesus was elevated to Queen of Heaven and called the Mother of God.

Slowly, slowly social mores and political structures are changing to reflect the Piscean vision of God. A new paradigm is born, but old habits of thinking die very hard.

An astrological model that reflects the struggle for a new world view is our so-called "natural zodiac". Aries rises. It represents cardinal east. The ancients called the cardinal points the "four Corners of the world" - only then the eastern corner was Taurus. 

We have seen evidence of that. Old religious art from sphinx statuettes of Egypt to representations of the apostles of the four New Testament gospels, tell us that the four corners of the earth were the bull, the eagle, the lion, and the man. In Job we are told that the train of the zodiac was led by Aldebaran. 

The brightest star in the constellation Taurus, Aldebaran is known as the "bull's eye". The most renown ancient astrologers, the Babylonians, measured the zodiac from the opposition axis of Aldebaran and Antares, brightest star in Scorpio.
Aries Rising vs. Pisces Rising
The cardinal points changed by formal designation when the classical Greeks started the system known as tropical astrology. 

They created twelve equal sectors of the ecliptic, named them for the constellations that lay approximately in each sector, decided that the reference point for measurement should be the vernal equinox, and called it zero degree Aries. The constellation Aries rose with the Sun at vernal Equinox. Rising heliacally - just before the sun - was Pisces, symbol of the new age.

Now, in our astrological system, we say the whole has three qualities. We attribute the qualities of action to the cardinal signs. Aries, here, represents that quality, Pisces is of the mutable quality. It is a changing, teaching, disseminating mode. Taurus, now well below the horizon, represents the fixed, stable, always there, sustaining quality. There's a close link, here to numerology and to theological concepts. Follow closely:

Before the beginning was nothing. The circle, zero, or nothing, contains the potential for everything (in our numerical cycle), symbolized by 9. For reasons we do not know, everything-contained-within-nothing, divided into itself - condensed into a seething center, and with a "Big Bang" (we are told) became One. 

This was creation - the beginning. The One was Three. It had three qualities. It was always there (in potential) - eternal, fixed, past. In the present, it acted, created, was cardinal. Now it had the capacity tochange - it was future, mutable. Three aspects, you see, of one whole.

One is three. What happened to two? Two--duality or opposition - may be only an illusion of our world of time and space. It is a necessary illusion for physical experience. 

Only that which exists can be perceived. We cannot perceive good unless we have some perception of bad to contrast it with. We cannot see light unless we know what darkness is. We have no conception of quiet unless we know what it is to be noisy.

The only problem with two is that it can only be expressed as separation: II The very perception of duality prevents us from truly being whole - it keeps us separated from oneness with God.

Christianity, the keynote religion of the Age of Pisces, expresses God as triune - the triangle - the trinity - Three in One. The three aspects of God are three-in-one and one-in-three - all equal and of the same substance. That which is currently called Father represents that which was always there,before the beginning - infinite, eternal, sustaining. 

The Son is called the Word. He changed our concept of God, heralding a new age and hope for the future in resurrection.The Holy Spirit acts in our lives - is present everywhere. Remember now, all three are one - equal and the same - a trinity of trinities. All three are eternal (fixed), all three are active (cardinal), all three evolve and change (mutable), as new concepts of the Word are revealed.

I think that all of the twelve zodiac signs have all three qualities, too. Aries was not always cardinal. In the Age of Aries, Taurus was cardinal east - the sign of spring equinox. Aries rose before the sun. It represented the changing concept of God -the new Word to be disseminated. Hundreds and hundreds of years of struggle passed before the ingrained patterns of how people acted gave way to change. As Aries became the cardinal ascendant, Pisces was given to the world as a new vision, a new Word - but Aries, then, reflected the accepted mode of action.

The new vision was Piscean, but the decisions on what actions should be taken to establish the new religion were left solely to the men, who were products of Arian patriarchal conditioning. Ideals were of the nature of the feminine - but females had no voice within the social-political structure. I need not elaborate for anyone remotely aware of the atrocities of early church history, how very Arian were the methods by which the fathers of the church sought to enforce acceptance of the new religion. Where were the simple teachings of Jesus to love thy neighbor?

Let's compare a little more theology with astrology. The Holy Spirit, said to act in our lives, is symbolically expressed in three elements, fire, wind, and water. (The previous sentence came straight from a Catholic religious education text-book, and is based on Biblical references.)As the three-in-one acts and descends into matter...matter? Mater... ma.. .ma-ma? Mother Earth!...the three-in-one becomes three plus one: four! The cross of our suffering!
Chart of ManifestationGod, the whole (God manifest in the world) is now four: fire, air, water, and earth. And each of the elements has three qualities: eternal, sustaining fixed; initiative action, cardinal; ever changing and evolving mutable. Four trinities. And the four times the three are 12, and the 12 is 3, and the three is one. God in the Universe - one whole.

We, in the physical universe, however, are still obsessed with dualism. To continue: Earth, theologians and astrologers agree, is feminine: Mother Earth and Mother Church, bride of God on earth. The other three elements - fire, wind, water - the Holy Spirit, the church calls masculine. Unfair, church fathers! At least on this point, astrology "balances the scales" with two elements masculine and two feminine.

It is interesting that in early church councils great arguments ensued over whether the Holy Spirit was masculine or feminine. 

I think it is a reasonable conjecture that the decision to declare the Holy Spirit male may have been prejudiced by the fact the only males were allowed to debate.

In truth, of course, God the Whole is One and must be androgynous - the resolution and unity of all opposites. Impaled as we are on our cross of time and space, we perceive opposition. Male and female we are, and male and female we have personified our gods.

In this age, which dawned at the same time as the origin of our present zodiacal system, we have called our cardinal rising Aries, and God is male. In the Age of Aries the cardinal rising was Taurus and the Goddess reigned...until She was gradually suppressed by the changing world view.

The great fiery wheel of the zodiac is never static. It is constantly turning. Only the head of the western fish of the constellation Pisces now rises before the sun at vernal equinox. Soon, in just afew hundred years, the fish will be lost in the blinding rays of the rising sun, leaving Aquarius as the helically rising sign of the new age. Pisces then be cardinal east, our new cardinal ascendant. Will the Goddess reign again?

Lookaround! You can see Her rising now! The changing roles of women are a major issue of our time. Most urban areas now have women's centers, often with emphasis on the feminist spiritual movement that includes a reworking of ancient rituals based on the lunar cycle. The roles of men are changing, too. 

Society is in a state of crisis over changing ideas on careers, child care, marriage, mothers without husbands, sexual mores, contraception, abortion, environmental protection, disarmament. 

The momentum is steadily and persistently toward a reawakening and reestablishment of the values associated with the feminine principle. We are returning to a matrifocal social-political structure. 

The Goddess is Ascending! 

Even highly patriarchal Christianity begins to bend as demands are considered to alter the wording of prayers and scriptures to remove references to God as male. Recent Catholic publications have included discussions of the concept of God as Mother.

Our understanding of our own symbolic language of astrology is changing, too, right along with the changing world view.

Very slowly, to be sure. I know some of you are thinking already, "How can she say Pisces is becoming cardinal? That would really mess up all we've been taught." Ideas are changing, though...some in ways that many of you may already take for granted. Think about aspects, for example.

Aspects are based on numbers. According to number philosophies that were formalized in the Arian Age, one, the monad, is masculine. God is male, He came first, remember? 

In the Genesis creation myth, probably written by men who were determined to justify the patriarchy, Adam is created first, and then Eve is formed from his rib. 

She is two, and two is said to be feminine. One, the masculine, represents action and initiative. Two is supposed to be passive and responsive.

Poor Eve - she just didn't fit the mold. Not content to be the passive creature that females are supposed to be, she wanted to act, to learn, to know. 

So she ate the apple, and found that to separate - to act on one's own individual will is to oppose passivity. To perceive anything is to know its opposite. To live - to die. If to live is good, then its reverse, death, is evil. Blame it on Eve! 

She tipped the Libran scales out of balance and has been blamed by mankind ever since the time of the Arian patriarchs. Mankind has preferred her to remain passive, taking the action principle onto itself.

To continue with our numbers, three (remember the trinity) is masculine and good. Four, the number of earth, the cross and suffering, is feminine and evil. Astrology used to be very firm on the meanings of aspect. 

The conjunction based on one, was powerful and positive. The opposition was bad. Trines were benefic-wonderful. Squares were malefic-awful. Now, like masculine and feminine roles, the interpretations are becoming blurred and meanings are changing. Now we consider oppositions and squares to be not bad, but rather challenging. The words "benefic" and "malefic" are out of fashion. We now speak of "hard" and "soft" aspects. 

The hard aspects (derived from the feminine, remember) are said to represent action. They make things happen. lf we didn't have them we'd sit on our posteriors and not get anything done. We wouldn't grow. 

The soft aspects represent a state of being. They are called passive, easy flow. And they are not always "good" anymore. Now our textbooks tell us that a grand trine might not be so wonderful after all. That easy flow of energy can get us into trouble.

Can it be that the principle of action is changing? Is it passing symbolically as well as culturally from the masculine to the feminine? Hundreds of years remain before the transition is complete. 

The vernal point will not precess into Aquarius until about 2700 A.D.(2) What new religion might emerge in this new Age of Aquarius with Pisces rising? Aquarius, an airy intellectual sign, will surely present us with the ideal of universal truth. 

I do not think that a single new Messiah or even a second coming of Christ will herald Aquarius. Rather, numerous great teachers will emerge, with roots in all religions and all ethnic groups. They will be men and women, of various races. 

They will merge to prove to the world that all gods and goddesses are One. The Christ will be revered, but understood to be not a god-man forever set apart from sinful humanity, but instead, the potential within every human to transcend the physical body and become one with the One.

The Aquarian word will be taught, yet still the new world religion will be established according to actions initiated by people long conditioned by Pisces - now cardinal ascendant. As always, through

the ages, the masses will personify the divine. It seems to be the nature of humanity to create symbols. With Pisces rising, the most popular personification of deity will be a Goddess.

What might She be, the Piscean Goddess? For ideas let's consider the Mother of God of our age - how she has been understood and misunderstood and why. The archetypal goddess of the zodiac is the Virgin - Virgo. 

She is pictured with the wheat and corn of the harvest, symbols of the fruitful bounty of Mother Earth. Often she is pictured standing upon the moon. 

The moon was long revered as the Goddess who gave birth each day to the sun, and whose changing phases timed all the cycles of life that were necessary for survival. How in the world did this fertile and powerful Virgo get transformed into a barren and nit-picking old maid?

Virgo has suffered from being the opposition to the sign of our age. If Pisces is God, then Virgo must be not-God. The virgin, in this age, is mortal. A lowly mortal maiden gave birth to the Messiah. A patriarchy then told the world that the main attribute of this virgin maiden is her chastity. 

Forever untouched by man, pure and obedient, she is placed on a pedestal as the ultimate example for all women. How convenient for the purposes of the patriarchy! A nearly unreachable ideal of chastity - a perfect excuse to heap guilt and inferiority on all women who fall short of the ideal.

Before this age, however, the word "virgin" was not synonymous with "chaste". It used to mean a woman who was independent - who did not belong to any man. The temple virgins of Goddess cultures were called temple prostitutes by their patriarchal conquerors.
Madonna and ChildA close reading of the gospels suggest ideas that the church has suppressed or forgotten. Consider the choice of the name Mary for the mother of Jesus - any the very predominance of Mars - even to the three Marys at the tomb of Jesus. 

The pre-Christian Man was the Goddess of the Sea, clothed in blue robe and pearl necklace as symbols of the sea. Sometimes she was the Great Fish who gave birth to the gods; and sometimes the Mermaid. Her latin name, Maria, means "the seas". Evidence of that remains. 

The dry seas of the moon are called marias. Mar is the root word for the sea in many languages - think of the costal city names that end with "del Mar". 

As for the triple Mary at the tomb, the pre-Christian trinity was the triple Goddess: Virgin, Mother, Crone - representing the age cycle of the feminine.

The gospels are full of symbolism that was no doubt quite deliberately put there by very early Christian Gnostics with a background in the esoteric mysteries and in astrology and numerology.

The church is not the only culprit. Our Virgo has been shortchanged by astrology, too. Our present system of rulerships was set up by Ptolemy back at the dawn of this age. 

Since Leo and Cancer were at the zenith at the warmest time of the year where Ptolemy lived, he assigned the Sun and the Moon as their rulers. 

From then on around the circle in either direction, he assigned planetary rulers in their order out from the Sun. That is how Virgo got Mercury. It was a purely arbitrary arrangement. 

Sterile, sexless Mercury, the winged messenger of the gods, was to be the ruler of the Goddess of bountiful harvest? 

The rulers thus assigned, delineations were made to fit, and Virgo was decreed to be barren, and then further demeaned into her critical, sterile new image. (It is interesting that the virgin Mary of the gospels was also given her new role by a winged messenger of God.)

Recently many astrologers have finally become dissatisfied with this state of affairs and have sought a new, more appropriate ruler for Virgo among the asteroids. I submit that the artists who have portrayed the Virgin standing upon the Moon have the right idea. Virgo, the only Goddess figure in the zodiac, belongs with the Moon.

When one compares Christian symbols and gospel stories with knowledge of astrology and of the precessional ages, it's clear that the links are numerous and deliberate. The fact that present day biblical scholars disclaim the link doesn't mean it isn't there. History undergoes great transformations in 2000 years. One only needs to compare history books written generations apart to prove that.

Mary is obviously a composite of Pisces/Virgo symbolism. No matter what the actual facts might be of the lives of Mary and her Son, the stories about them are woven with symbols of the new age. St. Paul, the true founder of Christianity, whose letters reveal a fear and dislike of women, declared Jesus to be God. It is Mary, though, who lives deep in the consciousness of the masses. 

Think about this: throughout this age, whenever anyone has reported a vision of the divine, almost always it is Mary. Many miraculous healings have taken place at shrines built at the sites of her appearances.

In the current revival of interest in the Goddess, Mary is so far not prominent. She is still misunderstood and too closely connected with her chastely pristine image within the patriarchal church. In thinking of her only as the mortal virgin, we hold her and ourselves with her, away from full realization of our spiritual potential in Pisces.

Mystical, visionary Pisces is synthesis - all in one whole. It is the promise of resurrection - the deep soul-connection of each of us with all others and with the divine one whole. "Love thy neighbor as thyself' - because in that divine synthesis we are our neighbors.

Jesus is a man and also God. Mary is Virgo, but she is also Pisces. Understanding her in a new image that fully encompasses all aspects of the feminine principle may be an important part of learning to understand ourselves, our times, our culture - past, present, and future. Our Lady of the Seas may even emerge as Goddess - when Pisces rises.

Notes

1 James Finley & Michael Pennock, Your Faith and You, Notre Dame, IN, Ave Maria Press, 1978, pps 62-73.

2 2700 AD as the approximate beginning of the Age of Aquarius is based on a ratlo of the number of years in each Great Age to the number of degrees in its corresponding oonstellation. This theory of measurement is explained in my book, Twelve Wings of the Eagle, forthcoming from ACS Publications in early 1988. Also, see Rob Hand's Essays on Astrology:, "The Age and Constelladon of Pisces, Rockport, MA, Para Research, 1982.

Recommended Reading

Barbara G. Walker, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, San Francisco, Harper & Row, 1983.

Merlin Stone, When God was a Woman, San Diego, Harvest/HBJ, 1976. Carol P. Christ & Judith Paskow, ed.,

Womanspirit Rising: A Feminist Reader in Religion, San Francisco, Harper & Row, 1979. "

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