January 28, 2024

01

John Philip Newell is an authority in Celtic Spirituality,
and draws numerous correlations
between the Celtics and Native Americans
in their understanding of the ground
that upholds us
and the practices that nurture
and sustain us.

For instance, proponents of both perspectives
know That Which Has Always Been Called God
is not separate from us.
And they all would agree with the statement,
"We are not simply made by God; we are made 'of God.'"
And:
"We will know the  One from whom we have come
only to the extent that we know ourselves."
(Both quotes from JP Newell in Christ of the Celts).

This understanding of God is as old as people
who understand.
It is from the beginning of human consciousness.
We all know things we have not been taught,
and can trust ourselves to those things
as ducklings take to water.

It would be both instructive and eye-opening
if we took up the practice 
of writing all we know of God
that we haven't gotten from some other source,
including the Bible.

Godliness is everywhere.
Godly qualities are to be found
in newborn babies.

Grace and compassion are not learned attributes
of the sacred/holy.
They are present in the life force,
and are a part of our original nature
and our innate virtues/attributes.

From the beginning we express and recognize
grace and compassion,
and know them to be at the very heart
of what matters most
to us as individuals and as a species.

And we all recognize and are appalled by
those who reject grace and compassion,
and know them to be betraying the covenant
that binds us together as one with each other
and with God.

Not being who we are is the highest blasphemy
and the heresy of heresies:
the unforgivable sin,
rejecting the service of grace and compassion
and refusing to be the progeny of God.

02

Joseph Campbell liked to say,
"Where we stumble and fall,
there lies the treasure!"

When we take up the way,
the course,
the path,
we will keep stumbling into
exactly what we need
to maintain our balance,
harmony,
and find our  direction
in continuing along the way,
the course,
the path.

So, all we need to do is 
start walking!

Forces quite beyond us
will take over at that point
and guide us along the rest of the way,
the course,
the path.

03

Changing perceptions and perspectives
changes everything.

04

Perspective is how we see
what we look at.
Perception is what we see
when we look at it.

How we look determines
what we see.

Changing how we look
changes what we see
and that changes everything.

05

When we throw away theology-- 
and we cannot do that fast
or thoroughly
enough--
we are left with metaphor
to guide us/instruct us 
imaginatively along the way.

Two primary metaphors
are death and life.

We cannot die fast
or thoroughly enough,
and we cannot live fast
or thoroughly enough--
metaphorically speaking.

The story of the Garden of Eden
and the story of the Crucifixion
are stories about death and life--
metaphorically speaking.

We cannot live without dying--
dying metaphorically
to all that keeps us from living fully
metaphorically.

And both the dying and the living
are about walking two paths at the same time,
dying while we are living
and living while we are dying.

Eden is about how we get in our own way,
and prevent ourselves from being fully alive
by living in the service of our desires/greed.
We want what we want.
We want to have our way NOW!
And that has to die,
which means we have to die
to greed and desire.
Metaphorically.

At the end of the story of the Garden of Eden,
a warrior angel is placed at the entrance
to the garden
and we can't get back in without dying
at the hands of the angel.
This is a metaphor for the kind 
of emotional/psychological death 
we have to die
in order to come to full life
in the sense of being spiritually/metaphorically
alive to the wonder of realization/enlightenment/
nirvana/etc.

And this is the meaning of the Cross/Crucifixion
of Jesus on Cavalry.
The Garden of Gethsemane
and the Garden of Eden
are the same garden metaphorically.
And his death on the cross
has to be understood metaphorically
as the dying each of his brothers and sisters
have to undergo
in passing from one way of living to another--
from living in the service of one set of ends
to living in the service of a different set of ends.

And this means that Jesus did not actually die on the cross,
either because he did not actually die,
but was resuscitated, 
and, recovering, he went off with Mary Magdalene
to the shores of the Sea of Galilee
where he lived out his life with Mary 
and their children,
happily ever after.

Or it means that he was miraculously resurrected,
and instead of going to Galilee he went to heaven.

Either way, he did not die and stay dead,
so his "death" on the cross
is a metaphor for the "death" we all have to "die"
in transitioning from living in the service
of one set of ends
to living in the service of a different set of ends.

That transition is "like dying."
And this is what it means to throw away theology,
and embrace metaphor
in moving from one way of life to another.   

06