Why Mythology is Important!

If you desire to put an idea into the ground where it will disappear and never return to bother you, just label it as mythological. To suggest that something is mythological is to suggest that it is fanciful, of no great importance, and cannot be trusted to tell you anything about the truth. Our ancestors had a better idea about mythology; they liked it, trusted it, and placed their most important secrets into that format for safe keeping. In an age where there was no other way to pass on data from one generation to the next, mythology became the method of choice. Why did they find it so important when we find it otherwise? If you think about it, you will soon see that any other method of passing on information was risky and far less efficient. Tell a story that has simple elements and is easily remembered, and that story will last for a very long time. The tales of Aesop are standard fare for our children, just as they were standard fare for us when we were growing up. Each contains a moral. The tales told to my generation, which predated World War II, are the same as are being related to my grandchildren. The morals contained in each tale remain the same, and are just as pertinent today. Our distant ancestors did not know how the world was created or if it was created at all. That didn't stop each group from having a creation story to pass on from one generation to the next. We have no problem labeling all of them as mythological except for, you guessed it, our own mythology. I refer specifically to the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, which I submit is just as mythological as any other such story. However, from a gnostic view point, the story of Adam and Eve is important. Our ancestors didn't just make up that story; it has a germ of truth which the mythology is designed to nurture and pass on to us just as our ancestors intended that it should. The story has its roots in Kurdistan (a section of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and parts of the old Soviet Union). The Kurds have lived in that area for some 10,000 years. Their traditions go back to the time when the Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden story had its beginnings. It is not a coincidence that the birthplace of Abraham, namely the City of Ur, is right there in the middle of that area. The germ of truth is that this is the place where likely human beings transitioned from hunter-gatherers into farmers and city folk as we are now. Again, it is not a coincidence that the underlying problem between Cain and Abel was that one was a farmer and the other a hunter. Wars were fought in the American West between ranchers and homesteaders over the use of the land. It is not a stretch that hunter-gatherers would resent the tilling of the land where they were used to hunting. The ruins of Gobekli Tepe are possibly the location of the Garden of Eden. There was a land known as Eden in the vicinity. I recommend to those who are interested in this history that they buy two books, both by Andrew Collins. One is "From the Ashes of Angels," and the other is the "Gods of Eden." If you prefer to take it as fiction rather than nonfiction, I recommend that you read, "The Genesis Secret," by Tom Knox. If you read any or all of these books, you will never see our mythology in the same way. First, you will know that the Garden of Eden story is mythological, and second, you will know that it carries an important message for our own time. I especially recommend these books to those folks who believe that the earth is only 6,000 years old. Since the events in these books occurred 10,000 years ago, it will serve as a timely wake up call for taking religion literally rather than metaphorically.

The Power of One

I am not a mathematician, however I believe that I have enough understanding of math to be able to talk about the number "one." I believe that a proper understanding of this number is helpful in understanding the nature of all things. The Hebrews from the time of Moses have believed that God is One. If they are right, and I think that they are, then God is indivisible. Going one step further, if God is the source of all things, then one is, as Three Dog Night said in their hit song, "One is the Loneliest Number in the World." In fact, if God is ultimately the source of all things, one is the only number in existence. Every other number is a derivative. How can this be? One can be divided to infinity. If not, then the size of the universe would be very difficult to account for. God the one divides itself to infinity. From this division comes the entire universe, including ourselves. Some say that the entire universe is conscious. If it all a division of the One, that is not difficult to perceive. If God is the ultimate consciousness, then all of its creation is conscious as well. Giordano Bruno, a monk who was burned at the stake in 1600, believed that it was so. Did he die because he told the truth? You do the math.

Self Discovery

The primary purpose of life is like a voyage of discovery. As Columbus set out to find a new route to China, so we are born for the purpose of discovering a new world in ourselves. This is the Gnostic Way. God is one, and everything that comes from God is one as well. Hence, our souls are all one. We may be distinct entities, but the soul that makes up our core existence is one; one with God and one with all life forms. Alone we are vulnerable and unable to help ourselves in the event of some tragedy. Together we are powerful and more than able to compete with the natural world. As we discover ourselves, we also discover our relationship with others. The Gnostic Way is the next great chapter in the history of the human race. Through the Gnostic Way we are challenged to truly understand the world that God has created for us. As we grow, and become more attuned to God's desires for us, we will find the way to put a stop to war, crime, the abuse of nature, and the disconnection between the lower classes and upper classes of society. We will learn to feed not just those with wealth, but all the people of the earth. We will find a way to put our entire world population to productive labor. We will grow in intelligence, patience, and a willingness to live and let live. While it may be beyond us to build a paradise on earth, it is not beyond us to improve the living standards of every human being. In so doing we can allow everyone to live in freedom and prosperity. The Gnostic knows that God loves us equally, and wants us to find that same love for ourselves.

End Times

The end of the earth as we know it is a fascinating subject. So many possibilities exist for this to happen and someone is going to advance each and every one of them. Right now we have two major end of the earth scenarios going; 2012 and the prospective coming of Jesus Christ. I doubt that either one of them is iminent if it happens at all. Only one thing is certain; the earth will die and we will die; everything dies including the universe itself. We have had several extinction events since the earth was formed. The Permian Extinction was the worst of the lot. Allegedly caused by the volcanoes known as the Deccan Traps, fully 95% of all living creatures of the time died. It took millions of years for the earth to restore itself. Most of us are familiar with the KT Extinction that killed the dinosaurs and made it possible for human beings to evolve. This one is thought to be caused by an asteroid that hit the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. Today we seem to be more interested in omens. Nostradamus allegedly foretold 2012 along with the Mayans. The Book of Revelation in the Bible is the place where the Christians who believe in the End Times go for their authority. So far as I know there is no asteroid or volcano currently ready to step up and close the book on our civilization. Some people think that Zacharia Stitchin's planet called Niburu will do the job. If Niburu exists, no scientist I have read seems to have spotted it. It's easy to promote the idea of disaster because there are so many candidates for the job. If we keep yelling that the end is near, sooner or later we are going to be correct. Will Jesus come soon? If he does he will find that the people who are promoting his return are a very different lot than the ones he left behind 2000 years ago. Fundamentalist Christians will have replaced the Jews who followed him around during his time on the earth. To please them, he'll have to get rid of all of the liberals, gun control freaks, ACLU types, and Northern Democrats who are leading the United States down the road to ruin. If he does this, what will he have left behind. Some of his followers will be carrying snakes around to prove that they can't be bit and won't die of the poison because God will protect them. Others will be armed with machine guns, AK 47's, and other weapons to protect Jesus from the liberal, wishy-washy, not born again, soft on the death penalty Northern Clergy, who we all know are headed straight to Hell with the Atheists. A lot of folks will simply be glad that they joined the right church and didn't miss the bus when it came to their corner of the world. I have deliberately stayed away from the flying saucer people who believe that the aliens from outer space are our best hope. I believe that God has provided us with our own end times. It is called "death" and all of us will ultimately experience it no matter what our current age and health might be. What will happen to us when we die? Nobody knows for certain, but I believe that the ultimate fate of each of us is already determined. We are transformed into another dimension and there we go on as before. "AS ABOVE, SO BELOW." This great Hermetic concept is reassuring. Death does not exist. If we called it transformation, we would be much more accurate. Why would God go to the effort of creating a marvelous being such as yourself only to cast you aside because you did not meet some standard that He has allegedly created to judge us by? I just don't think that an omnipotent God would waste your life in that fashion. Book a cruise for the year 2013 and enjoy the remainder of your life. Go to Church, but do so because it helps you become a better and more responsible person. One who is here for the long haul and wants things to go well for the sake of all of us.

The Road to Enlightenment

In my last post I talked about people recognizing that we are all one in the eyes of God. There are three ways in which we can become enlightened and learn to love one another. The three ways are not based on complicated thoughts, but are very complicated to achieve. The three ways are this: (1) as persons we must accept our relationship with God as being real and eternal; (2) as persons we must acknowledge that every single human being shares this relationship with God; and (3) all of us must agree to respect one another and to allow each of us to live in the world in peace. In church we say, "Peace be with you." In life we must say the same thing. None of the above is easily accomplished. How can anyone love someone who has destroyed a fellow human being, particularly a child? I believe that if we can create a world of love and mutual respect that crime and other aberrations of our nature will fall away and die out. Is this pie in the sky thinking? Perhaps, but it is certainly worth our trying to achieve it. Even in failure, we can make this world a much better place to live.

2012

I'm not going to be one of those folks that are predicting the end of the world in December of 2012. There are enough people doing that already, and they have the subject well covered. I don't agree with them however; 2012 has already happened; the world as we know it ended in August of 1945 when two atomic bombs were dropped in Japan. I was alive and a young father of two children in 1962 when the United States and the Soviet Union were extremely close to war with Hydrogen Bombs. That was a 2012 enough for me in my lifetime. However, the proponents of 2012 are on to something. The world needs changing, and we are the ones who need to do the work. We need to all change the way that we look at the world and each other. I had an epiphany the other day, a small one but one that I think important. I have often wondered how our bodies which are short lived and corruptible can contain the essence of something we call a "soul." It came to me that we don't contain an individual soul, but rather we all share in the single soul that we call God. In short, we are all one no matter what shape, capacity, outlook, and understanding of the world that we have. All living matter. If you kill your neighbor you are killing two people. Yourself and your neighbor. Your neighbor is the exact same person in the presence of God as are you. Currently, we are divided by culture, religion, political affiliation, and history. In the eyes of God these things mean nothing. We can all have these differences without killing each other and attempting to outlaw the other persons ideas. I'm not just talking to the United States in which I live. The entire human race is equally guilty of this separation, and it is killing us all. All we need is just one freak of nature, Hitler comes to mind, who will commence using the nuclear weapons on his neighbor. When that happens we will wish that 2012 had undone us all as predicted. It will be tame by comparison. Gnosticism is taking many forms these days, and Noetic Science is one of them. All of these ideas that stress our commonality and our similarity and our need to be one people constitute the only road that we can follow to what Churchill called the "Broad Sunlit Uplands," where we all want to reside. When you find yourself hating or even disliking your neighbor, and by the word "neighbor" I mean the entire human race, it is time for you to take a deep breath and suck in your stomach, and learn to love one another. This is what Christ preached when he gave us the Golden Rule. He told the man who came to him in the middle of the night that there are only two rules. The first is to acknowledge God as the center of our universe, and the second is to love one another as we love ourselves. Is this a formula to get us out of the 2012's that we face. I think it is, how about you?

Agree to Disagree

The Gnostic looks at agreement as an impossible achievement. At no point in the history of human beings (homo sapiens sapiens), which stretches some 200,000 thousand years, has there ever been total agreement on anything. Indeed, there are many people alive today who think the world is only a few thousand years old; not counting those who believe that the world is flat. The story of the Tower of Babel from the Bible is illustrative. The contention is that God wants us this way for some reason. To the Gnostic there is only one possible solution to this lack of agreement. That solution involves adding tolerance to our laws. This addition occurred when the Golden Rule was propagated by Jesus as one of two laws that we all have to follow. The first law is to accept that God is One and there is no other God. The second law is to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. If this is not tolerance I fail to see what else it might be. In short, we need to stop demonizing each other because we disagree. As stated above, disagreement is the order of things and it is doubtful that full agreement will ever occur, at least during the conceivable future. A good start is to accept that all views, whether religious, political, economic, personal, or patriotic, need to be held in a tolerant manner so that others who disagree with us need not fear being punished for so doing. If we can achieve that perhaps someday we will all acknowledge the same truth. This is the Gnostic Way. When that truth is finally discovered it will go by the name of God.