Music of the Spheres

Michael Hayes, among others, has posited the idea that the fundamental processes of the universe are identical to those which are utilized to create music. If you look up his website you will find some articles on the subject that are very interesting. I choose to believe that God is a far more majestic version of Beethoven and that we are musicians on His stage. We may not realize that we are making music, but think about it. What better way for God to keep track of how we are doing than to listen to the music that we make with our lives. What better way to judge how well we did when we transit over to the other side, then to sit and listen to the symphony of our life. What kind of music are you making with your life? There will be much discord in my symphony, I am sad to say. Perhaps when I live again, I will make a better score. When our symphony is perfect in every way (think of Beethoven's ninth symphony) then we will be allowed to play on a greater stage to a more discerning audience. Next time that you feel comfortable in driving 65 in a 40 mph zone, think about the notes that you are making. When you overstep yourself to help somebody else succeed, think also of your notes. Its not a bad way to keep track of your life.

The Circle

We all know what a circle looks like. We are so familiar with it that we seldom give it a thought unless it has a specific connotation. One such connotation was a song in the "African King"; "The Circle of Life." I have no doubt that over the centuries that people have been worshipping God in all of His manifestations, the circle has played its part. This is fitting, I believe, because it is my opinion that the Circle explains how God achieves immortality in our lives. They say that if you start out in any direction in the universe you will eventually end up in the place that you started from. It wouldn't surprise me if this were true since I believe that all reality is in the form of a Circle. No matter where we happen to be at the current time, it is axiomatic that we will come there again some distant day. From the simple to the complex and then to the simple again. In case you haven't noticed that has been our experience on this planet. Go see the movie, "2012",not for the truth of its plot, but for the truth about our planet. We live in an exceedingly dangerous place. I can name 5 different ways that the planet can turn lethal; (1) Supervolcano; (2) crustal shift; (3) comet; (4) asteroid; and (5) a flood such as the one that took the earth in the time of Noah. Any one of these things has wiped out most of the life on earth, and can be expected to repeat itself some fine day, if not in 2012. We have surmounted these challenges, or we would not be here at the present time. The Permian Extinction took 95% of life. We were saved by the 5% who went on to evolve into human beings. However, if 95% of life were to be taken again, it is clear that our civilization could and would cease to exist. Perhaps our entire species with the need for evolution to provide a new sentient being somewhere in the distant future. Did God intend this to be so when He created the earth? You do the math. What does it mean for us? I believe that since the Circle of Life is eternal, we can assume that we will come again. At the end of "Dr. Strangelove", the great movie by Peter Sellers, where the world is destroyed by the bomb, they sing the song, "We'll meet again." If that is God's ultimate method, we certainly will. We are eternal and we live on an eternal circle. Don't fear 2012, its only a blip on the road of life.

The Significance of the Number One

I have previously talked about the importance of the "Number One." I want to carry the idea further down the road. If we could reduce the universe(s) to its foundation, I believe that we would find that there is just one source for everything. We call that source God, Nature, and many other names. By whatever name you might chose to call the One, it is still the sole source of all things. We are a part of the One. I believe that the One can reduce itself to infinity. By doing so, all of the observable world and all that makes it up is enabled. If so, there is but one soul and we all share in it, including both animate and inanimate objects. On the level of the atom, there is no animate or inanimate world. There are only atoms and they are remarkably identical and they are also connected. Are they conscious? Who can say? Since the One is clearly conscious, the answer may well be "Yes." By this means we are connected to the entire universe in all of its complicated forms. We have equal status with the largest and brightest star in the heavens. When we cheat one another, kill one another, steal from one another, we are doing the same thing to ourselves. Conversely, when we help one another we are helping ourselves as well. Perhaps it is time for us to mature to the point where it is not necessary to assert our individuality to the extent that it hurts or deprives others. I hope that you agree.

The Written Tsunami

For thousands of years our pursuit of knowledge has been slowed, stifled, and even deliberately limited by groups with a desire to control that flow. The church is one of those groups. For centuries anything contrary to church doctrine was censored and kept from our viewing. There are still groups of church people who are attempting to limit or abridge what we are taught in schools for much the same reasons. Our scientific establishment is unfortunately guilty of the same methodology. Any scientist who deviates from the "company line" is subject to severe discipline, usually in the loss of employment or grant money. The web is changing all of that. It is easy to find alternative viewpoints by using the search engines. This has opened up a floodgate or tsunami of information that threatens to go to the other extreme and give us too much information. It has never been easier to follow threads of information to a place where you can feel comfortable with what you know. It is my hope that more and more people will take advantage of this fact and start to self-educate themselves. There are dangers in this from the spread of cults and the poliferation of false theories. Is this bad? I don't think it hurts us in the long term, no matter what damage is done in the short term. I encourage anyone who is attracted to the Gnostic Way to commence his or her own search for truth. Perhaps some day the establishment will find a way to censor the web just as they have censored our flow of ideas in the past. Best to start now while you still can.

Foundation of Religion

According to our best science, human beings have been around for about 100,000 years, plus or minus. Recently, I have studied the foundation stones of the religions of the world to see where they came from. To understand religion, particularly its origins, you have to understand where we came from and what we know about our origins with any certainty. If just reading the Bible is good enough for you, then so be it. However, the Bible skims over this period of some 98,000 years of existence. In my opinion, the Book of Genesis raises more questions than it answers. It may be accurate as far as it goes, but it fails to go far enough. For example, the writers of Genesis said that Noah was all by himself in his boat on the waters of the great flood. If you read the accounts of the flood in the ancient writings of other groups of people, you will find that they all had a Noah who escaped the waters. Are they all lying? There is also the possibility that some advanced societies were wiped out by the flood. People who had capabilities that are similar to ours and some even more advanced. I don't pretend to have the answers that I'm seeking, however, I am convinced that our history is far more complex than we know. What does this mean to the Gnostic? I submit that if you are serious about finding the true extent of God in your life, it is essential that you know as much as you can about your past. Nothing less than an understanding of how we got here in the first place. Where should you start? I suggest that you start with the books written by Graham Hancock, particularly "Fingerprints of the Gods." You don't have to agree with everything that he suggests in order to learn a great deal about the past and find yourself with questions that need answering. It is the search that is important so far as I am concerned. A search literally for the soul of our past, present, and future. A search for God.

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.