As we begin to understand the spirit of things, our Creative Consciousness naturally articulates them into form.
Sometimes these forms are anthropomorphic and resemble humans.
Sometimes they resemble animals. Sometimes they combine parts of many animals, humans, plants, and natural phenomena.
Sometimes they feel and appear even more real than the element of reality itself.
In a strange way, the “god of war” or the “spirit of war” feels more real than the individual battle we are actually in.
We can prevail in a battle, but who can battle the "spirit of war" itself?
We might move from the “spirit of war” down (or up) a level of abstraction to “swift beings that wage war.”
What is the Central Animating Spirit of “swift beings that wage war”?
If we imagined ourselves beginning to draw or sculpt, we might articulate a Being with the body, strength, and ferocity of a lion… Yet flight is even swifter than running, so let us give it the wings of an eagle… warriors often have breastplates, so perhaps we give it an armored chest… and the head and Mind of a man.
There is goes, soaring through the sky, wielding a lightening bolt in one hand and a sword in the other.
It has eyes around its head representing perfect vision and Attention, its voice is like thunder, and its lips speak Truth that divides even the bone and marrow of its enemies.
A later artist might decide that he also needs to be bearing a standard and leading a Calvary of similar creatures, but his arms are already occupied, and people have grown attached to the symbolism of the lightening and sword. So they might add on a couple more arms to help, and cause the third hand to be holding a standard. Since only three arms are holding things, what would be in the fourth arm?
Well, perhaps the manifestation is also a royal. It is a warrior king. So the fourth arm holds a scepter, and on his head sits a crown.
That is a good modification. Now we have the spirit / essence / idea of ‘divine royal being who wages war’, articulated into a statue of a symbol-laden, four armed, lightening wielding, winged lion-man leading an army.
The confrontation of a mere two-armed mortal with this embodied incarnation of “that which is most true and awe-inspiring across thousands of instances of powerful manifestations of That Which Wages War and Prevails” is awe-inspiring on a whole different level.
It takes their breath away.
And so they immortalize him, tattoo his image on the bodies of their warriors, and worship him as their god of war.
What shall we name him?
Perhaps if we were Greeks we would abstract out our world for ‘bane’ or ‘ruin’ and call him Ares.
Imagine again.
What is the spirit or essence of One Who Protects And Defends? If the aspect of the One who protects and defends were to manifest itself in embodied form, what would it look like?
Imagine again.
What is the spirit or essence of One Who Creates And Sustains? If the aspect of the One which creates, sustains, and upholds were to manifest itself in embodied form, what would it look like?
Imagine again.
What is the spirit or essence of fertility and sexuality? If the aspect of the One responsible for fertility and sexuality were to to manifest itself in embodied form, what would it look like?
Imagine again.
What is the spirit or essence of destruction? If the aspect of the One which destroys were to manifest itself in embodied form, what would it look like?
Imagine again.
What is the spirit or essence of wisdom and knowledge? If the aspect of the One which is all-knowing and perfectly wise were to manifest itself in embodied form, what would it look like?
Reality -> Distilled Essence -> Imagined Form
Once we have imagined what the incarnated essence might look like in embodied form, we can articulate versions of that back into Reality, say in the form of a statue or drawing.
Reality -> Distilled Essence -> Imagined Form -> Articulated Form
Once it is back in articulated form, we can name it.
Over time, the articulated forms grow, and you end up with an embodied pantheon of gods.
Where should we seat them?
On the highest place. Up on a mountain, which is the seat of power of a kingdom. The sacred mountain where the gods dwell.
And what do the gods do? Why of course they manifest themselves in keeping with their spirit.
And so the cosmic drama ensues.
After we reincarnate the spirit of the sea into form, we can name it, for instance Poseidon. And what would Poseidon do? He would have a son. To have a son, he would need a wife. Who should his wife be? Well, of course, one of the granddaughters of Oceanus, who he choose from among her sisters as they performed a dance on the Isle of Naxos. Yet of course their happiness would not last long.
Why?
Well just a few paragraphs or centuries ago we incarnated and embodied Ares as a representation of the spirit of the One Who Wars Victoriously. Being a warlike fellow and manifesting his true nature, Ares, acting in accordance with his nature, would kill their son Alirrothios. For this, he would have to be put on trial before the other gods.
Where? Well, of course, at the seat of power on the sacred mountain which is a suitable dwelling place for the gods.
So there we were, in Ancient Greece, in the City of Athens, standing on the place both the gods and the humans held court – the Areopagus. Legal, philosophical, and religious matters were discussed there among the statues of the gods of the Greek pantheon.
So concerned were they with ensuring that they did not alienate any deities which they had not yet discovered and incarnated into form, that they even set up a special altar:
TO THE UNKNOWN GOD
And so the gods multiplied.
Quite an intimidating spectacle. The seat of imperial and divine power.
To this day, it is known as the Areopagus. (Are – from Ares + Pagos, which means “pinnacle” or “rocky hill”).
Having the pantheon of gods close at hand, and visible in articulated and named form, they were quite easy to relate to, serve, worship, and keep (generally) happy.
They were purely figments of imagination, except there was something real about them. Something meaningful. Something that perhaps felt more real and meaningful than the lives we were living at the time.
It is much easier for people, when a loved one is in danger, to relate to a saint, an angel, or a lessor “god” regarded as the spirit and exemplar of protection, than to direct their request to the Ultimate Reality which transcends and encompasses All.
If we lose our keys, we may not want to bother the One to ask for help, but a saint or angel that helps with such things is at hand.
The lower levels of the pantheon are more hospitable. More comfortable. More accessible. More immediate. More tangible. More tame. Less dangerous. More known. More articulated. More visible. More perceptible. And therefore more interactible.
Yet somehow, we can never escape the deep knowledge that there is Something More.
Beyond these representations.
Beyond all these aspects.
Somehow we are aware that the gods we have imagined, articulated, and named are not all there is. And in fact aren’t even real.
They are the creations of our own minds and hands.
When we bow down before the statue, or lay our offering on the altar, or light the candle in front of the picture, or perform the ritual, we start to wonder why it is that we are stooping to address ourselves to something created by the minds and hands of humanity, and then dressed up in the symbolism of sacredness and ritual, as if that creation was somehow our Lord or deserved our time, resources, and respect.
Over thousands of years, nearly all cultures have developed their own pantheons of gods. In their own languages, and in their own styles of art and dance, they perceive that which is outside of them, they dream and imagine, they articulate into form, they name them, they immortalize them. They worship them.
Over time they get bigger, they get stronger, they grow more arms, they hold more symbols, until we get the fantastically imaginative and symbolic form that gets immortalized as the ideal imagined incarnation of that aspect of the Divine.
Temples get erected, priests get assigned, costumed get designed, rituals get developed, standards and dogma are developed, classes are taught, children are conformed, money is charged, and they continue on, for who would want to risk that potential hell that could so easily arise from the displeasure of the god of war, or wealth, or fertility, or fortune?
It is an amazing propensity of civilizations to perceive the Absolute, create gods with their own hands, and then worship them, sacrifice to them, and command others to do the same.
The gods of all the pantheons of history are nothing more than art. There is no such thing as that god, with that name, no matter which one it is.
And yet there is something of the Central Animating Spirit that we impute to it that makes it so meaningful.
All humanity is now coming to fully understand that when you isolate out an element of Ultimate Reality, abstract out its essence, and then articulate it into named form, all you have is a statue, or a picture, or a temple. A dead, articulated, known, powerless, grasped, comprehended, lifeless thing that you have called some name and attempted to drag back through Boundary of Knowing.
Such a dead thing deserves no worship or ceremony.
Such a thing cannot keep us bound.
We are free! In the presence and joy of One and All.
Once you realize that all you are worshiping is a lifeless and fictitious part of the conceptual pantheon constructed by your ancestors, it entirely changes your relationship to Ultimate Reality.
Once we know that we don't have to fear the god of war, we understand the fear of the One that is the beginning of Wisdom.
Most importantly, this level of analysis and realization liberates you from the religion of your childhood, and opens up the possibility of actually knowing and coming into direct, personal Right Relationship with the living, breathing, pulsating non-articulable, indescribable, approachable-but-never-graspable-or-containable Ultimate Reality in and through Whom All things Inter-Exist.
There is only One.
That is the One that is worthy of our awe and attention.
That Ultimate Reality does not live in the previously articulated forms. Its name is not whatever Word Tool you use to invoke the idea of It. It is not an exclusive member of the pantheon created by your ancestors. It does not belong to your tribe or nation.
It simply Is.
One.
Like Horus and Osiris of the Egyptians, or Zeus and Apollo of the Greeks, or Jupiter and Juno of the Romans, every named and articulated pantheon of idols will one day lie in the ruins of the civilization who believed their articulated gods were anything more than statues and pictures made with their hands, of things collectively imagined and created by their society.
One of the first and most important steps together, if we are to succeed and avoid failure on this Quest, is to liberate ourselves from subordination to the fictitious religions of our childhood, and come back to direct Right Relationship with One and All.
Yes, it is blasphemy (to those maintaining the lies and power structures it threatens). Yes, it is heresy (to those maintaining the lies and power structures it threatens). No, it is not orthodox (to those maintaining the lies and power structures it threatens).
Those were figments of the Old World. Their temples will soon be lying in ruins.
In the New World, it is much simpler. It is much freer. It is much more True.
In the New World, we can all simply and humbly relate to One Ultimate Reality.
It can never be named, grasped, or reduced to articulated form or dogma.
It can never be boxed up, contained, or owned by a religion, party, or ideology.
We are All free of that Now.
This moment.
If we can come to know Truth, the Truth will set us free. That which subordinates us, binds us, and separates us from One and One Another is not True.
The Way, and the One, can never be boxed in, owned, reduced to propositional form, institutionalized, or brought inside the Boundary.
It can only be genuinely experienced by one who is, of their own voluntary will and accord, being drawn into ever more fully unified and right relationship with One, and All that flows from It.
Forward to 6.16 Concrete And Abstract Idolatry
Back to 6.14 Recomposing Notions Of The One
Back to table of contents The Book of Lionsberg