It is interesting to note that many different wisdom traditions have arrived at a shared concern with a Sin that we now consider very archaic, namely Idolatry.
Perhaps it is more relevant than ever.
Idolatry is often thought of in the sense in which it was railed against by the prophets of the Abrahamic religions, and invokes the imagery of people ceremonially sacrificing to statues of ‘their gods’.
Abrahamic religions hold the One to be so sacred, that they forbid making a representation of It, or in the case of some, even naming It.
In other religions, perhaps most notably the religions of India, representations are embraced with the full knowledge that they are merely symbolic representations of spiritual ideas which help focus one’s religious devotion towards various aspects of the Absolute. They are used as energetic focal points of attention, with full awareness of the Reality that the Symbol and the Spiritual Idea it points to are not the Absolute.
Why would there be such grave concern with how and whether to represent the Divine?
What is the deeper issue at stake here?
Life and Society exist within a hierarchy or order of Values.
It is the Order of our Values and Loves that determines the Quality of Life and Society.
The core issue of Idolatry is the corruption of the Order.
It is the articulation of anything into a name or form that then becomes the Central Organizing Principle.
There is only One Central Organizing Principle.
There is only One Thing that can Properly Order and Rightly Relate All other things within Itself, and that is their deepest Source.
There is only One that entirely comprehends the Logos that orders Life.
At issue is the reality that our Loves, Intentions, Motivations, Goals, etc. must be reconciled and integrated into a Higher Order Functional Unity in order for us to properly function and manifest ourselves in the world.
The question is “What belongs at the Absolute top of a properly ordered hierarchy of Intentions?” What is rightly the Most High Intention?
There is only One Answer that works.
There is only One Logic that solves the equation.
Because the One can be apprehended but not comprehended, approached but not grasped, partially but not fully known…
It cannot be grasped by the Left Hemisphere, placed in the container of the Known, and brought back through the Boundary of Knowing.
The entire Gestalt or Spirit of It can only be vaguely glimpsed by the Right Hemisphere, forever to remain living, breathing, progressively revealing Itself when we dare to venture outside the Boundary to encounter It.
This creates immense potential for the truly damaging act that will prevent you from ever Truly Knowing or Rightly Relating to Ultimate Reality, which is Abstract Idolatry.
Abstract Idolatry is when you mistake your own limited cognitive Perception of the One for the [One] itself, and subordinate your spiritual and intellectual will to that understanding.
When you bring some limited, low resolution, vague representation of Ultimate Reality back through the Boundary, treat it as if it were the real thing, and demand that others do the same.
In this sense, the entire Dogma of fundamental religions often devolves into exactly the Idolatry they warn against.
The “priests” go out and supposedly encounter the experiential Reality of the One. They (very partially) Understand an infinitesimally small aspect of the total Ultimate Reality. They then dare to try to articulate it into a form in their own minds. They then try to articulate the mental form into impressions or images. They then try to articulate the impressions into concepts and propositions. They then dare to reduce the ideas to words. They then dare to declare the articulated propositions about Ultimate Reality the authoritative form. They then institutionalize the form, construct the costumes and rituals, establish the certifying authorities, and act as if they are the keepers of God.
And then they go out and actually make billions of people subordinate their own spiritual and intellectual will to the dictates of the self-professed spiritual elite.
This is entirely corrupted, idolatrous false religion, and the vast majority in the Old World devolved to this sad and crippled state of decay.
It is extremely abusive and confusing because they further proclaim that anyone who doesn’t conform to their (idolatrous false religion) is engaged in an (idolatrous false religion) and going to hell.
This is spiritual abuse of the worst kind.
All such religions are false and idolatrous, so we can dispense with subordinating ourselves to any of them and become the Sovereign, free, rightly related Individuals we were created to be.
Voluntary, sovereign, autonomous, direct, personal, Right Relationship with One, One Another, and All is the only Way to the Goal.
In some religions, the priests will not even admit you into the temple that they claim is the place of the One.
The Reality is that you are the temple and the One is living within you.
Both the Temple and the Kingdom are within you, and you are a King and a Priest, a Queen and Priestess.
You are inherently and innately equal in stature before God to every King, Priest, and authority on Earth.
You do not need their permission. You do not need their blessing. You do not need their prayers. You do not need their forgiveness.
All permission, all blessing, all prayers, all forgiveness come from One, who already knows your every thought and longs for relationship with you.
All things that come from the One do not flow from the One to the institutions and authorities. They flow directly from the One into every living Being that is also flowing from the One.
The only purpose of human institutions is to serve as instruments of this Spirit and flow.
If they are not in service to the flow of the One into Reality, they are purely wasteful blockages, and have no place in the New World.
Forward to 6.17 Beyond The Masculine Anthropomorphic God
Back to 6.15 Spirit, Archetypes, Prototypes, Instantiations
Back to table of contents The Book of Lionsberg