WHY I DON'T BELIEVE IN GOD

I don't know how many of you watch Jordan Peterson's interviews. He's helped me think my way through the current apocalyptic woke mess that we find ourselves in. And, shamanically, to appreciate the bounty that the earth offers us and the prosperity it gives us.

What tends to be missing in our world is gratitude for this bounty. As a result it is easy to be shamanic and to separate off from the modern world, to condemn it in comparison to a lost ideal, to see nature as fragile, and to dislike humanity. I love humanity: I think it crucial that we do so. I love our technological genius, I am sure we are here to continue unfolding it. It is part of nature, not separate from it. And nature is robust. She is red in tooth and claw, as well as pristine and benign.

One area I do not agree with Peterson is over God, specifically the way he puts pagan, polytheistic religions below the vengeful Old Testament God, who he seems unwilling to criticise. The guy who destroyed the god-fearing Job in a bet with the Devil. The guy who says that gays should be stoned to death.

My view is that indigenous peoples from time immemorial understood balance and gratitude and the sacred. Which doesn't mean they didn't also slaughter and do terrible things to each other and view other peoples as less than human. But for them the natural world was inspirited and sacred, and if you bring everything back to that, then you can always find balance.

The Old Testament God is the new kid on the block. He arose amongst an oppressed people living in the desert, and he reflects the harsh reality of their lives, and the strict, unforgiving rules that can be needed to survive.

The reason Peterson puts God above 'pagan' religions (a word that for him has pejorative undertones) is because he thinks that one God reflects a deeper understanding of reality than having many gods.

What he seems to overlook is the underlying unity of Spirit within pagan religions. Amongst the Native Americans, you have the Great Spirit. In Norse mythology you have the Web of Wyrd that connects everything. Spirit helpers are a lens through to the Great Spirit. Just as are the saints a reflection of God in Catholicism.

Peterson isn't stupid, so I think there is something unconscious in his attitude, a blind faith that needs Yahweh to be The Man. As a very rational, scientifically-trained guy (but not lacking in humanity and empathy) he is searching for a deeper metaphysical underpinning. The solution he has found has been, in a way, what was nearest to hand, and authoritarian: that to me says something about the level of his unmooring, brilliant as he can be in other ways. In this respect, he is a man of our times.

The reason I am Shamanic is because I believe - I experience - the world to be alive. It arose from deep within me, irresistibly, 30 years ago after 11 years of a Buddhism that had made me ill, and it changed my life completely. Both Buddhism and Christianity have a tendency, each in their own way, to separate off spirituality from the natural world. It serves the interests of organised religion to do so, because then people lose their power, and will give it instead to the religious authorities. It is a dark 2-way deal that is pretty normal, and often a stage along the way for people.

But unnecessary. If you begin by remembering your connection to the natural world by putting yourself in it, and if you have a teacher who has been dismembered enough not to need pupils, then I think one is off to a much better start. And essentially a teacher is nudging you towards your own wisdom. There is not really much to teach. All you need is your sense of belonging to, and love for, the natural world. Everything comes out of that, and we can find it ourselves.

The Christian God died for a reason. He arose in the context of an oppressed people, and gained currency through military means (Islam) and by becoming the state religion of the Roman Empire (Christianity). He was always corrupt, always out of balance. Away with him!

THE TWO SPIRIT TRADITION

Just watched this short video. 

 

The main guy in it was very open and honest about himself, it was moving. 'Two Spirit' is the modern Native American term for what we call gay, though for them it means something much broader. It is not confined to sexuality, but refers primarily to having both masculine and feminine apects; as such, it is a gift. Two Spirits were traditionally honoured, they were even seen as sacred. They were recognised as Two Spirited by how they lived, rather than by who they slept with. There are a number of other worthwhile videos on this theme if you google it.

HEALING THE SOUL WOUND

Eduardo Duran has been working as a therapist within Native American communities for over 30 years. His book 'Healing the Soul Wound' addresses the different approaches that are necessary for people who have an indigenous, rather than a modern, world view. And inasmuch as we are all, at bottom, indigenous, I think the approach he has generated can speak to all of us. This would include:

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1/ Ceremony. Making the context sacred. Some simple smudging can achieve this.

2/ Seeing afflictions not as parts of ourselves, that define who we are, but as spirits that are visiting us. His major item here is alcoholism, which you get a lot of amongst Native Americans. He takes issue with the 'I am an acoholic approach' and says no, the spirit of alcohol is visiting you, and it can be a medicine or a poison. You need a new relationship with this spirit, so introduce yourself, make offerings, give thanks, ask the spirit to introduce itself and let's try and move this thing on. This approach immediately changes the clients relationship to the bottle, and makes it harder to drink. Drinking itelf is seen as a ceremony - indeed the whole of life, he maintains, is a ceremony.

Eduardo Duran

3/ So this approach can be applied more widely - to the spirit of fear/anxiety, depression/sadness, suicide (which is traditionally seen as a literalised attempt at transformation), anger, indeed anything you want. And to the spirit of healing itself.

4/ The self is relational, not isolated, as we find in the modern world. So when you introduce yourself to a spirit, you tell them also who your parents and grandparents were/are, and ask the spirit to do the same. And because we are relational, the affliction we are addressing may have been passed down through the family, and we are the ones with the task of healing it. And when we do, it is said, it heals backwards in time for 7 generations, and forwards for the next 7 generations.

5/ The Soul Wound, to which the title refers, is in the case of the Native Americans the collective wound caused by white colonisation. It is not just the trauma of violence, but the attempt to colonise the mind of the Indian with the modern mindset by eg sending them to boarding schools. This also needs addressing in therapy, and helps the individual to understand that their suffering is not because there is something 'wrong' with them, but something they have inherited through the collective past. An equivalent for moderns might be the Protestant Work Ethic, that keeps us busy and getting up early, and doubting ourselves if we do not conform - and judging of those who are 'idle'.

6/ Warrior Soul Wounding. Traditionally, war was seen as a ceremony, and if you killed someone, that was understood as a spirit contract between you. And the taking of life, even in the service of your community, still goes against natural law. So there is healing work to be done, that is not understood amongst returning war veterans, who do not even have a ceremony when they leave the armed services. So in this book, it applies particularly to Native American veterans.

7/ Duran is not afraid to be radical in his ideas. One holy cow he addresses is therapetic boundaries, which he considers in many cases to have a dehumanising effect. Besides, in a traditional situation, the healer would be known intimately by everyone in the village. And this would place more responsibility on the healer to have integrity in all parts of his life, so as not to compromise the healing situation.

SHAMANISM IS UNIVERSAL

There is a way in which I like the fact that the Medicine Wheel I use is not Celtic but Native American. What I like is that it connects me to a sense that the whole earth is our home, that we are one people who borrow from each other and learn from each other. Of course local connection to the land and to culture is important. But we can do both. 

Shamanism is a universal phenomenon, and modern life, with its access to all cultures, can show us this. Yes, our world culture has become disconnected as never before from a reciprocal relationship with the earth. But we also have the possibility as never before of being universal in our sympathies and in our shamanic practices.
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I offer Shamanic consultations, usually by skype, in which we can talk over anything you want to talk over. I may use the Medicine Wheel, Journeying, Astrology, Tarot or anything that works. And it centres around listening to ourselves in a deep way. I work on a donation basis, and I am happy with whatever is easy for you: I love this work. Contact: BWGoddard1@aol.co.uk

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PRAYER

Recently I used my new Pipe for the first time. I was beginning what will hopefully be a long and fruitful relationship with this Being who has come my way. Well, I came its way, to be more accurate. But I also had something specific and important to converse about, a money issue that really needed to move on. And I had a particular outcome in mind that I had been working on for months. And I asked for help with the issue, and with the particular outcome, with the proviso that only if that was the right way for things to go. Because you never know. You know you need some help, but we limited humans can find it hard to see the bigger picture. 

And some days later I got my help. The particular outcome I wanted was being blocked by a solicitor, and for a few hours I was so angry; but the more radical outcome which I had been avoiding, and which will make me very unpopular, but with which I will be a lot happier, had re-presented itself. 

So there it is. I prayed for something, and got the opposite in no uncertain terms, and it seems to be the right thing. But I had left room for that in my prayers, because even when an outcome seems self-evident we can be wrong. We can't assume we know as much as Spirit. And thank you to my new Pipe. We're getting along just fine.

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I offer skype/FB video astrology readings, by donation. Contact: BWGoddard1 (at)aol.co.uk

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THE CO-OPERATIVENESS OF LIFE

I'm reading a graphic book on epigenetics, which describes the complex chemical dance that goes on around DNA, that ensures that certain genes are activated, and certain ones are switched off. It's a hugely complex, delicate balance that is barely understood. And I'm left awed by it. It just seems impossible to me that there isn't a phenomenal intelligence behind this, even though there is no scientific description for such an idea. All biological complexity has this effect on me. This complexity is supposed to have come about largely through chance changes that happen to work. Impossible. 

The human body is 1 trillion cells co-operating. That is surely the basis for life itself, one giant co-operation, one Great Spirit behind it all, beyond rational comprehension. This is why, when they kill an animal, the Native Americans thank that animal for giving its life. It's maybe best not taken too literally, but there is also a deep truth in it, and a gratitude that goes with it: that life is essentially co-operative, life loves all other forms of life. Maybe we are the first society ever to see life as essentially competitive, and to have a Creation Story based around that.

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I offer skype/FB video astrology readings, by donation. Contact: BWGoddard1 (at)aol.co.uk

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On Not Telling Your Left Hand What Your Right Hand is Doing

From the Gospel of St Thomas, a 'heretical' text:

Jesus said:" I tell my mysteries to those who are worthy of my mysteries. What thy right hand shall do, let not thy left hand know what it does."

I just commented on this in the FB group Esoteric Knowledge & Occult Science: "I tell my mysteries to those who are worthy of my mysteries". This is not something any of us could actually say without sounding horribly egotistical! But I think it refers to anything within us that carries power. If you talk about it too freely, it starts to lose that power, because of the reasons we are revealing it. It's like a novelist not talking about the plot of a book they are writing. Or not talking about your dreams unless you have good reason to do so. The left hand is the ordinary egotistical self that wants to blab on, show off about its great dreams and visions: aren't I mystical, guys? In the Native American traditions it is understood that you don't talk about your inner experiences, your connections to Spirit. Amongst the Eveni people of Siberia, they say if you talk about your dreams, they won't come true. So they don't talk about their good dreams, but they talk about their bad ones! Same sort of thing for the same reason.

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I offer skype/FB video astrology readings, by donation. Contact: BWGoddard1 (at)aol.co.uk

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