Before we are born into the physical world, we know God…intimately.
We experienced the Divine without any filters of human consciousness.
We were One with Creation, Creator and Mystery at it’s most profound level.
Life on Earth is a journey of discovery, not only of ourselves but also the Mystery from which we came. There is a veil that falls upon our memories of ‘Before’ and we spend a lifetime remembering.
My first filter upon God came in the form of my family’s religion, Catholicism. What I loved about it was the smell of incense – my soul instinctively understood the magic of the Smoke, lifting the mundane up to the sacred.
I loved the silence of an empty church…my own silence, the silence of my soul. My fascination with Silence began within the walls of a building erected to God’s glory. But I did not find God there, only the vestiges of his image.
What I did not like was being told that God could be only communicated with via an approved set of prayers, a man who would pass my prayers along (who happened to be a priest I adored for his kindness), and mainly on Sundays when I could also have my sins repealed. Sins? I was 7. But I still value that experience, although I grew away from it when I realized that I had a choice to.
I think that that realization was my most important lesson about my relationship with Mystery. I can choose, and that freedom of choice must be honored for all faiths.
Later, I searched for God as a Protestant. I found some new rules, some new boundaries, a sound dissertation on why Catholicism was a cult, and an admonition to ignore my soul’s questions and visions -same God, but the packaging was different. Again, I still find great lessons in this path, I would not be who I am without it, and I continue to draw from it.
However, the God-in-Box system ceased to work for me when one day I heard a stirring of the Goddess, awakening with the Kundalini energy at the base of my spine, and splitting me apart at my soul’s seams.
I needed to listen! To what? The Silence that had once bewitched me as a child. Also, a Wisdom that expanded God/dess to being far removed from the constraints of religion.
I became a Pagan of sorts, not quite Wiccan, because that was religion again, although I find immense beauty in all the paths that have presented themselves to me. Wiccan, Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist…such diversity in trying to understand God…I sought a more expanded experience yet.
When I viewed God through the lens of religion, he came with a very convenient set of rules, prayers, appropriate behaviors, a way that was pre-packaged for easy digestion. He came without Goddess most times, and I keenly felt the separation between myself and those who found solace in their chosen religious path.
This separation felt toxic to me. I wanted sacred union with others…separation via religious beliefs filled me with fear.
I’ve chosen to walk my own way, experiencing the Divine in as many ways as I see fit. But of course, I still must remain conscious of the fact that my un-filtered view is filtered by my ego, my life experiences, my ever -expanding journey through life.
Do not follow me on my journey, for my wisdom is still a discovery. Instead, follow your own path, and let us meet at a place where we can agree, or agree to dis-agree, or just dis-agree, but we shall do so with the understanding that to be right about God/dess is a laughable pursuit, for God/dess is still discovering Herself.
What I do, or what you do, contributes to the Mystery. As you discover yourself, God/dess also discovers and since there are millions of us and millions more to come, this is a never-ending journey through infinity.
When I was born, God/dess said, “Oh look, yet another way to experience myself.” And She said the same when you were born, or so I believe, through what I have thus far imagined God/dess to be.
The Mystery of what I do not know is as beautiful to me as what I propose to know.
One day, when I am back on the Other Side, I will re-connect with Mystery free of my veiled Third Eye, and will wonder at the journey I took while here.
And it will all have been Sacred.