Eclectic and Syncretistic Spirituality Explained

The word eclectic is normally used as a furniture style, but it is also related to thoughts and tastes etc. Syncretistic is an amalgamation of various religious traditions, cultures, and schools of thought such as philosophy. So syncretistic and eclectic spirituality is an amalgamation of beliefs. It is my belief that this approach makes by far the most sense in choosing a spiritual path and spiritual practices.

The reason for this is simple. All mystics are first and foremost human beings. This means that they are not only influenced by mystical input but also have the cultural and life experiences of their place in history, their community, and their familial and ancestorial traditions. It also includes all of the religious ideas they were exposed to by their environment. 

While this does not mean that they cannot rise above these factors, it likely means that all of the above factors will spill over into their mysticism. It is also dependent on the intellectual and technological advancements of their society and culture. Therefore, one can rest assured that all so-called sacred texts have within them a certain amount of human and cultural input. All means all and it is especially true of the bible.

This is where eclectic spirituality can be so important in one’s spiritual path. All religions have mystical revelation from the source within their teachings. Likewise, they all have human and cultural input. Our intuition is able to distinguish which is which if we but learn to trust it.

Since I was raised in evangelical Christianity, I have found that while there is mystical revelation in the bible there is likewise cultural input that is not necessarily pertinent today. However, I have also found that for me, Christianity is not complete and that I can find additional revelation in other religions and religious texts, and yes, even in science. We continually are advancing in knowledge and experience. This is true of us as individuals, and it is likewise true of us in various cultures as well as humanity as a whole.

I will give you an example of my eclectic spirituality. I draw mystical revelation from Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism, and Hermeticism. I have actually come to believe that Hermeticism is foundational to western religion and philosophy. But I also see that there is potential to reinforce mystical revelation from quantum mechanics, philosophy, cognitive science, and biology.

For me, I see reincarnation as a very likely phenomenon. So, I draw on some of eastern thought as well. However, I am not a fan of the perpetual circle of karma. This forces me to use my intuition and the mystic within me to find a better solution to the purpose of reincarnation. I have done this and have addressed it in other blog posts. There are countless other examples, but I will not pursue them here.

I mainly want to point out that we each have divinity within each of us. This divinity makes us all mystics. We are effective in mysticism to the degree that we believe we are divine, trust out intuition. I want to encourage you to make sure that you allow your intuition and your individuality to help you ascend along your spiritual path and find the perfect place of integration between your higher and lower self. Both are equally important to the human experience. Part of the lower self, or the human self is what Carl Jung called the shadow self, and we likewise need to embrace and accept it as well. That doesn't mean that we cannot improve and change the things we don’t like, but it does mean that we should embrace wholeheartedly our humanity.

The Conscious Cosmos: Why I believe in the historicity of Jesus of Nazareth

There are many scholars who doubt the historicity of Jesus of Nazareth. However, I am quite certain that he was indeed a historical figure and that he was a mystic and master as well. Was his message misunderstood and coopted? Most definitely! I come to that conclusion based on all of the writings from the first three centuries CE. This includes some of the orthodox canon and the writings of the Nag Hammadi library. Was he sent from God? Well, that depends on your definition and understanding of God. If you see God anthropomorphically as a sky parent who had a literal son, then you have missed the mark. However, if you see God as the creative source of the universe, if you see God as creative consciousness, and you see the son of God as a metaphor for individual conscious agents that are an integral part of the divine, having a divine nature, then yes, indeed he was sent by God.

It is his message, that for me proves that he was a historical mystical figure, a miracle worker that was misunderstood because of the audience he came to, and the belief system they held about the creator and the nature of reality. If what I am writing scares you as heresy, my hope is that you get over it. If you think I am trying to evangelize the world to this idea, you are wrong. Could humanity benefit from what I believe Jesus real message was? Yes indeed! It actually adds mystical understanding to all of the messages and explanations that have gone on before it. This is why I believe that it should be a part of eclectic and syncretistic spirituality. Yes, I use the word spirituality and I use it without shame or hesitation. If consciousness is fundamental to reality, then it is ineffable, and spirituality is as good a descriptor as any.

Moving on to the reasons I believe that Jesus of Nazareth is a historical figure and a mystical master. It includes the Gospel of John, parts of Paul’s epistles, the Gospel of Truth, and other writings from the same time period. This theory does not include orthodox teaching, anything evangelical, or fundamentalist. Yet it does include parts of orthodox Christian scripture. It likewise includes Hermeticism, Platonic, and Neo-Platonic philosophy. One could add Taoism into the mix as well.  All of those traditions involve a “parent and an offspring” metaphor to the creation of reality. It is in that area that the message of Jesus advances the metaphor. Further, the advancement of that metaphor is dependent on a mystical message, most likely from an individual. That is how it has worked over the course of millennia and so there is no reason to doubt it in this instance.

The unique message in which Jesus advanced spiritual understanding was that the parent offspring metaphor includes all of humanity. This can be gleaned by looking at a universal coherent message that permeates all of western civilization across millennia, beginning with Egypt and Sumer, Hermeticism, Greek and Platonic Philosophy, the Stoics and culminating with two revelations that Jesus made that were not explicit before his ministry. He also taught that God was the parent, but additionally, a loving parent, and that all of humanity was God’s offspring and an active participant in the divine nature. All other claims prior to that had God at a distance, apart from the creation. There was no familial reference. Today, there are many who refer to the concept of being a child of God without realizing that it is known largely by the teaching of Jesus.

This revelation went on to be mystically revealed to Paul. Rom 8:38-39  “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,  (39)  nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God.” It was Jesus that introduced this concept in his teaching.

Many may ask, “didn’t Jesus also teach about hell?” That requires that one be able to clearly see the Jew-Gentile distinction that is in the pages of the New Testament. Jesus was a Jewish prophetic mystic and miracle worker. He did his work within the context and culture of first century Judaism. It was first century Jewish Pharisaic teaching that taught about hell (Gehinnom.) His references were a hyperbolic reaction to that teaching. Paul never mentions hell. Why? Because his mystical revelation was to bring the message to both Jew and Gentile and to present it as a spiritual reality. One can see the Jew-Gentile distinction everywhere in the New Testament and Paul taught that the wall of separation was torn down by the ministry of Jesus. So then, Jesus’ ministry was twofold. First, it was to call the Jewish nation to change their mind about their relationship with deity. Second, it was to inform both Jew and Gentile that God, the creative source was a loving parent.

In the Gospel of Truth, accredited to Valentinus by Irenaeus, the mission and message of Jesus was to overcome the forgetfulness that humanity has and remember its true nature which is divine. God the Father is a loving parent and upon incarnation humans no longer remember the fact. Jesus’ message was to restore that knowledge. Valentinus was a student of Pauline Christianity and founded a group of believers that were called Valentinians after him. They were considered heretics by the early church fathers, and their works were destroyed. It was the serendipitous find of Nag Hammadi in 1945 that gave us many of their writings. I am not saying that they had all and exclusive truth. I am saying that they had an important part of the Jesus message, and it would be beneficial today. Not that it is necessary for us to carry on as the offspring of the creator or to gain some kind of eternal nature. We are that already. But it would help us to realize that we are divine and that the divine is love and love is out natural state of being if we but remember who we really are.

Jesus realized that he was anointed with the divine Logos or the mind of God. This made him God’s son and he went on to teach that the same thing is true of each and everyone of us. I will close this with Paul’s words. This is from a letter that is credited to Paul by most all scholars.

Php 2:5-8  “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,  (6)  who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited,  (7)  but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form,  (8)  he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross.”

We all do this when we incarnate. We become obedient even to the point of death. It does not have to be a cross. In our emptying process, we forget our divinity and Jesus restored that. That message is so unique that I believe there really was such a person that delivered it.

  

 

God Beyond Religion: The Real Purpose and Meaning of the Resurrection

 “Nothing redeems us from this world but we are of the All, and we are saved. We have been saved from start to finish. Let us think about it in this way; let us accept it in this way”. ~Meyer, Marvin W.; Robinson, James M.. The Nag Hammadi Scriptures (p. 54). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

It is past time that we take back and regain the terms and concepts that orthodoxy, fundamentalism, and evangelicalism stole from the mission and message of Jesus. It is time to recognize that oh so fearful word, heretic is just a word used by people to gain control over other people. There are so many terms that orthodoxy repurposed for control that overturning it will be a big job.

One such term that I will address today is resurrection. It is only fitting to do so on resurrection Sunday! Another that has to be included is “the fall.” So, before I deal with the resurrection, I will briefly deal with the fall. What really was the fall? It was a fall into forgetfulness. That was the central message of the Gospel of Truth. What was forgotten? The fact that we are pre-existing divine souls. It is similar to the emptying that Paul wrote about in his letter to the Philippians. Upon incarnating into material reality, we empty our knowledge, in other words forget that we are indeed an aspect of the divine Logos, or the divine mind. That is our spiritual nature. Thus, being redeemed from the fall simply means that we are able to regain the knowledge of who we really are. This was the message and mission of Jesus of Nazareth. He chose to do this before the foundation of material reality.

How then does the resurrection redeem us from the fall? If we take the message of Jesus that was spoken while he was living and couple that with the resurrection, we have a solid proof that we are indeed partakers of the divine nature, and that we can remember and exploit that knowledge. It is the catalyst for love within us. Jesus’s message was that we are the offspring of a loving parent. He went on to teach that we are incarnations of the divine mind, or divine Logos. Paul said, let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus. What mind was that? It was the mind that believed that God was a loving parent, (in deity there is both the masculine and feminine aspect.) It was a mind that believed our purpose here on earth was to develop love for one another. It was a mind that knew he was eternal and eternally the offspring of God.

The proof of this message was substantiated in the resurrection from the dead. It was the proof that individual souls are indeed eternal. Let’s face it. Jesus’s sacrifice happened when he incarnated. At that point he was going to die at some point. To die at the hands of the Roman occupation, at such an early age, was a way to stamp an exclamation point on his sacrifice. God did not sacrifice his son. The sun sacrificed himself as a proof of our divinity. Think about it, God did not need a blood sacrifice to forgive humanity for being the way it was created. It is archaic to think that animal sacrifice was necessary to appease the wrath of a God who is defined as love; defined as agape love; a love that keeps no record of wrongs.

I do not believe all of Valentinian Gnosticism. But the above quote from the Nag Hammadi scriptures is from the “Treatise on Resurrection” and that’s why I share it. The truth is we are all saved! The truth is we are all eternal! The truth is that we are all divine!

God Beyond Religion: What is the Proper Use of the Bible?

So many people have been traumatized by evangelical and fundamentalist Christianity. This is in large part due to the weaponizing of the bible. So here are the questions. Is there a place for the bible in spirituality? Is there a way to view the bible that does not create trauma and actually informs our spiritual journey? What was Jesus real message and did Orthodoxy coopt it? How did the bible finally get to the place that evangelical and fundamentalist are able to use it as a weapon?

Let’s begin with the last question and address the elephant in the room. The bible is not the word of God. Let me repeat this. The bible is not the word of God. I make this statement by the teaching of the bible itself. According to the bible in the Old Testament, the Torah is the word of God, and in the New Testament the gospel or Jesus is the word of God. Evangelicals will kick, spit and yell claiming this is not so but no matter it is the truth, even by biblical standards. I will not relitigate this as I have written so much in the past about it.

Now for the question, “How did the bible finally get to the place that evangelical, and fundamentalist are able to use it as a weapon?” It became final with the reformation and the doctrine of sola scriptura. The reformers were trying to eliminate the magisterium of the pope and claimed sola scriptura which means scripture alone. However in the early states of the Reformation it was not scripture alone for all faith and practice but scripture alone for the method of salvation. Over time, it was solidified into scripture alone for all faith and practice and ultimately the doctrine of inerrancy and infallibility came into being. That was the final death knell that weaponized the scripture and turned it into the written word of God. Still, it is a gross and damaging error!

The reason is that the bible is an anthology of myths, cultural input, and mystical revelation. Anyone willing to use common sense would realize that the creative source of the universe would not codify eternally a set of unchangeable rules in the iron age. Especially with a society that believed in animal blood sacrifice to appease God. Further, if one is being honest, they would admit that every time the word of god is mentioned in the New Testament, the authors always meant gospel and not scripture. So, there is absolutely no plausible reason for the weaponizing of the bible. Further, those who would say that the bible is the “whole counsel of God” do not even understand that the verse meant the whole purpose of God and not counsel as in a document or teaching. Literalism always leads to ignorance when interpreting writing. Those who teach inerrancy and infallibility, no matter how educated, are influenced by rigid dogma.

The question (“is there a place for the bible in spirituality?”) has an affirmative answer if one looks at the literature for what it is. As stated above it is an anthology of myths, cultural input, and mystical revelation. So, in that vane it has a place in spirituality. Of course, it is necessary to use intuitive discernment to find its value. It may be instructive to provide a bulleted list of the possible benefits of the mystical revelation within the bible.

·         The notion that God is love.

·         The definition of love.

·         The definition of the fruit of the spirit.

·         That the Logos indwells all of humanity

·         Consciousness is the creative source of the universe.

·         With a proper understanding of the garden myth and Adam and Eve, a figurative explanation of human pathology and the source of evil.

The first five are self-explanatory but the sixth one needs some further explanation. So what is the benefit of the garden myth in Genesis? It explains that mortality coupled with the survival instinct (necessary for human and animal survival) combine to explain greed and therefore, explain all of the evil present in the material world we live in.

However, the remedy for that is not a sacrifice to God of a human prototype. It is the knowledge that we are divine and that the creative source is a loving parent. This is what makes the “Gospel of Truth” important in explaining the mission and teaching of Jesus and just exactly how one could look at him as a savior. It is indeed too bad that so much of Gnostic writing was destroyed. Not that Gnostic writing was literal truth, but that it contained mystical revelation that helps explain reality and our place in the material world. It also shows the problem with literal translation and meaning for any religious texts.

The answer to the question (“What was Jesus real message?”) can only be properly understood with the entire writings of the second and third centuries CE. This would include parts of the New Testament, the Gnostic texts, the Corpus Hermeticum, and Neo-Platonic texts. The best answer I have found is that it was to correct the forgetfulness that souls adopt upon incarnating into material reality. This is the main idea stated in the Gospel of Truth. It resonates deeply with me.

To answer the question (Is there a way to view the bible that does not create trauma and actually informs our spiritual journey?) is somewhat complex. First it would have to be void of any of the dogmatic voices that play in the head of one who was brainwashed with fundamental and literal teaching. If this cannot be accomplished there is little chance that it can inform the spiritual journey of such a one.

If one can really understand and believe what the bible is, an anthology of myth, cultural input and mystical revelation, then one can gain spiritual knowledge from it. This requires discernment and intuition but I think there is a benefit from the bible. So far as I know it is the only sacred text that states God is love. Further, it is the only text that gives the definition of love and the fruit of the spirit. Especially in the Gospel of John, but in other places as well it explains that we are divine. This message is very beneficial.

How then can one discern what is mystical revelation from the creative source? Here are the criteria I use. Does it promote love as defined by Paul? Will it produce the fruit of the Spirit? Does it inform us of our familial connection to God? Does it show God as a parent? In fact, you can apply this to all mystical writings. It is true of the Corpus Hermeticum. It is true of the Tao.