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Burst into singing all ye lands, for the time of awakening is here. |
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A Brief Spiritual History |
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Julie of Light Omega |
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Mankind's spiritual history has directly influenced the nature of wishing, and how it was believed that needs and desires could be met. In ancient times, the nature of wishing found expression in appealing to the gods for direct intervention on behalf of a sought-after goal. This was not based on the lack of a capacity for reason or clear-thinking, but rather on a sense that the invisible world that influenced the physical was full of life, and that the forces within that invisible world had individuality, being, and areas of specific influence upon the earth. In such times we would not have sought to do things on our own or to achieve things on our own, for all had to happen through the benevolence of a deity. Wishing occurred in those times as part of a relationship with a divine Being – a relationship that was part of everyday awareness. This awareness was infused by a sense of 'presences' and of life everywhere – life that responded to the human life expressing upon the earth. The world of 'presences' included not only the celestial world, but also the natural world of trees, plants, grasses, and animals, for everything was perceived as a living reality. To find favor with the gods, it was important to enact the proper behavior. Sometimes that behavior involved prayer, and sometimes it involved sacrifice – the expression of a need to make an offering that indicated our humility and the sincerity of a heart that was in need of help with something. Only tangible subservience to the Divine, it was believed, could attain such help. This was the view of ancient times, the time of our collective ancestors. Yet, over time, this view of reality changed. Our right-brain thinking which allowed for the perception of invisible worlds, shifted into more rational, left-brain thinking, and as a result, we began to experience ourselves as more separate from the world around us. This loss, which was a loss of significant proportions, became a generative force in human evolution, larger than many realize today, producing major historical trends. Ultimately, it gave rise to man's endless desire to control the conditions of life so that in the absence of a vital and approachable spiritual world, man could still retain control of his destiny. II. Through the centuries of advancing knowledge and increased communication, mankind endeavored to create rules and regulations which, projected onto the face of Heaven, were meant to guarantee the fulfillment of wishes and the assurance that life on earth could continue. Always, the traits of benevolence and judgment were projected onto the external deity in varying degrees, defining the means by which favors would be granted or riches and blessings taken away. During much of this time period, spirituality was not infused by the sense of life, but by the sense of fear. Over centuries, and into the modern era, the separation between 'I' and 'Thou' grew, not everywhere, but in many places on the earth, creating a perceived gap between the physical world and the spiritual world. In many nations and cultures that benefited from human progress, reason became the new substitute for the Divine, and intellect the means by which all problems could ultimately be solved. Science replaced religion as the means for providing answers to life's questions, and it was assumed that the use of man's brain and intellect would ultimately find the answer to humanity's most pressing concerns. This was the age of 'enlightenment', not in a spiritual sense in terms of man's relationship with the Divine, but in the sense of the self-discovery and collective progress that was made possible by awareness of the great use to which the mind could be put. III. Reason offered to mankind a way of arriving at a seemingly endless number of solutions to practical problems - a way to turn wishes into reality without having to turn to the spiritual universe at all. Accompanied by its more recent partner, technology, it allowed each self to believe that it could have whatever it strove for, perhaps not immediately, but eventually. This was not true for all cultures, for a few held fast to the ancient ways, but it was true for most. The heart that sought to have its wishes met could not know that this gradual replacement of the world of presences by human reason and effort did not happen accidentally. Rather, this development, in large measure fostered by human ingenuity, was also engineered by forces which overshadowed mankind's ongoing progress, seeking always to create separation between human and Divine truth, and seeking also, wherever possible, to infuse the idea that human will and intellect, accompanied by the primary role of reason, were all that existed. Such forces have played a major role in history, most often behind the scenes, but nevertheless have influenced the outcome of many historical epochs and many cultural tragedies in which man turned away from his true spiritual core. IV. Today, we are finally experiencing a reversal of this trend. This reversal is happening because the separation between the physical and the spiritual is coming to an end, and the oneness of what has formerly been perceived as separated is increasingly being understood by the human heart. In this time of the progressive advance of light upon the earth, we are collectively coming to understand that life is more than the biology or physical structure of which it is composed, and are returning to a more ancient understanding of what life is and who we are. This shift is only just beginning and there are many steps yet to be taken. But the idea of a seamless fabric of life which contains both visible and invisible worlds is everywhere gaining adherents and coming to feel both natural and simple. The primary cause of this shift is the advance of spiritual light upon the earth, bringing with it a new way of conceiving of wishes. This way pictures the energy of thought or wishing as carried on the wings of light into another realm in which these wishes become actualities. This is today's translation of what, in ancient times, was acknowledged as the role of the gods in human affairs. Today, we can send our wishes into the universal energy of Light, knowing that what we direct our thought to, what we direct our energy to, will ultimately be sent back to us as actuality. The return of the spiritual matrix in which wishes can live and be fulfilled, connects us again with ancient times and with the mind that conceived of the world as full of life. Yet, it adds to the past, the new element of understanding that we are here on earth to bring to the earth the sacred gift of our own human expression. We are that which is an extension of the Oneness, and as such, we are that which is capable of co-creating abundant life.
Related Writings: History of the Soul's Journey Through Time
Article Section - Earth |
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