Dylan Morrison ~ The Prodigal Prophet

Last time I defined authentic healing as one of the main tell tale signs that we’re living in the freedom realm of the Queendom. I now wish to look at the whole concept of worship, an English term that immediately invokes joy or dread, depending on one’s own past or present religious background. In our 2000 year old Western religious tradition worship is synonymous with communal singing to the Divine. Via theologically laden, 18th century hymns or trendy new rock and roll worship songs, ascribed to the Spirit but copyrighted to a gifted singer songwriter, such sing songs are usually offered up to the Divine every Sunday morning.  Worship has become a big business buzz word as folk frustratingly search for an authentic Divine connection. Today I’m going to step back from our institutionalized model of communal ritual and examine worship from a desire based paradigm, as a form of Divine-Resonance.

Divine-Resonance

Hopefully it will shed some light on Yeshua’s radical words to the paradoxically religious but man-hungry Samaritan lady with whom he shared a well-sourced drink.

‘The Father is seeking those to worship Him in spirit and in truth.’

Firstly let me say that the Father or Divine Love is not a great big Heavenly Narcissist. ‘Worship me my lucky creatures for I have ego needs beyond measure!’ No, Divine Love by its own intrinsic nature is at peace with its own Being. The spilling over into creative mode is not the desperate action of a self doubting divinity in need of human reassurance but a manifestation of the joy that simply wants to share its own essence. The desire of Divine Love is only one way viz. outwards to the other, an invitation into the Union of God and man. Let’s remember that all calls for worship recorded in both Jewish and Christian scriptures are based on this premise contrary to their historical misinterpretation. Thankfully Divine Love draws us into worship as a form of healing realignment, not as the result of a omnipotently eternal power trip.

Yeshua spoke to his new Samaritan friend in Aramaic, the language of the common people in 1st century Palestine. The Aramaic word poorly translated into English as worship is in fact the word seged, which can mean to bow, surrender or adore. Not much hymn singing or happy clappy chorus dancing there then. Certainly within Hebrew culture there were occasions for these though usually during times of celebration following military victories over their enemies with the supposed backing of their God Yahweh.

So how does this seged relate to mimetic desire and the maintenance of our Divinely gifted freedom? Let’s take a look at its root meanings in turn.

1) To Bow

In Middle Eastern culture bowing down was a physical acknowledgement that one was in the presence of a greater being, whether a ruler, or indeed a god. In Jewish tales of angelic manifestations the poor old angel’s first job always seemed to be to get their shocked human subject back on their feet; in other words to stop them participating in the act of seged. Many of us have discovered a beneficial new spirituality of Oneness through certain Eastern philosophies and yet this Monist experience can breed a refusal to bow to anyone or anything. If we are all manifestations of the Divine then there is no-one to bow down to. Such is the difference between pantheist ( All are God) and panentheistic (All in God) world views.

Mimetic desire has been wired into the human psyche. In skewed desire we follow and imitate the desire energy of our fellow man. As we’ve previously seen, this process, whilst delivering a temporary desire high, ends in tears, with disillusionment and relational breakdown. In the Queendom, as demonstrated by Yeshua, our psychic mimetic desire is channelled towards our Source, the One from which we sprang in the Cosmic Dance of Creation. For this realignment and reintegration of our fragmented ego desire centers, we must encounter the Other, via the winds of spirit. To experience this Other is to automatically bow down; we can’t stop ourselves.

2) To Surrender

Surrender implies that a struggle has been taking place in the psychic realm. Our ego or fragmented psyche, comprising our little defensive sub-personalities has fought hard to protect us from the threat of annihilation or non being. As soon as unconditional love was removed from the psychic menu of our infancy, our frantic little defenders were birthed by necessity, as our innocent and fledgling Self recoiled from pain of our woundedness.

This little army of ‘me’s permanently sit on a war footing ready to protect us from further pain and scapegoating, often initiating a first strike policy on those threatening to become our Model Obstacles. Into such a psychic war zone comes Divine Love, offering us a way out – Unconditional Love as it was meant to be, and desire realignment with Source. Like the few remaining Japanese soldiers who fought on, albeit in hiding,  for decades after the end of World War 2, our sub-personalities are loath to surrender, facing the Ultimate Truth, that hostilities are over. Once such fragmented selves are lovingly reintroduced by Spirit into the Light of Day and surrender their gift of will to the Other, a transformation takes place, an airlift out of the psychic war zone into the Divine Queendom.

3) To Adore

Let’s face it, adoration is a great relief for the wounded self. Having spent years being hooked by all sorts of desire objects, playing the gravitational mimetic game, it’s good to get of the acquisitive treadmill and stare at the real thing. Adoration is tuning into the desire pull of Divine Love as it reels us in like a prize fish, to be placed, not in the stagnant pool of dutiful religion but in the free-flowing  Waters of Spirit. The result of Homecoming, is the constant wonder of adoration, the state of shock that follows our reawakening to the Presence of Source. Like a puppy, snuggled up beside its master, we cannot take our spiritual eyes off the One who came looking for us, saving us from our dysfunctional psychic state.

Finally let’s look at how Yeshua suggests we act in authentic seged.

In Spirit ~ Ruha

Only spirit, both our own and that of Divine Love can draw our wayward psyche back into Divine Resonance. The desire of Spirit flows freely to the restored psyche. Both vibrate with the same desire energy, one birthed in the Divine Will. All religion operates in the realm of fragmented self, searching for love where it can’t be found, the scapegoating of the other. Spirit knows nothing of such rivalry and striving – it is the direct route Home, the One who brings us back to the Innocence of the Garden. Learning to step out of psychic concerns into the stream of higher consciousness, where Spirit communes, is the true worship.

In Truth ~Sherara

In Western religion and spirituality we are obsessed with Truth as a set of beliefs or supposed facts. The Eastern take on Truth or Sherara is thankfully not so limited. Essentially ‘in Truth’ suggests that which liberates and opens up new possibilities, that which vigorously acts in keeping with Universal Harmony. It is what carries a person in the right direction at the right time, into a harmonious equilibrium with all. Truth carries us into our purpose. In other words, Truth will bring us back into mimesis with the Divine; the simple evidence of this realignment being Love, the shared expression of the Divine Nature.

After leaving institutional religion back in 1987 I’d regularly meet old Christian associates.

‘So where do you worship?’ was often the first question aimed at me by a pseudo-brotherly concern.

‘Everywhere and nowhere’ was my new answer, mixed with a little mischievous sarcasm that my zealous religious inquisitor rarely picked up.

Today I could honestly reply:

‘Simply somewhere where I can bow down, surrender and adore whilst sensing the liberating Breath of Spirit and its whispers of Purpose.’

For me that’s walking my wee black against the backdrop of Nature.

How about you?