Dylan Morrison ~ The Prodigal Prophet

ER ~ Spirit Style

In my last post I looked at the results of disillusionment and anger when a previously zealous member of a religious or spiritual group finally leaves the home of their original spiritual experience. Awakening to the all too human nature of a faith group and its charismatic or institutional leadership is a massive psycho-spiritual shock that blows many of us out of the religious waters for good.

So what of Divine Love and its take on things especially the scapegoat nature of our emotional expulsion?

Well thankfully Sacred Unity is the God of the scapegoats, without being an ally in the retaliatory warfare that can so often ensue from without the religious camp. As our anger and disillusionment kick in we tend to strike out at our past mentors and their cosy faith empires. Divine Presence comes to carry us and our painful wounds to a place of safety and recovery far from the trenches of metaphysical warfare. So where does Spirit take us and what does our new psycho-spiritual landscape look like.

I believe that the Divine, utilises our anger and disillusionment to lead us well away from established religion and indeed any form of the God thing. He/She almost seems to be doing itself a disservice as we’re allowed to run far from our previous take on religious committment. Such outward manifestations of faith appear to be irrelevant to the now Hidden One, the Presence whose only concern is for our long-term healing. God is deeply into the Healing Game but one which usually lies outside the sacrosanct structures of programmed religion.The aim of Divine Love is not religious committment but the wholeness of its Creation and it will allow nothing to stand in its way.

If the expelled or departed disciple immediately jumps into another form of religious observance, whether close to that of their previous faith expression or one further along the religious spectrum, healing will not take place. Recovery from the psychic traumas of Model Obstacle religion takes time and space before we can authentically return to a form of belief and its practical overflow. In other words there remain a lot of deeply wounded folk playing the same sacred desire game within their new communities, those in denial over the depth and importance of their prior dysfunctional experiences. Like a recovering alcoholic who immediately runs back into a bar to prove that he has a handle on his drink problem, many of us run straight back into organised religion to prove that we are stronger than we really are. Such scenarios often result in a replay of the original model Obstacles conflict, this time with a new Model and a new form of mimetic desire. Church hoppers often fall into this category, in their search to find a desire Model who won’t repeat the freezing out processes of their previous mentors. It is a Utopian hope that cannot come to fruition. Once more the age-old psycho-spiritual dynamic will kick in and the follower left disillusioned.

In some cases, the ex-follower changes religious brand. I’ve recently met a lady who, on leaving a commitment requiring Charismatic Church after ten years of active membership, immediately leapt into the world of Paganism to find an authentic spirituality. Such leaps don’t generally produce the metaphysical goods as the underlying hurt and sense of betrayal haven’t yet had a safe place in which to express themselves and be brought into a reintegrated psyche.

So, it is my belief that Divine Love leads us away from the religious playing field with its mad matrix of metaphysical desire to the desert, the place of aloneness. Here, unknown to us, Spirit begins to bathe our wounds by giving us somewhat shocking insights into our fragmented psyche and the religious games that it has been playing. Once we begin to see reasons for our involvement with and departure from our previous faith Model we can begin the process of psycho-spiritual individuation. Having a psychological framework to explain our past experiences, both good and bad, is essential in regaining control of our burnt out psyche.

In such a desert place, little flowers of growth and readjustment begin to appear; events, insignificant to others, but signs of Divine Presence and intimacy, manifest at the most unexpected moments. The rebuilding of trust in Love Source has begun; like little toddlers learning to take their first steps, we begin to place the weight of our Being once more on ground of Ultimate Reality. The reprogramming of Self, with its important connection to Source is a slow and often painful experience; no doubt about that, yet one that breathes authenticity into our Love starved soul. Divine Love has brought us here for a time of intimacy, cold turkeyed from the desire flow of structured religious thought and practice. Out of the ruins of lost ‘faith’ the potent seeds of authentic trust begin to take root, seeing for perhaps the first time that we are loved regardless of our involvement in any religious or spiritual movement or sect.

In such a place, far from the clichés and rituals of the weekly religious game, a new Awareness of Divinity is birthed, yes, one  in vulnerable embryonic form but a growing one nevertheless. The seeds of a new Life are being planted in the ashes of fundamentalist belief, one that will bear fruit in the times ahead.

In my next post I’ll continue to look at how the Abba God of Yeshua moulds and fashions us in our place of brokenness, the Dark Place where we glimpse the Light of All for perhaps the first time.

The Christian Scapegoat

In the last few posts I’ve examined the human dynamic that often takes place under the umbrella of Christian community. Model leaders often draw followers into their desire field only to later perceive their once welcomed disciples as threats to their leadership position. Such a perception eventually leads to one of the parties leaving the group, albeit the odds are stacked heavily on the leader’s side, with them often maintaining control in the desire wars.

In this post I wish to look at the predicament of the disillusioned disciple, the one emotionally ejected by the leadership and sent into the religious wilderness. If they haven’t taken a group of followers with them and immediately set up a rival religious group what becomes of them?

Disillusionment is the first strong emotion to settle on the departed follower’s psyche. So much of their self-esteem had depended upon their closeness to the Model leader in the hot-house environment of the  religious community that on ejection their sense of identity takes a big hit. How come they could be in the center of the model’s desire field one moment and then banished to the desert wastelands the next. The disillusionment usually revolves around three persons:

1) The Leader

Once seen as a reflection of the Divine itself, the disciple’s view of their previously beloved leader has now hit the level of reality. The almost angelic messenger and mediator of the Divine Will is now seen to be human after all, with most definite and brittle feet of clay. The illusory nature of the Model-disciple relationship has been shown for what it is, a utopian pipe dream birthed by their joint egos. Now in the cold light of day, and outside the court of the adored leader, the ex-follower wonders how they could have been infatuated with the Model for so long; why the flaws in the mimetic, imitative game weren’t obvious much sooner. The leader Model has now become someone who the disciple does not want to be around.

2) God

So where was God when the mimetic dance of desire had drawn the disciple into the Model’s  gravitational field of control. Were the experiences of Divine Love experienced during the heady days of the group’s rise also delusional? Was God around at all and, if so, why didn’t He bring things to Light much earlier? Why didn’t He blow-apart the Model’s little desire- kingdom and herd the flock back to Himself as soon as things started to go off the spiritual rails? maybe He doesn’t care, maybe He isn’t there? ‘ God, I think I need my own space for a while so I’ll be seeing you’, is the common reaction to the whole traumatic affair. No more religious attendance, no more prayer, no more Bible reading.

3) Self

Most significantly of all is the ex follower’s disillusionment with their own Self. The person whom they imagined themselves to be has let them down big time. Perhaps the Model is correct, maybe they are unworthy of Divine love and need to shape up. Maybe they are selfish and a disloyal, rebellious, position seeker. Perhaps the group and the leader’s spin on things is the Truth. The whole idea of Divine calling and vocation lies tattered in the ruins of the doubting psyche. In such Self disillusionment that fragmented psyche falls headlong into a dark pit of aloneness, A little religious boat floating on the sea of psychic isolation.

Following the inflow of disillusionment comes its sister emotion, that of  intense anger. Again it sets its sights on the same three targets:

1) The Leader

Eventually anger boils up at the very thought of the model and their remaining loyal followers. The only way to avoid this is to keep out of the sphere of the leader’s influence. Religious circles are dangerous spaces in which to dwell for they only reinforce and trigger flashbacks of sacred hierarchy that seemed so right for so long. But not know. The ex-disciple interprets all authority structures as those of their ex-Model often hitting out in anger and psychic pain. Whenever the ex-Model is mentioned in conversation the ex-follower’s fight or flight mechanism kicks in, usually fueled by a deep internal anger that wants to hit out and scapegoat their previously scapegoating mentor.

2) God

The ex-disciple demonstrates their deep anger at God by having nothing to do with Him. A stubborn non-attendance of alternative faith groups and the disappearance of all religious disciplines reveal a decision to ditch the God who cannot be trusted. Such was the zealous psyche’s identification of the Model Leader with God Himself, that neither can be trusted any longer, with anger at the Model projected onto the Divinity that allowed the dysfunctional relationship to develop. The scapegoat’s understandable but mis-targeted anger pushes the Divine to the back of the psychic queue. ‘Thanks, but no thanks!”, is the angry ex-disciple’s snappy response to suggestions that God is the answer to all their new-found problem’s. Can one blame them?

3) Self

The anger that dwells within the disillusioned, departed ex-follower is ultimately targeted at Self. This Self within fell for the old skewed mimetic desire trick in the guise of religious devotion and therefore deserves the full frontal assault of the wounded psyche’s anger. ‘How could I have been so stupid?’ becomes the whipping mantra of the internal judge and jury. It appears to the disillusioned soul that they’d invested all their psychic energy into following the vision of their ex-religious Model only to see it all go down the proverbial toilet. The sense of intense waste only fuels the anger towards the Self who so easily gave away their precious psychic energy to feed the ego of another. It is not unusual in such circumstances for the anger of the jilted ex-disciple to manifest itself in both physical and seemingly mental illness. The anger needs a target and the body or foolish psyche seem as good as any.

The scenario that I have painted above is I’m afraid all too common in the wastelands of religious enthusiasm. Many wander around its desolate landscape for the rest of their lives. Some find a solace of sorts in a newly found militant atheism, or a passive and impotent agnosticism that is deeply suspicious of any ‘God Talk’. Others just wander in the ordinariness of life bumping from one set of circumstances to another with no hope of a better Way.

So what of Divine Love?

A tear is shed from the All-Seeing Eye. From its vantage point of omnipotence and omniscience, Source comes looking for us in our brokenness. If Spirit Breath can revive a disillusioned, angry, burnt out, ex-religious junkie that would be a true miracle!

In my next post I’ll look at how Divine Love sneaks back into the tragic life of the religious casualty.

Religious Fallouts

In my last post I looked at how a religious/spiritual disciple-model relationship, which starts with the best of intentions eventually ends in tears, through the birth of imitative rivalry. Once we jump on the mimetic bandwagon, the initial zeal and devotion we’ve offered up to our common Divinity, morphs into a desire battle to overcome the blocking nature of the model who initially inspired us in our spiritual search. In other words, the model has become the obstacle that lies between us and the object of our ‘faith’. Like the moon blocking out the Sun’s rays during a total eclipse, our previous hero of faith now blots out our sense of freedom in the Divine. The Divinity certainly hasn’t changed but our model mediator has transformed into a barrier that must be surmounted at all costs.

Situations like this often result in either the older Model being expelled from the group by the young pretender, or, more likely, the somewhat shocking departure of the zealous disciple. Dressed up in the linguistic guise of a religious vocation, e.g. God is calling *******  to start a work in another city, this expulsion must be identified for what it truly is, viz a metaphysical defeat. God isn’t the orchestrator of such a move on His Divine chessboard, but the One who mourns the psychic power-plays of His delusional children.

The commonly held, but I believe mistaken, explanation for the multiplicity of varying religious/spiritual groups within a particular religion is often laid at the feet of Divine creativity and love of variety. Such spiritual spin is a cover story for the rivalry that is endemic when mankind attempts to find the Divine, particularly through the mediation of gifted teachers with something new to say. Authentic teachers initially find the imitative desire of their devotees a boost to their religious credentials but one that eventually draws them into the psychic defense game dressed up in the clothes of doctrinal or belief differences.

So what happens to both parties after such a break in spiritual relationship?

1) The Model

The Model victor will be relieved that they have seen off the disciple’s attempt to usurp their authority. In other words their source of adulation from among the remaining followers, is still intact. In fact, this newly reinforced sense of invincibility will only draw their flock deeper into the desire perception of their teacher as a Model. If others have left with the defeated disciple, the well of psychic energy upon which they can draw is reduced in capacity. However newly recruited followers will soon boost the mutual desire flow and the show will continue. When the next disciple’s fascination with the model’s apparent transcendence reaches a critical level, the rivalry dynamic will once more spiral into its well-worn paths.

2) The Disciple

The disillusioned disciple, loser in the metaphysical war, will head off in one of two ways. If their desire energy reserves have been completely depleted in the psychic conflict, then they may give up completely on the faith of their former Model. The life of an atheist or agnostic may provide the burnt out follower with a dwelling place to lick their wounds; wounds of anger, Self doubt and rejection. To be rejected by the Model is indeed a devastating blow to the Self identity of the departed disciple. For many years they may have interpreted Reality through the desire lens of their Teacher friend. Such wounded losers in the psychic wars may remain in their new world view to the end of their days; others after years of healing may return to their religious first love, albeit in a non mediated setting. The new connection with the Divine has, of necessity, to be on a one-to-one basis, without the interpretive interventions of new teacher Models..

If, on the other hand, the defeated disciple has still got plenty of reserves of metaphysical desire, they may plump for setting up a more authentic version of the faith, thereby establishing themselves as a new teacher Model. If folk have followed them from the old Mother Ship, a building and pastoral structure is quickly established,preferably one with a paid full-time element to it. The devotion and commitment of the new followers to such a venture is essential in raising the departed disciple into his newly anointed role as Model Teacher. And so the mimetic game goes on, albeit from a safer distance than before. Both faith groups politely scapegoat one another from afar, yet remain deeply fascinated at the supposed success or failure of one another. Such a dynamic continues until the new faith group and Model expel their own scapegoat disciples from within. And so the fragmentation continues in the name of the Sacred Unity, with just a whiff of hypocrisy.

Spiritual and religious stars come and go in the metaphysical heaven of desire. Follow one at your psycho-spiritual peril.

Best to enjoy the direct rays of the Son I reckon.

Tribal Warfare

Being a follower of Yeshua, unattached to a particular tribe within the complex phenomenon we call Christianity is a scary but deeply rewarding place to be. Let me try to explain.

Most religions fragment into tribes, more commonly known as sects. Why?

Well simply this. As soon as a religious or spiritual movement starts its journey into the cultural swamplands of mankind, something inevitably takes place. From among the growing band of devotees talented and gifted charismatic teacher-models arise to more fully explain and interpret the actions and words of the movement’s founder. Such a teacher quickly yet subliminally draws a following within the movement through their intense level of personal metaphysical desire , perceived by the members as exemplary devotion. The teacher-model wants to be possessed by the authentic being of their founder, and their growing band of followers only confirms this unique calling. The trouble is, that insatiable mimetic desire isn’t satisfied with the birth of a sub-guru, and quickly infects a new subject from within the newly formed band of devotees. This zealously sincere disciple likes what he sees in his adopted teacher and so the imitative process of wanting to be like the teacher kicks off once again.

The perceptive teacher soon becomes aware of his fast forming disciple clone and his laser-like desire to share his nature and spiritual knowledge. Flattered at first, he basks in the disciple’s confirmation that he is indeed the true interpreter of the Founder’s radical message. Unfortunately, as the disciple increasingly morphs into his new master, a warning light goes on in the teacher-model’s mind.

“This guy is getting a bit too close for comfort…. I am unique….he cannot be allowed to become like me… enough is enough”

This gut level warning resets the teacher into defensive mode. The outward smiles and authentication of the disciple remains but internally the freezing out and distancing process has begun. Astutely tuned into the teacher’s being and desire, the enthusiastic disciple quickly picks up the new disturbance in their relational gravity field. A flash of disapproval enters his idealistic mind for the first time.

‘The teacher is backing off……. what have I done to displease him?’

And so the disciple’s imitative desire efforts are subsequently pumped up to bring a previously unknown heightened level of devotion. By now the downward relational spiral is rapidly picking up speed. Sensing a new urgency for likeness in the enthusiastic disciple the teacher’s emotional freezing-out process responds by taking more drastic action. The distancing of the disciple from his inner circle, those closest to his metaphysical being and charisma.

Such a process continues until one of the parties takes decisive action in choreographed desire conflict.

If the master, the disciple is finally ostracized from the band of followers, his intense devotion publicly interpreted as a rivalry that will bring the teacher-model down, and hence threaten the truth as dispensed through him. The psychic results in such a disciple is anger and disillusionment. Anger because he his devotion has been misinterpreted causing him to become the group’s scapegoat, and disillusionment at how one who teaches truth can be so unloving. Such a follower will either give up the faith for good or quickly join up a new teacher and his disciples who appear to be more authentic. A third option is that he may set himself up as a leader of an alternative faith, where he may inadvertently continue the mimetic struggle under a new guise.

If the disciple-follower, the rivalry has intensified to such an extent that his faith is no longer the focus of his devotion but the intensity of the teacher’s disapproval and rejection. As the group of followers continue to gather round the teacher-model, drinking in his every word, the sense of isolation is only compounded in the bewildered disciple. Shockingly the penny finally drops. He is no longer wanted. He has become the outsider in a tight-knit group of insiders. At this point he decides to move on, only reinforcing the group’s myth narrative that all its recent problems were due to his rivalry and presence. Such a drop out from the religious or spiritual group may remain fascinated by their old teacher’s charisma and desire, but this time from afar. Many survivor groups for ex-cult members draw upon this fascination as a unifying tool.

Both of the above scenarios may lead to a split within the original group or movement. If the disciple’s desire field has been drawing fellow members into his own metaphysical sphere, they too may leave, only to establish the rejected disciple-follower as the only one to authentically interpret the founder’s original message. And so the process starts all over again, an endless cycle of teacher-follower desire transfer resulting in fractured relationships that once appeared so intense and indeed loving; like a perfect marriage that shockingly ends in divorce. The end result being a multiplicity of faith groups all claiming an authentic interpretation of their founding Teacher. All such fragmentation is metaphysical in character and not one of intellectual understanding, the brotherly gloss often painted on the theological tombs of denial.

Yet, in such conflict situations the disciple rarely wins the rivaling desire war with his model-mentor. Like two randy stags locking horns over the females of the herd, the religious teacher and his perceived young pretender may fight to the metaphysical death. When it does happen the established teacher often steps down due to unforeseen circumstances, the acceptable public spin placed over the final outcome of the internal desire wars. After all the myth of unity within the group must be publicly  maintained at all costs.

Model-obstacle relationships cannot be avoided within religious movements.

Why?

Simply because our mimetic desire for the certainty and soul of the religious teacher is often misinterpreted as desire for the Divine. The devotion of any religious group may in fact be the mimetic out-workings of the desire pull of their teacher-interpreters. Shockingly, the whole show may just be a psychic case of The Emperor’s New Clothes. The experiential sharing of the teacher’s charisma may be sadly misinterpreted as an encounter with Divine Presence.

I believe all religious tribes to be the fruit, not of  differing understandings of the Founder’s truth, as is commonly believed, but the sad result of skewed metaphysical desire operating within spiritual or religious movements. The claim of Yeshua and other religious thinkers that we are already One, in Union with Divine Love is the radical answer to the subliminal and subterranean desire currents that all to often make a public mockery of a religion’s claim of authenticity. Time, I reckon, to put away our religious spin and call a spade a spade. Diversity in Nature cannot be likened to the diversity of the religious marketplace.

On the personal front, having been a devoted and indeed disillusioned member of an Irish religious tribe in my time, you might just catch a wee glimpse of why I can no longer attach myself to a particular religious franchise. It makes many of my spiritual or religious friends extremely nervous but as a recovering desire junkie my rehab must continue outside the strong desire fields of teacher-disciple religion. Like a recovering alcoholic and his old bar haunts, my rare visits to religious groups whether Western or Eastern must be the equivalent of a quick orange juice and a detached seat at the back.

In my next post I will look at how religious or spiritual franchises fight for market share.

The Walking Wounded

In this, my last post in the Desire Series, I wish to look at the topic of community and its vital role in keeping us, the walking wounded , plugged into the freedom of the Divine Queendom. Let me start by saying that a faith group is not necessarily a community, nor indeed a community, a faith group. We are surrounded by a variety of groups flashing their community credentials yet may still feel lonely on our journey into freedom, even in the midst of such a prepackaged group.

So what then is a spiritual community?

Yeshua, the Nazarene, followed the Eastern spiritual tradition of calling a group of followers or apprentices. Like many before Him, His aim was to draw the motley crew into His own spirituality and experience of Divine Love. In other words Yeshua was resetting the skewed desire settings of His followers by simply acting as a Model of both Divinity and aligned Humanity. The desire flux that issued from the Galilean prophet drew His apprentices into a laser like desire for the Divine.

Simply put, by living with Him, His followers subliminally realigned their metaphysical desire goals, for desire operates in the hidden realm of the lower unconscious. Certainly the experiment, like all spiritual endeavors had its low points, with the old mimetic rivalry regularly making a dramatic comeback, as James and John jostled for position and Simon Peter tried to block Yeshua’s Jerusalem destiny. But on the whole, these men and women slowly learned to see all in light of Yeshua’s Divine Father, the all-encompassing Source of Unconditional Love.

Today, as we follow the Nazarene into the gravitational force field of Divine Love we surprisingly discover that we’re never really alone, for many, often in the most unusual circumstances, are traveling with us on the Way. The timeless call of the Nazarene to leave acquisitive desire by following Him will always be heard by the sons and daughters of men. Yeshua boldly promised that where two or three are gathered into his Name, He would be somehow present. Sounds great, but what exactly does it mean. Is the Spirit of the Nazarene regularly present when a few or indeed a thousand of His followers meet on a Sunday morning under the banner of Christianity, in cross laden cathedrals or small sparse preaching stations. I believe not. Let me explain.

The most dramatic and somewhat controversial name of Yeshua, the ‘I am who I will be‘, the mystical name of the Jewish divinity Yahweh may hold a clue. Such a verbal expression of Being suggests a Self-sufficiency, a fullness that lacks nothing viz. a state of total detachment from skewed acquisitive desire. Is Yeshua promising us an experience of His own being as we align our desire center with His? As we come into harmony with the Nazarene’s own desire settings shall we find that those two or three accompanying us comprise a Oneness that reflects the Divine Union itself?

I believe that there are two forms of community that we can find ourselves involved in, viz quasi community and organic community.

Quasi community

This group of individuals appears to all intensive purposes to be the real deal. A committed group of folk who share a common purpose and vision, often under the guidance of a strong charismatic leader or centuries of regulated sacred tradition. Structure and ethos permeate the gatherings providing the individual with a strong sense of security; also a result of thee groups subliminal law keeping. In other words the quasi community’s identity is cultural, resting on the ever-present foundation stones of myth, ritual, law and structure.

It has to be said that many faith groups fall into this predominant and populous category, yet shockingly such groups are a clever but unconscious counterfeit of Yeshua’s two or three. In other words quasi-community is a gathering of scapegoaters, those of us who define our group identity by who we aren’t. The psychic settings of such a group are usually calibrated to defense and a level of psychic dishonesty resulting from an all too prevalent base of underlying fear.

Organic Community

Authentic community takes root in the soil of human frailty and brokenness. An organic network of individuals who’ve had their skewed desire centres shaken to the core by devastating transpersonal crises. In their brokenness, the wounded psyches of such battered individuals cry out for being, finding it in the call of the Nazarene or in the face of their fellow man. Such community is, I believe. a gathering of scapegoats, those whose selection for victimhood by quasi community or inner self-condemnation has paradoxically united them in a shared aloneness space.

In such community, acquisitive desire lies dead and buried, the ego games of quasi community irrelevant in the mimetic Presence of Divine Love, the One victimized by all. Such a group isn’t a pity party or holy huddle but a safe place for renewal and continuing enlightenment, a place of self-forgiveness and the forgiveness of our Model Obstacles, the scapegoaters. In such a sublime setting, the healing Presence of Divine Love as manifested in the Nazarene, is happy to dwell. Honesty is all that it requires from the band of broken brothers and sisters. With ego disengaged, Spirit flow can provide mutual healing as brokenness heals brokenness. In such a context the last meal of Yeshua now makes sense; a broken body shared and one’s life blood poured out, the Presence of the Broken Healer amongst broken humanity.

Interestingly I believe that it’s no accident that Yeshua chooses the ‘two or three’ for the revelation of Divine Immanence. The larger the group that we gather together, the less likely it is to be a safe place in which to open up our lives and more especially our own woundedness. More people usually means more masks. more ego engagement. Like suspicious dogs meeting on the sidewalk we sniff out each other before deciding ‘No thank you’ to vulnerability and the possibility of further psychic pain. For true community to occur a mutual trust must evolve, a respects for each others wounds. The danger of pseudo-radical groups where vulnerability and openness to ‘leadership’ is expected without reciprocation is, from my experience, a recipe for psychic disaster.

So how do we find such authentic community amongst the hustle and bustle of our daily lives?

Thankfully I believe that Divine Love has it all arranged and under control. Rather than scurrying around looking for a safe shelter in the religious marketplace of Christendom or any other faith brand, why not relax. The god of Yeshua isn’t looking for our commitment to a group but rather a letting go or surrender to Love. As we tentatively take our first steps along such a Way, others will unexpectedly cross our path with whom we can explore mutual healing and future destiny. Some of these fellow travelers stay attached for years, others for a short period of joining. A truly organic community, One birthed in the discovery of mimetic freedom.

I realise that this final but important post in the Desire series may raise disturbing questions for my regular readers. Please feel free to comment and get back to me on this rarely discussed topic. Between us all we’ll hopefully catch a glimpse of something extremely valuable for each of us on the Way ahead.

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?

My latest YouTube video exploring how we try and stem the flow of our inherent violence.

Please feel free to share with others who might be victims of violence

Blessings

Dylan