grumpyHate thy neighbour - In the name of our Lord
February 10th 2008 12:38
There is a remote possibility that Jesus of Nazareth was a real person - but if he was then he was certainly nothing more than a perfectly normal Jewish man with some outstanding qualities.
Nevertheless, his story exists, it captures our imagination, fires the archetypal energies within us, it's psychological impact springing afresh from the eternal story of the dying and rising king, the story of the God-man, the inherence of which lies within the Self of all people. And this story only proves the quality and reality of the initial images from which it rises. In other words, it doesn't need to be "true", for in its human imagery and its relationship to our psychic makeup, it is "eternally true".
That is why even I, a non christian, vehemently anti collective religion crusader, am still moved by the imagery and the philosophies woven into the story of this man - perhaps carefully woven - certainly written to validate and formalise what had become the state religion of Rome under Constantine.
My point? That even I can see the value and purpose within this story, the human and higher moral purpose for its touching imagery of a man who posessed the power of God within. Yet what developed from this simple tale was to become - and remain - the most tragic hypocrisy ever to engulf and control human thought. On thinking about this, I once wrote a poem to the man I call the Master. Considering the recent upsurge of religious psychopathology here, I thought I might share it with youl - at least to offer some evidence of my own feeling about such matters.
The Man
To what end does a man live
Though a multitude follow him
But pervert his words, and
Even his deeds are undone?
Though a simple man be God
What profit his works?
His holiness be damned
Once deified by the mob
Did you look to his eyes
To draw his love to keep?
Or was your blindness mirrored
From a face of mystery deep?
His words fell, drops of rain
To moisten every eye
And wash clean
The ragged souls of men
Oh, to have them fall now
As sticky crimson droplets
Trickling in the aftermath
Of a cup, from wrath flung.
Behold the saviour's blood
Stains red the churches door
Let guilt fall where it should
And let Him live once more.
Nevertheless, his story exists, it captures our imagination, fires the archetypal energies within us, it's psychological impact springing afresh from the eternal story of the dying and rising king, the story of the God-man, the inherence of which lies within the Self of all people. And this story only proves the quality and reality of the initial images from which it rises. In other words, it doesn't need to be "true", for in its human imagery and its relationship to our psychic makeup, it is "eternally true".
My point? That even I can see the value and purpose within this story, the human and higher moral purpose for its touching imagery of a man who posessed the power of God within. Yet what developed from this simple tale was to become - and remain - the most tragic hypocrisy ever to engulf and control human thought. On thinking about this, I once wrote a poem to the man I call the Master. Considering the recent upsurge of religious psychopathology here, I thought I might share it with youl - at least to offer some evidence of my own feeling about such matters.
The Man
To what end does a man live
Though a multitude follow him
But pervert his words, and
Even his deeds are undone?
Though a simple man be God
His holiness be damned
Once deified by the mob
Did you look to his eyes
To draw his love to keep?
Or was your blindness mirrored
From a face of mystery deep?
His words fell, drops of rain
To moisten every eye
And wash clean
The ragged souls of men
Oh, to have them fall now
As sticky crimson droplets
Trickling in the aftermath
Of a cup, from wrath flung.
Behold the saviour's blood
Stains red the churches door
Let guilt fall where it should
And let Him live once more.
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Comment by Sylvie
Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
Yet many fanatics latch on to religions or start their own to present a veneer of respectability to hide their dark plans.
Gandhi said that he has no problem with religion but only with some of the leaders.
Comment by Lilla
Enviro Warrior
An Extra Ordinary Life
Dream Herald
Recently on a post I wrote about Mary Magdalene <<link>> I put forward the possibility that Jesus' message was lost in translation because of the one-sidedness of the contrived 'version' of what we now call Christianty. Constantine and his flunkies must have been very scared of their mothers and wives *chuckle* or worse, not interested in them at all?
Nyehoo, I'm reprinting my comment to a comment left on that post, outlining my take on religion here as a result of the comment saying that all religion is 'bad.' ...relevent here to how my feelings run to Jesus' message being prostituted in particular... as you say, accepting that he was a real man and not a composite 'made-up' mythological figure.
Something in the word 'bad,' suggests to me that there is absolutely no good in religion anywhere ..and I have to disagree, because I have lived within three separate religious paradigms (east and west) and studied and read many others. The facts as they appear to me, is that all religions originally contained some truth of spiritual reason at the core, in order to create HOPE, including Jesus' rendition of life after death. However, that message remains stronger in polytheistic religions like Hinduism, where the feminine is as recognised and worshipped as the masculine, resulting in a balance of a nation that does not chomp at the bit to become a colonising, murdering one living in hypocritical contradiction to itself.
Hope, it seems, is essential to the very poor (or spiritually impoverished) of the world and important in helping us to continue to become a better person ... and perhaps why religion was first contrived, to offer comfort against the harshness of nature?
However, it is here that I diverge again, and am back with you in agreement, in that many religions (like Christianity and Confucianism), have been taken over and used by a select corrupt few, and as such the message of hope is twisted until it is lost and all have fallen into existensialism - even easier to control people in this daze.
But this raises the question, that if some of the missing pieces like the Gospels of Mary and Jesus’ brother James (Nag Hummadi), were to be re-included in our Bible; would the impetus still be there to continue to feel that it is '....perfectly fine to murder in the name of your invisible omnipotent being that you can't prove exists any more than you can prove that George W. Bush has a single firing neuron in his soft little head.' (as you so eloquently put it ...still giggling at that brilliance btw.
[Looking back], it seemed to me when I first penned my post on Mary, I was aiming at the point of asking that, just as women tend to civilise and enrich a mans life, then perhaps re-including and accepting the importance of the feminine back into our rather patriarchal Bible, may be enough to put back the 'civil' in 'civilisation' and make Jesus' words resonate again within each of us?
I was musing of course as one does when they blog ... and .. hoping? .. against hope (chuckling at the irony) ...and probably hoping beyond reason in light of the times and where the one-sided worship of the masculine has led us in the name of Jesus Christ ... and like you, feel that the freight train has left the rails already... but that thought is within itself, the end result of no hope in the face of reality, isn't it?
An interesting subject this, no doubts... and I really liked your poem on same.
Lilla ...
Comment by Miswanderlust
Killer Beats
Ramble On
Hipnotherapy
Thank you so much for the interesting post. Definitely food for thought!
Mis
Comment by grumpy
Psyche Science
Grumpys Blog
Photography Craft
In the case of Mary of Magdala however, I think there is a problem so deep rooted particularly within the ancient doctrines of the catholic church, that I feel the notion - Dan Brown aside - of any recognition of the Master's true human nature and his most likely relationship with women would be actively repressed even now. The problem is not so much that the feminine is "missing" from the Christian notion of the Godhead, but that in its representation through Christ there remains the significanrt and unremovable problem of his being a man, and that in the representations of his works we have a working male psycholgy, and viewpoint. To add the femenine aspect to the godhead is easy, but to add this aspect via the representaive tales would present an almost impossible problem, both theologically and psychologically.
Essentially what the world needs is a new representation of the Christ within, not a redefenition of an ancient and outdated religion which has its main roots in Egytian and Sumerian cultures so ancient that even the old testament - which is after all Jewish and not Christian - is merely a late retelling of the most ancient histories - most of which were also recorded by the Akkadian Kings in the library at Assurbanipal over a thousand years before - most of these retellings of the even more ancient myths and legends of the Sumerians of Uruk - from where of course comes the tale of Gilgamesh in which the story of Noah is first told - except that in the original he was a Sumerian by the name of Utnaptishim.
But I digress - the psychology of religion is a fascinating subject, and worth studying. However, in regard to this problem you mention, I think the real test is for us all, each as individuals, to become aware of the light within, rather than have some preacher directing us to the "truth' which exists in dubious and mostly falsified written histories. I think when we come to the Self or the "Christ" in this way, by personal search and the expansion of cxonsciousness rather than losing oneself to collective projection, the question of Feminine vs Masculine simply does not arise. The light is the light - and it is within us all - if only we were willing to find it for ouselves.