As I'm sure this will become on many occasions in the future, I am using this blog at this time as a treasury for my thoughts on certain subjects. Today I have been quite engrossed in exploring some of my beliefs about "God", life, love, nature, and the universe.
In the very recent past, my beliefs about such subjects have slowly evolved to something quite different from the beliefs I had before. I use to embrace a very typical Christian belief system, but the questions about this belief system just kept piling up and I wasn't finding the answers I was looking for. The traditional church and the modern church both left me disillusioned as they preached love and light but their actions toward people of various backgrounds, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and opinion were anything but. I could no longer stand the double standards, the oppression of doubters, the greed and pride, and so on.
This led me to step away from the church environment and do some investigating of my own. To learn for myself, from a variety of teachers and theologians, first in alternative Christian circles and then from other religions. It was at this time that I was also finishing up my first semester of my Psychology degree. All of my college courses opened up an entirely new world to me, one that shook the foundation of everything I had ever been taught.
Which takes us to the place and time when I currently write this. I have found a word that I think describes part of what I believe. And these beliefs did not come about from what someone has told me, but from a feeling deep within myself and a desire to draw healing from and commune with nature as a spiritual practice.
The word is...
Pantheism
And while it's still a new study for me, it is not a new practice. I could best describe myself as a pantheistic as a child. I have always felt that I was one with the nature around me and that I was part of something larger than myself. Part of a "Great Spirit" if you will that was not somewhere far off in the heavens, but that penetrated the fiber of my very being and the being of everything around me. I also as a child felt a connection with animals and plants.
Pantheism best describes how I currently view the world and nature, other people, animals, and plants. This way of thinking, that everything is of equal reverence, spiritual importance, and all is sacred, changes the way you live. It changes the way you view your fellow human beings. All of them, not just the ones you agree with. It allows the rest of existence to live freely without your judgement, but also allows you to command respect within that existence. It allows you to be revered, respected, and called sacred, just as much as any other being.
Perhaps one of my favorite quotes so far is this about women and equality within religions...
"Womankind is half of the human world, but most importantly, women are the peaceful ones, and in this new era, it is the most peaceful ones who will bring ultimate harmony.... We can hope that communication and knowledge will change the old ways of narrowmindedness among religions. We can hope that spiritual leadership roles will be equally represented among all ways. Reaching such goals presents a strong challenge for spiritual women, both Indian and non-Indian." - Mother Earth Spirituality by Marie and Ed McGaa
I know this post is a bit of a spew of my thoughts. It's supposed to me. But, I leave you with what is a good description of my current beliefs:
That all nature and the cosmos are ultimately one, that we share the same spiritual fiber and are wholly interconnected. That to be divine and to reach the divine is to tap into the powers of that natural world. That all spiritual practice and experience is part of the natural order. That we encompass our role within the world and the universe, and our actions and communion with it will influence it's destiny.
