The God Connection: the most manipulative thing in the world

essay

“Looking for you in the longing of life
When all along you were here by my side”
~ Donovan, “High Your Love”

“May you always do for others
And let others do for you”
~ Bob Dylan, “Forever Young”

“Listen to this reed, how it makes complaint, telling a tale of separation:
‘Ever since I was cut off from my reed-bed, men and women all have lamented my bewailing... Every one who is sundered far from his origin longs to recapture the time when he was united with it.’”
~ Rumi, translated by A. J. Arber

One of the most treasured items of people's belongings are photos of loved ones. So i venture to say that one of if not the most treasured essences of peoples of all walks of life is invisible; the God connection is too-often manipulated by middlemen. More affectionately, some call the experience a relationship with Creator, or a divine yoga. This is a tipping point of humanity because it relates directly to one's soul/spirit, one's pre- and post-physical being, one's purpose for being here, and one's deepest most intimate feelings with regard to the Invisible Presence. Agnostics and atheists may disagree, but that's their business.

The Crusades, the Inquisition, witch hunts, the Doctrine of Christian Discovery and Domination, Muslim Conquests, and more have decimated populations and twisted the minds, and bodies, of so-called non-believers. The supremacist control freaks throughout the ages have sought to get between the human being and his/her/their/whatever direct relationship with Spirit so they can manipulate a person like a marionette. Once disconnected from one's conscious awareness of one's source, it can be a long road home. Human beings are like plants and the direct relationship with Creator includes access to clean water, air, earth, and sunlight.

In reading about the recent events with regard to Syria and the Middle East, i re-realized that one of the the biggest problems going is what i'll dub the Abrahamic Religions Theofascist Clusterfuck. As of 2023, Christianity and Islam combined made for approximately 56% of world population, and that's expected to increase. No offense to the beautiful little beings incarnating, no offense to anyone's personal relationship with Christ or Allah or Whomever, just that am addressing how organized institutions play a role in ruling the world. “Rule” derives from reg- "move or direct in a straight line, rule," as in “Reich,” the German word for “empire” meaning “kingdom, realm, state, riches.” Theofascist refers to the combination of faux religions too-often combined with State decrees and Corporate/Colonial backing.

Here are examples of why “faux” religions:

- Israeli/Zionism hijacked the Star of David.

- Islam took the pre-Islamic Al-Lat/Allat/Allatu/Alilat/Al-’ilāhat, “the Great Goddess of the nomadic peoples of Arabia,” associated with the cycles of the moon and turned her into three daughters of the male-dominating Allah.
(Yoni: The Sacred Symbol of Female Power, Rufus C. Camphausen, Inner Traditions, 1996, pp. 48-49)

- To my knowledge there is no physical proof of one individual Jesus. Add to that: ”Within Jewish history, Jesus was not the only person to have been considered a messiah…”, and, [the Qumran-Essene] “…a monastic sect who called itself ‘the remnant of Israel’, ‘the true Israel’ and ‘the New Covenant’, and who withdrew to the desert to lead a common life of work, prayer, and study of the sacred law.”
(The Dead Sea Scrolls by Timothy H. Lim , Oxford University Press, 2005, pp. 5 & 84)

No genociding? No bombing of hospitals? No depriving of food and water?

People are fighting and killing over massive deceptions and because they have been disconnected from their true Sources, their gossamer strings snipped and rewired. “As above, so below” . . . that severing is mirrored historically and globally with a divide-and-rule modus operandi, or as Jonathan Crary writes: “Scorched earth capitalism destroys whatever allows groups and communities to pursue modes of self-sufficient subsistence, self-governance, or mutual support.”
(Scorched Earth: Beyond the Digital Age to a Post-Capitalist World)

The puppet-masters look for ways to pit one group, one sect, one nation against another. Assessing some of the chaos in Syria, Craig Murray writes in his recent and excellent article “The End of Pluralism in the Middle East,” which also helped prompt this essay:

“In the final analysis, for many Sunni Muslims both in the Middle East and in the West, the pull seems to be stronger of sectarian hatred of the Shia and the imposition of Salafism, than preventing the ultimate destruction of the Palestinian nation.

“I am not a Muslim. My Muslim friends happen to be almost entirely Sunni. I personally regard the continuing division over the leadership of the religion over a millennium ago as deeply unhelpful and a source of unnecessary continued hate.

“But as a historian I do know that the western colonial powers have consciously and explicitly used the Sunni/Shia split for centuries to divide and rule. In the 1830’s, Alexander Burnes was writing reports on how to use the division in Sind between Shia rulers and Sunni populations to aid British colonial expansion.”

In his powerful and highly researched book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Israeli professor and author Ilan Pappé writes about one aspect of the formation of Israel:

“Within a few short hours, this microcosm of religious coexistence and harmony was laid to waste. The villagers did not put up a fight. The Jewish troops gathered the Muslims - of both clans - and Christians together and ordered them to start crossing the River Jordan to the other side. They then demolished the mosque, the church and the monastery, together with all the houses. Soon, all the trees in the bustans had withered away and died.”
(pp.105-106)

as the carpentry saying goes: “measure twice, cut once”
I don't remember where i heard this little story, so i’ll paraphrase from memory:

A Native man is with his little boy by the edge of a stream.
He tells the boy, 'Pick up that stick . . . now, stir the water.'
The boy puts the stick into the water and moves the stick around, causing the water to swirl about.
The father says, 'Now put it back the way it was.'

I read that as a sharp reminder to think twice about what gets done or said because the ramifications may be beyond one's control and the action may cause unchangeable circumstances.

Crary writes: “… a scorched earth is one in which thriving regions have been reduced to a state of barrenness and have lost their capacity for regeneration. It is a parched earth deprived of water, its rivers and aquifers poisoned, air polluted and soils afflicted by drought and chemical agriculture.” (pp.34-35)

‘Stirring the waters’ is also a warning to not meddle in affairs beyond one's scope and ability.

Some of the main perpetrators who continue to, euphemistically, stir without respect and foresight are shown in the following from Craig Murray’s article:

“It is the United States which is promoting the cause of religious extremism and of the end, all over the Middle East, of a societal pluralism similar to Western norms. That is of course a direct consequence of the United States being allied to both the two religio-supremacist centres of Israel and Saudi Arabia.”

Since the US is essentially a Christian or faux Christian nation, as shown by its adherence to the Doctrine of Christian Discovery and Domination, those three sibling “centres” represent the Abrahamic Religions Theofascist Clusterfuck.

I offer three examples of what could be called pre-religious spiritual traditions, as for example, Christmas is based, in part, on Pagan ceremonies recognizing and celebrating the Winter Solstice, when the days start getting longer as the Sun cycle is ‘born again.’

• While there are, for example, the Haredim, ultra-orthodox Jews who support Palestine, my reference is of non-religious Kaballah, the Tree of Life, which is the core of my spiritual/holistic path. Kaballah is the “personally-received teaching,” in other words, a path of developing one’s personal relationships with various spiritual and physical beings. Because it is personally-received, no one can teach anyone Kaballah; someone can explain the Tree’s framework, guidelines and practices, but anyone claiming to teach Kaballah is not to be trusted. Similarly, any book or quote offered is not Kaballah rather about Kaballah. The following from The Ladder of Lights by William G. Gray conveys all this well:

  
  “The difference between the Tree [of Life] and a computer, however, is a machine can only produce its own built-in programme. The Tree operates through the intelligent consciousness of living beings, whether embodied in this world or not. It acts as a sort of Universal Exchange throughout the entire chain of consciousness sharing its scheme, and the extent of this is incalculable.
  
  ”There is more to the Tree than a thinking-pattern. It is first and foremost a Living-Pattern.”

• Sufi: i don’t know much so i’ll quote from Sufism: A Short Introduction by William C. Chittick:

  “Sufism – whose characteristic expressions are found in beauty, love, poetry, and music – illustrates the dimension of divine beauty and mercy.”
  &
  “The texts tell us repeatedly that it cannot be found in books. Rather, it is already present in the heart, but it is hidden deep beneath the dross of ignorance, forgetfulness, outwardly oriented activity, and rational articulation. Access to this knowledge comes only by following the path that leads to human perfection.”
  &
  “… “love” is often taken as a synonym for doing the beautiful.”
  

• Aside from the many Pagan references that could be provided, instead i’ll quote the well-known biblical line from Matthew: “… do to others as you would have them do to you.” Reads like East Indian karmic law, eh, or basic common sense beyond any religious protocols. And to “others” i add that “others” includes mountains, rivers, trees, ants, food and medicine plants . . .

an advertisement you’ll never hear: ‘Act now and receive free guidance at no cost!’
The tangled web of current atrocities based on strands of geopolitical and religious histories is enough to make one feel depressed and powerless. But that fosters losing sight of the simplicity of what can be done, even if it seems no match for the thousands of years tangled strands and current bloodshed.

You can start, or continue, right now and it doesn’t cost a thing. Native Peoples often mention “de-colonize,” so i’ll suggest: de-commodify your consciousness: relate with Earth, contemplate, meditate, relax, “do for others,” get so busy with a creative outlet that you lose all sense of time, or however you tune-in with other than commodity consciousness.

The Invisible Presence is there every moment, even when you’re shopping. Direct link with The Creator or The Creating or whatever you call That Energy. Direct links with the earth-, water-, air-, and fire-beings even if you’re inside, or in a prison cell, or airplane . . . because those elements are alive in you, so it’s not one link rather an intertwining network of them. This is perhaps the one thing that the-powers-that-do-too-much can’t control or rule — though they sure try and have tried for thousands of years with their mind-control, their marionette enforced religions telling you they know more about so-called God than you and what you feel in your bones; marionette enforced schooling telling you they know more about history, literature and information than you and your oral tradition with no footnote to prove it rather feet that have walked the Path; marionette enforced governments telling you these are the rules, play by them or else; enforced corporations, telling you these are your bills, pay them or else, this is the cost, pay it or go without; corporate news headlines scaring you into distrusting your inner voice.

Yet one must also be careful about voices, because “In 610, after fourteen years of marriage, Muhammad heard a voice speak to him; shortly thereafter he began to preach his newfound creed focusing on Allah and male dominion over nature and women.” (Camphausen, p.49.)

You can analyze it six ways to Sunday so as come up with labels for identifying the manipulative God machine, but when the dust settles . . . in quiet moments with yourself, your garden, with some friends or even amid a large crowd, that Invisible Presence or Spirit is there . . . with all those direct links.

Some day may we all be able to see the actual clouds and sun reflecting in calm waters we fear not to drink.

Meanwhile, from the Sufi, mystic, poet Rumi:

“Do not feel lonely, the entire universe is inside you.
Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion.”