Spirituality for Living

What is the ‘god’ structure in Hinduism? That differs, but there are some principles across the board. One is the concept of a universal spirit called by many names actually, but not in a divisive way. More as a recognition of the manifold nature of this universal spirit. It is called by the brahminists Brahman, [...]

How did Satan as a figure get into the Christian story? It stems from a schism in Semitic faiths, and the catholic or “universalist” agenda of early Christianity. This schism in Semitic faiths echoed even in Egyptian religion. This is why there was a conflict between them and the Egyptians. Set was a Semitic deity [...]

Egyptian religion was both intuitive and rationalistic.  Since its focus was so pragmatic the Greeks and Romans actually saw no reason to compromise it, and translated some of their concepts into Greek or Roman terms. Thus the cult of Osiris gave birth to the elusian mysteries, and other imagery became very wide spread. There was [...]

There were two broad schools of thought in Chinese belief; naturalistic and legalistic. The Taoists were an example of the naturalistic school using nature and allegorical stories to focus on observations of the way the world works in general. Confucianism was more humanistic. Confucius focused on ethics and human concerns with the basic premise that [...]

The Norse saw there as not being one world, but nine. Perhaps corresponding to the chakras of eastern mysticism, and these nine worlds rested on ygrdassil the world tree not unlike the Jewish tree of life. Modern physics also have a theory of ten dimensions, but seen from our point of view it might seem like [...]

So, are you advocating for self-mortification? No. I am advocating experience. No one practice. When you are impassioned, and begin cleaning house despite physical fatigue, you restructure your whole living space. You ache miserably after pushing yourself so hard, but from somewhere not explained by your body something moved you. Experience of this I see [...]

If you are fascinated with the astral plane, this is where you lose control because you set it apart. You see it as special, and disempowered yourself from dealing with it. When you set it apart you blind yourself, and many people do. They don’t want to engage. They want a fantasy story. They want [...]

Jains see every Jiva as being in a relationship to every other, including the angels and hell beings. Much of the imagery of the Buddha being confronted by demons comes from that belief.  But unlike more common beliefs, the angels and demons are equal to humans. So reviling demons gives you negative karma, and attachment [...]

I won’t be talking about angels in a traditional sense, but more as a universal phenomenon. In every culture there have been perceived to be governing spirits if not absolute sovereigns of the world. Guiding intelligences that seem to preside over every aspect of the universe, and I do mean universe. In later Greek reckoning [...]

Self declared enlightened people seem to think it’s suppose to come with a good dose of ‘serious’, and seriousness is defined by a kinetic zeal. They are serious about what they do. If they stop doing, then where does the enlightenment go? Mother Teresa was known for not really enjoying ceremony. She preferred the down [...]

In Norse belief most people go to hell. This is the literal source of the word and it was governed by the Vnir goddess Hela. To the Norse, hell was just a place of dreary boredom. Hell wasn’t for the evil. It was just the underworld instead of the sky.
Helios is Greek for sun, which [...]

There are many solar deities, but they all share things in common. Both giving and punishing, both warm and potentially damning. Does this seem to refute our contemporary understanding of the sun? But in the ancient world the power of the sun was considered a living power. They didn’t have this concept of living and [...]

Can anyone name the worlds oldest religious texts?
Bahagavida? Good guess, but in written form it isn’t as old as another. The Egyptian tomb texts predate any religious cannon. They even predate the Book of the Dead which was later published. For the Egyptians, life and death weren’t separate things. They were seen as parts of [...]

The Kabbalah is Jewish esotericism. It’s a bit more widely known than people realize, and some of its arguments are arrived at and used by people who aren’t Kabbalists. The basic concept is that Gods essence is incomprehensible to us, and though Christians criticise this mysticism they still use that idea. The universe exists as [...]

Why is it we can be open with a lover, but not with a parent? I have learned not to tell my Mom anything. Actually, that’s simple. It is one of the dark truths I don’t talk much on, because people get really inflamed. Are you familiar with Freud or Jung? They both sort of [...]

Druidism both is, and isn’t, a religion. It originated in a culture that didn’t originally have the Roman Catholic view of religion. It‘s perhaps more accurate to say it’s a wisdom tradition, sort of like a western Taoism.
Shamanistic? Yes, in a sense, but not as strictly grounded as that. They had a long standing, and [...]

Sikhism is a religion that started at about the same time as the Protestant movement did in Catholicism. It takes influences both from Islam and Hinduism, and it’s original lineage was preserved by a short lineage of Gurus before it was encoded in their religious text.
Please forgive my lack of mastery of the language, but it [...]

Zionism is both political and spiritual. It has been going on for a long time, and it even translated into other cultures.  In America it became manifest destiny.
Zionism is ultimately the idea that God has promised land, and that it’s ones sacred duty to either take it or preserve it. The belief in an otherworldly heaven [...]

A core element of the Zionist concept is “God’s children”, and though philosophically we are supposedly all equal in the eyes of God, in literal practice some are more equal than others.
Those cultures who first embraced the Zionist movement, and conquered cultures, are at best the strange stepchild. There is a lot of pride in [...]

The Gnostic divinities are in the realm of the emanation. In the realm of self knowledge. Gnosis is a quality of the individual emanation, and not a body of knowledge that is fixed and must be accepted. Mandean and Manichean Gnosticism even reached China.
To know yourself is to know God, i.e. all divinities? Yes, exactly.
For [...]