In the Christian tradition, it was said that we have been created in the image of God.
When two parties, each arriving from a very different place, are talking to each other, it just seems to make sens that it would be easier for everyone if they can talk eye to eye. The Divine, and us. Someone has to go to the other side, so that conversation can happen on a comfortable and manageable level. So Gods and Goddesses in our image, or, us in God's image. It make sense.
Now that Christianity is about 2000 years old, it has become the old thing which cobwebs needed much cleaning, which hypocrisy needed much admonishing, which teaching has grown so repetitive that it has became white noise, which images have became such cliches that they ceased to be inspiring, which God has been so misused that it grew tiresome, even traumatizing; which institutions have been so politicized that it has become irrelevant to those of us who have to live in the real world, facing real moral dilemmas every day. As pendulums go, they swing back, and then forth, and then back; depending on the height of the upswing, it will go on the down swing, and vice versa.
In my own journey and search, I came across a lot of testimonies about personal matrons and patrons in the form of various Goddesses and Gods from various traditions all over the world. Human connections to the divine are often found in them. Well, they have been created in our images, so, of course we see ourselves in them, and so we find it easy to connect with them. We either pick those who resonate with who we are, who we want to be, or those who we feel can make a good companion to the self-in-progress.
A maternal gentle Goddess when things are harsh. A no nonsense God when we feel as if there are too much bullshit around us. A sensual Goddess when we feel we need to reawaken that aspect of ourselves. A strong powerful God when we feel weak. The Egyptian pantheon because we are 'drawn' to them, or the Greek one because they have stories that are more compelling to us, or the Norse one because they look like what you might imagine your ancestors to look like.
The
words we often found in the handbooks of oracle decks, which are
believed to be those of the divine itself, often channeled through the
author, either directly, or indirectly. If these soothing words were
captured by gifted artists and motivational speakers, and expressed
through the divinity of our own creation, of our own choosing. If these
words were crafted by those whose tasks is to listen to what we need,
what we want, so that we can feel good, and feel better.
Whatever the case may be, we search, and we focus on ourselves, what we need, what we want, what we like, what we think.
My question to myself and to whoever has too much time in their hands to be reading this, is this:
If we are the ones to decide what the divine is. If we are the ones to determined what these personifications are like, for us. When the divine actually arrived at our door step and knock on our door, to introduce itself to us, as it actually is, how are we going to recognize it?
Do we dare to be so presumptuous as to claim that we know all there is to know about the divine? So that what we know of it, is all there is to know? If not, I ask again, how are we going to recognize it?
If we are only connecting to ourselves and talking to ourselves, are we not in fact going round and round amongst ourselves?
If that is the case, is this not spiritual masturbation? Not only on a personal level, but also a communal one....?
