In the lecture that I attended presented by Andras Corbin-Arthen at Paganicon, he made the point that to use anthropomorphic images of the deity is contrary to a religion that worships nature. In doing so, we are placing human-kind at the pinnacle of godhead and thereby allowing and even excusing human domination and exploitation of our natural world. He stated that indigenous pagan groups around the world do not use anthropomorphic images of their deities, and in fact, their concept of godhead is altogether different, and perhaps devoid of deities altogether.
This was one of the issues that he brought up that I did not agree with and felt that it was an oversimplification, or even a conflation of two different issues. First, we need to define exactly what deities are, where they reside and their overall function or purpose. One of the first things that I will bring up here is that the reality of deities is not to be found in the material world. There are neither super-human nor supernatural beings in our material universe. Yahweh or Zeus doesn’t live in the sky or in a palace on the highest mountain. We have explored the whole planet, and even other planets, and the natural world seems to lack any kind of super-human or supernatural beings. If there are gods and goddesses, where are they? Where do they reside?
In my various books I have stated that nearly all of the spiritual and magical phenomena that we humans experience are part of the greater domain or field of consciousness. Whether that consciousness can exist independently of human beings is a big question. I for one, believe that consciousness has an existence and reality all its own, but others have disagreed. Are deities accessible to the animal and plant kingdoms of the earth? That is another interesting question. I would suspect that animals do not need deities to function and perceive spirit; their world is complete and whole for them. So, it would seem that the whole concept of deities and godhead are a proclivity strictly associated with human perceptions and experiences.
Spiritual consciousness, as I have experienced it over the decades, can function as a mirror to those who seek to perceive and understand what is within it. It can be an illuminating mirror, or it can be a dark and distorted one. Deities are living attributes or characterizations of the symbolic life and death of everything in the world perceived by humanity. Deities therefore have no true form, but as protean entities, assume whatever form we perceive them to be. Their function and importance is that they represent points in our collective conscious world where the disembodied consciousness assuming various deific forms can dynamically interact with our individual minds. This means that the deities are both within us and also outside of us, residing within the space of our collective consciousness. We are the deities and they are us, but they are also apart from us. Some people can sense them and emotionally engage with them, while others cannot. That engagement, however it occurs, is the basis for most of the religions of the world.
The domain of spirits, intelligences, magical powers and deities is also represented as a single agency that ties everything within that world of consciousness together in a living web of unity. When I have discussed the quality of union that pervades all things, it is based on my personal experiences of the transcendental state of consciousness perceived as the result of my most intense magical workings. It is this unity, or monism that has no name or characterization, that appears to be the foundation and the source for all spiritual and magical phenomena. We can encounter this state at brief moments of our spiritual and magical workings, and these would be peak moments of clarity and illuminated insight. It is in that moment that I have experienced spirit as a single overarching phenomenon where no individual entities reside, including myself. What that means is that if I perceive deities, then there are, for me, deities. If I perceive this domain as it truly is then there are no deities - there is a one-ness, a unity of all things and beings. Since deities function as points (or stars) within the domain of spirit representing the potential or gateway to that one-ness that is beyond their reality, then how we perceive them is a reflection on how we perceive ourselves.
If we characterize our deities as human-like, then we are making them similar to ourselves, and this is done so that groups and individuals can intimately and comfortably relate to the phenomenon of deity. It also has the power to briefly make deities equal, identifiable and accessible to ourselves. There is no fault in making use of the anthropomorphic qualities of deity in order to establish the means for experiencing union. As long as the image of the deity conforms to what the worshiper expects and desires to see, then the means of accessibility and ultimately union is possible.
The problem, and this is where I would partially agree with Andras, is where we believe that the deity we worship is absolute in its form and character. A human looking deity is a tool or mechanism that allows us to be able to identify and access this being. A deity, as I have stated, has no real shape or form itself, and it is our imagination and passions that give it an image, form and even a tangible means for union. If we can understand that our images of deity are constructed so we can access them, and that they have no real singular form or character by themselves, then I think that we will not be guilty of engaging in an anthropomorphic idolatry. Deities mirror the natural world, but they are not of the earth. They are a part of the greater domain of consciousness that exists within our minds and in the cultural of our shared world, and it is a very human centric domain. Some may be able to perceive that unity behind all spiritual phenomena, and some might not. Some may need deities to engage their spiritual sensibilities, while others might not even have such sensibilities.
Thus, I think that our perception and engagement with deities is a matter quite distinct from the way we have dominated and treated the very earth that we live in. Ecology and theology, although perhaps touching on the same points here and there, are separate concerns for the post modern world. Conflating them creates a false dichotomy and can promote confusion and division within our community.
Frater Barrabbas
No comments:
Post a Comment