The difference between a prophet or a seer and those who follow is timing. When the tsunami rolls in, all are aware. The ‘seer’ watches the tide go out and - if it keeps going out - he makes his determination based on that fact and other small signs and wonders such as animals fleeing for the hills.
Economic prophets do likewise. Nothing supernatural. Not even particularly clever. They usually don’t agree and none of them suffer any great consequence due to their determinations.
A long time ago, atop a great structure, a victim has his living heart ripped out to placate some deity. Has the deity asked for or demanded such sacrifice? Not in a million years. Some bloodthirsty twerp pretending to be a priest offers up his victim’s life..... not their own. Never their own.
The priest reincarnates as another human being who must now or at some future date experience similar circumstance into which he placed that earlier victim. Does this indicate that a rape victim was once a rapist and - by implication - deserves little sympathy? Of course not. We would be utterly crippled if we carried an awareness of previous lives. It’s only this one that we’re certain about and - inasmuch as free will operates - we have it and choose, moment by moment, for good or evil.
In Monty Python’s ‘Search for the Holy Grail’ there’s a beautiful scene in which a crowd of peasants excitedly decide whether some poor soul is a witch.
“She turned me into a newt!” says one burly chap and there’s a brief pause in the commotion as this news is digested.
“I got better!” he hurriedly adds as the disbelief becomes evident.
A moment’s silence. “Burn her anyway - she’s a witch!” scream the crowd and take her away with no further thought and great delight.
We don’t reincarnate as newts or insects. We don’t escape the spiritual consequences of our actions by hiding out as a newt in the next life. Where’s the education in that? Newts don’t sacrifice each other to deities. They’re not that stupid.
The way in which the chain of action and reaction is broken is by personal forgiveness which melts the links which bind us to our actions. This is why some of us make amends. How can you be forgiven if you don’t or won’t recognise that you’ve ‘done wrong.’?
There is a transcendental space where good and evil cease to have meaning and everything just IS. I don’t want to live there. It’s not an appropriate or a generally desirable state in which to operate in THIS world.
I’m not a bleeding heart. I don’t often wring my hands and just weep. I get enraged. Covered in my own crap, I’m still able to see the obscenity of today’s religious police who beat and shoot those who disagree and - all with their master’s tacit approval. Iran and Israel have jackboots in common. The Nazi thugs of times gone past reincarnate with the same ideology, the same brute force.
Iran’s religious police - a Muslim version of soccer hooligans. It’s a gang - pure and simple. Nothing very religious and certainly not spiritual - these gangs are no different to any other gang.
‘If you’re not with us, you’re against us. It’s our differences which are important and not our similarities.’ goes the line of thinking before it splutters to an uncertain halt.
There has always - and sensibly - been this general line of thinking which is why the security of family and tribal group, country and skin colour have mattered. They still ‘matter’ but not because we’re essentially different as humans - we’re not - but we are perhaps different in the ‘being’ part of ‘human being’. This is cultural and not fundamental.
You - are ‘the other’ and, as such,’ unknown’. This is why I must fear your influence. This is where Mugabe’s thugs in Zimbabwe embrace the Ayatollah’s religious goons in Iran and, hand in hand, with Israel’s finest, stamp with hatred aplenty any who oppose and, absolutely, any who dare question.
Who gains?
It’s very early morning. Way before dawn and night sweats draw me awake. I write this because I’m ‘moved’ to do so. It’s not prophet or seer stuff. As I type this sentence, I’m aware of the ‘other’ - which is you - reading this. I can feel you focus and pause. Yet we’re not sharing exactly the same moment in time..... and yet ... we are!
Of course, it isn’t you by name - it’s any you - but in that pause and focus we are, momentarily, one.
And as the Divine is a constant, uncomplaining companion - we’re all One.
Ooh .... there’s a cheerful thought.
I don’t even know if I like you!
“Oh Lord - I am afflicted with a bald patch!” echoes Monty Python as I dissolve into humour.
Time for coffee and the Blues...... and as I practice my scales..... further down the track ... I am not turning reptilian! All that shedding skin and turning inside out is too much .... once is enough, thank you very much.
See you later - off to the Sacrifice. The New World Order awaits - impatient at my door.
Cheers!