12/24/12-12/25/12—Shining Brighter

Today's Draw: Nativity (Death) from the Christmas Tarot by Corrine Kenner. Whether you believe in it from a religious standpoint or not, what does the story of Christ/Christmas mean to you? What does it inspire in you? How will the power of grace move through your life this week and in the coming year?

Today's Draw is more like "Two Days Draw" today, in that it covers Christmas Eve and Christmas. This card is traditionally called Death, but in this deck is used to commemorate the nativity. Spiritually speaking, every death or ending represents the beginning of something new, just as the birth of a child represents a new way of life for both the child and the parents. 

Another aspect of Jesus and the notion of physical death is that he was eluding death from the day he was born. Mary and Joseph kept him safe as a baby, fleeing from King Herod's soldiers who were out to kill him. But, as an adult, he eventually met death on the cross. This is really the story of all of us—we are all ultimately on an unavoidable collision course with death.

That being the case, one of the morals of the story of Jesus could be: "Life is limited. Do the most good." If you are judged at the end of your days here on earth, you won't be judged by how much money you earned, how young you look or what label is on your clothes. Ego concerns are part of the old way of life that ends when you "pass back over into the light" or go to heaven or whatever your beliefs hold. 

In fact, I personally don't even think you will be judged in the afterlife. I think you'll be met with the grace, understanding, compassion, forgiveness and overflowing love of the God energy that sent you here just so you *could* make all those mistakes and learn from them. 

But if you ARE judged, it will be on the good you do. The love you give. The compassion you offer. None of those things require money or any special tools. They're things you can give right here, right now, just by accessing the light within you...the light that never dims or dies, but is constantly being reborn brighter. Even the eternal within us has its own death and rebirth. 

The beautiful thing about this gift we're given—the gift of life—is that we get to create it and recreate it infinitely...throughout eternity, really. But we also get to do that even just in the short time we're here on earth. Where today we have a sharp edge, tomorrow we can smooth it into a gentle curve. Some would call that grace or the power of God moving through us. And some might also agree that's the gift of this season. 

There are many who read my blog to whom the story of Jesus is just a story, albeit one that, to one degree or another, is based on real-life events. I remember that I loved the idea of Santa Claus as a child so much that, at a fairly young age, I decided that what was real about him was the spirit he embodied and spread in the hearts of man. From that point on, I knew Santa existed, simply because his spirit existed in my heart. 

If you, like me, are not a Christian, Jesus can be the same way. Whether he was divine or just a man really doesn't matter. It's the essence of what he represents and brings to this season that's important. We'd be remiss to allow our personal beliefs to cloud what this season is all about...the eternal light within all of us that can be born, reborn, brightened and whitened to inspire others and do more good in this world. 

For many of us, the coming week or so will offer many opportunities for reflection. Consider using some of that time to ask yourself what aspects of your current life are ready to meet the end of their cycle and what new things can be born in their place. How can you smooth the sharp edges to do the most good in your life? And how can that light within you be reborn brighter?

4/3/12—Respecting Your God

Today's Draw: Page of Wands from the Mary-El Tarot. Do you think having faith in God makes people stronger and more successful? When you look at your daily behavior, do you treat ALL others as you would have them treat you, or is this a practice reserved only for the few, or only for those who return the favor? Do you think Christ's forgiveness makes it OK for people to ignore his teachings and his examples?

Today's card talks about the power of belief and how faith helps people pursue and achieve their divine purpose in life. No doubt most of us would agree with that statement and each of us would identify our own version of the higher power as the one to believe in and the one to have faith in. I know I did when I first read the statement.

But then, just for kicks, I googled "celebrity atheists" and look at what I found. Richard Branson, Lance Armstrong, Bill Gates, Ricky Gervais, Howard Stern, Julianne Moore, Woody Allen and James Cameron are on the list, to name a few. Those aren't "kind of" successful people. They're not people without a view of their "divine purpose". They're people at the very top of their game. They're philanthropists. And they don't believe in God. Any god. 

I saw a blog today by a Catholic woman who felt her child had been possessed by something.  Turns out her massage therapist received a reiki treatment and infected her child with the devil. A reiki treatment. Given to a massage therapist. Who massaged the mother. Possessed the child with the devil. In the blog comments, others chimed in about the witchcraft performed by healers and the devil-worshiping rituals involved in becoming a reiki healer. 

Ignorance is everywhere. And, in my opinion, people shame themselves and their god when they perpetuate lies out of their own fear of the unfamiliar. 

I'm not writing about reiki today, but I will say this. There is no religion in it, there are no devil-worshiping attunements and the only god I've heard mentioned by a reiki practitioner is Christ and Christ's energy. And angels like Michael. And the white light of heaven. Though not all reiki practitioners are Christian, most have a healthy respect for Christ, his teachings and his healing abilities. Most healers I know give very freely of themselves to help people. To see them characterized in such a way is repulsive to me. It comes from ignorance and fear, not from anything Christ ever said about healers. In fact Christ tells us to "heal the sick" and says that those who believe in him, will do greater things than he did.

That said, what I am writing about today, though, is that it's time for the judgment and stereotyping and hating to end. Really, it is. And if your neighbor isn't willing to be the first or even go along with you, do it anyway. We ALL fancy our beliefs to be the right ones. We ALL think our faith and love gets us ahead in life. We ALL have misconceptions. We ALL judge. But only a few of us will be the leaders who will stop the madness and actually follow the teachings and examples of Christ or Buddha. Why not make yourself one of those leaders?

Here's how you do it. If your god is loving, love. If your god is forgiving, forgive. If your god is accepting, accept. If your god is inclusive, stop rejecting. And if your God is humble, stop acting superior. And if you don't have a god, love, forgive, accept, include and be humble anyway, just because it's a gracious, cooperative and loving way to move through this world. Sure, we'll always disagree on things and have opinions and whatnot, but it's time to stop fighting over god in god's name, and using his teachings to justify fear-based, ignorant, hateful, marginalizing, judgmental, nasty and holier-than-thou behavior. That's just disrespectful. 

3/20/12—Indoctrinating the Aliens

Today's Draw: The Hierophant from the Blue Dog Rose Tarot by Nakisha. Have you ever wondered what religion extraterrestrials might be? If they believed the same way as, say, Christians believed, what impact do you think that would have on the world's religions? And, assuming they're a significantly more advanced race than us, do you think whatever they believed would impact our beliefs?

The Heirophant is a keeper of religious knowledge. Sometimes known as the Pope card, he's usually a teacher of scripture and traditional interpretation, as opposed to being a modern or unconventional thinker. 

Yesterday's post posed questions about how the concept of God has changed over the history of mankind, based on cultures, lifestyles and popular belief. Because that was a re-post of an earlier blog, it got me thinking again about how the idea of God can change. And it occurred to me...how would/could the idea of God change if/when we are visited by aliens and learn what they believe. Of course it didn't hurt that the goldfish in today's card looks a little ET.

Of course, everything's cool if aliens come here and say they believe in the Judeo-Christian God and that Jesus came and visited them and gave them his teachings. And then maybe they tell us about about their near-death experiences and the tunnel of light. And maybe they have statues on their planet that bleed at the hands. And then, every once in a while, the face of Jesus himself appears in a slice of toast. Just like here. 

Even if that's the case, you have to ask if God created this race. And why didn't he create them in his image (assuming they don't look like us)? Why didn't He, in all his Biblical teachings about life, ever mention them? Not even a peep...from him or Jesus. How come? And if He did create them, did he create them first? Are they equal to us in his eyes or, because he gave them superior technology, is it possible He loves them more? And what if their Bible and teachings are completely different from our own?

Then, what if it goes another way entirely? What if they're total non-believers and never have been? What if there is absolutely nothing in their experience that has ever pointed to a higher power? Can popular belief continue to hold that their entire race over generations and generations has all burned in hell, even though God or Jesus never showed themselves to them? 

Then what happens if they're all Buddhists? Or if they have a totally different concept of God altogether?

I know I've asked a lot of questions we may never have the answers for. But the point is, regardless of what they believe, aliens and their beliefs will likely be a game-changer for our race. Even if they believe the same things we do, just the fact that they exist will cause turmoil in traditional religious realms. I mean, imagine you found out your Father had an entire other family He never told you about!

It's interesting that when we think of aliens visiting our earth, we often think of how they might be combative or want our resources. Realistically, religion aside, just the fact they exist will be shocking enough. But just imagine the social chaos they would create if they rode in on pink unicorns claiming they were all Moonies or Scientologists. 

I believe there is intelligent life out there. I believe they've been to earth before. I also believe the government has some knowledge they're not sharing. And I understand why they wouldn't share that information and think they're wise not to. Even if they're friendly visitors (which I think they will be), the potential they have to literally shake us to the core just simply by being is significant. It would cause many to question everything they know and believe. And if those questions cause an institution the size of Christianity to crash to the ground, it could send humanity to spiral out of control.