Islam, Isis and I

(this is a little bit of a treatise on Islam, the middle east and religious forces. I wrote it in Jordan mostly, edited a bit in Egypt and I finished editing it in Australia and this text completes my middle eastern blog at least!)

What you meet as Islam traveling in the middle east is a such a big part of that culture... but also, what is obvious is that Islam is a relatively new religion. Before Islam, people worshipped the gods here, they worshipped the goddess, or they were Christians or were part of those decadent places what we know as Babylon or Sodom or Gommorah!

So Islam is like a cultural overlay. It is very clearly not this apriori thing which defines who people are here... at all really. But why do we have (or I have) this impression that it does at all?

I am not the only one who has commented the the sense of there being an element of penitence in Islam, maybe related to a kind of collective cultural guilt related to previous ways of life. You could say this about Christianity too - the Roman's would have had lots to be guilty about too - and they were the one's who shaped this guilt ridden, "sin" and "judgment" based form of Christianity. (Interestingly, I recently read in Rob Brezsny's book "Pronoia",that before the Roman's adopted Christianity in 300 AD, there were many book available written about Christianity, which were all destroyed or suppressed by them at that time)

I think we too easily forget that before the Roman's came, the white people in Europe, were for the most part, nature spirit and goddess worshipping farmers; who lived in comparative simplicity and gentleness compared to the Romans and the rather obviously war mongering and "sinful" civilisations of the middle east.

Christianity, again, is very much a cultural overlay to the white people, whose ancient spiritual roots lie more in nature worship and the goddess.

Christianity derives from a middle eastern Judaism and the at times, very obscure teachings of a middle eastern prophet. What the quite clearly misguided and penitent Roman's and Europeans distorted this into, became something quite monstrous and misleading I feel.

So what I feel about Islam is pretty much what I feel about all the religions.

I think ultimately, we don't don't know and cannot know... not really. It is really beyond us. Anyone who tell you otherwise is a liar. There is no "way that is", not really. So any of the descriptions is just a story, which we don't need, and in fact can prevent us from being in the obvious present moment unfoldment of the intelligence and beingness. Spontaneity.

And the future is not ours to see. Jesus kept saying judgment day is around the corner, the Qur'an is very much about judgment day as well, but who is to say what is around the corner and what form that will take?! Surely, the way forward is truly bettering ourselves in obvious and non-obvious ways and not just holding out for these things to happen. This is a big phenomenan with the whole 2012 thing too. I really just feel that as we get to 2012, it really just signifies a sense of new beginning. But many people seem to be quite hung up about it .

It seems quite clear these religions prevent us from living in the moment, as ourselves, with each other in potential forms of communion and relationship. I feel that a lot of the time, the "good" is just empty, not vibrant or with rich force and so remains a repressive force. The "religious good" is dutiful, but it is not filled with life, because it restrains the "bad"

And I feel only by going into "the bad", and harnessing these these forces, rather than trying to repress them is where we can really access life and what it can offer us.

And really, what are these forces... sex, money and power? I really think we should be engaging into these forms of life, and engaging with the physical world, but not in a selfish or greedy way, but in a way of intellgence, listening, give and take - for the good of all, but also in a more true sense of selfishness, which is expanded and much greater in its boundaryless scope.

So I think that sex, money and power can be spiritualised in a sense... in that we cannot deny these forces in ourselves, and only in transmuting these forces do we become useful to ourselves and each other I think. Really, when the heart of it is that what we are all really trying to do is attain greater degrees of wholeness and integration of the different aspects of what we are. When the veils and illusions of our survival circuitry is undone - this is revealed as the prime motivating factor and in it, refines what we experience as will.

In this, self recognition can occur... and then potentials for openess and communion, which are to my mind, the key aspects of the human experience that western society usually neglects or really doesn't understand yet. People here in the middle east, understand that much more it seems to me.

But really, I think the only religion should be perhaps to prompt us to engage more deeply with ourselves and with each other in respect and care and graciousness for what we have. And in the west, we don't have that... as it is often just this consumerist free for all. I have generally felt that here, people take pride in a moderation, and being around people who are prompted to pray and worship god at certain times of the day has felt very good.

But really, nothing need prompt us, if we are really in it or have engaged with it.

And an obvious depth of self examination is hard work. Ultimately, I feel the religions are more geered to token gestures of the right thing being done, rather than really confronting what our living nature enails to us and others.

So it seems that this new, innate, global language is coming, which will enable us to go much deeper into ourselves, to actually communicate in a way that acknowledges the deeper human unity, and enable us to really acknowlege in a more conscious way, the spiritual energies of our relatings.

In a way, it doesn't matter "who or why or when" but I've come to understand that it is through a man and a woman that this message will come through.

Nothing has really changed for me about the proclamations given on my web site... this was material that came out of very, very deep work with the tryptamines over many years.

And I KNOW the way forward is by accepting and receiving the feminine intelligence and also that power being acknowledged and accepted will really give humanity the boost to face the challenges ahead. (which are clearly very great challenges!)

And so I believe that in order to really come to peace with all of these issues between the different races and religions - we really just need to come into a deeper and more multidimensional realisation of who and what we really are and what we are really doing - beyond the obvious.

And this living thing - I think it will take over and people will cease reading the books which tell them how it is and just live it. To a degree, this is already happening - but I just feel in the arab world, a more heightened sense of maybe "they" need a more firm understanding which will really make people unafraid to face themselves, their light and the responsiblities of that; which seem to me to be old descriptions and stories which I think really masks a deeper insecurity and uncertainty.

And that ultimately insecurity is the truth! Which we should be seeking, or at least be ready to reveal that. And also apprehensions of divine truth.

These religions I think really abnegate responsibiltiy and also the human being, whose potentials for life are poo pooed, that you should just be "good" and not give to much though to the lower life of the physical!

But actually, the physical is where we are atbvand it is in and through the physical that we can experience the spiritual, not by denying it! It may sound obvious, but apparently it has not been!

So all these religions, I think they deny the physical and in essence, abnegate the challenge of being a human being into many compromises and concessions, which are not based in a full comprehension and appreciation and also manifold responsibilities and values. All this is work and it will lead you out of realm of the mind and in essence, out of normal control.

And religions, which are generally the most obvious forms of "leaders" establishing a sense of control over people... people "getting out of control" is not what they want. Yet, to get out control in its truest sense, is hard, and possibly even painful in the short term. In the long term as you learn the ropes it is easier, but it is much harder path than control, yet much more fulfilling and rich.

True freedom is the reward. Not in a basic and sordid American sense, but actually having a sense of one's own inner power and deep inner spiritual values and able to direct them appropriately, rather than fulfiling greedy "negative" and narcisstic values which exploit the possibilities of superficial enjoyment. Then we are often actually seek a sense of discomfort, which is confronting pain and imbalance in the world and dealing with it, taking responsibility for it.

But also, if we have the privildege of being able to enjoy the material things in life, rather than just surviving, then we should do so without guilt I feel. But again, not in this grabby "i'll get what I can take" ethos. And you just can't pay money for life's real riches, life has to grant you those type of riches. You have to earn them through a kind of work.

When you turn from service to the self, to the service of the all (i.e. the truth!).... things change - what you put into it is what you get out.

So I think Islam itself, has a lot of really admirable qualities, people are called to help each other here and they do. Crime and so on is really almost non-existent sometimes it seems. It is a refreshing sober religion, (the rest of the world just seems to be dancing around the golden calf at times!) which I think instills people with the essence and importance of turning to the divine. And I feel this is really important.

But America, or the west as a whole is not suddenly going to convert to this religion! BUT, I feel that the essence of it, may well be the remedy to a lot of the problems that America, in particular, faces. Strange as it may sound, this is what I genuinely feel.

But I also know that life evolves, and Islam is also evolving, humanities relationship to religion is clearly changing. I do feel that religion represents training wheels of some sort, which must be removed at the right time in order that we are able to ride the bike unhindered.

It seems to me that most, if not almost all are not responsible or mature or even seeking their own responsibility or maturity to really utilise money, sex and power for the sake of all - for the sake of present beingness - not just ego based enjoyment, perhaps not even real enjoyment.

And yet, examples of that maturity are quite hard to come by, in my mind at least. Whether Islam as a whole likes it or not, people are breaking ranks here from tradition more and more, especially the wealthy - who look like they could be living in New York or Sydney and act like they do too!

So, in this journey, I have come in the spirit of understanding, to this place in the world, which from western eyes, seems to represent the source of a lot of the potential and present problems in the global politic.

And I have felt myself to be an ambassodor of sorts, and I have felt very recognised and seen for the most part.

And yet, there is so much more than most anyone ever imagines there to be...

I am aware that what I am about to say, will not be believed by many people who read this, and that doesn't really concern me.

So, almost as soon as I arrived in Egypt, in awareness that Albert Hoffman had just died, Isis appeared before me in my hotel room, in front of my eyes, not in human form, but in her elemental form as pure art. And we interacted.

I was in tears and wonder, kneeling before this goddess, expressing hundreds of times more respect than I have ever yet to muster to any human before. (it was an unpractised respect I can tell you!) Most of the time, I just had to stop myself from falling into complete astonishment and just focus on the interaction.

So, we have forgotten or given up this worship of these beings, to the goddess, to a faceless male-like form, who we can apparently never apparently really know.

So I have known Isis, and she revealed much more of herself to me than I have ever experienced in any human being, and thus I was able to reveal myself.

And I was given a gift, but this gift too was to be shared, and that is its nature.

So she visited me, because, apparently I had made the grade and had impressed.

And these sorts of experiences leave one extremely grateful and glad - and I think an innate will to integrity occurs, when you know you are being witnessed all the time, by gods and goddesses, who can bless or reward you, and bring you to new levels.

This is one of the most true motivating factors I have experienced in playing out the human game, again, it is one that many ancient cultures based their civilisations upon.

I think it is something that we would do well to observe, and realise that we not just alone, and also that our fate is not just in our hands alone.

In these moments of surrender and devotion, arrogance disappears and you are just left with what you can give, what you can receive, how you can be, how you can relate. All else is then rendered obsolete.