http://alcuinbramerton.blogspot.com/2005/01/symbol-for-new-age.html
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The Lucis Trust has given this symbol some helpful publicity recently. It can be viewed here.
A symbol can be regarded as an energy portal between dimensions. Every veridical symbol has a signature vibration, or sigil. Its signature combines shape, light, sound and scent in a coherent and coordinated manner.
A portal is a person; a self-conscious, intelligent, sentient being of access. A portal exists to assist others in moving their energies between dimensions. Sometimes portals present themselves to elevated human consciousness as visible beings such as angels, travel guides, gatekeepers or threshold guardians.
Symbols and portals can be accessed through spiritual exercises such as visualisation, meditation and dream management.
The New Age symbol featured here has six main visual components superimposed on one another:
(1) A background field of blue
(2) The pale yellow cosmic cross
(3) A gold disc
(4) A bright yellow, upwardly pointing triangle
(5) A blue Bethlehem star (the five pointed star of Christ)
(6) The pale yellow equal-armed cross of the New Age.
The gold disc is spoken of in the ancient Gayatri mantram: "Unveil to us the face of the true spiritual Sun, hidden by a disc of golden light, that we may know the truth."
The cosmic cross, in the specific context of this symbol, is a coded reference to our spiritual seniors on Sirius.
Sirius is a binary star system, 8.7 light years from Earth. It is the brightest star in our sky and is, technically, about forty times more luminous than the sun. Certain of the major pyramids were precisely aligned with Sirius. There is a strong spiritual connection between Earth and Sirius. Many people who have been involved with the spiritual leadership on Earth have been educated, during sleep, at the mystery school on Sirius. More than ever are being taught there now.
There is spiritual work which we can only do when we are awake, and there is spiritual work which we can only do when we are asleep.
In the Harry Potter books, written for New Age children, Hogwarts is a deep metaphoration of the Sirius Mystery School, and platform nine-and-three-quarters is the sleep-gate. The physical plane author of these books may not be aware (in full waking consciousness) of these signifiers.
Foster Bailey's explanation of the esoteric symbology of the New Age symbol featured above can be found on the Lucis Trust website here.
..................................................
An Invocation for the New Age
A Prayer for the New Age
Gospel for the New Age
The Share International revelations
Meditation - the direct encounter
Index of blog contents
Showing posts with label Harry Potter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Harry Potter. Show all posts
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Friday, January 27, 2012
Creative subversion
A core task of the New Spirituality
http://alcuinbramerton.blogspot.com/2006/01/creative-subversion.html
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One of the core tasks of the New Spirituality is the creative subversion of orthodox human semantics.
This is often best done by way of off-the-wall humour and the deployment of positively mutating language-forms in educated discourse.
A spiritual evolution is being encouraged here. The human population is beginning to think freely and feel freely outside the prescribed semantic box of established fundamentalisms. These fundamentalisms include science, religion and political materialism. It is this beyond-the-box evolution in thinking and feeling which is being actively encouraged by the New Spirituality.
The evolution is necessary if data inputs from the higher evolution are to be received accurately, processed in open colloquy, published freely, and implemented skilfully for the wider good of the planet.
By “Higher Evolution” is meant benign extraterrestrials, angels, ascended masters, discarnate spiritual teachers and the individuated divine selves of all human beings.
Most of the best practitioners of the New Spirituality are children. These children are bored by science and are sceptical of its scepticism. They detest the manipulative parochialism of religion, and they are revolted by the political management of unnecessary wealth and unnecessary poverty.
There are few better ways to begin an understanding of the topography of the New Spirituality than to read (and analyse the subtexts of) the most successful children’s fiction of the last ten years.
................................
Is Harry Potter true?
Understanding the New Age Children
Index of blog contents
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Kristianne Wych Christian Wicca
Alcuin Bramerton profile ..... Index of blog contents ..... Home
Kristianne Wych
Had a very conventional
Western upbringing:
Bratz,
School uniform,
W.I.T.C.H.,
Project on the Victorians,
21st Century Goddess,
iPod,
Harry Potter,
Detention for too much makeup,
Phillip Pullman,
Bliss mag,
Finger vibe,
Right-on evanjelly church,
Furry handcuffs,
Shouty gurl bandz,
Twilight,
Equitation,
Yoga,
Detention for no bra,
Diary of Anne Frank,
Gay PHSE,
Webcam,
Ballet,
Detention for flashing teapot lids,
David Copperfield,
Shopping,
Gated for tongue stud,
Dangers of fast food,
Day trip to Calais,
Coral pink toenails,
William Blake,
Gurly sleepovers,
Alton Towers,
Nail bars,
Netball Club,
Two detentions for tongue
In Matty Smith's ear,
Yay!
No surrender,
It was only one tongue
And one ear,
Romeo and Juliet,
Pret sandwiches,
Sunday Telegraph,
Gated for torn jeans with no knickers,
RSPB,
Horse and Hound,
Young Farmers Christmas collection,
Gated for mobile phone bill
Half the size of Daddy Bear's
Annual bonus,
Astroturf,
SocNets,
Alcopops for breakfast
And
Pink Teddy Bear with attitude.
It was an entirely conventional
Western upbringing.
So it was something
Of a shock
For the wrinklies
In her life
To learn that,
At the age of fourteen,
Kristianne Wych
Had decided to become
A Christian witch.
She left her
Right-on evanjelly church,
Where she was regarded as
Promising conversion material,
Saying that she liked Jesus,
But disliked church
Because it was sucky
And predictable
And boring
And had creepy priests.
And church caused problems
Like torture
And the Crusades
And the Inquisition
And slavery
And the suppression of boobs on bishops
And obsessions
With gay books
Like the Bible.
And church was full of
Silly, competitive,
Fighty boyzstuff
To do with violent beliefs
And dodgy salvation fantasies.
But she liked Jesus,
She said,
Because Jesus
Was a halfway decent
Magician
Who could
Heal serious stuff,
And conjure thousands
Of packed lunches
Out of thin air
On trips to the mountains,
And could shut up
The wind and the waves
Like a good teacher,
And could raise lazy fatties
From the dead,
And go completely sulky
When questioned
By religious prats
And give the temple capitalists
A good whipping.
Plus an additional recommendation
Was that Jesus had
A gurl-friendly
Pastoral policy
And got his rocks off
With Mary Maggadolly.
So Kristianne Wych
Became a Christian witch;
Not a bad,
Black,
Pervy, negative witch
Like those Slytherin sluts;
A good,
Positive,
Spunky,
Fit, white witch
Like Hermione Grainger
And Ginny Weasley.
Christian Wicca,
She reckoned,
Was more use to Jesus
Than dead boring
Church stuffy stuff,
And in Wicca
There's more opportunity
For gurl power to do good.
And Wicca
Is better for the planet
Than church
And Jesus spent a lot of time
Outdoors
Doing shaman-type things.
And with Wicca
She could get outdoors too,
Out into the fresh air
Under the clouds
Away from the bibles
And cobwebs
And prayer books
And dusty antique superstitions,
And feel her bare feet
On the wet grass,
And spend time
Beside streams
In the hills,
And listen to the rustle
Of lonely woods,
And pay attention
To the milky moon
And make friends
With the stars
And talk to the rabbits
And nature spirits
And listen to the earth
Breathing green.
And she could get to do
Real Harry Potter trix
On the astral plane,
And help people properly
While they were asleep,
And get better and better
At meditation
And invocation
And affirmation
Which was really powerful stuff,
And teach boys
To love properly,
And get hot
And tantric
And juicy
And melty
With Matty Smith,
Which was what Matty Smith
Needed most
But didn't know it yet.
And that is how
Kristianne Wych,
The Christian witch,
Got into
Christian Wicca.
......................................
Christian Wicca pendant
A photograph
Teen witch tarot
A picture card
Allura
A picture by Jasmine Becket-Griffith
Nude fairy drake
A picture by Jasmine Becket-Griffith
Young Wizard
A picture by Julie Bell
Harry, Ron and Hermione
A photograph taken on the set of The Goblet of Fire
......................................................
What are witches and what do they believe?
Spell of the day
TeenWitch.com
........................
I am the Moon
Aquarian elf girl
We are water beings
Pumpkin candlelight
Small visitors
Toenails
Man-machine
Antidote to terror
A dream is a portal
A new scripture shortly to be published
......................................
How important is Jesus?
Da Vinci's Magdalene
Meditation - the direct encounter
The resurrection of the shaman
Teen hotties
Sexual health and safety for hot young lovers
Understanding the New Age Children
Is Harry Potter true?
Traditional Norfolk koans
Index of blog contents
Spirituality websites worth watching
Had a very conventional
Western upbringing:
Bratz,
School uniform,
W.I.T.C.H.,
Project on the Victorians,
21st Century Goddess,
iPod,
Harry Potter,
Detention for too much makeup,
Phillip Pullman,
Bliss mag,
Finger vibe,
Right-on evanjelly church,
Furry handcuffs,
Shouty gurl bandz,
Twilight,
Equitation,
Yoga,
Detention for no bra,
Diary of Anne Frank,
Gay PHSE,
Webcam,
Ballet,
Detention for flashing teapot lids,
David Copperfield,
Shopping,
Gated for tongue stud,
Dangers of fast food,
Day trip to Calais,
Coral pink toenails,
William Blake,
Gurly sleepovers,
Alton Towers,
Nail bars,
Netball Club,
Two detentions for tongue
In Matty Smith's ear,
Yay!
No surrender,
It was only one tongue
And one ear,
Romeo and Juliet,
Pret sandwiches,
Sunday Telegraph,
Gated for torn jeans with no knickers,
RSPB,
Horse and Hound,
Young Farmers Christmas collection,
Gated for mobile phone bill
Half the size of Daddy Bear's
Annual bonus,
Astroturf,
SocNets,
Alcopops for breakfast
And
Pink Teddy Bear with attitude.
It was an entirely conventional
Western upbringing.
So it was something
Of a shock
For the wrinklies
In her life
To learn that,
At the age of fourteen,
Kristianne Wych
Had decided to become
A Christian witch.
She left her
Right-on evanjelly church,
Where she was regarded as
Promising conversion material,
Saying that she liked Jesus,
But disliked church
Because it was sucky
And predictable
And boring
And had creepy priests.
And church caused problems
Like torture
And the Crusades
And the Inquisition
And slavery
And the suppression of boobs on bishops
And obsessions
With gay books
Like the Bible.
And church was full of
Silly, competitive,
Fighty boyzstuff
To do with violent beliefs
And dodgy salvation fantasies.
But she liked Jesus,
She said,
Because Jesus
Was a halfway decent
Magician
Who could
Heal serious stuff,
And conjure thousands
Of packed lunches
Out of thin air
On trips to the mountains,
And could shut up
The wind and the waves
Like a good teacher,
And could raise lazy fatties
From the dead,
And go completely sulky
When questioned
By religious prats
And give the temple capitalists
A good whipping.
Plus an additional recommendation
Was that Jesus had
A gurl-friendly
Pastoral policy
And got his rocks off
With Mary Maggadolly.
So Kristianne Wych
Became a Christian witch;
Not a bad,
Black,
Pervy, negative witch
Like those Slytherin sluts;
A good,
Positive,
Spunky,
Fit, white witch
Like Hermione Grainger
And Ginny Weasley.
Christian Wicca,
She reckoned,
Was more use to Jesus
Than dead boring
Church stuffy stuff,
And in Wicca
There's more opportunity
For gurl power to do good.
And Wicca
Is better for the planet
Than church
And Jesus spent a lot of time
Outdoors
Doing shaman-type things.
And with Wicca
She could get outdoors too,
Out into the fresh air
Under the clouds
Away from the bibles
And cobwebs
And prayer books
And dusty antique superstitions,
And feel her bare feet
On the wet grass,
And spend time
Beside streams
In the hills,
And listen to the rustle
Of lonely woods,
And pay attention
To the milky moon
And make friends
With the stars
And talk to the rabbits
And nature spirits
And listen to the earth
Breathing green.
And she could get to do
Real Harry Potter trix
On the astral plane,
And help people properly
While they were asleep,
And get better and better
At meditation
And invocation
And affirmation
Which was really powerful stuff,
And teach boys
To love properly,
And get hot
And tantric
And juicy
And melty
With Matty Smith,
Which was what Matty Smith
Needed most
But didn't know it yet.
And that is how
Kristianne Wych,
The Christian witch,
Got into
Christian Wicca.
......................................
Christian Wicca pendant
A photograph
Teen witch tarot
A picture card
Allura
A picture by Jasmine Becket-Griffith
Nude fairy drake
A picture by Jasmine Becket-Griffith
Young Wizard
A picture by Julie Bell
Harry, Ron and Hermione
A photograph taken on the set of The Goblet of Fire
......................................................
What are witches and what do they believe?
Spell of the day
TeenWitch.com
........................
I am the Moon
Aquarian elf girl
We are water beings
Pumpkin candlelight
Small visitors
Toenails
Man-machine
Antidote to terror
A dream is a portal
A new scripture shortly to be published
......................................
How important is Jesus?
Da Vinci's Magdalene
Meditation - the direct encounter
The resurrection of the shaman
Teen hotties
Sexual health and safety for hot young lovers
Understanding the New Age Children
Is Harry Potter true?
Traditional Norfolk koans
Index of blog contents
Spirituality websites worth watching
Sunday, March 27, 2005
The unwisdom of belief
Alcuin Bramerton profile ..... Index of blog contents ..... Home
Page update: 24.10.09
Flutterby: You've been getting emails, I see.
Alcuin: Yes. People have been finding the address at the bottom of the contents page.
Flutterby: I warned you about that.
Alcuin: I know.
Flutterby: Anyway ....
Alcuin: Yes. There's a chap here who wants to know what I believe.
Flutterby: What has that got to do with him?
Alcuin: Come on. I'm not going to say that, am I?
Flutterby: You don't have to reply.
Alcuin: Maybe not.
Flutterby: No.
Alcuin: But belief is a problem.
Flutterby: I disagree.
Alcuin: You don't think that belief is a problem?
Flutterby: No. I think that belief is the problem.
Alcuin: Right.
Flutterby: On your planet, at the moment, belief is the major problem. If there wasn't so much belief, there wouldn't be so much conflict.
Alcuin: Yes. Kevin believes in that kind and style of God; Rachel does not believe in that kind and style of God. So their belief separates them from each other.
Flutterby: And the next level up?
Alcuin: The next level up from that is .... that belief throughout the world is organised into tribes of Kevins and Rachels. These tribes are called Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, or whatever. So belief divides human from human, and tribe from tribe.
Flutterby: Yes. Each tribe is confused, and it thinks that by adopting belief, the confusion will be cleared away. But belief is merely an attempt to escape from the fact of confusion. Belief is an attempt to swap confusion for certainty.
Alcuin: OK. So it's not good for the human mind to be tethered to beliefs. If your mind is tethered to beliefs, you can't think straight.
Flutterby: If your mind is tethered to beliefs, you can hardly think at all.
Alcuin: You can't stay alert.
Flutterby: No.
Alcuin: You can't know yourself. You can't begin the spiritual path.
Flutterby: No. To know oneself as one really is, requires an extraordinary alertness of mind.
Alcuin: And such an alertness of mind is drugged stupid by belief.
Flutterby: And dogma.
Alcuin: Yes. Dogma is the hierarchical level up from belief.
Flutterby: And religion is the hierarchical level up from dogma.
Alcuin: What is the hierarchical level up from religion?
Flutterby: The hierarchical level up from religion is planetary extinction.
Alcuin: Mmm. Painful.
Flutterby: Religion likes pain.
Alcuin: Oh dear.
Flutterby: Where would religion be without unnecessary pain and the rumour of unnecessary pain?
Alcuin: I know.
Flutterby: To know yourself, there must be the awareness, the alertness of mind in which there is freedom from all beliefs, freedom from all idealisation. This is because beliefs and ideals surround you with an artificial coloured filter, subverting true perception.
Alcuin: You sound like Jiddu Krishnamurti.
Flutterby: Good man, Krishnamurti.
Alcuin: His teachings and Christ's teachings are very similar aren't they?
Flutterby: Krishnamurti's teachings and Christ's early New Age teachings are very nearly identical, I would say.
Alcuin: Do humans need a belief of any kind? Is any sort of belief necessary?
Flutterby: Krishnamurti pointed out that we don't need a belief that there is sunshine or mountains or rivers. We don't need a belief that we and our partners quarrel. We don't have to have a belief that life is a terrible, boring misery, with its anguish, ambition and conflicts. All that is a fact. But we demand a belief when we want to escape from a fact into an unreality.
Alcuin: But that goes for any belief, doesn't it? Not just religious belief?
Flutterby: Oh yes. Religious belief, economic belief, educational belief, medical belief, political belief. The whole lot. Belief is the bogey.
Alcuin: Belief is the boggart ....
Flutterby: Do I detect a coded reference to Harry Potter?
Alcuin: A very inexact reference to Harry Potter.
Flutterby: On your planet at the moment, religious beliefs still subtend a lot of economic, educational, medical and political beliefs ....
Alcuin: Think of America.
Flutterby: I'd rather not.
Alcuin: America was great once.
Flutterby: America will be great again.
Alcuin: But poorer?
Flutterby: Much poorer in material terms .... but much richer, spiritually.
Alcuin: So .... yes .... so what Krishnamurti is suggesting is that one's religion, one's belief in God, is an escape from actuality.
Flutterby: Yes. And a mind which escapes from the actual, from the facts of relationship, will never find God. A mind that is agitated by belief cannot know truth.
Alcuin: Relationship? You used the word "relationship" there. What do you mean? Inter-personal relationship?
Flutterby: Yes. Inter-personal relationship, and inter-faith relationship, and international relationship, and inter-competitor relationship, and inter-generational relationship, and inter-specific relationship, and inter-planetary relationship, and inter-kingdom relationship, and inter-dimensional relationship. The facts of the whole nexus of relationships which is the actuality of God.
Alcuin: Difficult.
Flutterby: Yes.
Alcuin: Back to basics for a moment .... I've got a question.
Flutterby: There's a surprise.
Alcuin: A very simple question.
Flutterby: OK.
Alcuin: What is belief?
Flutterby: What is belief?
Alcuin: Yes.
Flutterby: Belief is corruption.
Alcuin: Why?
Flutterby: Belief is corruption because behind belief and morality lies the mind, the self – the self growing big, powerful and strong. If we let spirituality degenerate into religion, we let spirituality degenerate into belief. And then we are in trouble. We are in trouble because belief acts and has a corresponding influence on the mind; the mind then can never be free.
Alcuin: No.
Flutterby: But it is only in freedom that one can find out what is true, what is God. This can't be done through belief, because your belief projects what you think ought to be God, what you think ought to be true.
Alcuin: Belief projects a fantasy, you mean?
Flutterby: Yes. And employing another metaphor, belief also clutters up the mind; fills it with yesterday's junk and trash. A cup is useful only when it is empty. A mind that is stuffed full with beliefs, with dogmas, with superstitions, with assertions, with quotations and proof-texts, is an uncreative mind. It is a mind which cannot be filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit.
Alcuin: Not the mind of God, then.
Flutterby: No.
Alcuin: A repetitive mind?
Flutterby: Yes.
Alcuin: A mind which continually parrots yesterday's bad ideas under the guise of certainty-mantrams.
Flutterby: Yes.
Alcuin: Like an endless tape endlessly replaying the same old stuff.
Flutterby: Yes. And endlessly and inevitably deteriorating into noise for noise's sake, as the tape wears out.
Alcuin: So what we're saying here is that belief is not a good thing?
Flutterby: You noticed.
Alcuin: I did.
Flutterby: We're suggesting that belief is a bad thing. But I wouldn't say "good" and I wouldn't say "bad".
Alcuin: What would you say?
Flutterby: Instead of "good," I would say, "tending towards growth and free forward evolution."
Alcuin: Yuk. That wouldn't play well among the Southern Baptists.
Flutterby: And instead of "bad," I would say, "tending towards ossification and stasis."
Alcuin: Hold on, Flutterby. You're promoting obfuscation. And we're not past the nine 'o clock watershed yet.
Flutterby: Anyone who has stayed with us this far, will understand what ossification and stasis mean.
Alcuin: They might be experts.
Flutterby: I don't believe in the existence of experts. If there was such a thing as experts, Planet Earth wouldn't be in such a mess.
Alcuin: I'm staying positive.
Flutterby: Good.
Alcuin: But with regard to belief, it has been said that if you don't believe in something, you are in danger of believing in anything.
Flutterby: Yes. That is a good point. And it needs answering.
Alcuin: I think that to believe in something is to give away one's power to a human cultural invention. This human cultural invention is called a "belief".
Flutterby: Yes. A belief is a cultural artefact, an expedient superstition. It's a lump of stuff propping up the status quo. A belief is an invented chunk of words designed to support a fixed position. It radiates a sort of cold, negative energy which is truth-phobic. The more beliefs you allow to be implanted in your mind, the less truth gets through to you.
Alcuin: So, if you don't believe in something, you are not in danger of believing in anything – you are in danger of receiving a lot of new truth.
Flutterby: Exactly. And that is an important danger to face freely. Without facing it, there can be no spiritual growth.
Alcuin: Not that it's a danger at all....
Flutterby: No, but it may be a challenge.
Alcuin: Or feel a challenge.
Flutterby: Yes.
Alcuin: So, shuffling language around a bit, can we say that a belief is a chosen intellectual construct which has the function of keeping truth out?
Flutterby: Yes. A belief is an instrument of stuckness.
Alcuin: Mmm ....
Flutterby: And if an array of such beliefs is assembled, in a patterned or interlinked manner, as in a catechism or a creed or an atonement theory, and is wilfully held in place in conscious intellection, the mind becomes almost blind. The belief-array functions as a tight filter preventing the entry of new revelations.
Alcuin: That's saying what we hinted at just now.
Flutterby: Correct. You've got a dictionary on the shelf there. What does it say under the word "belief"?
Alcuin: OK, let's see. Right. Here we are: Belief - "a conviction of the truth of something; an opinion or doctrine held to be true."
Flutterby: Yes. So a belief is a thought-form, a construct on the mental plane (the fifth dimension), which carries an exclusive truth-claim energy which functions in the intellection by saying: "I am right; that which is anti-me is wrong".
Alcuin: A belief is a conflict-signifier energised by a right-versus-wrong referent.
Flutterby: I think you've just lost the Southern Baptists again. But I agree. The problem with it, however, is that there is no such thing in the spiritual world as "right" or "wrong". These are simply the control fictions of religiosity. One of the central lies of the religious experiment on your planet has been that a moral stasis is possible. This lie asserts that certain things are eternally right and their polar opposites are eternally wrong; certain things are good and their polar opposites are evil. But in actuality there can be no such dichotomy because there is no stasis in things spiritual. Nothing is static. All is process. All is change. All is movement. All is dance. God's will is Evolution. Static positions nowhere exist. If we attempt to set up a static position against the prevailing fluency of All That Is – a static position such as a belief - we get ill and we begin to shrivel spiritually into an anxious, undead fear. It is this fear which energises fundamentalist violence.
Alcuin: Got it. OK. So .... in the spiritual mind there can be no legitimate place for belief because the spiritual mind has to be kept free and open at all times to receive new data uncritically. It cannot do this efficiently if it is cluttered up with belief-constructs which function to keep new data out.
Flutterby: No. And there are a lot of new data - new truths - new revelations - coming through now. That is what the New Age of Christ, the Maitreya Buddha, is all about.
Alcuin: I know. But there are snags, aren't there? There are challenges. This kind of thinking raises a whole cluster of consequential questions. For example, how can I assess what is veridical? If a new idea comes along, how do I make a spiritual value-judgement about it?
Flutterby: Good question.
Alcuin: Got a good answer?
Flutterby: What do you do if a new idea comes along? A new revelation? How do you assess it?
Alcuin: Yes. How do you work out whether it is true or not?
Flutterby: Speaking personally, I would ask: "Is this new idea interesting?" and "Is it beautiful?" and "Does it feel good?" and "Does it keep me free?" If the answer to each of these four questions, considered unhurriedly over a period of time, is yes, then I would be inclined to trust my intuition and regard the new idea as veridical. But only for me, and only for now.
.....................
Life The Goal
An essay by Jiddhu Krishnamurti (1895-1986)
.....................
Anti-spiritual belief systems of control
Henry See suggests that the monotheistic religions are elite systems of manipulation, negativity and deceit.
..........................................................
My name is God and these are My instructions
Flutterby: You've been getting emails, I see.
Alcuin: Yes. People have been finding the address at the bottom of the contents page.
Flutterby: I warned you about that.
Alcuin: I know.
Flutterby: Anyway ....
Alcuin: Yes. There's a chap here who wants to know what I believe.
Flutterby: What has that got to do with him?
Alcuin: Come on. I'm not going to say that, am I?
Flutterby: You don't have to reply.
Alcuin: Maybe not.
Flutterby: No.
Alcuin: But belief is a problem.
Flutterby: I disagree.
Alcuin: You don't think that belief is a problem?
Flutterby: No. I think that belief is the problem.
Alcuin: Right.
Flutterby: On your planet, at the moment, belief is the major problem. If there wasn't so much belief, there wouldn't be so much conflict.
Alcuin: Yes. Kevin believes in that kind and style of God; Rachel does not believe in that kind and style of God. So their belief separates them from each other.
Flutterby: And the next level up?
Alcuin: The next level up from that is .... that belief throughout the world is organised into tribes of Kevins and Rachels. These tribes are called Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, or whatever. So belief divides human from human, and tribe from tribe.
Flutterby: Yes. Each tribe is confused, and it thinks that by adopting belief, the confusion will be cleared away. But belief is merely an attempt to escape from the fact of confusion. Belief is an attempt to swap confusion for certainty.
Alcuin: OK. So it's not good for the human mind to be tethered to beliefs. If your mind is tethered to beliefs, you can't think straight.
Flutterby: If your mind is tethered to beliefs, you can hardly think at all.
Alcuin: You can't stay alert.
Flutterby: No.
Alcuin: You can't know yourself. You can't begin the spiritual path.
Flutterby: No. To know oneself as one really is, requires an extraordinary alertness of mind.
Alcuin: And such an alertness of mind is drugged stupid by belief.
Flutterby: And dogma.
Alcuin: Yes. Dogma is the hierarchical level up from belief.
Flutterby: And religion is the hierarchical level up from dogma.
Alcuin: What is the hierarchical level up from religion?
Flutterby: The hierarchical level up from religion is planetary extinction.
Alcuin: Mmm. Painful.
Flutterby: Religion likes pain.
Alcuin: Oh dear.
Flutterby: Where would religion be without unnecessary pain and the rumour of unnecessary pain?
Alcuin: I know.
Flutterby: To know yourself, there must be the awareness, the alertness of mind in which there is freedom from all beliefs, freedom from all idealisation. This is because beliefs and ideals surround you with an artificial coloured filter, subverting true perception.
Alcuin: You sound like Jiddu Krishnamurti.
Flutterby: Good man, Krishnamurti.
Alcuin: His teachings and Christ's teachings are very similar aren't they?
Flutterby: Krishnamurti's teachings and Christ's early New Age teachings are very nearly identical, I would say.
Alcuin: Do humans need a belief of any kind? Is any sort of belief necessary?
Flutterby: Krishnamurti pointed out that we don't need a belief that there is sunshine or mountains or rivers. We don't need a belief that we and our partners quarrel. We don't have to have a belief that life is a terrible, boring misery, with its anguish, ambition and conflicts. All that is a fact. But we demand a belief when we want to escape from a fact into an unreality.
Alcuin: But that goes for any belief, doesn't it? Not just religious belief?
Flutterby: Oh yes. Religious belief, economic belief, educational belief, medical belief, political belief. The whole lot. Belief is the bogey.
Alcuin: Belief is the boggart ....
Flutterby: Do I detect a coded reference to Harry Potter?
Alcuin: A very inexact reference to Harry Potter.
Flutterby: On your planet at the moment, religious beliefs still subtend a lot of economic, educational, medical and political beliefs ....
Alcuin: Think of America.
Flutterby: I'd rather not.
Alcuin: America was great once.
Flutterby: America will be great again.
Alcuin: But poorer?
Flutterby: Much poorer in material terms .... but much richer, spiritually.
Alcuin: So .... yes .... so what Krishnamurti is suggesting is that one's religion, one's belief in God, is an escape from actuality.
Flutterby: Yes. And a mind which escapes from the actual, from the facts of relationship, will never find God. A mind that is agitated by belief cannot know truth.
Alcuin: Relationship? You used the word "relationship" there. What do you mean? Inter-personal relationship?
Flutterby: Yes. Inter-personal relationship, and inter-faith relationship, and international relationship, and inter-competitor relationship, and inter-generational relationship, and inter-specific relationship, and inter-planetary relationship, and inter-kingdom relationship, and inter-dimensional relationship. The facts of the whole nexus of relationships which is the actuality of God.
Alcuin: Difficult.
Flutterby: Yes.
Alcuin: Back to basics for a moment .... I've got a question.
Flutterby: There's a surprise.
Alcuin: A very simple question.
Flutterby: OK.
Alcuin: What is belief?
Flutterby: What is belief?
Alcuin: Yes.
Flutterby: Belief is corruption.
Alcuin: Why?
Flutterby: Belief is corruption because behind belief and morality lies the mind, the self – the self growing big, powerful and strong. If we let spirituality degenerate into religion, we let spirituality degenerate into belief. And then we are in trouble. We are in trouble because belief acts and has a corresponding influence on the mind; the mind then can never be free.
Alcuin: No.
Flutterby: But it is only in freedom that one can find out what is true, what is God. This can't be done through belief, because your belief projects what you think ought to be God, what you think ought to be true.
Alcuin: Belief projects a fantasy, you mean?
Flutterby: Yes. And employing another metaphor, belief also clutters up the mind; fills it with yesterday's junk and trash. A cup is useful only when it is empty. A mind that is stuffed full with beliefs, with dogmas, with superstitions, with assertions, with quotations and proof-texts, is an uncreative mind. It is a mind which cannot be filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit.
Alcuin: Not the mind of God, then.
Flutterby: No.
Alcuin: A repetitive mind?
Flutterby: Yes.
Alcuin: A mind which continually parrots yesterday's bad ideas under the guise of certainty-mantrams.
Flutterby: Yes.
Alcuin: Like an endless tape endlessly replaying the same old stuff.
Flutterby: Yes. And endlessly and inevitably deteriorating into noise for noise's sake, as the tape wears out.
Alcuin: So what we're saying here is that belief is not a good thing?
Flutterby: You noticed.
Alcuin: I did.
Flutterby: We're suggesting that belief is a bad thing. But I wouldn't say "good" and I wouldn't say "bad".
Alcuin: What would you say?
Flutterby: Instead of "good," I would say, "tending towards growth and free forward evolution."
Alcuin: Yuk. That wouldn't play well among the Southern Baptists.
Flutterby: And instead of "bad," I would say, "tending towards ossification and stasis."
Alcuin: Hold on, Flutterby. You're promoting obfuscation. And we're not past the nine 'o clock watershed yet.
Flutterby: Anyone who has stayed with us this far, will understand what ossification and stasis mean.
Alcuin: They might be experts.
Flutterby: I don't believe in the existence of experts. If there was such a thing as experts, Planet Earth wouldn't be in such a mess.
Alcuin: I'm staying positive.
Flutterby: Good.
Alcuin: But with regard to belief, it has been said that if you don't believe in something, you are in danger of believing in anything.
Flutterby: Yes. That is a good point. And it needs answering.
Alcuin: I think that to believe in something is to give away one's power to a human cultural invention. This human cultural invention is called a "belief".
Flutterby: Yes. A belief is a cultural artefact, an expedient superstition. It's a lump of stuff propping up the status quo. A belief is an invented chunk of words designed to support a fixed position. It radiates a sort of cold, negative energy which is truth-phobic. The more beliefs you allow to be implanted in your mind, the less truth gets through to you.
Alcuin: So, if you don't believe in something, you are not in danger of believing in anything – you are in danger of receiving a lot of new truth.
Flutterby: Exactly. And that is an important danger to face freely. Without facing it, there can be no spiritual growth.
Alcuin: Not that it's a danger at all....
Flutterby: No, but it may be a challenge.
Alcuin: Or feel a challenge.
Flutterby: Yes.
Alcuin: So, shuffling language around a bit, can we say that a belief is a chosen intellectual construct which has the function of keeping truth out?
Flutterby: Yes. A belief is an instrument of stuckness.
Alcuin: Mmm ....
Flutterby: And if an array of such beliefs is assembled, in a patterned or interlinked manner, as in a catechism or a creed or an atonement theory, and is wilfully held in place in conscious intellection, the mind becomes almost blind. The belief-array functions as a tight filter preventing the entry of new revelations.
Alcuin: That's saying what we hinted at just now.
Flutterby: Correct. You've got a dictionary on the shelf there. What does it say under the word "belief"?
Alcuin: OK, let's see. Right. Here we are: Belief - "a conviction of the truth of something; an opinion or doctrine held to be true."
Flutterby: Yes. So a belief is a thought-form, a construct on the mental plane (the fifth dimension), which carries an exclusive truth-claim energy which functions in the intellection by saying: "I am right; that which is anti-me is wrong".
Alcuin: A belief is a conflict-signifier energised by a right-versus-wrong referent.
Flutterby: I think you've just lost the Southern Baptists again. But I agree. The problem with it, however, is that there is no such thing in the spiritual world as "right" or "wrong". These are simply the control fictions of religiosity. One of the central lies of the religious experiment on your planet has been that a moral stasis is possible. This lie asserts that certain things are eternally right and their polar opposites are eternally wrong; certain things are good and their polar opposites are evil. But in actuality there can be no such dichotomy because there is no stasis in things spiritual. Nothing is static. All is process. All is change. All is movement. All is dance. God's will is Evolution. Static positions nowhere exist. If we attempt to set up a static position against the prevailing fluency of All That Is – a static position such as a belief - we get ill and we begin to shrivel spiritually into an anxious, undead fear. It is this fear which energises fundamentalist violence.
Alcuin: Got it. OK. So .... in the spiritual mind there can be no legitimate place for belief because the spiritual mind has to be kept free and open at all times to receive new data uncritically. It cannot do this efficiently if it is cluttered up with belief-constructs which function to keep new data out.
Flutterby: No. And there are a lot of new data - new truths - new revelations - coming through now. That is what the New Age of Christ, the Maitreya Buddha, is all about.
Alcuin: I know. But there are snags, aren't there? There are challenges. This kind of thinking raises a whole cluster of consequential questions. For example, how can I assess what is veridical? If a new idea comes along, how do I make a spiritual value-judgement about it?
Flutterby: Good question.
Alcuin: Got a good answer?
Flutterby: What do you do if a new idea comes along? A new revelation? How do you assess it?
Alcuin: Yes. How do you work out whether it is true or not?
Flutterby: Speaking personally, I would ask: "Is this new idea interesting?" and "Is it beautiful?" and "Does it feel good?" and "Does it keep me free?" If the answer to each of these four questions, considered unhurriedly over a period of time, is yes, then I would be inclined to trust my intuition and regard the new idea as veridical. But only for me, and only for now.
.....................
Life The Goal
An essay by Jiddhu Krishnamurti (1895-1986)
.....................
Anti-spiritual belief systems of control
Henry See suggests that the monotheistic religions are elite systems of manipulation, negativity and deceit.
..........................................................
My name is God and these are My instructions
Wednesday, October 27, 2004
Is Harry Potter true?
Page update: 21.07.07
Flutterby: You've got all the Harry Potter books out, I see.
Alcuin: Yes. I'm speaking to a parents' reading circle on Friday. They want me to talk about the spirituality of the Potter canon.
Flutterby: It's interesting that many adults are almost as keen on Harry Potter as their children are.
Alcuin: Yes. What do you think, Flutterby? Is Harry Potter true?
Flutterby: Certainly.
Alcuin: Yes, I've come to the same conclusion.
Flutterby: The Harry Potter canon metaphorates some very important spiritual truths.
Alcuin: I agree. And the refreshing thing is that it does that without being religious.
Flutterby: God is not religious.
Alcuin: No. He's not that silly.
Flutterby: Or that cruel.
Alcuin: No. Or that exclusive.
Flutterby: No.
Alcuin: In contradistinction, God is sensible, kind and inclusive.
Flutterby: Can you name a single extant religion on your planet which is sensible, kind and inclusive?
Alcuin: I'd have to look hard. Tibetan Buddhism, I suppose. And the more intelligent type of middle-of-the road Anglicanism.
Flutterby: And some of the progressive Mormon groups are getting there.
Alcuin: Yes. But you're right, Flutterby. Most major extant religions on this planet are front operations for spiritual fascism.
Flutterby: And control.
Alcuin: And spiritual disinformation.
Flutterby: And so are their official scriptures, unfortunately.
Alcuin: Is Harry Potter scripture?
Flutterby: Yes.
Alcuin: I didn't expect you to say that. I was being provocative.
Flutterby: You've heard the same thing said yourself at conferences.
Alcuin: That's true. It has sometimes been suggested that the Harry Potter books function as de facto scriptures for unchurched children.
Flutterby: Who says that?
Alcuin: Non-Christian education professionals mostly. They sometimes speak in these terms – particularly those who work in the literacy domain, teaching children to read or teaching teachers to teach children to read, or those active as librarians or training people in librarianship. They speak of children having a reverence for the Harry Potter texts that is biblical / scriptural in nature. Many children study and re-read the texts obsessively, learn and quote key passages, insist on fidelity to the text when challenged by grown-ups on matters of detail, and pray to the leading characters in the books for guidance and help at times of personal crisis – especially those which have to do with bullying or dysfunctional relationships with teachers or parents.
Flutterby: I can understand that. It's good.
Alcuin: I suppose that the Harry Potter books could not have been so extraordinarily successful without the active support of the Holy Spirit?
Flutterby: No. Or without the active support of those benign influences which, in your human religious culture, are often referred to as the Holy Spirit.
Alcuin: It seems to me, Flutterby, that if Harry Potter is scripture, it should be possible to identify a number of short texts from the books which substantiate this assessment.
Flutterby: Fair comment. How about looking at the very beginning of Book 1?
Alcuin: Right. OK, here we are. Book 1: “Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you’d expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn’t hold with such nonsense.” (HP1 – 1:7)
Flutterby: The exegesis is fairly straightforward there, isn't it?
Alcuin: Is it?
Flutterby: Well, let's have a think. These are the opening lines of the Harry Potter canon. The reader is introduced to the existence of a comfortable, complacent and self-congratulatory human mindset which regards the spiritual world as nonsense.
Alcuin: “Number four, Privet Drive” is comfortable.
Flutterby: Yes. And “proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much” is complacent and self-congratulatory.
Alcuin: OK. And “anything strange or mysterious” is a reference to the spiritual world.
Flutterby: That is a coherent reader-response, I would have thought.
Alcuin: Yes. And perhaps the Bible makes a similar point, though less elliptically, when it says: “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ ” (Ps 14:1a – NIV)
Flutterby: Good point. The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no spiritual world.’ The Harry Potter canon controverts that idea strenuously. The Harry Potter canon says that there definitely is a spiritual world. And it's fun. And it's accessible. And it's non-religious.
................................................
Is Harry Potter the Son of God?
A Mugglenet editorial by Abigail BeauSeigneur
Harry Potter's magical tale might be truer to life than you think
Some ideas from Jennifer Vineyard on MTV.com
Harry Potter's Magic and the Market: What are Youth Learning about Gender, Race, and Class?
Robin Truth Goodman writes in the University of Louisville Journal
Harry Potter and the recessive allele
Thoughts on the genetics of Wizards and Muggles
Harry Potter and the Bible
An essay by Lisa Cherrett
The Harry Potter books and movies - charming stories or a demonic plot?
A resource page compiled by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
The Fundamentalist anti-reaction to Harry Potter
1 .. 2 .. 3 .. 4
The Harry Potter Lexicon
A complete encyclopedia of the Harry Potter Universe
Chapter by chapter synopses of the Harry Potter books
Summaries by William Sylvester, Maureen Knight and John Kearns at The Harry Potter Lexicon
...................................................
Kristianne Wych Christian Wicca
Understanding the New Age Children
Teen issues
No such thing
Why is church so serious?
A symbol for the New Age
Toenails
Index of blog contents
Spirituality websites worth watching
Flutterby: You've got all the Harry Potter books out, I see.
Alcuin: Yes. I'm speaking to a parents' reading circle on Friday. They want me to talk about the spirituality of the Potter canon.
Flutterby: It's interesting that many adults are almost as keen on Harry Potter as their children are.
Alcuin: Yes. What do you think, Flutterby? Is Harry Potter true?
Flutterby: Certainly.
Alcuin: Yes, I've come to the same conclusion.
Flutterby: The Harry Potter canon metaphorates some very important spiritual truths.
Alcuin: I agree. And the refreshing thing is that it does that without being religious.
Flutterby: God is not religious.
Alcuin: No. He's not that silly.
Flutterby: Or that cruel.
Alcuin: No. Or that exclusive.
Flutterby: No.
Alcuin: In contradistinction, God is sensible, kind and inclusive.
Flutterby: Can you name a single extant religion on your planet which is sensible, kind and inclusive?
Alcuin: I'd have to look hard. Tibetan Buddhism, I suppose. And the more intelligent type of middle-of-the road Anglicanism.
Flutterby: And some of the progressive Mormon groups are getting there.
Alcuin: Yes. But you're right, Flutterby. Most major extant religions on this planet are front operations for spiritual fascism.
Flutterby: And control.
Alcuin: And spiritual disinformation.
Flutterby: And so are their official scriptures, unfortunately.
Alcuin: Is Harry Potter scripture?
Flutterby: Yes.
Alcuin: I didn't expect you to say that. I was being provocative.
Flutterby: You've heard the same thing said yourself at conferences.
Alcuin: That's true. It has sometimes been suggested that the Harry Potter books function as de facto scriptures for unchurched children.
Flutterby: Who says that?
Alcuin: Non-Christian education professionals mostly. They sometimes speak in these terms – particularly those who work in the literacy domain, teaching children to read or teaching teachers to teach children to read, or those active as librarians or training people in librarianship. They speak of children having a reverence for the Harry Potter texts that is biblical / scriptural in nature. Many children study and re-read the texts obsessively, learn and quote key passages, insist on fidelity to the text when challenged by grown-ups on matters of detail, and pray to the leading characters in the books for guidance and help at times of personal crisis – especially those which have to do with bullying or dysfunctional relationships with teachers or parents.
Flutterby: I can understand that. It's good.
Alcuin: I suppose that the Harry Potter books could not have been so extraordinarily successful without the active support of the Holy Spirit?
Flutterby: No. Or without the active support of those benign influences which, in your human religious culture, are often referred to as the Holy Spirit.
Alcuin: It seems to me, Flutterby, that if Harry Potter is scripture, it should be possible to identify a number of short texts from the books which substantiate this assessment.
Flutterby: Fair comment. How about looking at the very beginning of Book 1?
Alcuin: Right. OK, here we are. Book 1: “Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you’d expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn’t hold with such nonsense.” (HP1 – 1:7)
Flutterby: The exegesis is fairly straightforward there, isn't it?
Alcuin: Is it?
Flutterby: Well, let's have a think. These are the opening lines of the Harry Potter canon. The reader is introduced to the existence of a comfortable, complacent and self-congratulatory human mindset which regards the spiritual world as nonsense.
Alcuin: “Number four, Privet Drive” is comfortable.
Flutterby: Yes. And “proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much” is complacent and self-congratulatory.
Alcuin: OK. And “anything strange or mysterious” is a reference to the spiritual world.
Flutterby: That is a coherent reader-response, I would have thought.
Alcuin: Yes. And perhaps the Bible makes a similar point, though less elliptically, when it says: “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ ” (Ps 14:1a – NIV)
Flutterby: Good point. The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no spiritual world.’ The Harry Potter canon controverts that idea strenuously. The Harry Potter canon says that there definitely is a spiritual world. And it's fun. And it's accessible. And it's non-religious.
................................................
Is Harry Potter the Son of God?
A Mugglenet editorial by Abigail BeauSeigneur
Harry Potter's magical tale might be truer to life than you think
Some ideas from Jennifer Vineyard on MTV.com
Harry Potter's Magic and the Market: What are Youth Learning about Gender, Race, and Class?
Robin Truth Goodman writes in the University of Louisville Journal
Harry Potter and the recessive allele
Thoughts on the genetics of Wizards and Muggles
Harry Potter and the Bible
An essay by Lisa Cherrett
The Harry Potter books and movies - charming stories or a demonic plot?
A resource page compiled by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
The Fundamentalist anti-reaction to Harry Potter
1 .. 2 .. 3 .. 4
The Harry Potter Lexicon
A complete encyclopedia of the Harry Potter Universe
Chapter by chapter synopses of the Harry Potter books
Summaries by William Sylvester, Maureen Knight and John Kearns at The Harry Potter Lexicon
...................................................
Kristianne Wych Christian Wicca
Understanding the New Age Children
Teen issues
No such thing
Why is church so serious?
A symbol for the New Age
Toenails
Index of blog contents
Spirituality websites worth watching
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