Hola, Tereza. Such interesting timing with this interesting topic! Your title and subject reminded me, perversely, of the topic or Tessa Lena's philosophy club round table two weeks ago: 'enchanted missionaries'. And also, a joke I heard at the end of that discussion: What is the difference between a 'mystic' and a 'lunatic'? A: The mystic knows who not to talk to.
This is an interesting subject to dive into and I look forward to your exploration of it. Thank you and Nefahotep!
Love that joke! And what a great phrase, enchanted missionaries. I have a book by Sylvia Federici called 'To Re-enchant the World.' I think it's a fascinating concept. And Tessa really goes deep on the philosophical, I love that about her.
'To Re-Enchant the World' sounds interesting. Not that comparing is necessarily a 'good' thing, I wonder what the overlap is with a paradigm turning book in my early history, *The Reenchantment of the World* by Morris Berman. That is the first of his powerfully important trilogy.
I took a quick look and I see that there could be an overlap and I've added Federici's book to my read when it comes to me list.
'Enchanted missionary'; yup. When I first woke up to the details of the moribund nature of the injections and the planning behind them, that was exactly what I became. And it was a total failure, of course, with *missionary* being not much different than creating the demanding 'have to' from the other to assume the mind-spirit equivalent of the missionary position without foreplay.
Federici's book is Re-Enchanting the World (a little different than I quoted) and the subtitle is Feminism and the Politics of the Commons. It looks at first-world feminism as making women into equal men, rather than making the world into one that serves the family as the feminine.
"To Philip, Christianity could not exist as a separate thing. It’s a verb that activates the noun without modifying it, the “becoming” that doesn’t want to change you—except to be 'more fully' who you are." This almost seems like the linguistic expression of Being "I am" since Being is a verb describing the action of consciousness, there is an important relationship to what follows. Could that be originally meant to describe becoming more into who you are? This is interesting I had not considered this before.
I just love this:
"We are who we have always been" has a hidden meaning: there are no newcomers. This definition gives no superiority to those who were already there. How can you come as a stranger to your own family? How can you be a recent arrival to your own home? Status based on seniority and lineage was critically important in ancient Rome, and for the Biblical Hebrews. Philip sidesteps the whole discussion of hierarchy by making “conversion” an internal process of becoming who you've always been."
He could also be referring to the timeless nature of Being as well.
We have always been here, this moment has always been here. Of course Arbitrary Hierarchy has been an abomination since it was introduced.
Haha, I worried that it felt arrogant when I wrote in my email, "Damn, I'm good," when re-reading this essay. But it's a weird thing to read something you wrote 20 yrs ago. It's like it came from a different person. I can see why God would put that little space between us, as God's Creativity, and God's Self as Source or Seed. It just gives a different level of delight to say, "Where did that come from?"
I don't know if I'm in full agreement with everything I wrote back then. In my poem, rather than 'a moment spent in the awareness of death,' I'd probably say, 'the awareness of now.' But I also liked that idea of Being as a verb, not a noun, a Becoming. Yes, I think those ideas are fully compatible and with Being being timeless and already fully Itself, yet in a perpetual state of Becoming and expanding. I can't explain that but it feels true.
After I recorded this and before I posted it, I went to a sacred sound ceremony put on by my window washer, of all things ;-) It was very profound. And I set my intention for it as the beginning of this journey we're on, you and me, to come into our own as mystics. And invite everyone to join us. It felt right.
I've had very similar experiences in re reading some things that I wrote years ago. There's a lot to be said about the evolution of the personal mental character we express. There's also a lot of inner consistency in some of those older writings too.
The thing that started me off in this direction was asking myself hard questions. When we do that, we set off a process where in the answers must follow. We do ultimately improve the way we go about expressing it.
You did wonderfully in your video, it was quite a treat actually.
Yes, it was the inner consistency that struck me. It was like thinking, "Oh look, this person's saying exactly what I'm trying to express, and saying it better than I could now--at least in terms of improving on it." And you're right that it's the hard questions that started me on that path where it seemed like as soon as I had formulated the question, it was like holding out my hand where the answer fell into it like a ripe apple.
Thank you for the compliment, I'm glad you enjoyed it!
This fifteen minuets says everything for me, harmonizing with the gospel of Mary Magdalene, vedic sages, Buddha and most especially for me Sri Ramana Maharishi. Ramanas Ulladu Narpadu is the complete truth for me. We can write a hundred thousand words or even books and they are still just words that cannot convey the truth of self and the more learned one is ( thinks ) the greater is the tendency for ego to block our path completely. The stories of the sixty three realized Tamil saints is a clear pointer of this. What we are seeking is for ever present within. My lama said that for he the beggar woman on the street was as likely, if not more so to be an enlightened.
Open
The problems of others only effect one
If you too suffer their same illusions
What do you fear and why do you hate
Anger comes from ego fear and desire called together ignorance
Do we grow older and cease to see and hear God in all life about thee
Listen to the laughter of the young see the sway of trees feel flowers aroma in one
All will grow old and in time disappear
But what made them laugh and move in the joy of union never departs
( I write with little punctuation so the reader can change, decide, hear as is real to them )
It's always fascinating to dive into spiritual texts beyond the familiar canonical Bible. The Gnostic gospels are a great example. Have you seen the work of a scholar named Elaine Pagels?
You are welcome. A quick background on what I'm working on with regard to substack: I'm getting stuff out in dribs and drabs I don't have high-speed connections I have to drive 20 mi in order for that and I hate being off my compound I'm in northeastern California. After being booted off platforms in 21 I never thought I'd be on so-called social media again. But here I am. I wanted to share the words of the Cathars their perspectives and thoughts. I'm a little bit bogged down right now so to speak reading some books but I wanted to get something out at least like a basic framework. Malcolm Barber is a renowned historian from northern England who studied the Templars extensively and kept coming across the Cathars. Here is his latest revised book just the introduction
I am planning on circling back with my material and then pull quotes from important parts of the book I also have books on this topic from other authors -one thing at a time
I do always love a good heretic. If you're looking to make a systematic argument for the Cathars, you could apply the principles in this previous episode on scriptures and how to evaluate them: https://thirdparadigm.substack.com/p/lies-that-kill-the-words-of-god. Thanks for posting your analysis.
Oh I have no idea! I've been tending towards Willis Barnstone because he's a poet who translates directly from the Greek, in The Gnostic Bible and The New Covenant. The Jesus Seminars had a group of people who were on translation panels. The Complete Gospels is edited by Robert Miller but uses a translation panel. James Robinson edited The Nag Hammadi Library but each one is translated by different people. Marvin Meyer is the editor of The Nag Hammadi Scriptures with an international group of different translators. Bentley Layton does all his own translation in The Gnostic Scriptures, but it's not a complete set.
When I was diving into the Gospel of Philip, we had all the different translations collated into one set so we could compare. Translation is an art, not a science, so I don't know if anyone is best. I like getting a range of the differences so I can make my own sense of it.
Seeming paradoxes - becoming that which you always already are.
We are developing or evolving but only into our true selves.
I always found comfort in that insight. Makes so much sense.
At the same time this insight; its lack of presence in the world - the hidden nature of the Nature of Being - as a common theme is like a persistent rub. Why aren't we all talking this?
Why is this subject - and all it opens us to - relegated to 'mystics'? That's been a mystery. (I got some ideas.) :-). Thank you as always for cracking it open. Best.
Loved your poem, as well as this article. If I'm innerstanding it correctly, it's saying it doesn't matter if one becomes another Hebrew or Buddhist, Muslim or Christian; what really matters is that you become the person who you were meant to become, to bring forth that spark of Divinity (embedded within you before there were any religions) to light up the World (while we here experiencing 3D reality).
Oh that's so well put! Yes to the spark of Divinity and yes to the 3D reality! And yes yes yes to innerstanding ;-)
What maybe is different, though, is I think Philip's version of Christianity is not a different religion but a mind-set, what some would call the Christ-mind. It's seeing the Christ in everyone around you, responding to that spark of Divinity in them. There's another poem I have somewhere that uses the Hindu (?) phrase that 'the atman in me greets the atman in thee.' So from his perspective, I'm not sure Christianity should be called a religion. It's certainly not Jesus worship.
"I learned from Max Igan this week that the word Jew doesn’t appear in the Hebrew Bible." Well you can tell Max Igan that's because the hebrew bible is written in hebrew, not english, and "jew" is an english word. You and Max Igan won't find the word "Jew" in the French bible either. "Juif" & "Jew" derive from Yehudi, which max can find in genesis. What is the purpose of max igan’s fatuous lie? Looks like typical woke cancel culture like tearing down historical statues ; imagine canceling the jews right out of the torah; genocide the jews right outta Israel, like the romans did.
"When Esav was forty years old, he took to wife Yehudit daughter of B’eri the Hittite and Ba’semat daughter of Elon the Hittite." (genesis 26.34) yehudit means jewess;
“In the fortress Shushan lived a Jew by the name of Mordekhai" (Esther 2.7) the book of Esther is all about the Babylonian exile and the first Purim -
Hola, Tereza. Such interesting timing with this interesting topic! Your title and subject reminded me, perversely, of the topic or Tessa Lena's philosophy club round table two weeks ago: 'enchanted missionaries'. And also, a joke I heard at the end of that discussion: What is the difference between a 'mystic' and a 'lunatic'? A: The mystic knows who not to talk to.
This is an interesting subject to dive into and I look forward to your exploration of it. Thank you and Nefahotep!
Love that joke! And what a great phrase, enchanted missionaries. I have a book by Sylvia Federici called 'To Re-enchant the World.' I think it's a fascinating concept. And Tessa really goes deep on the philosophical, I love that about her.
Thanks for your reading and appreciation, Guy!
'To Re-Enchant the World' sounds interesting. Not that comparing is necessarily a 'good' thing, I wonder what the overlap is with a paradigm turning book in my early history, *The Reenchantment of the World* by Morris Berman. That is the first of his powerfully important trilogy.
I took a quick look and I see that there could be an overlap and I've added Federici's book to my read when it comes to me list.
'Enchanted missionary'; yup. When I first woke up to the details of the moribund nature of the injections and the planning behind them, that was exactly what I became. And it was a total failure, of course, with *missionary* being not much different than creating the demanding 'have to' from the other to assume the mind-spirit equivalent of the missionary position without foreplay.
Hahaha! What a great analogy!
Federici's book is Re-Enchanting the World (a little different than I quoted) and the subtitle is Feminism and the Politics of the Commons. It looks at first-world feminism as making women into equal men, rather than making the world into one that serves the family as the feminine.
Ah, I found the episode where I talk about that book and quote from Peter Linebaugh's intro. It's on William Hunter Duncan, who comments here: https://thirdparadigm.substack.com/p/the-sacred-masculine.
You hit it out of the park, Tereza.
"To Philip, Christianity could not exist as a separate thing. It’s a verb that activates the noun without modifying it, the “becoming” that doesn’t want to change you—except to be 'more fully' who you are." This almost seems like the linguistic expression of Being "I am" since Being is a verb describing the action of consciousness, there is an important relationship to what follows. Could that be originally meant to describe becoming more into who you are? This is interesting I had not considered this before.
I just love this:
"We are who we have always been" has a hidden meaning: there are no newcomers. This definition gives no superiority to those who were already there. How can you come as a stranger to your own family? How can you be a recent arrival to your own home? Status based on seniority and lineage was critically important in ancient Rome, and for the Biblical Hebrews. Philip sidesteps the whole discussion of hierarchy by making “conversion” an internal process of becoming who you've always been."
He could also be referring to the timeless nature of Being as well.
We have always been here, this moment has always been here. Of course Arbitrary Hierarchy has been an abomination since it was introduced.
Haha, I worried that it felt arrogant when I wrote in my email, "Damn, I'm good," when re-reading this essay. But it's a weird thing to read something you wrote 20 yrs ago. It's like it came from a different person. I can see why God would put that little space between us, as God's Creativity, and God's Self as Source or Seed. It just gives a different level of delight to say, "Where did that come from?"
I don't know if I'm in full agreement with everything I wrote back then. In my poem, rather than 'a moment spent in the awareness of death,' I'd probably say, 'the awareness of now.' But I also liked that idea of Being as a verb, not a noun, a Becoming. Yes, I think those ideas are fully compatible and with Being being timeless and already fully Itself, yet in a perpetual state of Becoming and expanding. I can't explain that but it feels true.
After I recorded this and before I posted it, I went to a sacred sound ceremony put on by my window washer, of all things ;-) It was very profound. And I set my intention for it as the beginning of this journey we're on, you and me, to come into our own as mystics. And invite everyone to join us. It felt right.
I've had very similar experiences in re reading some things that I wrote years ago. There's a lot to be said about the evolution of the personal mental character we express. There's also a lot of inner consistency in some of those older writings too.
The thing that started me off in this direction was asking myself hard questions. When we do that, we set off a process where in the answers must follow. We do ultimately improve the way we go about expressing it.
You did wonderfully in your video, it was quite a treat actually.
Yes, it was the inner consistency that struck me. It was like thinking, "Oh look, this person's saying exactly what I'm trying to express, and saying it better than I could now--at least in terms of improving on it." And you're right that it's the hard questions that started me on that path where it seemed like as soon as I had formulated the question, it was like holding out my hand where the answer fell into it like a ripe apple.
Thank you for the compliment, I'm glad you enjoyed it!
This fifteen minuets says everything for me, harmonizing with the gospel of Mary Magdalene, vedic sages, Buddha and most especially for me Sri Ramana Maharishi. Ramanas Ulladu Narpadu is the complete truth for me. We can write a hundred thousand words or even books and they are still just words that cannot convey the truth of self and the more learned one is ( thinks ) the greater is the tendency for ego to block our path completely. The stories of the sixty three realized Tamil saints is a clear pointer of this. What we are seeking is for ever present within. My lama said that for he the beggar woman on the street was as likely, if not more so to be an enlightened.
Open
The problems of others only effect one
If you too suffer their same illusions
What do you fear and why do you hate
Anger comes from ego fear and desire called together ignorance
Do we grow older and cease to see and hear God in all life about thee
Listen to the laughter of the young see the sway of trees feel flowers aroma in one
All will grow old and in time disappear
But what made them laugh and move in the joy of union never departs
( I write with little punctuation so the reader can change, decide, hear as is real to them )
off topic, but in case you haven't seen this...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VnNf0azNTQ
It's always fascinating to dive into spiritual texts beyond the familiar canonical Bible. The Gnostic gospels are a great example. Have you seen the work of a scholar named Elaine Pagels?
Definitely. I love Elaine and even modeled my prologue to my book on hers in The Origin of Satan. She's so honest and vulnerable. Here's an episode where I talk about that book: https://thirdparadigm.substack.com/p/the-devil-and-naomi-wolf.
I'll definitely check it out!
And the CATHARS ♥️
Thanks for subbing me, William. Tell me more about the CATHARS?
You are welcome. A quick background on what I'm working on with regard to substack: I'm getting stuff out in dribs and drabs I don't have high-speed connections I have to drive 20 mi in order for that and I hate being off my compound I'm in northeastern California. After being booted off platforms in 21 I never thought I'd be on so-called social media again. But here I am. I wanted to share the words of the Cathars their perspectives and thoughts. I'm a little bit bogged down right now so to speak reading some books but I wanted to get something out at least like a basic framework. Malcolm Barber is a renowned historian from northern England who studied the Templars extensively and kept coming across the Cathars. Here is his latest revised book just the introduction
I am planning on circling back with my material and then pull quotes from important parts of the book I also have books on this topic from other authors -one thing at a time
https://open.substack.com/pub/wmfinch/p/the-person-who-loves-his-life-loses?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2wccol
I do always love a good heretic. If you're looking to make a systematic argument for the Cathars, you could apply the principles in this previous episode on scriptures and how to evaluate them: https://thirdparadigm.substack.com/p/lies-that-kill-the-words-of-god. Thanks for posting your analysis.
There's a lot of work to be done, frankly I hope there's enough time for me to delve into it properly.
Also I forgot to ask; I have Charles w Turner's complete Nag Hammadi scriptures, is that the best one to have?
Oh I have no idea! I've been tending towards Willis Barnstone because he's a poet who translates directly from the Greek, in The Gnostic Bible and The New Covenant. The Jesus Seminars had a group of people who were on translation panels. The Complete Gospels is edited by Robert Miller but uses a translation panel. James Robinson edited The Nag Hammadi Library but each one is translated by different people. Marvin Meyer is the editor of The Nag Hammadi Scriptures with an international group of different translators. Bentley Layton does all his own translation in The Gnostic Scriptures, but it's not a complete set.
When I was diving into the Gospel of Philip, we had all the different translations collated into one set so we could compare. Translation is an art, not a science, so I don't know if anyone is best. I like getting a range of the differences so I can make my own sense of it.
Thank you. I find this to be very informative I appreciate your time and good effort here!
Such a rich subject, Tereza.
Seeming paradoxes - becoming that which you always already are.
We are developing or evolving but only into our true selves.
I always found comfort in that insight. Makes so much sense.
At the same time this insight; its lack of presence in the world - the hidden nature of the Nature of Being - as a common theme is like a persistent rub. Why aren't we all talking this?
Why is this subject - and all it opens us to - relegated to 'mystics'? That's been a mystery. (I got some ideas.) :-). Thank you as always for cracking it open. Best.
Very powerful insights, Kathleen. And yes! Why aren't we all talking about these questions?
Loved your poem, as well as this article. If I'm innerstanding it correctly, it's saying it doesn't matter if one becomes another Hebrew or Buddhist, Muslim or Christian; what really matters is that you become the person who you were meant to become, to bring forth that spark of Divinity (embedded within you before there were any religions) to light up the World (while we here experiencing 3D reality).
Oh that's so well put! Yes to the spark of Divinity and yes to the 3D reality! And yes yes yes to innerstanding ;-)
What maybe is different, though, is I think Philip's version of Christianity is not a different religion but a mind-set, what some would call the Christ-mind. It's seeing the Christ in everyone around you, responding to that spark of Divinity in them. There's another poem I have somewhere that uses the Hindu (?) phrase that 'the atman in me greets the atman in thee.' So from his perspective, I'm not sure Christianity should be called a religion. It's certainly not Jesus worship.
Thank you for helping me on my path, Tereza.
So kind of you to say, Tirion.
You had me at 'the surface ripples'...stay for 'the inconceivable nature of nature'...nice connectivity. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjHJ7FmV0M4
OK, two water songs and I'm off into the sunset... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXoIB3xb4Ts
Danny Federici in the lion's den... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0LAmw2vrv0
Fast if you must, later chew & ferment slowly... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8aWBcPVPMo
Yay, I look forward to these!
It's great to see "becoming" re-surfacing at last.
George Green's books really resonated with me.
https://nohoax.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=24&Itemid=47
I've noticed a lot of the themes bubbling up over the last few years.
"I learned from Max Igan this week that the word Jew doesn’t appear in the Hebrew Bible." Well you can tell Max Igan that's because the hebrew bible is written in hebrew, not english, and "jew" is an english word. You and Max Igan won't find the word "Jew" in the French bible either. "Juif" & "Jew" derive from Yehudi, which max can find in genesis. What is the purpose of max igan’s fatuous lie? Looks like typical woke cancel culture like tearing down historical statues ; imagine canceling the jews right out of the torah; genocide the jews right outta Israel, like the romans did.
Setting aside the insults, margie, where does Yehudi appear in Genesis? And how does it differ from a Hebrew? Is it one particular tribe?
"When Esav was forty years old, he took to wife Yehudit daughter of B’eri the Hittite and Ba’semat daughter of Elon the Hittite." (genesis 26.34) yehudit means jewess;
“In the fortress Shushan lived a Jew by the name of Mordekhai" (Esther 2.7) the book of Esther is all about the Babylonian exile and the first Purim -