by Ray Jason
As soon as I finish this essay and
send it out into the world to find its way, I will begin my own private
Christmas celebration. I will cast off
the dock-lines, hoist the sails and head off to a little cove that will
bequeath me the wondrous gift of Solitude.
My only companions will be the creatures of the Sea and the Sky and an
occasional fisherman drifting by in a cayuco.
What I will be seeking in this
isolation is what has been lost in the current incarnation of Christmas – REVERENCE. This holiday is supposed to pay homage to the
birth date of the founder of Christianity.
But it has steadily deteriorated from a spiritual celebration into a
materialistic, consumer frenzy. It is
not about Spirit. It is about Stuff.
The object of my reverence will not
be a god or a man-god or a man. It will
be Nature. Whereas the existence of god cannot be
proven, the existence of Nature cannot be denied. My handsome little sailboat will be moving
through it – through the waves of the Sea - powered by the wind from the Sky. In a very real sense, my boat and I will be
cradled by Nature.
On Winter Solstice Eve I will sit on the deck with my
back against the mast and sip some warm milk enhanced with a festive dollop of
Baileys Irish Crèam. The moon will be
nearly full, and its sparkle on the water will match the glimmer in my mug. I will marvel at many things: the
massive sky-dome twinkling above - the soothing stillness of the cove - the
moon sphere in the watery mirror.
And I will wonder about many things: how many
thousand generations ago did humans first realize that this was The Longest
Night – how soon did they start celebrating the event with festivals – but
above all, I will wonder why can’t the splendor and mystery of this world not
be enough to satiate humanity’s need for spirituality? Why is the magnificence of our planet and the
universe that surrounds it, not enough for us to revere? Why must we invent man-made gods and unleash
the horrible consequences of such creations?
Our Cosmos is so lush with miracles: the precision of the
planetary orbits – the power of the distant moon to affect Earth’s tides – our
planet’s astonishing diversity of creatures.
Why do we renounce these in favor of fake miracles – of talking snakes –
of virgin births – of prophets ascending into the sky on horseback? Why do we choose what is false, when there is
so much that is fantastic?
*******
We do so because we have been fooled, we have been
duped, we have been conned. The
monotheistic sky-gods that dominate our world these days are new arrivals on
the human scene. They emerged with the
switch from the nomadic, hunter/gatherer lifestyle to the sedentary
agricultural lifestyle. Surely it
appeared like an evolutionary advance to domesticate plants and animals and
thus seemingly end the risk of starvation.
But what went unnoticed was the fact that humans were inadvertently
domesticating themselves.
The most aggressive and ruthless amongst us recognized
that they could dominate the great mass of the people; and they swiftly
proceeded to do so. Joining the rulers
in this quest were the priests. And to
facilitate this they designed gods that were male, that were powerful and that
were intolerant.
Conveniently, they were also “invisible.” But they were surely there laying down all
manner of commandments and restrictions that you must obey. Otherwise, the first generation of the
Malignant Overlords would torture or terminate you – or both.
If this assessment seems harsh to you, allow me to
remind you of the immense suffering that the huge, organized religions have
bequeathed 500 generations of largely innocent human beings:
·
Witch hunts
·
Torture
·
Rejections of
scientific discoveries
·
Persecutions of
“infidels”
·
Demonization of
natural sexual urges
·
Crusades
·
Human sacrifice
·
Forcing females
to be subservient to males
·
Burnings at the
stake
·
Inquisitions
·
Suicide bombers
·
Justification for
slavery
·
Forcing unwanted
children on the poor
All of these atrocities were championed under the
banner of the various religions. Take a
few seconds and read through that list again.
Were any of them committed in the name of Love of Nature? No, but they all were carried out at the
behest of somebody’s god; and many of them are still being sanctioned to this
very day. The so-called Clash of
Civilizations, that is destroying the Middle East, is actually a Clash of
Religions. Indeed, as I write this
sentence, there is probably an innocent child being killed or mutilated in that
Vale of Chaos.
*******
Now that I have described some of the grisly, negative
aspects of institutional religion, allow me to mention how many positive features
there are to Pantheism. After I have
outlined these characteristics, I feel confident that half of you reading this will
convert to this very different form of spirituality. Well, maybe half of one percent.
·
There are no
“enemies” in Pantheism. People don’t go
to war over who has the most beautiful rain forests.
·
There are no
ornate trappings in Nature worship. Who
needs cathedrals and mosques on a planet abundant in fiords and volcanoes?
·
Pantheists do not
dictate how people should conduct their lives.
There are no commandments handed down from celestial tyrants.
·
Because they
don’t view this life as a dress rehearsal for some celestial paradise, those
who worship Nature live their day-to-day lives more fully and richly.
·
Pantheism is the
perfect answer for atheists or agnostics.
These non-believers clearly see the absurdity and evil that dominates
the big religions, and yet they seek something to revere beyond the material
world.
*******
As I wind down this essay, I can
almost detect AVENTURA tugging at her dock-lines – anxious to head out to the
islands. Soon we will be anchor down -
with just a few flying and swimming friends to keep us company.
But I believe that our Solstice solitude will be as
magnificent as any Christmas Eve mass in a mighty cathedral. And even though I will not hoist a golden
chalice above an ornate altar, I will ceremoniously lift my humble mug of milk
and Irish crèam. And I will do so to the
sacred congregation of stars that twinkle silently above the Great Tabernacle
of Nature.