Chapter 1 Lucifer

Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth. – Pablo Picasso (Picasso Speaks, 1923)

Section 1: Culture

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“Hey, are you asleep,” the police officer asked after an old man stopped to think. The suspect got scared and tried to walk away, so the uniformed man threw the elderly man to the ground, using a leg sweep followed by a chokehold. After the arrest, the next stage of bureaucracy begins. The officer might get written up for excessive force, and a lawyer might get the charges dropped. However, that will not happen until after the senior spends years sitting in courtrooms. Not too long ago, people respected their elders, and a young man would not throw a grandfather to the ground. The process that changed our culture needs to be examined. We should find out what went wrong and fix the problem.

The police are authorized by something called law. Do we need laws? Let us consider traffic laws. Our ancestors operated for thousands of years without traffic laws. They became necessary after cars were invented and are part of a maze of regulations that hold modern industrial culture together. This industry has given us cell phones, game consoles, and social media. These gadgets give us a lifestyle with less contact with the wilderness than our foraging ancestors experienced. I use the term civilization to refer to cultures where people live separate from nature. We are all accumulating new gadgets, making us want to be part of civilization, so we let laws own us, but should we follow unnecessary laws, and should humans be modified to fit unnatural conditions, or should we change tradition to fit human needs better? Do we know what humans need? I don’t think we do. 

Before discussing changing our culture, let us examine the word culture. The anthropologist Edward Burnett Tylor developed the modern concept of culture in the nineteenth century.

“that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.” (Tylor, 1871)

We confuse separate issues by using only one word to refer to what a group of people does, how a group of people thinks, and what we call the group. Are people what they think? Well, in this book, I am going to go with the confusion and write about the ideas in culture. The sociologist Emile Durkheim wrote about people having shared beliefs.

“The totality of beliefs and sentiments common to average citizens of the same society forms a determinate system which has its own life; one may call it the collective or common conscience.” (Durkheim, 1893)

This idea of people thinking together has become so popular that we use the word culture as if the meaning were obvious. Is the meaning obvious? Durkheim didn’t discover anything new. The ancient Greeks called this confusion politics, and German philosophers thought it was a spirit. 

I suspect people are born with the ability to analyze the suggestions in how people speak or act, and this allows children to learn the rules of culture by observing the implications of what others say. We are not limited to one set of rules; we have a variety of opinions to play with. People assume specific rules are necessary, and such views allow concepts to control our lives. And the pompous think their opinions entitle them to reconstruct society. Notably, Plato, Augustine, Marx, and Hitler wanted to redesign society to fit their great expectations.

To better understand why people would want to change a culture, I read a book called “Race, Class, & Gender” (Andersen, 2010). The book’s editors assume that certain traditions support discrimination and collected various writings to show this inequality. Books such as Race, Class, & Gender create awareness of social issues; however, being aware of problems does not mean they know how to deal with them. We all make questionable assumptions about social problems. The social structures in our hypothesis might not even exist, and our solutions for the issues might not work or might make the situation worse. So why should we believe structuralists when they claim that every word implies obscure cultural connections? Perhaps they are right to say that hidden cultural structures underlie the facts people see or do not see. But then, how would they know when they are wrong?

People who talk about systemic cultural structure act like they know more than everyone else, and they will get angry if you doubt the validity of their teaching. Fortunately, truth is not determined by who is more aggressive. Using a scientific method to test ideas provides a more reliable source of information than opinions. In mechanical engineering, people can show results, and the side with the more persuasive argument could be wrong. Good engineers learn from their errors, find where they went wrong, and fix mistakes to create successful mechanical devices. Even opinions that seem obvious could have flaws. For example, the Sun appears to go around the Earth, even though scientific investigation supports other explanations for how the planets move. Discovering unknown factors indicates that the truth is separate from cultural groupthink. Something real is out there.

Sometimes, the reason a plan does not work will remain unknown until someone does the math. I noticed that the humanities departments are full of teachers who don’t like math and confirm their ideas by citing each other. Without proper scrutiny, poorly informed people will believe their opinions if they get others to agree with them, and one of the most successful agreements is to complain about a group of people. In 1988, Peggy McIntosh wrote an article about White and Male Privilege (McIntosh, 1988). Such articles showed people how to emphasize the concept of white privilege instead of understanding individuals, and it is the kind of article that appears in Race, Class, & Gender. After thirty years, hateful rhetoric against white privilege became so common in journalism that news reporters claimed a smiling white kid was being smug to an old Native American. One journalist wanted the kid dead (Mikelionis, 2019). These journalists were so full of hate that they could not see the kid was trying to be friendly.

Demonizing one group ignores the way bad ideas can get promoted by every group of people, including people who are not white. At one time, the British were the dominant culture. Today, the Chinese are becoming influential. Who knows who will be next? If we want to stop bad ideas from happening again, we need to search for better solutions than blaming the old group because the new group could commit the same errors.

OK, so assuming that we stop blaming the other guy for everything, what error are we all making? Professor Jonathan Haidt studied righteousness and made an interesting discovery.

“Our moral thinking is much more like a politician searching for votes than a scientist searching for truth.” (Haidt, 2012 p. 89)

We persuade ourselves that we are on the right track as people pursue what they assume to be the greater good, and this objective gives people purpose. The need for this purpose is stronger than the need for political power or money, though we sometimes think money or social control will allow the purpose to happen. This need was beautifully portrayed in the movie Ikiru by Kurosawa (1952), where a dying man finds joy by building a park for kids. In real life, the outcome is not always beautiful; there may be unanticipated consequences. Turning an idea into a priority allows us to forget those times when the idea led us in the wrong direction. I assume the police knocked down the old man as they followed procedures designed with good intentions. If good ideas become the source of bad culture, we must stop being the tools of purpose. Ask yourself, what evidence do you have that your plans will help anyone? If your evidence consists of only wishful thinking, you do not have evidence.

This is not an academic book. A Proper book on academic subjects would display and comment on other people’s academic works. Usually, those works would be papers written by experts that were reviewed by other experts. I do not want to repeat someone else. I will try to make new portraits. I will include references to sources that might be useful for anyone who wants to do further research. 

Section 2: Error

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On the news the other day, the police accused a guy of giving false information because the guy’s story changed. Law enforcement is full of cynics who assume people have malicious intent, so they see lies when this could be a normal person trying to figure out what’s going on. Stories change even when people try to tell the truth because your memory will make corrections when it gets new information, and you might not realize you are doing it. I wonder how many innocent people are in prison because lawyers or police tricked them into contradicting themselves.

Truth isn’t always easy to do; sometimes, it is hard to find, and you don’t necessarily know when you got it. A professor told me that people doing their research on their own are likelier to believe bad information. The professor thinks we should rely on experts such as university professors since highly technical subjects require specialized training. To a certain extent, the professor is correct; however, experts disagree with each other in any field of study, from basket weaving to sports commentary. Also, as time goes on, the opinions of Scholars change. The average person might not know who to accept as a reliable source. 

I know a lonely guy who believes that the Farmer’s Almanac is always right. So basically, the guy thinks sunspots cause everything. This lonely person claimed that scholars changed their story because they were trying to suppress information. I asked about what information the scholars suppressed. This person did not know because the lonely one would not read the scholar’s writing. Imagine spending years isolated from others, agreeing with oneself until you feel no need to read books. This lonely person can talk for hours about secret agendas, using “They” to describe a hidden agency that controls the scholars. Never explaining who They are or how anyone knows about them, this solitary mind claims to know what They are thinking.

Suppressing the truth would require coordination between thousands of separate groups. No organization could manage such an effort, or could they? Well, good researchers put a lot of careful effort into looking for correct information. Certainly, honest scholars would expose the truth. The lonely one does not believe honest scholars exist and scoffs at everything scholars say. 

The lonely one seems to be immune to any evidence that might change one’s beliefs; the windshield wipers in the mind wipe away all contradictory ideas. Knowing this person helped me realize how far unhinged ideas can develop when someone fails to check facts. I also spent a lot of time alone and know that being alone will mess with your mind. My ideas are wacky, but I don’t want to end up cut off from all outside information until all that remains are ideas that satisfy my beliefs. 

Years ago, I thought there must be a prototype that all religions imitate. I thought that I had found it in the book “Black Elk Speaks” (Neihardt, 1932), where a Native American tells stories that sound similar to stories told in Europe and Asia, so I assumed that these stories must have been inherited from the primal religion of our hunting ancestors. I noticed my error while reading about other hunting cultures, such as Canadian Inuit and African San. The religious ideas of these people did not always fit the prototype. 

I later read the original field notes for “Black Elk Speaks” in the book “The Sixth Grandfather” by DeMallie (1984) and learned that the European Neihardt rewrote Black Elk’s words. Neihardt included stories that imitated Christian stories taught to kids. These were the same stories that I learned as a kid, and I was content to believe that all cultures told such stories. I now realize that cultures can be different, and even if other cultures share some stories, each culture has different kinds of people who can have different types of stories. 

The idea of universal myths common to all people appears in the writing of the scholar Joseph Campbell, who collected massive amounts of mythological information and then connected these stories into a single story. Though Campbell was one of the greatest authorities on the subject of myth, even experts can connect ideas incorrectly. Instead of discovering ancient myths, Campbell combined the interpretations of other scholars, such as Jung and Freud, to produce a new story. Campbell’s hero story is one of the best myths ever created.

Joseph Campbell’s error troubled me since Campbell’s ideas were used to construct my worldview. Reading a lot of books helped me to gain enough knowledge to support my stupidity but not enough to not be stupid. I now realize that the more separate ideas used to construct a hypothesis, the more likely the hypothesis is wrong. Always question a connection and always assume you need more research. I tried to tell the lonely one how recognizing your errors will awaken one to the possibility of better information. The one ignored me. I guess the sunspot belief gave the lonely mind a sense of certainty. Honest research does not provide that kind of certainty.

Discovering no universal myths revealed how silly I was to believe an interpretation of an imaginary symbol was right. Two people can watch the same tree grow. One will see fire; another will see the water. No one interpretation fits all situations. Consider how critics interpret Shakespeare’s plays in more than one way. However, does any interpretation have a better philosophical or artistic value? Perhaps they do, or perhaps art interpretation is a big joke we play with ourselves.

Section 3: Art

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The lonely guy’s memory and ability to do math are amazing. This person easily learned calculus at a very young age and was accepted into an advanced school, which challenged students with deep engineering questions. The one was not accustomed to being challenged, dropped out of school, and rejected all written knowledge. Perhaps a psychological defense mechanism told the lonely mind that the world controlled by hidden agendas makes all new information a lie. Was this person just lazy?

I am trying to create a credible portrait of ideas. So you might wonder why I would waste your time with drawings that look like witchcraft. Because we will not understand people until we understand symbols, and this occult stuff is one of the oldest frameworks for organizing symbols. It gives me something to work with. Early Christian writers such as Augustine thought the old gods were demons that could harm us (City of God bk. 9). I think the old gods are different perspectives that we still feel. Reading mythology requires a tolerance for nonsense. Nonetheless, we can search myths to understand what people were trying to say, which might not have been nonsense.

Back in grade school, I had one of those New Age teachers who asked everyone to draw a circle with something important. One student drew a peace sign and then talked about peace on Earth. This pleased the hippie teacher. I drew a dollar sign since the peace sign means nothing to me. The teacher accused me of lacking creativity and free expression. If this teacher was correct, I would never develop my own stories. You might notice that the symbols that are used in this book are not original. 

Symbols remind us of how people feel about culture, history, and the world; however, people sometimes interpret symbols by rationalizing false beliefs. Therefore, we should not rely only on our limited imagination when interpreting myth. Listen to what other people say.  The psychologist Richard Lazarus thought our appraisal of events influenced emotions.

“What is crucial to the arousal of an emotion is that there is a goal at stake.” (Lazarus, 1996 ch. 7)

I assume a purpose motivated the emotions that went into building an image. However, a picture has more meaning than the artist’s intentions when others find uses the artist never thought of. We can study a story for years without finding all the interpretations because people make up new stories out of old stories. The philosopher Daniel Dennett claimed the mind edits what it remembers.

“Subjects should be unable to tell the difference between misbegotten experiences and immediately misremembered experiences.” (Dennett, 1991 p. 125)

If minds recall a different story from the minute before, imagine all the stories we forgot since our ancestors began telling stories, then imagine how much groupthink changed over the centuries. Nonetheless, if certain motivations are a permanent part of us, then this explains why some plots of the stories never change. So, Jung and Campbell might not have been completely wrong.

Even fictional concepts have a real influence when people let stories influence their lifestyles. A mathematical story called money becomes more than a fantasy when people use this idea to buy stuff. If you like pagan idolatry, call these influences gods. However, if the illusion of gods prevents us from seeing the world, why invent fables about Nature; why put gods where no gods are needed? Unfortunately, I started inventing my religion at a very young age and never learned how to stop. Descartes had trust in faith, believing God would never deceive us.

“For from the fact that God is no deceiver, it follows that I am in no way mistaken in these matters.” (Meditation VI 90)

I am comfortable knowing the universe deceives us. Surprise gives us a chance to learn something new. A flaw in our worldview might only appear after someone draws the picture because drawing brings out ideas stored in the back of the mind. The designs in this book came about slowly when pictures were redrawn and used to build more pictures. The book originally included hundreds of original drawings until I removed the unnecessary symbols. What remains are mostly old symbols that I borrowed from other books. 

This book was never meant to be a historical report about myths; the details differ considerably from the older stories by Homer and Ovid. You should read the old stories; some are still relevant, even after thousands of years. Nonetheless, we are not required to repeat old stories. If done correctly, new details can breathe new life into the old gods. However, I try to keep essential parts of the old stories. We do not want to become like those inconsiderate elitists who rewrote Ghostbusters (Ghostbusters, 2016) until they removed everything good in the original (Ghostbusters, 1984). The original was made by people who had a sense of humor and wanted to entertain people. Hollywood lost that sense of humor and chose to despise normal people. So, they tried to replace beloved art with an ugly travesty.

I noticed something important: in the study of symbols, there is no way to completely remove the researcher’s opinions from the research. The ideas we put in a symbol can depend on what we want them to be, and once we draw them one way, we might not want to draw them any other way. Therefore, Interpreting a myth can become so personal that you will have difficulty separating your story from other stories, and your understanding may seem extended until your personal story becomes a story about the world.

Consider what kind of labels you put on your symbols. Do the labels help you learn about the idea, or do the labels restrict the idea? People insist that you need to use specific words when they are trying to impose their rules on you. I really do not care which symbols you use. There are plenty of ways to think about the same stuff, and I am not trying to impose my rules on anyone. Hopefully, you will look beyond my images to construct better mythological stories. Look at the world to see if your pictures match reality and examine the problems produced by your symbols. Then you can fix a cage and release us from error. 

Section 4: The Temple

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Religion is the strange desire to link with something big. Religion is a sneaky way of thinking when it mixes fact with fiction, and most of us have accumulated this sneaky thinking. Most popular world religions are trying to connect you with something out of this world. My religion will try to connect us with the changing world that surrounds us. The course of this change goes by the name of Nature. Life emerged from Nature, and Life does not have one cause. It depends on the weather, location, and other events we call an environment. Though the world has no final objective, Nature has a past that gave our species a place in the activity of Nature. We no longer live the way our ancestors did, yet we still have the same bodies as our ancestors and still feel the same needs.  So, imagine a world where the land, animals, and people all fit together.

No one knows if such a vision ever existed; the image fails in a civilized culture where people seek salvation by joining concepts detached from the world. Such people are at war with their wild selves. Let us stop the war and invent values that celebrate wild Nature. Perhaps our ancestors practiced this kind of celebration before civilization when people lived as part of the wilderness. So basically, I am digging through the ancient parts of our Nature to wake the creatures that live in us. You might think that such a project will end in disaster. Well, let’s see where it goes.

Listing all the steps people take would be impossible, so let us only use four labels to portray how people react to the world. The step labeled Fire contains ideas. The Water step contains emotions. The step labeled Air has reason and logic. The step labeled Earth contains the material world. These steps are identified with directions. I use them to help synchronize an image of myself with an image of the world.

Our temple imitates Nature. You can think of it as a map of events in the Northern Hemisphere’s temperate regions. People in different environments can redesign the temple to fit their conditions. Anyone can change the temple to match their worldview. The right changes can make the temple better attuned to Nature’s harmony. In our temple, people share myths, develop new myths, or rediscover old forgotten gods.

We start by building the temple with ten basic concepts. These points of view portray different strategies for dealing with situations. The first stands for nothing. The second is the background of everything that we call the Zodiac. Next, the seven planets get numbered according to how fast each planet seems to move through the Zodiac. The old cosmology classified the moon and sun as planets. The tenth perspective, identified with Earth, is the completion around which all other perspectives revolve.

To add more details to the ten perspectives, I borrowed ideas from the medieval occultist Agrippa. Medieval alchemists associated concepts with colors and metals;  we will decorate the temple with these colors. We could also include some of the tools of the alchemists, which included a cup for Water and a disk for Earth. 

1. AIN – Lucifer Orange Lion

2. ANU – Zodiac Purple Crab

3. YEUO – Saturn Black Crow – Saturday Evergreen Lead

4. JOVE  – Jupiter Blue Bull – Thursday Oak Tin

5. YESVO – Mars Red Ram – Tuesday Elm Iron

6. OM – Apollo Yellow Fish – Sunday Maple Gold

7. MAYA – Venus Green Cow  – Friday Apple Copper

8. ESHU  – Mercury Gray Goat  -Wednesday Ash Mercury

9. NEM  – Moon White Cat  -Monday Fern Silver

10. GAIA – Earth Brown Insect

While standing at the center of the universe on top of a hill, the world is a brown circle surrounding us. Along this circle, the Sun appears to move clockwise each day when viewed from the Northern Hemisphere while looking south. Each morning, the Sun rises in the east. Moving clockwise, midday happens on the south point of our temple. Each evening, the Sun sets in the west. The four points of the circle are complete with the night at the north. On the body of the temple, the head points south, the direction of up and Fire. The west, the direction of Water, sits on the left hand, the hand closest to your heart. The north contains the physical stuff on Earth. The east, the direction of Air, sits in the right hand.

A red line of imagination connects the material world of the North with the mind in the South when our view of reality gets filtered through our imagination. The will to touch other people dominates our imagination. We also call this central line our soul. Choosing to touch separates the left from the right. The left represents choosing to touch. The right represents denying the will to touch. A black Horizontal line connects reason in the East with emotions in the West, separating up from down. These lines divide the temple into four parts to hold the four seasons.

Each year, the Sun appears to move through the Zodiac. Facing north, this movement appears to go clockwise around the North Star. The Sun reaches its most northerly point during the summer solstice, the year’s longest day. The Sun reaches its most southerly point during the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. Vegetation became dormant, and the Sun begins its trip north. Our calendar of festivals begins at the end of the old year at the beginning of the New Year.

This temple design would be easier to explain if we placed winter in the north and spring in the east. The more complicated temple design allows more ideas, which I plan on using in this book. Also the symbols are drawn upside down to portray a different perspective, which I hope to show in this book. Don’t use my design; a simpler design would allow a more practical temple.

Section 5: Festivals

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I got the idea for eight festivals from the book “The Spiral Dance” by Starhawk. Wiccans name their festivals using words from old books such as those by the medieval monk Bede. Most of these words were not the names of festivals practiced by Pagans before Christianity; the names merely sound real. We will assign gods and numbers to each festival in a way that fits the temple calendar design. Notably, the North Star of Aphrodite rests in the center of the temple, where eight points indicate the proper direction for each festival. The North point should point up if this star gets hung on the North wall.

The festival Yule happens during the winter solstice, when Life becomes dormant in the Northern Hemisphere, for the Northwind has purified the Earth. Since the sun has reached the southern point of the ecliptic, mark this festival in the South of the temple with the color red. During Yule, we celebrate the Fire step, which contains the number 3, the planet Saturn, and the sacred name of the father YEUO. On this day, animate Nature called Mother Nature, the daughter of Mother Earth, unites with Time, the Son of Heaven. The Great Mother conceives a son who will be born during the spring.

The festival Imbolc happens during the time of preparation for the coming of spring. We celebrate the pure inner light of the morning star with a little asceticism during Candlemass. But only a little; too much asceticism would destroy life. The perspective of this festival includes the color orange, number one, and the sacred name AIN.

Life grows back after the spring equinox. On this day, we celebrate the birth of the seasonal life in the festival Ostara and mark this time on the West side of our temple. Since life needs water, this festival contains the Water Step. Brighter colors look good on blue as we celebrate the season of youth and fun. A yellow star, with six points on a blue background, maps the seasonal son of Saturn and Nature, named EUO. In this festival, remember the number 4 of Dionysus, who represents our passions and wants.

Beltane takes place on May Day, the festival of growing and learning. The Youth learns how identity intertwines with the world, where nothing seems black or white, where the youth only finds shades of gray. The sacred name of this festival, ESHU represents the act of learning. The number eight signifies Mercury, the central concept of this festival.

The green festival Litha happens during the summer solstice when the Sun reaches its northern point as life reaches full bloom. Since the seasonal life matured, let us celebrate our material bodies contained in the Earth step as Mother Nature. On the temple, this festival of Aphrodite gets marked in the North with the number seven, where the sacred name is MAYA.

The next festival, Lammas, also called Lughnasadh, celebrates the lunar virgin. The ninth sacred name, NEM cannot be touched, a fact of life all of us must understand.

During the autumn equinox, we celebrate the festival called Mabon, when the seasonal life dies. This is a time to be thankful for the gifts received during the year. Since we need to use reason to prepare for winter, the name OM has become necessary. The sixth step of yellow Air contains Apollo, the God of the East.

During the last festival, Samhain, also known as Halloween, life becomes dormant, and only the skeletons of the trees remain. The purple color of the zodiac is the background of everything, whose sacred name ANU signifies heaven. We know Samhain is not the end. In a few weeks, a new year will begin. The son becomes the father, plus the daughter becomes the mother. Life will grow back as the old year passes. 

Add the number of each festival to the number of the festival opposite to get ten, the number of completion. Five at the center maps Mars in the balance of opposing points. Call this sacred person Yesuo. At the center of the universe, we find the world. At the center of the world, we find the temple. At the center of the temple, we find the North Star of Aphrodite. At the center of the North Star, we find a body. At the center of the body, we find the universe.

Section 6: Light

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The pessimist philosopher Schopenhauer claimed the world is driving us to suffer.

Again, you may look upon life as an unprofitable episode, disturbing the blessed calm of non-existence. (Schopenhauer, 1851).

With this attitude, your body and your fleshy desires become the object of dislike. Similar ideas appeared in other cultures. People in India wrote in the Upanishads about turning attention away from the world toward an uncorrupted inner self. In the Christian New Testament, Jesus says we are not part of this world.

“If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” (John 15:19) 

Buddhists try to find liberation by avoiding attachment to selfish emotions, thinking this practice improves life.

“Selfish bonds cause grief; selfish bonds cause fear. Be unselfish, and you will be free from grief and fear.” (Dhammapada 215)

We can find a similar need to separate from the world in Ancient Egypt, where Sethian Gnostics thought an ignorant agent created the material world.

“He created for himself another aeon inside a blaze of luminous fire, which still exists now.” (Secret John 11:4)

According to the Sethians, we find the light trapped in our bodies.

“And they will be worthy of these great Lights. For there they are purified from all wickedness and the chains of evil.” (Secret John 23:5-6)

I guess desires corrupted the divine light, allowing stuff to exist, and according to these religions of light, the world of desires is darkness. But what are these people trying to get? Are they trying to eliminate bad emotions, or are they trying to become nothing? Consider the Buddhist concept of Nirvana, which means extinction. 

“But now I have seen you, housebuilder; you shall not build this house again. Its beams are broken; its dome is shattered: self-will is extinguished; nirvana is attained.” (Dhammapada 154)

Preferring a world of physical pleasure, I see the inner light as part of a pessimistic conflict with the world. Without emotions, your life would be nothing. The Earth has a lot for us to enjoy, so I have tried to create a religion attached to the world. This Earth religion could be an alternative to the popular religions which seek something other than the Earth.

Nonetheless, the idea of divine light seems important enough to include as the first perspective in the temple. Lucifer is the Latin name for the Morning Star, the bringer of light (Cicero 2, 53). For Lucifer’s sacred name, we use the word AIN, the Hebrew word for “Nothing” (Strong H369).

The divine light does not always mean nothing. Plato tried to use rational thought to see through the darkness to find a better way to live. Unfortunately, Plato’s idea of truth remains separate from the world of fleshy desires.

“The visible realm should be likened to the prison dwelling, and the light of the fire inside it to the power of the sun.” (Republic 517b)

The gospel of John talks about light in the darkness in a way similar to how Plato used the analogy of light in the mind.

“Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” (John 8:12)

In Christianity, the devoted are told to believe something wonderful exists in the other world. A Christian named Paul promoted the idea of Jesus as our guide. Paul wanted cleanness and claimed that the desires of the flesh would lead you to Hell. Paul thought disciplining the body would achieve control over dirty desires. This control was necessary to enter the other world.

“But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” (1 Corinthians 9:27)

“For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” (Galatians 5:17)

In this war between spirit and flesh, Paul seems to hate the world, life, and body. Paul wanted to be with Christ and only stayed in the living world to convince others to join Jesus.

“For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:” (Philippians 1:23)

Puritanical fanatics like Paul invent moral codes for correcting behavior as if following moral codes makes you pure. For Paul, the divine supports this moral code, and Paul thought Jesus equals the spirit of the code. Jesus was dead and not around to correct Paul. We do not know if Jesus would have agreed with Paul. 

The concept of sin requires a patriarch to fix the situation. Imagine a king wearing a crown of divine light to personify the guardian of law and order. This divine ruler uses the sign of Leo to scare demons into submission. White light believers only scare themselves. These demons could become friends if living with Nature brings a rewarding experience. The light does not shine with love; love happens inside your material body. Instead of divine light, seek the darkness. Imagine a lady riding the Lion. In this symbol, Nature controls the Lion, or in other words, the desires of the flesh control us.

We were born to enjoy the pleasures of the flesh in the material world. Thinking these pleasures are not good enough might lead someone to consider an alternative unnatural devotion to be natural. But do people find Nature by uniting with Buddha? I do not understand how sitting in a monastery chanting nonsense will not get you much life. Life needs activity. Too much cleanliness would create conditions that are too sterile to support life. We live in a world made of dirt; we need this dirt to live. I’ve spent time with various religious groups, and most of them experience just as much life as anyone else. so maybe Buddhism isn’t all that bad. In fact, it is actually kind of beautiful. I guess it’s OK in small doses.

Sometimes, people use the story of the divine to make money. TV evangelists and gurus want you to pay for guidance. I have relatives who want a cosmic mind to care about their lives, and they claim that faith gives them a reason to live. Organized religion takes advantage of such people, and we should question if such religions are really trying to save your soul. We should build a better religion. Pehaps a religion that does not collect money. Perhaps a religion that does not pretend to save your soul. Our religion celebrates the Nature inside our bodies and the Nature outside our bodies. In order to celebrate Nature, we might not even need a religion.

The Morning Star appears furthest from the sun five times every eight years. These five points of the Morning Star signify periods of destruction. Draw the morning star with blue points around an orange center. The orange center maps Nirvana, and the blue maps the destruction of the material self for those moving toward the center on the righthand path. For those who prefer to accept life, the blue can be the destruction of Nirvana, which happens as a movement away from the orange center. The writer of this book is not a fan of the religions of light. I will take you to darkness to show you how the truth does not require you to hate your material self.

Do you think we can manage the world, or did overconfidence cause soil degradation, overpopulation, pollution, poverty, and other problems? These problems became worse after civilization took over the planet. Although people might never eliminate civilization, I think we could downsize some unnecessary civilized options. One of those options that needs to be eliminated is the civilization inside of us. If you like the safety of civilized control, my ideas will seem impractical, but is practical more important than truth? In this age of accelerating progress, we must choose our future. How do you expect to make the right choices if you choose ignorance? This book is for anyone who will not be a drone of the collective. The time has come to share this perspective because people with similar ideas need to know they are not alone.

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Sources

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