bluestar
12-02-2007, 02:15 AM
From
A Gift from Daniel
by Karen Alexander.
We were well beyond the Earth, but I could see the vibrant blue sphere turning in the blackness, beautiful as ever. But now there were four enormous male figures surrounding it. Jostling for territory, each appeared several times larger than the Earth.
Astounded, I managed to whisper, “What are those?”
“Those are the Earth-gods, all four of them. You know, Yahweh, Jehovah, the evil one, and the nameless, faceless one.”
“Yahweh and Jehovah. That’s God in the Bible. . . the evil one, that’s what some people call Satan.” I trailed off, terrified to hear his answer.
“And the nameless, faceless one is what lots of other religions think of as God. Pretty scary things to create, don’t you think? That’s density [ignorance] for you. It makes ugly stuff.”
“What’s that coming out from the Earth?” I managed to choke out my question, afraid that the God of my childhood would turn and dismiss my existence with a single thought.
“That’s all the energy of the human beings going up to feed the Earth-gods,” he said sadly. “They can’t even exist unless you continue to give up your own power. The people of Earth created them and keep them going every time they look outside themselves for instructions and help.”
I allowed this astounding information to sink in, then something occured to me. “Wait a minute, Daniel. Aren’t Yahweh and Jehovah the same thing? Why are there two of them?”
“No.” he answered. “They aren’t the same at all. Yahweh was first. He was created out of the misunderstanding about the old part of your Bible. Jehovah was born of the confusion about the new part of the Bible.”
“Oh.” I struggled for a moment. “Well, what about Allah? A lot of people on Earth worship him.”
“The names aren’t important,” he answered. “What matters is the kind of energy humans send up to create the different Earth-gods. Some of the people who worship Allah are really giving energy to Yahweh, and some are feeding Jehovah. It depends on whether they’re confused traditionalists or mixed-up fundamentalists.”
His little arms were crossed over his chest, and he looked intensely serious. We stood together and watched the steady streams of energy flowing upward from Earth. The Earth-gods fought to catch the resources being sent. At the moment, it appeared as if Jehovah was winning, but the evil one seemed almost as strong.
“What’s that foggy-looking thing out to the side?” I asked, watching an amorphous figure drift just beyond the range of the four competitors.
“Oh, that’s the new one,” he replied, a hint of sarcasm in his voice. “People have created another Earh-god for themselves. They call it ‘The Light’. It’s just the most recent invention of something outside they can look to.”
Seeing my confusion, he added, “Some people started to realise that God must be different from what they had been taught. They turned away from the old ideas, but they just ended up making another Earth-god. The other ones think its funny, you know, humans believing they can get away from them. The new god just helps keep people from understanding the truth.”
“Daniel, is there any hope for us?” I said desperately. “I thought The Light was a positive thing, something apart from religious institutions.”
“It could have been good, but ‘The Light’ is still outside the person, and still more powerful, and still requires that a person turn to it for help.”
Suddenly, Daniel threw out his arms. “Let them go,” he shouted. “Just leave them alone. Leave those people alone!”
Daniel was yelling at God, and I had nowhere to hide. There was nowhere to go and nothing to do but wait for the inevitable repercussions.
What happens if God decides to wipe you out? But which god? There were almost five of them out there, but there was only supposed to be one God! And I could see the beautiful shimmering energy being sapped from the Earth by these five false gods.
None of them was paying the slightest bit of attention to Daniel’s outburst. “Daniel, why aren’t they responding to you?”
“Because they know perfectly well that Earth is a planet of free will,” he said angrily. “They don’t have anything to worry about as long as people continue to believe in them. You know, if people would just stop, those guys would be gone instantly.”
“How did they get started? Where did they come from in the first place?”
“Power and confusion...simple as that. When people started to get confused, other people started taking advantage of that confusion. The manipulators had lost track of who they really are, too, but no one knew that.”
I looked at him blankly. “Who are you talking about?”
“Your religious leaders. I call them keepers of the buildings. They do a good job of taking care of pretty churches and temples and an awful job of reminding people of who they really are.”
It was beginning to occur to me that our religious leaders might not know any more than we did about the reality of these Earth-gods. I dared to ask, “Daniel, do they know the answer? Do they know who we really are?”
“Most of them have forgotten completely.” Watching my reaction, he added, “But the thing is, nobody knows that. Mostly, people think ministers and priests have some special connection to God. But secretly, most of the keepers know that they don’t have any connection. They can’t admit it, or they’d lose their position and their power.”
I was about to ask him if there was anybody on Earth who knew the answers, when he continued. “There are people who do know more, but most of them decide not to tell because people then wouldn’t need them anymore.”
Suddenly we were in a room. It seemed like a long time ago. I could see several robed figures sitting in a circle. They looked like priests of some kind. It was cold here; the continuous rain fed dusty mould that covered the stone floor.
“They can’t hear you or see you,” Daniel said softly. Somehow, I could percieve more than the words being spoken.
“The people must never have this.” Their quiet words barely disturbed the air. Meeting in daylight, the men held no fear of being seen.
“It would mean the end of everything.” Like the wind touching weeds in a field, their heads nodded silently in agreement. Under the subtle glow of gemstones and the flicker of gold upon their raiment, their hearts were cold. Their people were terrified, and that was good.
“How can we contain this?” One said uneasily, his robe registering a shift in rigid posture. “It almost seems destined to become known.” He bowed his dark head, unwilling to meet the judgemental eyes, frightened that the others might think him disloyal.
“We will do what is necessary. We must give them a story they can accept, and hide the rest. No one would dare question us.” The man looked at the others, hoping to find in them the courage he only pretended to hold.
“How long...?” The white hands glistened with moisture from fear. Twisting, the fingers ground against each other with anxiety. “How long will we have?” The voice trembled and the man shook.
“Perhaps forever,” a stronger note sounded. “It will all be ours. After all, who among them will ever ask?”
“Who are these people?” I asked. What are they trying to hide?”
“Just what is most important in the whole world...who you really are. It doesn’t matter who they are. There have been people like this all along, all over your world, in all the different religions. Looking for spiritual guidance can be a dangerous thing. A teacher should only help you to remember who you are. If he is telling you what to do and how to think, he is only a keeper.”
“Daniel, if what we thought was God isn’t really God, what is it?”
“A really dangerous distraction,” he replied quietly. “As long as people stay focussed on that, they’ll never remember the truth.”
My mind went into overdrive. “Daniel, are you telling me all of our great teachers have been mixed up? You mean we all learned garbled messages about what God is, and what we are?
He didn’t flinch. “Yep.”
His answer was so simple and so complete, that I was stopped for a moment. The whole thing was mind-boggling. It was not easy entertaining the idea that what I had always thought was God was only something birthed into reality by the misguided actions of man. Our own fear and confusion had gelled into a being that terrified us. We gave Him life, then fell to our knees and begged for His forgiveness.
“What you’ve told me is blasphemy!” I felt a rush of fear, familiar and painful. Don’t think in ways that would offend God. Don’t do things that would cause him to punish you. Never offend Him, or a zap of lightning will certainly shoot from the sky and send you straight to hell.” I shuddered at all the threats of damnation in the Bible. But were they just manufactured to scare us? What better way to stop people from thinking things through.
“That’s how it works,” he said gently. “They make you afraid to question. If you don’t look too hard they can keep the power.”
A Gift from Daniel
by Karen Alexander.
We were well beyond the Earth, but I could see the vibrant blue sphere turning in the blackness, beautiful as ever. But now there were four enormous male figures surrounding it. Jostling for territory, each appeared several times larger than the Earth.
Astounded, I managed to whisper, “What are those?”
“Those are the Earth-gods, all four of them. You know, Yahweh, Jehovah, the evil one, and the nameless, faceless one.”
“Yahweh and Jehovah. That’s God in the Bible. . . the evil one, that’s what some people call Satan.” I trailed off, terrified to hear his answer.
“And the nameless, faceless one is what lots of other religions think of as God. Pretty scary things to create, don’t you think? That’s density [ignorance] for you. It makes ugly stuff.”
“What’s that coming out from the Earth?” I managed to choke out my question, afraid that the God of my childhood would turn and dismiss my existence with a single thought.
“That’s all the energy of the human beings going up to feed the Earth-gods,” he said sadly. “They can’t even exist unless you continue to give up your own power. The people of Earth created them and keep them going every time they look outside themselves for instructions and help.”
I allowed this astounding information to sink in, then something occured to me. “Wait a minute, Daniel. Aren’t Yahweh and Jehovah the same thing? Why are there two of them?”
“No.” he answered. “They aren’t the same at all. Yahweh was first. He was created out of the misunderstanding about the old part of your Bible. Jehovah was born of the confusion about the new part of the Bible.”
“Oh.” I struggled for a moment. “Well, what about Allah? A lot of people on Earth worship him.”
“The names aren’t important,” he answered. “What matters is the kind of energy humans send up to create the different Earth-gods. Some of the people who worship Allah are really giving energy to Yahweh, and some are feeding Jehovah. It depends on whether they’re confused traditionalists or mixed-up fundamentalists.”
His little arms were crossed over his chest, and he looked intensely serious. We stood together and watched the steady streams of energy flowing upward from Earth. The Earth-gods fought to catch the resources being sent. At the moment, it appeared as if Jehovah was winning, but the evil one seemed almost as strong.
“What’s that foggy-looking thing out to the side?” I asked, watching an amorphous figure drift just beyond the range of the four competitors.
“Oh, that’s the new one,” he replied, a hint of sarcasm in his voice. “People have created another Earh-god for themselves. They call it ‘The Light’. It’s just the most recent invention of something outside they can look to.”
Seeing my confusion, he added, “Some people started to realise that God must be different from what they had been taught. They turned away from the old ideas, but they just ended up making another Earth-god. The other ones think its funny, you know, humans believing they can get away from them. The new god just helps keep people from understanding the truth.”
“Daniel, is there any hope for us?” I said desperately. “I thought The Light was a positive thing, something apart from religious institutions.”
“It could have been good, but ‘The Light’ is still outside the person, and still more powerful, and still requires that a person turn to it for help.”
Suddenly, Daniel threw out his arms. “Let them go,” he shouted. “Just leave them alone. Leave those people alone!”
Daniel was yelling at God, and I had nowhere to hide. There was nowhere to go and nothing to do but wait for the inevitable repercussions.
What happens if God decides to wipe you out? But which god? There were almost five of them out there, but there was only supposed to be one God! And I could see the beautiful shimmering energy being sapped from the Earth by these five false gods.
None of them was paying the slightest bit of attention to Daniel’s outburst. “Daniel, why aren’t they responding to you?”
“Because they know perfectly well that Earth is a planet of free will,” he said angrily. “They don’t have anything to worry about as long as people continue to believe in them. You know, if people would just stop, those guys would be gone instantly.”
“How did they get started? Where did they come from in the first place?”
“Power and confusion...simple as that. When people started to get confused, other people started taking advantage of that confusion. The manipulators had lost track of who they really are, too, but no one knew that.”
I looked at him blankly. “Who are you talking about?”
“Your religious leaders. I call them keepers of the buildings. They do a good job of taking care of pretty churches and temples and an awful job of reminding people of who they really are.”
It was beginning to occur to me that our religious leaders might not know any more than we did about the reality of these Earth-gods. I dared to ask, “Daniel, do they know the answer? Do they know who we really are?”
“Most of them have forgotten completely.” Watching my reaction, he added, “But the thing is, nobody knows that. Mostly, people think ministers and priests have some special connection to God. But secretly, most of the keepers know that they don’t have any connection. They can’t admit it, or they’d lose their position and their power.”
I was about to ask him if there was anybody on Earth who knew the answers, when he continued. “There are people who do know more, but most of them decide not to tell because people then wouldn’t need them anymore.”
Suddenly we were in a room. It seemed like a long time ago. I could see several robed figures sitting in a circle. They looked like priests of some kind. It was cold here; the continuous rain fed dusty mould that covered the stone floor.
“They can’t hear you or see you,” Daniel said softly. Somehow, I could percieve more than the words being spoken.
“The people must never have this.” Their quiet words barely disturbed the air. Meeting in daylight, the men held no fear of being seen.
“It would mean the end of everything.” Like the wind touching weeds in a field, their heads nodded silently in agreement. Under the subtle glow of gemstones and the flicker of gold upon their raiment, their hearts were cold. Their people were terrified, and that was good.
“How can we contain this?” One said uneasily, his robe registering a shift in rigid posture. “It almost seems destined to become known.” He bowed his dark head, unwilling to meet the judgemental eyes, frightened that the others might think him disloyal.
“We will do what is necessary. We must give them a story they can accept, and hide the rest. No one would dare question us.” The man looked at the others, hoping to find in them the courage he only pretended to hold.
“How long...?” The white hands glistened with moisture from fear. Twisting, the fingers ground against each other with anxiety. “How long will we have?” The voice trembled and the man shook.
“Perhaps forever,” a stronger note sounded. “It will all be ours. After all, who among them will ever ask?”
“Who are these people?” I asked. What are they trying to hide?”
“Just what is most important in the whole world...who you really are. It doesn’t matter who they are. There have been people like this all along, all over your world, in all the different religions. Looking for spiritual guidance can be a dangerous thing. A teacher should only help you to remember who you are. If he is telling you what to do and how to think, he is only a keeper.”
“Daniel, if what we thought was God isn’t really God, what is it?”
“A really dangerous distraction,” he replied quietly. “As long as people stay focussed on that, they’ll never remember the truth.”
My mind went into overdrive. “Daniel, are you telling me all of our great teachers have been mixed up? You mean we all learned garbled messages about what God is, and what we are?
He didn’t flinch. “Yep.”
His answer was so simple and so complete, that I was stopped for a moment. The whole thing was mind-boggling. It was not easy entertaining the idea that what I had always thought was God was only something birthed into reality by the misguided actions of man. Our own fear and confusion had gelled into a being that terrified us. We gave Him life, then fell to our knees and begged for His forgiveness.
“What you’ve told me is blasphemy!” I felt a rush of fear, familiar and painful. Don’t think in ways that would offend God. Don’t do things that would cause him to punish you. Never offend Him, or a zap of lightning will certainly shoot from the sky and send you straight to hell.” I shuddered at all the threats of damnation in the Bible. But were they just manufactured to scare us? What better way to stop people from thinking things through.
“That’s how it works,” he said gently. “They make you afraid to question. If you don’t look too hard they can keep the power.”