TWO BOOK REVIEWS
Impressions by two people who have read this masterfully orchestrated historical novel by Glen Craney, published by Brigid's Fire Press, Los Angeles, 2008.
REVIEW TWO
This will simply be my sharing what I liked, what spoke to me because of my own experiences and feelings, what I understood . . or didn't. No doubt, you will see that I pick and choose what supports my present way of thinking about religious matters!
Aside from the story itself which I did greatly enjoy . . . I did find that there were more pages than not that included something of great interest to me, or something that I did not know, or something that touched my heart. So my book is bleeding with many highlights and notes. There were a couple of parts that didn't speak much to me, like the parts about how to transcend through the stages to reach the Light and gain the Robe of Fire. I'm afraid I've become very "earthly" in the past decade and am content to be so.
I'm not much into seeking after mystical visions and understandings, or answers to prayers, etc. I used to seek after such things. . . . But, I do remember a feeling that seemed like the "swelling in the breast." It would come sometimes when it seemed the spirit was so compelling and strong you felt like you could reach out and touch it. I took that feeling in my heart . . . it was a real feeling . . . to be the one I was waiting for. And so then I thought I "knew".
The only problem is that I learned, later in life, that other things could give me that same good feeling inside of me, things that didn't have much to do with things related to my religion. Like when I got that "feeling" when I decided what path I should follow for Alex, (my ‘special needs’ child), or times when I was working through some knotty situation with one of my other children. And I also got that "feeling" when I decided I should leave my marriage.
I've also found that I don't have that feeling about my former religion anymore. Instead, I have it when I go to Columcille Park (Pennsylvania) and sit all alone in a Celtic chapel for a while, or sit on a bench there in the woods and think about my life and about not believing in my former god anymore, but sensing there is a "force" in my life . . . a force about which I have no idea what it is and don't figure on finding out. I get that same good feeling in my heart over that. So I don't look for mystical revelations through meditation, or prayer, or seeking, or whatever anymore. I just listen to what's going on inside of me. So you won't find me addressing those parts of this book much, because I don't think I understand seeking after that stuff anymore.
I do however, find it very interesting to read and learn what others have to say who claim to have experienced such things. I find very wise things among their writings. I guess whatever they're doing is enlightening! So I like very much to study what they have to say as it helps me find my own way, but to seek for my own mystical experiences by twirling or meditating or praying for hours . . . nope.
I adored the book. So glad I had the pleasure of learning about this book and reading it. I've loved reading it . . .so here are my reactions to the book:
THE STORY
I'll not go into the story of the book except on four points.
1. I liked it very much, it was well written, fascinating, interesting and exciting but terribly, terribly tragic . . . with every character you loved being cruelly lost in the end!!
2. I liked Esclarmonde! She was bold, impassioned, brave, flirtatious and free-spirited. I liked the exchange between her and the Templar throughout the book. But I think it's very sad that the realization and fulfillment of their love was lost by all the religious "dogma" that prevented their union. In the name of religion, we humans insist on continually denying the "heaven" we could possess in this life on this earth, for the "promise" of some unknown glory in the next based on what I feel is no real evidence of any kind of what that next life will really be or even if there is one. How sad that Esclarmonde and Guilhelm resisted and lost the paradise they may have had in their love for each other in this life . . . giving up that love for what was most likely a fairytale created by men. These are a few quotes which illustrate my point:
"When she could no longer endure the ordeal, she pressed her mouth to his lips and was swept away by an annihilating rush of passion.
He returned the kiss, then released a soft cry of pleasure - - or was it anguish? He pulled away suddenly, his head hung in shame. He abandoned her on the boulder and walked off to find solitude near the precipice.
She was jolted by his abrupt retreat. "It was my doing. Let God punish me if he must. But I cannot believe He would condemn such feelings!" [p. 47]
I AGREE!! Early on, as Esclarmonde first felt the passion of love for Guilhelm, her own intuition told her God would not condemn her feelings. But even she was, in time, influenced by "belief" that she must deny her love for a higher calling.
See pages 212, 312-313 and 439 for statements of this tragedy. Page 439 especially echoes my reaction: "What misshapen divinity would sabotage such a love?"
3. The way Esclarmonde ended up married to Jourdaine and being battered about by him was just AWFUL!! As was the death of one of her children and the horrifying loss of the other . . . to have him raised and turned against her by Folques . . . her own son seeking after her relentlessly and desiring to bring her down to hell in order to further his own ambitions.
4. Craney did manage to bring some sweetness into the very tragic end of the book in the way he re-united Guilhelm and Esclarmonde at the time of Guilhelm's death. It was fitting when Esclarmonde reminded Guilhelm how to "find her", using the same line with which the book began, "To be in love is to reach for heaven through your lady." That was a very nice touch indeed.
COURTLY LOVE
I enjoyed very much the opening chapter for its look at the troubadour culture. I also liked the way Craney used the story to introduce maxims of Courtly Love in a very interesting way. A few examples:
"To be in love is to reach for Heaven through my lady." [p. 7] (We return once again to the assertion by Rumi that there is a likeness between being in love and a connection with the "divine".)
"Silence is the kindling of passion." [p. 11] I'm no good at this one, I talk too often and too much! I kindle no passion by silence. I'm way too transparent, I just tend to keep on "flowing" way too much.
"Read this little book then, not as one seeking to take up the life of a lover, but that, invigorated by the theory and trained to excite the minds of women, you may, by refraining from so doing, win an eternal recompense and thereby deserve a greater reward from God." [p. 32]
So the man goes about exciting the minds of women, but then refrains from taking up "loving" them. How many broken hearts are left strewn in the path of this man who knows how to make women swoon for him but then does not become their lover. And then . . . he deserves a great reward for this in heaven?? I think this is not a good maxim!!
"No one can possess two loves at once." [p. 358]
"True jealousy increases love's ardor." [p. 359]
"The holy ones on Montsegur see this mystical Light with the same fervor that you held for an exalted lady. The perfects cannot explain their faith in the logic of this world, just as this squire cannot explain his star-crossed passion. Yet the troubadours say his love and my aunt's quest for this spiritual radiance share a sacred impulse." [p. 447]
I was so excited when I read this. Isn't it exactly what Rumi says about the connection between love and the divine?? They share a "sacred impulse". What wonderful words to use to describe it. Yes! Exactly!!
CONCEPTS AND TENENTS OF FAITH
I liked the way Craney skillfully wove into the fabric of the story the concepts and tenets of the religious faiths of the day. I found that very interesting. Not knowing much about these faiths, I cannot speak to how correct his representation is, but I found it fascinating. Some tenets I found sensible and agreeable, some . . . not so much. I have listed some concepts I found interesting below:
"Our dear Phillipa did not receive the last rites. She will be forced to incarnate again into this world." [p. 30]
This whole idea that our "reward" in the next life depends on some outward ordinance or performance administered by "man" rather than the intents of our hearts and the actions of our lives to our fellow human beings, is troubling. Even if we were the kindest, most generous, honest, and giving of people, the most Christian in our behaviors, since we have disavowed our covenants, we are quite lost.
I see what seems to be an assertion building in the book that the Cathars believed that Christ was a Master teacher, a great rabbi, sent to teach us how to find the "Light", but not a divine "God" who died on the cross for our sins. This is an unfolding of a history of Christianity which was basically unknown to me, for example:
1) ". . . the heretic assertion that Jesus had possessed an older brother. Why had she not been told of this brother's existence. And how could the blessed Mother have been a virgin?" [p. 34]
2) "One (meaning a gospel) authored by the older brother of our Lord?" [p. 57]
3) "That lie is what the priests wish you to believe. The Magdalene was trained in the temple arts. It was she who initiated Our Lord into the mysteries of the Light. After His death, she and the Master's brother, the one called James the Just, attempted to preserve the teachings by forming an order of believers known as the Nasoreans. But Saul of Tarsus, the Teacher of Darkness, conspired to alter the arcana and spread falsehoods to the uniformed." [p. 63]
I need to learn more about Paul.
4) "He did not die for us," said Phillipa. "We do not glorify that rood of torture. What loving father would send his only son to suffer so horribly? The Master came to show us how to return to the Light before physical death . . . by meditation and healing and discourse with the angels. Only the Magdalene and His brother James understood these mysteries." [p. 98]
This is a very new concept to me . . . that there was a branch of early Christianity that did not hold the belief that Christ was a God and a human sacrifice for the sins of all human beings. I rather like that idea, actually. After losing my faith in my church’s teachings and its idea of God, and doubting that, the doubt naturally spilled over to Jesus and afterlife.
Since I no longer believed in the notion of a "God, the Father", then Jesus made no sense.
I began to feel that Christ must have been just a great teacher, not a God. I've been comfortable with that idea except for one snag. I was troubled by the thought that if I was wrong and Jesus really did suffer like that for me, was I throwing that great love, sacrifice and extreme suffering right back in his face? That bothered me sometimes.
This new concept of Christ with a different kind of mission puts a whole new light on my occasional thoughts of guilt.
"The words of Scripture were divinely inspired. God was neither forgetful nor inconsistent." [p.34]
Have many of us have been caught in that one? How many times, over the years, did I think that very thought as I came to understand how churches have changed positions on civil rights issues over time. How does one believe it all to be divinely inspired in spite of the evidence of inconsistency?
"They (I think . . . meaning the Arab mystics and Cathars) are streams that flow from the same river. Do not be led astray by names. The true ones of the hidden Church of Love are to be found in all faiths. You must look beyond the outer trappings to sift the essence of the teachings." [p. 64]
That is a wonderful thought! Can you imagine all the grief mankind could have saved itself if we would understand and accept this idea. Then we could stop all this fighting and killing over who is right and who is wrong and who is of God and who is of Satan. We could behave sanely if we just accept that there is no one and only "right" way and that whatever induces mankind to do good to his fellow man is of a good force and what induces him to do bad to his fellow man is of an evil force. Then of course, Giraude introduces Esclarmonde to this concept of "whirling". which I found an interesting tie of this Christian tradition to the Arab tradition.
Another paragraph along this line:
"Esclarmonde had never considered the possibility that the Jews, sons and daughters of the Old Testament, might quest for the same divine radiance. Did searchers for the Light reincarnate into all faiths?" If so, it followed that the angels of Darkness would also infiltrate every religion." [p. 231]
The common threads that are found throughout religions. Such an interesting idea.
"There are two grades of women in this world," said Giraude. "There are the many who, by force of past actions, must reincarnate and give physical birth. And then there are the few who are placed on this earth to procreate in another way. . . . . The Vessel that follows this path must sacrifice its womb to the Higher Wisdom." [p. 65]
This is definitely an idea that is not my cup of tea. For women who do not desire to have children and choose some other vocation, hats off to them. I respect and champion their choice. But to place that as a higher calling than bearing children, . . . no, I think not. To me, bearing a child comes as close I can imagine to touching the hand of the divine. But, hey, that may be because I'm the lower grade of woman and have not yet had my eyes opened my to the Light.
"The Cathars who resided in Toulousia did not believe in infant baptism, but taught that Jesus had never transmitted the Light before a person could understand the import of the decision. The birth sacrament was a fabrication designed to herd people into the Church before the Pope's sovereignty could be questioned." [p. 74, 75]
Can't disagree with that one!! Plus that explains why my eyes haven't been opened to the Light of this other world they speak of so much. Obviously, I am not yet ready to understand the import of the knowledge of the Light. I am quite prepared to accept that may be the case! My problem at this point in my life is I feel no driving desire or need to get ready for that revelation.
"In our faith, women are treated as equal to men in the eyes of God. Some accept a life of celibacy to meditate and perform good works, but it is never forced on them. Those who wish to remain believers are free to marry and bear children. They are called credentes. We seek to avoid the wheel of rebirth. To return to the Light, we must escape the bonds of this existence." [p. 97]
While I can't hold with their idea of what is represented by birth, I certainly liked very much the equality of women in their faith as well as the right accorded to women to choose their own way in their faith, to have a family or chose ministry. In the more fundamentalist reaches of Christianity, of course, the faith and motives of a woman choosing not to be a wife, mother, homemaker, baker, cleaner, etc. is questioned, doubted and sometimes openly criticized.
"He did not establish a church. There were no churches in the time of Christ. He was a Jewish rabbi. If he had created a place of worship, He would have called it a synagogue. But He had no interest in erecting houses of worship." [p. 97]
Wow, I feel better already about having found my place of spiritual mediation at the Megalith park among the trees, rocks, and simple stone chapel with no bishop, no sermon, no sacrament . . . just me and my thoughts.
"Many hear the calling after their families are raised. (speaking of becoming a perfecta). Esclarmonde began to understand how a life of a perfecta could attract a woman; no worries about men and their demands, to be left in peace to pray and seek God." [p. 98]
Alright! Esclarmonde was very young to start figuring this out, but hey, these are smart thinking women, these Cathars. Have your babies, enjoy that great gift and blessing, and then go "serve the Light". Enough of this life of women never, ever retiring. You cook, clean, do laundry, scrub, garden and wait on your husband until you can't wiggle anymore and then you die!!! I LIKE this Cathar idea. Leave him and go to the Light. No more serving that man. Go off to pray and seek . . . and get praised and admired for being "righteous" and giving of yourself to God . . . plus get eternal exultation in the bargain. And that man of yours can just take care of himself! Nice!!! I think I like these Cathar women.
"The Voice of the Light seemed to be advocating not a blind obedience to the Pope and his doctrines, but a personal search for God. The father will love you and make you my equal. Had Jesus come into this world to reveal that all of us were His equal in potential? Was the Voice saying that we are gods? Or that Jesus was not God?" [p. 111]
My oh my, it's the "God" question again, not just . . . who is "God" . . . but hey, here we are looking at a version of the notion of godhood for we mere humans, as well. I find it so interesting how these variations of similar strings of thoughts thread through so many different religions schools of thought.
I won't try to quote much from this part, as I was taken by a great deal of it. I speak of Chapter XVIII, the great debate, starting on p. 174. First it was quite lovely to see a woman debating and talking down the best male representatives the church could put forward . . with Folques saying, "You expect us to contend . . . with her?" I love that. As well as when Esclarmonde says: "You call me an elitist? You who dismiss my sex is incapable of understanding Holy Writ? You who deny the laity the right to read the Bible?" I like very much the whole dialogue of the debate, the discussion of Yahweh, the two gods, attaining the kingdom, the transformation of the Eucharist, healing, celibacy, sexual relations. I found that to be a very interesting chapter. I liked this line: "You would turn every man into a church unto himself!" Seems to be sort of another way of saying what St. Gregory said . . . which I refer to another section.
I haven't the knowledge to know if this is true or not, although it does seem as Craney has done his homework, but I think this paragraph is instructive on just how doctrine may come to be, and it ain't revelation!!!
"The first elders of your faith embraced the truth of reincarnation," he said. "But when the wife of the pagan emperor Constantine learned that she would suffer rebirth to pay for her promiscuity, she demanded her husband outlaw the doctrine. Your bishops from the west conspired to gain the emperor's conversion by condemning transmigration as heresy." [p. 233]
This dialogue contained a very interesting thought:
" 'But Rome insists that God is male.' The rabbi bobbed his head as if attempting to liberate a trapped answer. "The wife of the Almighty is Sophia, the feminine Wisdom. Together they sit on the dazzling throne. Fools and usurpers describe divinity by the reflection of their own cross-eyed gaze. Where there is grasping for spiritual power, there will be disharmony. Where there is disharmony, there will be ignorance. And where there is ignorance, there will be injustice. [p. 234]
Wow, that is profound in its simplicity. I particularly like the sentences I underlined.
On pp. 454 - 456, Guilhelm reads from the sacred scroll, supposedly from the words of James. This is very interesting stuff here too. Including this: "Eat not meat, for the viscera of animals pulls you back into the world." I found what was recorded here which appeared to be a quote from an ancient scroll (fictional) fascinating. Again, it accuses Saul of Tarsus.
I won't take time to write it all down but, as cynical as they are, I thought the first two paragraphs on p. 478 which record Guilhelm's thoughts just before his death affirm the corrupt state of religion very, very well.
GOOD THOUGHTS I LIKED
"Many set out from the very spot where the object of their quest is to be found." ~ ~ Rumi [p. 38]
"There is no tyranny on earth like the tyranny or priests." ~ ~ Averroes [p. 72]
"To know is more than to believe." ~ ~ Clement of Alexandria [p. 158]
This reminds me of my former, younger self. We do like to change "believing" into "knowing", don't we. I have learned they are not the same.
""Now seekers after knowledge must know exactly how to make out true orthodoxy for themselves by using natural examples and especially such as we draw from our very selves, for they are surer and a true means of proof." ~ ~ St. Gregory [p. 172]
Hallelujah, I do agree! And what is my truth may not be another's.
"If in the darkness of ignorance you don't recognize a person's true nature, look to see whom he has chosen for a leader." ~ ~ Rumi [p. 208]
"And there shall be others of those who are outside our number who name themselves bishop and also deacons, as if they have received their authority from God. They bend themselves under the judgement of the leaders. Those people are dry canals." ~ ~ Apocalypse of Peter [p. 314]
To my cynical mind of course, it not just those who are "outside our number" but all religious usurpers of power from ALL faiths.
"Know that between the faithful there is an ancient union. The faithful are numerous, but the faith is one." ~ ~ Rumi [p. 353]
Again, if we could just stop fighting about it and accept that though we have our very different interpretations, it is "one" faith, and that faith is whatever leads us to do "good" to our fellow man. I really don't know why we need any more than that.
ON THE IDEA OF SOUL MATES
"Two souls with a common destiny are drawn together on the same ray." [p. 65]
I like that very much.
"Once a maiden came to her Beloved's door and knocked. 'Who is there?' The maiden answered, 'It is I.' But the voice replied, 'There is not enough room here for you and me.' The distraught maiden retreated to the desert. After spending a year in solitary prayer, she returned to the door and knocked again. 'Who is there?' the voice asked again. This time, the maiden replied, 'It is thyself.' And the door was opened." [p. 65]
I'm still not sure after reading this several times if Giraude is referencing the "Beloved" as a relationship with a man or a relationship with the Light. I think the latter. But it is also a nice way of thinking of soul mates . . . with one caveat. . . the reverse needs also to be true . . . as in, if it were the man knocking rather than the maiden.
A FEW OBSERVATIONS
1. Loss of faith seems often to come when knowledge is gained. For Esclarmonde it began with her exposure to texts she had studied in Latin as a girl (which were confiscated when it became known) and texts she secretly studied from the lintel in the church. Later, when she learned that indeed there was a Gospel of Thomas that had not been included in the New Testament, she began to wonder what else had been withheld. Certainly learning of thins "beyond" the faith, has influenced my journey.
2. There seems to be no end to the cruelty of what humans can imagine, dream up and do to another human and justify it in the name of "God".
3. It is hard for me now, at this point in my life, to "admire" sacrificing/dying for one's faith. I used to feel it was a virtuous thing to do. I thought of my pioneer forebears with reverence. I still do. I respect their sacrifices, for I respect their right to believe what they chose and follow it. But for myself, I find it such a waste to think of so many lives mangled, as described in this book. A saga which has of course, been repeated over and over again in history . . . all for the cause of what I now view as a fairytale, spun by men for the sole purpose of gaining power. I can understand dying for a child, or a loved one, or to protect human rights of suffering people, things such as that. But to suffer and give up precious life and happiness for this belief in something which I believe cannot be known, it does seem a terrible waste. However, I do concede again, that just because I can't see the "Light" doesn't mean that others cannot or that it doesn't exist. I just may be a person lost in the Darkness! But I seem to like this new darkness I have found, it doesn't seem so dark to me.
I can better understand the motivations of Guilhelm and Trevencal to suffer and die than Esclarmonde's motives . . . as revealed somewhat in a conversation between them on p. 245. Beginning with Guilhelm:
"I no longer know what to believe. Perhaps it's better not to believe in anything."
"You don't share your lady's faith."
"Faith is like bottled magic," said Guilhelm. "Discover the flask is empty, and all desire to open another is lost."
(Yes, I can kind of relate to that!)
"Then you undergo these trials for the viscountess, not God."
"Her embrace is the closest I have ever come to approaching the Almighty's grace. Yet she and I are both required to break sacred oaths to attain it." (Again, what a waste.) "And you, Trevencal? Why do you defend the cloggers?"
"I have tried to live as a good Christian. I fail to understand the arguments of theologians. For me, it has always been a feeling of brotherhood. The perfects ask nothing for their ministry. They imitate the Apostles and keep only the possessions they carry on their backs. They have shown great kindness to my family. Did Our Lord not say that we shall know His disciples by their fruits?"
Guilhelm would suffer and die to protect the woman he loved, Trevencal would suffer and die to protect fellow brothers and sisters who were good people and being unjustly persecuted. Yes, that makes sense to me. But I no longer understand untold suffering, sacrificing happiness and love, dying for an unknown "other" world. And again I admit, it may be only because of my own blinded eyes that I cannot believe in that other world. That's a definite possibility!
"He would never again bow in worship to any god, Cathar or Catholic, who stood by and watched the best of this world die so ignobly." [p. 459]
I agree, there is no way I can believe that "God", as I had been taught to understand ‘him,’ created this mess, demands these sacrifices, allows this carnage. I do recognize a "force" in my life but it is not the force of an all knowing, all seeing, all controlling God as taught in any religion I know of. I am far more comfortable thinking that we humans determine the destiny of our world, for good or bad. The force I believe in . . . is within each of us. And I think within us there is force for both good and evil. I believe we chose which to nurture and grow within us. And as a collection of human beings, we decide what we will allow to happen on this earth or not happen. It's not some all knowing God up there somewhere pulling strings or not pulling strings.
A FINAL THOUGHT
By the time I finished the book, I found a common thread had congealed in my mind about what I would take away from these amazing events and the rather remarkable discussion of "faith" that was woven through the story. It rather all came together in my mind as I read the story told on p. 440.
I liked very much and was very touched by the story Guilheim told Esclarmonde as she was dying about St. Thomas spending his life in search of a pearl which had in fact been sewn into his robe the whole time. But I didn't relate to the story quite the way the Craney did. Craney's narrative took it towards the idea that when Thomas finally discovered the pearl, which he had with him for the whole of his life, it transported him to Heaven where he received the Robe of Light.
I kind of prefer to end the story before the transport to heaven . . . with the words of Esclarmonde where she said, "Thomas always possessed what he sought all his life?" At that point, I would rather take the story in another direction. To me, the story speaks again to the tragedy of religion which causes human beings, including these Cathars and most other religious groups (as far as my limited knowledge can tell), to spend our entire lifetimes seeking, searching, sacrificing, denying every earthly pleasure, as Esclarmonde did, in search of this ineffable "something" out there that requires us to give our whole life so we can attain this "thing" in the next world.
To me the story said something different. It said, "Love this life, find your pearl within you now, find your Light and your heaven here on earth. You possess your pearl now, you have it with you your whole life, find it and use it now. " I refer again to the quote in the book from Rumi which seems to parallel the story of Thomas: "Many set out from the very spot where the object of their quest is to be found."
The story about the pearl caused me to return in my mind to something a good friend taught me, which made sense to me, and wrote it out and put it together for myself and saved it . . . like this:
God (the self organizing mind of the universe) desires to reveal itself and does so by raising up sentient (self aware) beings within her (like mushrooms on the forest floor).
That would be me, I'm a mushroom on the forest floor!! Since we are raised up within this mind which is God, it is a part of us, it (God) is within us, therefore we are a god within God and this makes God our divine core.
In this model, "god" has placed the power in his sentient beings (his mushrooms on the forest floor) to act. We are god, it is god in us, it is us who allows this or that to happen or not happen. We are responsible, we can't put the blame off on "God." This makes the human race responsible. Because God is in us, we are God. It is up to us to give God expression.
So it occurs to me that instead of all this mystical, religious dogma, all these "other world" tenets we insist on following in religion . . . that perhaps instead . . . what we should be seeking is that which we have within us all along, that which is born within us, which is perhaps the gift of the "creator" as we are raised up as sentient beings within that force, a light which is given to us all, which is within us by our very creation . . . perhaps that is what we should be seeking.
But instead we spend our lives not recognizing it within us, running frantically here and there trying to find it, seeking it outside of ourselves, thinking we cannot attain it in this life, constantly seeking it in another "realm", in another dimension . . . while all along perhaps it may be "sewn" into our very selves all along, as was Thomas' pearl . . . and by looking constantly to find it in another life, in an afterlife, we miss finding it, treasuring it and using it to find our "heaven" right here on earth in this life. That seems such a waste to me.
I felt in some ways, reading what they believed, that the Cathars were actually seeing it that way, that they "got" it. For example . . . by looking at what I read that was supposedly recorded on the scroll:
"My brother taught that each of us carries a long-forgotten image of the true Light. We must find within us that flame that connects us to the Father directly. If we abdicate this birthright to self-proclaimed priests and rabbis, we will have failed. Did Jesus not promise that each of us shall know the Father in his own fashion and not all in the same way? If He has given to priests the exclusive commission to tell us what doctrines to believe, why would He have admonished us to constantly ask and seek and find? Remember always: It is the awakening of our Robe of Light, not the earthly authority of false prophets, that offers us the hope of precious rebirth."
". . . . . Above all else, know this: The Kingdom is not here, or not over there, or in the sky, but the Kingdom is within each of us. Beyond this, all is experience and cannot be communicated."
And yet it seemed to me that in their "faith" they too veered off, they too veered away from what is described above. They also were laying down requirements, vows, sacrifices, "steps" for seeking the Light, rites that had to be received before death or you would have to re-incarnate and suffer this world again, etc. rather than leaving people to find the Light in their own way. While in fact, they were trying to throw off the trappings of the Catholic church and all their sacraments and requirements, etc., yet they also turned around and created their own trappings, did they not? And it seems to me, after all is said and done. . . that is what religion does, all religion . . . it's as if religion cannot help itself! Why is that??
For me, I say "Amen" to the quote above from the scroll. There seems to me to be value and wisdom in that approach to "faith". Yes . . . I do like that philosophy. For right now, I think I'm pretty comfortable embracing such a way of thinking.
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