Crises of faith

[austin_tycho]

Got a friend, she was bummed about things. We'd been squabbling, and when it all started, she said 'makes the arguing seem sort of petty now, doesn't it?' Yeah.

I told her we were getting together to do a working (Wiccan version of a prayer circle, more or less) for peace and wisdom, and initially she was all for it.

Then I called back a couple hours later with the details of when/where/etc, and she said she might not go. She was having a crisis of faith. 'How could God do this? What sort of God lets this happen?'

I dunno. I see us all as little extensions of God; God is everywhere, right? I'm reminded of a BOTA lecture on the Hebrew letter Cheth, which also means 'fence'. The lecture was about how we put up fences and city walls and other similar border devices to delineiate 'this is yours' and 'this over here is mine.' When in reality, the land is all the same. It's all one land. The working we ended up doing reminded of this, that we are all part of God, and we don't ever really die even though our bodies might.

But when you throw free will into it, you end up having the capacity to do any stupid, harmful, or crazy thing your very well-endowed brain (just enough to make you really dangerous) can come up with. If you loose sight of the fact that we are all one, then you might do something like crash a plane into a building full of people because they are 'different' from you. Or on a much smaller scale, throw a brick at a mosque window because they are 'different' from you. Believe me, in addition to racking up some major bad karma that I expect it'll take a few thousand lifetimes to work off, I think the souls of those hijackers are hitting themselves on their ethereal foreheads going 'Fuck! I forgot! We're all one!' This is the down side of having free will. We enjoy the benefits, but we have to accept the consequences without expecting a safety net to catch us, or else there's no point in having free will at all.

My friend didn't end up going. It was too bad; I think it was a really good working. We called to a host of facets of the All that needed to be present more than ever:
Athena- for wisdom and clear-headedness, if we go to war
Durga- demon-slayer, who holds all weapons, but also holds a lotus for enlightenment
Kwan Yin- for mercy and compassion
Ma'at- for truth
Jesus- the prince of peace
...and many others. It may seem chaotic, but we see it as activating that part of God within ourselves, and within the world, that can manifest these things. We sent energy out to perform healing and bring wisdom where it's needed. And we whipped it up right on the spot, which gave it a nice feeling to it.

If nothing else, it made me feel much more calm, and satisfied that I have done something else to help.

Comments

[azurelunatic]

If nothing else, this is certainly being seen by many as a test of faith.

I haven't lost mine yet, and if I do, first thing I'll check under the couch where the cat might have batted it.

[mielikki.livejournal.com]

Hee hee. It might be where the other sock goes when you do laundry, too.

[azurelunatic]

is that where all the extra coathangers come from? the interaction of lost faith with lost socks?

Hmm.

I know where all the pens go, at least. There are some people who lose pens, like ... um... I think my mom ... and there are other people who have pens gravitate to them, like me, my friend Dr. Bob, and a few others I know of. Darkside is one. I have a better explanation kicking around somewhere...

What kind of God...

[jait.livejournal.com]

God is bipolar.

And the manic and depressive states are happening with ever tightening frequency.

What happened was, indeed, a terrible thing. But look at the result it's had. People--and New Yorkers no less, who have had the worst of all reputations for impatience and lack of compassion--are coming together, gravitating towards the fundamental solace of groupdom.

Maybe God is just resorting to ever increasing tantrums to try to spark precisely this kind of reaction. When it's all a reflection of how we should have been acting all along.

Jait
(2/3 of the way to my new home, and dreading the border-crossing to come).

Re: What kind of God...

[mielikki.livejournal.com]

Who knows. I think people are looking really hard for a 'why' and don't want to hear 'because sometimes people just suck.'

Good luck on the rest of your journey, btw- I've enjoyed reading about it. :)

Just to add some thoughts

[morven.livejournal.com]

I heard wise words in a dark goddess workshop not too long ago, that the dark goddess is a mother crying, letting her children make their own mistakes because she knows she must. And so we learn, sometimes the hard way, and a good mother lets her children grow despite the pain.

Perhaps one day if I have kids I'll understand this more thoroughly but it touches me on a symbolic level, and I suppose it's how I feel about the "How can god(s) let this happen?" question.

BB
Amalthea

Re: Just to add some thoughts

[mielikki.livejournal.com]

I agree. I don't have kids either, but you don't have to to understand that free will does indeed have it's pointy side.

It reminds me of a sitcom a few years back where some wacky kids antics caused a mother to wail 'I have to kill them, or else they'll never learn.' Wow, this puts an interestingly gruesome spin on that though... (shiver)