The gods of the major religions are myths, accepted on faith. Myths can carry symbolic truth. “Myth” does not mean “a falsehood.” But to take literally anything in the great mythological classics such as the Bible, the Iliad, or the Bhagavadgita is contrary to the intent of the authors (human beings, of course, not a doG). Before we had knowledge, we had myth. Humans have a great need to have some account of events, even if it is just a Shaman’s dream.
Since gods in the literal sense do not exist, I use the word “doG” for them in a somewhat disrespectful way.
Religions and sects cause sectarian intolerance, root of many wars, including the present war by Jihadists on the West. Most of the dogma of religions has been proven false by scientists. My rock of ages is not a doG; it is the essence of scientific method, that takes nothing on faith. This is not a popular view, especially among (for lack of a better term) those who consider themselves New Age in some sense. I have done an Aristotelian dissection on existing sciences, separating each into its essence and its accidents. The essence is just reproducibility and ruling out the alternatives. It makes no assumptions about reality. In particular, it does not assume reduction, materialism or cause and effect. The articles of faith of the accepted sciences are the accidents of natural science. They just happened to develop before the forbidden sciences. It is the dogma of science that people dislike, not its real discoveries.
It may come as a surprise that the forbidden science of spirituality founded by C. G. Jung and William James provides some empirical basis for divinity. Thus, one can reject religion and still embrace both spirituality and science.
In my capacity as 24th philosopher, I have brought Jung and James together as the basis of a new science of spirituality or metaphysics.
William James discovered the reproducibility of one kind of religious experience, and the non-reproducibility of all the others. The reproducible one is mystical experience. He formed a list of characteristics of true mystical experiences. I have shortened and modified this list slightly. I feel qualified, since I experienced “Cosmic Consciousness” at age 31. This shows no virtue on my part. It was a complete accident, or maybe, what Jung called “synchronicity.”
The four characteristics of all true mystical states are (1) illumination, (2) noesis, (3) ecstasy, and (4) unity behind polar opposites, such as good and evil. “Illumination” is not a metaphor. One is literally filled and surrounded by the ineffable uncreated light. Different mystical states may have different qualities of light. For instance, in Cosmic Consciousness, one is filled with fire, whatever colors one associates with fire. For me, it was orange.
Noesis is a truth perceived directly, not inferred. My Noesis was a single pattern that runs through my life, through history, through everything. This pattern allows me to solve the “problem of evil,” an objection always raised against divinity.
Ecstasy needs no explanation, beyond saying it must be there. Otherwise, it is no mystical experience. Through Buddhist style meditation one can find states that fill one with dread.
The unity behind opposites that I saw was that creativity and renewal are responses to challenges that on the merely human level are considered bad, whether it be death, pain, illness or obstacles. Challenge-and-response are necessary for the divine purpose of spontaneity, grace, beauty, joy and brilliance that was my Noesis. Challenge-and-response was Toynbee’s one big idea. It is on every page. It provides a partial understanding of free will.
C. G. Jung discovered the universality and truth of symbolic messages that appear in all cultures in the form of dreams, visions and wHoly folk tales. Not all such “revelations” agree, but there is a considerable body of them that do agree with one another in a creative way Examples are The Word of One, delivered by homemade Ouija board, and the works of Jane Roberts, delivered as a medium, and the works of Edgar Cayce, delivered in a self-induced hypnotic trance. So how are we to evaluate such revelations? See if they agree with our ordinary observations and our mystical experiences. These three sources do that for me, so I hold them in honor, but I give pride of place to the descriptions of the 22 cards of the major arcana of a new tarot found in The Word of One. This is like a revelation inside of a revelation. The source described itself as a silver dollar, since that was what John Cooke, Rosalind Sharpe, Rhom and several others were using on those cold nights up in the Carmel Heights, in the winter of 1962-63. The silver dollar refused to give more than a one word interpretation of the meaning of each card, which it called a “book.” And he gave names to these books. Each one corresponds to a card in the major arcana of conventional tarots. Close study shows them to be the evolved forms of the former card. Thus, knowledge of conventional tarot is a good beginning to understanding the new tarot.
So far, no great artist has painted the new tarot. Whether you do readings or not is of no importance. Each card really is a book, of radical importance for the next phase of our civilization. There is a lot about it at my web site.
So let us step back and see where we are. We have two empirical sources for our new science of spirituality: mystical states and symbolic revelations.
So what does this tell us about divinity, and why should we care? In my mystical experience, I did not “see the face of doG.” I was given no heavenly commands or commandments. What I saw was that there was a single pattern running through everything. Just to give a name to it, I call it the divine purpose, but we could just call it The Pattern. I did not see the face of doG, nor anything but indirect signs of divinity in the mere existence of The Pattern. I did have the sense that everything was alive in some sense, and had some choice, and had chosen these obstacles and renewals as a challenge to bring forth the creativity, spontaneity, innocence, grace, joy and beauty for which we have no single word, so let us call it The State of Grace, a state of joy without regrets. The world may not be perfect, but it is better with these things than it would be without them. That is the solution to the famous Problem of Evil. Why do bad things happen to good people? Death is renewal, and it is something we choose in the Between (Bardo). It is how a crotchedy old fart becomes an innocent again, slate wiped clean. And in the Between, life on Earth does not seem a bargain. An entity may choose to just enjoy the best part, childhood, before returning to the Between. And without challenges, would there ever be creativity? Would there ever be those supreme moments known to athletes that surpass all expectations?
I have to laugh at those ignorant red-neck preachers on TV who angrily harangue the audience, telling them that they must obey god. I talk back to them, even if they are just on the TV, and say “You stupid idiot. You have never seen the face of doG. Your doG does not make commands or control everything.” Nor is it always simple cause and effect, but that is the religion of the scientists.
So death is not the evil that materialists think. Indeed, the Thinker is up a tree and his mental powers have us in chains. That is exactly what is depicted in the new tarot, in the modern form of the Devil card. The new card is called The Thinker.
I don’t believe “divinity” is a word ever used in The Word of One, the complete transcripts of those Ouija sessions in Carmel Heights in the house of John Cooke. Still, it may give us a concept of divinity, a radical idea, one hard to assimilate. It is that everything that is real is ONE. Only ONE is permanent. We are ONE in action.
Everyone must understand this in their own way. The image I use is that of an ocean. Let us let Ocean stand in for ONE. Then our individual souls are like the droplets of Ocean spray. From Ocean we came, and to it we will eventually return.
Did ONE create this pattern that runs through all things? The book doesn’t say. Did ONE create nature, or did it create itself? The book doesn’t say. It does give us immortality, something beyond reincarnation. The truth of reincarnation has been proven with scientific rigor by Prof. Ian Stevenson. He does not write popular books. He writes technical monographs, such as Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation, first published in 1966, but kept in print by the U. of Virginia press. The cases he selects for this book serve to rule out all known alternatives to reincarnation for the ability of some toddlers to spontaneously and accurately refer to their most previous lifetime.
So, we are given reincarnation. This is not the same as immortality. Our spirit always reincarnates as human. What happens when Homo Sapiens becomes extinct? What happens when the Sun dies and the Earth is blown away? So that is why we study immortality as a completely different topic.
It is clear from reading the The Word of One that action is required of us, action and experience, of every kind. Ocean does not control us. There is no divine plan, even if there is a divine purpose. We each have our own path.
The Word of One seems to foretell a radical reversal of direction in our civilization, away from technology and economic growth towards spiritual and aesthetic concerns. Certainly radical upheavals are foretold. Is this prophecy or purpose? No matter. I include some quotes from The Word of One.
“ONE is all….Deny not ONE while you live. The world is full of those who say they seek ONE. How is it that seekers always blind themselves first to their surroundings? Until they remove the film, they seek in vain. Do you wish a word of comfort? There is none. Do you wish a Savior? There is none. For you, there is only ONE. You will make that do.”
“Over all lies a mantle of fog through which the sun is coming–the son is coming….The breath of life is in your hands, the spark of death, also. Quicken the new birth and fan the spark that the passing past is laid at rest. Desire above all things the Sun.”
“The juice of memory rises. When it spills will be the time of reversal. It is coming. Be ye prepared. Mighty shall be the roar, violent the rending, joyous the release.”
“LEGION: Is the Great Event imminent? WE: Yes. GAYLA: How imminent? At this point a sudden wind whipped open the heavy door beside the group and night air rushed into the room. WE: Take a breath. It has taken place…”
All quotes are from pp. 177 and 178 of my book, and they are also, of course, in The Word of One.
And what are my contributions to this new science? I have created the 40 pips of the minor arcana as mandalas, which are a kind of revelation. They only need an artist to make them beautiful.
Jung and every other expert on true symbolism emphasize that a dictionary of symbols is impossible or useless. Each symbol is unique. I have discovered that what is possible is a dictionary of symbolic elements, such as colors, species, orientation, number and many other things. The elements are universal, and can be combined in any and every way to make a symbol. This dictionary is in several of my books and also on the web site. It is a way to begin learning the language of Jungian symbolism.
I have learned how to interpret the 22 books of the new tarot. Each is a piece of the puzzle about what we should do to bring about a reversal of course in this civilization. Pick the course which best accords with your interests and abilities and follow it. I have chosen the path of the Doer, a name that is a bit misleading. The boy in the card doesn’t do anything other than offer his book to the world. These roles are not unique. There can be many Doers, or Changers or Deliverers or Speakers or Seekers. Some of the cards show us obstacles we must overcome, such as the Thinker and the Actor. The Nameless One is the alpha; the Knower is the Omega. This interpretation is also on the web site.
I have a theory, proven in part. It is an old theory, certainly not original with me. It is that a person is mind, body and soul, and that these are three separate realms of being. Mind and soul together we call spirit. This union outlives countless births and deaths, and indeed, we do not know whether anything but the end of the universe can cleave them apart. If the universe does end or become uninhabitable, our souls can always rejoin ONE and amuse ourselves exploring the innumerable lives lived in this cycle of the universe. Cosmologists do not yet know either the origin or the ultimate fate of the universe. There are lots of theories, though. I am confident they will figure it out. It may even be that ONE creates universes or chooses one for incarnations. In my theory, ONE is not needed for creation. ONE is needed for immortality. Everything but ONE goes through cycles of birth, life, and death, and I am sure that is true for universes too.
Pace in Veritas, Dr.H