Early Christians’ Crimes Against Mayans
It’s a hefty charge, but there is no argument that the Roman Catholic Church has killed more people and consciously destroyed more cultures than any of the most heinous villains in all of history. And perhaps most amazing is that the Church makes no attempt to deny it; they simply state that they are “acting on God’s behalf” and that we, as mere sinning humans, couldn’t possibly fathom the great wisdom of the Christian God. As a result they say they’re justified in every killing, in every destruction of entire cultures and civilizations such as the Mayans.
So, instead of making an attempt to argue the validity of such universally agreed despondent acts; I instead point some of them out every once in a while, allowing readers to arrive at their own conclusions. This vivid example of the Early Church’s attempt to wipe an entire civilization from the face of the Earth comes to us courtesy of a Spanish Roman Bishop and inquisitor by the name of Diego de Landa. Read the rest of this entry »
Shamanism: Spirituality’s True Roots?
Sophisticated transformational art suddenly and inexplicably appeared in caves of south-west Europe and Southern Africa somewhere between 50,000 – 25,000 years ago, marking a dramatic shift in human consciousness. Some of the famous European caves include Chauvet, Lascaux, Pech Merle, and Altamira, and in South Africa, a cave called Game Pass Shelter is just one of over 500,000 such sites. Most who are familiar with the paintings in these caves know that they contain typical drawings of Prehistoric mammals. But, a critical detail that’s largely unmentioned is this: many otherworldly beings also appear, as do geometrical patterns that match perfectly with what is often reported in visionary states under the influence of entheogens.
And this only the beginning.
Paleolithic Passages to the Gods
“What is now needed is not yet more data (though more data are always welcomed), but rather a radical re-thinking of what we already know. That is not to say that each and every question can now be answered; we do not have to explain everything in order to explain something.” – David Lewis-Williams, “The Mind of the Cave”
Travel with me to a Paleolithic cave such as Chauvet, Altamira, or a rock shelter in Round Valley, California. Then, imagine you’re an ancient shaman on a vision quest in an altered state of consciousness. You’re in winding passages that trail off into the darkness, some too small to explore, you find precipices that seem to reach deep into another world, and as the trance state starts to take a firmer hold, rock walls become animated as visions of animal and geometric forms project themselves onto solid, impassable rock, and shadows dance from flickering firelight.
Shamanism, Entheogens, & Religion
“Shamanism is an ancient, coherent, and broadly diffused mental paradigm. The most important premise is that the spiritual force that every human has personally experienced is nothing more than an extension of our humanity; it’s of the world, the cosmos, and everything within it. Birth and death are simply tangible examples of the capacity of spirit to move through material forms.” – Quote from Maya Cosmos
What is Shamanism?
To me, it’s clear that shamanism not only is as inherent within our human coding as is the universal desire to seek altered states of consciousness, but that it’s also a powerful pre-religion system that allows each one of us to reach beyond these limited frames to interact with the greater whole, god, the Divine, or whatever one chooses to call it. Due to the overwhelmingly large and growing evidence, one fact, whether one agrees or disagrees with any specific point of view is this: to deny shamanism is to deny much of our own humanity and history. This then only begs the question as to why the true importance of shamanism as well as the tools used to help gain access to altered states of consciousness is typically glossed over, outright ignored, or demonized when it comes to religious, archaeological or scientific discussions on the topic.
The Broken Promises of the Bible
Titus 1:2: “In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;”
The Breaker of Promises
This post is in response to the comment by metalpants on my “Be a Good Christian: Kill Your Children?” article, which stated:
“You seemed to have forgotten to mention the fact that God kept all His promises given to His children, all the miracles, all the undeserving mercies, and just about every good thing that God has ever done for us… Including creating us just so that we could experience life and giving us the freedom to choose what we want to follow. He didn’t need us… At all. He can live along just fine without us. But He wanted to share the wonders of life with us just out of love. Perhaps you need some more studying to do cause you’re unable to explain how such an “evil” God is also capable of being so loving and merciful. When you look up stuff on Satan you’ll always find evil. Never good. Never love. Always selfishness and malice. But how can God be evil and good at the same time?”
Honestly, I think the sentiment is quite lovely…if only it were true. Read the rest of this entry »
Surf Groupie No More!
Yes, that’s me in the photo, feverishly paddling my chicken arms as I try to catch the wave looming directly behind me. I’ve been enamored with the romantic vision of a subculture that’s so passionate and often obsessive about their chosen pastime for many years, but finally getting my skinny frame on a surfboard made the world around me make sense in a way it never has before. At least not quite in this way.
Did Jesus Have a Wife?
Highly doubtful.
Did the Jesus of the Bible revolutionize the role of women?
Without question.
The question to me isn’t whether or not Jesus was married, it’s why the Church has completely manufactured a completely different reality in relation to the practically blasphemous teachings that can be found in the Bible in relation to women. If I were a woman, I feel like I’d be angry enough to confront anyone with an ear in the Church, especially those who still believe that women are second-class citizens in the eyes of the God of the Bible. In fact, feeding the fire of the debate in relation to whether or not Jesus had a wife only takes the attention away from the truth about how Jesus truly seems to have revolutionized the role of women in both society and the Church. Read the rest of this entry »
If Only I Knew the Love of God
The comment I’ve received more often than any other on my blog is that if I only “knew the love of God,” that I wouldn’t be “so lost” or “spending so much time writing that nonsense” in relation to what’s contained within these pages. In the past, I’ve just deleted these comments for the simple reason that those who take the time to write something as assumptive as that couldn’t possibly hear anything I might have to say on the topic. But, as it goes in my internal world, I couldn’t help responding because, always giving others the benefit of the doubt; perhaps it’s me who’s being assumptive by simply pressing the “Delete” button.
In short: I, beyond any shadow of a doubt in my mind, have personally touched the Hand of God. I have seen the Divine, Read the rest of this entry »
Christianity’s Shaky Heretical Beginnings
One True Christianity: Please Stand Up
Is the New Testament a compendium of the only 27 books of Gospels, Acts, Epistles, and Revelation that was written in its entirety soon after Christ’s death? Is the Christianity of today the same Christianity that existed at the time of Jesus Christ, and is it the only form of Christianity that existed?
Ask the majority of Christians and they will say yes. Ask if most think that these 27 books are all there ever was on the subject of the teachings of Jesus Christ and most will say yes again.
The truth (as is far more often the case than not with the Roman Catholic Church) is far more plausible and sensible than what is purported to be the “true story” of the origins of the New Testament canon put out by the early orthodoxy. The truth is that early Christians couldn’t even agree what it meant to be a Christian during the first and second centuries. Read the rest of this entry »
How Christianity Demonized Itself
The Bottom Line
The Catholic Church has done its best to eradicate any connection to its own mysticism-based roots for reasons still not entirely agreed-upon. Unfortunately for Catholic Church, evidence in direct contradiction to the repressive dogma they’ve peddled for centuries is mounting, and radical re-visitations of existing and sometimes exalted works are coming to light. For me, one of the most personally compelling examples is The Great Canterbury Psalter (also called the Anglo-Catalan Psalter), which is a beacon for the Catholic Church. Read the rest of this entry »


