I was raised as a Christian, and I am a Christian, I hope in a vital sense.
I am also open, believing that though we are many races on one planet, there is only one Earth: I am open to truth wherever it comes from.
I read the Bible, and scholarship about the Bible and the Christian faith.
I am interested in faith independent of the flaws of organised religion (and I do believe that the 'organised' forms of spirituality can have flaws). But that's just to say that there are aspects of some forms of Christianity that don't appeal to me.
So I love various parts of the Christian tradition, but not always all of them, and I don't follow exactly the ways of any one denomination. Having said that, I'm still closest to the Anglican tradition - whilst drawing on aspects of Roman Catholicism! I like the Litany of the Virgin Mary. I admire Padre Pio and trust his teachings. I have spiritually seen Mother Teresa around me, caring for me.
I am interested in the Christianity of the early Church, imagining the believers of those times to have had great fervour and purity of heart.
So, I do call myself a Christian; but I have to say that I respect many forms of religion on the planet, and recognise their spiritual gifts. I respect the devotion of a heart that loves Divinity, when I sense it in writing or people of various faiths.
Although for me 'God' is the 'Father' of Jesus, whereby the Virgin Mary was immaculately conceived, I do not see God as a male being in human likeness. For me, God is a "pure creative spirit" (as was told to Neale Donald Walsch).
I admire the spiritual evolution of the people of India, in their concepts of Brahman, the pure creative spirit of great power, and the transcendent being that manifests as all Creation.
Additionally, I have a love of the Spiritualist Church, appreciating their apparent sincerity and purity of heart, and I am grateful for their example as a social 'place' where clairaudience and clairvoyance are natural human faculties deemed normal.
A lot of things that the Christian church might frown on, I embrace as actually being acceptable and helpful in combating intrusive spiritual hostility. I am happy to respectfully borrow the habit of smudging from native American shamanism (rather like ecclesiastical use of incense). I am happy to borrow from spiritualist knowledge about spirit guides to seek assistance from these celestial bosom buddies in my spiritual evolution and spiritual safety. I am happy to look outside the Church for spirit release, trusting the orientation of those who may help as professional sensitives (even a duty which the modern Church variously abandons).
My personal experiences of Deity are varied; they are all spiritual experiences, happening in altered states, and open to the usual criticisms (!), - but still I ask them to be respected. I have had experiences of Deity outside of my own cultural forms. I have had a clear indication that Islam and Christianity pray to the exact same Deity. I have experienced God as the Absolute, as the Father, as Goddess; I have seen Jesus nearby me (see my poem) and heard a personal message from him; I have known saints of Christian and Indian traditions, again outside of ordinary perception; I have had a vision of the Virgin Mary in a dream - she was smiling at me; I have been visited in a caring way by a person born in India said to be an incarnation of God (just as Christians hold Jesus to be). Of all the worlds in all the universe that bear Life, is ours the only one graced with one single incarnation of God, as Jesus? Jesus is supposed to have said to someone recently, that all paths are his paths.
If we don't hear Spirit with our inner ears, and see Spirit with our inner eyes, how do we know Spirit at all? We can only follow others and believe what we are taught. How can you know an extra-sensory reality except by extra-sensory perception?
I have to admit that I have a strong interest in Goddess religions of the world - perhaps from a desire for wholeness and balance that my culture today can suppress, who knows? There must be a reason why I feel drawn to that representation of Divinity.
I believe God shows up whenever we love God, whatever we conceive God to be. I believe God is liberal in the way God responds to our beliefs, and principally God loves to have relationship with us.
I don't believe that New Age spirituality is rejected by God; I have read that if you have trouble with the world of Spirit, New Age beliefs should be rejected in favour of a strict adherence to Christianity. Obviously the point of this blog is that we are all spiritual beings, and some behaviours and practices can be risky or downright dangerous - so educate people to take care. Smudge before and after spiritual practices! Close down the chakras after spiritual practices! Shield before and after spiritual practices! Cleanse your aura regularly! And ground your energy. A lot of people of 'New Age' belief seem to think that there is no evil and that we cannot ever be invaded. Obviously, we may encounter evil in spirit just as on the Earth, and we may not always be spiritually safe, especially if we are ignorant of danger and of the necessity and proper techniques of spiritual self-care. But all is for the best, as "Pangloss" says, no matter how grim things can be. I see the New Age movement primarily as a movement away from organised religion: it is a movement of individuality, and thus of personal knowledge of Divinity, and therefore can't be so bad.
This is a concise version of my beliefs, for your interest, to inform how you see what I write on this blog, and so you can dismantle any bias that may be present.
So, welcome to Diagnosis: Schizophrenia, people of faith; I'm reassured that you're here. And to the everyone agnostic or atheist - peace be with you.
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