«False prophets»
A city in Ireland
The workshop has started, everybody is quiet and listens attentively,
as the elderly, but still attractive shaman, looks at everybody individually
and then starts to speak.
My friend that had invited me to come.
The shaman talks about Conditioning:
«If you had grown up in a chicken coop, if that was your environment,
you would behave exactly like a chicken, and make the very same
clucking noises as chickens», he says.
It is true, this is our base in life, we construct our life from it!
Of course we add to it, or perhaps subtract, but fundamentally it does not
change easily, it is like cement.
But the Conditioning is not the truth, it is only a formatting, even when it
is «positive», which can be just as bad, forming arrogance, pride, selfishness,
etc.
But then he says:
«Forget about being holy, you will never succeed», and «you will never be
more holy than what you were the day you were born» and he later also says:
«You don't have to love anybody, look after yourself instead.»
Ok, I know it is sometimes really difficult to love, but I don't agree with taking
away the commandment to love, nor with his sentiments about holiness.
This is the anti gospel.
“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly
they are ferocious wolves». (Matthew 7:15)
Later on, after the talk, he comes back to set up the altar. It is a fixed ritual.
First he prepares roses for the altar.
Then, while music is playing in the background, he sits and prays in front of
us for quite a long time.
«And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing
in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you,
they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room,
close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who
sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep
on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their
many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need
before you ask him.»
(Matthew 6:5-15)
Then he adds a variety of different items to the altar, and lastly, a pair of
eagle wings.
At the end, he lights the 2 big candles with several wicks on each one.
He goes away for a little while, and then the music starts, preparing us
for the dance that is about to start.
We form lines, at the 4 sides of the altar.
The shaman comes out wearing his dance costume.
He starts walking fast, around and around, on the inside of the crowd,
around the altar with the two huge candles, which have been burning for a
while already.
The music increases in intensity, and he starts dancing, and so do we,
imitating his steps.
After a while he starts looking into the crowd on all sides of him, and
walks around for a while, before he picks out a person, whom he brings
to sit down in front of the altar.
He indicates for the person to bow down in front of it.
He picks out a set of beads from the pile on the altar and puts it around the
neck of the person.
Then he takes one of the big burning candles, handed to him by someone
who sits in front of him.
Everybody can see that he is cupping the huge flames on the candle
(there is 4 wicks on it) in the palm of his hand.
He then brings his hand that has received all this heat, together with the
candle itself, up to the forehead of the person, and keeps his hand there,
to transmit the fire.
The crowd keeps dancing, and the music intensifies, and systematically
he picks out one after the other.
Individually he brings them to the altar, everybody gets the fire on the
forehead, some gets beads, some gets roses, some gets a wash, some gets
painted on the face.
It goes on for a long time.
When it is all over, he talks a bit to the crowd again.
Afterwards he is available if anybody wants to talk to him on a one to one,
and a queue forms in the large room.
«Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware.
You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to the mute idols,
however you were led.»
(1 Corinthians 12, 1-2)
He is kind, encouraging, funny sometimes, very present, he sees everything,
and he seems to even see what you are thinking.
What he says seems like common sense.
He is not young, but at the same time, he seems timeless, as if he is
still young at the same time.
He is beautiful, everybody loves him.
«And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.»
(2 Corinthians 11:14)
( «Satan»: Worldly, earthly power)
I went to several of these workshops. It was interesting.
But deceptive.
«By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus
Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not
confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of
which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the
world. You are from God, little children, and have overcome them;
because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.»
(1John 4:2-4)
What I drew from the workshops that I attended, is the powerful role that
Conditioning plays in our lives.
In my own mind I compare it to the downloading of programs that we
execute on our computers: they are just that; different sorts of files and
programs.
They are not the truth about yourself or others.
When I am in Ireland people call me «girl» as a friendly way of addressing
me.
When I am in France I am always addressed as «Madame».
You could not call a grown up french woman «girl».
In France people eat a light breakfast, sometimes no breakfast at all,
but everybody eats a good lunch around midday, and a dinner at night.
French people are (almost) unable to eat pasta without cheese.
In Ireland it is ketchup that one needs with pasta.
When I told a french nun that I eat when I am hungry, and if I am
not hungry, I don't eat,
she just looked at me, speechless, as if I was a very strange being.
The religious communities are not exempt from social conditioning;
this religious Sister told me when Simone Veil died, in 2017, that she
was «a great woman, who was a symbol and a heroine for
french women because she was responsible for legalising abortion in
France».
When I pointed out to her that abortion is a deadly sin, because it kills
a life,it is murder, she just looked at me blankly, and repeated that
«Simone Veil was a great woman».
The undoubtable fact that Simone Veil's motivation was good, her political
fight to legalize abortion came from having witnessed how horribly women
suffered in the concentration camps in the way that abortions were carried
out there, does not mean that what she obtained; the legalizing of abortion,
is justified.
It does not put right what is wrong, it was a fight that had it’s source in personal
reaction, in feelings. It was emotive.
Is it not one of the 10 commandments to not kill?
Is it not written in stone?
In the commandments it does not say that sometimes it is ok to kill a baby if
it is an inconvenience, no, it is unambiguous, black and white:
«You shall not kill, ever»
In France, there seems to me to be a general anesthesia about what abortion
actually is, while in Ireland there was greater awareness about it,until it's
legalization. ( If it is legal, then it is moral)
And there there is the fact of imitation, of the smaller following the bigger.
After it became legalized in France, many other countries followed,
Norway too.
(«If they do it, it must be ok for us to do it too» or «monkey see, monkey do»)
Then there is the influence of the media, with edited, selective news,
with a presentation aimed at giving a specific impression, which is a form
of manipulation and brainwashing.
They tell us what they think we should know, and they withhold what
they do not think we should know.
Where is people's awareness? Where is their ability to think for themselves?
On another occasion the same another religious asked me for news about
someone who happens to be a black African. I told her the good news that
she had gotten a job that she really loved and where she would be doing a
lot of good, as I know she has a lot of love in her heart and the job is working
with people.
She responded in a matter of fact way: «Well, her only problem is her colour».
I was speechless.
I thought first she was joking, but she was serious.
It can be problematic when people believe in what other people say and do,
and take it for granted that it is right.
If I had not known any better, I might have made the presumption that she
was representing the Church, since she has dedicated her entire life to it.
I could have confused her views with the teachings of Jesus.
That would have been a shame, because Jesus was neither a racist nor did he
sanction the killings of babies.
«It is better to take refuge in the Lord
than to trust in humans.
It is
better to take refuge in the Lord
than to trust in princes.
All
the nations surrounded me,
but in the name of the Lord I cut them
down.
They surrounded me on every side,
but in the name of the Lord I
cut them down.
They swarmed around me like bees,
but they were
consumed as quickly as burning thorns;
in the name of the Lord I
cut them down.
I was pushed back and about to fall,
but the
Lord helped me.
The Lord is my strength and my defense;
he has
become my salvation.»
(Psalm 118:8-14)
A family in the village who is the pillar of the church, had a new baby, and
this same friend was sent as a home help to provide assistance for the first
few days.
She entered the house, she meets the family, including the other children,
and one of them, who was 3 years old, looks at her, screws up her face and
says: «I don't like black people!»
Is it realistic to think that a child of 3 had found out by herself that she had
a dislike of black people?
Or is it more likely that she was conditioned to believe that she did not like
black people?
Racism is a belief, which seems to be prevalent among Christians in France.
I do not know why. And in Ireland too.
Once, as I was waiting in a post office queue, an old man in front of me started
to chat with me.
During the short conversation he told me proudly that he had been serving on
the altar in one of the big churches in the town all his adult life. Then, the man
in front of him in the queue, turned his head and we saw that he was black.
When his back was again turned to us, this good christian man points at him
with his finger and says to me with all the contempt he could muster up:
«There you go, an Irishman!»
I told him that I was not a native neither, I was also was a foreigner in this country.
But he replied: «No, no, not at all, that is not the same!»
Really? Why not?
For all we know, the man in the queue could have been born in Ireland, unlike me.
We heard and took in everything that our parents, teachers and everybody in
positions of authority, said and did, when we were little.
Many children are also led to believe in Santa Claus, but normally as an adult
you don't believe in him anymore.
The problem for us as adults is that so much of the other things we took on
board as small children stays in our psyche, in our minds. We still believe in
it as adults!
The old stories from the past that we have decided to keep, and then the stories
that we make up on a daily basis.
Somebody says something, a comment, and out of that we are able to create a
soap opera that goes on for years.
«Understanding the Faith»
Joan of Arc, patron saint of France
«I have found a house, and I think I will buy it», says my friend on the phone.
«It is a quiet village, but the address is «Joan of Arc street», and I think
that is a sign», he says.
Who was Joan of Arc, only a simple shepherd girl, who, while minding her
flock, heard the voice of God speaking to her personally. He made her
believe that she could chase the English out of her beloved country, the
country that was constantly invaded by them, because they wanted to take
possession of it.
So, not a small task for a young girl, a complete nobody, in terms of the
world.
Yes, she paid the price with her life in the end, but she was already living
in the presence of God.
The point is, she instilled hope and faith in the soldiers she fought with,
so much so that the objective was achieved.
«And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything
according to his will, he hears us»
«And Jesus said to him, “If you can! All things are possible for one who
believes.”»
(Mark
9, 23)
St.Patrick, patron saint of Ireland
St.Patrick, as we know, used the shamrock as a symbol to explain the
Trinity of God,
as the shamrock has 3 leaves on it's stem, representing
The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit, the 3 leaves forming one plant.
I was always told that shamrocks only grows in Ireland, but when I came
to visit the house in France, I went to see the garden that came with the house.
The garden was a little bit away from the house, in a street called........
«Rue du trèfle»: «shamrock street»!
And the garden was full of shamrocks!
This is another image used to depict the Holy Trinity of
The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit
No comments:
Post a Comment