No God But Man- Identity and Religion
Our identities are important. Not just to us emotionally, but to the project of doing our Wills and expressing our individual essences. A carefully constructed identity serves as a medium between Being and Society, guiding our conduct and helping us remember why we are what we are and do what we do. A poorly constructed identity restricts Being in unnatural ways, deforming it, causing fear, shame, and neurosis. With the exception of religious identity, healthy links of identity are formed by authentic self-recognition. We see a symbolic category and find that it helps us to realize something true about ourselves. These bonds are forged because the symbolic category, whatever it is, has increased our self-awareness.
Unhealthy links of identity are formed, for the most part, for two major reasons, which are kind of the same reason. Either the subject suffers from social pressure to appear to be something that he or she is not, or they are trying to blend into a group to avoid social predators, hence these protective identities have been called herd mentality. These bonds are not forged because of authentic self-recognition. They are actually self-obfuscation. Whether there are socially unacceptable aspects to one’s character, or one merely lacks the courage to stand alone as an individual, the subject is trying to hide themselves in their identity, not express him or herself with it.
But what about religious identity? Religious identity has been so thoroughly co-opted by herd mentality, that people almost forget that authentic religious identities exist. Suppose for a moment that someone does not practice a religion to be thought of as “good” and therefore protected from criticism, but rather, out of sincere commitment?
Religion, that is to say, that to which we are bound, has traditionally been something passed down by the family. This is expressed in the Bible by the concept of a covenant with God, which is a sort of racial agreement between a certain bloodline and Yaweh. In the past, our religion was an expression of our racial and cultural heritage. For most of the people reading this, that is probably not the case. Many people in our secular society believe that religion is just one more variety of self-expression. We select the religion we will “belong” to, and most likely, we make a new selection if that religion presents itself with something that makes us uncomfortable or demands too much of us. This, obviously, is not really “religion,” because it doesn’t bind us to anything. Traditionally, religion bound people in western society to the ideals presented by their religious leaders’ interpretation of scripture. It would be technically correct to call this “agnostic religion.” This is a form of religion in which people willingly bind themselves to something that they don’t personally understand or have an experience of. Agnostic religion relies on its leaders for results, not methods.
Gnostic religious leaders, be they fundamentalist Christians encouraging their flock to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, or ceremonial magicians instructing their apprentices in evocation, provide methods, but not results. The results have to be brought about by the work of the people being instructed. Gnostic religion is all about finding out something new, so it can’t possibly be an expression of our identities. Our results, if we fearlessly seek the truth, may very well come into conflict with our identities.
The quality of Gnostic methods will determine this. The average Christian seeking communion with the Lord is unlikely to accept the truth if it is something that they don’t want to hear. This is not a matter of intelligence. If we have a look at the text of John Dee’s True and Faithful Relation, we see that he and Kelley constantly rejected what they were being told. These were highly intelligent men using methods far more severe than the average Baptist’s, and they still failed to assimilate a great deal of what they were being shown, at least for the period of working that we have records of. When Gabriel ordered Dee and Kelley to “sweep your houses clean!” he was trying to tell them to clear their minds of what they THOUGHT they knew about God and His creation.
The Gnostic practitioner who comes to the truth, with the idea that they know what it’s supposed to be already, is likely to tell themselves whatever they want to hear in a booming voice, or to become obsessed by whatever demon or elemental feels like pretending to be their savior for a day. If the Gnostic practitioner’s methods are also poor, they are likely to become obnoxiously self-righteous, having received “divine confirmation” of their previously held beliefs. If the Gnostic practitioner’s methods are good, they are likely to have a serious struggle on their hands as they try to assimilate this new information into their ideas about themselves and the world. These also become obnoxiously self-righteous, but give them a break! They’ve earned it.
Unhealthy links of identity are formed, for the most part, for two major reasons, which are kind of the same reason. Either the subject suffers from social pressure to appear to be something that he or she is not, or they are trying to blend into a group to avoid social predators, hence these protective identities have been called herd mentality. These bonds are not forged because of authentic self-recognition. They are actually self-obfuscation. Whether there are socially unacceptable aspects to one’s character, or one merely lacks the courage to stand alone as an individual, the subject is trying to hide themselves in their identity, not express him or herself with it.
But what about religious identity? Religious identity has been so thoroughly co-opted by herd mentality, that people almost forget that authentic religious identities exist. Suppose for a moment that someone does not practice a religion to be thought of as “good” and therefore protected from criticism, but rather, out of sincere commitment?
Religion, that is to say, that to which we are bound, has traditionally been something passed down by the family. This is expressed in the Bible by the concept of a covenant with God, which is a sort of racial agreement between a certain bloodline and Yaweh. In the past, our religion was an expression of our racial and cultural heritage. For most of the people reading this, that is probably not the case. Many people in our secular society believe that religion is just one more variety of self-expression. We select the religion we will “belong” to, and most likely, we make a new selection if that religion presents itself with something that makes us uncomfortable or demands too much of us. This, obviously, is not really “religion,” because it doesn’t bind us to anything. Traditionally, religion bound people in western society to the ideals presented by their religious leaders’ interpretation of scripture. It would be technically correct to call this “agnostic religion.” This is a form of religion in which people willingly bind themselves to something that they don’t personally understand or have an experience of. Agnostic religion relies on its leaders for results, not methods.
Gnostic religious leaders, be they fundamentalist Christians encouraging their flock to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, or ceremonial magicians instructing their apprentices in evocation, provide methods, but not results. The results have to be brought about by the work of the people being instructed. Gnostic religion is all about finding out something new, so it can’t possibly be an expression of our identities. Our results, if we fearlessly seek the truth, may very well come into conflict with our identities.
The quality of Gnostic methods will determine this. The average Christian seeking communion with the Lord is unlikely to accept the truth if it is something that they don’t want to hear. This is not a matter of intelligence. If we have a look at the text of John Dee’s True and Faithful Relation, we see that he and Kelley constantly rejected what they were being told. These were highly intelligent men using methods far more severe than the average Baptist’s, and they still failed to assimilate a great deal of what they were being shown, at least for the period of working that we have records of. When Gabriel ordered Dee and Kelley to “sweep your houses clean!” he was trying to tell them to clear their minds of what they THOUGHT they knew about God and His creation.
The Gnostic practitioner who comes to the truth, with the idea that they know what it’s supposed to be already, is likely to tell themselves whatever they want to hear in a booming voice, or to become obsessed by whatever demon or elemental feels like pretending to be their savior for a day. If the Gnostic practitioner’s methods are also poor, they are likely to become obnoxiously self-righteous, having received “divine confirmation” of their previously held beliefs. If the Gnostic practitioner’s methods are good, they are likely to have a serious struggle on their hands as they try to assimilate this new information into their ideas about themselves and the world. These also become obnoxiously self-righteous, but give them a break! They’ve earned it.