Born again again
I've been re-reading a post that I originally typed back in early 2002 on The Demon of Fun-Duh-Mentalism. It's interesting how re-reading things from my past bring that past so clearly into the Present.
For various reasons, I had chosen to drop all of my Magickal Practices and pursue Chris+ianity exclusively for an undertermined amount of time. The name I took for this was "Joshua Chris+offerson". I had a very unique relationship with Yeheshua bin Miriam during that time that I became born again again (the first time being when I was 10). To my knowledge, I am the only surviving Chaote who has gone to Chris+ianity and returned to a very Pragmatic Chaos Magickal approach again, and one of the many reasons I took this on was specifically to be the first. Plus, Chaotes are always going on about "doing that which most repulses you", and what's more repulsive than hanging around with a bunch of other Chris+ians? Talk about yer ShapeChanging.
I also had some newly uncovered issues from childhood that I still had hanging around. The progress and intense Work that I'd done 3 years earlier apparently only got rid of 70% or so of the unnecessary baggage. I Intended on Banishing the other 30%.
After doing a lot of research into various forms of Chris+ianity that I might want to pursue (e.g., Fundy, Gnostic, etc.), I ended up focusing on a rather Friendship-based relationship (in magickal terms, I was constantly Evoking and Invoking Jesus the Chris+, drawing Inspriration and Wisdom directly from JC), . During my time as a born again again Chris+ian, JC and I had lotsa intersting convos. See, as it turns out during our convos, most Chris+ians forget that JC only had 2 Commandments*:
Love God with all you've got
Love your fellow Human with all you've got
The common denominator, of course, being Love. Agape! Gee, this sure sounds an aweful lot like the Karuna and Infinite Compassion of the Bodhisattvas to me!
So if Jesus' only commandments were to LOVE, why do so many Chris+ians Hate so much? Because they're Human, and they forget, because they become distracted and caught up in the PsychoDrama of Life. Like everyone does more or less, including you, you silly Human. JC had asked me to remind my fellow Chris+ian of this simple fact, and I took it as my God-given mission... And I had fun pushing the Chris+ians outta their comfort zones, expanding minds and practices, and finding out how many truly insightful and intelligent Chris+ians out there completely agreed with me (waaay more than you'd think!). Many of them are still Quoting me, which makes me proud of my little Memes.
One of the most interesting things I found during that time was that Jesus NEVER calls himself "The Son of God" in the earliest and most reliable Gospel, Mark. Check it out. Not once. Forget everything you think you know about Chris+ianity, forget all of Paul's mad gibberings, and just read Mark. One of the biggest revelations I had from re-reading Mark was how this Great, Powerful, and Wise Man named Yeheshua became literally worshipped. I kept getting the feeling that nobody was really listening very carefully to him, because people kept flubbing his ideas up. I also got the feeling that he felt very much pressured into his Role as "Messiah" from those around him. It'll be a great summer afternoon read. Honest.
Agape!
* See Mark 12:28-34
For various reasons, I had chosen to drop all of my Magickal Practices and pursue Chris+ianity exclusively for an undertermined amount of time. The name I took for this was "Joshua Chris+offerson". I had a very unique relationship with Yeheshua bin Miriam during that time that I became born again again (the first time being when I was 10). To my knowledge, I am the only surviving Chaote who has gone to Chris+ianity and returned to a very Pragmatic Chaos Magickal approach again, and one of the many reasons I took this on was specifically to be the first. Plus, Chaotes are always going on about "doing that which most repulses you", and what's more repulsive than hanging around with a bunch of other Chris+ians? Talk about yer ShapeChanging.
I also had some newly uncovered issues from childhood that I still had hanging around. The progress and intense Work that I'd done 3 years earlier apparently only got rid of 70% or so of the unnecessary baggage. I Intended on Banishing the other 30%.
After doing a lot of research into various forms of Chris+ianity that I might want to pursue (e.g., Fundy, Gnostic, etc.), I ended up focusing on a rather Friendship-based relationship (in magickal terms, I was constantly Evoking and Invoking Jesus the Chris+, drawing Inspriration and Wisdom directly from JC), . During my time as a born again again Chris+ian, JC and I had lotsa intersting convos. See, as it turns out during our convos, most Chris+ians forget that JC only had 2 Commandments*:
Love God with all you've got
Love your fellow Human with all you've got
The common denominator, of course, being Love. Agape! Gee, this sure sounds an aweful lot like the Karuna and Infinite Compassion of the Bodhisattvas to me!
So if Jesus' only commandments were to LOVE, why do so many Chris+ians Hate so much? Because they're Human, and they forget, because they become distracted and caught up in the PsychoDrama of Life. Like everyone does more or less, including you, you silly Human. JC had asked me to remind my fellow Chris+ian of this simple fact, and I took it as my God-given mission... And I had fun pushing the Chris+ians outta their comfort zones, expanding minds and practices, and finding out how many truly insightful and intelligent Chris+ians out there completely agreed with me (waaay more than you'd think!). Many of them are still Quoting me, which makes me proud of my little Memes.
One of the most interesting things I found during that time was that Jesus NEVER calls himself "The Son of God" in the earliest and most reliable Gospel, Mark. Check it out. Not once. Forget everything you think you know about Chris+ianity, forget all of Paul's mad gibberings, and just read Mark. One of the biggest revelations I had from re-reading Mark was how this Great, Powerful, and Wise Man named Yeheshua became literally worshipped. I kept getting the feeling that nobody was really listening very carefully to him, because people kept flubbing his ideas up. I also got the feeling that he felt very much pressured into his Role as "Messiah" from those around him. It'll be a great summer afternoon read. Honest.
Agape!
* See Mark 12:28-34