Mind Blowing

This week's classes have been mind blowing and I was in neither of them by choice!!! I was planning to take classes with a health and wellness thrust - but the leader of two of the classes tragically died last week, so his offerings were cancelled.

Instead, I found myself on the theology/ spirituality track and my mind was stretched in 101 new directions!

Here is the thrust of what I learnt, if the name G*d doesn't do it for you, find a name that does! If the idea of male, hierarchical G*d language doesn't do it for you, go for female, universal language (in Hebrew ruach and shehina are good substitutes). There are five different ways of perceiving G*d (each indicating a different level of our own psychological evolution).

1 -Zoomorphic - G*d as animal shapes (this idea came from ancient Egypt)
2 - Anthropomorphic - G*d as a human - "in the hands of G*d", "king", "lord", "with an outstretched arm"
3 - Deistic - scary G*d with a big ego who can bestow either punishment or reward, vengeful and unchanging

(Sadly, I only got taught up to level 3 as a kid - which didn't make the concept of G*d a very enticing one)

4 - Theistic - this idea is big in Kabbalah - that the essential nature of things is G*d and that G*d's holy sparks are everywhere and that the world is filled with vessels (us included) which can be filled with light

5 - Panentheism (non-dualism) - this appears to be the new theology and the one that is expanding my head. G*d is essentially everything - light and shadow and there is no separation between human and G*d as they are the same thing - so many notions familiar in Western culture such as praying to G*d, trying to get closer to G*d, talking to G*d are irrelevant with this new theology.

I feel that I've gone from junior school to grad school in the space of 5 days! Many of my fellow classmates have degrees in comparative religion - or have practised religions on a very deep level - so, the level of discussion blows my mind.

There is a lot of discussion as well about how changing consciousness can change the planet and I have a new favourite word. Noosphere. This is the consciousness envelope of the planet. Every time you have a thought that no one has ever had before, it goes into this cosmic envelope and this makes it easier for the next person to access this thought and the next ...

There has been so much homework to go with this - all of the self development kind - writing letters to G*d, seeing what associations the words G*d and spiritual bring up for us and seeing where they come from, seeing how our relationship with adult figures as a child effected views of G*d etc, etc.

I'm sure my mind will be blown and stretched in many more directions tomorrow! For now, it's homework time!