The Meaning of It All

Joseph Campbell said people turn to the myths to find the experience of being fully human. I think they turn to myth for an experience of contact with the divine.

People want contact with the divine.
I think people sense that there is something out there, something that is greater than, bigger than, themselves. Myth explains that what it is and how to be at one with it.

Myth is only religion, after all. Other people's religion.

So what is an experience of contact with the divine?

• It is a feeling. It is something that happens inside your head.
  • Love
  • Unity
  • Peace
• Question: Do the bad feelings also give an experience of contact with the divine? Jealousy, anger, greed, etc.

How do you get it?

• Some get it by behaving in certain ways.
  • Meditating
  • Ingesting drugs
  • Sex
  • Doing the things that your particular divinity requires, thus achieving within yourself a feeling of having satisfied the requirements.
• Sometimes it just comes, unbidden.

In Christianity, the only religion that I know well, there are specified ways to make contact with the divine. Contact in other ways is prohibited. Prayer is good. Meditation on religious mysteries is good. Consultation with an approved spiritual messenger (a prophet) is good, contact with an unapproved messenger (a medium) is bad. Reading approved religious texts is good, reading unapproved texts is bad. Attempts to contact the divine oneself (called divination) are bad. In the OT, the high priest used Urim and Thummim. In the NT, lots were cast to decide the replacement apostle. Divination has not survived into this century, however.

It is said that nature is the Book of the Divine. What can be seen by reading this book? We see life and death. We see creation and destruction.

• God kills. If I kill, I am being like God.
• God lives. If I live, I am being like God.
• God destroys. If I destroy, I am being like God.
• God creates. If I create, I am being like God.

We see beauty. But do we see ugliness? No, not in nature, except for death. Question: are beauty and ugliness value judgments? Answer: yes. Therefore they are different for every person.

Watchwords
Authenticity
Industry
Connection
Excitement

Pay homage to the gods or risk their wrath.