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Posted: March 27th, 2008 at 2:22am By: Adele Ryan McDowell
My pal Birdie sent me an email that asked if a certain religious figure with political overtones was going to hell for his use of the word "damn" in conjunction with name of God.
Birdie allowed that the word "damn" was used as a verb and a directive to God. Nonetheless, from her very strict, "almost Pentecostal" upbringing, this language was a ticket for a non-stop trip to hell despite the fact that she recognized this person's right to free speech.
Birdie posed this as a yes-or-no question; hell or no hell. And this got me thinking. See, I don't believe in hell as a real, after-life experience. For me, there is no fire and brimstone. There are no otherworld tortures of the damned. In fact, I see hell as a manmade construct.
Allow me to explain:
Instead of heaven or hell, I see this whole human and spiritual life as a continuum of consciousness, healing and wholeness.
I understand that these comments may seem heretical in light of many religions that browbeat their congregants with threats of hell-fire and the wrath and fury of God. That controlling, punitive, bad-parent methodology can certainly be effective. It keeps people in line; it is management by fear. And it squashes the soul.
When I talk to people about their faith, I am always curious about their concept of God. Is God the white-bearded male who will severely punish you for any and all infractions against the Big Book? Is God a benign, all-loving energy? Or is God the face of a child, the bloom of a flower, the hand of your friend or the light at sunrise?
Often, not always, but often, people's impressions of God are unconsciously formulated in the reflections of their childhood mirrors of their parents, most especially their fathers. That's scary on several counts.
Parents are human, and can, occasionally, be way too human when dealing with young, upset children. Fathers are frequently the disciplinarians and the last word. Archetypally, fathers often represent the highest authority within homes. Conversely, fathers can also be absent, distant and an erratic booming voice in times of crises. And it is these early memories that are seared into the malleable and formative brains of children.
Moreover, the all-daddy God can be severe and harsh. It is my way or the highway; good or bad, sin or no sin, hell or no hell. The all-daddy God does not reflect the feminine face of God. There is no room at the inn for the softer, compassionate, receptive and all-embracing archetypal divine feminine.
And these concepts of God are locked into dated perceptions. These concepts of God and the attendant unconscious ideas on authority have not matured along with the individual.
And speaking of maturation and development, did you hear the latest about the Roman Catholic Church, my childhood home of faith? The Vatican has named new sins, including substance abuse, environmental pollution, hoarding excessive wealth, pedophilia, genetic engineering and creating poverty.
I have to admit that there is something laughable about the pomp and circumstance of the church to identify new sins, especially where I might argue that the church itself has flagrantly sinned. But that whole topic of sin is another point of discussion.
This new sin-naming feels more backwards than forwards to me. It seems so linear. This is more right and wrong, good and bad, heaven and hell.
Hell, to me, is the here and now; it is that place of despair and disconnection where you have lost yourself, your connection with others or your connection with the divine. Hell is a place of abject terror and fear that resides within. It might be a moment of what St. John of the Cross called "the dark night of the soul, "where one feels alone, lost and flailing in metaphoric darkness.
Hell, basically, is a place of being. It is a very human place, where the divine spark has been lost. It is light-less, and without any modicum of hope or scrap of love or compassion. Hell speaks to our current life and time; it has nothing to do with the afterlife.
Hell is not about sin. (Curiously, and more aptly, sin is originally derived from a word that means to "miss the mark.") Hell is about walking away from the divine. Hell speaks to working without a heart, traveling without a soul and reacting from the small, unevolved self. Hell is misery created from an isolated, small viewfinder. There is no expansiveness in hell.
I think we are all here as spirits enrobed in human form. We raised our soul hands to be here, at this moment in time, to make a difference in a quantumly changing world. We all agreed, on a soul level, to complete certain soul contracts; we also agreed to be here to grow in consciousness, compassion and unconditional love.
I suggest that the concept and use of hell may be one of those cosmic trompe l'oeil, a visual misperception that ultimately will lead us to the reality that we are all capable of creating either heaven or hell on earth. It is a matter of personal perception and choice. And it boils down to one rather simple and elegant question: Do we choose to honor the divine within and without?
— — —
Dr. Adele Ryan McDowell, Ph.D., is a psychologist, empath and shaman who likes looking at life with the big viewfinder. Her email address is {email ARMCDOWELL@aol.com}ARMCDOWELL@aol.com{/email}. © Copyright 2008 by Adele Ryan McDowell.
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My pal Birdie sent me an email that asked if a certain religious figure with political overtones was going to hell for his use of the word "damn" in conjunction with name of God.
Birdie allowed that the word "damn" was used as a verb and a directive to God. Nonetheless, from her very strict, "almost Pentecostal" upbringing, this language was a ticket for a non-stop trip to hell despite the fact that she recognized this person's right to free speech.
Birdie posed this as a yes-or-no question; hell or no hell. And this got me thinking. See, I don't believe in hell as a real, after-life experience. For me, there is no fire and brimstone. There are no otherworld tortures of the damned. In fact, I see hell as a manmade construct.
Allow me to explain:
Instead of heaven or hell, I see this whole human and spiritual life as a continuum of consciousness, healing and wholeness.
I understand that these comments may seem heretical in light of many religions that browbeat their congregants with threats of hell-fire and the wrath and fury of God. That controlling, punitive, bad-parent methodology can certainly be effective. It keeps people in line; it is management by fear. And it squashes the soul.
When I talk to people about their faith, I am always curious about their concept of God. Is God the white-bearded male who will severely punish you for any and all infractions against the Big Book? Is God a benign, all-loving energy? Or is God the face of a child, the bloom of a flower, the hand of your friend or the light at sunrise?
Often, not always, but often, people's impressions of God are unconsciously formulated in the reflections of their childhood mirrors of their parents, most especially their fathers. That's scary on several counts.
Parents are human, and can, occasionally, be way too human when dealing with young, upset children. Fathers are frequently the disciplinarians and the last word. Archetypally, fathers often represent the highest authority within homes. Conversely, fathers can also be absent, distant and an erratic booming voice in times of crises. And it is these early memories that are seared into the malleable and formative brains of children.
Moreover, the all-daddy God can be severe and harsh. It is my way or the highway; good or bad, sin or no sin, hell or no hell. The all-daddy God does not reflect the feminine face of God. There is no room at the inn for the softer, compassionate, receptive and all-embracing archetypal divine feminine.
And these concepts of God are locked into dated perceptions. These concepts of God and the attendant unconscious ideas on authority have not matured along with the individual.
And speaking of maturation and development, did you hear the latest about the Roman Catholic Church, my childhood home of faith? The Vatican has named new sins, including substance abuse, environmental pollution, hoarding excessive wealth, pedophilia, genetic engineering and creating poverty.
I have to admit that there is something laughable about the pomp and circumstance of the church to identify new sins, especially where I might argue that the church itself has flagrantly sinned. But that whole topic of sin is another point of discussion.
This new sin-naming feels more backwards than forwards to me. It seems so linear. This is more right and wrong, good and bad, heaven and hell.
Hell, to me, is the here and now; it is that place of despair and disconnection where you have lost yourself, your connection with others or your connection with the divine. Hell is a place of abject terror and fear that resides within. It might be a moment of what St. John of the Cross called "the dark night of the soul, "where one feels alone, lost and flailing in metaphoric darkness.
Hell, basically, is a place of being. It is a very human place, where the divine spark has been lost. It is light-less, and without any modicum of hope or scrap of love or compassion. Hell speaks to our current life and time; it has nothing to do with the afterlife.
Hell is not about sin. (Curiously, and more aptly, sin is originally derived from a word that means to "miss the mark.") Hell is about walking away from the divine. Hell speaks to working without a heart, traveling without a soul and reacting from the small, unevolved self. Hell is misery created from an isolated, small viewfinder. There is no expansiveness in hell.
I think we are all here as spirits enrobed in human form. We raised our soul hands to be here, at this moment in time, to make a difference in a quantumly changing world. We all agreed, on a soul level, to complete certain soul contracts; we also agreed to be here to grow in consciousness, compassion and unconditional love.
I suggest that the concept and use of hell may be one of those cosmic trompe l'oeil, a visual misperception that ultimately will lead us to the reality that we are all capable of creating either heaven or hell on earth. It is a matter of personal perception and choice. And it boils down to one rather simple and elegant question: Do we choose to honor the divine within and without?
— — —
Dr. Adele Ryan McDowell, Ph.D., is a psychologist, empath and shaman who likes looking at life with the big viewfinder. Her email address is {email ARMCDOWELL@aol.com}ARMCDOWELL@aol.com{/email}. © Copyright 2008 by Adele Ryan McDowell.
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