Holy Bible. Holy Mirror.

How looking beyond literal meaning enhances the Bible’s sanctity.

As the consciousness revolution hots up, it’s becoming pretty clear that what’s really holy about the Holy Bible - is the person reading it. We may imbue the book with holiness, but surely, isn’t it even more valuable to see it as a mirror in which our soul is reflected? Isn’t the Bible about us? About God’s purpose for us. How he created us as an expression of himself. How we lost awareness of our divine nature. And how we can restore it.

Maybe instead we should call it ‘The Human Bible’.

Yet, as we gaze into it, the Bible dazzles us with seemingly misleading information. Largely as a result, we are still fighting the same wars within and between ourselves over the same issues since circa 6,000 BC.

Take Genesis. Let’s face it, we know for sure:

• The universe was not created in seven days.
• Man is not made from dust.
• Serpents do not hold conversations with naked ladies.

Orthodox doctrine believes that everything must be taken literally and this is a full, final, immutable transcription of God’s Word - mess with it at your peril!

So, because of this belief, as increasingly large numbers of intelligent people are rejecting the entire book, how do we reconcile the word of God with the discoveries of science and our emerging understanding?

One way could be neither to dismiss nor take it on faith, but use the words to look deeper within ourselves - to fathom the meaning in the metaphors - to expand our consciousness - to embrace new ideas and revelations.

As told in the story of Jacob, maybe God wants us to struggle with his teachings in order to receive enlightenment. My working hypothesis is that God leaves us clues. Scripture is poetry that speaks through our minds to our soul. Perhaps our spiritual evolution occurs as we use these clues as a catalyst for looking within ourselves for meaning and truth. This would be fully consistent with the first commandment - have no other gods before me. ‘I, God, am within you. I am your true self. Don’t look out there and worship symbols or you’ll get lost. Use the symbols to go deeper inside.’

Take Genesis again. The Bible offers us three versions of the Creation. Genesis 1. Genesis 2. And John 1. Why? Maybe this is a clue - a pointer?
Perhaps the anomalies are the portals to the hidden meaning. If John says it is ‘the Word’ that is the causative factor in creation, why is it not mentioned in Genesis 1? Maybe it is. Maybe six thousand years before John came along they used a different word for the same thing? That’s hardly heresy is it? So where does Genesis 1 tally with John?

John says: ‘In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God…All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.’

Genesis 1, however, says: ‘In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form; and void. And darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.’

Throughout Genesis 1, the expression ‘the waters’ is used seven times - culminating in verse 20: ‘And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life,’.

Could the missing word for ‘Word’ in Genesis be ‘waters’? In Genesis 2, ‘the waters’ as a creative force has morphed into the river that ‘went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became four heads.’ The four forces of the universe, perhaps? Imagine that - has Genesis been telling us all along what science is now discovering?

Could these metaphors be God’s inscrutable way of telling us who we are and why we’re here?

Consider the logic in Genesis 1. If there were no light, how could there be darkness? Darkness is a shadow, an illusion caused by the presence of light striking a solid object. Darkness requires light to create it. Before there is light there can not be ‘darkness’ - only ‘nothingness’. That’s exactly what it’s saying! The earth was without form; and void. Empty. No space. (Ergo no time.) Nothing yet manifest. So both ‘the deep’ and ‘the waters’ must be symbols for something else. They cannot be the ‘dark angry seas’ that are seductively conjured by the words in our imagination - because there was an empty void!

John 1 gives us more clues, ‘And the light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.’ ‘Here, ‘Light and Darkness’ are not physical electromagnetic light energies - they are obviously symbols for - ‘Awareness and Ignorance’!

As we step past the miasma of the mind and move into our holy consciousness, it sheds light on verse 1. What if ‘heaven and earth’ is not ‘the universe’ but us, who we really are? The dual elements of consciousness? The spiritual touching in to the physical like Da Vinci’s ‘creation of Adam’? Our purpose here, then, is God’s simply stated purpose:

Let there be light.

Is this not God’s plea to himself that sings in our soul - ‘let me now know who I really am and what my possibility may be’?

Couldn’t life be just that simple?

If you’d like to join this discussion in more detail, look within Paul’s new book draft: ‘Original Heresy - the light behind the shadows in the Bible.’ www.myebook.com/Original_Heresy

Religion or science? Who’s right? Heads or tails?

If you’re asking religion and science the big questions: ‘Does God exist? Was the universe designed or random? Was it really made in seven days? Why do we have good and evil? Why are we here? How do we get out of this hell-hole? Etc? Then it’s a toss up who’s right.

Religion and science are two sides of the same coin.

At the essence level, they are both idealistic seekers of truth, beauty and freedom. When they start bickering, however, they descend to the survival-of-the-fittest level - belief systems developed around superstitions (inventing cause-and-effect relationships where there is no proven connection). Although they each have very different criteria for ‘evidence’, ‘proof’ and ‘truth’, they both share a common root - man’s attempts to gain supremacy by controlling mass thought and behaviour. Science works primarily through the mind. Religion, the emotions. Fact or faith? Flip that coin.

Science compels us to follow their cult by appealing to logic and reason. It’s very powerful. Very addictive. We like to feel we’re ‘intelligent’. We like things to make sense. Religion gets us mainly through the emotions - sentiment, ritual, fear and guilt. Equally addictive.

Science is not superstitious, it’s based on fact - you scream!

It’s a turkey shoot to point the superstition finger at religion, but not science. Oh, really? On the physical, material level, science, you are in your element. You perform miracles with the stuff of creation. You measure, describe and manipulate nature brilliantly. Cause-and-effect relationships can be reliably attributed. The contributions to our lives of knowledge, technology and medicine are awesome. Science, we owe you. We love you. Thank-you.

But…when you go beyond your purview and apply the same types of thinking to the levels beyond the physical - the levels that are causing things to happen here - observable fact ceases to cooperate with you. You cannot understand things beyond the mind and the physical world. You cannot explain man’s multi-faceted, multi-dimensional consciousness in terms of biology or Darwinism. So you either assert they cannot possibly exist or start to make things up - and then try to prove you’re right. Spiritual awareness is a delusion - says who? Says those that have never experienced it. You are driven by the superstition that you should be able to explain everything. Even Einstein died frustrated by what he felt was a personal failure in being unable to extol a theory of everything - why oh why do quantum particles not obey the same law as the planets? They should. So what is it?

Science is utterly beguiled by two major superstitions: that the universe exists ‘out there’ outside our consciousness and that there has to be a fundamental particle of matter - now dubbed ‘the God particle’. These replicate the fundamental religious fallacies that, contrary to scripture, God is ‘up there in heaven’ rather than dwelling within us as our true self. The first so-called commandment says not to place other gods before the true God within, but in bowing down to symbols of God (even holy men), religion falls into the same trap as science.

Science, you built a Large Hadron Collider - where irresistible hubris collides with unstoppable finance - hang on everybody, we’re getting really close, just give us more time and another billion and we’ll find this darn, pesky little particle once and for all. And when you did, what did it turn out to be?

String theory and the Word of God.

You could have stopped at string theory? But, oh yea of little faith, had to keep looking. A few billion pounds later, you find the same answer. String theory suggests that matter is not so much particles, but strings of energy. These strings vibrate at different frequencies. When we perceive something, it is because there is a combination of strings vibrating in harmony like the sound made by strings in a violin. This harmony resonates within us and it seems like things are ‘out there’ - but the sound is really taking place within our consciousness. Einstein said the stars are in our head. Is this what he meant? We think we’re seeing things, but bizarrely we’re hearing them!

The ‘God Particle’ is music!

According to the Epoch Times, June 25th, 2010, ‘the research department at the CERN underground physics laboratory [ aka. the LHC] is making music through the disintegration of particles after high speed proton collisions.’

At this point, ‘The Universe in a Nutshell’ collides with ‘The holy Bible’ - heaven forbid. Now, could this be that momentous moment in the brief history of time that science and religion have a significant opportunity to unite?

In the beginning, says John, was the Word. And the Word was with God. And the
Word was God….All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing
made that was made….And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.

Fritjof Kapra created a sensation with his book the Tao of Physics when he drew parallels between modern physics and Eastern mysticism. Here it is again. String theory and the LHC, in their way, are telling us the same as the Bible - that everything is made from sound-like vibrations.

The Bible is written entirely in symbols - called words. There is a key to understanding them - transcend the surface, obvious meanings and allow the words to awaken the sleeping giant within. If we let our mind rule our awareness, it will enslave us in conditioned limitation, the house of bondage.

The meeting point is up the mountain.

‘Ascending the mountain’ is a pretty universal metaphor for raising consciousness. Noah rose above the waters. Moses climbed Mount Sinai. Jesus ascended into heaven. There’s gold in them thar hills. Through wise appreciation of how string theory and the findings of the LHC have obvious parallels with the Word, science and religion could not just ‘tolerate’ disparity, but embrace it and both reach a higher state of evolution, a greater destiny.

The word ‘Word’, after all implies a sound. And, if we examine the process of creation in Genesis 1, it seems like it is through God’s uttering his Word, or his Name, that essence manifests into form. God’s name would be the sound of everything in the universe. Exactly how science describes the implications of string theory - all matter is the sound of everything.

With a true willingness, science and religion could rise above their polarisations and acknowledge their equally noble yet significantly different roles and destinies. At this higher level we’re all talking about pure energy. What does energy care whether we call it a soul or a quark? It seems, without realising it, the Bible and science align in describing this energy as a sound vibration. True science can lead us into manifesting this energy into creation. True religion can guide the soul, the energy of who we are formed in God’s image, home to its source through the trinity of expressions: the Sound, the Light and the Love of God.

These ideas have been adapted from my book - Original Heresy: the light behind the shadows in the Bible. - You can explore them in considerably more depth at: www.myebook.com. If you’d like to comment publically or directly with me I’d love to chat. Contact me on paul@horsejoy.com

Dare you take a fresh look at God’s word?

If you were to take a fresh look at the Bible, you’d be in for a shock - or a surprise - depending on your current position. Hidden behind the shadows of the traditional interpretations there appears to be an ancient, parallel teaching that will liberate you from all kinds of moral tyranny spuriously imposed on the world in the name of God. God, it seems, is a cool dude after all.

But dare you? To do so behoves you to commit heresy - the most heinous of all sins and crimes. Why is heresy so cruelly punished? Because it comes from the Greek word ‘heraitikos’ meaning ‘choice’. Heresy is the ultimate freedom of choice. Hence the greatest threat to those who lust after control of our lives through fear and guilt.

Jesus Christ was guilty of heresy. And, according to God’s law, he was duly crucified for it. But, if he was the ‘son of God’, why would he be sent to violate God’s law in so flagrant a way? Did God change his mind? Get bored with the way things were shaping up? Or maybe the law of revenge is not God’s after all!

How can we doubt that God’s message is not about revenge - but forgiveness? Because when we feel hurt or violated we also feel the need to lash out and smite the perpetrator - and off we go in an endless spiral of hatred. Lead us not into temptation. But deliver us from evil. Indeed.

The trouble is, if we listen to the pundits all we have is their dilemma - enjoy 31 flavours of a very similar religious belief structure to argue over; or 31 flavours of what - humanism / science / atheism? While on their own levels these are wonderful and beautiful, spiritually, they lead us to nowhere and back again. Here we all are - reincarnated, again! Between bouts of pleasure and pain we flail around looking for purpose and meaning in symbols of success and love.

So can a fresh look at the Bible help? Absolutely. If released into the cultural atmosphere, it will begin to upgrade our operating system. Not an easy task. It means being willing to transcend six thousand years of programming and fear. Fear of heresy - everything from torture and death to rejection by loved-ones, family, race and nation.

Many people are not ready for this - and that’s totally OK. Some people really do need to be told what to think and do. Heresy can pose a real threat. But many are safe and ready enough to commit outrageous acts of heresy - to think and act from your own heart, your own centre of natural knowing and courage.

Where do we begin? In the beginning? Genesis? OK, but how? Maybe begin by asking questions that come from a different mind-set that challenge traditional assumptions. Like, why would the word of God be at such loggerheads with the intellect of man and our scientific discoveries? Why would an all-powerful, unconditionally-loving God promise the same land to two opposing nations and not deliver it without the price of constant hatred and war? When belief is such a capricious quality, why would this same God wish to exclude from ‘heaven’ anyone who does not believe in Jesus?

Even better - how does the word of God support man’s evolving consciousness and knowledge? What really is the ‘promised land’ if it’s not the Gaza strip? What is the real pathway to salvation - how can we really stop suffering and enjoy life a whole lot more? Isn’t this what we want religion and science to deliver?

These are the questions that are answered - not by the surface structure and traditional beliefs about what Genesis means - but by viewing the same words as symbols for a whole different meaning.

Sometimes, fathoming the symbology is pretty obvious. For example, all it takes is a small shift in perspective to see ‘the promised land’ as a symbol for ‘the Kingdom of God’, our spiritual home - not any physical location. At a stroke we can now bring peace to the Middle East! No longer is anyone denied right of ownership - unless the waters are muddied by yet another layer of erroneous belief.

More often, the logic, reasoning, intuition and evidence for new meaning takes a lot of focus and involves mortal combat with inner demons. For example, researching and unravelling the myriad symbols in the first so-called ‘day’ of Genesis is not only mind-blowing but also seminal to unlocking the symbology throughout the entire Old and New Testaments. A worthwhile investment to those who really do seek a higher truth.

A quick taste? Genesis 1:2 says, ‘And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was over the face of the deep…’ To me this is symbology and metaphor at its zenith. Part of ‘why we’re here’, surely, is to figure things out, to be pressed to look within and thereby evolve. To me, this passage says the entire creation (heaven and earth) was still just an essence, no space, no time - like an idea. Even God, the creator did not know what its potential might be. That’s the ‘darkness’. That’s why in the next verse God declares his immortal intent ‘Let there be light.’ - let there be knowledge, let me know who I really am and what my possibility is. Then in Genesis 2, it talks symbolically about the evolution of the essence and how his original intention seems to have been betrayed by his trusted servant.

Because we are made in God’s image (a symbol for intention!), God’s purpose through us burns a hole in our hearts until, regardless of religious belief or not, we begin to move on it by asking - Who am I really? What do I really want? How can I be more true to myself?

Want more? Look within. www.smashwords.com/books/view/14175

Time to top making unnecessary decisions

Small things done consistently in strategic places create major impact. - Russell Bishop.

Decision-making is our most powerful leadership ap. We need to stop using it willy-nilly.

One of my very first clients, back in the eighties, was the CEO of a major multinational ad agency based in Covent Garden. For our initial session, he booked a conference room in a nearby hotel. Strange? - I thought.

As he revealed to me the depth, complexity and seriousness of the personal and professional issues he was dealing with, I could feel the sweat trickling down the back of my neck. I surreptitiously wiped by brow and waited till the ‘right’ response came up.

I took a deep breath, leaned forward, fixed his eyeballs onto mine and said with a slight tremor, ‘Before we go any further, you have a decision to make.’ ‘What’s that?’ he asked.

‘Do you want to die? Or do you want to live?’

This comes into the category of what we might call ‘necessary decisions’.
It’s occurring at the highest levels of the game of life.

Making decisions at the lower, more day-to-day tactical levels can often be seriously counter-productive.

Let me explain. Very often we can blur the critical distinction between decision and choice. Sometimes we use the terms as if they were synonymous. They’re not.

The word decide comes from the Latin, cidium. Meaning kill. Hence sui-cide, homi-cide, geno-cide, insecti-cide, etc-cide. To decide means to kill all other options (that could sometimes lead to our result). Occasionally we do want to kill off the alternatives - like deciding to get married or to give up crack cocaine. More often than not, we don’t.

When, as a child, say, we have made decisions about who we believe ourselves to be and our life purpose, etc, we kill off our ability to experience a greater truth as it unfolds. We close off to ideas and possibilities that contradict our childish coping strategies. We so often live our lives and design our business strategies around proving that our (misguided) self-beliefs are untrue. They usually are - so why waste energy proving it?

Choice, on the other hand is powerful in another way. Freedom of choice is heresy. Heresy comes from the Greek word for choice, heraitikos. If we make more free choices rather than feeling pressured into making ‘the right, or the best decision’ we may risk being a heretic but can feel liberated and remain flexible as reality unfolds thwarting our expectations as is its wont. Instead of defending a worn out point of view we are not committed to anything but flowing freely in the present.

Our culture mistakenly tends to associate strong leadership with adamant decision-making. Flexibility and changing direction is perceived as a weakness. This is utterly crass.

False certainty and resolute decisions based on fantasy predictions about the future is not just a weakness - it’s negligent and irresponsible. We have the power to create the future we want by making key strategic decisions and commitments where the rubber hits the road, keeping our eyes on the real track ahead and making moment-by-moment choices with agility and verve as stuff shows up to throw us off.

My aforementioned CEO got in touch with his true purpose. He decided to align his life and career with this inner truth. He confessed to being a closet poet and musician, and found the courage to express his creativity and sensitivity in a notoriously hostile environment. He decided to live, to conquer his fear and the life-threatening illness that was devouring him. He brought his life and his work back into line with a few, critical high-level decisions.

He escaped from a fatally stressful existence into a life of self awareness and sunshine. He bought a villa somewhere in the south of France. I haven’t heard from him in years but I’ll bet he retired there, a wealthy man, to enjoy his family, write poems and compose music.

You can explore my new, highly controversial, paradigm-busting book, Original Heresy - the light behind the shadows in the Bible, at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/14175

Or if you want to discover ‘who you really are’, email paul@horsejoy.com or just call me on 01608 663 916.

2012 - is the end nigh? Again?

The Mayan prophesy fortells that the world will end in 2012! What on earth does this mean?

Somewhere in the Gospels (sorry, unable to track down chapter and verse) I’m pretty sure Jesus says something like ‘This world belongs to Satan.’ In any case, to make sense of a prophesy like this, to be intellectually honest, we must first ask - what is really meant by ‘the world’? Just the physical planet we call earth? Hardly. The entire universe? Maybe? Because if the earth were destroyed we cannot imagine the impact on the rest of the universe. Or is it the state of consciousness through which we perceive (or project) the external reality? Refer back to Genesis 1 and John 1 to review from what everything was made – the Word, the Sound, the Name.
Based on the deeper understanding of the symbols in Revelation we’ll explore in Volume 2, it becomes clear that the end of ‘the world’ has already taken place. The world is a symbol for Lucifer’s kingdom. His reign was ended around 2000 years ago.

According to the Mayan prophesy, around now, a second sun will appear in the sky orbiting between our sun and the earth. This is very likely a metaphor of the so-called ‘second coming’. In other words, 2000 marks the era in which the new consciousness, the new Jerusalem, the second coming, the Christ action, will blossom to a new level in humanity. This is the age of Aquarius, the end of the age of Pisces, the cusp of which we are currently traversing.

12 could very well be a symbol for the 12 tribes of Israel - the children of God. Us.

And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in the foreheads. And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed a hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel. – Revelation, 7, 2-4.

If you know the Revelation, 12 X 12 X 1000 is the 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel. The 144,000 who are spared the destruction of Lucifer. The angel of death passes over the ones with the seal on their forehead – another reprise of the Passover story.
Israel, as we discovered is probably an acronym of Isis-Ra-Elohim, a symbol for the true name of God. The 144,000 is all of us. All humanity, all souls, have already been released from bondage. We just don’t fully realise this yet. The second coming began in the time of Abraham and is still with us. The end of the world has already happened - it means the end of the world of illusion - Lucifer’s kingdom.

The second sun, the second son, is already in orbit around us. It is invisible to the earthly eye. Visible only when we open our spiritual vision. We can relax. It is not here to destroy us. It is here to protect us and to guide us home.

Follow this blog to find out when you can order my paradigm-busting new book, Original Heresy - the light behind the shadows in the Bible.

God or Darwin? Or both?

Why, if the Bible is the Word of God, is there such conflict between what it says and what we know from experience to be so?

On the surface, Genesis seems to say that God created everything in seven days. This gives us a dilemma. Science has ‘proved’ that the cosmos evolved over billions of years. And life itself has been evolving for millions. Those that believe the Bible is immutable find ways of reconciling this cognitive dissonance in various ways. Some deny science. Some compartmentalise science from scripture and keep both points of view as separate issues. Those that don’t ‘believe in’ the Bible, often take the easy way out and deny it all – including the possibility of God.

If we look beneath the surface – at the light behind the shadows – we find there is no such disparity, no conflict, no need to argue.
However, people still enjoy a good argument – and a bad one!
The symbology in Genesis is good news and bad news.
The good news is that Genesis 1 tells of the Creation – as a single event that occurred outside time and space. In the beginning, God created the essence of all life. Genesis 2 tells us of the evolutionary plan to manifest the created essence over time through the agency of mankind.
The bad news is that both religious doctrine and atheism are equally challenged to the core. So those attached to either are still in the same boat. They can continue to argue, while those wishing to raise their consciousness to their next level of development have a strong scriptural basis for doing so.
We can look to the Bhagavad-Gita or the Upanishads for inspiration. But the same mystical truth is also to be found hidden in our own Bible.
The keys for piercing the symbols in the Bible and unveiling the hidden secrets are revealed in my new book soon to be published: ORIGINAL HERESY - the light behind the shadows in the Bible. Follow this blog and I'll let you know when it's available.

God or Darwin? Or both?

Why, if the Bible is the Word of God, is there such conflict between what it says and what we know from experience to be so?

On the surface, Genesis seems to say that God created everything in seven days. This gives us a dilemma. Science has ‘proved’ that the cosmos evolved over billions of years. And life itself has been evolving for millions. Those that believe the Bible is immutable find ways of reconciling this cognitive dissonance in various ways. Some deny science. Some compartmentalise science from scripture and keep both points of view as separate issues. Those that don’t ‘believe in’ the Bible, often take the easy way out and deny it all – including the possibility of God.
If we look beneath the surface – at the light behind the shadows – we find there is no such disparity, no conflict, no need to argue.
However, people still enjoy a good argument – and a bad one!
The symbology in Genesis is good news and bad news.
The good news is that Genesis 1 tells of the Creation – as a single event that occurred outside time and space. In the beginning, God created the essence of all life. Genesis 2 tells us of the evolutionary plan to manifest the created essence over time through the agency of mankind.
The bad news is that both religious doctrine and atheism are equally challenged to the core. So those attached to either are still in the same boat. They can continue to argue, while those wishing to raise their consciousness to their next level of development have a strong scriptural basis for doing so.
We can look to the Bhagavad-Gita or the Upanishads for inspiration. But the same mystical truth is also to be found hidden in our own Bible.

The keys for unlocking the secret teachings in the Bible are son to be published in my ne book:

ORIGINAL HERESY - the light behind the shadows in the Bible