This essay continues a sequence. Read the previous one here.
And there arose a great storm of wind,
and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full.
And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow:
and they awake him, and say unto him,
Master, carest thou not that we perish?
And he arose, and rebuked the wind,
and said unto the sea, Peace, be still.
And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.
— KJV; Mark 4:37-39
The Word sheds light on “myth”.
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Popular Interpretations
Most of the interpretations of this event seek to provide encouragement e.g. we should learn to focus on Christ during challenging times.
As discussed in “How To ‘Know Thyself’“, such interpretations are useful but do not provide insight into Truth. We learn little about how the world actually works.
What Is Going On Here?
Christ spoke aloud to the wind and waves. Why?
It should occur to us that this may lend credence to idea that Nature possesses a form of consciousness.
That this seems like a strange thought is a result of a number of things, most notably:
- The mindset of “domination” caused by misinterpretation of Genesis 1:28 (discussed in “Mind Your Language, Part 2” ), which has contributed to a superficial attitude towards Nature;
- The war waged by the Church in earlier centuries against any form of knowledge that did not fit into existing doctrine;
If any existing or new knowledge did not fit into what had been officially sanctioned by the Pope, it was labelled nonexistent, false, or devilish.
The Church’s war against science led to countless unjust persecutions (e.g. the arrest of Galileo for stating that the Earth revolved around the Sun).
In the same way, Justin, Boniface, and countless generations of church missionaries waged a war against indigenous spiritual knowledge.
Such actions were not supported by the Word of Christ.
Science has recovered from the attacks (unfortunately it has now gone to other extremes, ref. “Perfection Can’t Be Illogical“). Indigenous knowledge has not recovered.
A Consciousness In Nature?
If our forefathers perceived an active consciousness in Nature, and recognised in this consciousness powers that they did not possess, and therefore mistakenly referred to these powers as “gods”, it does not mean that they were hallucinating or being misled by “demons”.
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Boniface et al had neither the experience nor the patience to investigate more closely.
The activities of many of these “beings” were associated with things we accept as “good” – justice, purity, virility, etc – and therefore should not so hastily have been labelled “demonic” in origin.
In addition, the descriptions of these potentially-conscious elements of Nature are very similar across unconnected cultures. This is unlikely to result from random observations or hallucinations.
For example: many cultures possessed detailed descriptions of a conscious aspect of Nature that is involved in the formation of thunder and lightning. Whether this “being” is referred to as Sango (Yoruba), Leigong (Chinese), Thor (Germanic), Chaakh (Mayan), or some other designation, the close similarity in what our various forefathers “saw” is surprising. The visual appearance and behaviours of these personalities are so similar that we must concede that it is possible that these peoples all saw, and communicated with, the exact same “thing”.
Don’t Jump To Conclusions
Mark 4:37 makes it difficult to discard the idea of specific consciousnesses embedded in Nature.
Perhaps what we call myth arose from the genuine experiences of individuals who were able to see and interact with such forces1.
If so, the Church was correct in insisting that they should not be worshipped as gods, but wrong to label everything as false or demonic.
Many indigenous cultures would have found Mark 4:37 readily understandable. With the right mindset, missionaries might have deepened their own knowledge, while finding more suitable ways to present The Word to those who believed in “gods”. This in turn would have led to a less superficial Christianity.
We need an independent and humble understanding of The Word to correctly evaluate all knowledge we come across, irrespective of whether it is in the realm of science, religion, spirituality, or folklore.
Today’s Resolution:
- We will awaken our own personal and intuitive understanding of The Word, powered by a humble attitude.
- A comprehensive discussion is provided by Christopher Vasey in Gnomes, Elves, Nixies: A Worldwide Knowledge ↩︎
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