Fortunately, Love has many
personalities with whom to discuss the question of how to awaken earth’s
wayward children to the real life they’d forgotten. When they first incarnated
on earth, some of the earthlings’ brothers and sisters elected to remain in spirit
as angels, gods, or goddesses. These beings took on the task of carrying
heavenly messages to earth dwellers. They whisper advice from Love into
humanity’s spiritual ears. Most people don't consciously hear them, but
bits of these thoughts swirl through their bodies like goose feathers shed on a
windy day. Then they settle into minds, hearts, hands or feet, depending on how
receptive the receiver is to intuitive thoughts.
Love and the angelic children have always recognized that the
education of humanity would, of necessity, be slow and gradual within the
framework of time, because they had fallen so very far from the knowledge of
their oneness with the divine. Being outside of time and space, this slow
movement of humanity toward enlightenment is not an issue for Love. But for the
humans who know intuitively that something is wrong with the world, it
has seemed painfully slow; and as people have acquired glimpses of knowledge
about their Creator, they have blamed their very Source for either causing or
ignoring the existence of evil in this life that was intended only for good.
While it was their own folly that created evil in the world,
people have eluded themselves into thinking that it was caused by a dark force
outside of themselves. They had forgotten that Love had given them the ability
to create with their thoughts, so when demons and war gods appeared, it never
occurred to them that their fear had brought these beings into existence. Their
belief in an Evil One invoked the need for constant vigilance against his
representatives. Humanity devised weapons to protect themselves and their
families, and built up the psychological defenses of anger and revenge.
Beginning with those early times, when they first lost their connectedness with
the Creator, humans have understood the world in terms of a never-ending battle
between the forces of good and evil, light and dark. But which side is good,
and which side is evil? Darkness and evil always lie on the other side of the
boundary between us -- and them: those who are different from us!
Humanity’s growing fear of their Creator and of each other made it
particularly difficult for Love and the angels to communicate with people.
Humans didn't trust unfamiliar faces or voices, so their first lessons in
Oneness were confined to their relationship with the natural world.
Love's messengers meet people at their level of understanding, not wanting to
frighten or anger them. So, as the earliest humans lived in a natural
environment, dependent on nature's gifts for their survival while
simultaneously struggling against the erratic whims of nature, the angels and
gods decided to start by revealing to them their connection with rivers, trees,
and sun.
It was a relatively simple matter to persuade people to revere
these entities, rather than each other: a tree can't threaten a person; a river
can't take over their homeland; the sun won't steal their possessions. Trees
are benevolent beings: some provide food for nourishment; others provide wood
for heat or building materials; some provide protection from the hot sun; and
all enrich the landscape with beauty, each in its own way. Rivers provide
gifts, too: opportunities for refreshment and cleansing, a rapid means of
transportation, the soothing music of running water; another form of beauty.
And the sun! The sun is the greatest giver of life, without which nothing can
exist.
Humans have always relied on nature to provide for their needs, but
without the whispers of angelic voices in the rustling of leaves and the
burbling of brooks, they might never have known that the spirit of Love reaches
out to them from these creations. Every tree, every plant, and every body of
water, is part of All-That-Is, and so each element is infused with a spirit
that humans can relate to, learn from, worship.
Modern scholars are astounded by the similarities among primitive
religions that developed over every continent among peoples who probably had no
contact with each other. But, if their worship of nature was based, not on
their attempt to make sense of the world, but on their actual experience of
wordless communion with angels, nature elementals, and All-That-Is, the
similarities are simply evidence that these earliest religions were based on a
universal truth. Then humanity can separate truth from fiction by identifying
the beliefs that would have been instilled by Love and Love’s angels, and which
beliefs were born of fear.
Primitive people were not nearly as dependent on language to
describe and define the world around them as civilized cultures would be. It
was an easy matter for them to experience wordless communion with the spirits
of nature. As humans grew attached to the rigidity of words and labels, they
would scoff at the idea of communicating with nature. Then Love’s children had to invent new ways to help people find
“the still, small voice within.” For a true understanding of Oneness with
All-That-Is goes deeper than words -– the way one’s love for one’s children
can’t be fully expressed when the word “love” is used so commonly for anything
enjoyed or appreciated: “I love dark chocolate ice cream!” and “I love
redheads!"
Just as people feel this deep, un-nameable love when they hold
their children or look into the eyes of a soul mate; they can’t find the words
to describe the awe and wonder they experience outside on a sun-drenched day,
listening to the birds call to each other, inhaling the fragrance of the earth
and things growing, feeling the fluttery kiss of a soft breeze against their
cheek. Nature is so magical! During the winter months the landscape is
frozen and barren of life. Then, suddenly, the land is burgeoning with
flowers and green living things, in such abundance and variety one can imagine
the Earth Mother pushing them forth, like a mother pushing her baby out into
the world. And the sun draws them up and out from above: flower, stem, and
leaf; higher, higher, toward himself, the star that Love created to be
benefactor for Love’s children. Primitive people watched this miracle take
place every spring, and heard the wordless whispers of angel voices saying:
“Love created all of this to be enjoyed. Accept these gifts, take care of them,
and give thanks.”
Since human life first came to earth, there have been people with
the gift of "second sight" who can see the spirits of those who dwell
in nonphysical bodies. They are the ones who tell the rest of humankind about
the wood nymphs, water sprites, faeries, and tree guardians that populate the
natural world. Those with the second sight have a stronger connection to the
non-material world than most people. In ages past, individuals with this
ability were both feared and revered. Those with more love than fear in their
hearts recognized the wisdom and blessing of the images the shamans, witches,
and druids created in word pictures, sculpture, or drawings. Even though the
average person could not see these nature spirits, their imaginations allowed
them a clear vision of Pan, the goat-man god of the wilds, the Earth Mother
goddess with breasts of abundant milk, who nourished all of Earth's children,
and the elusive spirits that nurtured each plant and tree. These were easily
imagined because the second-sighted ones told them how each spirit melds with
the physical appearance of the plant it cares for.
The willow goddess is as graceful and
flexible as the tree that dances in place like a ballerina in flowing skirts,
bending over to reach her pointed toes; her slender roots. The oak god is
sturdy and strong, with huge muscular arms reaching up to touch the sky. The
loving limbs of the larger trees cradle the nests of birds who build them
there, trusting their holy hosts to protect them and their young from storm and
predator. Even those who could not see the spirits with their physical eyes
could feel their life force emanating from each growing thing, and feel their
healing power when they rested against the trunk of a tree.
This communion between humans and nature
was just a taste of what it is to be one with Love and All-That-Is. But it
would be thousands of years after the first nature worshipers lived before
humans would begin to realize that the same kind of connection can be felt with
other people. All People. Even those once thought to be enemies.
Early peoples made sacrifices to the gods of nature because they
didn’t understand what caused the fearsome storms that intermittently seemed to
lash out at them in anger. Such power must come from the gods, they thought,
never guessing that it was the energy of their own fear and anger toward
peoples with strange ways and different appearances that caused these
disturbances. So the messengers of Love had to seek other ways to connect
people with the divine source of life: Love, which would eventually re-connect
them with each other and all of Creation.
