A faceless god, a nameless faith
on our true connection to the divine
I recently re-watched the da Vinci code, and it activated in me many different emotions and thoughts. It's one of those movies that really leaves an impression, and it opened a vast portal of contemplation for me. It inspired a little exploration of the mythology of Christ. Through this, I discovered movies recounting the tales of this man and his followers, stories and gospels recounting his journey. What I saw stirred something really conflicting within me. I saw people following Christ, in the name of god, in the name of the holy kingdom. Promises hidden in metaphors given to misunderstanding people. People worshipped him, gave up their whole lives to be with him. And their relationship with this source they call god became greatly entangled in this man they saw in front of him. A holy man no doubt. One deeply tapped into a loving communion with god in almost every moment. An inspiring man.
Yet what I saw and heard was how they began to put him in the place of god. The son of god. The distinction between this man and source itself became blurred. I felt conflicted because, on one hand, I saw people seeking a connection with god. Seeking a life in complete devotion to the spiritual. I also saw a man being worshipped rather than the values and wisdom he spoke of. Reading pieces of the Old and New Testaments, there is a blatantly obvious difference in focus and direction. I suppose I felt a dissonance with the idea of worshipping a person as the face of god. I don't really believe the point was to idolize the person. I feel that the point was to receive in our hearts the words he spoke. The wisdom he shared. The remembrance that he remained close to. If you know me you know I disagree with placing people on pedestals. And what I saw in these retellings were apostles going and spreading the word of god that came through the lips of another. Spreading a message they sometimes didn’t fully understand. From one’s lips to another and another. Where was their true connection to the divine, beyond A son of god? Where did their true service lie?Â
Why is it that so many religious doctrines - I use Christianity as an example here - became an idolization of one human? One lightworker. One being connected to the divine meant to be a guide for our own remembrance and connection to god, not THE god. Not the one to worship. Every time I have connected to this vibrational imprint of Jesus Christ, I receive the same insight. Firstly, his nature was radiating such boundless, unconditional love and wholehearted service. He was close to god and indeed deeply impactful. Yet at the same time, the point of his message has become lost to many, yet his face is plastered everywhere. The teachings that were shared through the vessel of his being have been diminished and in their place came the being Jesus Christ. Not what he knew to be true outside of himself. Many know that these holy beings didn’t come here to become idols. They perhaps never desired to be remembered. What was important were the messages they came here to deliver.
This is something that humans get easily twisted. We worship idols. We latch on to an image, a person and forget to distinguish between the messenger and the message. In that, the message gets more muddled. Because the messenger is one human. One glimpse of a boundless divinity. One expression of it. Within their guidance, we must find our own connection, to a divinity that we can only ever truly know within ourselves.
In some of my exploration of our ancient ancestors, those that revered the land and sky, the source of creation, the life breath that moves through all things, the expression of the mother was at the centre. It was a natural and innate connection that formed through seeing women birth. Seeing women be portals between this world and another. Through seeing women grow a fully developed body inside of themselves, and deliver a soul unto its form. Many have forgotten how truly divine such an endeavour is. The symbolism of the divine was rooted in something tangible felt, seen and experienced. The idea of us being in the image of our creator, of life echoing source, it was a simple connection to make.The creator as mother. That which gives and sustains life. If you notice ancient artifacts from that period in history, way back before there were centuries that marked the year, the statues of what is presumed to be the great mother, the creator, the woman, has curving breasts and round belly, yet is lacking in most other features. Often there is no head, or if so there is no face. The arms and legs usually are missing as well. That is not accidental. It was believed that to capture the divine in a face would be to diminish their true nature. To diminish the vibration.
What was revered was the essence of what the creator represented. The echo of what they saw in themselves. A round belly holding life. Full breasts that sustain life. To them that was as close to god as one got. The process of life was holy. Bringing life here was sacred. There was no figurehead apart from that. There was a symbolic representation, but nothing more. No one human took on the role of god’s sole representative. The nature of the divine was the life-giver. Yet all played their role in giving and nurturing life within the community. To put a face or place a person onto the formless would take away the glimpse of god that resides in all. Yes, some would say it was primitive ideas. Yet no less complex. No less meaningful. And I would argue, closer to the essence. God in all of her complexity is simple. It doesn’t need idols and intricate designs and all these tools and people. It is just there. Waiting for connection.
In many indigenous traditions the face of god was never carved, never drawn. It was unthinkable to attempt to capture the eternal into such form. To do so would detract from the true nature of such a force. Yes, there were shamans and priestesses who devoted their lives to their relationship with god, and oftentimes were the people who carried out a community's ceremonial devotion to source. Celebrations and rituals were often led by them. Teachers were sought out for guidance. Humans need guidance and we need each other. Yet we also need our own faith, rooted and true. Living in our hearts, in direct communion with god.Â
Right now we live in a world fiercely independent. Now more than ever we have freedom to do and be whoever we want. We can make money on our own terms. We can live anywhere in the world we desire. The world is our oyster so to speak. Yet we live in a society of people who have lost their relationship with god. And it shows.Â
Now feels like a time when we can really cultivate our own relationship with source. We can get close. We can feel him near. We never really needed a church or a priestess to connect with what is innately a part of us. They are good tools. They are valuable ways to intentionally enter sacred space. To be guided by the wise. But not at the expense of our own knowing of god. Not at the expense of bypassing our inner wisdom.
It is something to think about. Something I have found valuable in my devotion to what some call god, is to strip away the faces, the names, and simply connect. That is something I feel is missing when I see someone devote themselves to Christ, or Buddha, a guru or dalai lama, or whatever figurehead has been placed on top of the true connection to a source that is available to all of us at all times no matter what. God has no face. No agenda. Our connection to source has no name. There is no place we need to be or person we have to become -or not become- to be able to tap into this. There is no prejudice. No title you need to hold. It is simply there. Here. Everywhere. Always. The more we allow others to dictate our connection to god the more they wield the power over our lives. The less we feel her close.Â
What can be helpful, is the messages these beings deliver. Such stories have always guided humans on earth. They teach us how to move closer to our source. How to be in right relationship with this place and with each other. They teach us lessons and wisdom that are invaluable. Blessings and guidance delivered from god. And these pieces of wisdom that we share with each other serve to elevate and enlighten all of our lives. Yet they are not given to only a select few. They are not delivered to an exclusive group. It is universal wisdom. Given to any and all who listen. Some of it has landed here on earth. Some of it floats in the ether, waiting for us to hear. The wisdom of god is not limited to some, that’s why there can never be a figurehead of god. We all have access to this eternal wisdom. Let the teachings that have been shared guide you and invite you to hear for yourself the whispers of god all around you. Waiting to be heard by your ears.Â
I would love to hear from you! Feel free to share your loving thoughts on the matter and let’s start a conversation.
other pieces from this publication:
There is a certain sense of clarity I feel when I can step not just out of a particular story like Christianity but out of the meta-story - which in this case is the paradigm that says spirituality is *out there*, and our choice is thus which prophet to follow, which holy book to study, which priest or guru to look up to.
Why exactly should we exist in a world in which some few have access to the divine and then distill their visions for the rest of us? We don't accept that only some of us can see, or only some of us can reason, or only some of us can grow food. If we understand that we are part of a greater whole, aspects of source, then *of course* we can have personal and immediate access to that understanding through our own intuition and awareness. Step outside of this meta-story and it starts to seem rather silly - like the sort of thing that would-be leaders would invent if they wish to have power over others, and that followers would only accept if they have given up their own inner authority and capacity for connection.
Thank you for illuminating this imbalance and shining a light beyond it, and for sharing this in the 11th hour of 11/11. It felt aligned with my own explorations of ending separation, balancing masculine and feminine, shifting from codependency to co-creation, so I re-posted it.