PART II: CHAPTER SIX

- PART II -
FAITH

- CHAPTER SIX -
“NOW”
WE ARE NOT ALONE



It must have been while exercising the potentiality of our imagination’s endow-ment––adjusting our surroundings and relationships that didn’t fit the way we thought they ought––when in spite of well invested perseverance, it occurred to us there were occasional unexplained results or phenomenon that had little or nothing to do with any forethought or effort on our part. Mysteries that refused to give up their secrets would often pique our curiosity until, after considerable scrutiny of many such examples as could be found relevant (or at our wit's end), we would grudgingly entertain the possibility that something might exist outside our field of observation or influence. Naturally, investigation at that time lacked any semblance of collected evidence and consisted, for the most part, of comparative lore and second or third hand accounts of hearsay, as well as the much relied upon, long established, indigenous common knowledge. So, any insight we may have fostered toward the unexplained simply added fuel to the imagination, not to mention the framework on which we were being guided to carefully construct superstition in preparation for the revelations its purposes served. For example, we had long since resigned ourselves to the fact there were objects beyond our grasp and subsequent control, the most obvious of course were the apparently physical bodies in the sky. These things were familiar however, in so much as they’ve been there long enough to have had our oldest imaginings prescribe “reasonable explanations” about their origins and purpose, individually and collectively. Back on earth, there were the more or less “normal” weather events we had come to accept pretty much for what they were. If not explainable at least predictable in the very short term, either used or avoided depending on the specific circumstances. Although not in our control, we could usually count on weather as being a benefit more often than being a threat, after all, it wasn’t such a stretch to see the connection between rain and harvest. Actually, it’s highly probable the second earliest example of adapting our environment was irrigation, predated only perhaps, by the capture and use of fire, both of which can be directly attributed to weather. We can see then, how readily something totally beyond our understanding and outside our ability to contain or change, can still be considered beneficial and used to sustain our most precious gift, life.

It would be the occasional weather related natural disaster that would briefly shatter the fragile relationship, which in our naiveté was represented as something approaching trust, we had cultivated toward an otherwise passive environment. It was just this kind of scenario, the life “taking” side of natural events, in addition to the rare but hauntingly memorable––never before witnessed––apparitions in the sky, that turned the finger pointers into fear mongers. Quick to capitalize on our inherent fear of the unknown, these merchants of upheaval played on our weaknesses like a savant, to their gain and the adaptation of those who would be led. As the Divine Plan unfolded, these adept individuals were each being guided along their path to manifest agendas prescribing the superimposition of superstition onto the super natural, as their brand of a logical diagnosis for symptoms that had no other explanation.

Those whose paths were on the other rail, as alluded to earlier, chose to see opportunity where others could only find disappointment or hardship, and didn’t change their attitude simply because an event or experience might be a mystery to them. Many, or at least the ones who had been on that path long enough, were comfortable with the unknown and only found a worthy challenge in each new mystery. For them, each incarnation brought its own set of answers waiting for the right questions. Solutions to enigmas not yet imagined. The eldest of these “old souls” were the shamans of their tribes. Their people were becoming followers, not because of tradition or pecking order, but out of a need they weren’t even aware of, whose time had come. The next leap forward was at hand. The varied paths of human kind were converging on a door of opportunity that offered a “belief” in something other than ones self, and while not quite ready to acknowledge things unseen, most eventually felt compelled to seek out those few who demonstrated a capacity to understand the “mysteries” of the world around them. In doing so, these followers were responding to a hope that those things beyond their influence, outside their control, were at least no threat to them. Their willingness to forgo their own understanding for someone else's predication of the unknown, was more than a statement about the elder’s position of esteem, it illustrated a readiness to accept a shift in their character; from being followers, to being believers.

Imaginations though, as we might expect among people who had so little experience with the abstract, were quick to be exercised every time a threat was perceived. Such compulsiveness usually resulted in complicating perfectly normal behavior, into tragic circumstances that would have otherwise worked themselves out in due course, had it not been for fear, bred of ignorance. Not too surprisingly, this was precisely the recipe; fear, ignorance and imagination, the now perennial finger pointers brewed to create entities of their own design––giving all things unexplained––something we could identify with, and as might be expected, not always with a positive spin. By assigning familiar characteristics and behaviors to events, situations and affairs we had absolutely no basis or history with which to understand, our ego surrendered a part of itself to a power it had never seen, heard or felt. However incremental that forfeiture of independence might have been for the controlling ego, its admission––or submission as the case may be––to the possible (if only occasional) force it had no recourse with, was representative in and of itself of the very first act that could be considered Faith!! Again, because of Divine Design, a return to spiritual unity must be the free will choice of an ego bent on individuality, and only after that ego has resisted making that choice long enough to realize; that no matter how much it wishes to be in control, it has to admit, it can’t go on alone. Then––and only then––at ropes end, can it ever know; it never has been!