SHAMANS BECAME RITUALISTS. RITUALISTS BECAME WORD BELIEVERS. WORD BELIEVERS BECAME PENTECOSTALISTS. PENTECOSTALISTS ARE SHAMANS MADE NEW. AND THE SPIRITUAL TRUTH BOUND UP IN THAT IS THAT TO BE WHOLE, TO BE TRUE PILGRIMS ON THE SACRED AND MYSTICAL WAY, WE MUST BE ALL THINGS AT ALL THINGS. FOR THE SACRED TRUTH OF OURSELVES AND OUR UNIVERSE IS THAT ALL IS ONE, AND ALL IS ONE IN THE ETERNAL INFINITY OF ONENESS THAT WE CALL GOD.
There are many paths to God, so there is just one path to God. Pentecostalism and emotional healing are not dissimilar to shamanism; whilst the various mainstream Christian churches, that can range from puritanical simplicity to high ceremony, reflect and even reproduce the varieties of worship to be found in all the religions of the world. Throughout the world, there are the quiet paths, the reflective paths, the rhythmic paths of ritual, the unadorned paths of the ascetics, the ecstatic paths, and yes, the wild paths of the shamans. When imbued with good heart, and only when imbued with good heart, they are all valid paths leading ultimately to God. There are many paths to God, so there is just one path to God.
We see Pentecostalists with arms raised in ecstasy. They are singing and dancing as they praise God and as they seek to be infused with the very spirit of God. They make happy noise. They cry out in tongues. Near them is a shaman woman. She stares at us as she holds her sacred drum. She beats her drum to the rhythm of God and Earth, to the rhythm of the trees and all the beasts of the woods and fields. She too makes a happy sound. She too cries out in her own ancient tongues. Here is a great truth that we forget at our peril. Many are the paths to God; many are the spiritual and mystical ways; many are the sacred and holy ways: but ALL when undertaken in the spirit of inclusivity and love, in the spirit of ONENESS with ALL, in the humility of the true spiritual pilgrim, are true and holy and sacred ways. This is the great lesson of our times. ALL is ONE, and ALL travel together when we ALL rejoice in each other’s ways. There is no true spirituality, no mystical touching of the most sacred, no spiritual awakening into the true meaning of our awareness of God, where there is no inclusivity. As the spiritual history of our planet Earth unfolds, as the sacred story of all our lives unfolds, there will be a folding-in of our spiritual and sacred and mystical selves as we truly become ONE. Oneness is the key to our inner spiritual healing, to the spiritual healing of our communities and nations, and indeed to the spiritual healing of all the flora and fauna, of our Planet Earth, of our Gaia.
This is the great spiritual test of our time, and the great spiritual opportunity. These times we now live in are crying now for social, religious, political, national and spiritual inclusivity. It is in the air we breathe, that perfection of ONENESS with each other in ALL possible ways is calling to us from the deep of our souls, from the deep of the infinite eternity of the universe, and from the deep of the forests and seas of our beautiful Mother Earth, our Holy Gaia. We are being called – a sacred and mystical calling of ONENESS and love and inclusivity. Shall we heed the call? It is our spiritual destiny to be called. The spiritual meaning of our lives here and now is indeed to heed that call. Just listen to the cries of our Mother Earth in the raging fires and seething floods. Yes, the cries of our beautiful Mother Earth – our Mother. The cries? The screams…