By Dr. Keira Taylor/K.Nkosi
Humanity is slowly shifting from a fearful and lower consciousness into one that is higher and more humane. In this perplexing time of disorientation, nothing remains the same; it is as though the ground has shifted beneath us. We are secretly restless and searching for our sacred truth. Our restlessness signifies that our souls are longing for a more authentic experience with the Divine.
Along with this shifting, we sense a shattering of our sacred illusions. We no longer hold our cherished institutions with such reverence. We mistrust government and its corrupted economic manipulation. We are skeptical of our leaders. Our politicians and priests are failing us. We can no longer esteem them. We now know they are mere humans. Only now are we beginning to comprehend that our government has been compromised. Sadly, our notions of exceptionalism have faded. Finally, we are shedding our delusions of grandeur.
We are dealing with blurred lines between right and wrong; nothing is simply black or white anymore. We therefore resign ourselves to the shades of gray. In times like these many of us find ourselves wanting to return back to simpler, less complicated times. Somehow, we find it easier to return to the old religious landmarks that served us well in years gone by. While, some desire to retreat to the past, I choose to lean forward into the future and wholeheartedly welcome this anticipated era of stunning social and spiritual progression. Welcome to a new age and a new time of personal and collective evolution.
Everything must change. The dramatic global, social, and spiritual changes taking place do not constitute any revolution; instead, they signify a spiritual and social evolution or expansion in consciousness. Change is inevitable. Over time, change and progression are divinely ordered in the cosmos. Change is never random, but by a sacred and intelligent design. Change comes to shake nations, to disrupt social order, to destabilize norms. Even greater, change comes to each of our lives; not as a thief, but as a gift. Change brings with it a transitional process that empowers us to gather the courage to seek to know the answers to the uncertainties of life. In this state of imposed disorientation, only then can we develop the personal power to let go of all we thought we knew.
Our disillusionment only means we are approaching the end of our collective spiritual childhood. We no longer need the narcissistic fantasy of human or spiritual perfection. We no longer demand it from ourselves, nor from others. We finally understand that this earthly plane is a place to learn and grow, to change, to make mistakes, and to behave as human do. Only now can we embrace others with non-judgment. We are learning to trust ourselves, to hear honor own voices, and to embrace our own spiritual genius.
As fully autonomous and discerning spiritual beings, we no longer have any need to be governed by external religious authority. For most, external religious authority is optional; not mandatory. What is more, our personal spiritual paths and truths have become sacred. We trust our inner integrity and intuition. We don’t need the approval of any overreaching religious affiliation as our parents and grandparents did. This spiritual shifting represents an important shaking and destabilization that must take place before we can abandon our collective spiritual infancy, and futuristically move toward embracing a more mature, humane, and ethical conceptualization of the Divine. This is the commencement of a new and amazing epoch in human history, where en masse, we shed our false ideals and embrace our personal and sacred truths. It is during this intersection in time, that we summon the courage to begin to exchange our hallowed mythologies for an inclusive, loving, and humane system of belief that does no harm to ourselves, or to others.
There is a spiritual movement emerging that is easily recognizable, but difficult to define. This movement of Spirit is reforming our past religious ideals and paradigms. Although I have been tracking this move for some time, I remain hesitant to assign a name to this movement, since the assignment of a name to any move of Spirit diminishes our perception of it. Since spiritual movements defy the parameters we attempt to ascribe to their unique patterns and manifestations, it may be best that I simply describe traits displayed by individuals affected by this distinct move of Spirit in this hour.
From every ethnicity, nation, and religious affiliation, spiritually inclined individuals are rejecting the limitations imposed by rigid religious structures, which no longer serve them well. These are seekers who have experienced an accelerated evolution in spiritual and social consciousness, enabling them to perceive the universality of spiritual principles, and to reject fear-based theology and dogma, which invariably brings harm to others.
These are individuals who have transcended religious thought systems and therefore have less need for religious structure and the paternalistic oversight associated with traditional religious practice. Most of the individuals on this path have had the experience of being heavily involved in religious affiliation and in some way either naturally outgrow the experience, or have experienced some form of disillusionment attached to the affiliation. Invariably, the individual has come in contact with the ugly underbelly of religion. Through their experiences, they discover that there is no human, nor spiritual state of perfection. What is more, to expect or demand perfection of anyone is a dangerous proposition. Furthermore, if the state of religious perfection is proclaimed, then it is a patently false claim. Holiness belongs to God alone.
The experience of a human soul struggling to be free of vices and human weakness for fear of the wrath and punishment of God is the basis of all unhealthy religious bondage and psychological distress. Those that transcend these primitive and unsophisticated religious thought systems reject a fear-based theology, and embrace God as a teacher, rather than a punisher. The transcendent soul views God as a source of incomprehensible love and non-judgment, rather than the primordial, wrathful, and vindictive God; full of the fury of eternal punishment. These harmful conceptualizations of the Divine have been overcome.
Those with the grace to transcend religious affiliation represent a global movement that rejects exclusion, discrimination, homophobia, xenophobia, ethnocentrism, misogyny, and divisiveness in all of its forms parading as religious doctrine and, even more egregiously, the word of God. We discover that religion is often dismissive of diversity, science, and support of the environment. Additionally, religion is most often hostile to alternative lifestyles, and is both exclusive and divisive in function producing war, violence, genocide, ethnic cleansing, political infighting and civil disruptions, etcetera.
Religious indoctrination leaves its followers with an arrogant and false sense of superiority, and an ugly contempt for different others. Religion demands an impossible degree of thought and behavior control entirely dismissive of the non-conformist and the intellectual souls who tend to think for themselves. Religious thought systems build moratoriums around certain revelation and interpretations of scripture. While these doctrines only represent theories about God, they are treated as sacred absolutes, and can go for centuries without critique. The problem is that these theories about God (doctrines) represent a primeval and infantile spiritual consciousness that do not belong to this present age. An ancient text, no matter how venerated or revered for its wisdom, cannot provide the literal script for the modern soul operative in higher and more enlightened consciousness. When we attempt to bring an old script into a new age, the old script can only produce an irrelevance, and a social and cultural disconnection.
On the contrary, a spiritual transcendent is a free-thinker, who has sought their own answers and has done the research into what it is they believe and have attained a degree of spiritual autonomy. It is mind-boggling in this day and age that we would leave our spiritual destiny to others. Typically, the religious devotee, busy with the demands of daily life, finds no time, nor inclination to do the research for themselves. As a result, we allow our external religious authority to teach us, train us, correct us, advise us, and to inform us. The religious authority in our lives acts as the paternalistic figure with full authority to shape our daily decisions on money, sex, the raising of our children, our political opinions, and our relations with different others. The danger in all of this entire process of willful and blissful submission is that we never have to think for ourselves.
We are conditioned to reject and dismiss our own thoughts in any given instance. Like children, we are weekly trained to become more and more docile, more and more compliant and led by others. Over time, this system may fail us and we betray ourselves. However, there is an emerging masse of spiritual seekers who have learned not to check their brains at the door of any church, mosque, or synagogue. With the grace to think for themselves, those who transcend religious thought systems overcome what is deemed religious overreaching and the nonsensical, while following a path of spiritual intelligence and autonomy. For those influenced by this current movement of Spirit, religious traditions may not be altogether abandoned, but their structure is only an optional component as it relates to their spiritual development.
The transcendent soul’s perspective is that there is no absolute reality. Each individual’s conscious reality is their own, reflecting the innumerable global belief systems and religious affiliations. With over 6 billion people in the world it would be utterly impossible for there to be one limiting perception, definition, and practice of worshiping the Divine. The spiritually evolved do not feel the need to convince others that their system of belief should represent any absolute truth or reality for everyone. There is no compulsive need to become responsible for the eternal destiny of anyone on the planet and there is the keen refusal to assume God’s role in matters of eternal destiny. The spiritual transcendent understands that the only individual they are responsible for is themselves. The only individual one must master is himself.
The wisdom of God has provided many paths and practices reflecting the pure and undefiled knowledge of the Most High. Even greater, there are innumerable sources of spiritual wisdom, guidance, and instruction since the wisdom of God could never be contained and limited to one text. Firstly, for the majority of those on the path of higher consciousness, no ancient text is infallible, nor does any ancient text represent any highest or final authority. Secondly, many ancient texts are hallowed and venerated, but most also represent a high degree of unreliability; full of error and contradiction. Thirdly, those that transcend religious thought boxes, reject textual literalism, which has trapped Christianity, in particular, and religion, in general, in the disaster of legalism for some 2,000 years. All ancient mythologies were intended to be understood symbolically, and never to be interpreted literally – all venerated ancient scholars and teachers understood this fact. It was not until Constantine hi-jacked Christianity for his own political gain, that his scholars chose literalism over a symbolic and higher order interpretation of scripture in an effort to bring Constantine’s entire empire under one controlling thought system. Since this time, literalism in the hands of the masses has been a disaster; spreading falsehoods, treating mythology as truth, and making false claims. On the contrary, the spiritually transcendent individual has their experience, as well as their inner integrity as their highest authority governing their decision-making and judgments. Ancient wisdom texts are reverenced and relied upon for counsel and guidance, but they are in no way understood as infallible, since they represent primordial man grasping to know the Divine, and make sense of a diverse world he did not fully understand.
Therefore, those that spiritually transcend religious affiliation have undergone a passage of transformation allowing them to perceive themselves, not as separate and apart from others, but as part of the whole of humanity. The love, compassion, and understanding expressed by this rapidly growing number of spiritually evolved individuals is not limited to those of their collective social or ethnic group, but their concern is with serving humanity as a whole. The concern of the spiritual transcendent is not only with those that look like and think like them, but with that which benefits humanity as a whole.
Finally, this move of Spirit is revealing what most already know in their gut, but have not been free to think – that is that God is not Christian, Muslim, or Jew. God is not a democrat or republican. For that matter, God is not an American. Rather, the Divine, transcends and defies all of the limiting constructs we create for him or her. In like manner, the mass of people currently ascending spiritually defy traditional descriptions and expectations. Perfectly wise and integral, this emerging spiritual seeker is mature, in no way a novice, empathic, gifted, and unapologetic. These wise souls have become a powerful force of reckoning. We are witnessing a stunning movement. Its time has come.
Peace.