Mainstream religions are limiting by design. Limits are probably necessary for us humans but there is an implicit problem with religions: they resist change, by design, since they purport to stand for inmutable truths. I spent a long time trying to balance my former Christian faith and the impossible challenges of living in a global, enlightened and post Christian world. I had created my own metaphysical prison.
But of course, I came to realise that it the issue goes far beyond all that. We don't live in a post- Christian world. We live in a post- Theist world. This is to say, what we thought of as God, what we described as God in such intricate detail in all our different religions across time was merely a construct, a way of creating a metaphysical superstructure that would help us hold civilization together. But a construct isn't necessarily the truth. It is important to note that rejection of the different guises that we, as humans, have chosen to present our gods throughout time doesn't mean that I reject the supernatural and adhere blindly to positivism and rationalism. Quantum physics has already shown us how a magical perspective of the universe might not be as wrong as once believed.
The rethorical questions still remain. The only definition of humanity that strucks me as remotely truthful is the statement that we inhabit perishable bodies on a rock orbiting the sun in a mysterious, infinite universe.
Returning to our post Christian world, I found in occultist Aleister Crowley a very interesting way forward. A kind of anthropological analysis of theology and religion. This is Crowley’s concept of Aeonics.
In Crowley's system of Thelema, an Aeon refers to a period of time characterized by a particular set of spiritual and philosophical principles. Crowley believed that humanity passes through different Aeons, each marked by a distinct formula or approach to spirituality.
The three main Aeons in Thelemic thought are, according to Crowley as follows:
1. *The Aeon of Isis*: A matriarchal era focused on nature worship and the divine feminine.
2. *The Aeon of Osiris*: A patriarchal era emphasizing sacrifice, suffering, and the divine masculine.
3. *The Aeon of Horus*: The current Aeon, which Crowley believed would be characterized by individualism, self-realization, and the reconciliation of opposites.
This is an interesting idea and in my opinion accurate to a point. The Aeon of Horus is postmodernity itself.
But are we now approaching a new Aeon? Far right politics has conflated itself with religious conservatism and religious extremism in recent years. What gods will the new Aeon bring?
God didn't create Man. Man created God. The truth - if such a thing as an ultimate truth exists- is something else, out of reach. At least for now. And should any ultimate truth ever be grasped, I am certain that it will severely challenge and trascend any religious beliefs entertained by humans.
The figure of Christ was always on a collision course with most of his so called followers and the religious institutions inspired by his message. I always understood that the message of Christ was to love one another. But all mainstream Abrahamic religions thrive on the principle of self righteousness. Everybody is a heretic for someone else. It simply falls apart. Christ is different from Christianity and Christians and when we understand this, we can see Christ as something outside of aeonic systems. Like Buddha, Christ is an eternal Egregore.
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