Ye Are Gods When we hold public circles, we have consistently tried (and plan to continue to try) to allow an hour ahead of the circle for an open question-and-answer session. This was intended as a time for questions about the Pagan path, its practices, and why we do things the way we do. Some questions tend to repeat, but none so often as questions about our beliefs about Christianity.
WE, as a Church, accept all faiths. Many current traditions that are assumed to be Christian observances in American and European culture actually have Pagan ancestry. However, that’s as much as you’ll get out of me if I’m speaking as a Reverend for the Church. Pagans are a diverse people, just like every other denomination, and we’re generally pretty terrible at playing “follow the leader.” (“Frisbee,” on the other hand… now we’re talking!)
I, as a human being, was baptized in a Methodist Church in central Illinois when I was a tiny baby. Why? My dad’s parents were very passionate mid-western Methodists, whose faith was very important to them, and I was going to be baptized in their church, in their faith. I was even going to wear a pretty little dress that Grandma had picked out, and, yes, there are pictures, darn the luck. That was that.
My mother’s father, an immigrant and life-long scholar, was much more worldly. He had the biggest influence in raising me, and believed a complete education included an understanding of all of the world’s major religions. I have read the Bible, the Koran, the Bhagavad Gita, and a host of others too numerous to waste your time with here. The rectory bookshelf looks exactly the way one might expect the bookshelf of a doctoral candidate working on her thesis for her DD might look like: it overflows with texts on everything from Asatru to Santaria.
Which brings us back to that thorny question: As one who identifies as Pagan, how do I feel about Christ?
Amazingly (and I have to wonder if there’s some bizarre quantum brain-link in play) Chris Johnson already beat me to the punch, even using the same biblical quotes I use nearly every time this question comes up. Jesus himself said that he was a manifestation of the eternal godhead, but so are you, and me, and the guy selling the hot-dogs in the push-cart, when he said, “Have I not said Ye Are Gods?”
The hard part is, can you look yourself in the mirror and accept this? As Pagans, we speak of “Perfect Love, Perfect Trust,” just as Christ did. That’s a tall order, but if one could truly follow it, that other famous phrase about “the Way and the Light” would become so self-apparent that divisions among peoples would appear ludicrous, and it makes perfect sense that “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.” (John 14;2).
Before this goes off the rails, please allow me a moment to make sure we’re all on exactly the same page: it’s the one with the red letters on it. Jesus Christ: ie: The Christ. Not Jerry Falwell, not the Westboro Baptists, not hate groups that use a beautiful idea as whitewash for their bigotry. I’m talking about the person whose teachings appear as the red parts in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. To accept yourself as a living reflection of God’s Perfect Love IS to fully embrace “Perfect Love, Perfect Trust.” Is it easy? Of course not. In fact, I’d place being able to accept, receive, and return Love and Trust on this level is nothing but as nothing short of enlightenment itself.
But it’s worth striving for.
Ye are Gods
©2007 by Chris Watson. Reproduced here for not-for-profit educational purposes only. To contact the author, please follow the link at the bottom of the page.)
I believe Jesus Christ, if he existed, had an experience of cosmic consciousness similar to what was experienced by Buddha, Ramana Maharshi, and many other people throughout history. Jesus apparently tried to communicate this experience to his followers as best he could, limited by the language and cultural concepts of his time and place.
It is possible that each of us is a function of what the whole cosmos is doing at a point called here and now. In effect, each of us IS the whole universe looking at itself through our eyes. The universe is conscious and self-aware, a.k.a. God, and this awareness and consciousness is within each of us. In other words, what happened to Jesus was NOT a unique experience that only happened to one man in all history and prehistory, but something that EACH of us can experience directly when we tune in to the consciousness that is the base of our existence.
I read the exact same Bible as the Christians do, yet I see Jesus teaching us the same message taught by Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism. Consider the following verses along with the interpretation I offer as an alternative to the mainstream Christian interpretation.
John Chapter 10, verses 30-36 (KJV)
10:30 I and [my] Father are one.
10:31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.
10:32 Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?
10:33 The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.
10:34 Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?
10:35 If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;
10:36 Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?
The King James Version of the Bible has “the” in italics before “Son of God” in verse 36. This is not for emphasis as some may think, but shows words interpolated by the translators. In this case, they were mistaken. The original Greek does NOT have an article before “Son of God,” which in Greek is equivalent to having an indefinite article. In the original Greek of this scripture, Jesus did NOT say he is the Son of God; he said I am a Son of God. He also quoted Psalm 82 that says “Ye are gods.”
John Chapter 14, verse 12 (KJV)
14:12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. HE WILL DO EVEN GREATER THINGS THAN THESE, because I am going to the Father.
Jesus says the ordinary humans he left behind (who, according to traditional Christian mythology, are NOT divine as he is) will do greater things than Jesus did. I put those words in all-caps to emphasize them.
John Chapter 17, verses 21-22 (KJV)
17:21 THAT THEY ALL MAY BE ONE; as thou, Father, [art] in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
17:22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; THAT THEY MAY BE ONE, EVEN AS WE ARE ONE:
Again I put some words in all-caps to emphasize them. It seems pretty clear to me that Jesus says we can be one with the Father just as he was. In other words, what happened to him is NOT something unique that could ONLY happen to him, but it can happen to each of us. Jesus even PRAYS that we can experience it too!
Now many Christians will protest that Jesus says quite plainly:
“I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6, KJV)
I agree, but perhaps not the way that Christians would like me to agree. It is my opinion that this “I am,” this “me” that Jesus speaks of is the big Self of divine consciousness (not the little self of the ego) that is within EACH OF US and was consciously realized by Jesus.
Here is a plausible explanation of what happened: Jesus tried to explain his experience of cosmic consciousness as best he could, using the language and concepts available to him from the culture of his time and place. Awed by his miracles, the disciples of Jesus missed the point of what he was trying to share with them. They distorted the meaning of his message and worshipped the messenger instead. Christianity does not teach the religion OF Jesus, which was the realization of divine Sonship, but the religion ABOUT Jesus, a castrated version of the Gospel that puts Jesus on a pedestal and says that only He, and nobody else, is divine.
For further study, I recommend anything by the late author, philosopher and “spiritual entertainer” Alan Watts, but especially pertaining to this subject Myth and Religion 3: Jesus, His Religion that I paraphrase portions of on this page. Alan Watts does a great job of explaining eastern philosophies to western audiences, and he is also good at explaining what mainstream Christianity teaches, even if he doesn’t necessarily agree with it. In at least one of his audio files, Alan Watts makes the point that if Jesus had been born in India he would NOT have been crucified. When Jesus told others that he and the Father were one, they would have said “Congratulations. You finally figured it out.”
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