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| A family of turtles |
What
about Religion?
Our
parent's religion most often determines our first exposure to a given
religion. There are those who would say we choose our parents before
we incarnate into this material plane.
It
is interesting to me that many people accept the religion of their
parents as their own without question. As children there is much we
do not know yet about the world's history. I can only imagine that
most parents assume their children will embrace the same religion
they follow. Perhaps a few out there say to their kids, ..”research
all the religions of the world, and pick the one that resonates with
you the most”. Ha, wouldn't that be special. I did not have that
said to me growing up. I am also not a parent so I cannot tell you I
did that. But it would seem to me a very courageous thing to say to
one's kids.
The
poet Kahlil Gibran has written this about children, “you can house
their bodies, but not their souls”.
Gibran's
best-known work is The
Prophet,
a book composed of twenty-six poetic essays. Its popularity grew
markedly during the 1960s with the American counterculture
and then with the flowering of the New
Age movements. It has remained popular with these and with the
wider population to this day. Since it was first published in 1923,
The
Prophet
has never been out of print. Having been translated into more than
forty languages, it was one of the bestselling books of the twentieth
century in the United States.
I
was born into a Jewish family. I know for me that something did not
feel right when I was exposed to religion in my own home. One of my
darkest memories was an exposure to the separation of people. You are
not of my faith became a type of unspoken declaration in the home
where I grew up. Where was the love for all fellow human beings? I
knew something didn't feel right to me when I went to public school
with kids of all denominations, and yet there was an unspoken rule
you did not invite them to your house. Did my father have any friends
that were of different religions? Not that I could see. So I suppose
as kids we choose to do one of two things. Embrace our parent's view
of friendship which for me meant excluding people from my life or
rejecting that closed minded view and embracing people on their own
merit, not using their different religion as a reason for rejection.
As
a result of my awareness that organized religion, as far as I could
see, separated people from one another, I rejected religion
altogether. The hypocrisy of it was glaring. Is there a religion on
this planet that is not organized?
I
learned from Wayne Dyer that often some of the most influential
people in our lives are the last we would think of initially. He
never met his biological father while the man was alive. It was not
until after he was dead and buried in a pauper's grave did Wayne
“meet” his father. He always knew that his dad abandoned the
family days after Wayne's birth. So years later, how is it possible
that Wayne Dyer named this man, his father, the most influential
person in his life. His answer was simple. As he explains it, Wayne
learned one of the greatest lessons on earth. He learned how to be
self reliant, self sufficient as a result of his dad's abandonment of
the family. It was not until I read this story in one of Wayne Dyer's
books that I too could name my dad as the most influential person in
my life. Often its the most challenging relationship we have that
causes us to go down a certain path for our own growth.
In
hindsight I would say that as a result of my disappointment over
organized religion I began a quest for more spiritual exposure. I
have always loved reading books and this was one way I could learn
about the “metaphysical world”. It got me thinking early on, what
if reincarnation does exist? How do I explain all those meaningful
coincidences, aka synchronicity, I felt over the course of my life.
Curiosity has served me well over the years.
Back
in the late '90s I had a horoscope done by a lady who specialized in
Past LIVES. Years earlier I had my birth chart done. For those who
don't know, this is a chart of the sky, based
on the relative positions of the stars and planets at the time of
that person's birth. The word horoscope comes from the greek word
horoskopos, hora for “time” and skopos for “observer”.
In
the introduction of the past lives report I was handed, it said,
...”for many people, the idea that we have lived before (and will
again) makes sense”. It is one possible explanation for deja vu
(this feels familiar). The report goes on to explain that (1) an
examination of Saturn and the Moon's Nodes (considered “karmic”
factors by most astrologers) in regard to major life lessons &
ingrained psychological patterns (2) an explanation of enduring
issues signified by stellia and other repeated themes in the chart
(3) a discussion of planets in and ruling the 4t, 8th, and
12th houses of the zodiac (considered keys to one's past
lives) (4) a look at potential karmic debts and gifts signified by
aspects, intercepted, and retrograde planets (5) a discussion of
likely past life relationships to current people in our lives (Moon
for mother, Sun for father, etc).
The
report I received is 13 pages long. I cannot possibly share all that
it contains. I will say that as I have re-read it over the years a
lot of it resonates with me. One in particular I will include.
It's
from a section called Karmic Gifts.
“With
Uranus in Cancer (retrograde), you and some of your peers were active
in times when attitudes toward family were shifting. When one set of
roles was melting away, you helped to provide something new to take
its place. Your ability to take a broad view of family helped you and
your peers to transform definitions of domestic units. Your expanded
transpersonal perspective will be particularly valuable in our
swiftly changing world. Your past experiences increased your ability
to see family within a humanitarian perspective. You incarnated to
help people learn that the Earth is one family; that our
interconnections are much more vital than our differences.”
If
any discussion of past lives, religion, spirituality, and
synchronicity resonates with you, I invite your comments.
Thank
you for visiting my blog.
