“It’s the vices.”
One Saturday a couple of weeks ago, at 6:30 a.m., a spirit woke me breathing through our bedroom. It woke Norm as well. He stirred and normally he would be hard asleep at 6:30 a.m. I was facing the window, and opened my eyes to the day as I felt it pass over me. The spirit waved at me with the leaves of the limb closest to my window. There was no wind. Nothing else stirred. There was just this wave.
The spirit told me that it’s not the virus that is killing us. It’s the vices. That’s all the spirit said. I had to look up the deadly sins – lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, pride. Spirits don’t speak in audible words. They express thoughts through feelings they send you. To feel the thoughts, you have to be open to them.
Pride –
Pride makes those who refuse to wear masks believe they are untouchable; they are better than others; they are the strong; the strong will survive while the weak perish.
Pride makes some of our leaders believe that they are right that we should just live our lives and not govern ourselves in a manner to protect each other from the virus.
Gluttony –
Our gluttony to have the multitude of things that we claim and believe to need contributes to the damage to the Earth that has really led to this tragedy.
Greed-
Our search for increased riches in monetary value instead of riches in love and compassion for each other has the same effect as gluttony.
Wrath –
We are directing wrath at each other over our different views of how we should combat the virus. Wrath prevents any resolution.
Sloth-
Ignoring the risks, ignoring our own wrath, ignoring the messages from the Earth….
This does not mean that only those engaging in the vices are dying. Innocent people are harmed when one person engages in a vice. Our Earth reached a capacity for vice that was going to destroy all of us. And so the force, whatever force governs life, seems to seek to stop us from destroying all life on Earth.
I have hope that the Earth will survive because around the world we are now grappling with manifestations of the vices and searching for a cure. Not just the scientists searching for a vaccine and the doctors searching for a way to prevent death from the illness, we are also searching for a cure for the souls including our own souls that commit the vices and searching for a way to reverse the damage done by the acts. People all over are turning to the indigenous amongst their communities to learn, to pray, to change. People are looking at themselves, looking at their communities, looking at their government. Examining how this happened and how they contributed to the damage. If we had not had such horrific tragedy, we would not have engaged in this examination.
Now is the time. Christmas …. Not because Christianity is the superior religion. It just happened that this is the time and the method of communication that our Earth spirits used to convey the message. Or perhaps it’s the language I understand and others will understand the message differently.
Personally, I was raised in the Episcopal Church. I went to Sunday school, hung out in the youth group, and sang in the choir. I was raised to believe that Jesus brought compassion and hope and that he is the son of God. I no longer identify myself as Christian, because I better understand my own beliefs, not because there is anything wrong with Christianity. I recognize now that I believe that God/ the creator/ the Great Spirit is everywhere. I believe the spirit is in all things, and that there are many dimensions in which spirits travel. I find my connection to the spirit world in nature with the trees and creatures.
But I believe that religions were all created by mankind with good intent. Religions give us a mechanism for exploring our spirituality through liturgy, music, sermons and study groups. Places of worship and prayer whether inside a building or outside on spiritual land give us a place to create intentional communities to help and guide one another within a common morality. Christianity was created to give people hope and joy and to provide a role model for sharing compassion and yes that hope with all peoples. Jesus is that offered role model. We need not follow Christianity to seek to attain the vision of this model.
Now, imagine if the spirit that communicated to me is right, then the convergence of the planets in the manner that lit the sky over the hope of Jesus Christ is again a beacon of hope for us, the people on Earth. Maybe, the light revealed the second coming of Jesus. Maybe, Jesus has been born again somewhere. on Earth, under the light of the converging planets. We can grab this beacon and step into the new year believing in hope, believing that we will survive this tragic moment in time and raise up the ideals of a society free of harm.