In the Beginning

     There are many theories about how it all began.  In the East they believe it to be a dream; a dream of the Buddha, a dream of Brahman.  In the West, it is the creation of a father God to the religious, a big bang to the secularists.  In practical terms, facing the crisis that confronts us, to argue over the beginning of it all is as relevant as speculation over how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.

     There is one beginning, however, which does hold relevance for us today; and that is how great beings of light became enslaved in the darkness that now envelops the earth.  For we are, each one of us, energizing and supporting the madness we endlessly condemn, talk about, and seek to contain, before it engulfs us all.

     One cannot pinpoint a moment in time when beings of light began a long descent into the ego darkness; the dysfunctional soap opera that is ego existence.  What we do have, however, is a story of creation that aptly begins “In the beginning”.  It is not a factual account, for that is impossible, but to me it is the most accurate account of all, and more important, it points the way home.  For, as we have heard, the alpha is the omega, the beginning is the end.  For one seeking a way out of their individual ego madness, it can be very helpful indeed, to know where it all began.

     As I said, the creation myth is not factual.  Humanity was long into the ego separation when the story was created.  Some extraordinary ancient, realizing what had happened over a long period of time, created this story to convey in symbols as well as words, the basic patterning of ego consciousness; the basic matrix of our suffering, the origin of our uniqueness as a species, as well as the seeds of our own destruction.  The secret of secrets, hidden in the most cunning place of all: right in the open.  The first three chapters of Genesis contain more wisdom and insight into man and his condition that all the words of the psychologists, philosophers, and prophets combined.

     The first two chapters of Genesis describe the unconscious phase of evolution.  Consciousness evolving in matter as one, undivided; not yet aware of itself.  For conscious evolution to begin there had to be a separation, a means for consciousness to separate and be aware of consciousness itself.  In order for the fish to know it’s in water, it must first be removed.

     The birth of the ego created the necessary separation, removing man from the ocean of consciousness, creating something new in evolution: self-consciousness.  Only man, separate from life, separate from himself, knows self-awareness.  This is the only difference between us and the rest of creation.  Creation lives in one-ness, in the eternal now.  In reality we are part of the one-ness, in the ego illusion we are forever separate, forever alien, in a world that is our home.

     It is a simple story of one creative, good, and blessing God, dividing himself into three:  a father/God, a son/Spirit (Adam) and a daughter/Soul (Eve).  The how of it doesn’t really matter.  All that’s important to know is that one consciousness, known as God, was split into three, each part containing separately an essence of God.  The essence of the father/God is truth, the essence of the son/Spirit is trust, and the essence of the daughter/Soul is love.  All three of these essences are present within you, and if you have children you can recognize the successive appearances of these essences as they appear in infancy and early childhood.  The first appearance is the Soul’s essence: unconditional love.  The infant radiates this love, you can see the Soul light in the eyes; innocent unconditional love.  The second essence begins to appear as the child begins to explore its world with innocent unconditional trust.  That light too, is visible in the eyes.  And the third essence is that candor and truthfulness that can be so unnerving to adults.  You begin each life in the innocence of Eden.  But over time the light fades, innocence is corrupted, truth becomes lies, as once again you are seemingly cast out of the garden into a cruel, violent and punishing world.  Each life begins in the garden and ends on the cross.  Unless you awaken, that is.

     So what is the source of the corruption of innocence, of truth?  A father God became angry, an innocent son became frightened of his anger, and an innocent daughter was cursed with sorrow.  It has been referred to as a fall.  The ego is the fall of God.

     There are three ego veils that have corrupted your light, life after life: anger, pain, and fear.  The veils, dormant between lives, begin to grow as your light moves through them into the world.  Love dims and disappears with the appearance of hurt, sadness, and pain.  Trust dims as that light is once again transformed by the veil of fear.  Trust in life is replaced by suspicion, anxiety, and fear.  And truth is replaced by anger, resentment, and lies.

     These are the three “parts” of who you are; an innocent Soul of love lost in the ego veil of pain; an innocent Spirit of trust lost in the dark veil of fear; a wise God of truth lost in the lies of the veil of anger.

     The story not only indicates the veils that separate one part from another, but also the dysfunctional, conflicted relationships they have with one another, as well as with their world.  Your inner world contains an angry part, a part that blames you, others, and the world itself.  When that God center directs anger at self, it is received by another part of self.  If the reaction to inner blame is guilt and pain, the toxic anger is directed at, and received by your innocent Soul.  If the reaction is anxiety, fear, then the recipient of God’s wrath is your innocent Spirit.  In the ego madness, God is attacking his own inner children, helping to drive the Soul into depression (pain), or the Spirit into anxiety, panic (fear).  None of this is done consciously by God, for he is blinded and controlled by his veil of darkness, the anger.    

     A perfect family of light is transformed by the ego veils of darkness into the dysfunctional family we are all so familiar with.  Since our outer world is created through this ego dysfunction, the only way to change what’s out there is to change the inner reality from where it’s created.  And that is what awakening is all about.  A Soul awakens from the nightmare and isolation of the veil of pain, a Spirit awakens from the crippling imprisonment of the veil of fear, and a God awakens from the ideology and madness of the veil of anger.  Once the veils of separation have been dissolved, the three parts of self finally come back together in a deep enduring harmony.  You become one again: the creative, good, blessing God that entered the garden.

     There is one other character in the story, arguably the most interesting, certainly the most mysterious: the serpent.  The serpent is the symbol of the mother, the Goddess, or simply mother nature.  And if you doubt the simple wisdom of the story consider this: the most vehement curse of the angry God before he left the garden was delivered to the serpent, to mother earth.  Look around you, ask yourself if the presence of God on the earth has been a curse or a blessing?  That, in itself, will tell you all you need to know about the nature of a God fallen into the ego darkness, as well as how imperative it is that he awaken, and reclaim his ancient metaphysical throne from the ego veil of anger that has usurped it.