A GENDER HISTORY OF EUROPE Part 2
European Spirituality and Religiosity
Every human society evidences a tradition of worship. Mankind built temples as instruments of its worship wherever the tools and materials available enabled it to do so. These temples can be seen in Egypt, Central America, the Andes, on Pacific islands and throughout most of the world. Even where tools and materials were insufficient to enable the erection of durable temples, societies still incorporated rituals of worship into their social mores and practices. Tribal cultures throughout the world include worship to a greater entity in their singing and dancing.
A look at the European continent will reveal that from the Arctic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and from the Atlantic Ocean to the Ural Mountains temples of European origin cannot be found. The Acropolis did not come from within Europe; it was brought into Europe through the Peloponnesians from the East. Stonehenge did not come out of Europe nor did the structure at Newgrange. Knowledge of how to build these edifices did not exist in Europe at that time.
Prophets, gurus, sat gurus, and shamans traveled the world since mankinds beginnings teaching the populace about matters spiritual and how to live a better life. The Buddha, Lao Tsu, Mohammed, Jesus, Krishna, Zoroaster, Moses, Quetzalcoatl, Hermes, Nanek, and Rumi are but a few of the enlightened teachers that came to motivate mankind out of its ignorance and into spiritual knowledge. A history of prophets exists in the Americas and in Africa as well, even though Western authority has largely expunged this knowledge. Europe stands alone as a continent that does not have a history of prophets and spiritual teachers.
Nor does it have any history of spiritual texts originating from within the continent such as the Bible, Koran, Bhagavad-Gita, Tao, or the Dhammapada.
Europeans, like people all over the world, have an innate desire to worship; however, they are unable to find a spiritual source of worship from within. The early European worship of Mithras was an entity introduced from the East. The Druidic influence came from the shores of Ireland and how they got there remains a mystery.
Local practices of worship existed throughout Europe; however, Europe had no spiritual source. It had local superstitions and practices but no spiritual teachings or text that could long support a religion.
Why did Europe have to go outside of itself to obtain spiritual truth?
Europe represents the feminine principle, which is the receptive entity of the universe; all knowledge comes from outside of itself. Religion is feminine. It requires a source upon which to base its behavior. It requires an authority to tell it what to do. Authority in the Western world comes from government and/or religion. The nature of the European psyche is to make of its religion a government and of its government a religion. It does this because it lacks spiritual understanding; its thinking is grossly materialistic.
Religion is not an entity unto itself but is a belief system that relies upon a spiritual foundations or other authority. The masculine principle deals with the unseen and the feminine principle deals with the seen. The European psyche does not have an understanding of gender or the unseen; therefore, it focuses on what it sees—the material world.
Nothing spiritual ever came out of Europe. From the time of the earliest Greeks, Europe rejected spirituality. Anaxagoras was accused of impiety, Socrates was accused of corrupting Athenian youth, and a host of other Greeks were persecuted for the Afro-Asian spirituality they introduced to Europe. Even in latter times the Druids were called snakes and exterminated.
Not only was Europe devoid of spiritual understanding from the earliest times, but also to this day it serves as the center for atheist thought. Whether Marx’s statement that religion is the opium of the people to the activities of the Fourth International Conference of Women held in Beijing in 1995, the joint objective of Western thought is to eliminate spirituality and gender from government.
Three centuries after the birth of Jesus, Emperor Constantine took the Bible and removed the parts he didn’t like or understand and converted this great spiritual training manual into a rulebook. He mixed the teachings in it with those of a few other religions and created a potpourri of a liturgy, which the government enforced. This religion evolved into the Roman Catholic Church and fulfilled the European need for an authority to tell it how to live.
This European need to be told what to do has not changed; only the vehicle that fulfills that need serves as the source of debate. The issue that has divided the Western world politically and religiously from its very inception to the present day is not whether there should be an authority, but rather the nature of that authority.
There has never been nor is there now a Western understanding of the unseen. The whole premise of Western values is based on materialism. Consequentially there can be no understanding of right living. In order to maintain order and an attempt at responsible conduct it focuses on legal and illegal.
A society that has no spiritual basis, that relies on materialism, and that does not practice some form of tribalism, will have not have a structure to provide it with cohesion. In its effort to substitute for the lack of the masculine influence, the European culture relies upon the law.
From the earliest European Greeks there existed a great dependency on the law. Draco instituted a system of law based on an aristocracy (the feminine form of government.) Solon developed a system of law in which eligibility for political power was based on wealth (a feminine value.)
From Draco, to Solon, to Justinian, to Napoleon, the Europeans prided themselves on their legal institutions. After a 2,000-year history based on law, when the Europeans came to America the Indians said of them, “white man speak with forked tongue.” Indeed he did, for the law is but a poor substitute for the masculine influence. The manly way is “let your yea be yea, and let your nay be nay.” The law is for those who can’t live by that code.
A code of behavior other than the law derives from ethics, which come from those men who realize their purpose is to provide the environment and means for women to bring forth life and nurture it as humankind proceeds on its spiritual journey. The indigenous people of America and most of the world had these ethics, because they had a balance of the masculine and feminine genders.
Europe represents the forlorn woman who for all of her existence has waited for a suitable mate. Instead of the natural male authority that she craves she has received a variety of substitute authorities in the form of government, religion, philosophy, education, and finance; none of which has provided the stable spiritually oriented environment necessary for her natural nurturing ability to flourish.
The next essay will focus on Europe’s source of knowledge.
A look at the European continent will reveal that from the Arctic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and from the Atlantic Ocean to the Ural Mountains temples of European origin cannot be found. The Acropolis did not come from within Europe; it was brought into Europe through the Peloponnesians from the East. Stonehenge did not come out of Europe nor did the structure at Newgrange. Knowledge of how to build these edifices did not exist in Europe at that time.
Prophets, gurus, sat gurus, and shamans traveled the world since mankinds beginnings teaching the populace about matters spiritual and how to live a better life. The Buddha, Lao Tsu, Mohammed, Jesus, Krishna, Zoroaster, Moses, Quetzalcoatl, Hermes, Nanek, and Rumi are but a few of the enlightened teachers that came to motivate mankind out of its ignorance and into spiritual knowledge. A history of prophets exists in the Americas and in Africa as well, even though Western authority has largely expunged this knowledge. Europe stands alone as a continent that does not have a history of prophets and spiritual teachers.
Nor does it have any history of spiritual texts originating from within the continent such as the Bible, Koran, Bhagavad-Gita, Tao, or the Dhammapada.
Europeans, like people all over the world, have an innate desire to worship; however, they are unable to find a spiritual source of worship from within. The early European worship of Mithras was an entity introduced from the East. The Druidic influence came from the shores of Ireland and how they got there remains a mystery.
Local practices of worship existed throughout Europe; however, Europe had no spiritual source. It had local superstitions and practices but no spiritual teachings or text that could long support a religion.
Why did Europe have to go outside of itself to obtain spiritual truth?
Europe represents the feminine principle, which is the receptive entity of the universe; all knowledge comes from outside of itself. Religion is feminine. It requires a source upon which to base its behavior. It requires an authority to tell it what to do. Authority in the Western world comes from government and/or religion. The nature of the European psyche is to make of its religion a government and of its government a religion. It does this because it lacks spiritual understanding; its thinking is grossly materialistic.
Religion is not an entity unto itself but is a belief system that relies upon a spiritual foundations or other authority. The masculine principle deals with the unseen and the feminine principle deals with the seen. The European psyche does not have an understanding of gender or the unseen; therefore, it focuses on what it sees—the material world.
Nothing spiritual ever came out of Europe. From the time of the earliest Greeks, Europe rejected spirituality. Anaxagoras was accused of impiety, Socrates was accused of corrupting Athenian youth, and a host of other Greeks were persecuted for the Afro-Asian spirituality they introduced to Europe. Even in latter times the Druids were called snakes and exterminated.
Not only was Europe devoid of spiritual understanding from the earliest times, but also to this day it serves as the center for atheist thought. Whether Marx’s statement that religion is the opium of the people to the activities of the Fourth International Conference of Women held in Beijing in 1995, the joint objective of Western thought is to eliminate spirituality and gender from government.
Three centuries after the birth of Jesus, Emperor Constantine took the Bible and removed the parts he didn’t like or understand and converted this great spiritual training manual into a rulebook. He mixed the teachings in it with those of a few other religions and created a potpourri of a liturgy, which the government enforced. This religion evolved into the Roman Catholic Church and fulfilled the European need for an authority to tell it how to live.
This European need to be told what to do has not changed; only the vehicle that fulfills that need serves as the source of debate. The issue that has divided the Western world politically and religiously from its very inception to the present day is not whether there should be an authority, but rather the nature of that authority.
There has never been nor is there now a Western understanding of the unseen. The whole premise of Western values is based on materialism. Consequentially there can be no understanding of right living. In order to maintain order and an attempt at responsible conduct it focuses on legal and illegal.
A society that has no spiritual basis, that relies on materialism, and that does not practice some form of tribalism, will have not have a structure to provide it with cohesion. In its effort to substitute for the lack of the masculine influence, the European culture relies upon the law.
From the earliest European Greeks there existed a great dependency on the law. Draco instituted a system of law based on an aristocracy (the feminine form of government.) Solon developed a system of law in which eligibility for political power was based on wealth (a feminine value.)
From Draco, to Solon, to Justinian, to Napoleon, the Europeans prided themselves on their legal institutions. After a 2,000-year history based on law, when the Europeans came to America the Indians said of them, “white man speak with forked tongue.” Indeed he did, for the law is but a poor substitute for the masculine influence. The manly way is “let your yea be yea, and let your nay be nay.” The law is for those who can’t live by that code.
A code of behavior other than the law derives from ethics, which come from those men who realize their purpose is to provide the environment and means for women to bring forth life and nurture it as humankind proceeds on its spiritual journey. The indigenous people of America and most of the world had these ethics, because they had a balance of the masculine and feminine genders.
Europe represents the forlorn woman who for all of her existence has waited for a suitable mate. Instead of the natural male authority that she craves she has received a variety of substitute authorities in the form of government, religion, philosophy, education, and finance; none of which has provided the stable spiritually oriented environment necessary for her natural nurturing ability to flourish.
The next essay will focus on Europe’s source of knowledge.
E.G.
posted by Elder George at
5:58 PM
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