As Below, So Above

As Below, So Above

*This article previously appeared in an issue of _Creation Spirituality_ magazine.*

Politics and religion: eternal and inseparable twins that have wreacked unrivaled havoc with our history. They are, it seems, joined at the hip, and just as we strenuously forbid their fraternizing in the courts, so too shall they be prohibited in tandem at Thanksgiving Day Dinner.

Separation of church and state is, nevertheless, a noble aspiration; yet none of us, I fear, separate the two in our own personal paradigms. This was much more obvious in times past. For a score of centuries, the government had been a divinely ordained hierarchy, with the King at the top, his ministers beneath him, the nobles beneath them, followed by the merchants with the peasants at the bottom. It was divinely ordained because this was not only the governmental paradigm, but the paradigm of the universe as well.

Therefore God, in both the Hebrew and Christian traditions, is the King of the Universe, beneath whom are the angels, and finally, lowly and wretched humankind. Our scriptures are based on this model, and it is impossible to read the Psalms for very long before it confronts us.

As a young fundamentalist, this bothered me not at all. Indeed, within my church was the same paradigm, with the pastor at the head, confident and godly right, not to be questioned by his inferiors, and deserving of their love and loyalty. Beneath him were the deacons (which in the Baptist church are laymen-almost always laymen-the equivalent of elders), followed by the men of the congregation, all resting upon the tired backs of the laywomen and children.

Scripturally it was, as I saw it, "holy" appropriate. In my conversion to Catholicism in the Episcopal Church, I was confirmed into a similar structure, headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, under whom are the presiding bishops of the various member churches of the Anglican Communion, under which are the regional bishops, followed by the priests, etc. This medieval structure might have been appropriate at one time: it was, in fact, considered by one and all to be the divine blueprint of the universe.

It also gave license to those in power to behave in a manner like God's own behavior as seen in scripture. Therefore since Yaweh can be, as scripture shows, bloodthirsty, wrathful, and punitive, his viceroys on Earth were obligated to emulate these traits.

This has not always been so. Pre-patriarchal society was evolved into a very different sort of structure. Archeological data seems to indicate that it was for the most part egalitarian. As Riane Eisler points out in her ground-breaking classic The Chalice and the Blade, European Neolithic society emphasized linking, rather than ranking, "a partnership society in which neither half of humanity is ranked over the other and diversity is not equated with inferiority or superiority." The "partnership" model of society is based upon the principles of community and equality rather than dominance. Again, society was mirrored in the conception of divinity. As Nicolas Platon writes in his book Crete, "The whole of life was pervaded by an ardent faith in the goddess Nature, the source of all Creation and harmony." Neolithic art reveals much about the society; to quote Eisler again, "Mythical art reflects not only peoples' attitudes but also their particular form of culture and social organization. Here the supreme power governing the universe is a divine Mother who gives her people life, provides them with material and spiritual nurturance, and who even in death can be counted on to take her children back into her cosmic womb."

In the pre-patriarchal world, all things were recognized as being connected, parts of a greater whole, which was symbolized in their cosmology as the great and nurturing Goddess.

We no longer live in Neolithic times, nor do we remember them well. We do, however know the conquering patriarchy only too well. But we are undergoing a paradigm shift on this planet that cannot be ignored. We no longer live in a monarchy, and when I read the Psalms, the portrait received feels odd, and wrong. I no longer believe in a monarchy, nor in a "Jacob's Ladder" model of government as was the norm in medieval times. Furthermore, I witness my friends suffering at the hands of a religious monarchy which is desperately trying to cling to what is an archaic and destructive paradigm.

At the end of the twentieth century we hold an ideal of democracy, where everyone has a voice, and a government of, by, and for the people. But as our political paradigm has evolved, our cosmology and theology must follow suit. With the advent of Liberation theology, we conceive of the church as the body of the faithful, not the vehicle of the hierarchs. With our rediscovery of Creation Spirituality and Native peoples' forms of worship, we see ourselves not as emperors lording over the Earth and her creatures, but as one with her and every manner of being she has birthed. With the dawn of Process theology we see ourselves as partners with God in the unfolding of the Universe, as integral and necessary companions without whom God could not continue. As the consciousness of the Earth's people has evolved into a paradigm of equality and justice, so are people of faith the world over being ushered by the Spirit into a spiritual democracy, where every voice is God's voice, every heart is the heart of God, and where God's only hands are our own.