Devils and Gods and the Pursuit of Happiness

by Berenice Andrews

A Demonic Encounter

It was the evening before Samhain, when the veil is the thinnest between this earth dimension and the Spirit World. The shamanic ceremony had generated deeply emotional encounters with “departed ones.” Afterward, when I had gone into the enclosed back garden to “ground” myself, I felt my attention being drawn to the high fence just beyond a mandala that was hanging from a tree. There, crouching in the moonlight was a demon intently watching me.

Startled, I turned away. When I looked again, it was still sitting there. Then I realized, with relief, that it couldn’t get past the mandala. I also realized that its gaze was very intelligent and more inquisitive than threatening. I don’t know how long that demon and I stared at each other before I blinked…and it was gone.

That encounter triggered an essential stage in my life’s journey.

I began delving into ancient and modern writings dealing with mankind’s beliefs found in scriptures, myths and folktales about the interactions that devils (the “powers of darkness”) and gods (the “powers of light”) have had with each other and with people. While doing so, I discovered the role that this ages-old interconnection had played in humanity’s pursuit of happiness.

An Evolutionary Process

Ancient Teachings: In my explorations, I soon realized that I was actually tracking the psycho/spiritual evolution of mankind. I was also discovering that almost from the beginning becoming “human” has involved an increasing tendency to become “wicked.”

The Judeo-Christian tradition—the predominant religious/spiritual teaching in Western cultures—has carried the recurring theme that the more socialized people became the more they strayed from a path of “godliness” (obedience to a god/creator). Briefly summarized, human beings had so often surrendered to the influence of “evil spirits” (devils in the guise of tempters), that they had become incorrigible “sinners” who required the blood sacrifice of a “savior” (a god in the guise of a human deliverer) to restore their proper relationship with their creator.

Yet none of those beliefs—so familiar to us—were new to Judeo-Christianity. For thousands of years, all of them had been well-known in religions (and stories) centered on savior gods, such as Osiris, Adonis, Dionysus, Krishna and Mithras, (to mention a few). Indeed, the idea of a “blood sacrifice” (willing or otherwise) to propitiate an angry cosmic power had existed for millennia before the advent of any religions. In other words, the Judeo-Christian religion had evolved out of more ancient structures, and many of their traces had remained.

Yet, in the days preceding religion—in the times of the prehistoric shamans—there had apparently been no belief in either devil/tempters or god/creators. Ancient cave paintings (such as those at Peche Merle) do not reveal any such ideas. Although the shamans might have encountered devils and gods in their spirit journeys, that Other World had not intruded into this one.

Then, why was it that only after people had taken up farming and had settled into communities that those beliefs emerged? (In the world’s sacred writings there are innumerable references to them.) And what connection did they have with human happiness?

The partial answer lies in understanding the development of human consciousness. It was a slow movement forward, while people grew out of their predominantly unaware, unfocused reptilian “minds” and into their early mammalian “minds.” While their inherent centers of consciousness were being first activated, people started looking for the “why” of that which they most feared—death and destruction. Why were there natural disasters such as crop failures and why were there natural phenomena such as lightening, floods and hurricanes? Because they lacked evolved cognition, the first “reasons” and “causes” people perceived were those of “magic.” Then, they had to discover the ways of dealing with those magical powers.

In the meantime, mankind’s social infrastructures had been slowly emerging. Along had come priests and priestesses replacing the shamans, many of whom had likely joined their ranks. Along had come gods and goddesses (the “beings” behind the magic). Along had come kings and queens (their earthly counterparts).

While human socialization progressed, there developed a body of beliefs about the gods and goddesses. Like their human counterparts, these beings (endowed with great magical powers) could be either “good” or “evil,” i.e., generators of either life or death. Like their human counterparts, the gods and goddesses had formed social groupings, each led by a supreme ruler who had struggled to gain supremacy. Because it was fairly obvious that the “evil”/death gods were stronger, it was necessary that their ruler—Satan/Devil (by whatever name)—be placated and obeyed.

So it was that, while people were evolving the consciousness energies that made them human (“civilized”), they were becoming increasingly “evil.” Simply put: the evolution of a “self”—the essential sense of an “i-am”—had somehow created the demons that have beset people.

Needless to say, the story of mankind’s ongoing evolution has not been one of happiness or of a belief in it. Within the Judeo-Christian context, in particular, “fearing” God has been emphasized. But this approach has not been conducive to much joy. And, while the believers within this and other religions have frequently pursued the physical “pleasures” (predominantly violence and sex), that sort of “happiness,” unless religiously sanctioned, has usually been regarded as “evil.”

But we must keep in mind that the story of mankind’s evolution has always been the creation story of Spirit-in-action. -Ken Wilber

Modern Teachings: What we’re looking at is the paradox that has (for many centuries) perplexed countless people, including the prophet Isaiah. He quoted Jehovah as saying: “I form light and create darkness; I make peace and create hardship; I the Lord do all these things.” (Isaiah 45:7}.

Then, while we’re tracing the idea of “light,” let’s return to the Peche Merle caves and note that the huge bison painted on the wall was marked with a heart—perhaps indicating the heart awareness of the person who had painted it. And many of the extant Ice Age graves (mainly of children) have revealed (by the fetal position of the skeleton and the items surrounding it) deep feelings of love towards those buried there.

It could be concluded, then, that those primitive, prehistoric people, although lacking a sense of “self,” had been in-formed by heart awareness and a felt/sense of the sacred within and around them.

But the evolutionary journey of consciousness from root chakra through solar plexus chakra had to be made before any significant involvement with the “higher” consciousness energies could really be expressed. In the millennia since prehistoric times, progress has been excruciatingly slow. Right up to the twenty-first century, the fear-based struggle for survival has been the predominant story of mankind.

Now, modern people are having more success in exploring the paradoxical nature of their own light and darkness. Within the parameters of both physics and metaphysics, people are starting to understand the creative power of their own centers of consciousness. And they are becoming somewhat aware of the power of their intent and will. Progress is being made.

Within just the past 30 years, some people have been delving into the realities of the heart bridge and heart crucible. And with the help of the HeartMath Institute* they are emerging into an awareness that the human brain/mind” and the “heart/mind” are wonderfully representative of the “masculine” and “feminine” powers that in-form both our chakras and the cosmos. Thus, people are slowly moving away from religion and into a greater discernment of the Macrocosmic Consciousness within which they (and all of creation) live, move and have their being.

Then, do devils and gods exist? Even if we invented them, they have been a necessary part of our evolution. But now we must consider more evolved concepts than those that have in-formed us for so long.

We can start by realizing that as microcosmic consciousness energies, we possess an immense creative power. A modern example could be made of the often-frightening encounters with “entities” reported by people experimenting with ouija boards. In one report, a group of skeptics had decided to “invent” an entity to prove the theory that such things didn’t exist and that nothing could happen. When their “invention” showed up and created a disturbance, they were much surprised and puzzled. But human multidimensionality should neither surprise nor puzzle us.

Modern-age regression studies would indicate that our emotional bodies are huge, hidden areas of unhealed energies, present even from past lives and ready to “bedevil” us, until we call them forth to be healed. Often those energies are connected with those of the addictions (substance and other) that “drive” people. In turn, those energies are closely involved with root chakra consciousness in its “dance” with the sacral and the solar plexus chakras. Human complexities are quite astounding! They are also discouraging.

To help us, there are the stories about Jesus dealing with devils. In our reading of the biblical account about the temptations in the wilderness, Jesus can be seen as a person struggling with the “rationalizing” drives that rise up in all of us when our root chakra consciousness seeks to steer us into grabbing the main chance (Matthew 4: 1-11). And in the story about Jesus “casting out the devils” who can possess a person (Mark 1: 21-34), it’s actually the account of a shamanic exorcism, and there’s an indication of the ways by which we can understand our “darkness.” Both those “stories” are psycho/spiritual metaphors for our own sacred inner reality. The words “Christ Consciousness” is the clue we need.

A Shamanic Exorcism

While we progress toward that knowing about our own sacred beingness, we can still be plagued, like Jesus was tormented, by our devil/tempters. And, like Jesus, we have help readily at hand.

As exorcists, shamans (and some of their religious successors) have been involved—for centuries—in “casting out the devils.”

In shamanic exorcism, i.e., “recapitulation,” the shaman spirit journeys with the client who is in need of exorcism. In the Other World, the shaman helps the client to call forth and lovingly face the pain and other emotional body “devil/tempters” that have possessed him/her. As one-by-one those energies are “let go” to be healed, the client gradually enters into his/her cave of the heart, where rebirthing gets underway. When all the “evil spirits” have been “cast out,” the journey ends. Afterward, the client always expresses feelings of immense relief and cleanliness.

That’s real happiness. But it’s not a magic formula.

Every day thereafter until there’s a new “habit,” the reborn person must remember that the Christ Consciousness—the felt/sense being permeated by Life, Light, Love and Law—is the “way” of a new path. It’s the evolutionary path that had already started with our primitive ancestors. Their sense of the sacred—fed by the energies of love—was the precursor of the evolving “heart/mind” and the awakening third eye and crown chakras that can us now. At last, we are ready for real en-”light”-enment.

Afterward

Although human evolution has already taken millions of years, there’s still more awaiting. Then let us acknowledge our indebtedness to the world’s scriptures, myths and folklore, accept all of our evolved (and evolving) capacities and allow the happiness that is rightfully ours. Truly, “the best is yet to come” (Tennyson).

 

* The HeartMath Institute is a nonprofit organization based in San Jose, CA. It was formed in 1991 to research and develop reliable, scientifically based tools that bridge the connection between heart and mind and deepen people’s connection with the hearts of others. For more information visit heartmath.org.

Berenice Andrews is a shamanic teacher/healer and a regular contributor to this magazine. To explore further the ideas presented above, see Pagan and Christian Creeds: Their Origin and Meaning by Edward Carpenter, The History of the Devil and the Idea of Evil by Paul Carus, How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee by Bart Ehrman, Heart: The Natural History of the Heart-Filled Life by Gail Godwin, The Death of the Mythic God: The Rise of Evolutionary Spirituality by Jim Marion, The Birth of Satan: Tracing the Devil’s Biblical Roots by T.J. Wray and Gregory Mobley and The Evolution of God by Robert Wright. To find out more about Berenice and her teachings, please refer to her articles in back issues of Transformation Magazine and to her book: Rebirthing Into Androgyny: Your Quest for Wholeness…And Afterward. If you are interested in becoming her student, see the thestonecircleclassroom.com.

 

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