A New Age at All Faiths

By Joyce Ramay

As we begin a new year and a new decade, All Faiths Unitarian Congregation will be moving ahead into the future with many new opportunities opening to us as we move into a home of our own. During the past decade, we grew from originally being loyal supporters of Rev. Wayne Robinson towards becoming a loving family that shares certain core values, exhibits care and concern for each other, and believes in service beyond the self. At the same time, we have experienced a spiritual growth, which has led to greater inclusiveness in our views towards diverse religions and a sense of reverence for the spiritual aspirations and practices of humankind. The multifaith banners and Coexist stickers have become symbols of our people!

            Today I want to talk about a New Age at All Faiths as we continue on life’s journey towards spirituality and full human development. In my studies of history, anthropology, psychology and religion, I have assembled a composite descriptive framework that involves four stages of human development, which I will share with you. I believe that many of us have passed through some or all of these stages. I think it helps to know where we have been, so that we can better understand where we are now, and where we want to go.

Stage I – AGE OF MAGIC: MATRIARCHAL DEPENDENCE

Nature Gods and Mother Goddess

Matriarchal societies emphasize survival, nurturing and fertility. They prevailed extensively in the earliest agricultural civilizations of the great river valleys and still exist in some primitive groups today. Their religious practices involve fertility rites, and celebration of bountiful harvests and seasons of the year. Their religion is one of diversity of animistic worship of personal nature gods and the Mother Goddess. Their rituals often involve magical thinking. Their prayers are those of Supplication: Please help me or give me …. Their relationship style can be compared to the period of Dependent Infancy – Feed me, take care of me. And human motivation is based primarily on Fear. Even so-called advanced religions have incorporated many elements from this early stage of human experience.

Here Freud’s Id is dominant, with stress on the basic instincts for survival and narcissism. The major battles are between the Id and Nature. This is the realm of Maslow’s Basic Physiological Needs – Roti, Kapra aur Makan – Food, clothing, shelter.

In these societies, primitive science expresses an interest in the Earth, its plants and animals, and has a fertility orientation. They seek out magical associations of cause and effect. Here there is a search for Comfort and Basic Needs in a Lawless World. There are still many impoverished parts of the world today that essentially continue at this level of existence.

Summary Belief – We are helpless and have to beg for sustenance and appease the capricious gods.

Stage II – AGE OF FAITH: PATRIARCHAL DOMINANCE & OBEDIENCE

Father God

This is the stage of Dogmatic Faith in a Father God, God the Ruler, Wrathful Lawgiver, or Protector. This historical period begins with invasions of the Indo European/Aryans into Europe and Asia, and the Semites in the Middle East. They destroy the female goddesses, and impose their male gods and patriarchal male dominance. Blood sacrifice is common. Cities are now walled, borders created, and empires built by heroic fighters and warriors who are idolized in myth.

There is a search for Domination of Others and Nature. Man becomes Co-Regent of the Earth.

There is a lot of Fight motivation. The right wing Moral Majority want Guns!!

Patriarchal societies emphasize Order, Authority and Obedience. Think of Hitler’s Germany or World War II Japan.

Prayers of Phase II emphasize Submission – Thy will be done. Tell me what to do.

This is Freud’s Latency Period of youth with the good little boy and girl obeying the rules.

The Psychological battle here is between the Superego and the Id, and the Superego wins.

Individuals and society tend towards Conformity. I want to be accepted, so I want to be like you.

Here Maslow’s Security needs are high. There is need for order, belonging and social acceptance. The Relationship Style is that of Dominance & Obedience.

In Science, astronomy becomes important, and in religion a powerful God now watches you from heaven. We are separated from the direct immanent presence of the nurturing female principle of divinity. Here Orthodoxy, Rules, Rituals and Dogma prevail.

Emphasis is on the Past Golden Age when revelations were made to our Fathers.

Summary Belief – Our forefathers and leaders found the Answer. They arrived at the truth. We must believe and obey.

The problem is that we can’t make either religious or scientific discoveries through a rigid stance of static certainty.

Stage III – AGE OF REASON: HUMANIST INDEPENDENCE

God Is Dead (Nietzsche)

This is an era of Doubts, Agnosticism, Skepticism, and Secular Humanism

Prayer is replaced by affirmations of our own power: I am master of my own fate.

Frank Sinatra’s – I did it my way.

It is comparable to the life stage of the young adult, filled with rebellion and search for autonomy.

The Psychological Battle is between the Ego and the Super-Ego, and the Ego becomes dominant. The emphasis is on exerting your own will – Nietzsche’s will to power.

We search for Personal Identity, our Unique Selves.

The question is Who am I. What can I become?

Think of Marlon Brando’s cry – I could have been Somebody!

Motivation is to Break the Bonds in pursuit of Liberation.

There is the rebellion – I don’t need you!

There is often a weakening of parental ties, as we develop greater self-sufficiency.

This represents Maslow’s levels of Self Esteem & Self Actualization

In history it is characterized by the Age of Exploration, Industrial Age, Age of Reason, Democracy, Individualism, Liberation Movements of race, sex, ethnic groups, Nation States, and Rejection of Imperialism and Colonialism. It has encompassed major movements of the past 500 years. It is a Declaration of Personal Independence. The Relationship Style is Independence and Individuality. Extreme forms – Ayn Rand Capitalism This is the dominant mode in the West today.

Science is based upon materialism, empirical analysis, and scientific method. We think in terms of Either/Or. We divide things up. Everything is objective and depersonalized as Physics and Mechanics dominate. Even God is a Watchmaker or Remote (Deism) or None at all. The Left Brain dominates and there is denial of the validity of the emotions, feelings, intuition, and personal experience as sources of knowledge.

Summary Belief - I have to throw out all the old ways. I have found the new answer. I have arrived at the truth.

Stage IV – AGE OF ALL FAITHS: Interdependence of a Spiritual Community of Free Individuals

This is the All Faiths Culture that we are progressively developing. Many others are on a similar course of discovery.

Here a Confident and Trusting Faith replaces Fear, Fight and Rebellion

Our new Spirituality aims at both personal and social reconciliation and unity

Here the psychological Battle is between the Ego and the Soul, and the Soul increasingly prevails.

This is Maslow’s realm of Transcendence, Peak Experiences, and Altruism that go beyond mere self-actualization.

In History, this level is represented by ideas of a New World, United Nations, Harmony, Unity, and even the Internet.

The Relationship Style is adult to adult, with a desire for Voluntary Interdependence based upon Mutual Respect.

We experience an increasing readiness to include the Otherness of the Other, Buber’s Thou.

We can be united, but do not have to be the same. Conformity is boring. Diversity is relished.

Here Science emphasizes Synthesis, the pursuit of the Grand Unification Theory, and the recognition of usefulness of the intuitive. There is increasing acceptance of right brain functions of creativity and understanding. Psychologists arrive on the scientific scene, and we begin to study humans in relationship with creation.

Unlike many of their predecessors, scientists like Jung and Einstein believe God is Real.

Einstein said, I want to understand the mind of God, all the rest is details.

Medicine and Psychology move away from Disease theories, to Health and Wholeness.

Scientist William James recognizes the validity and merits of individual religious experience. People start to doubt their own pride fuelled doubts. They question the validity of their earlier hubristic rejection of any power greater than themselves.

We come to a new expanding willingness to accept paradoxes and the contradictions of reality.

We can start to understand that something can be Both This and That, rather than Either/Or.

We recognize the limitations of our own perception, and accept that truth can be seen from many different perspectives that go beyond our own understanding.

We start to achieve a balance between Body, Mind, Heart and Soul.

This is what I have seen happening at All Faiths over the years.

Summary Belief – We have not arrived and don’t have all the answers, but we are on a fascinating journey, an adventurous path to holiness, in which we question everything, but know it’s OK if we don’t have all the answers, and it’s OK if other people have different answers. We welcome the mystery, we stand in awe before the wonders of life and existence.

This is similar to the Great Mystics and Spiritual Leaders from centuries past – who were ahead of their times and were hardly ever comprehended by others. Unfortunately, their ideas were mostly put into Stage II Dogma, and only a few understood and acted in accordance with the essence. But that is changing now.

Something is happening. It’s a New Age at All Faiths.

We are developing a stronger sense of identity as the All Faiths family.

We are learning to become more inclusive as we discover the good that can be found in many faiths.

We are experiencing a sense of the sacred as we explore the great traditions of the world. 

We are sharing our abundance with less fortunate people in our community and in far off lands.

We are strongly motivated to join together with the Other, the Unknown, with Trust, Acceptance and Appreciation.

We are joining the Family of all Humanity by Living, Forgiving, and Loving each other.

We are on a search for our Higher Selves where our individual egos can be superseded by our souls that are connected to all that is best in the universe.

To do this, we will make a free conscious choice to yield, to give up our need to control everything, and to see ourselves as interacting parts of the harmonious whole of life. We will become active participants in the co-creation of our world.

Parting Words:

Unitarian William Ellery Channing wrote

In a word, the great end is to awaken the soul, to excite and cherish spiritual life.

Spirituality is a feeling of oneness with everything around you.

Spirituality is a feeling of joy, compassion and life.

The spirit is the soul, the essence of being, life itself.

The spiritual is something that is refined, pure, holy.

JR 1-3-10