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The tremendous tragedy that occurred at the Twin Towers in New York City on September 11, 2001 exemplified the Tower of Babel consiousness that permeates the globe today, especially in regard to Beliefs, Religions, and Spirituality. Bodhisattva like compassion and empathy moved me to create the Spirit Songs website which eventually morphed into the Blessings Cornucopia website. Although I had been raised as a Christian Roman Catholic, I was intensely interested in all other religions, philosophies, and cultural traditions from a very young age. I studied Comparative Religions, Philosophy, Psychology and Art History in college. Afterwards I served for awhile as an Intelligence Office (Captain) in the United States Air Force where I did research, analysis, and journalistic type writing. So I decided to go on an extended writing sabbatical and to do an in depth analysis and written articles synthesis of the Sacred Pathways of fifteen diverse faiths, religions, philosophies, and traditions followed by large groups of people that have had a significant influence on the planet over the years. They included in alphabetical order: Aboriginal Dreamtime, Alchemy Alchemist, Cosmos Astronomy, Buddhism Buddhist, Christianity Biblical, Daoist Confucian, Druidry Treelore, Heathenry Ásatrú, Hinduism Vedas, Islam Sunnah, Judaism Talmud, Native American, Paganism Wiccan, Shamanism Shaman, Shintoism Kami.Our search for Goodness, for Goddess and God, for Unity amidst Diversity, for As Above So Below, for Heaven on Earth, for Reason for Being, for meaning, and for fundamental truths is the root or nexus point for all our Ways of Living, our faiths, our beliefs, our religions, our philosophies, and our traditions. As a planet, we need to move beyond merely tolerating Beliefs, Faiths, Philosophies, and Religions that are perceived as being different from our own, towards building a global rainbow bridge of Communication, Commitment, Communion, Commonality, and Community that connects all of our consciousnesses together.
Each Belief, Faith,
Philosophy, and Religion is treated with the dignity, honor, and respect that it
deserves. Many colours make up a rainbow, each colour is special and different
from the others; yet, its core essence is still that of a colour, and it is
still one of the many colours that make up a rainbow.
From my perspective, many rivers flow towards the universal seas carrying our personal soul ships ever closer towards union with the Divine. The first step towards appreciating different Beliefs, Faiths, Philosophies, and Religions is to understand their traditions, ritualistic practices, sacred terminology, spiritual landscapes, and symbology. Common themes are prevalent throughout most of the Beliefs, Faiths, Philosophies, and Religions. They just express them differently in different terms. The Christian word for performing good works by making monetary contributions to help the needy is Charity. The Muslim word for alms (which were to be distributed amongst the eight asnaf categories of people mentioned for the welfare of society in the Quran) is Zakat. Jesus Christ, Gautama Buddha, and Confucius (Kong Fuzi) all preferred to teach their students by the oral tradition of storytelling, analogy, parables, aphorisms, adages, and sayings. Later on, the many writings attributed to them were actually transcribed from memory by their students many years after their passing. The Golden Rule of Christainity, Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, has also been a common thread in Beliefs, Faiths, Philosophies, and Religions throughout the ages. According to the Analects of Confucius, when asked by his students for one word to serve as a guiding lantern for others to follow on their journey through life, Kong Fuzi chose the Golden Rule of shu - Never impose upon others what you would not choose to impose upon yourself. A story from the Talmud illustrates a compassionate aspect of Judaism. When a non-Jew asked Rabbi Hillel to teach him the Torah while standing on one foot he said, What is hateful to you, don't do to your neighbor. The rest is commentary. Now, go and study. When most people think of virtuous behavior, in the Western World today, they might ascribe it solely to followers of one of the three Abrahamic rooted religions of Christianity, Islam, or Judaism; while, they erroneously consider followers of Heathenry Asatrú and Paganism Wicca somewhat lacking in this area. This derives either from misinformation or lack of knowledge. The Heathenry and Heathen Ásatrú Nine Noble Virtues were derived mainly from the Hávamál of the Poetic Edda. Guidelines for daily living, the most prevalent list of these codes of conduct for the Heathens was: Courage, Discrimination, Fidelity, Honor, Hospitality, Industriousness, Perseverance, Self-Reliance, and Truth. The Three Principles of the Pagan Federation are: Love for and Kinship with Nature. Reverence for the life force and its ever-renewing cycles of life and death; A Positive Morality, in which the individual is responsible for the discovery and development of their true nature in harmony with the outer world and community. This is often expressed as: Do what you will, as long as it harms none; and Recognition of the Divine, which transcends gender, acknowledging both the female and male aspect of Deity. Rituals, festivals, ceremonies, principles, and practices fulfill personal and community needs for worship, for edification, for spiritual seeking, for ethical patterns, for sanctification, and for law and order. Each Belief, Faith, Philosophy, and Religion has its own spiritual landscape of traditions and customs; each one gives its own distinctive answers to many of the questions which perplex human existence.
My in depth exploration of
the spiritual landscapes of each of the Beliefs, Faiths, Philosophies, and
Religions led me to investigate and write about Ancient Cultures,
Archangels, Earth Mysteries, Goddesses, Gods, Myths, Nature Spirits,
Storytelling and lots more. The website continued to grow and to expand to
support the primary mission of translating the spiritual linguistics of the
Sacred Pathways; and, to construct a rainbow bridge of
Commonality, Communication, Communion, Commitment, and Community for All.
This lead in due course to the formulation of Purpose Objectives.
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Blessings Cornucopia
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