Call It By Whatever Name You Wish
November 13, 2003

A quote on the web source from which I was inspired in my last article inspired me to go seeking after learning who Mikhail Bakunin (1814-1876) was. Why was he praising SATAN for being ''the eternal rebel, the first free-thinker and emancipator of worlds''? As it turns out, Bakunin was a social anarchist of a rather atheistic bent. I can't help but think some of his ideas, or at least the school of thought from which his came, influenced the atheistic Ayn Rand.

In his long article on God and the State, he makes this statement:

''Man made the gods. But in the time of Plato this knowledge was impossible. The collective mind, and consequently the individual mind as well, even that of the greatest genius, was not ripe for that. Scarcely had it said with Socrates: "Know thyself!" This self-knowledge existed only in a state of intuition; in fact, it amounted to nothing. Hence it was impossible for the human mind to suspect that it was itself the sole creator of the divine world.''

Is that true? Is intuition that worthless? I do not think so. Some of my richest depths have been discovered via the tools of intuition. For instance, there is the one tool called 'automatic writing', in which the writer just takes down the words as they come to her. I believe the intuitive capacities have a logic our conscious logical minds do not. I believe they process data at a lightning fast speed not capable for the conscious mind to follow.

Thus poems and prose arrive whole and perfect, revealing myself to me. I do not know why these people of atheistic mindset distrust the intuition. Certainly if its use were not combined with every vigorous exercise of my logical mind, I might not know if I had in fact achieved any wisdom and had only produced a random collection of letters and words.

We need both to clarify the path of truth. Then it is possible to clarify our own 'divinity', as we are equal to those forces we identify as 'divine'. Without the ordering of both the minds of intuition and reason, the world is filled with chaotic powers we can't understand and thus fear.

  
SET, God of Thunder and Lightning, MA'AT, Goddess of Order and Balance

Raw POWER without ORDER is CHAOS . . .

Thus, we become Ma'at, who brings order to chaos. In Egyptian metaphysics, it is always about balance. We perform the divine functions, we are not subservient. It is not like the envisioning of Jehovah, who, according to Bakunin, ''wished, therefore, that man, destitute of all understanding of himself, should remain an eternal beast, ever on all-fours before the eternal God, his creator and his master.''

Is it the whisperings of a 'Satan' that causes this temptation, irresistable for some? The curious person, driven by the desire TO KNOW studies history, eats of that 'tree of knowledge', uses their intuition and reason, and liberates herself. It is certainly what Some identify as influences of 'Satan', that urge to ever expand one's conscious boundaries, the desire NOT to get submerged into the mindless whole, to declare one's uniqueness, to trust one's own judgment, to not submit powerless to forces outside of oneself.

The hymn of 1896, by a Judson DeVenter goes:

All to Jesus I surrender;
Humbly at His feet I bow,
Worldly pleasures all forsaken;
Take me, Jesus, take me now.

Those of the 'rebellous' mindset cringe at that. We forsake neither worldly pleasures nor our unbowed position. This surges up within us as the very force of Life itself. It is this which makes us behold our own consciousness in wonder and awe. It is this which makes us declare our own divinity, proudly and freely. It is this spirit which liberates us from the fetters of mindless surrender. Call it by whatever name you wish, we celebrate it.

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