October 24, 2025

The line between “Reformer” and “Heretic” is too fine to be seen. It doesn’t exist. It all depends on how we see what we look at. Jesus was a reformer who was executed as a heretic by the Romans at the request of Caiphas, the High Priest of the Temple in Jerusalem. And the doctrines of Original Sin, Redemption, Atonement, Salvation, etc. were invented by the Church of Rome in the 400 years between the crucifixion and the closing of the Canon, with the Church declaring, “You are all going to hell for all eternity if you don’t believe what we say and do what we tell you to do.” Guaranteeing the survival of the Church, and all churches through the ages to here, now

Leaving us with the opportunity/responsibility of rethinking all we have ever been taught/told about God, which now can be understood to be “That Which Has Always Been Called ‘God'” and re-thought in ways that take all that we know into account.

Like the way balance and harmony, rhythm and flow can be experienced/known in the way conditions and situations unfold in a day, and how we can be “on the beam,” or “off it,” and “in the flow” or “out of it.”

Joseph Campbell said, “We know when we are on the beam and when we are off the beam.” And we do. What do we know when we know that? How do we know when we know that? This is the Mystery at the heart of existence.

We are one with the Mystery. We are the Mystery ourselves. All of this is Mystery. Mystery and “God” are the same thing. We say “God” and think we have said something, but not so. What we associate with the word “God” was invented by the Church of Rome in the 4 centuries between Jesus’ death and the closing of the Canon when no more ideas about God and Jesus were allowed to be in the Bible. All we know about “God” is what the Church of Rome wanted us to know. All we know is the Church of Rome’s idea of God. Who is to say whose idea is the truth of how things are? Who is the authority in these matters? Who says so? How do they know? They know the way we all know when we are on the beam and when we are off the beam.

Lao Tzu said in talking about the Tao, “Darkness within darkness, the gateway to Mystery!” We can think of the Tao as “God,” as “Mystery.” They all can be experienced but not understood. “The Tao that can be said/told/explained is not the eternal Tao.” We can know things we cannot talk about. How do we know? It is a mystery.

We have to become those who honor The Mystery of Life and Being and Knowing! And, in the words of Iris DeMent, “Let the Mystery be.”