godswap

Greetings godswappers,

Hi there! Rumors of my death are hella exaggerated. It’s unfortunate that immediately after my little vacation I am unavailable to write due to the general necessities of life. I've been in a classroom where typing would be disruptive. I have done my best to keep tabs on the site and it's really awesome to see so many comments and people supporting the work. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!! I've been bouncing in my seat everyday when I go to see more.

While I've been away, I've started a practice of reading holy scripture. I hear about religious folks doing it all the time, they must be getting something from it. As with any part of my spiritual practice I open my heart to see what I really want out of the actions proposed.

What is sacred text? It's my understanding that it is a collection of stories meant to inspire the reader to his/her highest self. Using those inspired by their god(s) as an example of how to behave in the most troubling of times. Some see it as a test of our worthiness. I see the awareness of the test itself as proof of worth. Though I must accept that it's not for me to decide anything other than my perception... What would I do? If ... when my god(s) test me ... have they already? Did I pass? Is this a pass/fail situation? I look to the examples of my elders through, what I conciser, sacred writings.

They offer huge questions, some I'd never considered. They hope to offer answers, from complex ritual to simple inaction, from pacifism to violence, from prayer to silence. They are created out of the images that we will recognize so that we feel safe exposing our darkest secrets, vulnerabilities, and fears. The more familiar the more we are capable of trusting. There are countless ways of building that trust. Different people, even when worshiping the same god(s), will be called to them by different things.

There are no stories I love more than fiction. I believe it gives the storyteller more space to explore the options of tragedy without having to actually be tragic. The stories of my faith are fantasy and science fiction. The most important, to me, is cyber-punk.

"Classic cyberpunk characters were marginalized, alienated loners who lived on the edge of society in generally dystopic futures where daily life was impacted by rapid technological change, an ubiquitous datasphere of computerized information, and invasive modification of the human body." - Lawrence Person (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberpunk)


The one distinction that makes cyberpunk special to me is there is always a part of the story that is virtual. Critical parts of the story involve characters putting their consciousness into a computer and doing things in there. Thing brings up many questions about the nature of consciousness. What is it? Is the body we know necessary to have it? It expands my respect for animate things and inanimate. How am I to know for sure what is sentient? I don't. Cyberpunk teaches me to question even my most basic assumptions. Also, really important to me is that the protagonist is often someone who doesn't seem like a good guy. The hero of the story is often faced with difficult choices around survival of self and survival of humanity. There is never a clear right answer. As with life, the hero is forced to juggle the complicated needs of both. Its really easy for me to relate to it all on a much deeper level than what I find in traditional scriptures.

I've created my religion out of the images I trust in popular culture. It only make sense to me to find the sages of this time and sages of the possible future for guidance. Admittedly, the authors have little faith in humanity. However, their impossible questions aren't all that different than what I've found in the Judeo-Christian bible. Plus, there's usually space ships and robots!!! To me science fiction seems more real, or at least easier to relate to. It's closer to what my heart knows. My heart feels safe learning there.

Learn about this and how you explore your inspiration at godswap LIVE

Our topic will be “applying inspiration daily/regularly”
Monday July 5th, 2010
2519 Mission St
San Francisco, CA 94110
Suggested donation is $10, no one turned away for lack of funds.

I get that this is that day after 4th of July and I plan on making this happen. If no one else shows up, I'll be reading.

Thanks for reading. Feel free to offer comments and suggestions in the comment section below.
The god(s) in me honor the god(s) in you. Let's go play.

Rebekah

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PS
The day after I wrote this, as I was reading Xenocide, by Orson Scott Card, the last 2 pages of the 14th chapter “Virus Makers”.

I can only judge by what I understand. If as far as I can see, the gods that Qing-jao believes in are only evil, then yes, perhaps I’m wrong, perhaps I can’t comprehend the great purpose they accomplish by making the godspoken into helpless slaves, or destroying whole species. But in my heart I have no choice but to reject such gods, because I can’t see any good in what they’re doing. Perhaps I’m so stupid and foolish that I will always be the enemy of the gods, working against their high and incomprehensible purposes. But I have to life according to what I understand, and what I understand is that there are no such gods as the ones the godspoken teach us about. If they exist at all, they take pleasure in oppression and deception, humiliation and ignorance. They act to make other people smaller and themselves larger. Those would not be gods, then, even if they existed. They would be enemies. Devils.

The same with beings, whoever they are, who made the descolanda virus. Yes, they would have to be very powerful to create a tool like that. But they would also have to be heartless, selfish, arrogant beings, to think that all life in the universe was theirs to manipulate as they saw fit. To send the descolanda out into the universe, not caring who it killed or what beautiful creatures it destroyed-those could not be gods, either.

Jane, now-Jane might be a god. Jane knew vast amounts of information and had great wisdom as well, and she was acting for the good of others, even when it would take her life-even now, after her life was forfeit. And Andrew Wiggin, he might be a god, so wise and kind he seemed, and not acting for his own benefit but for the pequeninos. And Valentine, who called herself Demothenes, she had worked to help other people find truth and make wise decisions of their own. And Master Han, who was trying to do the right thing always, even when it cost him his daughter. Maybe even Ela, the scientist, even though she had not known all that she ought to have known-for she was not ashamed to learn the truth from a servant girl.

Of course they were not the sort of gods who lived off in the Infinate West, in the Palace of the Royal Mother. Nor were they gods in their own eyes-they would laugh at her for even thinking of it. But compared to her, they were gods indeed. They were so much wiser than Wang-mu, and so much more powerful, and as far as she could understand their purposes, they were trying to help other people become as wise and powerful as possible. Even wiser and more powerful than they were themselves. So even though Wang-mu might be wrong, even though she might be truly understanding nothing at all about anything, nevertheless she knew that her decision to work with these people was the right one for her to make.

She could only do good as far a she could understood what goodness was. And these people seemed to her to be doing good, while Congress seemed to be doing evil. So even though in the long run it might destroy her-for Master Han was now an enemy of Congress, and might be arrested and killed, and her along with him-still she would do it. She would never see real gods, but she could at least work to help those people who are as close to being gods as any real person could ever be.

And if the gods don’t like it, they can poison me in my sleep or catch me on fire as I’m walking in the garden tomorrow or just make my arms and legs and head drop off my body like crumbs off cake. If they can’t manage to stop a stupid little servant girl like me, they don’t amount to much anyway.

Hell Yeah!!! Preach sister.