Day 2 of 30 Days, 30 Posts - Faith

True faith has nothing to do with the investment in an exoteric religion or external diety. One can perform rituals, pray, chant mantras, and affirmations until they are blue in the face. But these outward symbolic acts mean nothing if we aren't turning inward and trusting in the Eternal Intelligence resident within. Faith is an active and guiding intelligence. Should we listen to and follow that Inner Voice, we will be spared much suffering in the long run.

Faith and gnosis go hand-in-hand. Gnosis means to know. Once upon a time I called myself agnostic without even being fully aware of what that word actually meant. I thought it simply meant that I believed in a higher spiritual power, but wasn't religious. If gnosis and gnosticism mean knowledge, then agnosticism is a lack of knowledge (ignorance).

Know Thyself

Does this mean that we totally disregard and turn away from the external world and its beautiful symbols? Certainly not. The outer is the inner. One simple correction or adjustment must be made, however, if we wish to be truly faithful and self-knowing. And that is realizing that the outer arises from the inner. The outer world is like the mirror of the internal spiritual reality, providing us with creative feedback. We can only become conscious or self-aware through the appearance of physical manifestation.

Without this apparent external projection, the universal spirit would have no knowledge of its own potentials. While all would remain united and undifferentiated, all would also remain unconscious. So the universal spirit becomes the dog, the flower, the grain of sand, the man, the planet, the galaxy—to become aware and eternally awaken to self-exploration. But this omniscient spirit is not limited to or by any of these boundaries or containers. The boundaries, themselves, are illusory.

The dove is a well-known symbol for the Holy Spirit or the Holy Ghost. I've used this as a symbol of faithfulness and knowledge and their association with the element of air (or volatility). We connect this element with the mind and with thought. Thoughts and words are like birds that take flight: They're up in the air or in the cloud. Birds are symbolic messengers. Likewise, our many forms of communication travel through the air-waves. Additionally, like-minded people are said to be "birds of a feather that flock together".

Pneuma or prana are two different words describing the vital, life-giving principle of the breath. This is precisely what the Holy Spirit represents, the Cosmic Aleph. We fix, anchor, or ground this volatile spirit (this blind force, faith being blind) through proper discrimination. This can only be established once we firmly recognize the true relationship of cause (inner) and effect (outer). When this happens, a harmonious relationship between the objective, the subjective, and the universal modes of consciousness is founded. Another way of putting this would be to say: The cooperation between the individual and the super-consciousness.

Semper Fidelis, "Always Faithful"

This concludes today's article of 30 Days, 30 Posts challenge. Tomorrow's article will feature the topic of the Future. Yesterday's article was on Gratitude.