Perceptions of Spirit

Throughout history there have been countless numbers of ideas about what Spirit is, who Spirit is, how Spirit is, etc. Many people have sought answers, through many different methods, and have made connections with Spirit. Some connections were faint and tenuous, others were strong and clear. With each connection comes some measure of filter. Time in history, culture, upbringing, health…all of these things and more play a part in the shaping of the filter that Spirit communicates to us through.

This, of course, is the primary reason for the endless variety of cults, doctrines, beliefs and religions. Many messages agree that Spirit speaks to all. Our own teaching tells us that the voice speaks to all of us. Filter is one of the reasons some of us don’t “hear” the voice or believe that Spirit does not speak to us. A good part of the purpose for the priestly training in Urianism is to help clear and redirect the elements of a person’s filter to better receive and perceive the voice of Spirit. It is an epic vision for us because even the basic training of an average Urian leads to an improved ability to hear Spirit. I shudder in both awe and trepidation at such a society. I cannot even imagine fully what that society would look like.

Today, however, we live in a world with myriad clogged and polluted filters. Cult after cult, doctrine after doctrine, vision after vision…all leading to a morass of confusion and contention.

Part of the problem is that each experience with Spirit is personal. God is infinitely capable of communicating with creation. Each spark of consciousness in that creation lives in some level or state of what we sometimes refer to as “the illusion of separateness”. God, is a singular consciousness that contains everything and yet has attributes that are more than just the sum of everything. Hard for us to fathom I know, but we have been assured that it is true…and many others through history have been the same. Yet each of us lives in a bubble of separateness. This bubble is necessary for us to be able to experience “other”. Its as if God, being one, created artificial separation of pieces in order to have someone to interact with. I try not to think of the ultimate oneness of God too much as it stirs up a feeling of sorrow for the absolute loneliness of oneness.

Because of the way separate consciousness works, according to what we have observed and have been told, there are many ideas about the nature of God and reality. You can see this in the various divisions in Christianity, Islam and other human systems…even politics. Each group will eventually fracture into sub groups, which themselves will further fracture. Like a fractal, ideas will constantly divide, each a reflection of the original but in this case with extremely minor changes each time.

This is, like I said earlier, because each experience of Spirit is personal. In fact, each experience of life itself is personal. That is to say, unique to the individual experiencing it. Ask two people to give an account of a shared experience and you will get two different accounts, even if only slightly varied. This is even more applicable when you are talking about the experience of the inner voice of Spirit. What can be experienced by the physical senses of two people will not be experienced the same. What is experienced by the inner perceptions, whether mental, spiritual or emotional, are not only more varied than the physical senses, but vastly more difficult to adequately communicate to another individual.

Now you could try to say that this idea leads you to the conclusion that all systems, perceptions, ideas etc. are valid and right and therefore we should embrace it all.

In my opinion, you would be wrong.

A separate consciousness, i.e. an individual person, cannot maintain sanity within a system that contains full acceptance of the All. In experiencing the illusion of separateness, you are also experiencing the limitation of separateness. In order to climb the mountain of God, it is vital that you not be bouncing in all direction but instead find a steady and somewhat limited path up the mountain. Infinity has no up, down, forward or backward, and you must have a starting point, route and destination or you will become lost in the incredible vastness of the All.

In addition to that, if you are someone who bounces from thing to thing and can never settle down into a path, then you are easily misled and misdirected. You are also someone who can be very difficult to trust and rely on.

I do not mean to say by this that you should be rigid and inflexible. Closed minded pathways are also a form of trap, as very few of them lead anywhere but right back to where they began.

In giving us the teachings of Urianism, Uriel has shown great wisdom and also great understanding of the mortal condition and the experience of separateness. Urianism contains within it, seven orders. Each order could be said to be a particular viewpoint or perception of Spirit. Indeed, our book, The Ahyeh, tells us of the different forms of Agape and you can see that each order fits within one of the forms. This allows for the expression of different experiences of Spirit to be contained and channeled into the structure of the overall faith. By allowing for the differences in the expressions of Agape and perceptions of Spirit, Uriel has built into the system a flexibility previously lacking in most human systems, from religion to politics to social dynamics. At least one effect of this will be a diversity of opinion that can be harmonized within the overall faith. By keeping the faith from divisive fracture, it will allow Urians to focus on the transcendent goals of the Kingdom.

It should also allow for the continued input of Spirit. God is talking to us all, always. Those of us who learn to hear can fall into error when we start to believe that our experience can and should be applied to all the faith. This attitude has, throughout history, led to the division and fracture that we see around us today. It is the cracks created by the divides and the dark emotions that go with them, that allow those intelligences that would mislead, misdirect and then appropriate the systems that were originally designed to help humanity.

One of the ways this happens is through the Mystic. The solitary individual that has a profound experience with Spirit and, seeking to share it with others, either deliberately or inadvertently convinces others that the insight is a new or greater truth and it leads to a break away. This is, in no way what so ever any kind of statement against the Mystic or mysticism itself. Urianism has an order for the Mystic, as well as the Artist, the Evangelizer, the Teacher, the Judge, the Healer and the Builder.

It must be understood that this is not a completely free and open ended system. It is still a structure and a pathway. As such, we cannot allow too much diversity of idea and understanding, lest we ourselves fall victim to fracture and lose the efficacy of the path. This is where training and authenticity are vital to the survival of the Urian path.

Uriel has taken this into account with certain parts of the system that are immutable. The 20 laws are set up to be unquestionable and unchangeable. Any person that would seek to change, reduce or eliminate the 20 laws should be viewed as an agent of the enemy and dealt with decisively. This immutability creates a bedrock for the growth of the faith. It is, as a collective of believers, our starting point for the pathway that leads us to the goal. This foundation prevents us from getting lost in infinity as well as keeping us from the downfalls that have plagued systems of faith from the beginning.