Yesterday, I talked about Jesus for the first time on this blog. I have to admit, talking about Jesus makes me a little uncomfortable, but I think its worth it as he was a great teacher. Today, I’d like to talk about my personal history with Jesus and how it is now coming full-circle.

When I was a child, I was very close to Jesus. It wasn’t forced on me, it was just how I felt. I communicated with him all the time, and felt his presence with me.

My childhood was rough, I often felt like things were coming at me from all directions and that I couldn’t trust anyone. Jesus was a comfort. Also, I felt like this was all happening to me because there was important work I had to do in the world, and all this was happening to make me stronger.

As I got older, I tried and tried to figure out what my big life purpose was. Eventually I decided that my job would be to save people’s souls. After all, I believed firmly that only Jesus could save us from eternal damnation, and what could be better work than saving people from such a horrible fate?

So, I taught Sunday School and instructed kids in witnessing their faith. I started looking into Missionary Schools. (Wow, this feels like such a lifetime ago).

One day I decided to test my skills. I decided to try to convert a friend of mine, Sara, who had been raised Muslim but was more or less agnostic.

Sara and I went for a walk. It was a warm, clear summer night. I went for it. What I failed to take into account was that she had been on the debate team for years. She took me on, and laid to waste my Jesus sales pitch. She argued so effectively that I stopped believing. I saw the holes in my beliefs.

Suddenly, my whole world fell apart with the dogma I had been hiding under. I felt the sky open up, as if there had been a glass dome over us, and I felt infinity. I felt how big the Universe and how small I was. It was both terrifying and strangely exhilerating. I saw how my religious beliefs had kept my perspective limited and small. I saw how much bigger human conciousness and experience were than I had realized. I saw that there was no such thing as one right path. I saw all of this, and felt very, very lost.

This lost feeling haunted me for a few years, until I found comfort in the arms of the Goddess (Isis initially), and eventually found meaning in Pagan ritual and community.

Now, and then, I have connected with Jesus again. His energy is really amazing. He’s not exclusive, as some believe. There seems to be no conflict of interest in my connection with him, although I feel a lot of conflict about the church!

Some churches are better than others, though, and Unity is among the best. In my interview with Chad O’Shea, Unity minister, which will air this next Sunday, Chad says that heaven and hell are internal states. “The Jesus Ethic” as he calls it, is about learning to find peace within, and connection with other people.

That’s the main thing (and there are many) that bothers me about most forms of Christianity and some other religions too. That is, that artificial seperation is created between people. The type of Christianity I followed as a youth, for example, seperated people into saved and unsaved. Beyond the fact I don’t belive in these concepts anymore, I don’t like the false seperation. It now seems absurd to me that the divine would/could operate like that.

The seperation works both directions. Many non-Christians (including myself) have endured many conversion attempts as well as all-out judgement. As a result, we tend to shy away from most Christians, to spare ourselves the pain.

The church, not Jesus, created the idea of hell as a permanent after-life state. This idea was created in 1000 AD, to try to scare people into joining the church. The church (like current corrupt power structures) did it to get more power and more money.

Jesus was a cool guy who taught cool stuff about peace of mind and loving each other. He believed in connection, not division. His teachings have a lot of use for our current age, when our best chance might lay in learning to open our hearts to connect with one another.

So, after 13 or so years of mostly solidly rejecting JC, I find that I have come full circle. I can see how his teachings have some usefullness in our current crises, although not when mixed with the politics or dogma that often go along. But, that’s what those in power usually do, right? If you can’t destroy something, at least adapt it to your purposes.

I think Jesus was awesome, and an awakened being. I think any of us can become awakened, too. I think he came to show us that the way is inside of each of us. Many other awakened souls have walked the Earth, too, and we are blessed with an abundance of places to look for answers.

I’d love to see bridges of communication between Christians and non-Christians. We don’t have to believe exactly the same things to be able to share our truths with each other. I hate seeing religion as a force to drive us apart. If we can learn to connect with and love each other, I think we have a chance.

Isn’t that, after all, what the Jesus teachings are about?

Today, I interviewed Chad O’Shea, Unity minister (interview to air this Sunday). One thing he said was that heaven and hell are internal states of being, not afterlife locations. I couldn’t agree more!

Two main issues I have with most modern Christian dogma:

1) The hell issue. The idea that Jesus came to forgive our sins so we won’t go to hell after we die.

2) The exclusivity issue. I personally believe in many Gods, many prophets and teachers.

I like Jesus a lot! As a self-declared Pagan, this may seem like a contradiction, but I don’t think it has to be. I have had direct contact with Jesus energy many times, and I have been touched by his love. Jesus was an awakened soul and I do believe he was a child of God as we ALL are! He reached spiritual awakening, and offered us a path to do the same. I do not feel that the Jesus path is the only right path, I believe that there are an infinite number of paths to the divine. Jesus’ teachings offer one approach to connecting with our divine natures, and therefore are worth approaching. I think its good to gain knowledge from many paths for how we can reach spiritual awakening. Anything that might help is worth pursuit.

Tomorrow, I will talk about my history with Jesus and the church, and how I am now starting to view Christianity from a different perspective.

Surging cycles of life, my voice as
Political prayer plying open petals who
Remember the diminishing darkness.
I push through thawing fear, seeing
Now daffodils breaking through the soil,
Gregarious tulips speaking their truth

About a year ago, I wrote on this blog about how I wanted to become more of an activist, but was scared about actually speaking out. Then, I called my representative and took that first scary step.

So much has happened since then! I am no longer scared of speaking out, speaking my truth, creating controversy! I have regained my voice!

I invite you to check out mountainpledge.org

Mountaintop removal is an atrocious coal mining practice that destroys our mountains and poisons the drinking water, only to get a bit of coal.

This website has a pledge form to help, plus information about mountaintop removal and lots of great ideas for HOW to help. The movement is growing, and right now the EPA is paying attention. Now is the time to end this destructive practice!

I haven’t posted for a while because I’m been so busy with my new radio show! Yay for being busy building a dream! I have come to realize that this show is a big part of my life’s work, and I have been putting heart, soul, and all available resources into producing it.

I have been interviewing some amazing guests! Every interview so far has blown my mind in some way. I am constantly processing all of the incredible information I am being exposed to, and my conciousness is shifting at an ever-increasing rate! I invite you to join me in this journey, and see if it has the same effect on you!

I am learning how to sit in a place of beginner’s mind while at the same time retaining my own knowledge and discretionary abilities. I am feeling very divinely directed on this path, and my biggest challenge is being fully present enough to know when to get out of my own way! I am venturing into an accelerated adventure, and I’m learning to flow with the ride.

If you would like to join me in this journey, you can listen to the show l

I invite you to listen to my new radio show, Systemic Effect on MAIN-FM 103.5 in Asheville from 8-9 AM Sundays.

Systemic Effect can also be streamed online live at mainfm.org. To listen to past shows, go to

http://main-fm.org/nav/archives/

and scroll down to “Systemic Effect.”

Systemic effect is a talk show about the conciousness shift happening right now in our time, microcosm to macrocosm, featuring interviews with people living on the front edge of the wave, doing the work of the transformation. I will be talking to activists, astrologers, spiritual leaders, artists, writers and anyone who has a vision for how their work fits into the paradigm transformation of our time.

Please join me in this shift, and have a transformative day!

Virginia
girlchasingfrogs.com

“Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how. The moment you know how, you begin to die a little. The artist never entirely knows. We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark.”
-Agnes De Mille

I am a member of Diana’s Grove Mystery School, where each year we are invited to dedicate to an element. My first two years in Mystery School, I dedicated to Earth, because that was really a tough area for me. I came a long way. Last year I dedicated to Water, because I felt ready to dissolve my edges (and it sure worked)! This year, I feel like I am coming home. I am dedicating to fire.

I have a lot of fire in my chart, as anyone who knows me might automatically guess. It starts with 4 planets in Leo. I love the energy of fire, and I love fire scrying. I see so many interesting things in the flames when I watch and tune in.

I have known for a few months that Fire would be my dedication for this year, and it still rings true for me. One question I’ve been asking myself, though, is what if by dedicating to my strongest element, I overdose in fire and become some kind of maniac, thinking I’m unstoppable and invincible, or something like that?

The vision that came to me in response to this question is that, in dedicating to fire, and perhaps by turning the heat up a bit, I am cleansing and purifying the flames. For years before joining Mystery School, I think I unoffocially dedicated to air, because I was constantly working on my communication. So, due to that, my fire has good air to breathe. With my two years of Earth dedications, I was generating fuel for that fire. What about last year’s water dedication? Well that’s a little tricky for me to understand, as water can quench fire, but I know that pressurized water can explode when heated, so it makes sense to me that I dissolved my edges before turning up the heat!

If I’ve learned anything in the last year, it’s that by holding true to my convictions, intuitions, internal guidance and passions, no matter how crazy my choices may seem to those who love me most, holding true is always the right thing to do, and I am always able to determine my own right path. So, my promise to Fire is to listen to the flame within and to hold true to myself.

So, it’s been a few weeks that I’ve officially bern dedicated to Fire. How has it been going? One word: “hot!”

I’m actually overwhelmed by the amazingness arriving in my life, and I’m actually struggling a bit to integrate all the shifting. I’m overwhelmed but still sure of my decision to dedicate to fire. I still feel like I am coming home!

Here’s an article about MAIN, the organization under which MAIN-FM, the radio station my show will be featured on, exists.

MAIN (Mountain Area Information Network) is an amazing, groundbreaking organization that is building a new model for community journalism and media access. MAIN is also a non-profit broadband ISP, and, as the article explains, will soon be delving into cloud computing as well. I’m very excited to be involved!

http://www.citizen-times.com/article/2010302280037