Well, as I write it is only another five days and I will be ordained as a Spiritualist Minister; the Reverend Ricky, yeah, it’s got a ring to it! As I mentioned in my previous post, Another Arrow To My Bow, as part of my ordination ceremony I will have to make a pledge or promise, whatever you want to call it. When I first saw what that entailed it made me feel quite uneasy, because it seems to be very religious in nature and not what I’m about or what I want to be involved in. Then after taking a few moments in contemplation, I realised that this pledge goes much deeper than what is on the surface. I also remembered what the ordaining minister said to me when we spoke on the phone; she said that it’s my ordination and therefore it is about what it means to me. In view of this, I thought I would share with you the questions I will be asked whilst making my pledge, I am also going to make this the subject of my address. Here goes…

Do you turn to Christ?

Yes. I turn to the Christ within, because that’s who I am.

Do you repent of your sins?

This is a good question, and one that is closely linked to Question Three; to answer we must first understand what it means. “Sin”, is one of those words that is generally not understood by those who follow organised religion, and it has been used by the church for centuries as a means of putting the fear of God into people (no pun intended). Sin comes from the ancient Greek, and it means to miss the mark. Literally, it means to miss the mark in the same context as someone firing at a target and missing. In the spiritual sense a sin is anything we do that is not in line with our soul purpose; our reason for having incarnated into flesh. Swami Vivekananda once said that if there is such a thing as sin, it is the failure to acknowledge our own Divinity. Therefore to “repent” of our sins has nothing to do with imposing austerity on ourselves. It simply means to give up anything that does not serve our soul purpose and to recognise the Christ within ourselves. But we can even take that a stage further by saying that we are not REQUIRED to renounce anything. It is simply a case of when we evolve naturally, by way of our experiences here in the physical, we reach stages where we no longer have the desire to undertake actions that constitute sin. All experience is valid in this paradoxical world, but as we grow in awareness we naturally discard that which no longer serves us. So yes, I repent of my sins.

Do you renounce evil?

As with the previous question, we must first understand what is meant by evil. It is very easy to make a personal judgement and say that something is evil, but what does it actually mean? It’s another of those words that the church loves to use in order to keep the masses living in blind ignorance and fear. So, to answer this question we must briefly return to the previous question. When we are “sinning” (acting in ways that do not serve us), we are living blindly. When we do not understand how the world functions (i.e. cause and effect etc.) we are also living blindly. When we live blindly we inflict pain and suffering on ourselves and others. This is what is meant by evil. So, in the repenting of my sins I am also renouncing evil. The sin is the desire (which comes from the ego) to carry out the act; evil is the act itself.

Do you believe and trust in God the Father, who made the world? 

Who or what is God the Father? Is it an invisible man with a beard, who is always angry, who will get really jealous if we do not love him in the way he demands, who will seek vengeance if we do not love him in the aforementioned way and who will ultimately pass judgement on us when we leave this life? Quite simply, No! We should also understand here what beliefs are. A belief is a mind construct, a thought that we have about a certain person or thing. Beliefs will create our reality, but they are not necessarily representative of truth. God the Father is another term not understood by those of organised religious persuasion. To me, God the Father is Infinite Awareness, the “All That Is”; it is Consciousness in its purest form that exists beyond vibratory creation. It projected me into the form of an individual soul in its own image (of the same “stuff”). It also projected into form what we see and interpret as the world; so yes, I believe and trust in that higher power, regardless of what name you choose to call it.

Do you believe and trust in his Son, Jesus Christ who redeemed mankind?

“Son of God”, is another term widely misunderstood by organised religion. It doesn’t refer to a man of flesh. Indeed, it was only at the First Council of Constantinople in 325 AD, that King Constantine decreed that Jesus Christ the man, was the one and only begotten Son of God. Constantine also removed a lot of the text from the Bible that he did not want the masses to be aware of, and he replaced them with his own version of events. When Consciousness projected itself into form, thus creating the world and individual souls, there had to be a way for those souls to awaken to their truth; that is, the truth of their being. So Consciousness also secreted the Christ Intelligence (Son of God) into and throughout its creation. So by undertaking spiritual practise, the individual would eventually awaken to its true nature (Christ Consciousness or Son of God) and merge once again with source (God the Father). Jesus the man, like many highly evolved souls before and since, was awake within the Christ Consciousness, even though on the surface of things he looked like an ordinary man. He reflected the Christ Intelligence wherever he went, and it was this that people were attracted to, not his physical body. Jesus never encouraged anyone to follow his physical form. It was his teachings, that he epitomised in his daily living, that he encouraged people to follow. The message of Jesus the man was very simple. He told us that there is only One soul, that the Kingdom of Heaven is within us, that we are all Gods and that each and every one of us is EXACTLY the same as him. This is why his true message has always been suppressed by the church, because it affirms that each and every one of us is powerful beyond our imagination; this is the redemption of Christ.

Do you believe and trust in his Holy Spirit who gives life to the people of God?

What is the Holy Spirit? If we look around us, we will see an abundance of people and objects. The people and objects we see are only those within the scope of our vision, although we know that beyond our own limited periphery there is a whole universe of “things”. If this is the case, that there are vast amounts of “things” all existing side-by-side and in relation to each other, how do we think it is all held together? What is stopping everything from just disintegrating and hanging suspended in empty space? Sound vibration is the answer to that question; the eternal Om, or Holy Spirit. Om is also known as “Pranava”, which means, “to pervade life”. This highly sacred, one-syllable word first appeared in the Vedas, which are the most ancient of all spiritual texts. Om, is also spelt A-U-M, which represents the three states; waking, dream and deep-sleep. There is a fourth state called the “Turiya”. This is the few seconds at the end of each individual chant where the sound tapers off and the three sub-syllables of A, U and M merge into the silence. This symbolises another example of the three-dimensional nature of the world (waking, dream and deep-sleep states) merging once again into the formless. It is worth noting that the Christian Amen was derived from Om. Yes, I believe and trust that as long as there is a function for me to perform in the world, the eternal Holy Spirit will be right there vibrating within me and around me.