Give
Me Liberty or Give Me Death
6/22/9
“Is life so dear, or peace so
sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains or slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take but
as for me; give me liberty or give me death!”
(Patrick Henry)
When the United States was
first founded, its authors and defenders were those intellectual
revolutionaries who were well aware of the face of tyranny. These are the men who appear on our
money…Washington, Lincoln, Hamilton, Jackson, Franklin and others. We subconsciously see their faces every day
when buying groceries, yet it is with a certain irony that their words are as
foreign to most of us as those of Mao Tse Tung.
We do not speak their names in conversation, nor do we revere their intentions. Their message has been lost in history and
somehow not emphasized in most public schools.
In fact, the revolutionary spirit which permeated such men and women,
particularly during the revolutionary war with Britain, bears absolutely no
resemblance to the attitudes of the modern American.
To the writers of the
constitution, patriotism was about independent thought, self sufficiency,
freedom of expression, self governance and the spirit of revolution, all
working toward the elevation (and evolution) of the human condition. (Excerpts
taken from www.eoni.com/visionquest/library/libdeath.html
by Matthew Webb)
“The will of the people is the
only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free
expression should be our first object.” (Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
The following statement is made
in the U.S. Declaration of Independence:
“We hold these truths to be
self-evident, that all men (and women) are created equal, that they are endowed
by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life,
Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…That to secure these rights, Governments
are instituted among Men (and Women), deriving their just powers from the
consent of the governed…That whenever any Form of Government becomes
destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish
it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles
and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to
effect their Safety and Happiness…When a long train of abuses and usurpations,
pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under
absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such
Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
“It is error alone which needs
the support of government. Truth can
stand by itself.” (Thomas Jefferson
(1743-1826)
“And ye shall know the
truth…and the truth shall make you free.” (St John 8:32)
How many of us know the truth
of who we truly are? That we are
children of God and therefore have the same creative potential as God? That what we believe we can conceive, and
what we can conceive we can achieve?
That we have unalienable rights of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness and the freedom to express those rights invariably and inevitably?
As a girl growing up in a very
staunch Mormon environment, I was given certain beliefs about the role of
women. (I’ll call it the “sweet
roll.”) I was told that my only concern
in life was to find a “worthy, returned Missionary to marry” and then I would
live “happily ever after.” That I was to
take the supporting role of wife to my husband’s primary role; and as the Bible
clearly states: “Be a helpmate to my husband.”
It was a brainless occupation I was destined for—but if I did what I was
asked, my life would be simple and everything would work together for my
good. But then fate (or God) made a
mistake—I was given a brain.
And so I began to
question. I began to question authority
starting with my own husband. Then I
began to question “the Church.” Which
led me to question all religion. I even began to question God. And you know what? When I questioned God directly I began to get
some answers. And so here are some
answers I’ve received when questioning God directly. And in exercising one of my first amendment
rights of freedom of speech, I’m going to share them with you.
Love is the only reality,
everything else is an illusion. God is
love and God is infinite; therefore we, as God’s children, have an unlimited
capacity to love (and make love to) many people and this is what gives us our
greatest joy and happiness which I call “bliss.” All humans have the same capacity for
bliss—no matter race, color, sex, religion or economic background. Sex is a powerful energy and is the vibrant
color orange in the energetic chakra system and without orange the rainbow of
color within us isn’t complete. When all
the energetic chakras are open and balanced we can experience the Kundalini
moving through us which connects us with God and the oneness. The Christian Mystics call this Gnosis. The body is a receptor site for God and the
more present we are with our own receptor sites the more present we are with
God. The skin contains the most receptor
sites on the body and therefore the most capacity for bliss. Exposing the entire body to air, water,
sunlight and touch is the most blissful and healing thing we can do for ourselves. The body can cure itself of any disease if
given the proper diet, water, herbs and bodywork to remove the blockages of our
chakras and receptor sites. The
healthiest thing we can do for ourselves is to grow our own food on our own
land—organically. We are social
creatures and are at the most peace, joy and happiness (bliss) when we live in
community with one another.
Communication is the way to community and so is communion as all three
words come from the root words com=with and unity=oneness.
And here are some answers on
religion. Jesus preached the truth about
living all things common in tribal communities on the Eastern continent. A man named Constantine perverted these
original, precious truths and created a “male-dominated hierarchy” to control
the masses and particularly women. He
and his associates labeled Christ’s true followers “heretics” and
systematically wiped out the Gnostic religion.
(Gnostic means to know God directly.)
On the Western continent, the White Buffalo Calf Woman brought the peace
pipe to the native tribes and showed them sacred ceremonies which would assist
them to directly connect with God. She
showed them how to live peacefully in tribes.
The Christians came from the east and labeled their religion “pagan” and
either killed them or forced them onto reservations and into their ways of
belief and worship. Then a man named
Joseph Smith came along and created a fraudulent history of the Native
Americans and introduced a “male-dominated hierarchy” to again control the masses
and in particular women. He named this
religion Mormonism and this has been my heritage. It has also been the history of the planet to
be ruled by male-dominated religions and belief systems, which is why are
precious Mother Earth is suffering and why we are at war with one another.
But now I know the truth and
the truth has set me free. I now
practice my own religion in my own church calling it “The Church of the
Gathering of What is Real.” The focus
and ministry of this church is to teach people about Gnosticism so that they
can come to know God directly. And they
can experience “what is real” or have a real experience of gnosis or Kundalini
awakening through massage, Watsu, yoga, meditation and church celebration. I also use the archetype of the White Buffalo
Calf Woman and her teachings to show the way.
Her ceremonies are rich and beautiful and include the sweat lodge,
vision questing, the medicine wheel, the peace pipe ceremony and ceremonial
tribal dances of oneness. I also use the
allegory of Sophia in the Gnostic scriptures which teaches that the female
(wisdom) part of the human psyche has been split apart from the whole and has
fallen from grace and it is our redemptive nature to reunite the male and
female parts of ourselves into oneness or aeon.
I use the teachings and therapies of the Gnostics (including Carl Jung’s
psychoanalysis) for this purpose and also the process of Noetics (to know
oneself).
My vision is to create
intentional community where all of these teachings, therapies and ceremonies
can be expressed freely and without the persecution or prosecution of Church or
State. I believe it is my God-given
right to worship God in my own temple according to the dictates of my own
conscience and I afford all others the same rights and privileges—let them
worship how, where or what they may.
It’s interesting that the Mormons escaped the persecution of the
Missourians and fled to Utah so that they could practice their brand of
religion (which included polygamy) in peace and safety. But since the Manifesto was signed in 1890 in
order for the “Saints” to embrace Statehood, they have become some of the
greatest persecutors of freedom of religion.
Go figure—those who are the most persecuted become the greatest
persecutors.
And so this is my own
“Declaration of Independence” in accordance with the Fourth of July Celebration
when the original Declaration of Independence was signed. I invite all of you “beloveds” who are part
of my e-mail congregation (you are invited to pass this on to your own e-mail
congregation) to join me in celebrating this holiday (holy day) as you wish and
in your own way. My heart and Heartsong
is open to you always. Blessings of
Bliss—J. Bird (still naked as a)
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