History's Mysteries

I'm reading The Secret History of the World by Mark Booth. What a hoot. It is a history told from the point of view of European and American secret societies and magical traditions since the middle ages. It is so so funny, totally reflecting the opportunistic "us first" mindset of we Europe-centric people. That mindset, that the world was created exclusively for us, and to hell with other cultures as well as every other species, extended deeply into every corner of our thinking, including, of course, religious and mystical traditions.

For heaven's sake.

Is it any surprise that the U.S. was founded by members of one such secret society, the Freemasons? When you think of U.S. history in that light, so much of what went wrong here makes perfect sense. Manifest destiny and all other related Euro-centric ideas, like "the sun never sets on the British Empire," are fantasies that have passed their expiration dates. But I'm glad he wrote the book because it is SO entertaining.

I am so NOT a magical thinker anymore. Secrets held by mystical hierarchies are more about the egos of the adepts than about any "real" truth, according to the cosmology of Reya, that is. The world makes itself available to every one of us whether we are a high fallutin' windbag of a high priestess (as I once was) or just some ordinary Joe. Do you want to become one with the multiverse? Go sit outside in a beautiful place and quiet your mind. Or go to a yoga class, any yoga class. Open your mind, the truths will come into it. You do not have to be initiated or apprentice yourself to some mystical egomaniac. You're just as capable of penetrating the mysteries as any High Poobah. Believe me!

The practice of superimposing symbols on top of everything, occult ritual, the idea that there are secret methods out there, secret teachings through which we can become more powerful than we already are, methods that can only be learned from those higher up on the ladder of mystical hierarchy, is total crap. That kind of thinking leads to conflict, power struggles, and paranoia and paradoxically away from empowerment. It all seems funny to me these days.

I'm looking forward to reading Jack Weatherford's new book, The Mongol Queens which is all about the daughters of Ghenghis Khan and how they saved his empire, or so it says on the cover of the book. His revisionist history of the life of Ghenghis Khan is fabulous and available in paperback. Well worth reading!