When I was an infant, I didn’t ask questions – I just cried, ate, slept, and pooped. As I grew older, I asked questions about things I didn’t understand – my mother would argue I had a “why” question for just about anything at all. No matter the answer I’d get, I tended to accept my understanding of it as the truth. After all, I was asking my parents who were gigantic and therefor gods to me. I loved and trusted them because I knew no other way. They were sacred to me. I might question an answer – “And why is that, Mommy?” – but I’d never dream of questioning her or her motives! That was sacred ground not to be trodden.
I was so completely trusting and naive that it never occurred to me that I could question what I was taught. All I knew how to do was to accept what they told me as truth.
It was the beginning of a life-long journey in the sacred land of First-Second Degree of Illumination.
You see, nothing is sacred until someone deems it so – at which point it can no longer be questioned. We don’t question our God(s), for example – we simply obey, accept, and revere. Consider how wrong it feels to defile the sacred by questioning it – and how right it feels to unquestioningly revere. To introduce doubt by way of inquiry would be an act of sacrilege, blasphemy, disrespect, and banality.
I Didn’t Know I Could Ask
It wasn’t until I grew into my teens that I began to question authorities. Before that, I didn’t even know I could ask – let alone figure out what questions I might ask. Until then, Mom and Dad, uncles, aunts, teachers – basically all adults were authorities not to be questioned – their word had become fundamentally sacred to me.
The fundamental point of sacredness is that it’s not to be questioned.
I don’t question my gods – I merely accept their word as truth. I don’t question truth for the same reason – it’s truth and therefore not to be questioned.
About Sacrifice
The idea that I don’t question that which I deem sacred got me to thinking about what it means to offer sacrifice. Put into the perspective of the Seven Degrees of Illumination, that which I deem sacred is merely First Degree of Illumination existence, wherein I don’t realize I can question it. Sacrifice would be Second Degree of Illumination activities that support and sustain the avoidance of questions.
In other words, sacredness and sacrifice keep me out of Third Degree of Illumination – which is characterized by choice based on questioning reality as I perceive it.
In review, in the process of securing and defending my First-Second Degree bubble, I avoid asking Third Degree questions. Making things sacred is one way of avoiding questions – particularly those questions that might elevate my consciousness to Third Degree of Illumination. Sacredness, then, might be thought of as my secret defense against awakening.
Is anything sacred?
I wonder what might happen to sacredness were I to consider it in the light of oneness, ultimate love, Truth, God. To the degree I elevate one concept, person, place, or thing over another without question, I make them sacred and my ego-driven bubble secure. Perhaps freedom from the bubble becomes achievable when I question the sacred value I place on things.
I wonder – what happens when I escape the bubble? When I realize oneness, wholeness, truth? What then?
Well, that IS a question, isn’t it?
