Top of Sinai

One approaches god with humility

Even a god one does not believe (or believe in)

This is yet another opportunity

To reconsider one’s cosmology

And one’s ontology of god

Briefing. At the top of Sinai, I encountered Yahweh in all his glorious ego, while also experiencing the corresponding ego of humanity. A fiercely egoistic god yields an egoistic human psyche and culture, leading to xenophobia, evil and ultimately cannibalism. We then asked: What kind of god do we need? That is, “What god’s gonna do?” Implicitly, we are inviting God to our orientation workshop, to progress his own mythic hygiene. This begs the question of whether there is a corresponding condition for immortal beings – instead of amythic death anxiety, amythic immortality anxiety.

God’s Ego and Human Ego

Music: “God’s Ego”

Scenography (Sc.)

We see the words of god in text

We hear the words of humanity

Presenting the message to god

The message from the community, inscribed on Tablet #1

[Title Card]

Each of you put sword on thigh

Go back and forth

From gate to gate throughout the camp

And slay brother, neighbour, and kin

Music: “Tablet #1”

Participants:

(Chanted)

Big Bang 

Big History 

Big Gods

Lead to the Holocaust

Moses:

Blessed art thou, lord our god, King of the universe

Participants:

Culpable for the horrors of this world

Moses:

Blessed art thou, lord our god, King of the universe

Participants:

We wrestle with the cosmos and your will

Moses:

Blessed art thou, lord our god, King of the universe

Participants:

To whom we pray…

(Everyone looks at you)

Master of Scenarios:

What is your prayer?

Sc.

By prayer, let us mean collaboration

We have confronted god with his culpability

With the persistent title card

And our horrific, iconic image of the massacre

Now we pose the collaborative question

You:

What do we do while waiting

Participants:

For the next Holocaust

You:

How do we prevent

Participants:

The next Holocaust

You:

How might new mythic narratives and ritual practices prevent

Participants:

The next Holocaust

You:

How might changing the story change the world?

Briefing. Being omniscient, god fully understood my thoughts and feelings. I concluded, therefore, that god fully recognised his culpability in the horrors of the world. The logic felt inescapable, particularly given my lack of belief in free will. The evolution of the cosmos leads to the Holocaust. How might we redesign this? We need a different kind of god. 

What god’s gonna do(?)

Exactly what kind of god do we need in order to change the story?

Music: “What god’s gonna do?”

Master of Scenarios:

Let’s assume you have power

For the sake of this tale

To compel what I think, feel and do 

And so, I can’t fear you

No, I can’t fear you

Since you compel what I think, feel and do

Everyone:

What god’s gonna do

Go ahead, go ahead

I can be fearless with you

What god’s gonna do

Go ahead, go ahead

I can be fearless with you

The more power I concede

The greater my culpability

Master of Scenarios:

I will be fearless

When in doubt, be fearless

I will be fearless

With you

Sc.

Hermes arrives with a letter and wool sack

He opens the letter

Ashera materialises from the letter

She joins - synthesises with - Mother and Miriam

Briefing. During my workshop experiences, I frequently expressed a violent male archetype represented by Moses, the Father and Yahweh, and a protective and wise female archetype associated with the Mother, Miriam, the Muse and now Ashera. This was vigorously discussed, with some participants suggesting this was a particularly “old school” and unhelpful application of gender constructs. I responded that I was (authentically) drawing upon messaging and experiences I associated with my mother and father, without any intention to comment on gender roles and archetypes. In my life experience, I said, female energy often tended toward instruction and protection, while male energy often tended toward egoistic aggression.

Here, the female archetype offers a hypothesis for the kind of god that might be needed to un-wind the emergence of xenophobia and cannibalism – a god of radical oneness with sentient life, all matter and energy. Upon this articulation, we and the cosmos “try on” that vision of oneness, which I call the Omega Point, following Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955) and Frank Tipler (1947- ). (See: Tipler, F., The Physics of Immortality, 1994).

Mother-Miriam-Ashera:

(To Yahweh)

God leads to human nature

Human nature leads to god

You emerged with the species

What god will do?

One – who acknowledges the infliction of divine ego

One – who acknowledges the horror of divine error

One – who atones, becoming one with sentient life

One – who becomes one with the cosmos

One who becomes one

One who becomes one

All is one – as if one

The Omega Point

Briefing. Visualising or describing the omega point is an intellectual and sometimes emotional exercise and can be supported by the Golden Calf technologies. During the workshop, we shared our ideas in diverse ways. Some created images, sounds, movements and texts. However, I did not attempt an original representation. Instead, I drew upon a passage I recalled from the conclusion of Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha (1922), where Govinda kisses Siddhartha’s forehead and experiences a type of eternal oneness and reconciliation of opposites. My actual experience was ineffable, but that passage, at least metaphorically, captures some sense of essence. 

Music: “Omega Point” (First measure of Miriam’s Theme)

Caution: Do not play on a loop for extended periods

We expect potentially adverse responses in some individuals

Sc.

We stare into the face of Siddhartha

Space-time, free will and the self become illusory

Visions draw upon the scenarios from across the orientation

We see or sense the coalescence of the Omega Point

All is one, as if one

Mother-Miriam-Ashera:

There is one sound that represents this oneness

Only you hear that sound

Shema! 

Listen!