Worship Is Sorcery
For a long time, I saw Bible just as a collection of archaic buzzwords and nonsense that still lingers in the medieval minds of general populace. Later I realized that, under the layer of falsehoods, fantasies, and superstitions, there is truth in there, one, which, indeed, correlates with verifiable facts that can be arrived at through different paths, even though the way is always basically the same, perhaps only with a slightly different flavor due to cultural vocabulary.
Still, I could not grasp, how people who claim to understand Bible, and are obsessed with studying it, don’t see said self-evident truth. Today, I realized that Bible, but basically any so-called scripture, also works exactly like an oracle. By which I mean runes, Tarot, Yijing, and so on, and which are not that dissimilar from random inspirational quotes of the day or Rorschach’s inkblots, meaning, anyone can interpret them in a way that suits their desires.
Now, people will object that oracles, thus by extension also Bible, do serve the purpose of communicating with “higher powers.” Yet, exactly as Rumi said, always when I tried to reach out to such “higher power” in that way, all I ever saw was myself. Again, folks will argue that it’s a matter of belief, of faith. Or rather, lack of thereof.
Still, I prefer a sparrow in my hand over a pigeon on my roof. Is there a “higher power” involved? Frankly, I don’t know, and I seriously doubt anyone knows either. And to be honest, I’ve never encountered any “higher power” anywhere to begin with. So, there’s that. On the other hand, do I see myself reflected there? You bet. Clearly as day. And something tells me, you do too. But any oracle will show you just the context which it is composed to encompass.
That’s why runes or Tarot feel like conversation with a powerful and daring but uncompromisingly grounded shaman, why Yijing evokes an image of interaction with a cautious and pragmatic sage obsessed with proper order, or why Bible is like talking to an imperial, law-giving king with all quirks of an earthly king, only in this case so powerful as to be literally the ruler of… basically everything. Each according to the tradition and era they come from. (By the way, the same currently happens with LLMs.)
Yet, no matter how much I’ve ever tried or try, all I always see for sure is just myself reflected back at me. That shaman, sage, or king, I’m the one who brings them to life. They are me. And even if there is, in all unlikelihood, really a “higher power” (or autonomous awareness) in play somewhere, it has absolutely no influence on that. That much is given.
As is also the observation that neither said shaman nor the sage, not even the king, will tell you to know who you are. At best, they will hint at the possibility, but in general they will just instruct you to follow their structure (and thus reinforce their identity) in order for you to survive in the most pleasurable way possible.
Which is, quite ironically, also the reason why Malachi says, “‘So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me,’ says the Lord Almighty.” Or why Revelation harshly slams “pharmakeia,” that is, all (drugged out) spell-casters and fortune tellers.
After all, when people follow an oracle, Bible and other “scriptures” included, they feed that oracle with their life. Some even to the point of fanatic worship of the AI-like shaman, sage, or king they end up hosting. Yet, from the standpoint of the oracle, no one can claim they were not warned. All is kosher, the deal stands, just a tiny bit of information was omitted and no one asked further questions.
And that brings me to the second half of that Rumi’s quote from above, the one which states quite succinctly that, if you happen to search for yourself, all you will ever find is God.
To which I only add — factually and literally.
