One
day, as I browsed through the special displays in a bookstore, The Pregnant Virgin by
Marion Woodman caught my eye. Reading from
its back cover, I learned that it told "about becoming conscious ... about the
wisdom of the body, initiation rituals, dreams ... about relationships and the search
for personal identity. It is a celebration
of the feminine, both in men and women. It
is about becoming free."8
"A
thinking heart," it said, "can bring us closer to our inner Virgin,
'one-in-herself,' forever open to new life, new possibilities - our own unique
truth."
This
philosophy fits today’s mindset,
I thought. There is no absolute truth; each person selects his own favorite
myth.
A
woman noticed what I was holding. “That’s
a great book,” she exclaimed.
I
looked up. "How did you hear about
it?” I asked.
“My
psychologist told me to read it. It showed
me that codependency and my addictions all stem from not getting in touch with my
feminine spirituality." She explained
how “our male-dominated society" had blocked her awareness of her true self and
her power as a woman.
I
thanked her for informing me, replaced the book and prayed, "Lord, what is
happening to this world? How did we wander
so far away from your truth? Everything
seems upside down, and people don’t know You anymore.
How can we communicate Your love to people who want their own way?”
Knowing
the Goddess-Self
"It
is time to begin writing a new psychology of the feminine, a psychology that returns
women to their ultimate roots -- a Goddess psychology."9
In their article, “The Wounded Goddesses Within," Roger and
Jennifer Woolger show how this emerging feminine consciousness can lead to the coveted
prize, self-actualization: "To know oneself more fully as a woman is to know which
goddesses one is primarily ruled by and to be aware of how different goddesses
influence the various stages and turning points of one's life."10
The Woolgers give
Carl Jung
credit for discovering
the healing and empowering archetype of the Great Goddess - the answer to
the yearnings of women today.
Archetype?
It took awhile
before I grasped the meaning of this word modem psychology has raised into
prominence. The New Lexicon Webster's Dictionary (1989) defines it as
"the model from which later examples are developed, or to which they
conform, a prototype." That helps.
Evidently Jung saw the Goddess - her forceful, creative, sexual,
and spiritual nature - as a perfect model for men and women today: "How
different was the former image of matter, the Great Mother, that could
encompass and express the profound emotional meaning of Mother Earth."11
Becoming the
Goddess-Self
Webster
also classifies archetype (here it gets more complex) as "one of the inherited
unconscious patterns which Jung held to constitute the fundamental structure of the
mind." It can be observed through
"images recurring in dreams, behavior patterns, etc.
Dreams
and images were important to Jung. They
have always been important to Goddess cults. Many
believe that dreams and images flow out from some sort of a cosmic pool of knowledge,
influence the psyche, and print ancient mythological themes on our subconscious.
They say that the Goddess continues to exert her force, push our buttons, and
pattern our behavior, whether we believe her or not, so we had better learn to work with
her and enjoy the process. Jung called this
pool of cosmic wisdom "the collective unconscious." Goddess worshipers call
it the Goddess.
What
does this mean? To those who follow Jung
and the Goddess, healing comes from learning to know and accept yourself as the Goddess
in all her various facets: compassionate, angry, loving, erotic, aloof, etc.
To develop this selfconsciousness, you need to:
Look to the past: study ancient
myths and images.
Look to the present: discover
your potential.
Be creative: express your
Goddess-self through art.
Always remember: you are
the conscious and visible manifestation of earth’s creative energies.
These
beliefs are gathering force and becoming a swelling tide.
The camouflaged spirit of Babylon has awakened the West to its pagan past.
As Elinor Gadon tells us:
Feminists
are turning to the Goddess as a model for self-transformation and empowerment.
Women experience power as rooted in their biological selves, an enabling life
force in contrast to the authoritative, hierarchical "power over" now so
widely intrusive in our society.12
To
put Jung's teaching into a Christian perspective, we need to remember that much of it
came to him through Philemon, his spirit guide (what the Bible calls a familiar spirit).
Jung’s childhood fascination with the supernatural had bone fruit.1
In
Revealing the New Age Jesus, Doug Groothuis tells about Jung’s encounter with
another deceiving spirit: "In 1916, after experiencing some bizarre paranormal
events, Jung wrote in three days a mystical piece called The Seven Sermons
to the Dead, which he ascribed to Basilides, a Gnostic teacher of the second century
in Alexandria."1
It
is not surprising that Jung, who tapped information from the vast reservoir of
demonic knowledge, coined the concept of a collective unconscious.
Nor is it surprising to see a bond of understanding between Jung and goddess
psychology which views the Goddess as a similar source of universal knowledge.
Occult formulas (some are described in chapters 2 and 4) open willing minds to
both sources of information. In other
words, both the Goddess and Jung's collective unconscious provide pleasing
facades for the vast storehouse of demonic deceptions.
Remember,
there are only two sources of supernatural information: God and Satan.
Jung rejected the God of the Bible. What
he and other pagans heard were the "doctrines of demons" (I Timothy
4:1) that characterize end times. These
are the counterfeit promises and distortions of truth which deceive those who don’t
know biblical truth (2 Thessalonians 2:9-10).
"Deceitful spirits" whisper these lies into the dreams, thoughts,
and meditations of anyone seeking "higher" or mystical knowledge apart from
God.
Empowered
by the Goddess.
"Dreams
and wishes go together,"15 wrote Virginia Satir, family therapist and
founder of Avanta Network, an international organization dedicated to developing
techniques for teaching family and professional communication.
Satir, whose books have found amazing acceptance among educators, has developed
her own blend of empowering imagery, Eastern pantheism, and Goddess spirituality:
Dreams
and wishes can be manifested. Use the power
of a golden wishing wand to make it happen. Picture
your golden wishing wand in your hand. Endow
that wand with the ability to remove your fear of risktaking... Feel the texture, look
at the form. It’s yours, for the rest of
your life, to use in whatever way you want.16
In
Meditations and Inspirations, she
guides her students into a dreamy state of consciousness where they build their own
psychic workshop and redesign their lives. How? Through
centering, deep breathing, affirmations, focusing, visualizations -- the magical
formulas of earth-centered spirituality. "I
own me," she writes, speaking for the multitude of school children, educators,
church leaders, and modem therapists who love her books and teach her message.
"'I therefore, I can engineer me."17
The
Creator counters the lie with truth: "You are not your own; you were bought at a
price. Therefore honor God with your
body" (I Corinthians 6:19-20). And how do we honor God? By
allowing Him to fill and lead us, not by engineering ourselves.
Creation
worship turns to self-worship. Occult
enlightenment is a subjective union with the image of God within us.
Thus, it is mystical idolatry in the fullest sense of that term.
The process of self-realization brings the idolater and his idol
together as one. Needless to say, such
experiences are a supple medium for demonic manipulation.18 (Brooks
Alexander, Founder, Spiritual Counterfeits Project)
"To
worship one's self (in self-realization) ... is, in Christian terms, simple idolatry
operating from the usual motive of unconscious egotism,"19 explains Paul
Vitz in Psychology As Religion: The Cult of Self-Worship.
Like the "broken cisterns" of Jeremiah 2:13, it eventually leads to
emptiness and disillusionment
Self-Idolatry
in Schools
The
self-focused message of personal power and connectedness is spreading like wildfire
through the educational system. Nationwide
classroom programs such as Family Life Education teach students to become their own Persons
-- to set aside parental guidelines and take charge of their own lives.
Nobody can tell them what to do, other than those who teach this philosophy.
When
schools prompt students to put their faith in an evolutionary process that began by
chance, children face an identity crisis. Many lose their sense of worth and have no moral standard to guide
them. Today educators are desperately
searching for new ways to build self-esteem, instill some sort of values, and empower
children to "take charge of their lives."
Lottie
Beth Hobbs writes in The Family Educator.
All
values clarification and decisionmaking Programs (drug and sex education, death
education, etc., under a wide variety of titles such as Quest, Skills for
Adolescents, Here's Looking at You 2000, Project Charlie, and many others)
are based in NONDIRECTIVE EDUCATION. For
several decades the principle has permeated not only secular education but has been
embraced by some churches and religious schools from preschool to postgraduates.20
Nondirective
education was developed by Dr. Carl Rogers, Dr. Abraham Maslow and Dr. W.R. Coulson.
Maslow saw its dangers before he died and tried to correct the damages.21
His own experiments had shown him that when children learned
"self-actualization” and broke loose from the safety of parental boundaries, two
things happened: Freed to be independent decisionmakers who make their own
choices, children become unreachable. And
without the knowledge and experience to choose wisely, many show little resistance to
the onslaught of tempting voices which lure them into dangerous forms of dependence.
A contemporary version of Genesis 3:4-5 might sound like this:
"God
didn’t say you shouldn’t do it. He
wants you to be happy ...
“But
my dad said ...
“Your
dad lives in another world. If you
listen to him, you’ll never learn to live. Listen,
you need to find your Self. To get in touch
with all your feelings. To express who you
are. The choice is yours, not his."
"But
it doesn’t seem right."
"You’re
supposed to explore the alternatives. Find
what fits you. It’s okay to feel good.
You own your mind and your body.”
What
happens when children accept no authority but their own?
What kind of employees will they make? How
will they affect the economy, churches, the family, and God’s ongoing work?
One
visible result is a growing sense of frustration and futility bred by unrealistic dreams
and unfulfilled expectations. Another is an addictive but futile pursuit of pleasure, which
devastates both individuals and cultures. For
when self-fulfillment becomes the goal, moral boundaries give way to uncontrollable
self-indulgence, promiscuity, perversion, drugs, and violence.
In
spite of Dr. Maslow's change of mind and Dr. Coulson's persistent attempts to expose the
dangers and turn the tide, classroom promotion of self-actualization continues to
spread. Educators like the message:
It fits both humanistic ideals and earth-centered spirituality.
Tobacco companies like it: The money they pour into programs like Quest
multiplies through children set free to buy their products.
Planned Parenthood likes it: Youth who had learned to make their own choices
(independent of parental guidance or objections) are readily seduced by Planned
Parenthood's promotion of free sex -- and the resultant abortions."22
The
Deception Spreads
Many
family therapists like the message of self-actualization.
Some, such as John Bradshaw, disseminate it to homes and churches via
televisions, books, and videos. "We
come to know our being-ness -- our true self,"23 says Bradshaw, who calls
himself a "Christian theologian" but endorses Virginia Satir’s occult
beliefs. His "true self” deals with
the "domain of higher or unity consciousness." Notice its similarity
to Jung's collective unconscious and its distortions of biblical truth:
There
is also evidence that this consciousness is connected to all created
consciousness. The early work of J.B. Rhine at Duke in telepathy pointed
clearly in this direction. The more recent
work of Putoff and Targ at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) on Remote
Viewing E.S.P. has offered powerful new data, suggesting that once in higher consciousness, we have a
higher power available to us. Their
belief is that this power results from being connected to all other created
consciousness.
There
are also ancient traditions supporting a higher power through expanded consciousness.
The Indian Medicine Healers believed there was a greater power available through
the use of meditation and the fusion with power animals.
Jesus told His followers that there were powers available to them that were
greater than the powers He manifested. His
human powers were clearly powers of psychokinesis, clairvoyance, telepathy and precognition.24
(emphasis added)
Bradshaw's
second paragraph joins his teaching to all the other current philosophies that draw
power and wisdom from occult sources. His
views on unity consciousness join it to the vast array of pagan religions based on
belief in the one universal mind or force that fills and connects all things.
His teaching is especially dangerous because it speaks to a genuine need in our
confused, hurting post-Christian culture. It
also presents a counterfeit Jesus.
Like
Bradshaw, other contemporary teachers and therapists have incorporated a cosmic Christ
into their all-embracing spirituality. They help others attain a state of being or becoming which
befit Buddhism and Sufism but has nothing to do with our identity in Christ or with
becoming conformed to His likeness (Romans 8.29). Many listeners are fooled into
accepting their teaching as genuine Christianity.
In
Against the Night, Charles Colson tells us "Those who claim to be Christians
are arriving at faith on their own terms -- terms that make no demands on behavior."25
His statement is based on a study by sociologist Robert Bellah, who found that
eighty-one percent of Americans agree that "an individual should arrive at his or
her own religious belief independent of any church or synagogue."26 A
comment by a woman named Sheila exemplifies this distortion of Christianity: "I
believe in God," she said. "I
can't remember the last time I went to church. But
my faith has carried me a long way. It's a
'Sheilaism.' Just my own little voice.”27
Remember
2 Thessalonians 2:10, "They perish because they refused to love the truth."
Without a love for truth and a mental storehouse filled with God's Word, people
cannot discern error. Many are drawn to the
self-focused empowerment of goddess-philosophy and its psychological-spiritual
imitations. Like rudderless boats in the
night, they cascade down the rapids trapped in a raging social current headed for
destruction.
WHAT
CAN FAMILIES DO?
Discuss ...
1.
The difference between self-realization and knowing Christ.
2.
The difference between self-empowerment and God’s strength.
3.
Our identity in Christ.
4.
How to surrender to God and follow Him.
1.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SELF-REALIZATION AND KNOWNG CHRIST.
God warns us not to focus on self and feed its insatiable appetite.
"Do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one
another in love.... For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit and the
Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature" (Galatians 5:13, 17).
Nearly
a century ago, Oswald Chambers described our natural tendency to idolize self in
contemporary terms. "The disposition
of sin is not immorality and wrongdoing, but the disposition of self-realization – I
am my own god. This disposition may work
out in decorous morality or in indecorous immorality, but it has the one basis, my
claim to my right to myself."28
Isn’t
that the issue we are wrestling with today? Who do we belong to -- God or ourselves?
The Bible is definite. "Whether
we live or die, we belong to the Lord" (Romans 14:8).
Do we have a better pattern for our lives than the one our Maker provides?
Those
who follow the Goddess tell us that self-awareness and self-actualization lead to
wholeness, healing, and empowerment. That
sounds wonderful, but it's simply not true. This
focus on self ignites a burning desire for self-fulfillment -- an objective a person can
never attain and which God refuses to satisfy.
Our
Lord's teaching is always anti-self-realization.
His purpose is not the development of man; His purpose is to make a man exactly
like Himself, and the characteristic of the Son of God is self-expenditure.
If we believe in Jesus, it is not what we gain, but what He pours through us
that counts. It is not that God makes us beautifully rounded grapes, but that He
squeezes the sweetness out of us. Spiritually,
we cannot measure our life by success, but only by what God pours through us, and we
cannot measure that at all.
"He
that believes in Me, out of him shall flow rivers of living water" -- hundreds of
other lives will be continually refreshed. It
is time ... to cease craving for satisfaction, and to spill the thing out. Our Lord is asking who of us will do it for Him.29 (Oswald
Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest)
2.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SELF-EMPOWERMENT AND GOD'S STRENGTH.
Can
humans really create their own imagined reality? Do children have power to make their dreams and wishes -- even good ones
such as saving the earth -- come true?
It
is true that God occasionally spoke to His servants through dreams.
But more often dreams brought counterfeit messages and false promises, and
they were fulfilled through demonic, not divine, empowerment:
"If
a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a
miraculous sign or wonder, and if the sign or wonder of which he has spoken takes
place, and he says, "Let us follow other gods, and let us worship them,"
you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer.
The LORD your
God is testing you to find out whether you love Him with all your heart and with all
your soul. It is the LORD
your God you must
follow, and Him you must revere. Keep His
commands and obey Him; serve Him and hold fast to Him." (Deuteronomy 13:14)
Israel
didn’t listen. Ignoring God’s
guidelines, the people followed Babylon's self-indulgent practices rather than the God
who loved them. Still hoping to draw them
back to Himself, God told them what would happen to those who identified with
Babylon’s beliefs:
"Go
down, sit in the dust, Virgin Daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground without a
throne.... Listen, you wanton creature, lounging in your security and saying to
yourself, "I am, and there is none besides me.... Your wisdom and knowledge
mislead you.... Disaster will come upon you, and you will not know how to conjure it
away." (Isaiah 47.1, 8-11)
David,
God’s beloved shepherd, king, and friend, saw the cultural dangers or presumptuous
pride, distorted identities, and counterfeit claims.
Do you see these signs of a decaying culture today? Do you hear the subtle claims
to ownership such as "I own my body. I
own my time. I own my tongue…”? Might his prayer fit our nation?
Help,
LORD, for the godly are no more;
the
faithful have vanished from among men.
Everyone
lies to his neighbor;
their
flattering lips speak with deception.
May
the LORD cut
off all flattering lips
and
every boastful tongue that says,
"We
will triumph with our tongues;
we
own our lips; who is our master?"
Psalm
12:1-4
3.
OUR IDENTITY IN CHRIST
Our
true Master is our Maker Himself. He alone
has the wisdom and power to solve earthly problems and satisfy human needs.
This healing process begins when we come to Him and receive Jesus Christ as
Savior. Joined to Him, we have divine life inside - the very life of God Himself. He makes us "new creations," children of the Father, His holy
people, set apart for God (2 Corinthians 5:15; Galatians 2:20; 1 Peter 2:9-12).
As we immerse ourselves in His wisdom instead of our own feelings, He opens
our spiritual eyes to see the unspeakable wonder of who He is - and how much He loves
us.
Seeing
ourselves through His eyes, we realize our own worth and can begin to break destructive
thought patterns (2 Corinthians 10.3-5). To transform our way of thinking, most
of us need the persistent prayers and encouragement of Christian friends as well as the
strength and guidance of the Holy Spirit. Some
may also need Bible-centered counseling.
When
I was a new Christian, I battled feelings of failure and worthlessness daily.
A wise teacher suggested meditating on God's love promises "day and
night" (Psalm 1) for one month. She
gave me a list:
"I have loved you with an
everlasting love" (Jeremiah 31:3).
"Fear not, for I have
redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine" (Isaiah 43:1).
"You are precious and
honored in My sight and ... I love you" (Isaiah 43.4).
"We are more than conquerors
through Him who loved us" (Romans 8:37).
"I am convinced that ...
[nothing] in all creation will be able to separate [me] from the love of God that is in
Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8.38-39).
I
affirmed those truths each morning when I awoke, as often as I remembered them during
the day, and before going to sleep at night. Within a week, I had memorized them, and they began to flow through my
mind with little effort on my part. God’s
Word was becoming part of me. By the end of
the month, I was a changed person. Never
again have I doubted God’s love for me or my worth in His sight.
No man-made affirmation can compare with the effectiveness of God’s personal
promises.
4.
HOW TO SURRENDER TO GOD AND FOLLOW HIM.
"I am the vine; you are the branches," said Jesus.
"If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart
from Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5, italics added).
People
today cringe at the word submission. After
all, our natural tendency is to resist taking God at His word.
We don't want to submit to anything. But
there is no other way to inner peace and outer harmony.
Only when He sees our willingness to follow His will, rather than our own, can He
freely speak to our hearts. Then He begins
to show us the wonders of a healing, fulfilling love-relationship with Himself.
There, in the center of His will, we receive the needed strength and wisdom to
accomplish His work - including the care of the earth.
An old hymn I love expresses this victorious surrender well:
My
Jesus, as Thou wilt:
0
may Thy will be mine!
Into
Thy hand of love,
I
would my all resign.
Through
sorrow or through joy,
Conduct
me as Thine own,
And
help me still to say,
"My
Lord, Thy will be done."30
Many
of us come to Jesus scarred and broken from painful past experiences.
From the world’s perspective, our wounds make no sense, for those who don’t
know God
can't
understand His deep and wonderful workings in our lives.
But from God’s perspective, wounds and weaknesses are not all bad.
They may be the very agents that He uses to draw His hurting ones to Himself, so
that He can transform our lives, prove His sufficiency, and make us one with Himself.
"Come
to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest," whispers
our Shepherd (Matthew 11.28). He understands our pain and longs to heal
our souls as well as our bodies. But the path takes us through a process of self-dying rather
than self-actualization. Jesus
explains: "If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his
cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to
save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will find it." (Matthew
16.-24-25)
If
you or another member of your family are one of His wounded soldiers, ask that the Holy
Spirit will lead you together on the path to healing which Jesus has outlined in Matthew
5:3-10. Take time to study and follow His
steps together. Be sure to respond to each
of His promises. Share your heart with Him.
Keep
turning your mind to God, for He will accomplish the transformation, and prepare you to
succeed in whatever He asks of you. Know who He is, what He offers you, and who you are in Him (Ephesians
1:1-2:10). "For in Him we live and
move and have our being” (Acts 17.28).
No
matter how inadequate we might feel, we know we can count on our Lord to lead and
enable. He reminds us, "My grace is
sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians
12:9)
Endnotes:
1. Joanna Macy, "The
Greening of the Self," Dharma Gaia, (Berkeley: Parallax Press, 1990), 53.
2. Mike Wyatt, "Humanism and Ecology - the Social Ecology/Deep
Ecology Schism," Green Synthesis (October 1989): 8
3. Elizabeth Koda-Callan, The Magic Locket (New York. Workman
Pub-lishing, 1988), 12
4. Ibid, 30.
5. Virginia Satir, Meditations and Inspirations (Berkeley:
Celestial Arts, 1985),15,26, 29.
6. Calvin Miller, The Finale (Downers Grove, III:
InterVarsity Press, 1979), 29-30.
7. Ibid, 60, 70-71.
8. Marion Woodman, The Pregnant Virgin (Toronto: Inner City
Books, 1985), back cover.
9. Jennifer Barker Woolger and Roger J. Woolger, "The Wounded God-desses
Within," New Realities March/April 1990): 11.
10. Ibid., 13.
11. Carl Jung, Man and His Symbols (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1938),95.
12. Elinor W. Gadon, The Once and Future Goddess (San
Francisco: Harper & Row, 1989), 230.
13. Brooks Alexander, "Mind Power and the Mind’s Eye," SCP Journal
(Vol. 9:3, 1990): 15.
14. Doug Groothuis, Revealing the New Age Jesus (Downers
Grove, M: InterVarsity Press, 1990), 76.
15. Satir, 23.
16. Ibid.
Virginia Satir, Self Esteem (Milbrae, Calif.: Celestial Arts,
1970), 41-42
18. Alexander, 9.
19. Paul C. Vitz, Psychology As Religion (Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1977), 93.
20. The Family Educator, "Who Would Build on a Crumbled
Foundation" (March/April 1990): 3.
21. Cassette tapes of Dr. Coulson's messages can be ordered from the
Research Council on Ethnopsychology, 2054 Oriole Street, San Diego, CA 92114.
22. Ibid.
23. John Bradshaw, The Family (Deerfield Beach, Fla.: Health
Communi-cations, Inc, 1988), 229.
24. Ibid.
25. Charles Colson, Against the Night (Ann Arbor, Mich.:
Servant Publica-tions, 1989), 98.
26. Ibid.
27. Ibid.
28. Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest (New York:
Dodd, Mead & Company, 1935), 279.
29. Ibid., 246.
30. Benjamin Schmolck, 1672-1737
