Michael Jackson was a Pantheist. Theology is the study of religion or broadly defined is a “discourse about God” commonly taught in a divinity school or seminary. It derives from the Greek theologia which is theo (God) and logia (logos, word or oral history and tradition.) Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle thought of theology as discourse of all things god, and the metaphysical nature of the divine.
I’m thinking that most Michael Jackson people are Pantheists at heart. If you’ve read “Dancing the Dream” and resonate with Michael’s reverence and passion for nature, animals, the landscape, the planet and the planet’s people—in other words all sentient life—you are a Pantheist.
“Earth Song” is a Pantheist anthem. Michael’s soaring vocals are inspirational and establish an expansive “vibe” that encompasses nature, the planet and all sentient beings. And it asks ‘What about us?’ in the spirit of the interconnectedness of all life—what Chief Seattle and people like John Muir and Aldo Leopold call “the web.”
Chief Seattle said: “what we do to the web, we do to ourselves.” He spoke of the land, the buffalo, the taking of only what you need and giving gratitude in reverence to the resources of nature.
Michael said the same things in “Earth Song.” He knew that when we destroy the web, we destroy ourselves. When we kill the rainforest which are considered the lungs of the planet, we kill ourselves. In order to have life, there must be breath. Michael revered nature, beauty and all life.
He identified with a single dolphin which had died caught in a net and could feel the presence of a dolphin in the sea. His Pantheism is in his poetry and in his lyrics. He loved all people of all cultural and ethnic backgrounds and even went so far as to identify with simple living and poverty by arranging to visit and sleep on the ground in a hut in order to experience it.
In “This Is It” he spoke about the breathtaking beauty of the planet and inspired the cast of the show by asking them to help “put back some magic into the world” and to speak about the window of opportunity and the time period available to us to save the planet from irreversible harm or the critical mass where the destructiveness of man and rape of the planet becomes not just possible but destined. He encouraged stewardship by saying “it’s up to us or it will never be done.” It’s the same thing the Hopi Elders have been saying all along about the prophesy for humankind on this planet in the philosophy of: “we are the ones we have been waiting for.”
How do you know if you are a Pantheist?
When you look at the night sky or at the images of the Hubble Space Telescope, are you filled with feelings of awe and wonder at the overwhelming beauty and power of the universe?
When you are in the midst of nature, in a forest, by the sea, on a mountain peak – do you ever feel a sense of the sacred, like the feeling of being in a vast cathedral?
Do you believe that humans should be a part of Nature, rather than set above it?
Do you love animals and believe they have rights? Do you accept that you are responsible for your pets, for all animals, for how land is used, food is grown and are you a vegetarian or concerned with ethical eating?
Are you skeptical about a male deity or god who sits on a throne in a vague place called heaven and who pushes buttons and pulls levers to contr
ol things on earth? And when a human messes up, he’s a vengeful and punishing figure?
Do you view the world and life as vibrant, alive and luminous?
Do you rather believe that “God” is a Presence that is sweeping in nature and extends far beyond a location or definition and encompasses Nature and the wider Universe?
Yet do you feel an emotional need for a recognition of something beyond the human entity and ego and is greater than your own self or than the human race?
If you can answer yes to most of these questions, then Pantheism is likely your natural religious home or is at least part of how you define your spiritual philosophy or beliefs.
At the heart of pantheism is reverence of the universe as the ultimate focus of reverence, and for the natural earth as sacred. Scientific Pantheism (Carl Sagan) or Natural Pantheism (Rachael Carson) has a naturalistic approach which simply accepts and reveres the universe and nature just as they are, and promotes an ethic of respect for human and animal rights and for sustainability of lifestyles that cultivate, nurture and protect rather than destroy the environment.
When scientific pantheists say WE REVERE THE UNIVERSE we are not talking about a supernatural and polarized or singular being, we are saying we practice awe and experience the sacredness of all that is.
We respect and embrace with our senses and emotions, the force of an overwhelming mystery and power that surrounds us.
We are part of the universe. Our earth was created from the universe and will one day be reabsorbed into the universe. We are made of the same matter and energy as the universe. We are not in exile here: we are at home. Paradise is not just out there somewhere out of reach but can be created and experienced here and now. If we believe our real home is not here but in a reality that lies beyond death, or if we believe that the numinous is found only in old books, or old buildings, or inside our head, or outside this reality, we are mistaken or in the midst of a grand illusion.
The universe creates us, preserves us, destroys us. It is deep and old beyond our ability to reach with our senses. It is beautiful beyond our ability to describe in words. It is complex beyond our ability to fully grasp in science. We must relate to the universe with humility, awe, reverence, celebration and the search for deeper understanding. It doesn’t fear the mystery; it embraces it.
The World Pantheist Movement Statement of Principles 1. We revere and celebrate the Universe as the totality of being, past, present and future. It is self-organizing, ever-evolving and inexhaustibly diverse. Its overwhelming power, beauty and fundamental mystery compel the deepest human reverence and wonder. 2. All matter, energy, and life are an interconnected unity of which we are an inseparable part. We rejoice in our existence and seek to participate ever more deeply in this unity through knowledge, celebration, meditation, empathy, love, ethical action and art. 3. We are an integral part of Nature, which we should cherish, revere and preserve in all its magnificent beauty and diversity. We should strive to live in harmony with Nature locally and globally. We acknowledge the inherent value of all life, human and non-human, and strive to treat all living beings with compassion and respect. 4. All humans are equal centers of awareness of the Universe and nature, and all deserve a life of equal dignity and mutual respect. To this end we support and work towards freedom, democracy, justice, and non-discrimination, and a world community based on peace, sustainable ways of life, full respect for human rights and an end to poverty. 5. There is a single kind of substance, energy/matter, which is vibrant and infinitely creative in all its forms. Body and mind are indivisibly united. 6. We see death as the return to nature of our elements, and the end of our existence as individuals. The forms of “afterlife” available to humans are natural ones, in the natural world. Our actions, our ideas and memories of us live on, according to what we do in our lives. Our genes live on in our families, and our elements are endlessly recycled in nature. 7. We honor reality, and keep our minds open to the evidence of the senses and of science’s unending quest for deeper understanding. These are our best means of coming to know the Universe, and on them we base our aesthetic and religious feelings about reality. 8. Every individual has direct access through perception, emotion and meditation to ultimate reality, which is the Universe and Nature. There is no need for mediation by priests, gurus or revealed scriptures. 9. We uphold the separation of religion and state, and the universal human right of freedom of religion. We recognize the freedom of all pantheists to express and celebrate their beliefs, as individuals or in groups, in any non-harmful ritual, symbol or vocabulary that is meaningful to them.
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The Earth and the Reason- for Earth Day 2009
From the air
she reminds me
of an old woman.
Wrinkled skin,
hills and valleys
scars and dimples–
a complexion
older than time.
Four billion!
Four billion years
she has been becoming.
Has she too, pondered
her reason for being?
The water ran right there.
Hills puckered here
with gathers over there,
a plateau ends here,
the river meanders–
features of character
on the face of forever
in the spiral of time.
They say time waits for no one.
Does the Earth wait?
Has she waited?
For what? Whom?
Has she consciousness.
a self? Or
an accident of cause
waiting for effect?
All these millennia–
silent.
Never knowing,
never ending,
never not becoming;
while I become,
then disappear.
Today she is familiar,
greets me,
telling stories,
speaks with my tongue.
I ask her to remember
because she will be–
long beyond me.
A loudspeaker voice says
“fasten your seatbelts;
we begin our descent.”
We do descend to Earth,
down to her skin,
down to become matter.
To matter?
To call her “home.”
The Captain says we are
“preparing to land.”
I know that once again
I too prepare to land
somewhere outside this perspective,
outside its intimacy.
A sigh escapes
from somwhere deep,
a tear appears,
but a faint voice whispers
“I will remember.
You are my reason
and now my voice
and effect.”
BK (c) 2009
One Man’s Teepee
A dying fire licks the dark,
makes shadow fingers
that caress the walls,
salute brother wind,
hail sister moon
and beckon his return.
She stirs in dreams,
becomes the deer,
running, running,
gives head to wind,
hooves to forest,
races the edge of dawn
toward home.
A filly now,
she whinnies softly,
dreams his neck,
nuzzles her head,
breathes tangles of hair
not braided this night
for battle.
And now the great cat
curls and stretches,
arches her back
on bearskin mounds,
her breast remembering
the cup his hand makes
even in sleep.
The eagle soars,
listens the distance,
spies horse and rider,
swoops down to wake
from Shaman’s dreams;
rekindles a fire
to warm his night.
Her fingers smile,
trace rounded belly
to recall his love,
grow his seed,
seal the future
for her people.
The owl knows,
and wolf remembers:
medicine and legends,
a strong, proud race
and how one man’s teepee
was a nation’s dream.
BK (c) 2006
10 Comments
The concept of the “good steward” presupposes that all who call themselves Christian must, in turn, become lovers of all that has been created. With this principle as one of the foundations of belief, personal responsibility towards all life must be the primary focus. With his faith in action, I believe that Michael was, first and foremost a true believer, seeing the face of the Divine in all. Viscerally responding throughout his life to the basic concept of “all for LOVE” and “we are all one”, his message of true compassion and respect for the universe in its totality was consistent and true. His music set out to open hearts and minds to the beauty, wonder and awe of creation that surrounds us. I believe that ” Earth Song “is his Opus to the Creator……and to all that has been created.
Thank you Barbara for this most enlightening piece on Pantheism. I too, have felt the presence of that which is greater than myself in the awe and wonder of the natural world and in natural order. This also presents a compelling call for each of us to evaluate our own belief systems and to begin to open our own hearts and minds to the call of Nature…. Victoria
Precisely. The steward calls to teach the stewards and teaches to call the stewards.. And nature has much to teach us– most notably about ourselves.
So, Barbara if we are the ones we have been waiting for, what ARE we waiting for? Blessings, Victoria
Whoa. I love the enthusiasm. We are actually NOT waiting. Groundwork is being laid. Relationships are being built. And I have an immediate health priority. Next phase coming soon. Prayers are part of the foundation of new phases of life. And you don’t have to wait for them. ~B
OK dear Pantheist, take care of that precious health of yours, first and foremost. I think we all want that for you. And I think most if not all of us, Michael included, are pantheistic in many ways, whether full-on pantheists or not. #6 disqualifies me because I would have to deny my own experiences in order to embrace that one, but hey, we are non-denominational at Inner Mike are we not, so as the steadfastly non-ist that I have been for so long, Inner Michael has always felt like a beloved home to me. Bottom line, we’re in it together to heal the world in memory of our precious, pantheistic Jesus admirer and protege. And in our universally miniscule way, I think that makes us important.
G, Many Pantheists believe we come from the elements and return to the elements (we do) and some believe we reincarnate, some embrace a soul that lives beyond the transformation called death, and some are convinced we are a bio-entity only and dissolve back into dust. One can be a Pantheist and be a Christian Pantheist, Hindu Pantheist, and so on. “Pantheist” means that you see god in nature. Since all is really nature, Pantheists see god everywhere. Native Americans are traditionally essential Pantheists for they live in awe and reverence of nature and the Great Spirit or Creator that inhabits it. Most indigenous hold a form of this belief.
If you embrace that the earth, and the cosmos is not accidental or is accidental with a causative or organizing force or factor (science calls this “negative entropy”) then all of creation must be holy. The Universe is holy, the earth is holy, the biological entities that inhabit it are holy, life is holy… that is Pantheistic and an expansive cosmology. Pantheism is part of this impulse toward expansion. To see all of creation as holy is to see god everywhere and in every thing. To recognize an informing or organizing intelligence in all of creation is to acknowledge what Christianity calls “omniscient” and “omnipresent.”
I am always pleased when people tell me IM feels like home. And yes, we are in this together. But we are not miniscule nor ineffective. Together we are a force and we can change the world.
I have added an addendum with the Pantheist Credo and a video featuring Peter Mayer who is a Pantheist. That explains it better than I can with words alone. ~B
Thank-you for expanding on that Rev. B. I watched the song, and had the weirdest reaction.
#1. It occurred to me that “everything’s a miracle now” is our state of perception when we are very little children – pre-school. At least that is how I experienced it, e.g., I had no fear of bugs and I was not creeped out by them as I am by some of them now. I loved them, wanted them to crawl on me and was fascinated with them.
#2. I had such a feeling of fear at the thought of returning to that state of perception! Because the world kicked the stuffing out of me when I was in that state of perception and shattered it? Because there were some unholy dangers lurking in that holy world? I don’t know, I am guessing. It was painful losing that state, for whatever reason. Very surprising reaction.
G, Yes, that was our original state and that is also our birthright and divine heritage. What you experienced was a very rare aha! moment. You had a brief memory of what is called “original innocence.” We are all born with that original innocence. As we grow we are indoctrinated and manipulated into “responsibility” and we develop the “ego.” The pain of losing that original innocence is so great that we repress the memory. We all went through that painful experience of losing our original innocence. The world loses its luster and the pain is overwhelming and excruciating so as adults we “forget” that we ever had that state of “purity of heart.” Can you remember what the event was that caused the loss? That is usually repressed too. Little by little we lose more of that natural state and we assume more “:responsibility” It is forced upon us by the world, adults, circumstances and we become “serious” and forget how to have that natural and sparkling joy we were born with. The pain surrounding that loss is too much to bear so we “forget” everything surrounding that passage.
When I think of that state I think of “lost boys” because that is akin to the loss of innocence. Michael Jackson loved children because he was able to see that state in them and in particular, before they lost their original innocence. He knew adults caused the loss and in both extortion cases, he knew the children had lost their original innocence and the adults were maniipulating the circumstances. He blamed the adults in those cases. Michael was able to remember his original state and enter it at will. He had what I have come to recognize as a “radical innocence” that carried his original innocence into adulthood and would bring it up at will. It’s a state of grace,
He saw the light in every child, saw god in their faces and looked for that same “holy miracle” in adutls finding it rarely and feeling great sadness when people employed their manipulative ego instead of their original “purity of heart.” His story reminds me of Siddartha in many ways– isolated enough and with initially enough of a “charmed life” to keep his innocence intact but as he grew older and retained it, it became radical in a world of adults who had lost their innocence and were tainted by cynicism. He became “weird” to the world because of his radical innocence when in actuality he was still living in “the garden” while everyone else had been cast out.
Neverland is an archetype. Michael built Neverland for children and for the child in all of us. It is the archetypal garden of original innocence as well as the archetype for the return to innocence. It represented carefree childhood before we must “put away childish things.” Shangri-La or enlightenment (and perhaps even the ‘rapture’) is a return to the original innocence, to the garden, to the natural state, the evolution resulting from the involution, a return to god, heaven on earth, and what the mystics called the divine union. It is where we are all headed and our sprittual destination, we just arrive by different paths. It is the way to enter the kinddom as a child- by foregoing (forsaking) ego and resurrecting the original innocence. If we could but reclaim that while still in a body and reclaim our divine heritage (salvation) while alive and in the body on the planet. we could come as children and create heaven on earth. (“I wish that love would come today.) (You’re just another part of me.”)
I’ve just given you (all) a lot to think about. Step lightly and go slow… “We’ll leave the light on for you” : ) *wink* ~B
I have only just seen this and can identify so much with Pantheism, even before my spiritual journey really and truly began I always felt connected to something wonderful, to nature, to animals, to people the world over. I call “God” “God” just to really give a name to someone/an energy that I talk to every night. Thank you Rev. Barbara for this wonderful article
Hi Barbara
As always – you are enlightening and right on the nail – you express so easily all that I am trying to understand in my life. Take extremely good care of yourself my dear and please stay in touch to let us know how you are progressing. I wish you well – very quickly. God bless and so much love to you xxxx