Who rules your life?

We in "The West" often look back to the old "classical" civilizations of Greece and Rome to see the roots of our own psychology. We don't actually wish to go back to doing things in the old ways. Much of their daily lives were difficult and/or barely evolved above the primitive. But we can look at the way they thought to see something basic about ourselves.

For example, consider why the Greeks had a pantheon. Usually this is attributed to their political balkanization, being broken up into many small city-states. But that doesn't have to develop into a joining together. Greece shared a basic culture over a broad region, and they recognized that they were related to everyone who spoke their language. But they didn't have the demand to attribute everything to a single central power, so, in their curiosity to try and understand the world, they looked to analyze life into its various primary interests. It was assumed by most people that there is a spiritual side to the way we live, so obviously, one could observe people's passions and disciplines to discern that.

What disciplines do you follow in your life? What is your driving interest, or obsession? How do you want to live, to express your deepest self, and relate to others? What is really most important to you, and then, what issues distract you and keep you from dedicating yourself to that? Why?

If you think that the Law and its commands are the only way that God interacts with us, you are missing the point. There is a full spectrum of human spirituality. It's not just about rules. It's about Ideals, the very first principles, and how to apply them.

These Ideals are universal, and they were promoted as essential in every culture as a central part of life. They are found deeply embedded in our Holy Bible, too, as our primary concerns. The most important is Love, but you can't sustain the world without Freedom and Wisdom, nor by denying or twisting the Truth. And each Ideal has its adherents who feel that it is paramount to the success of civilization.

Our western civilization recognizes all four of these Ideals as crucial. It may seem that we have forgotten them on occasion, in our distractions and pursuit of selfishness, but we know that we should make them our own primary concerns. The distractions, and selfish choices, are ways by which we fail to become our best selves, and fail to serve the God who created us. But that is also why we are encouraged to turn our lives around. God wants us to live a more spiritual life, in community, and to aspire to build a great civilization that embodies the best ways to practice those Ideals.

So this is our task, to examine our lives to see where we may be failing to be our best selves, and to seek ways to improve. Pace yourself to change the way you adapt to your culture, step by step, to remove the causes of harm. Then gently change your life to incorporate practical ways of living from the essential Ideals, so as to reflect the Kingdom of God.

Remember, simply removing a practice that we don't want to continue is often not enough. We must find something to desire to take its place. Pick something better to do with your time. Find whatever change you can within yourself first, then call your friends to follow a better way.
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These are the usual ways that we organize our lives, and relate to one another. It's not just about what you believe. But, whatever you allow to rule your life, that is your god (small "g"). That is why we need to apply our ideals to every one of these areas, and observe the principles that keep them in proper order and orientation. How should Love, Freedom, Truth and Wisdom be applied in each area of our lives?

The ancient Greek Pantheon is usually listed as follows. I don't feel the need to go into too much detail, as most of us should be at least superficially familiar with these from any study of history, or even popular references. And they are somewhat self-explanatory.

1. Zeus - commands & justice

2. Hera - influence & maternity

3. Poseidon - travel & fortune

4. Ares - power & discipline

5. Aphrodite - pleasure & sexuality

6. Athena - reason & wisdom

7. Apollo - music & mathematics

8. Hephaistos - technology & invention

9. Hermes - mystery & messages

10. Dionysus - madness & intoxication

11. Artemis - wildlands & ecology

12. Demeter - agriculture & produce

13. Hestia - hearth & homemaking

You probably thought there were only twelve, but actually there were nearer to a hundred, breaking the natural world up into small bits. These were the main ones. Still, remember that the ancient peoples kept a calendar by watching the Moon, and had to add a thirteenth month about every other year to keep up with the Sun. Hestia, the homemaker, was often too busy to join the twelve in council, and so, rarely contributed her opinions. It was the same to be a wife in ancient Greece, expected to stay home most of the time.

These are things that continue to interest people, even today, for better or worse. If it's for the worse, it is because it has been disconnected from the proper observance of the real Ideals that we are meant to follow. Some of these may seem to be intrinsically wrong, but that is because they are not supposed to be anyone's central concern. They probably still have their place, but not in the center of our lives. If we are going to live really balanced lives, I doubt that we could do that by focusing on any one of these areas exclusively.

Someone might have noticed a couple of conspicuous absences:

Hades, the god of death and the underworld, was never a central interest. Death was seen as inevitable, a dread necessity. To be daily obsessed with death was a sign of mental instability. No one wanted the profession of undertaker. A person's family or friends would be the ones to take care of the last rites and the burial. Everyone who even attended a funeral had to be purified. Some token offering would be left with the dead, and each participant would have to cleanse themselves and go to a temple to pray and make a gift.

Another central aspect of life, neglected by the Greek gods, was money. There was no moneylender, nor investor, in the pantheon, not even among the minor deities. It seems apparent that they thought such concerns were too materialistic, dangerously close to vice and maltreatment of ones neighbors. Each person carried his wealth in a pouch, or kept it in a safe place, and appearing too wealthy, unless you were generous, was a bit uncouth. A good person was expected to try to help others find ways to make ends meet, and lending a few coins among your friends to start up a business or craft would increase your reputation. If they succeeded, they would repay the debt, usually with a small amount of interest. If not, one should not harass them for money they didn't have.

The Bible of the Jews and the Christians does recognize these understated and neglected issues, and presents to us the assertion that all aspects of our lives are relevant to the One God who rules over our world. God looks at the way we live, and compares it to an idealized way, what we would call an "eutopian" lifestyle, which does not violate the proper observance of his, and our, four central Ideals. To this end, He gave us laws to teach us how to discern how we should relate to each other. Then He sent prophets to criticize society, and offer guidance. And finally, He sent his Son to be the Messiah, to speak directly about Love and how to find a right relationship with Him. In this way, we avoid being obsessed with the lesser aspects of daily life, and can place them in their proper order in relation to God, who should be our ultimate concern.

God reaches out to us in personal ways, as individuals, according to our own best ways of understanding. Unless we try to resist, or simply fail to understand, it's usually not a problem. But then we have each other, our communities and our churches, to help us try to understand, if we need clarification or advice. They can help us to listen for the still small voice within, and to discern the source of what we hear.

It has become fashionable in today's world to reject the ideas of religion and deity, or even any notion of the sacred. But human beings cannot live by material concerns alone without diminishing ourselves. We eventually revert to our basic animal natures, seeking only survival and our own dominance within our group, and forget to aspire for the betterment of others. If we remember to seek the good of society, it is only for the sake of promoting our own offspring, or because we cannot shake our inner life free of the spirituality we deny.

We have a spiritual nature, which needs to seek out whatever can be our best ways to live a good life, and to relate positively to each other. The spiritual Ideals, and a good number of specific ways to live them, are already ingrained in our human nature, as essential principles. This is why our history shows a trend, however slow, toward better ways to live. We build up nations, societies, cultures and ideologies to bring out those Ideals and principles in practical ways that help us to live together in peace, and point the way toward a better, more fruitful and enlightened future. Without the Ideals, our societies would remain fragmented, and our souls selfish and broken. Without our trying to mold our cultures to emulate God's way toward eutopia, our civilization would not progress, and our lives would still be dirty, nasty, brutish and short.