Fear of God

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Medeia
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Fear of God

Post by Medeia »

As in context of spiritual aspiration.
This seems to be somewhat core consepts in the old covenant. I cannot accept that fear of anything could be source of wisdom, yet it is the Bibble quite underlined so I suppose there must (or should) be something to it after all.
As I see it, “fear God” turns to “do not fear anything but God”. Is it in fact that our “hate God” is an updated version of this old doctrine?

Thoughts on subject?
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Smaragd
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Re: Fear of God

Post by Smaragd »

Medeia wrote: Sun Oct 10, 2021 12:42 pm As I see it, “fear God” turns to “do not fear anything but God”.
I like this idea.

A bit atypical to a satanist, I have rarely felt personal difficulty with the idea of fearing god. This is mostly because I’ve understood it to mean the respect for the mystery that is opening between the absolute oneness and the aspirant. Seeing through the virtue of the masculine principle, fear of God is a laymen phrase for the Will to not overstep the mystery – respect it so much that it awakens fear when you are about to do something clearly unwise, or if you just draw closer to it ("do not fear", the angels have to repeat). But, when this same thing is not seen through the living Spirit – through the virtue of masculine principle, but through its vice, then the fear is not coming out of respect, and actions there on base, secretly or only partly so, on fear*. This leaves the aspirant equally unable to step forward in the mysteries as when not respecting the mystery at the first place. The vice of masculinity comes out of unbalance towards the feminine principle and thus Hieros Gamos is in the heart of this process.

The feminine vice in mysticism is revealed when the respect for the mystery is misplaced and initial feelings as sole guide leads the aspirant in perpetual circles that cause harm. I’d call it some sort of terrible enchantment of shakti. Unbeknownst to the enchanted, this is as much a disservice to the Goddess as it is a disservice to ignore her depth – ignore her beauty in its fulness. Yet, she takes care of her children, and hides clues amidst the misery. The feminine principle has its virtue here in the arrogance for the beauty – or if we can see the more subtle form of it in the graceful nurture – that will overstep not the mystery but the fear, the demonic correspondence of the masculine will that has made the aspirant stiff as a lifeless cadaver. When both of the virtues of the feminine and the masculine is purified from their vices, the steps in to the mysteries begin to take place. Left and right, and left and right. Fear does not prevent from taking action, and respect moves on to its subtler forms known to us from words and practices of religious devotion, that is bhakti yoga.

*As it is said, one should never base one’s actions on fear. Yet, I think one should definitely go through the actual meaning of the feelings of fear, and thus become able to judge it’s value, rather than perpetually become prey for it.
Medeia wrote: Sun Oct 10, 2021 12:42 pm Is it in fact that our “hate God” is an updated version of this old doctrine?
Perhaps it can be seen as the point of view of the feminine principle. Feminine marking left, and thus Satan.
"Would to God that all the Lord's people were Prophets”, Numbers 11:29 as echoed by William Blake
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Nefastos
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Re: Fear of God

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A great piece for discussion for sure. At the same time I had read this, my Zohar reading for the day accidentally (synchronistically) turned to include the following:
I asked him: If that is so, why then is the word "dreadful" translated into Aramaic as 'fear' and not as 'perfection'? He answered that there is no awe but in a place where perfection is found, and any place in which there is completeness is called "dreadful," as it is written: "O fear Hashem [God] you saints of His, for those who fear Him there is no lack" (Tehilim [Psalms] 34:10) (Yitro 14:248)

So, awe is dread (mysterium tremendum) which is fear in a human being. This language should be understood even if we choose to disagree with the Old Testament Biblical tradition.

Smaragd wrote: Sun Oct 10, 2021 10:55 pmit awakens fear when you are about to do something clearly unwise, or if you just draw closer to it ("do not fear", the angels have to repeat).

I would separate these two in interpretation. Useful fear "of God" (meaning here the universe, including karma and bringing about suffering) can and perhaps also should be included into our individual Work. For example, I might well yearn after throwing myself into the abyss of some physical, astral or ethical kind, but it would be wise to also fear such a flight & its results, and not to follow the urge.

Then, on the other hand, we have this common saying of the angels, to which you referred. That saying is to comfort against the "dread" or trembling that grips us when numenous or even some new astral experience is met. Such a dread is (especially nowadays, in contrast to the world of the old) more likely to be a form of fascination (mysterium fascinans – the "terrible enchantment of shakti"). It can be both, also at the same time, and when such a trembling gets its hold of us when we would be about to face a spiritual or astral experience, we lose that experience to that emotional trembling. This is one reason why we usually need help of superphysical beings (helping spirits or adepts) to overcome the problematic psychological threshold when facing new spiritual or astral experiences. Word "anxiety" would perhaps be better here. Such an anxiety (spanda) is very useful when getting closer to the magical experience, but when we are at the precise spot, it will turn against us. In the other words, we once again have a very valid correspondence in meetings of erotic kind: it is the fascination and anxiety which makes the heart race and creates the astral glamour which brings the lovers together, but in case that anxiety is not bridged in the meeting, it will easily destroy the consummating coitus.

Smaragd wrote: Sun Oct 10, 2021 10:55 pmAs it is said, one should never base one’s actions on fear.

One of my main approaches to life in my childhood and youth was the one of fear. It was how my astral sensitivity manifested, and it made living quite hellish. It was by creation of this maxim that I was finally helped. Like every person who knows anything about actual fear and overcoming knows, fear does not leave a sane human being: becoming and remaining brave is conquering that fear day after day, never basing one's action on fear, but yet experiencing that fear all the same. It is even quite funny how it does not go away, even when it has been triumphed over a thousand times. But like said above, that is also a good thing. For like a good Sith, a Satanist or a Tantric vîra ("hero," the name of a tantric practitioner), one can use the fear which becomes anger and then hatred, and leads to the liminal experience. And because of this, I can easily undersign the following (see also Argarizim, Vestibulum, & Fosforos, footnote 12):

Medeia wrote: Sun Oct 10, 2021 12:42 pmAs I see it, “fear God” turns to “do not fear anything but God”. Is it in fact that our “hate God” is an updated version of this old doctrine?
Faust: "Lo contempla. / Ei muove in tortuosa spire / e s'avvicina lento alla nostra volta. / Oh! se non erro, / orme di foco imprime al suol!"
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Medeia
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Re: Fear of God

Post by Medeia »

For me too fear has been essential theme throughtout life. The topic has offered very workable strategies dealing with this, I have since extracted and applied this fear/respect/anxiety/excitement-kind of feel of awe to spiritual practices and when fear for any reason has occurred told myself “it’s God”. Good stuff and works really well with various studies.
Seferoth
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Re: Fear of God

Post by Seferoth »

I used to fear God, a lot in fact. Fear was one of the primary reasons why i stayed Christian as long as i did. Or it was more of fear of Hell, burning and suffering for all eternity. Still, in my mind it was God who decided who goes where so i feared the one who held the power. I still believe in literal heaven and hell(a bit different hell than in Christian tradition). The difference now is that I have understood that there are more factors than just God when considering my eternal destination. When i stopped thinking that god hold all the power i stopped fearing him.
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Insanus
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Re: Fear of God

Post by Insanus »

Fear is the closest emotion (perhaps malice also) to what I understand as divine/holy. As a teenager, I basically lived in the nearby graveyard trying to get that creepy sense you might get from a good horror movie. Exactly fear of God, or fear of Hell were those deeply touching, vivifying, horrifying minor ecstacies I was eager to try to touch. For some deeprooted psychological reason, it was allthat mattered. Strangely liminal and not-living, between worlds, Iguess that was the important thing.
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