For the Jews ask for a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness. But to them, the called-out ones, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. 1st Corinthians 1:22-24
Ever felt like Alice when she firsts falls into Wonderland and sees that incredibly wonderful garden but she just can’t get there because she’s either too big to fit through the door or too small to reach the key on the table? To me that’s symbolic of the repetitive circle most of mankind is bound to: swallowing their own tail in a vain attempt to reincarnate themselves from their own ashes.
Only one man has actually been dead (stone cold, no memory dead – not a ghost, not an out of body experience but really, truly dead) and now lives again never to die. He is the one and only door keeper and the only way out of this freak show for the rest of is to find out where He is and go there. And with all due respect to Aldous and Jim (Huxley and Morrison), some of us actually DO get out here alive. Because this door that I’m talking about is not just a mental or ‘spiritual’ door of perception but an actual ticket to a new reality and place.
But I certainly have had the common experience of angst, doubt and existential terror that all who seek to understand and escape this world find. Neither mescaline (cactus), lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), cocaine hydrochloride (coke), psilocybin (mushroom) nor tetrahydrocannabinol (THC in Hemp), all of which I smoked, snorted or ingested during a particularly volatile time in my young life, opened any doors that provided escape from the reality of death. In fact if they did anything at all, rather than finding portals of escape, this dead end pursuit by me may have actually allowed unsavory and unwanted fiends entry into the portals of my mind and body. Nasty little devils that took a much bigger and stronger man than myself to evict once they had gotten used to the food and the furniture.
What I didn’t have when I was going through this pointless time in my life was the very uncommon experience, even among poets, scholars and sages, the very unworldly experience of coming face to face with the One. No I have not come face to face with God the Creator of the universe or I wouldn’t be writing this to you. No one can look at the true God directly and live. Instead I met the one who was dead and now lives: the alpha and omega of our salvation and this has made all the difference.
The innocent chosen one, who suffered as an outcast and criminal, was nailed alive to a wooden stake and hung up on a desolate hillside called “The Skull” in public shame so that the entire city could see and mock his situation. He who was abandoned by most of his family and friends to die alone in obscurity and whose body was wrapped in a sheet and placed in a shallow, unmarked grave. He is the answer to every question about the what, why and wherefore of life. He is the door that if a man or woman can find it, although it is always within the grasp of anyone, he or she will go in and out and find pasture for their soul. He is the WAY OUT, of which no groovy hippy in their wildest psychedelic trip could ever have dreamed.
My Lord Jesus Christ, (your Lord too if you want to him be) was raised from the dead, taken up to the right hand of God in the heavens, is currently directing an unseen kingdom that operates completely outside the duality of this tired and limited earthly realm where mankind bounces like a pinball between vanity and depravity seeking wisdom or signs but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth using microscopes, telescopes or psychotropes.
But his new kingdom will not remain hidden forever. Although we are pilgrims and strangers on this earth wandering and waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God, it will not always be so. Stick around and I’ll tell you why the so called “New Age” is nothing at all like the pseudo-messengers of light (i.e. false apostles) are currently peddling in the marketplace of ideas. When the true water bearer comes back, it will be the dawning of The Age (yes it will be new) that we have always longed for in our hearts. It will be a time that will finally bring to pass and super exceed the tainted and limited visions of world peace, social justice and human potential than can be found in the fetid pools of pop psychology and utilitarian ideologies that surround us.
Are you ready and willing to take your place and be counted among the foolish for Christ’s sake? Be sure because if you take the red pill, you can never really go back to your blissfully ignorant state again. But then again, if you’re really one of us, you’d never want to.
@ 2010 Joseph Ricciardi Jr
