two be one

...this one's for you, Rich Oosterhoff
(though it doesn't quite compare to Mary's hermeneutic symphony ;-)...

I have a problem. It involves procrastination and the genes for over-achieving. They do not mix well (though I'd prefer them shaken and not stirred). Okay, please laugh at my jokes; it is two o'clock in the morning and I'm living on four hours of sleep. When one supercedes the boundaries of God's creational norms, something will react in the opposite direction---with momentous force (i.e., over-compensation). The article herein contained was supposed to be about witchcraft---or creativity--- and was approximated at a length of 700 words. Well, it is in fact none of the above. In addition, it is two days past the deadline of the Crown. Hence, you probably won't see it in the final issue come Wednesday, but I thought, after all my toil, someone might like to read it. So, here is the monster...
(and now I must finish the paper that is actually for marks)


“The issue then is not simply GOOD vs. EVIL. Through illusion and deception, the equation Satan presented was GOOD vs. GOOD AND EVIL; The Tree of Life vs. The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.” ~Ernest H.J. Steed, Two Be One

Woman was the first to want to rule herself; the first to deify her own wisdom and knowledge and listen to the sickly-sweet voice of the deceiver. Then by her newly found strength of persuasion and power of manipulation, she lured her husband into the serpent-laid snare. Cursed is she evermore: in pain shall she bring forth children, yearning after her husband who shall rule over her and in futility himself struggle to take dominion over the earth. Satan has been trying to make good and evil one entity ever since. Interesting that the image of the serpent would be adopted as the primary symbol of goddess and self-enlightenment religions thenceforward.

In researching for an overdue paper on the role of women as portrayed through Wiccan and Eastern Mystic symbolism in The Handmaid’s Tale, I have come to some interesting and noteworthy revelations pertinent to my own life and walk of faith. I have never been a “man-hater,” though in the past I have flirted with feminist ideology. My post-pubescent life has been an on-and-off battle between “New Age” spirituality and the once-and-for-all salvation of Christ’s death and resurrection. For some, the claims of New Ageism are folly at its pinnacle; ridiculous nonsense worthy only of scoffing dismissal. The sceptical are usually rational, conservative, tradition-enforcing protestants (and stereotypically male). But I believe we underestimate the power of a movement that has been building since our expulsion from Eden. A movement bathed in truth, but besmirched with evil; for a pinch of yeast will raise an oven of dough.

The prince of this world is Lucifer, once a beautiful angel, son of the morning. He is familiar with goodness and truth. He is well-versed in the revealed Words of his creator. He cannot create outside of God’s created order, but instead distorts the good. His evil is always a parasite on the Good Tree of Life. When we “transcend” the boundaries of the physical realm through consciousness-altering drugs, exercises, sexual distortions and meditations, we find ourselves in the kingdom of the devil; in his world, he is able to please and beguile us with any sensation and “spiritual” experience he so desires (remember also that his ultimate desire is to steal, kill and destroy God’s creatures). His is the counterfeit faith; today it is most widely known as New Ageism.

As others have said before me, there is nothing “new” about the “New Age”. The movement, its varying postulates and experientially-based spirituality and mysticism, is common to all religions of all times---all except the Judaeo-Christian and fundamental Islamic traditions. Essentially monistic and/or pantheistic in content, their practices and beliefs stem from the position that “everything in the universe is really one and the same” (Means, 46). “God is both personal and impersonal, finite and infinite, good and evil,” male and female (Means, 46). Followers of Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Sikhism, Druidism, Christian Science, Wicca, Hare Krishna and other cults, all seek enlightenment and wisdom through transcending their conscious selves and becoming “one” with the god-universe. In this way can they hope to achieve divinity, to realize that they themselves are “god” and thereby escape the birth-death-rebirth cycle in which humanity is trapped. To mystics, we are all part of and contain the “Cosmic Christ” or “Christ Consciousness”; for we are all our own saviours. We hold within ourselves the ultimate power and authority. Sound familiar? It was Satan’s original lie. “Death for disobedience, as announced by God, [said the Deceiver], actually meant a new and fuller life; instead of being humans, they would enter into real godlikeness; instead of current understanding, ultimate wisdom could be experienced now. These accomplishments lay in partaking of the tree labelled ‘The Knowledge of Good and Evil’. The ability to blend, mingle, and harmonize these two conflicting opposites would bring forth a transformation, the pathway to enlightenment. The end result---oneness of everything with complete understanding” (Steed, 10). Mankind fell for this lie, and has fallen ever since. Our God is wholly good, there is no evil and no turning in his character. He specifically designed each after its own kind. “All things were to be uniquely different---evening and morning, light and dark, male and female, earth and water, etc., but coordinated and harmonious. It is further clearly explained that the Creator God did not and does not endorse evil as an acceptable opposite” (Steed, 10).

I have often found my self wanting to be male---perhaps for the perceived power and authority that comes with a phallus. Why is this so? Why do many strong, independent, beautiful and intelligent women I know secretly long to be men? Some feminists would argue that this strange desire is a betrayal to our sex, for in their view, women once held at least equal---if not superior---authority over men. But our secret lust goes back to the Garden. Eve ate of the forbidden fruit in hopes of attaining self-enlightenment and individual autonomy, but in her sin the opposite transpired: “Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you” (Genesis 3:1 6). Man is granted authority over his wife; her struggle thereafter is to usurp his God-given position.

Mystics and some scientist and psychologists propound that woman’s desire to be man stems from the “fact” that the primeval form of homo sapiens was androgynous---the original human was both male and female simultaneously. The highest forms of Hindu and other cultic divinities are hermaphrodite deities. “In India, this dual being---two sexes united in a single personality---was thought of as the primal force….This ultimate state of oneness is shown in pictures and statues of Kali and Shiva blended from head to toe---one side black and female and the other side white and male. Vishnu is also depicted as the god of the nondual state” (Steed, 84-85). It is no surprise that in the last few decades (coinciding with the rising influence of Eastern mysticism in the West) there has been a resurgence in unisex appearance and behaviour among men and women alike. Homo- and bi-sexual practices have never before been so widespread nor so readily accepted by mainstream culture.

This notion of male and female “oneness” is not wholly unbiblical; though Satan, as is his wont, twists the good creational norm (in this case the unity of man and wife). “Abomination is a biblical word which describes the attempt to mingle or mix in a way contrary to natural and divine law. ‘Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind; it is an abomination’….So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply….’ [Adam and Eve] were to be privileged in being endowed with sharing a unique quality with God, to participate in the act of creation with Him. Here was one of the major likenesses to God---not that God was dual-sexed, but that they could bring for the beings like themselves with the power of choice and responsibility, able to work with the God of Creation….Lucifer’s original idea of equality arose when God was planning to create this world and its inhabitants. He became jealous against the Son of God for He was to be the instrument of creation. Lucifer wanted this creative power to have equality with God. Having secured control of mankind, he has particularly dwelt on the perversion of the sexual process” (Steed, 86-87).

When some action or belief raises itself above God’s creational norms, the creation will react in the opposite direction. History is a series of these action-reaction movements. Feminists hold that the shift from a goddess-worshipping culture to a patriarchal hierarchy was the result of men’s fear of female sexuality (and the dark feminine power). I believe it was the natural backlash against a distortion of God’s created order. I will always desire a man, but no longer to be one myself. I, like all members of my sex, was formed from the marrow of my male counterparts. Marriage is the God-ordained union not of amalgamated opposites, but different pieces of the original whole. Perhaps now I more fully understand and appreciate Paul’s advice that women must live and learn “with all submission”. It is our carnal tendency, after all, to seek domination over our men. Lord teach us your humility.

I am excited to one day be under the lordship of a husband. I am thrilled at the prospect of being someone’s wife, someone’s life-mate and help, and as sappy and cliché as it seems, to be his “other half”. “God is all about balance,” my mother has often wisely noted. I may be naïve, perhaps even a childish romantic, but I do believe that for each of us God has someone particular in mind---someone created specially and specifically with strength in the areas I myself lack, whose very character, hopes and aspirations complement my own in such a way that a new, fuller creature is made in our union. God works mightily through such special partnership---for His glory and the furthering of his Kingdom. Our Lord delights in the union of man and wife. It was only after male and female were united in love that the creation was declared “very good” (Genesis 1:31). It takes two in one (apparently our God delights in separate beings who, in Jesus, operate as “one”).

One day evil will be destroyed. It is, and never has been, an acceptable alternative to righteousness. Our God is about balance---not amalgamation.

Quotations taken from:
Means, Pat. The Mystical Maze. United States [there is no state/city of publication!]: Campus Crusade for Christ, Inc., 1976.
Steed, Earnest, H.J. Two Be One. Plainfield: Logos International, 1978.