On redemption
Jun. 11th, 2014 07:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zeeth_kyrahFor a very, very long time, my soul has believed in an important truth: that ALL souls, so long as they have Light in them, can be redeemed. I also believe that the question of whether to redeem a soul or end its influence should be based on the seemingly-cold equation of whether redemption is worth the effort, not whether the soul is worth the effort -- because while all souls are worthy by this logic, the damage they might do to others in the process of bringing them into the Light sufficiently to trust can cost more than the effort is worth due to exponential expansion of that damage. Some sins are multipliers.
So this leads to some interesting conclusions, and certain sayings I have used in my work again and again.
* "No demons, only souls in pain." Yes, there are souls we call demons, an appropriated word based on usage by the Catholic Church from pre-Medieval periods onward. Daemons are merely spirits, but devils (the more correct term) bedevil us and beset us with evil. Yet what is sin? It is the poison that corrupts through the pain it causes. It is the symptom of suffering. It is, ultimately, the sign of a terrible wound. And wounds can be healed.
* "We are the stars. And thus also are you a star." This is a pun, but a serious one. Astar is a Sanskrit word for dream. Yet it is also a truth: all matter is starstuff, and is likely to return to starstuff again. We are the stars, the very substance of the Universe. And so are souls. We are as we dream, and the lights near and far shine within us. So long as you have Light, you are "a star", and your Light is the dream of the Universe. Even a black hole can shine again.
* "We are not alien to each other, except that we have not embraced our Brotherhood with our further neighbors." I use this often when arguing about Otherkin, Therians, Starseeds, and so on, the welcoming of different origins to a local species... but also when speaking of unity within a species, of saying to one's conscious companion that "You and I were born of the same Great Mother; let us be one Family." This also extends to those who are distant to us socially or societally because of behavior; they are still souls, with potential for goodness somewhere within, though it may be suppressed or seemingly inaccessible at this time. (All that said, the defining characteristic of family is that you are treated as family. Don't let blood relation fool you into accepting abuse, and don't let a sense of oneness and fraternity lull you into allowing a murderer to walk freely among you.)
* "I believe in your Light." (This is said only to individuals, as a direct statement.) When we are in pain, we believe in our Dark. It is there, crushing us, forcing us to pay attention to it. Even I have been subject to this: in this lifetime, the pain of depression and extreme distress, causing me to doubt my own Light. Sometimes what it takes to bring us out of that place is to be shown that we have value, that we are worthy of redemption to ourselves. When I say this to someone, I'm not making a general feel-good statement. I truly believe. So I say this only when I am able to share with that person the sincerity and support that go with it.
I believe in your Light, my readers.
Dream well, and be as your true Light shines.
So this leads to some interesting conclusions, and certain sayings I have used in my work again and again.
* "No demons, only souls in pain." Yes, there are souls we call demons, an appropriated word based on usage by the Catholic Church from pre-Medieval periods onward. Daemons are merely spirits, but devils (the more correct term) bedevil us and beset us with evil. Yet what is sin? It is the poison that corrupts through the pain it causes. It is the symptom of suffering. It is, ultimately, the sign of a terrible wound. And wounds can be healed.
* "We are the stars. And thus also are you a star." This is a pun, but a serious one. Astar is a Sanskrit word for dream. Yet it is also a truth: all matter is starstuff, and is likely to return to starstuff again. We are the stars, the very substance of the Universe. And so are souls. We are as we dream, and the lights near and far shine within us. So long as you have Light, you are "a star", and your Light is the dream of the Universe. Even a black hole can shine again.
* "We are not alien to each other, except that we have not embraced our Brotherhood with our further neighbors." I use this often when arguing about Otherkin, Therians, Starseeds, and so on, the welcoming of different origins to a local species... but also when speaking of unity within a species, of saying to one's conscious companion that "You and I were born of the same Great Mother; let us be one Family." This also extends to those who are distant to us socially or societally because of behavior; they are still souls, with potential for goodness somewhere within, though it may be suppressed or seemingly inaccessible at this time. (All that said, the defining characteristic of family is that you are treated as family. Don't let blood relation fool you into accepting abuse, and don't let a sense of oneness and fraternity lull you into allowing a murderer to walk freely among you.)
* "I believe in your Light." (This is said only to individuals, as a direct statement.) When we are in pain, we believe in our Dark. It is there, crushing us, forcing us to pay attention to it. Even I have been subject to this: in this lifetime, the pain of depression and extreme distress, causing me to doubt my own Light. Sometimes what it takes to bring us out of that place is to be shown that we have value, that we are worthy of redemption to ourselves. When I say this to someone, I'm not making a general feel-good statement. I truly believe. So I say this only when I am able to share with that person the sincerity and support that go with it.
I believe in your Light, my readers.
Dream well, and be as your true Light shines.
