Soul Matters Volume Six: Bondage Battleground

Becky didn’t call to go surfing the next day. Phil called her late in the morning and woke her up.

“I’m exhausted,” she apologized. “How about tomorrow?”

Since Becky’s job was swing shift at a hotel, afternoon surfing was out. Phil was only mildly disappointed, because he did need to catch up on his own money-paying job. He spent the rest of the day doing so.

Late in the afternoon he finished and headed for Sandy’s. With the events of the last week mostly absorbed, Phil was beginning to see the next set of questions looming before him.

With a half-rack of beer as passport, Phil knocked on Sandy’s door.

“It’s open,” came the call.

Phil entered and joined Sandy in the kitchen.

“I’ve got Chinese take-out,” Sandy offered, motioning to the boxes on the table.

“Thanks,” Phil replied as he stowed the beer in the refrigerator.

“Are demons still after me?”

“No more than usual,” Phil smiled and sat opposite Sandy, serving them both beers.

“You accomplished your task, I take it.”

“Half of it. I’m much clearer on feminine spirituality. Now I need to figure out how it’s a key to understanding Job.”

Sandy spilled more fried rice from a box onto his plate, “One way to look at it is to see Job as a scapegoat for God’s doubts about the Covenant. In Job, God is like a 19-year-old guy who marries his high school sweetheart. Five or ten years down the road he starts regretting it. Then, rather than admit he’s looking for a backdoor, he accuses his wife with unfaithfulness.”

“It fits the story. Even when Job proves his innocence, God won’t back off.”

“Just like a guy, wouldn’t you say?”

Phil chuckled, “Not a very flattering take on men or God. Seems like they’re both emotionally retarded. Did Becky tell you about Walter?”

“Yes. A perfect example.”

“But how do you see feminine spirituality in this problem God has?”

Sandy considered the question and slowly answered, “He remembers Sophia. It’s like God says, ‘Oh, yeah, I already have a mate. It’s Sophia. I forgot. Sorry, Israel, but I have this prior commitment to her, so you’re out of luck.’ And God abandons poor Israel and the Covenant.”

“Pretty rough indictment of God.”

“I know. To read it any other way, though, requires you somehow let God off the hook, the same way you have to let him off the hook for the existence of Evil.”

They ate in silence for a bit until Phil could formulate another question.

Phil offered, “If we step out of the literal read on Job and look at it metaphorically, then what’s it saying?”

Sandy raised a bushy eyebrow and answered, “Personally, I think it’s irony. The text says to me, ‘Go ahead and believe in your henotheistic god, but this is what will happen. He’ll divorce you like a middle-aged yuppie and get himself a 20-year-old bimbo to take your place.’ So I’m probably not the right guy for your questions.”

“But Sophia isn’t a 20-year-old bimbo.”

“True. She’s an upgraded Ashurah. The main difference between them is typical of the wisdom literature.”

That confused Phil, which happened frequently when talking to Sandy. There must be a difference between them, but he couldn't see what it might be. He asked, “Which is what?”

“Job, of course," Sandy snorted, and then added, "but Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Wisdom of Solomon and other books are in this genre. Biblical scholars note four distinctions in the wisdom literature: 1) no salvation beliefs; 2) learn from your mistakes; 3) retribution is karmic; and 4) the literary style is marked by speeches. You can say Jesus was a wisdom teacher; although the Church frowns on it now. And the wisdom literature goes back at least to ancient Egypt. Many of the wisdom books are plagiarized from other cultures.”

Phil considered this summary and noted, “In this literature, there’s nothing about a Covenant, or obedience to God, or ritual sacrifice.”

“No. The wisdom literature was a whole new spiritual track, but it was also grounded in ancient wisdom. In one sense, it was a parallel to the Mystery schools.”

“So you could say if you wanted a spiritual marriage with God, one to replace the Covenant and Ashurah, you would have to be in Sophia’s camp or tribe or whatever the right word is.”

“Children," Sandy asserted. "You’d have to be one of Sophia’s children.”

“Of course,” Phil exclaimed. “But if you were her child, wouldn’t God get jealous?”

Sandy chuckled and guzzled some beer. “It does introduce the whole Oedipal thing, doesn’t it? But then, all the early gods and goddesses had crazy sex lives. I think a lot of those myths were attempts to solve these paradoxes about God’s relationship to Creation. I mean, if you want an unfathomable mystery, you need look no further than that.”

Phil felt like he was losing the thread and clarified, “God’s relationship to Creation?”

“Yes. Take for example the weirdness of Earth,” Sandy stated as he got another beer. “We all live on big life rafts called tectonic plates. These life rafts float on molten lava. Every so often the plates bounce around causing earthquakes and tsunamis, or volcanoes blow up. Only a madman could think up such a living arrangement.”

Phil laughed, “You don’t buy the theory of Intelligent Design, I take it.”

Sandy snorted and took a long drink of his beer. Then he added, “On the other side of it, though, the design of Earth and the Universe shows a curious playfulness. It’s like God is saying, “Gee, I wonder what would happen if we did this?’ Although, which is worse: an all-powerful, all-knowing jealous Supreme Being, or a precocious, unfeeling, self-absorbed, curious Child?”

“Hopefully it’s neither.”

“Sorry to be such a cynic, but the evidence points to those two conclusions. Maybe God has multiple personality disorder and flip-flops between crazy and childish.”

“Well, thanks for clearing this up for me,” Phil said with sarcasm.

“You’re welcome,” Sandy inclined his head. “You can stick around if you want. It’s Friday night.”

“Thanks, but no. I’ve got work tomorrow.”

He helped clean up the kitchen and left. On the way home, he felt a mild depression settle in. Sandy’s cynicism was useful for keeping Phil grounded in reality, but there was a price to pay -- his idealism. Pam called it a Boomer problem. The Boomer generation recognized the whole world was drifting surely to disaster, but Boomers believed the ‘system’ was okay. The people running the system were the problem. Get right-minded leaders to run the system and all would be well.

Was that what he was doing spiritually? The system of beliefs, which evolved to their present form, was okay. The leaders were the ones corrupting the faithful. But maybe the answer to Job’s question was to see the system itself as fatally flawed.

The next morning he and Becky went surfing. The day was clear but chilly. It was also the kind of day when the ocean felt ominous and uncaring -- chilly in an emotional way, like the ocean was in a bad mood. Apparently they both felt unwelcome in the water because they finished early and headed for the café.

Since it was Saturday, the place was packed and they had to wait. Eventually they were seated at a table for two against a wood-paneled wall.

Becky wore her hoodie and jeans. Phil was in a sweatshirt and jeans. Once seated, Becky leaned across the table to speak.

“I’m having dreams about Agrat. Long involved dreams. I think she’s telling me her life story.”

“She did claim to be your queen.”

“I thought it was symbolic.”

“Symbols connect our two worlds,” Phil explained.

“Makes sense,” she allowed and sat back in her chair as the busboy filled their coffee mugs. Then she smiled, “Pam seems a good fit for you.”

Phil smiled in return, “Glad you approve. She’s doing a meditation retreat this weekend at the Buddhist center.”

“I’m working all weekend. What are you doing?”

Phil frowned and answered, “Going back to finish the project. I still haven’t answered Job’s questions.”

“Oh, yeah,” she brightened. “I forgot to tell you the rest of what Christie told me about Lilith.”

The waiter arrived and they ordered. Once he was gone, Becky continued.

“You proposed the idea of Lilith coming out of exile. Christie said if she came back it would make the shadow feminine conscious and women would have to deal with it.”

“Deal with it how?”

“Own it, I guess. She didn’t say, but you have to own it before you can deal with it. Don’t you?”

“Yes. But women would have a lot to lose.”

“I noticed that when you stopped Eisheth cold. She wanted an advance lien on the rest of your life.”

“Victim entitlement,” Phil named it. “But men get stuck there, too. They deal with it differently is all.”

Becky thought about it for a moment before she observed, “It’s like the parable of the talents. You can bury them, spend them or invest them. We get this life we have and we can make of it what we want, or we can sit down on the road of life and whine about how we were cheated.”

“Well, I agree to some extent, but some people don’t sit down. They get knocked down. What about them?”

“You mean, when Victim isn’t a choice,” Becky clarified. “That would be me. I didn’t ask for shamanic sickness, but I still had to deal with it.”

“Sure you did, but you also needed someone to show you how to deal with it. I think by making the shadow feminine conscious we are forced to figure out how to deal with Victim as a mindset or world view.”

“Like Eisheth.”

“Like all four of them.”

“Yeah. I see it. So what does this have to do with Job?”

Their food arrived and they sampled it while Phil formed an answer. After a moment he said, “Lilith told me Woman had to defeat God so God could become Woman. I think what she meant was God had to quit playing Victim.”

Becky smirked. “I wonder what Christie would say to that?”

“You might ask her,” Phil returned. “In Job, Man defeats God through his steadfast loyalty. How could Woman defeat God?”

“The same way, maybe?”

“Women are mothers at heart. They are loyal to their children.”

“Yeah. And by extension to the human race.”

“The community. Women carry within them the template for healthy community. Men don’t. Men carry loyalty to an ideal, like Justice.”

Becky shrugged and dug into her omelet, “I don’t see an answer.”

“Neither do I. So, I need to go back and figure it out. Maybe in Lilith’s new compound.”

Becky ate her omelet and soaked up the conversation. Eventually, she asked, “Are these spiritual battles always like this?”

Phil chuckled. “A big fat chaotic mess? That’s been my experience. Raphael said it was because the corporation of angels was always on the defensive. They don’t have a mission statement other than to do God’s Will. And he keeps changing his mind.”

“Tough gig.”