I finished stitching this piece of the compass...South or Shame. I also put the words The Circus of Ambition as the compass is a circle. This was inspired by this book Circus of Ambition by John Taylor, which I am reading. One of the interesting things that this book starts with is how they the religious right made money look like a blessing from God. It used to be that Christians regarded it easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a wealthy man to enter the kingdom of God? But Falwell wrote an entire pamphlet explaining the Christian foundations of capitalism. ...Money is a way God blesses those who put Him first. Money is a sign of God's grace. Money is good.
As a young girl I found the words In God We Trust on our money very disturbing. I wonder if anyone else did. What did those words have to do with money or what did money have to do with God?
I was reading about The Devil card in The Tarot Handbook. This is what it said.
"The Devil represents the universal principle of mirth combined with stability. This is the only card in the entire deck which has undergone a transformation within itself. During Greek mythology, this symbol was Pan, half man and half goat, the God of Merriment and Sensuality. In Egyptian mythology, the symbol of Ra, the Sun Diety, a symbol of life force and energy. During the Middle Ages, there was a backlash to the panistic cults and the archetype of the devil was created. The panistic goat was changed into the devil; and ironically, devil spelled backwards is l-i-v-e-d. During the Middle Ages the panistic activities of people "living -it-up" were considered hedonistic; therefore, in order to quell those activities they had to be rendered "evil" or made wrong in order to make way for new belief systems that were emerging at that time."
Did the bankers give us easy money so that they could demonize it and shame us with it...and perhaps create a "new belief system".
Interesting thoughts here about money and G-d.
ReplyDeleteWhat ever happened to "Money is the root of all Evil?"
Certainly we are living in a society that worships the dollar and all the toys it can buy us in this materialistic world that we live in.
I for one equate G-d with nature and all that is naturally beautiful. Or not. But natural.
PS We drove through your town on our way home from Oregon July 5th and I shouted HI, but we did not have time to stop this time as we had to get home in one days time (and we did, exhausted!)
Fascinating!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Lynn's perspective.
Interesting how man has twisted and formed things to what will be self serving.
Embroidering the devil pieces helped me to look at my fears and understand that "man" has helped create a lot of fears and ignorance in us through the "stuff" they try to pass off as "truth".