Uma, Steve, Nightcat: I love all of your comments here. It has added so much to this article and discussion! It is so wonderful to share insights with people with such wisdom, tolerance, and respect for All That Is. Coming here, I learn something everyday. About myself and my own beleifs, and those of others. Keep up the good comments all!

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Beautifully put my dear Nightcat Mau. When Ra (the sun) is a cat his name is Mau and Bast means "soul of Isis"Ba=soul +Ast=Isis Ba'st.

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Hi Steve S. Well gods are just one way to understand the Universal power. We can't comprehend such an awesome living force, so we personalize it.

Just saying energy is really the same thing. We all react and love the Infinite in a different way. So while I'll see and precieve and afterlife, many may see nothing at all.

I figure we are all one and all of our reactions are right. The sublime power and majesty of exsistence needs to be courted in endless ways.

Um, think of it like the holodeck in STNG. The holodeck is there, but everyone has very different adventures, which are all illusions. No one illusions is more worty or important than another.

I worship the Gods because I love them. They don't hand out punishment or judgement, the just are. It is my way of plugging into that holodeck.

The athiest way works too of course. You can feel the power and mystery surging through all things. I'm just assuring you you will be part of it forever, no religous beliefs needed.

Thanks Dragonfly! Trying to explain the Universe in one post is hard, LOL! I just report and share what I've gone through myself.

I really feel no religion is needed. After all Crowley was Crowley, but still got it. If he can meet that wonderful power, we all can.

But I love my Bastet dearly and our wild romps. A life with out my dearest one would be hollow. I serve and am served. We are One, as all are.

Peace and purrs to you all. :)

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I have no idea what will happen when I die, but I feel it will be a natural transition from one chapter to the next in my soul journey.
I don't want to think about death or dying or having a peek preview of the other side.
I want to totally enjoy my time here.....with the feel of the sun on my skin, the cool ocean waters, the smell of a new baby and home made bread baking in the oven, the velvet summer nights, and the touch of a lover...etc etc.
The other side will be be there when I have lived out my days here on earth.....and I'm in no hurry for it to end.

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I think Nightcat Mau is right. I've read many books on the afterlife and there seems to be a recurring theme that you get what you believe. That we are our own judge and jury.

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Thank you Steve you too.Try this: the only God we will meet is the God that is all around us right now, there is no other time because now is allness that we share wherever, now how about this; the ALL THAT IS intrinsic to it's creation does exist, only not separate,peoples and cultures have conceptualized it as fits their needs,it reveals to them what they need at that time in their evolution. The younger of those souls tend to be fear ridden as opposed to the old soul mystics of all cultures, curling in on themselves in their fear, feeding into separate, other, better. Just as some souls are always, and I mean for all their lives, warriors and artisans and scholars and sages(communicators) and kings (always concerned with world politics) and servitors whose prime direction is to ease the way of others, there are a smaller body of we who are priests eternally (as long as there is time) making connection between people and deity. Some people are culturally attached to one face of god or another, but Pagan priest types like me and the Cat love the myriads, the many. They don't exist as separate from the known creation but are also part of it all. "there are more things Horatio...etc."Some of us are very tuned in to interact with those myriads. An evolved Pagan will tell you that there is only one god extant through creation; we worship and as priests serve it in all it's guises and faces,as we encounter it. In you ,the tree, the mouse and the snake, the star and the sea.

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Uma,

You are a dear to read, well put, my new friend.

Steve

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Hi Nightcat Mau!

If, as you assert, "we are all one being after all" then you must agree that there can be no other being/deity outside of this universal unity.

We are part and parcel of the perpetual universe in the eternal flux of birth, growth and death in each and every stardust moment.

That is the essence of the article submitted by Deepak and the nuance that all of us are addressing and, in my view, is in contrast with the limitations of duality or myths of "deities to meet" or otherworldly realms of pure torture to seek protection from by placating giant glowing wizards.

You are right to recognize that theists and atheists are living this rare thermonuclear adventure in equanimity. I wholeheartedly agree!

This is always the common ground which all of humanity shares.

Peace.

Steve Schlicht
Biloxi MS

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Oops!Sorry, I meant Helena.

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Macao Sar what you said is nice, now try this, let every day and every moment be as if you had died and moved on because truly all else is self hypnosis only designed to keep the status quo.The passing over to the other side of now is a true change over but what if you managed to somehow convince yourself that it didn't happen and all was the same? Nice to prepare but why not take the step and behave as if it was true now? In so many ways it is. Certainly on the cellular level . Take this experiment to access NOW and stay here ever flexible like a little fish in the river to change currants and enjoy new adventures and opportunities. We see the world through lenses tinted by our moods and chosen beliefs. What if we took off those glasses and saw all the subtle changes of tone and color constantly coming up with new ideas and responses based on the new changing perception? Even just sitting in one place forever life would be a constant adventure of newness.Come home to now, the only true place, and enjoy.

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