Commandments were written at a time when social mores were defined more by religious authorities than civil authorities. The 10 commandments addressed societal concerns in a legitimate attempt to protect and preserve certain social conditions that were causing harm in the society. Ok, that is laudable. So are they still relevant today?
I am the Lord thy God: thou shalt not have strange Gods before me – here one has to assume a “God” is necessary. Written at a time thunder and lightening and other climate related events were thought to have been caused by a God angered by human behavior one could understand why making sure everyone sang hail to the chief could be understood. Now we just check our weather apps.
Thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain – again, stood to reason if you thought crops failed or there was a drought because God was mad at people, you may want to show him ample respect.
Remember to keep holy the Lord’s Day – Still paying homage to the big guy here and making sure he is happy. Similar to how one might treat a Roman Emperor or Egyptian Pharaoh, King on England even – and we know what happened if they weren’t given their due.
Honour thy father and thy mother – common sense unless your parents are awful people. Does this really have a spiritual application though? Is this imperative to one’s spiritual growth? Only perhaps from a Karmic perspective, if we are the one’s that are awful people we may be building an account of bad karma.
Thou shalt not kill – it’s against the civil law so just not a great idea
Thou shalt not commit adultery – just generally not nice, makes for bad karma, but no real spiritual application
Thou shalt not steal – again, against the civil law and not a great idea, who wants to get arrested
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour – can also land you in jail especially if you lie in court. Why would you do this?
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife – especially if the neighbor’s wife doesn’t want to be coveted, I think this one is past its prime
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s goods a materialistic society is based on coveting thy neighbor’s goods, doesn’t make one happy to have more toys, but generally not terribly spiritual in application.
The 10 Spiritual Recommendations of The Church of the Earth
- Meditate daily
- Sit with trees, learn their attributes, take them to your meditation
- Sit with plants, share energy with them, study the effects on you and your plant
- Learn the characteristics of certain animals, adopt some of them to overcome your shortcomings
- Be conscious of the elements Air, Fire, Water and Earth begin to understand how you can work with them and incorporate them into your daily practice
- Seek like minded friends, share spiritual practices
- Do not create a hierarchical structure in a group, form a community that shares it’s gifts
- Spend your days trying not to create karma
- Abortion is a woman’s decision, it is her body growing a new being, do not interfere
- Stay out of politics in your spiritual life, poltics and spirituality do not mix
