The Descent to Not
Belief
How we believe the World to be is absolutely critical to how we determine our guiding principles that help us be in the World. We have to know what we Believe. Whether it be a fundamentalist Christian or a secular atheist, either way, our beliefs will heavily influence our values and principles.
Before we determine how we’re going to be in the World, we have to know what we believe the World is, and what we believe we are. It is the criticality of this truth that drives us deeper and deeper in our pursuit of who and what we are.
Before we determine how we’re going to be in the World, we have to know what we believe the World is, and what we believe we are. It is the criticality of this truth that drives us deeper and deeper in our pursuit of who and what we are.
Descent VIII
Belief
Depicted here in cartoonish blocks is a scene with a blue sky, clouds, a sun, snowcapped mountains, and a structure nestled between trees. High above is a star in the sky. The sky with the star, sun and clouds, along with the trees and mountains below, all represent Paradigms of Thought. These can be simple ideas or they can be extremely large Structures such as religions, ideologies or philosophies. In the top-left corner of this card is the AON symbol for Belief indicating that this trump is part of the Self Well.
The building in the center represents your own Belief Structure with its walls, doors, windows, hallways and various rooms. The Structure of Belief is a metaphor for the complexity of our beliefs as people who interact with each other and the Landscape of Being on a day-to-day basis. The Structure of Belief rests upon the Foundation of Belief.
The Foundation of Belief represents very deep and core beliefs. Foundational beliefs can support one or more Structures of Belief. Finally, the Foundation is installed within the Ground of Reality. The Ground of Reality is not necessarily the same for everyone and is often taken for granted so blindly that it is never even thought of as something that might not be real.
Without stressing-out about it, we may consider our Paradigms, Structure and Foundation of Belief. Are these Beliefs ones that we built ourselves or were these handed to us by someone else? We learn here that most of our Belief is selected by us through choices we make?
Guided Meditation
Belief
Belief
Who chooses our beliefs?
Having removed the Mysteries layer, we find ourselves face to face with our Beliefs. Here at the Belief layer we acknowledge beliefs that we have always had (that which we grew up with, were indcontrinated with, have taken for granted) as well as beliefs we have choosen. Sometimes we choose to believe things out of convenience and some beliefs we adopt without regard to the underlying truth (or lack of truth, as the case may be).
Our beliefs sometimes justify our actions but sometimes our beliefs result from our actions. Of the layers we must remove on our Descent to Not, Belief is perhaps the most epic in scope and breadth. Our beliefs straddle many layers of their own, stretching across the cosmos and paradigms, down to our Structure of Belief, our Foundation fo Belief and into the "Ground of Reality." But fully exploring Belief is not necessary if we want to just sink deeper.