In Yorubá mythology, before the coming of Christian colonizers, the belief was that Heaven was in the Earth.
The dead are buried in the earth, our food grows from the earth, rain falls down onto the earth, everything comes from the earth and when it dies it goes back to the earth.
A Yourubá story says that a colonizer gave a cross to an Orisha worshiper, explaining its great spiritual significance. The Orisha worshiper buried the cross in the earth for safe keeping. The colonizers were horrified and, in regular Christian fashion, beat up the Orisha worshippers and proceeded to “educate” them that heaven was in the sky.
This story got me thinking.
What if heaven is in the earth?
Listen, I may be biased because the more I learn about religious history and walk my pagan path, the more I see the evil that is Christians.
Now, I want to explain that I know some good hearted Christian, and Christian witches. People that actually follow the word of Jesus and practice loving thy neighbor instead of voting for a nazi. So here I am criticizing Christianity, but more so the act of colonization and self-righteousness that many, MANY, have practiced for centuries.
Whatever Christianity says, I will do the opposite, because throughout history they have used people’s beliefs and turned them against the people.
Like the example above.
Look around, everything comes from the earth, however technological and grey it may look, or however much it has been processed, its genesis still came from some material from earth.
So it seems to me that indigenous peoples were simply looking to nature, to how things naturally occur and behave.
Now, how much more attainable is heaven if it’s in the earth?
No longer up in the sky that even astronauts can’t reach, but right here.
Heaven below our feet
Heaven is giving us food
We ingest heaven
Heaven is in us
A part of us
We are what we eat
We are heaven
We take bits and pieces from heaven
We create our world with heaven
Our products
Our clothes
Our homes
Our activities
The papers we journal on
The plates we eat from
The glasses we cheers with
All involves bits of heaven
Our feet walking on heaven
Connecting to heaven
We are heaven
Each path is as unique as the person walking it, but I will take a second to encourage you to look beyond what you’re taught.
How lovely it is to believe that we are closer to heaven than we were taught.
What I have learned from my years of being a Christian is that heaven is never attainable.
We are never good enough to achieve it.
No wonder Christians hate everything. Imagine living in so much unconscious fear. Fear of doing something wrong that you are eternally damned to burn and suffer. That kind of trauma and mind control does something to people and we’re seeing the consequences in real life.
We can’t run away from our imperfect human nature. It has never existed.
But in the pursue of perfection and salvation Christians have destroyed themselves, their humanity, their compassion. The words of Christ now twisted into the words of hate and poison, the words of Satan.
When I was a Christian I tried looking for heaven in the words of my brothers and sisters. In the acts of the people that claimed to be Christ-like.
I didn’t find it.
They have created a serpent-like cult that eats its own tail. A self-destructive bubble that doomed itself yet refuses to see the flames, that are not in hell, but around them right now.
All in the fear that if they even think about questioning the direction they’re going, the wrath of God will smite thee and damn thee into the fiery pits of hell.
I don’t know about you, but I want my God to be compassionate when a human makes a mistake (whatever that means).
Christians say that we are all children of God. I don’t know about you but I would like my God-parent to raise me with patience and kindness. To guide me in the right direction and teach me with love when I make a mistake (whatever that means). I want my God tolerant and loving of others. I want my God that knows that its children will grow up and make their own decisions and become their own person. I want my God loving of all cultures, races, genders, and every other human expression.
I don’t know about you, but I want my heaven in the earth. I don’t want to continue reaching for unachievable heights, feeling like a failure for not being good enough (whatever that means), and feeling that separation of human and spirit.
But I do want to continue believing that I can create heaven on earth, that I already have a connection with God because I walk with
I don’t know about you, but I found beauty in the earth. I found plentitude in nature. And I found connection in heaven.
I found that with heaven under the earth, there is no hell. Hell has never existed, but it was invented as a control tactic that maybe has worked too well.
And maybe with heaven being under the earth, it is also in the sky, why not? Who’s to say that the Christians are wrong?
And maybe with heaven being under the earth and in the sky, then heaven is all around us and in us.
I know that looking at the world, it doesn’t seem like heaven right now. My point here is that if we’re already all surrounded by heaven, that heaven is not up so high that is unachievable, then maybe we can start seeing each other as angels. As beings that are worthy of heaven, of solidarity, kindness, respect. Because I do believe that we are all children of the Divine, and the Divine makes no mistakes, that word doesn’t actually exist, we made it up for further control and division. If you made a mistake and I didn’t then I am better than you.
But who hasn’t made a mistake. What even is a mistake?
So let’s take with us
No hell below us
Heaven all around
You can say I’m a dreamer,
But I’m not the only one.
With much love and tarot magick,
Icaro
Feel free to share your opinions and card spreads in the comments, or in the chat.
Would love to hear from you, and ask any questions you may have about dismantling Christian beliefs.