The hero with a thousand faces

Some thoughts, hopefully not entirely random or stream of consciousness this time. But yes, I can be both flippant and ironic when discussing spiritual issues... 

On religious matters, I tend strongly towards a position we could call radical pluralism. All religions are in some sense "true", despite *not* having a common goal. But what could this mean concretely?

I suppose it's *possible* (but something of a stretch) to argue that all religions are literally true. Catholics go to Catholic heaven, Protestants go to Protestant heaven, which from a Catholic viewpoint is no better than Hell, and vice versa, so in this way even mutually incompatible religious creeds could "both be true". Even the resurrection of the body could be accommodated in this way, Catholics being gently resurrected in the vicinity of Rome, while Protestants would presumably experience a more rude awakening somewhere west of Pecos. Yet, somehow I find this neat scenario very hard to believe! 

Virtually all religions seem to be false if interpreted literally, so presumably they shouldn't be. At the same time, people all over the world have supernatural encounters of various kinds, including mystical experiences. We could speculate that these experiences are true, but are interpreted in vastly different ways by the visionaries and mystics who have them. Later, they are exegeted by people who hardly even had spiritual experiences. A "tradition" have been born.

What exactly is it people see during these encounters? We could call it "archetypes", borrowing a term from Jung. These spiritual or divine archetypes have a remarkable way to show up in vastly different cultures. (These days, I tend to believe that cultures really are different on a very fundamental level.) What this means, of course, is that the same archetypes also manifest in very different religions.

Thus, the idea of an inpersonal god, usually associated with the Hindu notion of Brahman, appears in Christianity in the writings of Master Eckhart. The erotic mysticism surrounding Krishna and Radha is strikingly similar to the "bride chamber mysticism" of Bernard of Clairvaux. In the Bible, there is the Song of Songs. The theist archetype exist within Buddhism as worship of Amitabha Buddha, "salvation by grace alone" is preached by both Luther and some Hindu Vaishnavas, and "possession cults" exist in many different cultures but also among Charismatic Christians "slain in the spirit". The idea of a spiritual initiation through suffering and death exist among the "pagans" and "animists". We call it "the passion of the Christ"... 

Are these archetypes different "gods" or spiritual entities? Are they aspects of the same God or Divine Reality? And what happens if we follow them? I don't claim to know the answer to these questions. However, I consider many of the "traditional" responses inadequate. Why must all humans have the same goal, spiritually speaking? We don't have the same culture, after all. More to the point, we don't have the same religion! Why is merging with Brahman a "higher" goal than cavorting with Krishna in Vrindavan? Why is the resurrection of the body and the survival of the personality "John Smith" higher than attaining super-consciousness by merging with Shiva? Why is alchemical longevity on a Chinese hill top worse than being raptured without your pet dog in Texas? Somebody please help me out here...

Perhaps all these states are temporary anyway. Somehow, I find it difficult to believe that our little rock in infinite space is *that* important to God's plans, although I suppose it's possible that a loving deity might decide to save even mosquitoes, the coronavirus and a naked ape named Joe from the samsaric ordeals of our little corner of the galaxy. In fact, I would expect an all-loving god to do just that, but it still doesn't mean we are all that special. Maybe the Alien God has deputized some random dude from the higher astral to deal with us. If so, he has my sympathy. I mean, it can't be easy...

That random dude is the hero with a thousand faces!