Philosophy and Religion


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The Many Facets of Spiritual Path Making on the Tree of Life


The Many Fold Path of the Tree of Life

The Many Fold Path

The Many Fold Way,

Following the Seven Basic Rules.

Helping teach all,

No matter what leaf,

No matter what bough,

No matter what fork.

On the trunk of the tree of life.


The Facets of the Gem

The Manyfold Path

Aiding enlightenment in all it’s facets

Bringing evolution to all.

The Manyfold Path,

The gem of spiritual awakening,

The gem of Spiritual Wisdom.


The facets of the gem,

The Manyfold Spiritual Paths.

The paths towards wisdom,

The manyfold ways of attaining enlightenment,

The manyfold ways of attaining spiritual wisdom.


None are exclusive,

None have all the answers,

All are a part of wisdom's life path on Gaia,

Through different eyes,

filtered through different parts of the prism.

Bringing in each soul,

Each leaf on the tree,

Bringing in each bough,

bringing in each fork,

of the Tree of Life

To fulfil their life’s path.


The paths of spiritual inquiry,

Finding a way to service all,

Help all the leaves on the Tree of Life evolve and grow,

Master the path to transcendence,

Aiding evolutionary growth,

Aiding evolutionary wisdom.

The prisms of the paths,

The facets of the gem,

The manyfold paths to spiritual wisdom.

The poems, starting above this article came to me as I was considering this issue. This was something that I started considering a long time ago as started studying religions as a part of my self study of the world. What I got out of this study of theology and religion, especially as it relates to the link to philosophy and humanism, is how alike they were. While they had their differences, there was no doubt they all had things in common. Over time this distilled to the understanding that all were valid, all had their own merit, designed as companions to one another to guide all the leaves on the tree to the ultimate aim – Spiritual growth and evolution.

This realisation deepened as I went deeper into it and realised that we are all leaves on a tree of life, with our place on our branch, with different spiritual paths to wisdom that suits us according to where we are in life and what we need. Far from just being those paths that people see as spiritual, there are many other ways of seeing spiritual paths and spiritual wisdom and growth. Far from just being simply those paths that come out of the new age movement, Buddhism or pagan religions, a spiritual path can take many forms in this world. The spiritual wisdom that forms these paths is a many coloured crystal, reflecting a different light of wisdom in all it’s facets. These many and varied facets include any spiritual path that follows these seven basic precepts that I have refined over the years.

  1. It does not claim to be exclusive
  2. It does not discriminate against followers of other paths
  3. It contains a holistic understanding of both the spiritual, energetic aspects of living life along that path.
  4. The path allows all followers to grow and evolve both in constant understanding and practice.
  5. The path itself grows and evolves as energies and material realities change, not reverting to dogma or literalist fundamentalism.
  6. It allows full participation for all interested in following the path, not discriminating between believers on any grounds.
  7. The path recognises the value of all spiritual paths that reflect the great gem of spiritual life, not just their own path.

These basic rules are all that are needed as a test of a valid spiritual path. This means that any path that follows these rules, be it a faith of the book, a humanist path, a pagan path, a Buddhist path, a Hindu path or any other path is valid as any other. The wide variety of paths, as diverse as the people they serve, are there because everybody is at a different stage in evolution, needs different lessons, different ideas to grow. Especially now as we progress well into the 5th dimensional shift the dizzying array is becoming more and more apparent. Perhaps why I am guided to write this now.

There are, of course, invalid paths out there. These are paths that claim to know the whole truth, exclusively, lock others that are not their group out, and discriminate. These will also often hold a fundamentalist view of whatever truth the expose, a dogma. Examples that are commonly coming to light a fundamentalist groups of the faiths of the book, be they Islamic, Jewish or Christian. This does not make the religions themselves invalid, as they all also have living, breathing, interpretive paths that are valid. Just the fundamentalist paths. Especially valid seem to be the mystical arms of these faiths, Kabbalah, Gnosticism/Mysticism and Sufism, but the religions in themselves are not invalid either, just the fundamentalist treatment of them. Sad to say there are even Buddhist extremists in Sri Lanka and Burma today, showing just how wrong a bad interpretation of a spiritual path can get it. When you add in things like the various multi-strained cults that have made the news and organisations such as the Church of Scientology, you can get a very bad view of what this can all mean.

But it is not all that bad. By following the spiritual path tests you can understand is the path you are attracted to valid. If it meets all these tests, then it is a good one to explore, especially if you feel attracted, or at home in it. This is the path that is teaching you what you need to learn and grow at the moment. This could be anything from a faith of the book, to humanism, to any of the eastern religion, to paganism, to esotercisim, to pure new age spiritual ideas. All of these as parts of the gem are valid paths – If they follow the guidelines. When it comes to it we are all here to teach or learn on this schoolhouse planet, and we all have different lessons to teach or learn. Therefore the manyfold paths are necessary in all of their transcendent, glorious differences in order to give each leaf on the tree a chance to learn and grow. Without this, we would have to all come in as the same and the same time to have the same chances. So enjoy the way that the manyfold paths, the prismatic reflections of the gem come into our lives and help us all learn and grow, learning from each other as much as our own path. If you do this you can become a light to yourself as well as others on the path of spiritual evolution and progress.